My Sister's post on Facebook. I just decided to put it on Steemit. I hope you like it.
I met a girl who said she wished her mother in-law will be dead before she gets to meet her son. It's not surprising that most girls make this kind of prayer.
I began to ponder over the credulity of their claim that, "mother in-laws are a threat" and the whole sentimentality cloys in my face.
Because I believe if she could raise that boy so that I loved him to marry him, then that woman, that sweet woman, deserves all the praise that I can muster.
Now, I know I do sound like a hypocrite.
I almost cannot help it because I believe in a life bigger than myself.
Even as I write, I see her face. The clear lines of affection pleating her old sagging brows and immediately, I understand.
I understand the bond between mother and son.
I understand that women are flops when it comes to saying goodbye; that most women conceal their weakness as love, in turn, blaming their son for their emotional vulnerability, thereby, making him think he had disappointed her by loving another woman.
If my mother in law feels threatened, then am a failure. I'll make her know am a coworker in this vineyard. That in loving her son from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet that I love her too. And that I'll do much more than she ever did.
That God will bless her womb forever!
Now, surely, am I not a hypocrite?
How can I pronounce blessings when am heavy with a child whose name is "curse?"
What right do I have to dream beautifully of tomorrow and dare live it?
Just tell me, how can my leaves glitter when my root is bitter?
What right do I have to believe in a life bigger than myself?
But my faith keeps me alive. This my believing too much made me make a promise that although I tread the length and breadth of foreign lands, am still the daughter of my soil.
That no matter how sweet this new wine tastes, my kola won't see my back.
I won't only bite but chew and swallow. And though the bitterness will slap both sides of my cheeks...
Yet, I will raise a smiling face to the world.