FINDING HOPE IN THE WILDERNESS

Ben Iyoha

I woke, almost immediately I sat down to some of my old books conjecturing.Times like this one considers the mood and what fits in, In some cases when I get up so early the mood could be flirtatious, sexually banal, inspirational, spiritual or hypothetical. But in this case it was the later, so I settled for Life 101 by John Roger and Peter McWilliams, this indeed is the needed renewal inspired by my recent realities of life.  I love going back to my old collections ultimately because it creates for me a reverse time-travel, but most significantly because it helps me bring back some of my lost motivation. 

A few browse through then I dropped the docile sheets,hence I pondered about writing. I must confess I had not this topic on my writing scheme; there was no hiding place than I wrote about my current inertia; knowing that nothing pervious is able to permeates my inner feelings. My soul has been in recent time riddled with a barrage of bleakness, all as a result of my many doings and undoing of giving myself out to others without some iota of caution.

After all these momentary and sensual juxtapose I turned on to write.

Life may perhapsgive you everything and suddenly… BANG!Then you start to feel blank, cloudy, misplaced and rookie amidst all. Being hopeless puts you in this wild margin filled with inaccuracies, uncertainty, drought and extreme heat; call this “The Wilderness” you are not far from the fact.

Although, we never get to worry about being entrenched or overwhelmed by the exigencies we derive from the whims of life. As William Saroyan puts it “Good people are good because they’ve come to wisdom through failure”. One salient truth about life is that we only think of hope when we fail at something or we lose someone or something dear.

 AT A CROSSROAD - Every now and then we’ll find ourselves in a space called FEAR; this fear could be derived from anything but something well known to you. Critically, it perfects the thoughts of HOPELESSNESS, here is the point you finally come to terms with disparaging thoughts, notions and the need of an exodus. In rare cases if you take a step further you may fall into a ditch, not taking a step also may put you in the center of a jam and walking back is like taking a scary reverse into oblivion. 

What is the way forward? Find the condiments of hope, Yep… Hope has condiments; Courage, Vision & Strength, if you have all three then you have found hope and this will lead you at this critical cross-road in your life. 

NO PUSH, NO SHOVES - Know that you are not alone in this wilderness; envision a multitude of either visible or invisible people who are right there with you going through the dastard wilderness and also in need of an exodus. A rush will mean a stamped and this makes it all more unpleasant. 

If you wish to cry… cry, if youhave to read, sleep or just take a full break from routine, JUST DO IT!, altogether set in mind the fact that you can’t run out fast lest you run wild and lost and you can’t push others lest you start a stampede that can consume even you.

THE INNER VOICE - At every point in our lives there’s always a voice from inside counseling us in oblivion. According to Schiller “What the inner voice says will not disappoint the hoping soul”. It doesn’t take much inner listening to know that in there, there are many voices: speaking, singing, shouting and whispering. Sometimes we are sure that it’s an entire tabernacle choir singing. Listen safely and makea good rhythm out of your life.

GIVE YOUR LIFE MEANING - Here is a phrase over used, but here it aids a phase in your life were you truly need to define your use and what makes perfect sense to you. First, de-materialize your psyche; get your entire life free from the permutations of superficial satisfaction, secondly,as George Melton says “Of all things I am certain, the body is not the measure of healing –peace is the measure”. Find peace from deep within, thirdly, remember; hopelessness is a function of time. The only bargain to rekindle hope is to create a change and give it time.

LASTLY, DECONSTRUCT YOUR WALLS - We are a people of rules, lifestyle, habits, believes, creeds, totems and general cultural embodiments… wait a sec! What will you lose if your break down these walls? Have you ever thought of what the world was like when we haven’t created empires and constructed borders? The truth is that our rules do not only limit our neighbor or society, it limits us first. Imagine if you were boxed for life in this wilderness wouldn’t you crave to bring down the walls. If you live by too many rules, your life in itself is a wilderness; break down these walls and be free.