Chidimma Writes

  HOW MUCH I IGNORED MY MOTHER I had written something for Mother’s Day. I had prepared a piece. But then, something struck me: REFLECTION . I sat quietly that morning. The sun had not yet embraced the sky, and dusk still lingered softly. And I asked myself: Why do I celebrate Mother’s Day? Why am I writing about it? Do I truly have a reason, or am I just following a trend? Then, the memories came...flooding my mind like a waterfall in Enugu. I remembered the days I resented my mother. The times she scolded me harshly for things I knew I was guilty of. The day I told her I was bullied because of my body, and instead of comforting me, she asked if I truly was what they called me, rather than teaching me to fight back. Oh, my younger self! how little you understood. I see it clearly now. She corrected me so I would fear wrongdoing. She allowed certain struggles because she believed they would make me stronger. I may not know much about other mothers, but mine taught me lessons that s...

 The Prayer That Ended a Love I Thought Was Right Every year after my first breakup with Paul, a lot of things happened that reminded me of the same dating mistakes I made with him. I never believed that dating in school was trashy because I believed love could find you even at your lowest. Destiny had convinced me of that. After Paul, I did not take a long break like many girls or women usually do after a breakup. Only three months later, I accepted to start something with a new guy I had just met. Unfortunately, trying again was not worth it. He was worse than what I had run away from. The relationship lasted for three months and one week. After it ended, I decided to take a break that lasted three years. It is funny how time flies. When I later calculated those years, I was amazed. With the anger I carried, I chased my dreams with great determination. I told myself there would be no more lovey dovey distractions. Sometimes I feel we need an emotion to electrify us into reaching ...

  DOES BODY COUNT REALLY NOT MATTER ? "You owe no one the number of your body count.” When I was in my mid-teenage years, the phrase “body count” confused me. I wondered what it meant until I came across it in a novel at a friend’s library. I cannot remember the title now, but I remember that it was written by a Western author and it was worth every second of my time. After learning the meaning of body count, I began to question whether it was simply an illusion, a juicy bait used by society, or just a fictional idea within the world of that novel. The thought stayed in my mind like a stubborn bug, making me overthink during my leisure time as though I had been hired to conduct research on the subject. “Having too many body counts does not matter,” a friend once told me during a girl-to-girl conversation. Her reasoning surprised me. I remembered my mother once explaining that sleeping with too many men could make a woman lose the value she carries. According to her, a woman’s dign...

 “ How Time Steals Dreams We Never Act On ” Time is a vengeful agent. It keeps ticking and never pauses to meet the expectations of man. It existed before creation and has never stopped ticking till today. Over the years, many people lose track of time and suddenly realize that they left their beautiful dreams unrealized. They failed to do the right things while there was still time. According to the Preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes, everything has its timeframe. Whether small or great, under the sun or above it, time respects no one. I once had a deep conversation with a young man who told me how he spent his prime years in reckless habits. I was fascinated by his story, yet as I reflected on it, doubts filled my mind. In a person's lifetime, the twenties are often the prime years for planning what life should become in the next two decades. The thirties, in many ways, reflect what was built in the twenties. Although many writers encourage people to “wait for their time,” the ...

  LOVING BROKEN PEOPLE By Chidimma Placid Nwaka  I always knew I had a problem with men. It is a trauma from my past that still lingers in my present. I wish for the good things in a relationship, but when they come, I feel overwhelmed and frightened. Sometimes it feels as though the wish has arrived at the wrong time, or perhaps it is not what it seemed to be after all. Like a fleeting glimpse, it passes, and I find myself wishing I had let it take me to wherever life intended. However, I do not blame myself for holding on to this trauma. I only caution myself for not allowing beautiful things to stay when they appear. I have so many wishes and wild dreams. Yet sometimes when good things come, a condition arises that I do not wish to contend with. Growing old with a man has always been one of my greatest fears, because I have seen too many women endure a man’s broken days, only to be forgotten when his merriment moments arrive. Strangely, the selfish woman often receives the ...

  HEARTS DO LIE By Chidimma Placid Nwaka  Have you ever stood on the edge of crowning someone as one of the “good guys,” without knowing them deeply enough...like a shallow swimmer stepping into deep waters? Have you ever thought someone was “the one for you,” without allowing consistency and time to play their quiet foreplay? Almost everyone has been in this place at some point in life. You think you are getting closer to what you hoped for, but it turns out to be only a glimpse of the dream you carried. Sometimes, we simply have to be careful what we wish for. Instead of making desperate wishes, it is wiser to seek God’s will in everything. Many of us are CONCLUSIONISTS . We rush into conclusions and judge people based on how they treated us in the beginning, rather than waiting to see who they truly become over time. And when they fail to live up to the fantasy we carefully built in our minds, the pain cuts deeper than the sweet fragments of kindness they once showed us. So...

  TRYING TO FIT IN By Chidimma Placid Nwaka

  AFTER SHE SLEPT  By Chidimma Placid Nwaka  Life is unfair, they say. Yet I believe it can be fair sometimes, only that our desires often destroy us. I know a man who sharpens knives in the main market near my home. He loved spending his little earnings on alcohol every day and would end up tipsy, drunk, and tattered. Some people sneer at him, while others look at him with pity and sigh. I often wondered why he was in that state until my mother told me everything.v He used to be the happiest man in the market, never drunk or tattered, and never spent his savings unwisely. He had a wife and four children, but unfortunately, his wife went to sleep, and who knows when she will awaken. Left alone with the four children and overwhelmed by sorrow, he turned to drinking. The more he drank, the deeper his addiction grew. Soon, he lost his place in the market. He would often collapse by the roadside, and his sons would come to carry him home. He became a drunkard after she slept ...

  IDEOLOGIES ABOUT LIFE AND DEATH By Chidimma Placid Nwaka INTRODUCTION Life and death have remained a mystery, leaving people with many assumptions about what will or might come next. Many books, articles, and archives have debated the mystery behind life and death, the beginning of being, and what led to the breaking down of man. According to the historical book of Genesis, the author presents a profound ideology about the beginning of man and other living beings when compared to scientific knowledge. Man was created from dust as highlighted in Genesis, and based on this truth, man is indeed dust. Genesis also recorded the fall of the first man, which led to the fall of other creations made by God. Man’s disobedience brought about this fall, and the consequence became a trait passed on to all mankind and to every air-breathing organism on Earth. Man was originally meant to grow old and die, but in contemporary society, many die before reaching old age. WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN? Accor...

IF THE WORLD ENDS.. By Chidimma Placid Nwaka As time unfolds and changes rapidly, new things come into being. Fresh innovations, eye-catching inventions, new dance steps, recipes, fashion trends, and the endless stream of crimes flashing on TV. Like dew drops, they fall upon us daily. Yet the same old story lingers, wrapped around a haunting question: “What if the world ends?” What will become of the earth? The wonders of nature that we cherish each day? If all were reduced to ashes? Across history, many mythologies, religions, and cultures have predicted how the world would end, when it would come, and what might follow. Some set exact dates, but decades passed, then centuries, and still the earth remains. The truth is certain: no one knows how, where, or when the earth will be reshaped; whether in chaos or in peace. Still, these predictions have left a mark. They stir fear for a moment, but soon most humans return to their lives, unbothered by the thought that everythi...