Truth is the referee of trust. Truth and truthfulness, not perfection. Nobody is perfect and everybody does wrong sometimes or makes mistakes. Trust does not hinge on perfection and it cannot do so. Trust hinges on truth and truthfulness. You trust people, not because they are perfect, but because they are honest to you.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains
Trust is a thread
Is an earthenware pot
Is a glass cup
Do not break it.
Sow with it a garment of protection
Cook in it a meal of spiritual nutrition
Drink from it the water of eternal affection
And never break it.
It is hard to remake it.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
We expect more from sex than it can give. And when it fails to give it, we take more and more and more of it, demanding with even more intensity and urgency from it that which it is unable to give. Unable to give because, no matter how deep and intimate it is, in the end it’s still just sex. It can never fulfil your soul. And the real you, the human spirit, is in the soul. There is a depth of unhappiness that it cannot fill, a height of joy it cannot reach. There is a fineness and exactness of intimate connection which sex can only crudely attempt to approximate without being able to fill the gaps.
The gaps that sincerity can fill; the gaps that honesty can bridge; the gaps that integrity can close; the gaps that trust can repair; the gaps that homogeneity can make disappear; the gaps that reliability can heal; the gaps that a shared Ideal and a common goal can plug; the gaps that working together can eliminate; the gaps that intimate truthful conversations can undo; the gaps that a harmonisation of thinking and intuiting can cure. All the gaps that the best sex in the world cannot fill. No matter how often and creatively we try to find the fulfilment therein.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains
One thing I know about life: you tell the truth to the person you truly love, to your soulmate. You feel enough trust and empathy, and you have the strong craving, to share the truth, the real naked truth, with them. People who are not able to tell you the truth are telling you that they don’t really have a deep place for you in their heart. This is a painful recognition to have, but a necessary one too. It helps you to protect yourself from deeper hurt and from new hurt in the future.
Trust is the message of Truth. As long as truthfulness is not coming from helplessness and desperation, then it is on the one hand a sign of respect, and on the other hand it is the ultimate admission of safety, intimacy and trust. You know the people you trust by the secrets you feel comfortable sharing with them. And you know the people who don’t trust you by the secrets they hold back from you. These are the people who are not close to you, no matter how close to you they seem to be. Veracity is the test – and the taste – of intimacy.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains
Only happiness can defeat sadness Only honesty to oneself can defeat madness Only goodness can defeat badness Mirroring darkness is not our business Rather for the Light we bear witness And learn gradually to feel forgiveness At a point words become meaningless Whether we speak more or speak less We’ll misunderstand each other nevertheless Only time and deeds and steadfastness Only consistency in human friendliness Only self-control and gentlemanliness Will grant our hearts again to each other access. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
Trust, broken.
Thoughts, woken.
Hurt, spoken.
Touch, token.
Unpreparable.
It comes from the one you don’t expect.
Unrepairable.
You’ll never again be able to not suspect.
Healing is an intellectual token
Once the trust has been broken.
Only the spirit can find a new rhyme
In its own way, in its own time.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
To love is to trust Because love is the most vulnerable feeling on earth To trust is to respect Because trust is the purest compliment that has worth To respect is to obligate Because respect indicates expectation of highest virtue To love is to trust is to respect is to obligate you to be the best you. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
I am a very open person If you come into my life I will open up to you But I will open you up too If you are not ready to be open Don’t come into my life Because I will naked you And get to the core of You What we see when we get there We might not like But we will understand and trust each other From that moment onwards Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
Sometimes when you kill a person, he keeps on living because he does not know that you have killed him. He keeps on living because he believes in you and it is this belief that keeps him alive. Until the day he learns that you already killed him, long ago. Then he dies.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
For people who, by nature, are partner-faithful and relationship-loyal (I’m talking Sex here), there exists in their inside a great big Why when they observe how a person who they know really loves his/her partner with all his/her heart can have a sexual interchange with a third party – one time, or for a shorter or longer period, or intermittently – and yet remain totally committed to and in love with their chosen “permanent” partner. Is it a predisposition or a weakness?
It’s like a puzzle, a mystery that defies solution.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 