Month: January 2014

Coming Together As One.

Last Updated on 27/01/2014 by Vivien Ayinotu

Photo credit: prayinggodsword

I am delighted for having attended the “Ecumenical worship service for christian unity 2014” which took place at an anglican church in my neighbourhood. It was announced in my church and those who can make it were urged to come to, if for nothing else to at least represent our parish.

It was my first time in that church,as a matter of fact in an anglican church. When I got there, I met the first set of people who were from my church(catholic) and few members of the host church(anglican) who were running around to see that the day went well. Moments later our priest arrived and gradually the empty seats were being occupied. I admired the magnificent decoration and heavenly atmosphere.

The host Vicar welcomed the congregation, we were comprised of; Catholic( 2 parishes), Anglican, Reformed and Methodist churches, five different parishes were present. It was wonderful having all the churches in the area come together for such a unity service.

Meanwhile, over the years I have heard that the catholic and anglican ways of teachings are very similar to each other and had to testify to it that day. They were so true be it in the hymns, penitential act, readings and bidding prayers. Moreover, I loved the response during the prayers, it goes this way-
….Gracious God, hear our prayer,
    And in your love, answer. 
I equally noticed the prayers were based on the eight millenium development goals, which addressed the major global issues.  On the contrary, there was no creed nor communion; not that I expected them anyway.

The sermon was very inspiring as the Minister encouraged us to be good followers of christ. He admonished us to promote Gods name and the church although he spoke against people who worship a particular church rather than God himself.

As he preached, a feminine voice was heard from behind though what she was saying was quite unclear. It happened that the voice kept disturbing us. She interrupted him and thereby gained audience. A man followed her immediately who without doubt wanted to drag her out but had to let her talk as she kept saying she wanted to say something-

“I have been through a lot in life, I know God.
I am Linda….As she talked she demonstrated, letting her hands go as free as they can.
I have been through ups and down
I will tell you you this:
Never give up and always pray!
Never give up and always pray!”(I was startled when she said that, some of the congregation were nodding like it was a divine message).
Waving her hands she said “God bless you all”
She made sign of the cross twice before she was led out.
The congregation applauded her.

Later, the Vicar ended the sermon by saying “United we move forward against divisions and promote christianity by the unity of all christians.”

To sum it up, I had a wonderful experience being that I learnt a lot that day and from my point of view, I believe that christianity is about coming together to worship God.

Dementia And The Bird.

Last Updated on 16/01/2014 by Vivien Ayinotu

Having been already informed about his condition, I knew I was going to be very careful and most times repeat myself to him. 
On  reaching there, he was dressed in an outing attire and was so full of life. Few minutes later, whistling by a bird at the corner drew our attention. One of my colleagues who seem to know more about birds went closer and I followed her just for curiosity sake. She was asking him for the species, who gave it to him, how long he has had it and what he had named the little creature. 
We all got chatty. .He said, it was a Christmas present from his son and he can’t think of a name yet and simply calls it baby. Mmm… How am I supposed to know a mere bird can be called baby as well. We all laughed. I admired his sense of humour. 
It struck me that it was a present. I thought to myself, won’t he be doing some more cleaning because of this bird, so much noise and distractions but then I viewed it in a more positive and healthy perspective and concluded that his brilliant son has bought that to make him more attentive, keep him busy and also keep him company or for some other reasons.

He was pleased to have us around. He talked about his housing issues and how he called an ambulance three days ago when he felt so unwell. He looked much stronger and said he felt much better. If my guess was right, he enjoyed our company and wanted us to come more often. I can tell because loneliness is friend of no man.

When we were about leaving, we mentioned our names to him once more and made sure he locked the door before we headed for the stairs.

The next day, I ran into him in an event and he recognised me, I was impressed though he didn’t remember my name, which I reminded him of.

At this juncture, I want to get us acquainted with the condition.

Photo credit: Daily mail.
Dementia is a syndrome associated with an ongoing decline of the brain and its abilities. This includes problems with:memory loss,thinking speed,mental agility, language,understanding and judgement.

It usually affect people above the age of 65, though on fewer occasions could have an early onset.

Symptoms include:

  • Increasing difficulties with tasks and activities that require concentration and planning
  • Depression
  • Changes in personality and mood
  • Periods of mental confusion
  • Difficulty finding the right words
  •  Hallucinations i.e they may see or hear things that other people do not or they may make false claims or statements.
  • A catastrophic reaction i.e when put in circumstances beyond their abilities, there may be a sudden change to tears or anger .A common symptom of dementia is for dementia sufferers to deny that relatives, even relatives in their immediate family, are their own relatives.
  • Disorientation- this occurs in the later stages of the condition, whereby subjects may be disoriented in time (not knowing the day, week, or even year), in place (not knowing where they are), and in person (not knowing who they and/or others around them are).
On the contrary, with appropriate management and care, they lead an active and fulfilled live. 
Photo credit: NL Group

Conclusion
Aging do come with certain conditions and dementia seems to be very popular among them. Do try and treat the elderly with much care and concern, you never can tell what condition(s) they are battling with.

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New Year:To Be Resolute Or Not.

Last Updated on 11/01/2023 by Vivien Ayinotu

We rarely talk about the new year without mentioning the huge ‘new year resolutions’. It is a good idea to be fully prepared for a new year; being hopeful that undoubtedly it has good things in stock for us. This could be likened to the way we are willing to accept and welcome new people or babies in our lives.

Recently, I had a chat with a friend about the new year;what should be expected and the likes. The chat was going on well and all of a sudden she said in a very careless tone  ‘I no longer do new year resolutions.’
I was going to ask her where did that one come from,  in the sense that I don’t know how such an idea got into her head let alone hearing her say it.
“Sorry…”  She laughed at me and repeated herself. She added that it is childish. Gone are the days when in the beginning of a year people make lists of things they want to do; lose weight and quit smoking, nothings changes it is the same like in the past days and past year. She really made herself clear.
I had to listen to all of that despite knowing I had heard enough. However, I knew it would get to my turn and that she would have to take in what I was going to say.

In my opinion, such lists are not applicable to everyone. Cliches like that are overly rattled and not paid attention to. Besides, when we talk about the new year resolution it doesn’t necessarily mean that we are about discarding all our previous ways of life or former ways of doing things.

In fact, towards the end of a year, I like doing a total reflection of the whole year; how I have fared, whether I achieved some set targets, unexpected favours, difficult situations and how I handled them, some nice people I met, people who influenced me, people who challenged me-those that made me put in more effort at some point, personal improvements…the list is endless. This is my kind of list and obviously with this, I usually have some provisions for some new year resolutions because there are things I would like to carry along, some modified while others dropped. They equally groom one properly as they attain certain life milestones.

I gave her some examples that were applicable to her and at the end she agreed with me but said she still don’t call them resolutions. I didn’t argue further since the problem now is the word and not the act. We never used the word ‘Resolution’ but settled for making some ‘modifications’ and ‘new decisions’ where necessary.

By the time you know it, we were back to our new year yarn; what we would love to achieve in it and how we are going to go about it.
I know she wouldn’t be the only one with such perception of the new year resolution albeit, there could be other reasons why people ditch resolutions in the beginning of a year. However, I would like us to see the need to make certain life adjustments when a new year sets in- no mater how little they are.
Lastly, I was pleased we had that chat within the first week of the first month of the year and I know this is very likely to be your first time of reading this post in the first month of the year. Did I mention that my friend is neither fat nor smokes yet the first set of resolutions she could think of was to lose weight and to quite smoking.
Plan well and achieve your dreams friends.

My Train Sisters.

Last Updated on 26/12/2017 by Vivien Ayinotu

I was in a train to London from Leigh on Sea. Actually, the train was meant to be showing the callings as we go but it kept showing the wrong thing; Westcliff instead of East Tilbury or Ockendon because we were heading towards Fenchurch street and not Shoeburyness.

The map

I noticed we just passed Stanford-le-Hope but it kept showing same thing. To ease any form of doubt already building up, I went to view the map closely and then simply stood there. Was I the only one worried? Hell no!

Can you believe that? And no one apologized for the misleading info

I focused on the various stops I could see from the window as we passed and ignored the display board. One of the three teenage girls sitting on the other side asked me if our train was heading towards the right direction. ‘Yes, but it shows the wrong location’ was my response. The rest were like: they have been trying to figure out what was going on among themselves. The girls were much more disturbed because they said they were not familiar with the stops seen from the train.  I showed them it is from the route we were taking because they are two different routes to same the destination but ours has more stops whereas they are used to the one with fewer stops. They were glad we all got clarified at last.

I then went back and sat down. In case you were wondering what it was with me. Well, that was around 9.30pm and  I was so many miles away from home, after a very long day. I was exhausted and couldn’t afford to be in a wrong train, not even for a minute ride. I didn’t need any form of inconvenience because it was about 2 hours journey.

Anyway, one thing I enjoy about these national rails is that most times you have lots of empty seats and can be the only one in a coach unlike the London underground where people are usually packed like sardines.

Some minutes later, a couple came in and went over to sit where one of the girls sat earlier(before joining her friends sitting at other side). The lady simply asked if the bag on the seat were theirs, handed it over to them and sat down. That place was actually more comfortable being that it has a table and people could sit facing another. While the girls were chatting and laughing the lady interrupted them. She felt offended and was convinced they were discussing about her and her partner.

Her partner took over and started exchanging words with the girls. He was swearing a lot and they all ended up saying fucking… to each other.  I was disturbed and didn’t know who exactly to calm down. Their voices eventually came down but it was only for a minute before the lady said she heard something else. Oh dear! The guy was very angry now and stood up. I was signalling both parties to please stop before the lady dragged the guy to the other end of the coach. Thanks goodness!

My teenage friends started laughing boisterously and the other one went back to her former seat and placed her legs on the table. In their opinion, the couple have no right to talk to them. In fact, they did enjoyed the argument. In between watching them, I was drafting what you are reading now. They complained about the journey been much longer and unusual and I assured them again it was due to the route. I guess they just couldnt wait to get off the train. They later got off before me and we exchanged goodbyes like we all knew each other. It was more like saying bye to an elder sister.

Minutes later, I was in Westham. I changed into the London underground and stood for some minutes before I was able to get a seat.

P.S. Happy New Year! I am wishing you all a blissful 2014. Sending good tidings of happiness, love and peace to you. May all your dreams come through.

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