Saturday was my birthday, and I took the entire weekend to celebrate. :)
At a glance:
Cheese & The Gift of Men
Book Club 📖
TMP Archive 📝
The Gallery 🎨
Also, we have 60 stories in!! Let’s go 🥳.
Cheese & The Gift of Men
Last year, I saw a lot of tweets1 of people gushing about the gift of men, and I prayed to have it too.
Not just to experience it but to have it— to have in my life such amazing relationships that I can’t but thank God for them and call myself blessed to have (met) them; and to be that blessing to someone else.
In other words, a second family and a circle of friends. A second family of people whose lives are consciously woven together to the end that you do life together, in the good times, in the dull routine times, and in the bad times. And people who may not be family but are blessings all the same, and you want to be a blessing to.
I exceedingly thank God for the ones He has blessed me with. I thank God I get to be a part of their lives and that they get to be a part of mine. Better yet, I am grateful to the Holy Spirit to have enabled such beautiful ships to happen— first in me and second in said beautiful people. I know where credit is due because a history of stoicism and strong indifference could not have led me here.
Of course, people come and go, and when some others come, they stay. They stay for good. I have no control over who comes or who goes. But the time we have? I pray we live it so harmoniously that we can’t but thank God we were in our lives.
Again, I can’t but thank the Holy Spirit, who has seen to it that I do not veer too far into the extremes of any ideology. And because I’m reading 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (by Jordan B. Peterson), I can’t but think that the Holy Spirit is the balance that helps a man walk the fine line between order and chaos.
I’ll leave you with this quote:
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
And this quote:
“In friendship...we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years' difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another...the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting--any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," can truly say to every group of Christian friends, "Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another." The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
To those we love, have loved and will love,
To current friends, past friends, and those we’ll befriend,
Dayo 🫶🏾
Book Club 📖
I was reading Bloomarked by Tracy Deonn until my subconscious sat me down and asked what exactly I was doing. So now, I’m reading 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson. The best part is that it’s hardcopy!
TMP Archive 📝
Just found the You Can Rest Here podcast by Mazino Malaka:
The Gallery 🎨
Music is a form of art, no? 😂
Frankly, I see too many tweets 💀.
Thanks for sharing. I am in a place in my life right now where I would have died if I was alone , so I thank God for placing wonderful people who have shown me kindness and kept me afloat . God has worked with them to show me love . I am grateful to God for not leaving me alone . I am not lonely and I am grateful 🙏🏾
I need to be banned from Twitter 😩