‘Kayode
Oyero
“Difficulty,
no matter how wiggly and complicated, has solution in tranquility. To see
through, think through, and pave through life’s web of challenges, take a
break: cool-off; relax. Panic is Satanic and Demonic. Solitude fosters
altitude. Cultivate the attitude.” – O.J.O
Thirty-three
thousand kilometers above land and sea level, the flight of life could seldom
be turbulent and tumultuous. As pilots, the experience could be so frightening
and terrifying, most especially with the litters of unfavourable weather of
disappointments and cloudy snags of agonizing shortcomings that dots the
journey. Hence, the need for a spontaneous momentary release of hot
concentrated outbursts of emotion – aggression and depression.
Unarguably, you
and I occasionally lash out violent, aggressive, snarky and acerbic remarks on
those around us whenever we are possessed in the hood of frustration. ‘Don’t
you get it? I need some Oxygen!’, ‘Get out of my sight, you nincompoop!’, ‘I
need to be left alone.’ ‘Sharrrrap! You idiot!’, ‘Gerra-out! You bastard!’,
‘Damn you son of a bitch!’, ‘You must be demented for such behavior’ we often
bark from the steaming cockpit of life’s aircraft. Hmmn! Life and its bitter
pills! Shall we receive a sizeable portion of its resplendent succors and not a
snippet of its agonizing ‘racour’? - Its wives of rife and strife?
At such
moments, our necks’ tendons unsurprisingly tighten like guitar strings and our
craniums, disrespectfully crane out of our bony temples, right on our neck,
disfiguringly. Needlessly, however, gulping the bitter sauce of life can be of
a harrowing experience!
Though, because
of the dissimilar nature of man especially in the display of emotions, some of
us, unlike our aggression patron counterparts take preference in gliding our
steam of frustration through the outlet of depression. Thus, dripping our tears
in the deep depth of the soul’s rear, after all, when happiness and gladness
overflows the brink of the mind, the eye flows out joyful ripples of tears.
Also otherwise with an overwhelming mound of sorrow: when adversity outweighs
tears, self-piteous laughter is usually a resort. What a paradox!
Believingly,
frustration has a way of igniting aggression and depression in humans. It has a
way of thwarting the self-consciousness, personal co-ordination and comportment
of many. Also, it has a way, its own way of making the unwary drown in the
Atlantic ocean of misery, pessimism, heaviness and distress. Life and its rife!
How lamentable!
Dear friends, in
moments of tension; when imprisoned in the detention of hardship; when no one
gives attention and the turf unbearably rough and tough, worry less, dark times
are never forever. Every rain of pain comes with trains of gains. ‘Every Good Thing
Will Come’. But as optimistic the preceding line appears, ‘Every Good Thing
Will not Come’ if you continue in
panic. Instead, become a mechanic: fix your situation. You can if you are calm,
like the early morning sea water. You don’t need to be perturbed, disturbed or
flustered. At such times, a prudent management of the pressures of the moment
is important for you to be on the subway of proffering solutions to life’s
complexities.
“Where are
these air hostesses? Co-pilot, just a minute! There’s an instructive story,
titled ‘Be calm like Fan’ that I’ll like to share with my co-air travellers.
You know, sharing is caring! I can hear
your loud ‘Yes!’ and sight your affirmative up-down nod.”
“Permission
granted. Don’t exceed your time, please.”
“Okay sir.
Thanks a lot!”
“Keep your
gratitude. Your time starts now, sixty seconds. No extra time, die second or
life seconds!”
“Okay, I ignore your lack of conversation courtesy. My
people, it is the story of a man who possessed by his inquisition to uncover the
secret of all-round success sought a Sage. On the declaration of his aim of
being at his residence, the wise man thoughtfully roving his eyes around his
living room said to him “Look at the door, it is saying ‘push hard: knock
consistently at your desire’. Look at the wall clock, every tick says ‘every
minute count’. Look at the calendar, be up-to-date, assert and sustain
relevance. Look at the window, don’t be myopic: open your mind, embrace new
ways of doing things, positively, differently. Focus on the ceiling, can you
hear it plead? It is begging you to aim for the top, to strive beyond
mediocrity. Now, let your vision select and highlight the ceiling fan while you
retain your sight on the ceiling. It is singing ‘cool-off, just cool-off! When
tension tends to strain, cool-off, just cool-off!””.
“Time up Mr. Story
teller!”
“Just a second
more sir!”
“One more word
from you and you’ll find your way down without a parachute. Double-dare me and
you’re off this mechanical hawk.”
Though silence
in this context engenders solitude, seclusion, introspection, meditation,
reflection, calmness, tranquility and placidity, it is important to note that
asides being of a great deal in the cultivation and development of self,
discovery of an individual’s personal identity and spiritual growth for
hermits, monks, celibates, saints and what have you, serenity, - meditation, a
mundane intra-personal communication allows for mental development and capacity
building.
Observed and
tested, solitude or seclusion sparks creativity. It is a state of seeking
pleasures from within with no total disconnection from without. Psychologists
have in recent times discovered that most adolescents who can’t bear to be
alone often fall short of enhancing creative talents. Perhaps, this is their rationale
for taking the stand that introverts are fountains of ideas whose contributions
have tremendously transformed the world into a better habitation. Seemingly,
they are. Checkmate the life style of naturally gifted scientists, admirable
writers, adorable and award-winning songs composers, solution-oriented
researchers, deeply ingrained thinkers and avant-garde innovators and inventors
alike and you’ll see things in their light. Little wondered the source of their
genius? They take delight in constant productive silence: meditation. They are
Lovers of seclusion!
Peculiarly, the
border between being alone for the purpose of idea generation and exclusive
concepts and being lonely is as wide as the gulf of Guinea. To choose to be
deliberately alone is not to be detached from humanity or bereft of human
companionship, but to determine to reflect, conceptualize and meditate.
Consequently, the soul is recharged and refueled with strategies and laudable
ways to slither out of life’s occasional fogs, be it in paid employment,
personal enterprise or social realities.
Being lonely on
its part can be dehumanizing being the absence of human association and
friendship. To be strategically left alone is to deliberately abstain from
‘human mingle’, for an evanescent while, there by singling oneself out of the
drone of the teeming and noisy world to escape through the escarpment of deep
reflection, into the sacred groove where workable ideas domicile. Albert Camus’
line is no fallacy after all that “In other to understand the world, one has to
turn away from it on occasions!”
Solitude
(may be) painful in youth but (certainly) delicious in maturity says Albert
Einstein. The best of ideas come during a relaxed mood. Multi-national
executives and corporate business bigwigs venture a lot into this adventure.
They go on vacations, holidays abroad, Yacht-cruising, marooning themselves in
cabins and resorts that allow them peer into the window of ‘way-outs’. They
aren’t ignorant that a short retreat, just to get into a different atmosphere
spurs creativity and durable ideas. They are wont to hewing out precious gem of
opportunities from life’s rocks of calamity and adversity. They ‘retreat to
advance’!
Dear friends,
it’s time you held the paddle of your life’s canoe. It’s correctly sincere that
“like the ever-flowing waters of a river, life has its moments of drought and
its moments of flood. And like the ever-changing cycles of seasons, life has
the soothing warmth of the summer and the piercing chill of its winters” says
Martins Luther King Jr.. But in life’s challenging moments, panic and
psychological distress serves no solution but rather a complication. It
escalates palpable tension of the spur: health hazards are catalyzed. How
agonizing the many casualties of depression cum frustration-facilitated heart
attacks! Heart diseases here and there like a cheap commodity so affordable for
the ‘wretched of the earth’ in life’s marketplace!
The truth is:
Two wrongs cannot make a right. No one can see clearly with an eye bleary with
tears. You can’t be destabilized and re-order things into stability. You can’t
be bitter and intend to proffer a solution to better a challenging situation.
It’s an impossican’t of the impossible!
Dear friends,
to cease to fume and fuss, worry and be troubled, the more exquisitely poised,
creative, innovative and solution-providing we become. Listen to silence, it
speaks, squint your eyeball through its telescope, there-in, you glimpse ideas,
solutions, unprecedented breakthroughs and amazing strategies.
“Calmness of
mind is one of the beautiful Jewels of wisdom. The more tranquil we become, the
greater is our success, our influence and our power for creative vision.
Calmness is power. Be still” says a classic inspirational writer, James Allen.
Dear friend, anytime
life seems unfair to you, anytime it jabs you with its elbow of anguish,
anytime you’re desperately in need of a premium idea and your mind is blank
like that of a day old baby, relax! Just relax! Don’t work yourself up. You
can’t get through standing in the way through. Take some time off; personal
concealment aids creative solution for challenging situations. The adrenalin of
ideas surges rapidly when the mind is in a state of relaxation. Nurture your
mind in the cozy resort of Nature. Its breeze promises illumination, initiation
of lucrative ideas, manifold restoration of ‘losts’ and ‘bankrupts’. See
through the lens of silence. It offers soothing comfort and relieve. Enjoy your
day!
…Kip
da Optimism Alive!
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Twitter handle:
@Imodoye_1
Pictures credit: Google
All rights reserved!
'Kayode Oyero, 2014
