IT’S THAT TIME OF THE YEAR AGAIN

One piece of news that makes me grovel on my insides is the inference in Nigeria that something is fundamentally wrong with the “em-ber”months. Don’t know what ‘em-ber’ means? For those of you who don’t know, it is believed that the months that end with “ber or ember” from September to December, have a negative side to them.

It is believed that between those four months, the worst accidents happen, more people die, atrocities of all kinds just “happen” to happen in those months. I bet if you took the statistics of activities around that time, you would see that it’s the time of the year when the rains are high, and then finally come to an end. The roads are bad on account of the heavy rainfall,  accidents increase, people are not really making a profit at their businesses and so money is tight, or that less money is in circulation.

With the Children returning to school for the first term in a new class, with school fees to pay, new school uniforms and books to buy; cash becomes scarce, as people save to prepare for the Christmas holiday (which is a really big time of the year in Nigeria); and there are frustrations and so on and so forth.

The inference that because of these there is a “spiritual-evil-something-about-the-ember-months” connotation leaves much to be desired. Most folks allude to these months as the last months of the year filled with evil and bedeviled, this is an allusion that doesn’t sit well with me. To the best my memory serves me, each month is a likely candidate for disaster. Take for instance in this year 2012 alone, haven’t there been series of bomb blasts all over the Country (Thisday Newspaper office bombing in April), violent clashes between different groups of people, floods even in the most unlikely parts of the country, accidents of every kind imaginable this year, from domestic mishaps, multiple road accidents to air crashes, prominent among which was the Dana air crash in Lagos in June.

If we took a poll of maternal and infant mortality rates across Nigeria, I am sure we would see that it has been high all year round;

If we took a poll of deaths related to illnesses from malaria, to headaches, cancer, HIV/AIDS we would see that they have been in the numbers.

So I do not belong to the “em-ber” speaking class of people. While not disputing the presence of evil, let us bring the ‘spiritual’ into the matter. I was taught and have come to believe that every day is the day the Lord (God) has made and we should rejoice and be glad in it.  I believe that though there will always be troubles, we take comfort in knowing that God through Jesus Christ is with us through them. So as ‘religious’ as that sounds, each day becomes one of many first days of many to come.

And now to the selfish part of my rant….its my birth month!!! J and that is why I am sympathetic to the cause of the ‘em-ber months.’ I have this theme song I sing around August every year, which most times sounds like “Nothing this year for my birthday ohh!! It will be a really quiet day oohhh, it’ll just be low key, nothing at all, nothing much"…well….I was wrong!!  This year, I made plans to have a lovely day at the office and to wear a new hair-do and a new dress. (No apologies, It is my birthday!!!). After the chorus of the quiet birthday that I shall have, by the last day of August and the first day of September my excitement knew no bounds, particularly that 1^st day of September.

Should I be so excited? When I am getting older and the prospects are getting thinner? (raise your hands up if you know what I mean) Of course not everything is going the way I planned it, neither has it been as expected, but it has been far from bad and that is sincerely something to be grateful for.

This year I have had cause to smile a lot, laugh a whole lot, cry, mourn, and be excited, to dance like never before, be disappointed, being surprised, experienced depression and successfully came out of it.  

I have had cause be hurt, to be angry, to forgive and to move on with life, to be refined and strengthened in the most unlikely ways and places. I have had the help of great friends and family who had my back in ways they knew and in other small seemingly insignificant ways that they might never know.

What can I say? “In boh rai hwala” which in Aten language  means “I am full of joy”. It does not mean that I have a grin on my face each day just so everyone can see; but it does mean the joy of the Lord has been and still is my strength.

This new year of my life is the start of something new. Some of these things I have deliberately been working at, and I am determined to keep SUCCESS as the watchword. And this is not to say that it won’t get rough, although it does meant that like all the other months of the year, this is just a phase and this too shall pass. 

So please people, enough with the dreary attitude!! Let us celebrate each day of each month as though it were just another new day, and not give it the negative insinuation that we hear churned forth from all around us.

This is a great new month and I am happy to be a September baby!!! Here is to a great new month and to the rest of the EM-BER months, may this bring you all that you have prayed and wished and worked for!

This is going to be so much fun!!!!!!!!

P.S

I received some sweet gifts this year, one of which is a poem I would like to share with you.

A fluttery feeling of Ecstasy

Euphoria fills your atmosphere

what ever mountains stood in your way

Today you don't seem to care

A day of calls, cards and notes

a merry heart and flowery clothes

prayers are being offered for you

as people pause to think of you

Words well up in our heart to say

a paragraph or book may not suffice

but let this sentence say it all

we love you and HAPPY BIRTHDAY from us all

© Samuel Idakwo (You can read more of his poems at www.elevatedpoem.blogspot.com)