Truth is so powerful. There is almost nothing That you cannot forgive a truthful person. It’s a strange phenomenon. What is hurting You is healing you, is teaching you a lesson. Even while suffering, you can’t stop trusting. Something about them awakens respect in us. Truthful people fascinate the coward in us, Inspire the warrior in us, touch the human in us. In the depth of their sin, yet they carry the cross. Even at their worst, they’re still the best of us. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
courage
THE BEST OPPORTUNITIES
Why don’t people take opportunities When they come? Most especially those opportunities That come from The heart and appeal to the sixth sense And, if grasped, lead us back to the essence Of the purpose of being human and fulfilled. A happiness, a love, heartfelt and God-willed. The best opportunities Don’t make us wealthy. The best opportunities Make us happy. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
TRAVELLER TRUTHS
The Truth can only be found By those who are seeking it A mistake can only be learned from By those who are making it Full exposure is only feared By those who are faking it A road can only be understood By those who are taking it The Truth can only be echoed By those who are speaking it. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
THE NEXT STEP
Don‘t give up because the first step was not perfect and the critics have only zoomed in on the weak areas.
Rejoice because you took the first step at all and your journey has now started.
Rejoice because you know what you did right and what you did wrong, so you know what to work on and what to improve.
Rejoice because you have feedback and critics and cheerleaders.
Rejoice because you have the one thing that everybody wants, but only few possess – Courage.
It is courage that gets to distant goals, not criticism. Because courage has legs and is very restless. And the only thing that makes courage happy, and satisfies courage, is movement; is overcoming challenges.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
DO IT QUICKLY
That feeling that you‘ve gone down a path before and seen the outcome… And now you‘re watching others go down that same path.
And you know that no amount of warning or explanation will make them stop going that way. The only thing that can help is the recognition that comes at the end, when everything is over and it‘s too late to change anything. But then, just the bequeathing of this recognition is also what is needed too.
So, instead of preaching to them to not go that path, you start to wish them the opposite: that they go it QUICKLY, and get to the end quickly, so that they can come to the recognition sooner than later.
Just like Jesus Christ said to Judas: „That which you are about to do – do it quickly!“
Sometimes, a Fall is the fastest way to Rise Up!
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
HEY, I’M HUMAN!
They say I make enemies on all sides. Sycophancy and hypocrisy seem to be the price of friendship and group play in a civilized, polished world gone corporate. Living analog authenticity has been replaced by plastic digital superficial smoothness. Personality is dead; long live the System.
But I refuse to be the servant of a System that serves only itself and not the human in me. Being myself is not suicide; surrendering to the System is the real suicide. Being myself is birth, is life.
Don’t kill yourself. Resist. Be it education, be it politics, be it diplomacy, be it the corporate world, be it religion, be it organised Sport – they all demand one thing: the compromise and capitulation of the true human being. The human Spirit. Thwart their plan. Resist!
In every aspect of life, deep in the fabric of our group existence, we have to change the System. And it starts when the individual human being comes back to life. Until you know yourself, you won’t know your real friends. They may be many more than you think, but you don’t know and they don’t know – because you are all afraid to be the first to drop the mask and say:
“Hey, I’m human! Are you?”
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
HAPPY PEOPLE
If you’re mad, and you know you’re mad, are you mad?
If you’re in heaven, and you’re not happy, are you in heaven?
If you have everything, and you’re empty, do you have anything?
If you have nothing, and you’re full, do you have nothing?
What’s the point in being able to explain the Laws of God to everybody, if you lack the courage to live the paths that will reveal yourself to you.
Some people have the courage to show you God, but they don’t have the courage to show you themselves. It is not God that is shrouded in strange mystery, it is the human being.
Don’t tell me about God – you can’t. Tell me about yourself. Show me who you really are. That’s difficult enough. But that’s the knowledge we reciprocally need, between and amongst ourselves, in order to be able to live happily with one another.
And happy coexistence, as ourselves, with ourselves: that is our Paradise.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
RESPONSIBILITY
Sometimes when people disappoint you, it is because they are following, or seeking, the experiences that will mature them. Were they to suppress the urge, or to ignore the chance, to follow those experiences – just in order not to disappoint you – yes, you would have your loyal beholden person in your life, but they would have thereby killed themselves inside. Is that what you want?
If you love something, give it the freedom of choice of experiencing. Let it grow. Whether this means that it stays with you or leaves you, let it search by itself for the paths towards becoming its best self. For the urge to do so rests within each one of us, as an unremovable part of being a human Spirit. – The urge to embark on the journey of becoming oneself. Not every decision will be right, but Mistakes are sometimes the best teachers; and every experience can help you a step further towards becoming your real self, if you always make the effort to understand the lesson in them.
And, paradoxically, you can only become yourself by being yourself. The more you take responsibility for yourself, the more you grow towards yourself. Every seeker will always disappoint somebody – and sometimes the person they disappoint will be the person with whom they share the strongest bond of love. It is the price we all pay for taking full responsibility for our own ship of fate.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
NO LAWS CAN SAVE A NATION
The simplicity of reality
Drag me down to earth
Some mistakes can be corrected
Only through death and rebirth
But it takes even more strength
To live with your unrectified error
And if you can no longer change your path
Then go it with virtue and valour
The outer Change is not as important
As the inner Transformation
If individuals stay inwardly corrupt
No laws can save a Nation
And when you lose your fear
Of mockery and condescension
You’ll see that most People are simply Followers
For fear of ostracization.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
THERE’LL BE HELP ALONG THE WAY (VIDEO)
I did not blog at all in 2014/2015 about the illness and death of my father. It was, still is, too deep. But I wrote a song with his words of advice – “There’ll Be Help Along The Way” – which captures everything he gave, and means, to me.
One of the most imprtant things his death did to me was to remind me that life is short. Do the most important things first. So I started making and recording Music again. And I ended up with my first Album in many years, called FIRST NATURE.
YouTube: Che – There’ll Be Help Along The Way
(V.1):
I remember
When the news hit me back in September
Daddy’s going home
Father father
Tell us will this be our last December?
Speak a word of hope
(CHORUS 1):
There’ll be storm and there’ll be rain
There’ll be tears and there’ll be pain
Keep on striving night and day
There’ll be help along the way
Those who have no fear to fail
Are the ones who never fail
Though they fall they’ll rise again
There’ll be help along the way
… way way way along the way
(V.2):
Have a vision
Live you life with purpose and a mission
Never never give up
Stick together
Be your brothers’ and your sister’s keeper
And keep your faith in God
(CHORUS 2):
When old friends have gone away – (way)
And new friends don’t feel the same – (same)
Yet stay on your lonely lane – (lane)
There’ll be help along the way –
Heaven helps who help themselves – (selves)
Don’t keep doubtig your success – (cess)
Just be faithful to your fate
There’ll be help along the way
… way way way along the way
(SAX SOLO)
(CHORUS 3):
Sometimes at the very start
The road you have to go looks hard
Just set off and just be brave
There’ll be help along the way
It’s no shame to be afraid
But don’t let it make you brake
’Cause in unexpected ways
Oh, there’ll be help along the way…
(FINAL AD-LIBS):
Oooh.. along the way
Children Children (there’ll be help along the way)
There’ll be help along the way…. (there’ll be help along the way)
Help along the way
There’ll be help along, there’ll be help along the Way…
_ _ _ _
(Words/Music: Che Chidi Chukwumerije)
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 