the art of being Home

After being away from Home for about 16 months, I was finally able to go Home and see my family. If you read one of my first posts on this blog, you’ll know that I wasn’t able to go Home because of the UK’s home office saga, when my dad went HOME. So finally, I’m Home!! I was and am well happy to be Home. UK is just house, not home for me, at least not yet. It’s been really good to see the rest of my family and be in my father’s rent-free house . . . lol.

So I’m chilling at Home with my family and visiting and catching up with friends, those I’ve been regularly in touch with and reconnecting broken bridges to those I haven’t been in contact with. I’ve eaten everything I’ve missed – akara and agege bread, sausage roll, meat pie, scotch egg, suya, and the famous pure water!! Lol . . .

Being at Home means some adjustment to the way of life at Home. There’s definitely an art to it, hence this blog title – the art of being Home (TABH). This post is number 1 of a series of ‘n’ posts (where n ≥ 1) of my time Home. Here we go, . . .

In being at home, one thing I’ve realised is that it seems no matter how old I am, I am still my mother’s daughter! For some reason, this is different when she’s the one over with me in the UK. My mum is one of the most sacrificial women EVER! Full stop!! She puts our needs well before hers! I overheard her tell someone she can’t freely move because I’m Home and she needs to make sure I’m okay. For the love of agege bread, I’ve been on this planet 3 decades and counting, and spent the first two decades in this country!

Today, she waited with me at the bus-stop to tuck me into a taxi to Lekki before heading to her own church service. Even when I tried to dismiss her, she insisted she’ll wait. She was even advising me on how to use Uber!! Mummy! Come on! You don’t even use full stops and commas in your SMS! Lol, . . .

Regular conversations with a very concerned face: ‘Should I fry plantain for you?’;  ‘Are you not eating?’;  ‘What have you eaten today?’;   ‘Hope you slept well?’;   ‘Should I peel orange for you?’;   ‘Should I boil water for you?’    ‘Let me call Baba to put on the gen.’   ‘Have you been able to go? Are you drinking enough water.’ (You might need rhema to understand this last one…lol)

   Image credit: Goodmorning

We also discuss fashion! I know I’m kind of fashion unconscious, and since the apple does not fall far from the tree, my mum is fashion unaware! Even though her teenage and tweenage pictures say otherwise! So as a one-eyed fashionista, I have to help lead the blind ones to the straight and narrow of the fashion world or else, we will both fall into the fashion ditch!

This morning she wanted to wear a brown-white-pink colored pair of loafers with a really nice light green dress. Even me, I knew that was not on! And I said a quick mba (a.k.a NO). Then the funniest thing happened, she brought out a pair of navy blue loafers I’d given her a while back to ask if those match! I was like, WHAAT?!! So you have good shoes? She goes, eh, these ones are for special occasions. Well, today is a special day cos both of us are marching on these crazy Ago-Palace Way roads to church, and I’m not trying to reduce my bride price with some weird Anambra fashion on the catwalks and runways of Okota, Lagos!! Heaven forbid!

  Image credit: Lemon Frame

Anyhoo, with these and many more, I hereby declare and reiterate that I LOVE MY MUM DEARLY! And with each passing day, that depth of my understanding her increasing especially as I let the Holy Spirit help explain some of her actions to me and pausing enough to see where she might be coming from!

To all the mother’s daughters, . . .

No 2 in this series is out, read it here.