DO WE REALLY FORGIVE?

After relishing some events in times past, I started pondering on 'forgiveness', it’s a topic I’ve prided myself in being so conversant with, in thoughts, words and deeds, but right now, i'm in doubt, do I really understand it like I thought I did?.

I’ve seen people say “I have forgiven her, but I don’t think we can be friends anymore”, I have heard my own voice echo those same words, maybe paraphrased, but today I excogitate and ask myself, did forgiveness really take place?  If it did, at what point did it take place. Where in-between not caring (about the person), and getting along like before can forgiveness really be found, where in-between oblivion (towards the person) and care lies the forgiveness.

I try to think about the Man in whose footsteps I walk today, the Man whom I imitate, I dwell on my relationship with the Cross-bearer, I’ve stumbled countless times, but when I go back, He forgives me, even when I don’t notice that I’ve strayed from the right path, He draws my attention to it. I know He truly does forgive me because I feel it, I sense the peace and love that flows in the blood and water gushing on me. He forgives and holds it no more against me. He acts like nothing happened, he pretends like I didn’t just drive in those nails deeper into his hands again. If he forgives like we do, wouldn’t our relationship with him be strained forever?  Did we really forgive? Did I really forgive? DO WE REALLY FORGIVE? Even when I finish this text, I may still not have found an answer to my question

PEOPLE are definitely going to hurt PEOPLE, PEOPLE will definitely hurt YOU, YOU will definitely hurt YOU and YOU will definitely hurt PEOPLE. Finding a place in your heart to acknowledge the hurt and let go of it is what really makes life beautiful and PEACEFUL. Amnesia may not be possible, we will definitely remember what has been done, but remembering them with a shrug on our shoulders and a smile on our faces shows that we have truly conquered hate. I think those who hurt us including ourselves eventually realize it and pay for it in one way or the other, I think sometimes, even those walls of ice round those hearts eventually melt and life returns back to those hearts and they bleed. Even if they don’t break or melt, I think someone already paid for those offences, Calvary already did collect enough blood for that hurt. Making THEM pay again, making yourself pay again, putting them on trial again, restraining yourself behind the dock for a case that has been heard and concluded with a “GUILTY BUT ACQUITTED” isn’t even possible, it is called DOUBLE JEOPARDY.

May our weekend be filled with peace as we go about doing good.

DIGNITY IN MENTAL HEALTH

“If I can remember one hundred and thirty lines for my part in a movie, then why can't you see my ability.........."

These words from a person with ‘Down Syndrome’ rang and echoed in my head like the chiming of an invisible clock for ages.

As someone who believes in ‘Judgment day, and in ‘life after death’, I’ve tried countless times to understand how, just how people with mental health challenges will give account of what they have done, but I’m yet to decipher, though I catch a glimpse in those crazy moments when we all get mad, yell, and scream, throw things and end up having a lot to be sorry for because for one minute, we just couldn’t get it together, in those moments that all the explanation we could give amounted to - “I don’t know what came over me”.

Those hours we get on the bus from the east of Nigeria to the far north, the times we are stuck up in the traffic after work, those days we get through the busy and ‘linefully’ strenuous process of registration in the camps before we settle down, do you know what they all have in common? - We all end up with sticky bodies, and more than food we all want the feel of water on our skin (like our sins could be washed away by it), and do you know one person who wishes to be like us after that, that man on dreadlocks who we passed by on our way back from the market, that very popular one.

Dear leaders, isn’t it unfair that we let our brothers, sisters, parents and children roam the streets when we can give them homes and rehabilitation, when we have the option of equipping our psychiatric centers and giving these people a life? Isn’t it iniquitous that the rest of the public have their lives endangered because we can’t do what is right? How do we manage to get some sleep on our beds when they have their crib on a pile of dirt? I wonder how we lost it all- OUR FEELINGS. Don’t think you are left out. You have a mental challenge when you don’t treat those who are open with theirs right.

You know those movies we watch, where one forgets his name, and where another keeps getting lost cos they can’t remember their way back home, those movies are real, they happen too. These people aren’t faceless or nameless, they aren’t non-existent either, We have them everywhere around us, even in our families. They need more love and care than we need.

Let us give them something that isn’t impossible, let us give them DIGNITY,

If you can smile at everyone you meet on your way to work, do you know that you will end up happier?

If you will seek confide in someone when you feel low instead of trying to keep it all together, do you know what you will save yourself from?

If you know when to stop and get some rest when all your head says is “there’s more work to be done”, do you know you’ll have one less person to be bothered about?

If we can get high on some deeds and not ‘high on some weed’, then a lot can be avoided.

Eat right, keep fit, exercise your brain (puzzles and games), live, love, smile, talk.

Anxiety, Stress, Depression, Alzheimer’s, Down syndrome, Schizophrenia, Substance abuse………….

 Let’s stop the abandonment, let’s stop the isolation, let’s stop the discrimination and stigmatization. Let’s all give love, let’s all gift DIGNITY.

It’s WORLD MENTAL HEALTH day 2015, it’s all about DIGNITY IN MENTAL HEALTH.