Our lives; a tale.

We spend our years as a tale that is told

We spend our years as a tale that is told

Teach us to number our days that we might apply our heart unto wisdom - Psalm 90:4,12. 

My Whatsapp; statuses and DMs have been buzzing of late with the news of folks are jetting out of the country for greener pastures and Oh boy, I can’t be happier for them, we have come a long way, I mean, just a few years ago, all we worried about was crossing over from the University of Lagos's main campus in Akoka to the college of Medicine in Idi-Araba. Or the times when all we cared about was surviving the torrid department of Nursing with their abysmal planning and horrible organisation. Or the days when we wailed about writing exams back to back, jumping from classes to clinical posting, pilling up sleepless nights, with numerous group discussions in mosquito-infested darkness under a starless night with our rechargeable lamps flickering, ready to die at a moment's notice, all because we wanted to pass those exams. Now, It is all night tales and sweet stories that we tell to those who care to listen as we embark on the next stage of our lives.

Now, for most of us that are still here, the plan is to escape out of the country, after which we settle down into our new lives, start a family and before you know it, kids are around, going to school, graduating from college, starting new jobs and moving out of the house to start their own lives while we grow old and become the parents and grandparents who aren’t in vogue of trending things anymore, who has a lot of stories about how things were in their own time and just like that, our lives passes away like a tale that is told.

Despite my irreligious views, Psalms 90, from which the inspiration for this piece was gotten, remains one of my favourite pieces of writing. Written by Moses(this might sound like a surprise to most people), that part of the psalms is one of my best parts of the scripture, I have read it every birthday since I clocked 20, it reminds me of our short and fleeting our stay on the planet is.

You sweep people away like dreams that disappear or like grass that springs up in the morning, in the morning it blooms and flourishes, but by evening it is dry and withered. 

We are here today, we are gone tomorrow, we live to grow up and die, although we like to pretend that we are immortal but unfortunately “the length of our days is seventy years or eighty if we have the strength;”(vs 10). By the time the new century dawns in the year 2100, over 99% of us reading this won’t be alive again, our sojourn here will be ended together will all our wants, needs, aspirations, desires and pains. Most times, when I think about these things, I get sad a little bit knowing there will come a time when I will have to bid this world goodbye, there is nothing I can do to stop it, my time here is finite, so the best thing I can do is to follow the advice of Moses in verse 12 when he said:

 Teach us to number our days, that we might apply our heart unto wisdom 

Wisdom for me changes every year, or rather, I update my meaning of wisdom every birthday, two years ago, wisdom meant coming out of my comfort zone and pushing myself to be the best version I can be, last year, wisdom meant caring for other, this year, the meaning of wisdom is enjoying life to the fullest, appreciating every breath, savouring every moment, enjoying every laughter knowing that everything is fleeting and ephemeral and could be gone in seconds. Our life is a tale that will be told and I hope to make mine as interesting as possible.