Of challenges

HINDSIGHT AND THE PRESENT

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

When trying to understand people’s actions in the past, always remember this: Everything people did, they always did in the present. That moment was, for them, the only real thing that was. They did not have the vantage point of hindsight which you have now, relative to that moment.

The same thing applies today. This moment now, today, right now, which for you is the realest thing there is, and which confronts you with challenges that sometimes tear you apart, or options that fill you with certainty, this moment too will one day look different when seen in retrospect through the telescopic gaze of the hindsight of others and of yourself. When the world has changed and you too have become someone else.

Just like you’re sometimes not sure today what decision you should take, that’s how those people too were not sure yesterday what decision they should make. And just like you sometimes do something now with the certainty of its rightness, that’s how they too in certainty did something which today, with hindsight, we now realise was wrong. In retrospect. Consciousness is always trapped in the present. Even the consciousness that imagines the future, has itself not left the present.

The past is only the past today. Yesterday, when it was happening, it was not the past. It was the present. And being the present it felt just as real to everybody there and then as the present feels to you right now. Certain and iron-clad. Thus, every decision that everybody makes must always be judged in the light of the time and circumstances in which it was made, in order to really understand it.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains

DIFFERENTLY YOU

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If you are different
No matter how diffident
You try to be
They will still see
That you are different.

So, do you
And be true
All the way through
Their mean or funny looks –
A dose of courage is all it takes.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

ME

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I will try
to be me
And trying
to be me
Is a part
of being me.

And in trying
to be me
I have already
become me.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE OPPOSITE

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When they pull the ground out
From under your feet,
Grow wings and learn to fly.

When they hurt you,
They make you stronger,
Growing younger and younger
Everyday until you die.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

PRIZE

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People who try to bring you down
Will see you rise -
Their thorns will turn into your crown,
That’s your prize.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

VICISSITUDES

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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

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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

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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

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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

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
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