TRIENNIAL!!

HEY Y'ALL!!!!!!!!

WE'RE THREE YEARS TODAY🥹!!!!

It even feels surreal to say this! Like play, like joke, it's been an entire 3 years since I started this blog. I've been thinking on and off today about the fact that this blog is three years old. My baby is a three year old! I cannot even begin to explain how I feel, mostly because there are no words to actually describe the feeling. 

I remember the day I decided to just go ahead and start the blog. I'd been talking about it for so many years that even I was skeptical about whether I'd eventually end up opening the blog. It felt like one of those dreams that would forever remain out of reach. Every time I'd revisit the dream, I'd think about the many logistics I thought would be involved and I'd feel incapacitated and unable to actually follow through with it. I remember in June of 2021, I was telling my best friend that I was actually ready to follow through and get my blog running. We went through the entire gamut of planning for the blog; decided on a name, tried to map out a schedule and what the blog would entail, even opened a blog on WordPress and after that, I just dumped the idea again, I was feeling overwhelmed at the enormous prospect of actually having to run a blog and I let it go again. 

Fast forward to Tuesday, 16th November, 2021, I just decided to get it over it and actually begin the blog. I was in Mangu at the time; the office I was interning with had a Mangu branch and I had travelled with the Principal from Jos to Mangu for a matter that ended up being adjourned. While we were at the Mangu office, I was asked to research on some cases and immediately I was done, I decided to just go ahead and open my blog while I was at it. When I opened the blog, I made my, very short, first post and I shared the link to my friends. I did that to force myself to become accountable and serious with the blog; I knew that if I stopped at only creating a blog without doing anything more, I'd probably not follow through with it again, I mean I'd tried it in June and failed, even forgotten the password to the blog and couldn't gain access to it. This time however, I was determined that I would, as much as possible, go through with the blog. 

Did I know what I was doing? Of course not! All I knew was that I had things I wanted to share and this would be a wonderful way to share them. Plus it was a dream that I'd had for so many years, I remember friends that knew of the dream calling and texting me to tell me congratulations for finally deciding to move past talking about the blog to actually opening it. 

I made a lot of mistakes when I started, plenty! I couldn't build consistency at first, I almost made it a "whenever you feel like it" thing, I'm sure if you go through the first year of the blog, you'd recognise that, but with each mistake I made, I learned from it and became more determined not to make it again.

I struggled at first with finding my voice; I knew the things God was placing in my heart to talk about but somehow I couldn't find a way to do justice to the delivery, I was stuck between attempting to sugar coat things in order not to offend whoever would read and saying it like I knew I should. Between you and me, I also struggled, for like the first few months, with making the blog my personal vendetta instrument; I was tempted at times to use the blog to throw hidden jabs at people that had offended me. But then, I remembered why exactly I wanted to have this blog: it wasn't supposed to be a place where people would come and feel justified for mumu behaviour or feel unjustly attacked, it was a place for me to tell my gist partners about the lessons I was learning from life and in my walk with God. And when I decided to jealously guard the mandate God had given me, I made one of the best decisions ever concerning the blog. 

I think it was toward the end of 2022 that I began to really get my footing and find my place in the blog; I began to set up accountability structures to help me stay dedicated and committed to the blog, I began to submit more to God's leading concerning the blog and write the truth, not my truth –the truth, as God laid in my heart. And since then, I began to enjoy ease. 

I think one of the biggest lessons I learned which has helped me so much is the fact that this blog is not mine. Of course, it has my name on it, but it's not mine: it belongs to God and I'm merely a custodian for this period in time. It was learning this that helped me lean to God more for directions and this understanding was what birthed "Guest Feature Thursdays". I knew that I wasn't the only person with a message from God and I couldn't hoard my space because no be me write am. If God decides to send a message through someone else for the blog, God forbid that I will ever stand in the way! And you know what? Guest Feature Thursdays have blessed me more than anyone else! Every time I feature someone on the blog, I feel like just handing over the reins of the blog to that person make dem just continue. And I would have missed out on all of these blessings if I had decided to hoard, thank God for wisdom sha. 

It's been three absolutely wonderful years of gisting with you here on the blog. I'm immensely grateful to God for holding my hand through the journey so far, and for the bountiful blessings He's poured on me regarding the blog. I'm immensely grateful to every one of you that has taken the time to read my gists, all 137 of them or any number therein, I'm blessed to have you my dear gist partners. I'm grateful to every guest that has agreed to pour from their wellspring for us here on the blog to benefit from, it's a blessing that I will never take for granted, thank you so much. And I'm grateful for my support system; these amazing human beings that I can always go to for anything; titles, proofreading gists, segment heading… they come through for me, and even take the blog more personal than I do. I'm so grateful for you all and I love you, no small measure. 

Congratulations to me and you dear gist partner for making it through the last three years! I'm looking forward to all that God is going to do for us in the coming years and all that He's going to do with us here on the blog, don't go anywhere, stay tuned and enjoy the ride with me, we can both trust The Driver.

I know that there's still a lot of room for improvement and development where the blog is concerned, if you have any helpful tips you want to share with me, or if you want to feature on the blog, or just want to gist with me private gist, please reach out to me at achenyosmusings@gmail.com, I'll be sure to get to it and reply. 

TUNES AND THOUGHTS: Welcome to our new segment on the blog: for every gist moving forward, I'll be giving you the title of a song that I really love that speaks to me and hoping that you get around to listening to it. 

This week's song recommendation is "Holy Spirit" by Greatman Takit. Omo I can't even explain to you what this song does to me. I've gone for almost a week one time listen to only this song, I had it on replay the entire time. My favourite lines from the song goes; "You're as silent and still as the midnight, You're the one who can kill and can make alive, You bring violence and still it'll be right, Cause You're the one who can see and would judge right". I hope the song blesses you as it's blessed me. 

Well that is that about that as far as that is concerned, see you next week. 

Love,

Achenyo. 

PS. It's my friend Blessing's birthday today, please say a prayer for her whenever it is that you read this gist. Another friend of mine, Ochanya, got married today, please say a prayer of blessing over her marriage. 16th November is going to be a day of plenty celebrations for me oo

PSS. It's 50 days to my father's 70th birthday, please don't forget to say a prayer for him. 

PSSS(😉). The gratitude challenge is still ongoing, three things you're grateful to God for each day.