Blog

My agenda for the Easter break was sleep – good rest. By Easter Sunday, the sleep plan was a mirage. I had gotten busy and occupied that I couldn’t find that rest I craved for. On Sunday morning, I decided that no matter what, I would spend the whole of the Easter Monday in bed – #OperationSleepOnMyMind – I was going to accomplish that plan.

I turned off my mobile data on Monday morning to avoid any internet distractions. I was going to sleep and nothing could stop me. In spite of all these, my most wanted sleep evaded me. Phone calls from friends and family didn’t let me sleep. I finally accepted that this sleep wasn’t going to happen. With my mobile data back on, I checked my WhatsApp messages. As I scrolled through the chats, one from my father got me angry. He wasn’t home and I didn’t want to wait for him to get home either so I called him to talk about it. He said he couldn’t talk about it over the phone so it came back to waiting till he got back home. As I waited, I realized the anger was eating me up so I decided to step out of the house to try to calm down.

When I got back home, I went straight to his room but he wasn’t there. Instead, I saw a nice piece of cloth in the room. I know this man – he’s not into fabrics so he couldn’t have bought it. And my mum – she would have talked about it before bringing it home. So I enquired and I was told it was a gift. When I was informed about the person who brought it, I was like but why did this person buy my dad a cloth. What had the old man done for said person to buy him this cloth? That was when I realized I had taken my old man for granted. The gentleman said if not for my father, he wouldn’t have started nor completed his education. That was amazing and thoughtful of this person. I jokingly asked my family if there were any gifts for those (meaning me) who helped fill his school forms..lol!

My dad finally got home and explained what had happened and the message. He even went on to apologize. At that point, the anger had dissipated – I had nothing to say in response. A lot had happened between the time I read the message and he apologizing. I wasn’t thinking about that silly message anymore. I was thinking about the gesture of the guy who brought him the gift. For ‘just’ helping him through school, he showed his gratitude and appreciation. And here I was getting irritated with him over silly issues and not realising the good he has done for my siblings and me. The funny part was that I intended on asking him for some money the following morning, but I had the nerve to be annoyed with him.

More often than not, we easily take family and friends for granted. When a family or friend offends us, we are quick to get angry and refuse to give them the benefit of the doubt. After all, the closer they are, there more their actions will hurt. But it should be the closer they are, the more we should quickly forgive. Some of us would rather choose to be good to total strangers than family. I know how bad family can hurt but at the end of the day, they are still family – the same blood runs through them and us. There are situations we may find ourselves in that only family will and can come to our rescue.

I had been thinking about the perfect write up to post for Mother’s day but nothing came to mind. I couldn’t find that picture-perfect story about motherhood to share. So this is what I am going to say – Let’s appreciate family and since it’s Mother’s day, we will start with Mothers and then continue always – as well as on Father’s day.

But mothers can be annoying and nosy. Mothers can behave like enemies sometimes but they are still our mothers. I always tell myself to find one good thing about a person and relate with them based on that. On this Mother’s day, no matter what your mum or any woman or mother figure has done to you that brought you pain, please find one good thing about them and appreciate them for it. I know it can be hard but give it a try- it could be for not aborting you, for breastfeeding you, for taking care of you when you couldn’t do that on your own, for the love they have freely given to you, for a prayer they might have said for you, say thank you.

I learnt a great lesson on Easter Monday. Let’s not wait for others to appreciate our mothers on this occasion while we ignore them because of some trivial reasons. Let’s not be so familiar with them that we take them for granted. Do not make this phrase “familiarity breeds contempt” be a reality for you when it comes to those close to you. Let’s show them how much we appreciate them.

Please share with your friends and family: