VICISSITUDES

I never knew there was so much love
In the world until I was down;
I never knew there was so much hate
In the world until I wore a crown.

You just have to accept humanity the way it is;
People will surprise you with their love and their hate;
People will surprise you with betrayal and with loyalty;
A thousand changes everyday will be your fate.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

WORLDS

As I travel the world outwardly, I also travel through myriads of inner worlds inwardly.

Within short periods, I interact with people of different mentalities, characters, backgrounds, histories, personalities and inner worlds; people whose inner lives are often completely different from mine but sometimes also extraordinarily similar to mine.

And I’ve learned one thing. It is not the outer world that is big and vast; it is the inner world that is vaster and more diverse than the universe. But it is also that same inner world that is the smallest, most singular and most undifferentiated space in all of creation.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains

THE GOD OF THE WILLING

We cannot use God to hide away from the world. Rather we should use God to engage with, decipher and overcome the world. Above all, the world within us. God is not for cowards or weaklings. God is for the brave, the bold, the adventurous, the determined, the open, those who are ready to use the earthlife for that for which it was granted to them: to experience, and to grow through this experiencing.

The form or the content of the experiencing is different for each person. For some it is a quiet thing they need to experience, for others it is a loud thing; for some it is a popular thing they must dare, for others it is an unpopular or even a seemingly inconsequential thing; for some it is a controversial thing, for others it is a safe and boring and therefore annoying and unbearable thing; for some it is personal love, for others it is objective love.

Everybody has those things that will call their heart deeply – and running to God will still not free you from them. There is no escape because it is inside you. God is not there to hide you from yourself or from your challenges. God is there to help you to deal with them. That is why HE granted you this earth life, because HE knows you will need every second of whatever length of time you earned for yourself in this current incarnation.

So, get to work! Go for it. Set off with the business of living by experiencing. God will help you if you are brave and honest.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains

TYPES

Sometimes you are just not someone’s type. They might be attracted to you for a while, curious about you, interested in you, be entertained by you. But in the end they will betray you or leave you, because deep within their heart you are actually not their type or what they’re looking for.

And there are two types of them. Those that will tell you honestly up front. And those who won’t.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains

GRASPING

Why don’t people recognise a great thing
And just take it when it comes their way?
Without hesitation, without doubting
The magic, just join in the game and play?

Maybe because it does not always
Come in the form we expect and want -
Because God’s Ways are not our ways,
Our intellect is sharp but our intuition is blunt.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

PUT YOUR HEART INTO EVERYTHING YOU DO

Sometimes, many things you do you do it because you just don’t care. People think you do it, and do it that way, because you don’t know how to do it or you don’t know what to do.

They don’t know that you simply really just don’t care if it works or not, because it is not what you really want. You’re just doing it out of boredom and because it is available, and because you just have to do something to while away the time while you’re waiting for what you really want.

But that thing you really want, that thing you are waiting for, might never ever come.

So, why don’t you do well what you’re doing now; because in the end it might be the only thing you ever really got to do.

Love, put your heart into everything you do.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains

WHEN THE WOUND DOESN’T HEAL

When the wound heals outside
Without healing inside
Baby you are beautiful inside and outside
Your smile is open wide
But your heart, the one that cried
But your heart, the one that lied
But your heart, the one that died
Is closed up on the inside
And will continue to pretend and to hide…
Your laughter is it pain or is it pride?
Lonely bride
You are a lonely bride.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

WHEN YOU STOP WANTING

When you stop wanting to know everything,
You start knowing what to really want;
When you start wanting to grow into winning,
You start growing, focused, up and to the front.

Never forget the kind of people and things
That rejected you when you were nobody and nothing,
Your knowledge of them shall be the wings
That shall fly you over obstacles into your blessing.

Absorb the pain and become serious,
Trudge through the terrain no matter how tedious,
Be your true self and you’ll be mysterious,
And never return to all that was injurious.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

CHANGE LEADS

Change leads to more change
Every trigger triggers another trigger
When life wants to rearrange

Your life and make it even bigger
It uses sudden change and surprise
Pain is an inconsequential by-product

Or a tool, a school, but the real prize
Is your next level waiting to be unlocked
So embrace change that refuses

To be refused and powers itself through
And challenges you and confuses
You and transforms you into a higher you.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

LOVERS AND OR FRIENDS

My friends are more important to me than my lovers. Lovers betray you, at some level, but friends stay loyal. True friends. The best lovers are also friends. The best friends don’t have to be lovers, don’t need to be lovers, to mean the world to you. Friendship beats everything else. There are some people you can be lovers with, but not friends. The moment the love affair ends, the friendship collapses, because it was inwardly empty. It was only sex, carnal comfort and perhaps some degree of emotional connection, but without reciprocal Depth. No sex is worth the best friendship. Nothing beats a person you share your truth with and the truth is safe with them, and they share their truth with you and it is safe with you. Share is the operational word. Safe is the magic word. It is safeness and trust. Respect, honesty and genuineness.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains