The Lion’s Cub

I too dream in colour and rhyme. I am a proud child of God.

[The Lion’s Cub @ms_tonye]

@Warepamorsammy But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

[The Lion’s Cub @ms_tonye]

I am rich in this life because I have God, my husband and my brothers.

[Smita Barooah @smitabarooah]

The quiet grief of adult friendship: One of the most beautiful articles I've read in a while. Hits hard
https://t.co/qXi6UBaTs3

[The Lion’s Cub @ms_tonye]

The bad news on this twitter app is alarming or am I the one just following the wrong people

[The Lion’s Cub @ms_tonye]

This is always the best part of my morning ❤️
I see these two and I am so grateful for the gift God has given me.
I wonder how beautiful life would be if everything around me gets me so deep in gratitude. I’m learning though, to look at everything good or bad with grateful eyes.

[The Lion’s Cub @ms_tonye]

I enjoy the reward that comes after hard work. Rewarding myself with a movie today.

[The Lion’s Cub @ms_tonye]

I have learned not to go where I am not invited. I have learned not to talk when I am not asked and I have learned not to remain in a place I am not appreciated.

[smv @slimvnsn]

My father's best friend was a man called Uncle Bayo who disappeared from our lives without explanation. I was 12 the last time I saw him. He came to our flat in Gbagada, argued with my father in the bedroom for an hour, and walked out without saying goodbye to me. My father never spoke his name again. Neither did my mother. Uncle Bayo became a silence with a shape.

Twenty-six years passed. I was in Philadelphia for a conference. A networking dinner at a hotel downtown. Across the room, a man about my father's age caught my eye and held it too long. He approached me during dessert and said my surname like it was a question he already knew the answer to.

We sat in the hotel lobby until 2am. He told me the story my father never did. They had started a construction company together in the early 90s. It had failed because of a contract dispute with a senator. The senator had paid only half the money and refused the rest. The debt had crushed them. Uncle Bayo had blamed my father for trusting the senator. My father had blamed Uncle Bayo for not reading the fine print. The friendship had shattered. Two men who had been closer than brothers had become strangers over something neither of them could control.

Uncle Bayo had moved to America after the falling out. He had built a new life, a new business, a small contracting firm in West Philly. He had married a Ghanaian woman and had two daughters. He had never returned to Nigeria. He had never called my father. He had assumed the silence was mutual.

I asked why he approached me now. He said he recognised my face because I looked like my father at 30. He said he had been waiting for decades to see that face again, to explain something that was never about betrayal. He said the argument had been about shame, not money. Both men had felt they failed each other. Neither had known how to say it.

I called my father from the hotel room. It was 3am in Lagos. He answered on the second ring, voice thick with sleep and alarm. I told him who I was sitting with. The line went quiet. Then my father did something I had never heard him do. He cried. Not softly. The kind of crying that comes from a place words cannot reach.

Uncle Bayo flew to Lagos 3 months later. They met at the same flat in Gbagada. They sat in the same living room where the argument had happened. They didn't re-litigate the past. They just sat together, two old men with white hair and matching hypertension medication, and let the silence heal.

My father died last year. Uncle Bayo spoke at the funeral. He said the greatest thief in life is not money or failure. It is the belief that there is always more time.

Call them. The debt is not theirs. It is yours.

[The Lion’s Cub @ms_tonye]

I marvel sometimes at the things God dusted out of my life.

[The Lion’s Cub @ms_tonye]

Oh how I really love love love my aunties. I have the best family no doubts.

[The Lion’s Cub @ms_tonye]

God is so great. Again when He says trust me, just trust Him. Thank you Jesus for today ❤️

[The Lion’s Cub @ms_tonye]

We actually worry about things God has planned out for us. This decision ( which was a big mistake ) is one I don’t seem to be able to shake off.

[The Lion’s Cub @ms_tonye]

I watched a video of my traditional marriage and I’ve cried a few tears this evening. How things have changed since then, saw my late aunt who cheered me on through that entry dance, just hearing her voice say “easy easy” made me realize the gift she truly was. My moms wing woman

[The Lion’s Cub @ms_tonye]

Singing praises to God in a different language just feels so sweet. It makes you wonder at this God. He understands every tongue, he hears and knows every voice.

[The Lion’s Cub @ms_tonye]

After a conversation I had today, I realized that time really doesn’t heal certain wounds. They are cut too deep, with open sores, only God can truly heal those kind.

[The Lion’s Cub @ms_tonye]

Seasons. For to everything there is a season.

[INALEGWU @tchaloyi]

A chief owned all the wells in a village. Every morning, people lined up to buy water. The price kept rising.

The people grumbled quietly. "This is too much." But when they reached the front, they paid and left.

One day, a young man asked his father, "Why don't we dig our own well?"

His father muttered, "Shhh. The chief has guards. They will come at night. Just pay and stay quiet."

"But Papa, we are many. The guards are few," the boy responded.

The father whispered, "Yes, but what if they remember our faces? Better to suffer than be singled out."

So they kept paying. The price kept rising. Families bathed once a week. Children drank less water. Still, they paid.

The chief watched from his balcony and smiled. "I don't even need guards. Fear is cheaper than force. As long as they fear what might happen more than they hate what is happening, they'll never resist."

A council member asked him, "What if they realise they outnumber us?"

The chief laughed. "They know. But each waits for someone else to speak first. While they wait, I raise the price."

The prison with no walls is the one where every man guards his own chains.

INALEGWU.

[The Lion’s Cub @ms_tonye]

I think the worst level of ingratitude is making little of a person’s effort

[The Lion’s Cub @ms_tonye]

Music is so soothing

[The Lion’s Cub @ms_tonye]

Once upon a time, we went to school in our uniforms four days a week and PE kits on one day. Now our kids are in school, it’s from Career Day to Cultural Day, to Pajamas Day, to Beach Day. This time, it’s World Book Day, and they have to dress like their favorite book characters!

[The Lion’s Cub @ms_tonye]

I’ve prepared all my dress your miracle items in advance for today.