I am using two personal experiences to explain my strongest belief about life.
The first incident happened after the surgery that my son had on his leg overseas, which necessitated his wearing a “shoe raise” to balance his gait.
His “Oyibo’’ handlers only provided us with one shoe-raise. I had to source for a competent cobbler who could get it right, from here.
The first two guys that I tried were best described as “disaster”!
Shortly after, I caught sight of a much younger cobbler, who assured me that he could do it.
He is not excellent but his efforts were the best I could find.
In no time, he began to exhibit inconsiderate attitudes that were hurtful…like asking one to come for a pick-up when he knew he was not on seat and then making me wait for HOURS for his return.
And when he returns, it would turn out that he had not even touched my job!
On the day that I completely lost it, I had come for a pick-up (according to the appointment that he gave me), it turned out that he wasn’t on the seat and I began to call him as I waited. I also texted that I was waiting…no response!
I must have waited for about three hours before he finally showed up and rather than apologise, he questioned why I would be disturbing him with calls and even threatened to give me back my money to “go and look for another place.”
My anger couldn’t silence the little voice asking “where will you find another good one, if you walk away?”
I had tears in my eyes as I walked away. You know, the emotion of having to go through all that stress, just so my child can wear shoes that other children wear with no stress.
As I walked past a few more cobblers on my way out, I sighted an elderly cobbler and my spirit asked me to approach him.
Did you know that while we talked, he stood up and I saw that he wore a shoe raise…which he told me that he makes for himself?
To cut the long story short, I have been using his services for about five years now and no complaints. Most importantly, he has neither exploited me nor taken me for granted!
The next story had to do with a domestic help that left our employ recently. When she said that she was leaving, I became hugely unsettled as mama had got used to her ways.
I felt she was the best thing that happened to the family and in a bid to keep her around, we offered to increase her salary and even offered to train her child in school.
She still refused. I woke up one morning and asked when she intended to leave. The date she gave was like two weeks away but I told her to leave the next day, so that I could get on with running the house while seeking a replacement. The day she left, I asked a relative’s gateman if he has someone to recommend for us.
He did and to cut the long story short (again!), the new lady (a widow) turned out to be FAR BETTER than the one that just left.
The lesson from these experiences is that life will always act in our best interest, regardless of how painful the process is. It’s because we are creatures of “comfort zone” that we resist whenever life re-arranges the puzzle.
A Hindu monk once said that it is not that life is frustrating us but we are rather the ones who are NOT listening to life. Let this be the year that you listen differently to life. It means well!
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