Writing with Juliet Iwelunmor

The turning point for me was the pandemic. I found myself wanting to know myself better. Work was intense. Family life too. Yet, both demanded more from me, even in the middle of a pandemic. So I did what I thought would save me: looking intently inside myself. It meant that I discovered many selves. Those I never knew existed. Those I got to know better. And those that led to the end of many things and relationships with people. This of course is what looking inwards will do. You will find yourself excavating yourself until you get to a core that makes full sense of who and what you are. We are getting close to the core. We are getting a better sense of the purpose. We know why we exist. We know for whom too. This journey began because those that started it felt they had much to give to the world. I am simply a vessel continuing where they left off. I do not exist apart from so many that paved the way to my history. All these words are my attempt are connecting back to them, acknowledging that I get it now. The purpose of surrendering. I am like a bird that takes up to the skies and soars high and high, to the zenith, knowing always, who I am. This path of the thunder I take, is as breathtaking as it is bewildering. Yet we move, knowing that we stand breathless in awe of the journey, those that leave us striking deep like the thunder we are. We may all never survive. This is the story of life. Yet, whenever anyone looks back, I hope they note that we lived, beyond the ravages of time. Like the eagles we are, we soared…