WHISPERS OF INSPIRATION

 She's about one and a half year old, bubbling with life and excited about her ability to walk. She gently raised her head to looked at me and smiled. Yes, she did it again but this time playfully. It was a lovely smile clothed with innocence and many questions. It was a cheerful and promising smile, pregnant with many issues. I involuntarily returned her smile with a broader encouraging one.  I was momentarily excited by that act, but that wordless encounter with the girl left me wondering. Yes, it did. There's this feeling that got me thinking after our brief encounter. In this missive smile, I thought to myself what are we supposed to do in order not to fail these young ones. With this passive smile, I felt the need to share this piece. By the way, how are your children; our future leaders? How are our children; our future hope faring? How well are we preparing or forming them to face the future? How holistic is our approach as a nation to give them a firm

How many lives must we allow to waste? How many more deaths must we permit? How many more disabilities must we suffer? How many talents must we truncate? How many women must we allow to perish in the process of giving life? How many men must we allow to just die? How many young men and women must we permit to just waste? How many babies or fetus' are we still willing to terminate? How many precious beings are we willing to sacrifice through our systemic failures? How many of these loses must we continue to tolerate? Are we ignoring the urgent need for proper care? Are we neglecting this duty of availing this care? Are we over monetizing access to quality healthcare? So what happened to our value of care? What happened to our purported sense of hospitality? What happened to our religious and traditional norms that preserve life? And why are these deaths recurring? Why have these systemic failures persisted? Why are these systemic lapses allowed to fester

You are capable of being your best today. Yes, you are capable of making progress. You are capable of speaking your truth. You are blessed with confidence to do the needful this day. So kindly stab your limitations and benign or malignant fears. Breathe new energy into your lungs. Identify your strengths and skills, in order to encourage yourself to rise. Make use of them to accomplish your goals. Let nothing suffocate your ambitions. Let nothing poisoned your dreams. Let nobody dim your light but keep going. Continue taking care of yourself. Even in making progress, Please, never compromise on your principles. Never grow complacent in this course. Kindly, hold dear values of self-discipline, self-control, and care for others. In the transition of this day, kindly show compassion and kindness in your walk. Wake up to new possibilities and keep making the efforts because I trust you are capable of handling the task this call. Take care. God bless you. Gree

The value of words is weightier when we really understand them. A lot of words are spoken through our engagement and interactions each day. However, we are mostly unable to listen to understand these messages. These might be due to the competing needs for shelter, food, power, comfort or convenience and peace. Other times our emotions or feelings steal our attention and distract us from really paying attention or listening to understand. The tendency of listening with distraction often tickles us, as we mostly listen to react or reply to whoever is speaking, which usually comes at a cost. Sometimes, it can be frustrating not being listened to and one might be tempted to shout or scream but I doubt if that's an attractive option. Nonetheless, the most certain way of repeating the message to others is conveying them in subtle but firm lines. As we live through the journey of life, we have a greater responsibility to listen to understand that this pilgrimage is not a