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| GRINDING STONE |
Over the last seven
days, I have been engaged in a ferocious soul searching exercise consequent
from feeling like a huge weight was lying on my shoulders making me usually
lethargic and tardy but as I perused through the chapters of my life’s book I
caught a shimmer of light from some phrase I had learnt long ago.
“keep your nose to the grinding stone” that idiom from my days of learning figurative expressions in my English Language class as a teenage girl struck me like lightening from a tremendous thunder bolt and as I mused over it, I smiled from deep within !
Back in the day, it was one of those idioms I found hilarious and almost preposterous. Each time it came up, I found myself conjuring in my subconscious an image of a maiden bent over the ancient grinding stone, hot chilly splashing over her eyes and then a rapid distraught and ironically comical reaction to her doom. Alas, it was a teenager’s prank mind envisioning nasty things. That phrase perched like a gentle dove on an olive branch on my mind and all week, I worked at fathoming it out. My finding didn’t exactly lift off the invisible weight off my shoulders but it gave me the strength to overcome that incredible lethargy and tardiness. I felt able to combat a troll all by myself!
Today, I would like to share that finding with you but
before I do, read this:
“Ebiere was born into a dynastic family. Wealth and affluence were the first words she spoke as a toddler. Everything came to her easy. She had the best things in life and was the apple of her parent’s eyes as an only child. She didn’t know the words poverty or struggle ever existed until catastrophe struck. Her parents were killed in an auto crash and she became an orphan. Barely eight years old, her vile uncle took the family’s wealth and in a house where she once was a princess, Ebiere was reduced to worst than a mere domestic staff. Her cousins who once doted on her, turned her into a cheap rug and walked all over her, their mother, her uncle’s loving and caring wife, morphed into Jezebel!
Ebiere’s life was like that of a promising seedling that sprouted happily at the call of the impeccable sun and was squashed by hideous darkness, it had ended even before it got a chance to begin. So she thought but providence dissented.
A colossal tragedy was to shape the life of a young orphan or dent it but amidst gross darkness, showed an ember of light in the disguise. Her obnoxious uncle had fired all domestic staff employed by her late parents but allowed her nanny to remain in his new employ. He didn’t want anything to do with his niece so the nanny was meant to be the only source of liaison between them.
Ebiere was literally born into her nanny’s hands and the elderly woman had loved and cared for her like a grandmother over the years. She soon became the centre of Ebiere’s world- her only family.
Life was turmoil for Ebiere and when it was time for her to go to secondary school, her uncle’s wife enrolled her in the community secondary school while her cousins attended the best private school but her nanny always told her this one thing every night she wailed uncontrollably, “have faith my
child and never remove your nose from the grinding stone” the later part often made her laugh but Ebiere took wise counsel. Nothing ever brought her down, she kept keeping on. Hard work and diligence paid off, she graduated senior valedictorian of the year and was given a full tertiary institution scholarship by the government.
She got into the university as a law student and was on a path to take back all that was taken away from her, and did she?
Aided by senior colleagues, she sued her uncle and won. Ebiere got it all back and built a greater business empire than her parents had. “The evils that men do, lives after them” is the popular saying but in the case of Ebiere’s vile uncle, it lived with him. His daughters turned out wayward and the little savings he had was duped off him by the Jezebel who eloped with a younger man.
Well here is my finding, sometimes in life; we are confronted by fiendish woes. Troubles seem unending and we eventually lapse into a state of mental exhaustion. We become lethargic, feeling like the entire world is sitting on our shoulders and beneath the weight, we crumble and then we halt because moving forward seems at the moment like a death sentence but here is the irony, staying down is suicide!
I would not overate optimism and tell you it will be easy, but what will be most difficult is not trying. I am not ignorant of the fact also that the troubles of life come in different packages, sizes, colors and kilograms if you allow me the use of measures, your weight could be a 1000kg and mine 1500kg but neither of us can afford to crumble under it and halt.
No matter the size, we need to keep moving and that is what I tell myself, keep moving. A stationary phase is not allowed on this journey, no matter how insignificant the movement may seem, make sure you are in motion!
Yes, if you can’t FLY because of the weight, you can RUN and if it becomes heavier WALK and when walking becomes a herculean task, CRAWL and if ever crawling becomes a mammoth task, if ever you are so heavy laden……SLITHER.
You know why? In slithering you will muster the ability to CRAWL, in crawling, you will discover the strength to WALK again, in walking, you will build the courage to RUN and in running, you will eventually gain the confidence to FLY.
Stick your nose in the grindstone, will you?
“keep your nose to the grinding stone” that idiom from my days of learning figurative expressions in my English Language class as a teenage girl struck me like lightening from a tremendous thunder bolt and as I mused over it, I smiled from deep within !
Back in the day, it was one of those idioms I found hilarious and almost preposterous. Each time it came up, I found myself conjuring in my subconscious an image of a maiden bent over the ancient grinding stone, hot chilly splashing over her eyes and then a rapid distraught and ironically comical reaction to her doom. Alas, it was a teenager’s prank mind envisioning nasty things. That phrase perched like a gentle dove on an olive branch on my mind and all week, I worked at fathoming it out. My finding didn’t exactly lift off the invisible weight off my shoulders but it gave me the strength to overcome that incredible lethargy and tardiness. I felt able to combat a troll all by myself!
Today, I would like to share that finding with you but
before I do, read this:
“Ebiere was born into a dynastic family. Wealth and affluence were the first words she spoke as a toddler. Everything came to her easy. She had the best things in life and was the apple of her parent’s eyes as an only child. She didn’t know the words poverty or struggle ever existed until catastrophe struck. Her parents were killed in an auto crash and she became an orphan. Barely eight years old, her vile uncle took the family’s wealth and in a house where she once was a princess, Ebiere was reduced to worst than a mere domestic staff. Her cousins who once doted on her, turned her into a cheap rug and walked all over her, their mother, her uncle’s loving and caring wife, morphed into Jezebel!
Ebiere’s life was like that of a promising seedling that sprouted happily at the call of the impeccable sun and was squashed by hideous darkness, it had ended even before it got a chance to begin. So she thought but providence dissented.
A colossal tragedy was to shape the life of a young orphan or dent it but amidst gross darkness, showed an ember of light in the disguise. Her obnoxious uncle had fired all domestic staff employed by her late parents but allowed her nanny to remain in his new employ. He didn’t want anything to do with his niece so the nanny was meant to be the only source of liaison between them.
Ebiere was literally born into her nanny’s hands and the elderly woman had loved and cared for her like a grandmother over the years. She soon became the centre of Ebiere’s world- her only family.
Life was turmoil for Ebiere and when it was time for her to go to secondary school, her uncle’s wife enrolled her in the community secondary school while her cousins attended the best private school but her nanny always told her this one thing every night she wailed uncontrollably, “have faith my
child and never remove your nose from the grinding stone” the later part often made her laugh but Ebiere took wise counsel. Nothing ever brought her down, she kept keeping on. Hard work and diligence paid off, she graduated senior valedictorian of the year and was given a full tertiary institution scholarship by the government.
She got into the university as a law student and was on a path to take back all that was taken away from her, and did she?
Aided by senior colleagues, she sued her uncle and won. Ebiere got it all back and built a greater business empire than her parents had. “The evils that men do, lives after them” is the popular saying but in the case of Ebiere’s vile uncle, it lived with him. His daughters turned out wayward and the little savings he had was duped off him by the Jezebel who eloped with a younger man.
Well here is my finding, sometimes in life; we are confronted by fiendish woes. Troubles seem unending and we eventually lapse into a state of mental exhaustion. We become lethargic, feeling like the entire world is sitting on our shoulders and beneath the weight, we crumble and then we halt because moving forward seems at the moment like a death sentence but here is the irony, staying down is suicide!
I would not overate optimism and tell you it will be easy, but what will be most difficult is not trying. I am not ignorant of the fact also that the troubles of life come in different packages, sizes, colors and kilograms if you allow me the use of measures, your weight could be a 1000kg and mine 1500kg but neither of us can afford to crumble under it and halt.
No matter the size, we need to keep moving and that is what I tell myself, keep moving. A stationary phase is not allowed on this journey, no matter how insignificant the movement may seem, make sure you are in motion!
Yes, if you can’t FLY because of the weight, you can RUN and if it becomes heavier WALK and when walking becomes a herculean task, CRAWL and if ever crawling becomes a mammoth task, if ever you are so heavy laden……SLITHER.
You know why? In slithering you will muster the ability to CRAWL, in crawling, you will discover the strength to WALK again, in walking, you will build the courage to RUN and in running, you will eventually gain the confidence to FLY.
Stick your nose in the grindstone, will you?
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