You are not alone
Going through life’s pangs, one is tempted to believe they are alone. Life’s challenges and lessons have a way of robbing self-esteem, courage, faith and mental aptitude to usher in hopelessness. Desperation tends to exacerbate situations, especially when people choose the silent treatment as a form of dealing with their pain.
Take, for instance, the control freak of a sister who is constantly trailing your movements, phone logs and expenses. She wants to know who you are talking to, meeting, sources of your money and how legitimate they are; the prognosis from the gynaecologist and who has been your visitor at your house lately. She bullies her siblings, young or old; and will feed whatever information she acquires to the mother or whoever she pleases for purposes of destruction. You know how it is in families. Sounds familiar? Well, you are not alone. Many have been through that path and are still travelling it. Trust me.
Take that mother who has no kind words for her children and will not hesitate to connive towards their downfall. Her modus operandi is the divide and rule; panicking when her offspring get along. She controls and manipulates everybody around her in exercise of her powers over what nature bestowed upon her in motherhood. She will seethe even over good intentions, causing suitors to flee for dear life. When she does not have things her way, her wrath speaks for her.
Take the husband or partner who only remarks over negativity. He will never compliment you for that new hairdo of killer shoes, but when you smash the family car against a tree tramp, he is the first to notice and remind you how good for nothing you are. If he notices something on you, it will be about how much it cost rather than the anticipated compliment. What about that brother-in-law who believes that marrying his brother is a mere privilege? He reminds you, in subtlety that you do not belong, that he has as much right— if not more to be in the martial home with equal management rights.
What about the loafer of a brother, the first to call you names and taunt you for your hard earned success because they are convinced nothing good can ever come out of you. Don’t forget the neighbour who believes life is about competing over who has what or headed for which holiday destination. Think about that single woman facing accusations of infidelity because she drives, pays rent or has male visitors. She becomes the object of ridicule for the mere reason of holding by the horn life’s challengers which in the eyes of mediocrity, she has her body to thank for aiding various acquisitions.
No case is isolated; be it a chronic illness, deformity, rejection, incarceration, loss of a spouse or child. Nobody is spared from grief or opposition, even from people closest to us. Do we resign to fate? Absolutely not. These are obstacles meant to impede progress. Carry on and you shall overcome.
