Favvy_Okwans🖤

If there's one thing I feel a little too often, it's being overwhelmed. So much so that I coined my own word for it: "exhaustimulated". A collaboration between exhausted and overstimulated. But there's something I've learned recently. The reason I feel overwhelmed most times is because I'm looking at the billion things I have to do all at once. Everything is screaming for attention, and together it looks scary and insurmountable. So instead of going nuts over the 101 things on my plate, I've learned to focus on just one thing at a time. When I'm working on one task, I intentionally shut out the others demanding my attention. I lock in on that one thing, and honestly, that's how I've survived the past few crazy weeks. Because if I don't, the sheer weight of everything I need to do quickly turns into a kind of paralysis. The anxiety doesn't come from the work itself; it comes from trying to carry all of it in my head at once. Dearest ...

The highlight of my day today was when a friend of mine who I was talking to on call was about to use a word and she quickly stopped and was like, "Okay, no, we don't use that word here," because I'm always like that whenever she uses it. It had a nice ring to it that without even knowing, just because it's Favour she's talking to, she no fit talk spoil. And that somehow made me happy. It got me thinking about the little ways people show that they value us, not the grand gestures or dramatic declarations, but the tiny adjustments they make without being asked. The way they remember what matters to you, the way they become mindful of things simply because you are around. Maybe love, friendship, and care are hidden in those little moments we often overlook. In the pauses before certain words or the habits people quietly change or the consideration that says, "I thought about you before I acted." And honestly, I think that's beautiful. Dearest reade...

"The road not taken has a way of looking more beautiful the longer you stare at it."~ I often say that we don't regret the things we do. What we regret are the things we never did. For the longest time, I saw that idea as a "live your best life in the moment" kind of quote. But recently, I looked at it from another angle and realized something: no matter the path you choose, there will always be another path you didn't. For every decision you make, there is an alternative version of that decision left untouched. And if you could somehow go back in time and choose differently, the path you originally took would become the road not taken. As the quote says, the longer you stare at that road, the more beautiful it begins to look. In SS2, I had to choose between Arts and Science. Honestly, if you knew me back then, you would have bet money on me choosing Arts. But I didn't, and every now and then, I wonder what my life would have looked like if I had. But th...

"Anything too good to be true is actually too good to be true." We're often too quick to call things a scam when they don't meet our expectations. We rarely stop to consider that maybe there were other factors at play, or even question whether our expectations were realistic in the first place. Sometimes the issue isn't that we were deceived. Sometimes it's that we convinced ourselves of a version of reality that was never promised to us. A person can be good and still not be good for you, an opportunity can be legitimate and still not deliver the results you imagined, a plan can fail without being a bad plan. Not everything that disappoints you is a scam. That said, some things really are too good to be true. The problem is that excitement has a way of eradicating discernment. We see the reward, all that comes with it and you forget to read between the lines. Funny enough, at the height of emotions we tend hear what we want to hear and fill in the gaps with o...

If there's one thing I've learnt recently, it's that just because something worked in one season, or God used a particular method to help you at a certain point, doesn't mean it will always be that way. God may have moved on from the strategy you're still holding tightly to simply because it worked once. Be flexible. If something that always worked suddenly stops working, while it is wise to investigate and learn from it, also pay attention to the possibility that God is doing something new. Sometimes, we become so busy asking "why?" and crying over spilled milk that we fail to notice what is right in front of us. While the Alan Watts backward law suggests that understanding the past helps us step into the future, it is not the same as clinging to things, people, opportunities, or even versions of ourselves that no longer serve God's purpose in our lives. Dearest reader, if the door you've been knocking on refuses to open, perhaps God is not asking...

On today's story review of The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, we're looking at the final story in the collection, The Headstrong Historian. And what a way to end a book. The story begins with Nwamgba, a young woman who insists on marrying Obierika despite concerns about his family's history of childlessness and miscarriages. She loves him deeply, but shortly after the birth of their only son, Anikwenwa, he dies, a death she suspects was orchestrated by jealous relatives. Fearing for her son's safety and inheritance, she sends him to the new Catholic school established by the white missionaries, and that's where things begin to change. School gives Anikwenwa opportunities, but it also distances him from the traditions and beliefs his mother holds dear. He becomes a catechist, starts a family of his own, and raises children in a world very different from the one Nwamgba grew up in. But for me, the heart of this story is Afamefuna. Born into Christ...