YOU I am grateful for you!! Yes, you ! You have made it through the sharp twists and turns  in the road called 2020. you have ridden the 2020 roller coaster successfully. Ok! Maybe you puked a little but the ride is almost grinding to a halt and you are doing good. I am grateful for the experiences that have shaped you in the course oft he year. Grateful for the lessons learned and those you are still taking notes on--life is an endless learning process. I am grateful for your boldness, opportunities that came your way, your sanity (I really hope this has managed to remain intact)and the beautiful connections you have fostered. I am grateful for your progress, improvements and victories--big and small. I am glad you are reading this piece right this moment, in one piece. The year has been unpredictable but here you are scaling mountains like an absolute badass. Super grateful for you! ‘Mina. What are you thankful for? 

  OPPORTUNITIES AND WINS The year took on a bleak look quite early. It would have been rather difficult to envision things actually picking up as the days bled into months. Despite the seeming slowness, happenings and events and being away from business as usual , we can’t deny that good things have actually happened. I am one for picking the good, little victories and blessings in the bleakest situations (although things could always be better). There is always something worth giving thanks for if we looked closely or borrowed a monocle. I am grateful for serendipitous opportunities. I am grateful for opportunities as a result of compound interests (it always adds up in the end, right?) I am grateful for wins in all its forms, shapes and sizes. Equally as important, I am glad seeing my people score wins in different ways this year. The year might not have taken the turns and twists we anticipated but it has swung opportunities my way (some I probably won’t have gotten had things been

GREAT READS It is certainly no news that I am a lover of books. Regardless how much I love books, I don’t get to read as many as I would love to in the course of a regular year. But then, the year has hardly been regular. I usually go jumping from book to book in 2 pockets of the year—during breaks. The events of the year resulted in more downtime than usual. More downtime = more reading time. I cannot say precisely how many books I have read this year, I did not keep count, but I know I have read a great deal. I am grateful for that. Thankful for the opportunity to dive into different worlds. Thankful for the wisdom hidden in books, and books that have gone to show that I have been on to something all this while. Some books have been pure gems, reinforcing truths, broadening my mind and invariably causing me to think in extra doses. Some books have inspired articles, conversations and everything between. It has been a swell reading ride this year. And even though I still have reading

MUSIC Music is a universal language. Even when there are (seemingly) human language barriers, music can still “ make sense ” to the listener. There is just this feel to music and I have come to feel that quite often this year (even if I am nothing close to a melomaniac or whatever ardent music lovers are called). I am grateful for good sounds. Good music has certainly made me feel better on some days. I listen to anything but not everything—did I lose you?—and I am glad I have come to discover new soothing sounds this year. I am glad I stumbled upon Jinmi Abduls —great music, great vibes. I am super grateful for COLORS —my ultimate sound discovery channel—they feature really great talents. Talents so good I end up doing deep dive not long after. I am thrilled to have come across  Samm Henshaw’s music. Man! He sounds like church—that is the best analogy that comes readily to mind—so warm!! I am grateful for the beauty called LUCID and the  Miseducation  of Lauryn Hill and everything b

WRITING The year presented me with the unexpected opportunity to improve my craft—writing. As the year tossed us into the confines of our homes, writing became my go-to. My adventure with writing did not start as a conscious deep dive this year, but time and chance, and necessity found me plunging into writing. In the earlier part of the year, I engaged in writing just because I needed to put out content. As time passed however, I found writing to be more therapeutic than any other thing. There were countless thoughts traversing my mind and writing was the best way to get those thoughts out—for you and I. From turning writing to therapy, I began to engage in a daily writing exercise, I guess I needed the challenge—something to constantly look forward to. The year has seen me improve in my craft. I am super grateful for all the beautiful things I have written this year (some of which you would see soon enough. Others, maybe never) I have seen my writing over the years and I would say th

SOLITUDE I have the recurring need to be by myself. It is one of the ways I get to recharge and reconnect to different parts of me—I had zero intentions of making this sound deep but oh well. It is a necessity. Despite how much I need these moments alone, I can barely squeeze out time during “ normal times” . There is always so much going on (deadlines, activities, assignments, you get the gist) coupled with the inevitable need to stay connected to humans. I can’t always up and leave even when there’s so much noise. This year presented me with the opportunity—on a golden platter—to get away from the noise. Being stuck indoors gave me the chance to enjoy solitude more often. Of course, I couldn’t get more than a few hours of solitude but compared to nothing, that is something to be thankful for. I have done a lot of writing this year essentially because I could get access to more moments of the much-needed solitude. I’m grateful for these brief but countless moments of solitude (and on

GROWTH I’m getting to this gratitude series in no particular order. No scale. Nothing. I am thankful for different  things for different reasons. Today, I am grateful for growth . It might have seemed like all came to a halt in the earlier parts of the year. The thrill of the year faded away and I’m certain at some point we all felt stuck in an annoying loop or even worse, a standstill . Despite how the year turned out, I can’t help but notice and show gratitude for the notable growth I have experienced in 2020. Although it probably isn't “physically evident” (did I grow taller? maybe) I have seen improvements and much-needed growth in certain areas. I am definitely not the same as I was at the start of 2020. I overcame the reluctance to shamelessly share my works and pieces of art (art=writing=poetry) . My writing and creative process has gotten better with the days—heck! I wrote every day without fail for over a hundred days. I still write everyday—writing in one form or another.

  Gratitude; a state of being grateful. Each time 2020 comes to mind “a whole lot” is the phrase that readily accompanies it. That is just  how it is and probably how it would always be. The year has been intense. Thinking back to all that transpired in the course of the year, it feels like we lived all of 5 years in 366 days (it is a leap year, right?) From looking forward to Tokyo 2020 and all that the year was to be, to being cooped up in our homes for months, 2020 has certainly been “a whole lot”—and more. I have always believed that even in the worst possible situations, some things work out positively even though we often get too entangled in the worse parts to notice. There is always something worth being thankful for. There is something that still works even when we do not notice and every other thing looks like it is on hold. That is a constant truth, even when we don’t acknowledge it. I hosted a gratitude series a few years back (2018) and the turns of the year have me think

(Sometimes you need to rub your shoulders, hug yourself and assure yourself that you would be alright) This is for the over-thinker, and unrepentant go-getter—and just about any other person. On some days, we get so involved chasing goals that we forget to rest or commend ourselves for the distance we have come. The year has been a wild one. I’m certain most did not expect most of the events that went down in the course of the year. For some, 2020 was supposed to be  the year . The year to get things in order. The year to realign life. The year to effect certain changes and hit some milestones. Yes, these and many more were the expectations for this year. Most of us would have kicked off the year with goals well mapped and thought out, and hopes of where the days would take us. Unfortunately, the year doesn’t seem to have lived up to the initial expectations. Plans got derailed—inevitably—while come came to a stop altogether. That has been 2020. As the year slowly winds to a close, som

Despite how at some point in the year, we wished we could start all over one way or another, we are fast coming to the end of 2020. And while some might still be stuck in previous months, time is moving and our “meters” have read the past months in our favour. Essentially, everyone has become older in the course of 2020 (although in varying degrees and aspects, aging is aging nonetheless).  On some days—maybe one too many—the phenomenon of aging fascinates me. I am in awe at how one can stay seemingly different. Inasmuch as we would like to think that a majority experience aging in the same dimension, each passing moment finds me picking flaws in the notion. We age in different dimensions and on different levels, with the most obvious being physical. Nevertheless, we age mentally, emotionally and spiritually as well as a host of other areas. From our careers and ambitions to taste. At first thought, most of us tend to shy away from the idea of aging—’cos everyone wants to be young for

  (I wrote this on the 27th of October and even though I no longer feel exhausted, I still find the need to share. Nigeria seems to keep one in a steady state of exhaustion, hence this piece should still be  timely   even though it is a month old) Stock Photo by  Elijah O'Donnell  from  Pexels October was a hell of a month. Events fit for 5 years transpired in the space of 14 days. For the year 2020, that says a lot, considering that all sorts have gone down in the course of the year. There certainly have been days that found me the least bit uncomfortable and days that have left me disconcerted. October however left me exhausted. Exhausted might seem like an overkill but this is me putting it lightly. Exhausted from head to toe. Exhausted inside-out. Absolute exhaustion. On some days, I tend to hover around the edge of tiredness but, complete exhaustion has hardly ever been it for me. I am certain I was not the only one tangled in the web of exhaustion this past month. It was over