@DocLayla

@DocLayla 20 March 2022

I hurt a really good person, what do I do now? ***"Just like riding a bicycle, you've to keep pedalling in life to keep on moving. It's okay to slow down but once you stop, you fall."*** Many of us have one story or another of how our selfish or personal interests have led us to hurt someone who has nothing but good intention for us. We may be naive or immature at that time but as we learn lessons, we realise that we've not been fair with our dealings. We might have even thought that the other person was the one who's at fault. You see, our egotistic self has a way of playing victim, blinding us to the truth of ourselves as well as the truth of situations we find ourselves in. The main purpose of every life on earth, whether you agree with me or not, is to seek the truth about ourselves and the world around us. It is rather ironic how most of us are allergic to the truth. We hate it, we disagree with it even when it stares at us with its all seeing eyes. Recount an instance where you hurt someone really badly in the process of either "defending yourself" or "trying to drive home a point" or any other instance where you thought you were the one who's wronged, not the other way round. If you have any conscience at all, you must have felt really bad when you realised the truth and then you might want to apologise. You went and apologise and the other party forgives you. You're happy. **What do I do when this person doesn't forgive?** If this is the case, realise that you're vulnerable to the person at the moment and whatever choice they decide to make isn't their fault. You were the one who hurt them first it doesn't matter if it's knowingly or not. If the person still continues to be your friend but doesn't forgive you for that single thing you did, by all means, make them happy in any way you can. Constantly show how sorry you're for what you did with more of actions than words because when you continuously ask them to forgive you, you're bringing up those past hurts, reliving them in their head, making them feel that sorrow afresh, so apologise with your actions. If Unfortunately the person cut ties with you for what you've done, you are likely to feel shame, sorrow, and you might even think you're a bad person. Try getting those people you've offended to listen to you once again. Go to their house apologise over and over again. Throw away your pride or "self-worth". They are not as important in this case. Hmm... If only people knew the cost of hurting a fellow soul. If however it still doesn't work, take this as punishment for what you've done. I am not saying you deserve to suffer because you made a person suffer, I am saying that you've no other choice as you have no power in this. You can't force them to forgive you. You're completely at their mercy here. That's something you will have to live with to avoid hurting another person but still, you don't have to **live** with it....forever. That can cause you greater harm than that which you've cause the person. Learn to move on and learn from your mistakes that's if you were genuinely sorry. Remember: ***"Just like riding a bicycle, you've to keep pedalling in life to keep on moving. It's okay to slow down but once you stop, you fall."*** .... And nothing is worth falling for in this life.... We are all humans and we make mistakes, I believe a lot of us here have hurt at least a person regardless of whether it was intentional or otherwise. Sometimes, we can hurt people to a degree that even the thought of apologising comes with shame, let alone summoning the courage to do so because of the gravity of the hurt we caused them. We can even have an unwavering certainty that the other party will not forgive us if we were to tell them. Here, I am talking about an istance when we did something that had caused a person deep sorrow but the person doesn't know that we were behind it and say, we did it unintentionally or with a certainty that it was the right thing to do. After realising your mistake, do you still tell them? Well for me it depends. If not telling them the truth would salvage your relationship with them, by all means do not tell them but please, do not repeat that same mistake. They might find out of course, when they do, tell them the exact reason why you didn't tell them in the first place :to protect your relationship with them. I believe if you do good things to them after you realise your mistake without them knowing, they are sure to forgive you... if they truly love you. Besides, telling them that you played a part in their sorrow before they heal can drive them to make emotional decisions which could hurt both of you more. On the other hand, there's little risk of them cutting ties with you, tell them by all means okay? What prompted me to write this is that I have done someone really really bad. I feel deep regret and shame when I realised that it was all my fault in the first place and this, is what kept going inside my head before summoning some courage to apologise. Fortunately my sins were forgiven. Thank God!!! Thanks for reading. Yours Layly, ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

@DocLayla 19 March 2022

A cause for panic. Due to the extended duration of the strike, students all over universities in my country who've been staying in school in the hope that the initial one month warning strike would be called off have all gone home to their parents. This was a cause for jubilation for some, for others it was either a hope shatterer or an argument sparker. It soon turned into a cause for panic for me when I heard that about five students from my University who aren't from the state had been waylaid by kidnappers and abducted on their way home from school. Among the five who we've heard were abducted, three are final year students, one a second year and the other a third year. We've been told that the kidnappers have demanded for a ransom of 3 million Niara(about $7,000). The students from within the school have contributed and I also heard rumours about some famous celebrity promising to handle the rest of the pay. I have contacted my friends who aren't from the state about their journey, while some confirmed that they're fine, I haven't heard from the others. It's either their phone is switched of or their phone isn't reachable at the moment. I have tried this for a consecutive two days but all to no avail. I contacted other friends with whom they were closer, they too reported the same scenario. It's heartbreaking to come to terms with the fact that no one is safe anymore. Kidnappers and bandits have infested the country and it only gets worse. Promises from the government, but none has been fulfilled. It's indeed heartbreaking. Even within our neighbourhood we aren't safe anymore. The other day, a teacher abducted his own student asking for ransom and ended up killing the little girl even after the ransom was paid. Our safety is in none other but God's hands. Although for me and other Nigerians this isn't something that surprises us any more as the rate of abduction by kidnappers keeps increasing making people heart skip at the mere idea of travelling to another state... even if it's just a neighbouring state. People are now beginning to prepare "Goods for two" when they travel. It's like the "expectations" people have about being robbed on their journey is more present than not. The other day during the mid semester break, my classmate was robbed when he went to visit his sick mother in kogi(a state). As he was recounting to us his ordeal when he got back to school, he said that a good number of the robbers where but small boys within the age range of 13-17 years old. Is it the whole world or is it just my country? If children as young as those have started handling kalashnikovs, what will they be handling when they becomes 30? Missiles or nuclear weapons? It's sad. Plain sad. All we can do is hope, be careful and protect ourselves to the best of our ability. If we die in the process of protecting ourselves, then we're martyrs. I am trying to maintain a positive mindset as I await to hear from my friends and I will keep trying all means through which I can contact them. From among my friends, there's one whose brother's number I have. I tried it but it's also switched off. I hope and pray that this is just coincidence and has nothing to do with any of that. I really hope so. Thanks for reading. Yours Layly, ❤❤❤❤

@DocLayla 18 March 2022

The Evil Eye. Remembered the story I wrote two days ago about a terrible dream I had? I have had recurring dreams since then and prior to then. I soon realised it wasn't something that could be treated medically after knowing that I was been haunted by djinns. It happens you know, most especially in the northern part of Nigeria. You can call them evil spirit if you want, but whatever they may be, they didn't allow me any respite for the past week. This affected my productivity in my day to day activities a lot and I almost questioned my own sanity. I have a very strong presence of mind. Despite the belief that women get easily freaked out, I don't. I don't get easily scared by things like that and my family know that. When they saw that I screamed in my dreams and murmured some inaudible things in trances, they knew something was amiss. In Islam, when a person is afflicted with the Evil Eye(a belief that when a person who's envious of you can send djinns to haunt you), they are some medicines that's been prepared. Among those are the *ruqyah*(a series of recitations from the verses of the Quran and prophetic traditions), *rubutu*( blacked ink washed off from slates), incense and olive oil. All these come with prescriptions just like normal medications. In dealing with such problems, the first thing that's solved is knowing why the djinn chose to possess you. Some give really ridiculous reasons and then they are cast out. The exorcism sometimes isn't easy as it may go on for years. In the state of exorcism, the possessed one is hypnotised and remains in a trance until they are cast our or imprisoned within the victim's body. Luckily for me, mine was cast out for good yesterday as it hadn't taken complete control over me and because maybe I have been very prayerful about it. They didn't tell me anything about what happened when I was hypnotised as that's the normal tradition. **Do not tell them! Sometimes the two parties go as far as engaging in a fight where the exorcists always win.** The evil eye can take different forms that might, at first look like a medical ailment. You see a person complaining of severe chest pains that could suggest a heart or lung problem but when a Catscan or X-ray is taken, you see they are just fine. Even when extensive tests are taken, you see that everything is within the normal range of a healthy individual. What then do doctors do? They can't do anything. Sometimes when the evil eye expresses itself in a physical form, like a terrible swelling in the leg or arm, medications that could have worked had it been a normal medical situation lose their efficacy. I know, a lot of people do not believe in these kinda stuff and label them superstitions, especially the western people, but then if you look closely you'd see that these problems are more common in Africa. I have heard about it from the west. The way the occurrences happen here leaves you no option than to believe that these forces are real. There was a friend of mine that was possessed, in the process she lifted to bunk beds, one in each hand, collided them together leaving then completely disoriented. This is a girl who normally has difficultly in even carrying a small bucket of water from the tap area to the hostel. So... One just has to believe. There are many more instances I can site. How did I draw the Evil Eye upon myself? I really do not know. From what I was taught, one can prevent them by praying constantly. I have always done that. Although there are tons of people who don't pray but they haven't been attacked by djinns. I think it's not just about praying, true, prayer can ward them off but despite these prayers, it might serve as a test for you. I don't wanna sound too religious or spiritual, but seriously my belief in the existence of supernatural beings has being reinforced. I sometimes have wavering doubts about those entities, sometimes even about God, despite having seen some really scary stuff. Now.... well I don't really know what to say. I need time to process my thoughts and feelings. I guess I just need to rest. Thanks for reading guys. Yours Layly, ❤❤❤❤❤❤

@DocLayla 15 March 2022

Blood is my bath water. Yesterday, I cried. Waking up from a rather tumultuous sleep, I cried so much that I couldn't go back to sleep. After waking up with these severe pain in the lower side of my body and felt like something was trickling in the left side of my abdomen, I had a terrible feeling I was going to die. That deep, scary, feeling you have when you think you might die but won't be really surprised if you didn't. I bore my pain alone because waking up someone from their peaceful sleep was the last thing I wanted to do. I tossed and turned, faced my sister, looking directly at her beautiful face. She's looked much younger than she did the day before. I realised how much I would miss her if I were to die. I got up from bed, tried to switch on the lightbulb but there wasn't power supply. I groped for the switch of the bedside lamp and after stumbling on the plate I didn't take out earlier in the evening, I found it. I switched it on, took my portable torch and headed to the bathroom to relieve myself. As flow of my tears increased, so did the trickles in my abdomen. It felt like something that shouldn't be spilling was spilling and that could cause damage. I picked up the kettle in the bathroom to perform ablution. It was empty. With dismay, part of which was due to the now intensifying pain, and the other due to the thought of how more intense it would have gotten if I walk the reasonably long distance to get water, I cried even more. With each tear-drop, the pain went from scorching to burning.... to scalding. With my last burst of strength I took four giant strides towards were the tap was located and collapsed on the way, not even halfway yet. Fastening the handle of the kettle in my fingers while crawling with the other hand, I progressed a little bit further to where the tap was. The trickles now not only represent a source of pain but also a source of determination. ***Drip..drip...drip..*** My intestine burned and burned. I think the late night dinner I had had now found its way outside my intestine into my peritoneal cavity as my belly got more swollen and swollen. **Drip.. Drip... Drip..** I dropped the kettle which was in my right arm to support my now heavy belly. The goal had changed to something I was not sure of and couldn't care less at that time. My goal now is to reach the tap and I don't even know what for. I crawled like a slug with my left arm. The image of the so much laboured for tap began getting blurrier and blurrier just as I was almost there. Everything started getting darker and darker, my belly heavier and heavier and bigger and bigger. I continued to crawl amidst the growing darkness towards a now uncertain destination. Darkness suddenly enveloped me making me lose sight of everything including my water tap but I kept moving. ***Splash! Splash! Splash!*** Ah yes! I have finally arrived. Thank God. I arrived at the tap! By some miracle, it turned itself on or perhaps someone turned it in for me. Since I couldn't see any more I couldn't be sure. I inclined my head towards the tap and felt the cool feel of the water on my head. It felt good. So good. It kept pouring on my head that it created a large puddle in which I was fully immersed. It soothed my stomach and the trickling sound disappeared into the soothing and calming splash of the water. I can't remember for how long I stayed there, savouring the warmth and coolness of the water. It felt like a decade. My eyes started to open slowly and slowly. God! It was still night. The moon looked like the sun and the stars like giant clouds. I looked around me to behold the water around me. Behold! It kept gushing.. . **Splash! Splash! Splash!** It kept gushing continuously out of my stomach. The blood. It surrounded my body. The trickle was what became the gush and I had thought it was water all along. I gradually sank into a pool of my own blood, looking at the tap that was just two footsteps away, with its bronze head glistened against the moonlight... ********************************** Thanks for reading guys. ***This seemingly fictitious story is actually real..in my dreamworld. It is based on a dream I had last night. A lucid dream at that (it felt so real!). I have been dreaming and even experiencing some not so normal stuff. Lately I have been going through some issues, all beyond what I can even comprehend. I tell myself I am gonna be okay, and I hope I would. Your prayers and well wishes will go a long way. This is the reason I have been absent on readcash.*** Thank you @Olasquare and @Lovelyfaith for the sponsorship. I am very grateful.

@DocLayla 12 March 2022

Solitude or Company? Good day everyone!! First I'd like to thank all those who commented on my last article from two days ago, I took rest and I feel much better now so, I am back! Wanna know how the presentation I talked about in my last article went? Well, after grieving the lost of my file for some time, I had to do it something. I improvised. My presentation was somehow rushed but it still went quite okay. A friend gave me a helping hand in compiling the works for me and all I had to do was study it, since it isn't initially my work. All thanks to her!! I felt the need to rest and detox after the whole thing that's why I haven't been active for the past two days. I buried myself in absolute solitude and aloneness and yeah, it felt very good. Infact that's what I am writing about today. From an early age of ten, I have always wanted to live alone. This isn't because I hate my home or the people in it, but because....well, I don't really know the reason. I just love being alone, at all times. I know it's good to socialise and I do that only because I am interested in people, I talk to know more, not to forget or bury. I still live with my family but I am secretly saving money to have an apartment of my own (please don't tell them! 😛). For me, solitude is more than just being physically alone, in a quiet environment, with birds singing incomprehensible yet melodious songs or the cool breeze or sound of rustling leaves from the trees around. For me, solitude has little to do with the environment but more with myself. Solitude for me doesn't necessarily mean absolute silence. It's more like talking with yourself. Not arguing but talking in absolute harmony. Not with a voice that you created or assume it's the real you, but with something much deeper, beyond that voice. I hope you get what I mean. Although being in a very quite environment helps me feel more at rest, what evokes that voice is still a mystery to me. Guess where this is? A mosque.. It's peaceful, quiet and brings a feeling of bring free of the world and all its ruckus. I am going to make a practice of going to the mosque every Saturday just to sit there even without doing anything. The house is like a marketplace now and on top of that, I heard my aunt whisper to me that there're going to be visitors **who are also mothers of young children**, which means children infiltrating the house, which means screaming, shouting crying, playing and scattering, which means disruption of my peace😌. Had to find an escape so I came here. It's not like I don't like visitors visiting us, it's just the noise and commotion they usually come with. Later in the day, I will go back home and greet them. People are blessing. We an learn alot form our associations with people. But don't you think that those things you might unlearn when you associate more with people where picked up in the first place as a result of association with people? My point is that the way we behave, react and think is largely influenced by the environment we grew up in, which means the kind of people we associate with. Is there a way we would have be if we didn't pick up habits and behavioural patterns from people whether consciously or subconsciously right from a young age? Could that be who we truly are? I don't even know if that makes sense. All in all, we are far beyond the concept we hold of ourselves, our so-called values and beliefs. These were all imposed from an outer source. Our environment. Society. I don't know the real nature, but I am certain that embarking on that unravelling journey is the most fulfilling thing a person would ever do. My solitude helps me with that journey! Over to you, which do you prefer? Solitude or Company? Remember, keeping company with the right people can have similar effect. By right people I am talking about those who understand you up to a certain level. Those people you can rub souls with. I like company too. I have learnt a lot from the people in my life. There's always something new to learn about others and about yourself. Thanks for reading. Yours layly. ❤❤❤❤

@DocLayla 9 March 2022

I hate complaining but okay.. One can't help but feel stressed and tired after investing a lot of time and energy in what they have always wanted to bring into reality. It's like channelling your very life force into your work and then end up having something that's not good enough as a result. After the tiredness that comes with the work as well as a bit of hope that keeps you moving, then frustration sets in when your efforts become wasted or simply not good enough. I have been working on a paper that is due for submission tomorrow hence my absenteeism on read.cash and hive. I have worked on it off and on but I calculated the time and I happened to finish just in time. Occasionally, I popped in but had not the energy to comment nor write an article as most of my energy where vented on the paper I was writing. The paper was about The Variations In Face Shapes among Women In The Northern Part Of Nigeria. After doing my research to the best of my ability, I managed to compile a quite satisfying piece this morning, all set for tomorrow's submission only for the flash drive in which the document was kept to flop it all up. It got damaged beyond repair for reasons unknown to me. Unfortunately, I didn't create a backup on my phone or laptop. I took it too a computer technician but he gave me bad news. Nothing could be done. Now the bigger problem is not even the submission because it wouldn't be that hard for me to tell them what happened, the major problem is that there would be a presentation of the paper to a very large audience three days after the submission, by the authors of the papers. What time would it take me to compose another paper after collecting various data, organising and grouping them, before even proceeding to write about them, all these would take an average of three to four weeks, and that's if I am very serious about it. Right now, I feel so angry and unhappy, not really because of the scolding I might receive from the chairman, but because of how hard I have worked and how I have been preparing for the day to arrive. I know I would have created a very good impact on my audience had I not lost the contents of my paper because I did my homework on it quite well. Now, since it's all gone, I don't really know what to do. Though, there's this paper I did on Lassa Fever almost a year ago and this could be a good time to redo that paper since Lassa fever has broken out again but, it was on the drive too. I had a copy of it on my old faulty laptop I sold when my brother bought me a new one but the buyer isn't a man who's retain such a lappy for long. I guess I don't have much options than to: -Tell my co-ordinator what happened and just accept anything that happens afterward or, -Ask a friend if she has another complete paper she could help me with to submit. Although I feel that presenting something you worked for yourself helps a lot with your confidence in front of your audience. I might even feel a tinge of guilt. This has nothing to do with the curriculum of the school so there's going to be no marks to be awarded, besides we're even on strike. It has something to do with our research team that's fast gaining recognition within my school, but amongst students and the academic staffs alike, so it's something that's worth worrying about. We're still in our early years and as one of the pioneers, I don't think it'd be right if I don't do what I should do, don't you think? Thanks for reading my rants lovelies. I am so sorry I haven't been and can't visit your articles tonight cos I am so so exhausted. I need time to rest and think. Special thanks to @tired_momma for the sponsorship renewal. It brightened up my mood a little. Thanks Yours Layly, ❤❤❤❤

@DocLayla 7 March 2022

Mindful Monday :Being aware of the voice in your head. Good morning and a happy Monday to y'all readstars!! It's another great and breezy day(at least here) Hope y'all doing awesome! Yesterday we talked about the voices in our heads and all the things they say, if you're yet to read the it you can read it here, today's article will make more sense if you read yesterday's. https://read.cash/@DocLayla/soulful-sunday-the-voice-inside-your-head-d3b71146 I remember given us a little exercise I urged you to do, which is to pay attention to that voice, not to do what's telling you to do, just pay attention for a whole day to it. If there's anyone who did that little exercise for a whole day, by now he or she might have realised how big of a problem this voice is. You once associated yourself with it, giving it the upper hand in your life while you're just a mere puppet who's being tossed about in an ocean of emotions. I urge those of us who haven't done it to do it. You will discover a lot. Today, being Mindful Monday, we are going to be discussing what to do about this voice. Since we've discovered how huge a problem it can pose in the way we organise or see our bodily selves(regrets, sadness, confusion, impulsiveness, and sometimes even evil), setting us up in a cacophony of negative emotions that blocks clarity, the destruction and huge damage it can inflict on our relationships with people by hurting the people we love and claim to care about through words or actions that sometimes aren't even intentional and also delaying the realisation of our spiritual essence, which is the ultimate goal of all creation. Bear in mind that this voice talks or ask questions and still give itself the answers to this questions. You might wanna try : Now perhaps while you're reading this and trying to observe the voice the voice might have whispered something like ***"wait...are you trying to observe me?"*** same voice would say***, "well yeah... let's just give it a try***". Or it might wanna get defensive and say, ***"o com'on. This is all some Buddhist-zen-stoic-psychology-taoist load of spiritual self-awareness crap! There is no voice in here. It's me and has always been me! Just comment from the little you've read or just upvote her some $0.03 or $0.05 let's get going, I don't have all day!"*** There are a number of other variations of how that voice can react while you're reading this, or doing anything else for that matter. It depends on how that voice is created in the first place, which is a sum of our present experiences and the sum of our past experiences and how we reacted to them, this is how these voice came to being in the first place. A lot of us make a very huge and yes, very disrespectful mistake of confusing this voice with intuition and even take pride in saying they **heard** it from their inner voice. Bruh, as long as you're the one **hearing it** from inside, that's not intuition. It's just your voice being good to you at that moment, and it really doesn't matter if it is good to you or not, it is still what it is and will always remain so: a voice that was created in the process of your existence. ***Intuition isn't heard, it is felt***. That's one of major differences between these incomparable two. Since we've seen how messed up things can get as a result of this voice, it is only right(absolutely right) we do something about it innit? Well here is the truth: **THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE TO!** You do not have to do anything about it because the more you try to do something about it the stronger it becomes, something like the scenarios I have above. You might have tried to shut it up while it started asking questions, but then it got defensive. Now what? The only thing you can and should do is to observe it just like you might have done yesterday. Here's a little help: Whenever the voice pops up, just imagine physical manifestation of the voice, sitting close to you and saying all the crap or "good things" it is saying about you or something you've just seen. You can recreate it into an image of an animal or a human being, whatever your imagination drives you to. This way you wouldn't have much problem in imagining that you're actually listening to someone that's not really you. Now if it says really crappy things or retaliates with a defensive, dissolve the mental image you've created of it and acknowledge the reality that that person is actually inside you. Now what do you think of it? Do you feel terrible? No? Another approach towards listening to this voice without associating with it is to imagine something like this: Imagine yourself from an angle of depth rather than height or weight. Your emotions are the top, thoughts are below your emotions, the voice is below these and then, your space of awareness seated at the deepest part. ***Awareness>voice>thoughts >emotions.*** From the above, you can see that the voice has influence over your thoughts and emotions. It kinda create ripples that spread and conduct upwards, thereby affecting them. The only thing that's watching this voice is your awareness, which is the seat of consciousness situated deep inside you. Use this empty space to watch this voice. Use either one of these examples to either listen or watch the voice for a week or even for a day, I promise you, you will learn a whole lot. Thanks to my sponsors, up voters, commenters and viewers for reading. Yours Layly, ❤❤❤

@DocLayla 6 March 2022

Soulful Sunday: the voice inside your head. The mind is a powerful yet sometimes misleading tool. A lot of us, infact, most of us still live in our minds. This constantly brings us untold suffering, suffering that we inflict on ourselves yet we dare to blame others for this one suffering. Think of incidents when your mind has told you one thing and then after successfully getting you infuriated, angry and maybe even pain, you then find out that your mind had lied to you and then you feel relieved. But then, you've already spend a reasonable portion of your life suffering in agony. That moment could have been channelled into something that could have made you happy. That's a waste. When we have that feeling that we later find out was totally different from what it really is, we call it a misconception but it isn't really a misconception. You aren't the one who conceives, that voice in your head does. Here's a scenario a lot of you can relate with: ***You've been wanting to get a job for a vet long time and then one day your lucky star decided to shine upon you. You got a message from a company and at that, the one you so much wanted to work with! Now isn't that interesting? They sent you an email for the interview, which would hold by the 10th of March. You couldn't wait for the day to come! You read countless articles and books on how to "leave your interviewers Jaws dropping" and "how to leave them no option than to give you the job" just so that you're fully prepared and ready to give them your best.*** ***Alas! On the day of the interview you woke up late! 1 hour late for the interview. Your heart stopped beating for a nanosecond as a result of shock! You hurriedly took a shower, brush your teeth, got some snacks while getting dressed at the same time. Your voice started telling you "hurry! You're getting late dawg!" another voice would say " relax dawg, you're already late". You get stuck and in the process of paying attention on these voices, you focus on getting ready for the interview reduces, making you even more late.*** ***You get to the venue, luckily you find that from other potential interviewees that the interview has been delayed by two hours. You leaped in joy and then you hear a voice in your head say, "you should have taken your time to do things calmly. Now no interview and you're a mess!" The voice might even go as far as telling you to go back home and get something proper to it.*** Wait a minute...... Isn't this the same voice that told you to hurry up sometime ago? Why then is it telling you this now? Is it really been serious right now. Bear in mind that these voices aren't always saying negative things. They can say positive things to to make you feel good. Here's an example : You bought a new red dress that you think would look good on you. You tried it on some friend's party and what you thought was so right: it did look good on you, or so you thought.. You strolled confidently to your friend's place and that voice keeps saying "go girl, you rock! You look like a damn angel all the way from heaven!". This boosts your confidence level to a 101%( positive emotions of happiness, confidence instilled). But that same voice might later tell you something negative about that dress if something happens say, someone made a bad comment about the dress being too short or been too showy, that voice could say "yes they're right!" and then you feel dejected. From the above scenarios you might have noticed these things: The voice can take both sides of a conversation. It distracts you from the task that's at hand, thereby creating a kind of hindrance. It makes you overthink, in conflict with yourself and causes you some negative emotions :panick, fear, regret, unhappiness.. It isn't necessary negative, but can also be positive. .... and much more..... At this point, I bet the reader have thought up a lot of similar scenarios in your life. Infact, this happens all the time. There's not a single time when this voices aren't talking. They talk and talk and talk. Now that you've realised this, I would like you to take this little exercise: Observe all your thoughts and when I say thought here, I mean that voice. I know this can be a bit hard because we end up getting absorbed in them sometimes but just do your best to observe them. Do not try to stop them when they arise, do not try to suppress them. Just observe them. You'll be shocked at what you'll find, they always talk without processing or thinking. You realise that all what have been causing you those negative emotions are the influence of these voices. They keep on talking and talking without giving your head a moment's respite. You see a guy who looks cute and then it goes, "wow what a cute guy,he's fair, and heavily bearded. I love the way he dresses and the phone he hold too, he must be loved by all." That voice doesn't need to talk in the first place. You already know all these then why does it decide to repeat it? I will stop here for now and please, do the little exercise and tell me about your findings in any of my later articles.. To my subscribers, I am sorry for being absent throughout yesterday, my Lil sis fell ill and I went with her to the hospital. She was earlier diagnosed with ulcer and we're back home now. She will be alright God willing. Thanks for reading and for your understanding. Yours Layly, ❤❤❤❤

@DocLayla 4 March 2022

Ancient Spirit. With great power comes great responsibility, with great sin comes great punishment, with great ideas come great achievements, ***with great wisdom comes great sadness (?)*** I have often heard quotes about people contemplating the influence wisdom can have on our happiness under the claim that too much wisdom or intelligence arms you with knowledge that you your might not be ready for, it might be a burden to you and since that intelligence is higher than average which is not that common, you find yourself stuck with people who aren't like-minded. This can birth a feeling of loneliness and emptiness. You feel like an alien trapped in a world where everything seems behind. You see things, sometimes really terrible things that other people can't see. What they see is not what it is, what it is, they do not see.. Everyone desires to be understood, that's something all of us want. When people do not understand us no matter how hard we try, we feel like we don't belong here. We feel like it's only our bodies that are of this world but our souls are from the past or maybe the future. We begin doubting ourselves and it might even us feel like we're cursed. That we have done something really terrible for us to be born into this generation to suffer. We get far away from our loved ones and the little friends we manage to have. We from a cocoon around ourselves. We retreat deep into our own shell. **Yes, that's the only way we feel something close to happiness, when we are in solitude, in harmony with the univers**e. Everything esle becomes boring, everyone else becomes uninteresting. Even the most addictive technological gadgets do not interest us anymore, we are always longing, always searching, yearning, always waiting, for what? We don't really know. There's this emptiness that has always been there, is still there and perhaps will always remain there. An emptiness this world has no capability of filling. An emptiness whose fill can only be found in the greater beyond. My solitude was my safe haven. It gives me peace from all the fickleness and trivialities of the world. I read books, books about great people who loved solitude like me, I sometimes wonder what it would be like to sit with them in a meeting, I even feel the connection with them through those pages, although they existed hundreds of year ago. It is where I learn things that no one else in the world can teach me. Nature was my teacher. Nature is the only Truth. The sun taught me to shine fiercely without any fear. The raindrops taught me to speak the truth, without any concern upon whom it falls, the blossoming of flowers taught me there is a time for everything, the phases of the moon taught me that it would take time for me to be whole again.. **again**? Was I ever whole? Maybe. Maybe is in the world I lived before been born into this one.. just maybe. But what if I was never whole even in the world I once lived? What if I would never be whole? The thought of dying without filling in that emptiness was the greatest horror of my life. I believe, and still believe that the main reason for our existence is not to give birth, grow, marry, give birth and die. If that's all there's to life, then please hack me with a matchet this very moment! There has to be something more. There's always something more. There has to be a purpose. I am not on a quest to find something worth living for, but something worth dying and re-dying for.. Long before my existence, long before my parents knew they would even get married let alone have me as a child, I know I existed. I can feel it. They only made me materialise in human form but my soul has always been there. Life was every good thing you can think of then. I am not saying that they made a mistake but I feel that's the reason I was born in the first place. To reawaken that soul that lies deep within me, that soul that transcends time, space and the physical senses. It has become so lost deep within my human body that I sometimes lose awareness of it no matter how hard I try to focus on it it sleep by, in an instant of a nanosecond. I sometimes get hold of it, try my best not to let it go but it always does. Maybe that's the cause of my sadness, maybe that's what is missing in my life. I hear it cry sometimes inside me, wanting to be free. What if it is waiting for me to set it free? How can I do that? I meditate upon that all day but I never find a good answer to my all time, question. The thought of never setting it free leaves me mortified whenever it crosses my mind. If I ever fail to do that, that's the day I die, both in body and in soul. I long for the day when I meet me, myself, my beloved soul. 💔

@DocLayla 3 March 2022

"Thou Shall not trespass. " *My love for nature was at its best when I was little; the celestial bodies, the trees, flowers, animals, water bodies, you name it. One of the things that used to surprise me is the agama lizard. First, the agama lizard is very common here and can be found almost everywhere, even in your comlind or room. They have these bright colours:red or orange head, light blue skin and a yellow tail. My mates at that time used to be scared of this animal but I liked it, especially its colours.* *One thing I noticed again about agama lizard is its territorial behaviour which is a form of display or courtship. The male agama lizard often marks out an area, probably a scent or by some other invisible marking and fights any other lizards who dares trespass in this territory. When they fight, the stronger one, be it the intruder or the owner of the territory eventually win and either takes over the territory or keep the territory depending on which wins. I have also heard that animals like tigers and lions exhibit territoriality.* Yesterday, in where I live, some young boys where playing football at the back of a house. One of them mistakenly kicked the ball, it flew over the fence but instead of it landing on house, it landed in another adjacent to the house, which is an abandoned bakery. The boys came to the house begging to please give them the ball, thinking that it fell in the house. The boys in the house replied to them that they didn't see any ball. Note that this isn't the first time something like this has happened before. On some occasions, they would play the ball and it would land inside the house. There was a time when one of them played the ball and it fell on an old woman's head who lives in the house. They came, they apologised and they would give them their ball back, but they still persisted. Seriously, this time around the ball didn't land in the house. After much begging the boys began to get frustrated and threatened that if the ball is not handed over to them, they would barge in and take it themselves. This infuriated one of the boys in the house and he dares them to come take it. They barged in! With full force, they barged in and the rest of the boys of the house stood up in defence to fight against them. This led to a vigorous exchange of blows and hits including the use of sticks, firewoods and canes. It was getting really serious and one boy was already down with serious back injuries before some elders in the community hopped in to help curb the fight. After much effort they stopped and after some more chattering and threats, both parties went their separate ways. When the father came in the evening from work and was informed. He was very angry and swore to report them to the police. He did and right now the boys are being detained in a correctional centre for three weeks for trespassing and disrupting neighbourhood peace. If this had happened like five years back in this same district, nothing would have happened but it seems things are getting better now. I thank God for the improvement in ensuring law and order in our community. Remember the paragraph about lizards? Yes, there was a point I was trying to make. Some people kind of blamed the owners of the house for fighting them. Even animals hold their territory in high esteem and are ready to defend it by all costs so it's only natural for those boys to feel the need to fight even if they are all gentlemen. I was really surprised when I saw them in action😂. The way one of them broke a firewood on one of the other boy's back left me in a shock I haven't still gotten over😂. When others overstep their boundaries, it is only natural that we act. We all have to respect other people's boundaries and make sure we act when others try to trespass on ours. This is very simple and is totally wrong whatever your beliefs may be. Whether you're a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu or even atheist. Common logic tells us that it is wrong to trespass on other people's territory, especially our neighbours. ***Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary mark.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’*** -*Deuteronomy 27:17* The prophet of Islam(S. A. W) says, ***“Go and publicly announce that the curse of God and the angels is on one who troubles his neighbor.”*** ***[****Mustadrak al-Wasa’il, v.2, pp.78-79]* Thanks for reading guys. Special thanks to all my sponsors, up voters, commenters, and viewers. Yours Layly, ❤❤❤❤❤

@DocLayla 1 March 2022

Check up on your friends.....in the hospital. Check up on yourself... at the hospital. Good morning and happy Tuesday to all my good read.cashers! ❤ First I apologise for not visiting you all articles and comments yesterday. Those who viewed my short post know about this already. I was so busy with the feeding programme. Yesterday, I was part of both cooking and distributing team and afterwards, I went to visit my sick friend in the hospital. As at now, we're cooking for today and I just took a very short break to post. I will visit your articles and read your comments when I am done. Thank you all for your understanding ❤. As expected, I was so exhausted after the distribution program, having been part of the cooking team you'd expect me to be extra exhausted. However I had to visit a sick friend at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, university's teaching hospital. My friend, who's name is Hannah, did not go home for the strike. She had been in school since the strike because she lives quite far away from the state and also because, according to her, she still has a lot of academic work to cover and she wouldn't be able to do so if she went home. Hannah was reading in the female reading room at night and when, for no known reasons, she collapsed and had a seizure. She was lucky they were other people around when this happened and she was immediately rushed to the hospital. She happened to have developed some sort of heart complications which I, neither does she, know how it came about. She was also recorded to have a blood pressure of about 140/90! That's real high! I deliberately postpone my visit beyond when the whole class visited so that I can be with her alone. I wanted to let her know that I am there for her and reassure her that she will get better... By God's grace she will. Hannah's sudden collapse was caused by a sudden heart attack.... probably due to atrial arrhythmia as she said she missed like two beats before she collapsed. She reported to have been feeling severe pains in her chest sometimes but she just takes jelosil tablets because she thought it was just an indigestion. Sometimes it is cluster headaches or terrible migraines. I personally give her massages on her head when they come but maybe they are all symptoms we ignored. Although we have been to the school clinic several times but even they never predicted something like this could happen... especially when they pass these as being a result of stress as a student due to excessive studying. It was so shocking indeed. Hannah looked healthy. You wouldn't think something was wrong with her if you saw her before the attack. It is enough for one to begin suspecting whether he or she is truly okay. You see, there's a need for us to go for routine medical check-up from time to time. The importance of this cannot be overemphasised. You may not be aware of something that needs to be taken care of. These symptoms appear subliminally and we tend to pass them for stress and sometimes they can be even asymptomatic. That's when it's truly deadly. You just wake up one morning and see yourself on a hospital bed or..... God forbid, in an early grave without even knowing how you got there in the first place. Heart diseases are very notorious for their stealthiness. They creep in slowly and slowly without you detecting that you have an abnormal heart. Sometimes at the ealry stages you might not e able to detect it even with an electrocardiogram. That's how terrifying they can be. The heart has a special way of adjusting its beats to function properly in cases of irregularities. Let's normalise having check ups once in a while please. It can go a long way. You never know if that thing you ate on a friend's party got lodged somewhere it shouldn't be. You never know if that minor hit from a bicycle injured some blood vessels that could result in internal bleeding, you never know if that head-butt you mistakenly gave the wall has had an effect in your brain, worse case, you never know if your own body cells have conspired to begin producing cancerous ones.... God forbid. Our body just like any other thing, when ignored and devoid of proper care, deteriorates. Sometimes we can correct it when it begins showing signs of deterioration. Sometimes it doesn't even show signs. The best we can do is to keep watch, make sure we try our best to maintain our internal environment, as well as our external environment. Your health is the only thing you've got so do not say you don't have the time or money to go for a check up. If something happens that neither your time or money could be of help....then what's the use? Blood pressure is something we should always check. The world is getting busier, bustier, noisy, and annoying each day. Check you moods, Check your thoughts, check you food, check the way you react, check yourself. I believe every one should own a sphymomanometer and stethoscope in their home to check their blood pressure from time to time. You don't have to be a doctor to know how to use these as they are quite easy to learn to use....if one is taught.. Stay healthy guys! And thanks for reading. Yours Layly, ❤❤❤❤❤😘

@DocLayla 28 February 2022

I apologise for my inactivity. The feeding programme took more time than it does and I have plans of going to visit a sick classmate afterwards. I may not have the chance of visiting or commenting on articles today. THANKS FOR UNDERSTANDING. 😊

@DocLayla 27 February 2022

To wish, but not to wash. You can call me lazy but one thing I have always hated is doing the laundry. My aunt sometimes says that she pities the man I am going to get married to. I have always hated having to wash clothes, I find it easy to get them dirty though! Haha.. I think my hatred for washing clothes sprang from when I was still a little girl in a boarding house, because prior to my admission, I wasn't the one who does the laundry. Mom did and she never taught me how to do my own laundry because the admission came rather unexpectly. As expected, I found it extremely difficult to do my laundry on the first week but I got help from some seniors, after washing my clothes for some weeks as a kind gesture to a newcomer, they taught me as per my request because I started feeling uncomfortable about them washing my clothes. Ever since, I have some my laundry myself up to now although on some occasions (which are more common now), I take them to the dry cleaner. When I was still in the boarding house, Sunday was the only free day so I wash my clothes during this day, the sad thing is that almost all the students then go their laundry on Sundays, making it difficult to obtain water and buckets to wash, this increased my hate for washing even more! I wash once in two weeks (with exception of undies) because of undies so whenever I make up my mind to wash (after a tough battle with my dislike for washing) I will definitely have a heap of clothes waiting for me. Sometimes I don't wash all of them, I just divide them in two, wash half the then leave the rest for the following week. This continued until I graduated from the boarding school. As a university student, I don't really wash much, besides with my washing routine I don't even have the time to wash clothes, even on Sundays! I take them to the dry cleaner to get the work done. Even if I don't have a penny on me, I would still take them to the dry cleaner to get the work done and pay him later when I have the money. I have even become his favourite customer. Today is my second Sunday at home ever since the strike, and I am supposed to wash today! I was supposed to wash in the morning but there had been shortage of water supply and even now, I had to purchase water from vendors to wash but the water isn't suited for washing because it's hard water😭😭. You wash only a three pairs of clothes and boom, a whole bar of soap and two sachets of detergent gone! Like magic! Not to talk of the unpleasant scum you see when washing with hard water....after this experience, I felt a whole new wave of hatred for washing sweep through me. Of course I surrendered and had to put back the clothes as if I am to continue with it, I am going to waste a whole lots of soap and detergent plus energy I should have chanelled into doing other things, and the clothes may not even be clean despite my efforts. So I am putting them back till further notice. I might wash them next week if things are right, or I might just decieve myself into believing that "not all of them are even dirty, besides I wore this pair only once". I am just going to eat and sleep now to get my energy back. If only I would just wake up and meet all of them done by some genie! I would be very happy while pressing them with a pressing iron while savoring and paying close attention to the patterns I make on the clothes whole I iron them. Happy Sunday Guys! Hope you're all doing well. Thanks for reading! Yours Layly, 😘❤❤😘

@DocLayla 26 February 2022

A new bee on Hive! So I joined the much talked about Hive.blog to see if I'd make a good bee on the Hive. Well... At first it seemed so complicated and it still does seem so, although a lot of air has been cleared. To be honest, I even felt a bit intimidated about the vast community, I guess that's just part a feeling we get when trying something new. Needless to say, it is nothing like read.cash! I mean it terms of complexity! In fact I was lost the moment It showed "account opening successful" and was redirected to the site. After reading about three articles and watched about four YouTube videos about Hive, I had a grasp on the general concept. Now what I needed to do was to know how things like HP, HBD and how the voting system works. Although I learned it the hard way because I lost some money in trying to boost my account, thinking that's what HP entails. I am over it now, it's as a result of ignorance on my part. If I had asked questions sooner it wouldn't have turned out that way. I have managed to purchase some HP to enable me post me introductory post. I was able to do all these as a results of the help rendered by @Princessbusayo and @Olasquare I am really very grateful for the starting tips and you gave me and I just made my introductory post. Yes, I go by the name @drogomystic on hive but it's still DocLayla on the display name. I happened to come across some very interesting personalities like @FarmGirl and @TengoLoTodo and I bet there are others. I will figure you all out so that we can connect there also. You might as well drop your Usernames so that I can follow you too. I still have a lot to learn. No. A **whole** lot to learn and I know it's gonna take a lot time to finally understand every single thing. I am happy that a lot of users on read.cash are also on hive. That will make me feel more at ease there and it'll feel just like read.cash....or similar. Besides there are a lot of similarities between these two sites, like the communities in which you can explore, the writing challenged and prompts, the upvotes and tips and maybe many much more which I haven't discovered yet. I have seen that it also has a reblog feature which is similar to the renoise feature on noise.cash The ride should be interesting. We're on strike now so I think it's a good opportunity to explore more. It's not gonna be easy I know but then, read.cash wasn't that easy either but look at where we are today with the help of you all. If there's any tips you'd like to give me as a new user, I would wholeheartedly accept it and be grateful. Wonderful people. I don't really have much to say today, so I am going to stop here for today. This reminds me to thank all of you for your constant support, even at the time when I wasn't so active on read.cash due to excessive workload and clinical postings,and was only able to post occasionally and wasn't even able to read other people's articles, words can't explain how grateful I am . Layla is forever grateful. To all those who've sponsored and are still sponsoring me, I say a big thank you to you all. My upvoters, commenters, and viewers, you mean a lot to me. Special thanks to @Mictorrani and @Ellen-he for the sponsorship. Here's my first(introductory) post on hive : https://ecency.com/hive-153850/@drogomystic/my-self-introduction-buzz-buzz Thanks for reading. Yours layly, ❤❤❤❤ Lead image from unsplash.

@DocLayla 25 February 2022

Contemplating the world of animals. I have always believed that we aren't there are worlds within this world that are totally different from the world we perceive. The human world is that which we find ourselves in, the spirit world which isn't comprehensible by our five senses, and then then animal world which resides within our world, but is perceived in a different way. I bet animals perceive the world in a totally different way than humans, this makes their world totally different from ours. We've all wished we had superpowers as kids. One of the superpowers I wished I had was to be able to hear animals talk. To hear their opinion about things abs generally have an insight about their world. I have imagined what the world would be like if animals and humans had a better means of communication or at the very least if there were some kind of interpreter that relays messages from animals to humans and from humans to animals. The barking of dogs, the hissing of snakes, the chirping of birds, the croaking of frogs and the crowing of roosters aren't just mere sounds they feel like making. What if when that bird perches on your window, whilst chirping endlessly is actually trying to tell you something that is important to you? Perhaps something that will happen in the future but because you can't understand it, you end up not being able to decipher. What if that pet dog of yours barking in the night actually saw something that you didn't see and is trying to tell you? What if snakes, lions, and other wild animals we think are dangerous and harmful as a result of our perception aren't really so? Have you stopped to wonder whether a lion would leave you alone if you could speak to it and understand it? I have heard that no matter how hungry a lion is, he would never it a newborn. If that's true then there's a reason for that. That might mean that like humans they have values and beliefs they strictly adhere to, and those values won't let them do such a thing. If they have values that means that means they live life with certain rules. Maybe animals aren't as random as we see them to be. The fact that all they do is eat and drink to maintain their existence, mate together to ensure continuity of species, move in groups to establish a sense of togetherness of leadership and followers hip doesn't make them random creatures, maybe that makes their life simple and are doing only what is required of them by nature. Come to think of it, if humans were to do only that required of them by nature, wouldn't things be much more simpler? If we do things that are needed rather than things that are wanted, if we get rid of all the hate, jealousy, envy, and other despicable qualities that aren't needed, those qualities that spring up from our own selfish desires, the world would have been a much better place. Don't you think? This brings us yet another question. What if they do not have to talk for us to understand things from them? Yes, they do not have to. At least those animals who live around us have lessons to teach us when we look close at their lives. This is what got me interested in the life of animals in the first place, making me wish I could have a deeper insight into their lives by hearing and understanding what language they actually speak. God created everything for man...including animals. Man things that by this it means that He created animals for man's consumption, but forget that he also created for us to learn the simplicity of life..just like it's meant to be. Same goes for plants too and other natural bodies. There's always something to teach you if you pay close attention. Thanks for reading. Yours Layly, ❤❤❤❤❤

@DocLayla 24 February 2022

Baby steps... Baby steps... Focusing on a damn thing at time can be one of the most difficult things in the whole wide world. It makes me wish that I could be a robot with a remote control to turn off all sensory inputs and just focus on one single thing while I am at it, becoming only aware of it, knowing only it, up to the point you're done. I believe I am not a robot but I also believe there's a way of achieving something like that. Developing interests in a thing sometimes doesn't automatically guarantee that you don't think about other things when you're engaged in it, no matter how strong the interest might be. These thoughts that pop up when you're engaged in something that requires your undivided attention are mostly either irrelevant to the thing, or worse, irrelevant to your life as a whole. Achieving a state of oneness is something I desire so much in my life. I have read countless of books about living in the moment, not paying attention to thoughts and stuff like that but I have come to realise that as humans, we live more in our heads than we do with others. Our thoughts, feelings, emotions and perceptions are our main home. We're always with them. There's a continuous flux of electrical impulses carried from our five senses to our brain and we cannot just ignore those impulses even when we're completely immersed in stuff that need our full attention. Have you ever wondered how your brain manage to think up stuff on its own without you making any mental effort? It's more like a reflex action and who controls reflexes? I am worried about this because as a person who's easily distracted, sometimes these thoughts win over me. I could be engrossed in reading some really important material this minute and the next minute, I find myself wondering about something that's totally unrelated to what I am doing. I can be a very focused person when I want to, but then focus requires effort, and sometimes being aware of the effort you're putting into focusing makes what you're doing less enjoyable for you. Focusing is more like splitting your energy into two: half for focusing on what you're doing and half for actually doing what it is you want to do. This is to say that you're aware of the fact that you're focusing making your awareness incomplete to the thing you're actually doing. Another thing about focusing is that if in the process of focusing on what you're doing, a thought impulse happen to surface, you'd try to shut it down or suppress it. That means you're aware of the thought and aren't really "focusing" in the realest sense of the word. I wonder how it would feel you immerse your whole awareness on what you're doing. It must makes even what seems unenjoyable enjoyable! I believe that whoever seeks shall find, and as a seeker, I have made progress on this and also a lot of regressions. I remember a time when I read a book titled "the untethered soul". This book focuses mainly on the belief that your thoughts, emotions and perceptions influenced by thoughts and emotions are a separate entity from you, and the better you get at treating them as separate entities, the more your awareness increases. It stressed that you're beyond your thoughts and emotions, that you are something beyond all that. It sounded good to the ear and felt good to my soul so I decided to try it out. I succeeded in doing so for a whole week and the experience was more than I expected :peace, tranquillity, groundedness, connection with the universe, I even felt lighter! I even forgot to focus because I became focus itself! A Layla who could only read and assimilate 7 pages of a book could now down up to 15 pages and understand the hell out of them! I felt like a god! This didn't only help me in my academics but also in my relationships, with others, myself, and my surroundings. Then after one week due to a tiny mistake I am not even sure of, I relapsed. Back to square one. I felt devastated, worthless, stupid. I decided not to dwell on my failure try it again. I have had countless failures apart from that one but I never dwell on any of them. I recently deviced a method that might help me with this. I call it the **baby step.** Baby step is just like a controller and reminder at the same time. I find myself doing something and try to maintain focus on that thing, when it's time to move to the next, I say "baby steps" in my mind and then I move to the next task without any spacing. This way the focus on the first task is transferred into the second task and that from the second task into the third task, so it goes. It's just like a baby learning how to walk, one foot, then another, then another, then another until he gets the hang of it and walks freely. When a baby walks, it pays full attention, not to its surroundings, but on his foot because he's careful not to fall. That's how it works, you have to be careful not to fall but even when you do, you get back up and laugh it off just like a baby. A bruise means nothing to a baby who's trying to walk or crawl. It is fully concerned about learning how to do so so that he might walk freely and effortlessly someday. I not only hope to walk effortlessly, I hope to run and maybe..... fly with the angels! Thanks for reading. To all my readers, commenters, up voters, and sponsors I say a big thank you to to you all. Yours Layly, ❤❤😁😁

@DocLayla 23 February 2022

Why should I care? Hallo folks. Good morning from this side. First I'd like to say sorry for being absent on read all through yesterday. I remember telling you some time ago that I was engaged.. 💍... ***.. In a feeding program!😂😂*** The program kept me busy throughout yesterday. It consists of contributing food to primary schools within the area. I hadn't been participating due to school but since we're on strike now, I thought it good to give a helping hand. Today I am part of the cooking team rather than the distributing team I was part of yesterday. So I am mostly free. So, a friend of mine from long ago just called me this morning, randomly. We haven't been communicating for some time now so it was quite a surprise. We greeted normally but her tone seemed a bit cold. I asked if something was the matter and she started ranting about how I haven't been a good friend and have abandoned and forgotten all about her. I took it as a joke as some of my friends jokingly do this when we haven't talk for a while. It later seemed to me that she wasn't really joking about it and I was kinda shocked when she started calling me unreliable and disloyal. Well... What do I do? I tried explaining to her about school pressure and how a lot has changed and keeps changing. She said that I was just looking for an excuse for why I don't care. I apologised because I am a person who do not like picking fights with her friends, especially for reasons that are irrelevant as the example above. Well I must admit that, there was a time when we were so close that we chatted all day about stuf, but that was when things haven't piled up. Then, we used to have a lot of free time in our hands but as things began to mount, we had to face tasks that needed to be sought out. We began growing distant but that was not because we lost interest in each other or that one person offended the other, it's just because of the reason stated above. I still care about this friend of mine a lot. Even when I don't call regularly. I still do. Some of us still don't know the difference between feeling cared for than actually being cared for. People can make you feel that they care about you but they do not really care about you, they might only be doing it to get something from you. Same thing with feeling loved than actually being loved. The fact that I call you everyday or chat with you everyday doesn't necessarily mean that I care, about you. I may only be doing it to get something and once I get it, I disappear without a trace! Personally, I make it a duty to send goodwill messages to all my friends and family every Friday just to make them know that I wish them luck in all their endeavours. Those who really know me know that even if I do not call very often, I still care. If there's anything really worth addressing, like a family problem or a situation of a friend who needs my help, that's a different case. You might not speak for months but if you need anything from me you're free to call and if I can help you in anyway, I would. I won't even think of it as "so it's because you need my help you called, you don't even call to check up on me!". I understand that everyone is busy living life and we all need to understand that please. There's this male friend of mine who once called and here's how our conversation went: ***friend: Assalamu Alaykum*** ***Layla: wa Alaykum Salam.*** ***Male friend :How've you been all this while?*** ***Layla: fine thank you!.... You?*** ***friend: fine thanks... Are you really okay?*** ***Layla:yeah sure!*** ***friend: are you sure?*** ***Layla: well to be honest, I am not okay...*** ***Friend(taken aback.. Stammers) : so what's the problem?*** ***Layla: tells him the problem*** ***Friend : wow.. Okay bye!*** This is a friend I know doesn't really care about me because of something that once happened, he simply asked to know if I am alright just to know what I am facing at the moment, not to offer any help, not to offer any advice, just to know for future references. I know that's what he wants and I still told him he problem because I do not really care. Some people call you to "check up on you" not because they really care but because they want you to feel like "this guy called to check up on me, therefore he cares about me, therefore he's my friend". I guess a lot of us know this but we choose to remain silent about it. The point I want all of us to not in the above conversation is that just because someone calls you often doesn't mean they care, and just because someone doesn't call you often doesn't mean that they don't care. Not to brag, but whenever I pray, I pray for all of my friends and family, including those who do not speak to me any more. Even those with whom I haven't spoken to for a long time, and to me that's the greatest amount of love and care you can show anyone. To talk to God about them, because sometimes even those who say they are fine aren't really fine. They don't just want to stress you but God knows all that's wrong with them, and He is in the best position to help them... not me. I am not sure what the reader's take on this is, but it's just because I am a person who isn't very interested in irrelevant and small talks generally. Sometimes I can be very talkative, sometimes I prefer utmost solitude. Sometimes I just want to be left alone. Sometimes I don't like picking calls, not because I am busy or snobbish, but because I don't just want to talk to anyone at the moment. Sometimes I don't even like people asking me how I am because most people are expecting pti to say "fine!" just like when they tell you "good morning" and you reply "morning!". "How are you? " is like a form of greeting nowadays and if you reply otherwise than "fine!" you appear weird. As for my friend who got offended because I haven't been calling to check up on her, I will ensure that I call her at least three times every week henceforth. If that will make her happy then I think it's worth it. Besides I can understand where she's coming from, she is someone who has told me a lot of her darkest secrets and you know, there tend to be a form of attachment to those with whom you share your secrets and it feels devastating when these people abandon you. Thanks for reading guys. Don't forget to include your loved ones in your prayers. Thank to all my subscribers, readers, up voters, commenters and awesome sponsors. Special thanks to @Khing14 for the sponsorship renewal. I am very grateful. Yours Layly, ❤❤❤❤

@DocLayla 22 February 2022

Survive this, you'll survive anything 2. Hahaha. Still on my crazy scary and maybe funny school experiences. Do you know that thieves and blakcmailers also exist among Spirits? Well that's how it seemed for me. Some of them are friendly while others are the mischievous kind. I will continue with the mischievous one then finish with the friendly one so that we can have a happy ending. Two-Cabin: Those who where among my earlt subscribers on read.cash already know about this spirit(that's if they haven't forgotten), nonetheless I will tell you all about it again. There's this kind of spirit that takes the form of a child when it's hungry. We call it aljani Two-Cabin. The reason for this name is that when it's hungry, it comes close to an open window or at the doorstep and then whispers to the closest student he sees "Two-Cabin", indicating "two" with its fingers. Now, **Cabin** is the brand name of a biscuit that was very popular back then and almost every student comes with it because of its sweetness and the fact that it goes well with tea. When this spirit comes to you and says "two cabin", it is expected of you to give it just two cabin biscuits, **not one. Not three.** If you give it less or more than the amount it demands, it gives you a resounding knock on your head, takes the two pieces of biscuits it demands and goes off without a trace. Some of my roommates who have attempted to please him by giving it more than two received head-knocks that left them with throbbinf headaches for day they started thinking they developed brain tumors lol. Personally I have seen this spirit only once but it didn't come to me. I saw it sitting at the base of a window, maybe it was planning to go rob a kid of "Two-Cabin" and it looked just as funny as its ways: white hair, very short, little feet and a mischievous smile plastered on its face. The Galloping horse : Unlike some other hostels in the school that constituted rooms, our hostel was a long hall divided into three compartments with the help of small fences. Sometimes at night, an invisible horse gallops from first compartment to the last compartment, then from last compartment to the first compartment, going back and forth repeatedly until it dies down on its own. How do I know its invisible? I have tried flashing it with my torchlight but all I kept hearing was galloping sound. How do I know it was a horse? Now no one can mistake the sound of a horse hooves on concrete, unless you haven't heard one before, plus, sometimes one could even hear it neighing. I guess that's enough evidence. A Bird I saw. Have you ever thought I'd be possible for a bird, the size of a human to exist? I never thought it was possible and still do not think it is possible. For a bird the size of a grown human to surface from nowhere could only mean one thing :it isn't really a bird, but something else. Now I am not really a superstitious person but all the things I am saying here are things I have seen with my two eyes, if that was really a bird then by all means, I would like to know more about it, besides I do not think Africa harbors such species of birds if at all there are. So this bird was standing on the roof of a hostel named Ado Bayero Hostel which was some distance away from out own hostel. It had large eyes like that of an owl and at the time I saw it I came out to ease myself again. When I saw it, I thought nothing of it and infact thought I was merely seeing things. I paid it no attention. I took a pee and just when I was about setting foot in my hostel, it flapped it wings, passing above me and off it went to God knows where. The force alone its wings produced made me fall to my knees because it I had tried to maintain my footing, it could have made me fall against my will. Even at that, I refused to believe what happened. It wasn't until the next day in class that I heard fellow classmates discussing it that I had to believe it. Some of them were saying that they saw it too when they came out to pee while those on whose roof it stood said they felt their roof crackling. I had no choice than to believe it but it was really a crazy experience. Till date the thought of it still gives me the creeps, especially the eyes. Fatalwa. The above is the name of a spirit. I haven't seen it with my eyes before but those who've seen it say that it is very tall that when you lift your head to see its face, all you see is Infinity. That means you only see the neck extending into space without any obvious image of a head. It's cry. I've only heard its cry. It sounds like it's mourning something because of how sorrowful it sounds. Sometimes a group of them gather together and cry in congregation. I think that's the only thing whose fear didn't dissappear up to the time I graduated from the school. The friendly ***aljani.*** This one is actually a possessor. We haven't seen it in its physical form before. We were only able to talk with it because it possessed one of our colleagues in school. Whenever it takes over the girl's consciousness, she becomes very friendly (this contrasts with her true nature as she's a kinda rude and snobbish girl), the voice changes to a male voice and it tells us very interesting stories...especially at night. The girl was finally rid of it after a cleric performed ***ruqiyya*** on her. Ruqiyya is a form of exorcism carried out by Muslims on people who have been possessed by genies or spirits by means of prayers and reciting the Quran. Thank you all for reading to this point. There is still alot to share about my school but I do not want to bore you with too much details. It was indeed hell living in that school, but not all of it was hell, it wax exciting too. 😊 To all my readers, sponsors, commenters and up voters I say a big thank you for being with me always. Special thanks to @Bloghound@foryoubtc09 and @BCH_LOVER for the sponsorship renewal. Layla is grateful. Yours Layly, ❤❤❤

@DocLayla 21 February 2022

Survive this, you'll survive anything. Do you still feel scared when you remember your most scary encounters? I bet you do!! There are things so spooky and scary that merely recalling them send chills down our spine. It means that such memories are still in our minds and are yet to be released. You might find it strange that a person just laughs when she remembers her past spooky experiences, well I do. I do laugh at my scary experiences because I did find them both funny and scary when they happened, but now the scare is gone, it remains only the laughing aspect. I attended a boarding high school that wasn't so close to the city. You can say that it is far away from normal civilization. It's just like they found a really really thick forest, cleared the center of the forest and then decide to build a school on it. Yeah, that's how far it was from civilization. They had no idea what forces where operating there before they cleared the area, no idea what it is they triggered in the process of building the school. Whatever the case, it seems the school was haunted by some unseen forces and still is. You know, no matter how bad something is, when you encounter it often I guess you'll adapt to it someday. When I was still there, I encountered alot of things on regular basis that it kinda got to a point where I developed an immunity against being scared by such stuff, or let's just say they minimized and instead of being scared, we started finding them funny. I am going to be sharing the most scary experiences I have had and how I survived them. Here we go! Enjoy! The Bush Baby. I have heard people call the bush baby an animal, and yes it could be, and the ones I see in our school look like animals but infact, they had this spooky aura around them that you could instantly sense something amiss with them. Maybe they were just normal animals whose bodies have been inhabited by unseen evil forces. One thing about the Bush baby is its cry which sounds just like the human baby's. I have had about two encounters with this creature. One was when it gave me a hot chase when I came back from the prep area late in the night, a chase I don't know till date how I managed to escape from. The other was when I saw it all curled up like a new born baby with its eyes reflecting the sunlight. Of course I left the place instantly to avoid the repetition of the first occurrence. ****Image Source**** https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://source.boomplaymusic.com/buzzgroup1/M00/12/6A/rBEevF8lxICARsc0AAMDjRPHJi0698.png&imgrefurl=https://www.boomplay.com/buzz/1295984&h=441&w=659&tbnid=A0UQv6_AluEr2M&q=bush+baby+in+nigeria&tbnh=92&tbnw=138&usg=AI4_-kTMHhQoJljThOSXMFVnRRxSscwwxA&vet=1&docid=8TE_Nk5JWYDYzM&client=ms-opera-mini-android&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi4m7uLr4_2AhVmzoUKHaybCyYQ9QF6BAgIEAY A lot of beliefs circle around this creature. Some people say they are capable of killing people, others say that they are spiritual creatures with spiritual powers, others even belief that they have some regenerative powers, that means they can help regenerate lost body parts. Whatever the case, I avoid them like the plague and will still run away if I were to see one right now! The Stop Hand Symbol. ****Image Source**** https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-opera-mini-android&channel=new&ei=MckSYuryCZSE9u8PtoqOsAQ&q=dark+palm+stop&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiqz8mzso_2AhUUgv0HHTaFA0YQ7Al6BAgEEA8&biw=360&bih=499 This is something I encountered personally and will never forget. There are times when I wake up to pee in the night and when I try entering into the toilet to pee, I see a hand signalling to me to stop. A hand that neither has a face nor a trunk. Just a palm... nothing else. Of course I was terrified out of my wits on my first encounter and I relayed it to my fellow hostel mates and they said it's something they know nothing about because they too experience it but do not know who is behind the hand. When it got too much, I just move to the next toilet or if I haven't the presence of mind to deal with such a situation, I all together avoid entering the toilet and just pee near a gutter at the back of my hostel. My thoughts now is **what would happen if a person still passes into the toilet despite the sign**? No one has ever tried that so I wouldn't know. The Invisible Volleyball Players: I first encountered this when I was in SS3. I was made captain prefect of my hostel then so it was my duty to make sure everyone sleeps in her bed. I developed a routine of waking up in the night to supervise the rooms, taking names of those who hadn't spend the night in their hostel for questioning. One day when I was doing my routine, I passed by the volleyball court beside the hostel and then I heard them. They were playing volleyball. They were invisible but I could here their voices repeatedly saying "hey pass me the ball" and other stuff you say when you're playing volleyball. One can even hear the ball bouncing on the concrete floor but neither the ball nor its players could be seen. I respectfully left the scene as soon as I noticed what I noticed and off I went to bed, drew my blanket up to my face, shivered for sometime before finally(fortunately!) falling asleep. ***Aljani Batoyi:*** *Aljani Batoyi* is a spirit that comes out when he's very angry. Of course no one knows the cause of his anger but what he does is that it comes out in the night (when he's angry), spits fire(as his way of venting) then go off! Just like that! "Aljani" means spirit in hausa language and Batoyi was his personal name I guess haha. I haven't personally encountered Aljani Batoyi but I have seen results his work. I have woken up several times to see pieces of burnt papers and clothes and sometimes even tree trunk. All these testify to his work. Those who have seen him say that he looks like a kite that isn't really a kite. More like a bat with a humanoid face with feathers that aren't really feathers but enlarged masses of loose skin. The sad story I heard was that two years after I graduated, two hostels in my Alma mater caught fire without a known or obvious cause, seven lives were lost and the school had to be shut down for about two months. The students blamed it on *Aljani Batoyi* but who believes such stories nowadays? Even if they believe them, how do you catch a spirit? The unharmed witnesses of the inferno claimed that it started from a single mattress, just like that, and them as if by magic, another mattress from another compartment of the hostel caught fire and so it spread. I cried when this happened because two girls who were so close to me when I still there where caught up in the fire and lost their lives. I still got alot to share on these experiences and I hope to continue tomorrow. I hope you enjoyed reading them. Stay tuned. Thanks for reading. Yours layly, ❤❤❤❤

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@DocLayla 20 February 2022

One way or sleeping less and doing more. It seems the days are alternating with respect to weather. While yesterday was a sunny and hot, today is cold and dry; perfect for a Sunday! I don't really know if it's as a result of the weather but I slept alot than usual making me skip my routine of jogging and skipping a rope for 15 minutes every morning. I feel too tired right now and I also feel like my day isn't complete. This makes me remember an article I read by @Champion on read.cash yesterday about sleep and exercise. I have always been a person who needs to sleep more than the average person before I will be able to function of sleep, I mean everybody loves sleep but mine was a bit inclined to the extreme. I could sleep for 10 to 12 hours on free days and on normal days, I used to do 10 or 8 if I don't sleep much. However I came to realize when I entered the university that I couldn't continue like this. If I continue with my sleeping habits, I wouldn't be very productive and since the course I am studying is very demanding, with countless hours of lectures and alot of reading to do, I was left with no choice. At first, I had no idea how to go about it and fail anytime I tried sleeping less, I'd end up sleeping on top of my textbooks and even lectures. It was annoying because it was something I wanted to change but it just wasn't working. If little time was dedicated to attending lectures during the day then it might have been possible, but having up to 10 hours dedicated to lectures every week day leaves one no option but to use the night as one's study time, so things had to change. On the day I read an elaborate material on sleep and exercise, my Cardiovascular physiology lecturer happened to discuss something on it in his next lecture(I think I have mentioned something about this in some article though😂). He was fine of telling us stories about when he was a medical student like us and how he managed sleeping and studying. He used to sleep alot just like me(so he said), but ever since he discovered that exercise is not only good for the body, but can also supplement sleep. This means that if you used to sleep for 8 hours in a day to function normally, you can cut it down to 6 or 5 hours in a day and then you engage in rigorous exercise for 15 to 20 minutes. Preferably, a person can exercise before he sleeps(that's what I do). In school, my sleeping hours are from 8pm to 12pm(4 hours). What I do just before bedtime is to get my boots, then go jogging for at least 15 minutes, I ensure that I sweat alot and become fatigued, then I take my bath and then go off to bed. The physiological basis behind this is that during rigorous exercises, the body releases endorphins. These endorphins are chemicals that has a similar function serotonin with respect of keeping a person awake. Since your muscles become fatigued when you exercise, you woupd want to sleep. All these coupled with the vasodilation(dilation of blood vessels to release more heat) due to increased heartbeats makes you feel cool inside. When you take a bath and sleep, the quality of the sleep you get in four hours will equal that a person who doesn't exercise gets in 8 hours.. besides sleep is more about the quality than the quantity. You will then able to function normally even with little amount of sleep. I have been trying this ever since I came to know about it and honestly, it has helped me a great deal. If you're a person who has a busy schedule and finds it diffi ult to get sufficient sleep but has to cope with the task at hand, this method may come in handy for you, making you more productive hence raising you achievement level. You can thank me later. 😂😜 I used to think that I can't stop my sleeping habit but in life, you get put in a, situation where things have to change whether you like it or not, it forces us to look for solutions wherever they are. If we're lucky enough, we find them and become better versions of ourselves. Thanks for reading. Yours Layly, ❤❤❤❤😁

@DocLayla 19 February 2022

Luna. It has been an extremely sunny day, so sunny that I momentarily thought we skipped a season haha(it's the cold season so we don't expect so much sun). My sister joked that it had to be sunny because it is a "Fry-day" and the sun was frying us. Anyways it's over now and as late as it is now, I am still the only person who hasn't falling asleep in the house, alone with my friend, the moon. I have always been fascinated by nature's gifts to mankind. I believe all naturally occurring phenomena; the stars, the moon, the sun, trees, plants, flowers, wind, the sky, rain and even animals are to serve as constant reminders of how blessed we are by Nature. Along the line I abandoned my beliefs and I am grateful that I am rediscovering them. It feels very peaceful indeed. It feels like reconnecting with who you really are, making you more grounded than you once were. Of all natural phenomena, I find the moon the most thrilling of all. When I was young girl, I would sit for hours with my baby doll staring at the moon. I feel like we are having some sort of conversation only we can hear and comprehend. It gives me the feeling of being in love. The excitement, the joy and all that comes with it. I fell in love with the moon. When I am sad, I wait for night to fall and then climb up to the top floor, there I stare at the moon and feel it caress my soul, ridden me of all my pain, engaging me in deep soul conversations and then say, "Layla, everything will be okay". Even when I abandoned her, she still remains with me. During the day time when all there's is sun without a trace of moon, I still feel her presence somewhere within my heart. As kids, we all once thought that the moon was following us when we're walking and look up, until we grew older and later realized that it wasn't exactly the case. For me, I still have the feeling the the moon follows me wherever I go, even when it is a moonless night, I find it within me. There's always something lacking in us that causes a certain feeling of emptiness at times, we might have all we think we ever wanted but still this emptiness would remain, then we spend the rest of our lives looking for something or someone that would fill in that emptiness. Some of us succeed in that journey, others die while still searching. Let the Crescent remind you that even if you might not be whole, do not forget to shine bright, no matter dark the night may be, and bear with conviction in your heart that someday you will be whole again. When she goes through phases, I do not abandon her. When I go through phases, she doesn't abandon me. **When your friends go through phases, do not abandon them.** Like the moon, know no fear. Be as fearless as a lion, and relentless in achieving your goal. I was thought in my physics class that the moon isn't a luminous object because it actually reflects light from the sun meaning that it obtains its light from the sun. That doesn't make it fear the sun, it allocates to the sun it's respect by letting it shine when it's it time, but whenever the sun tries to infringe in its time, She fights him by creating an eclipse haha. Yeah, that's actually the moon engaging in an argument with the sun. She sometimes turns bright red to show its anger and she always wins, no matter what. That's a lesson I learnt from Luna, the moon. Another thing I learnt from Luna is never to abandon my friends. When it's early morning and the sun starts rising, she wakes me up so that I can catch the last glimpse of her to start my day with, reminding me that she hasn't completely abandoned me, that, she will be back in the night. She comes eventually, sometimes with starts to make out conversation more interesting, sometimes alone if we need to be alone. Whatever the case maybe, she never disappoints. The moon is a home for both lonely and lively souls, the moon is a home for all. I long for the day a road will appear, leading me to her directly, the day I will become one with my moon, my Luna. Thanks for reading.

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@DocLayla 17 February 2022

"Justice". It's been two days since we embarked on the one month warning strike. Well..not actually "we" but ASUU(Acadamic Staff Union of Universities). We still had alot of activities going on in the clinic that's why I hadn't been active of late but I am back now with full zest as I am now home. Today I am going to be talking about "justice" and how this term is used and misused by alot of us. Justice has been made to suit only what we think is right. If we do not think what us being done is right then that's not justice. An anime I watched earlier today's after coming back from school prompted me to write something on this. The name of this anime is the **death** **note**. A young boy known as Yagami Light who happened to pick up the notebook of a death god who accidentally flung it into the human world. This notebook has the pose to kill whoever has his name written in its pages. Yagami found out the secret of this book and started using to it pass judgments on criminals in the name of justice...on his own; his motivation being to make this world a better and safer place, devoid of all crime and unrest. He even proceeded to kill anyone who opposes him or tries to investigate him including the police and FBI... **In the** **name** **of** **justice**...he was caught and he died in the end. ..In the name of justice... Who are you to judge those who do what they do? What does it mean when we refer to the law to pass on judgment to evil people? Do you have any right to take on the rule of the law and become the law itself? Now if you were to have existed in Yagami light's world, what would you think of him? This isn't about him doing the right thing or not, but about him being in the position to do or pass on justice. If we look into society, alot of us have witnessed one form of jungle justice or the other. There's a story I heard that happened in Lagos where a young boy who was caught stealing garri was instantly incinerated to death without any hesitation. Does he deserve to be killed? Even if he deserved that, is it our place to pass that judgment? Is that justice? If the law cannot serve justice, how capable do you think you're of doing so? We not only judge by our actions, but also by our words. You do something today that doesn't sit down well with some people and they start throwing tantrums, if they were given the privilege to do something about your actions, they won't hesitate to pass judgment but true to their hearts they would think that it is justice. It turns out that these days justice is subjective rather than objective. In passing judgements we let our sentiments affect what justice really is, and we end up concluding stuff that aren't really what they are. After several thoughts on this subject of Justice, I have come to realize that we humans are nearly incapable of being extremely just, all we can really do is try, but again, alot of us do not even try to measure up to justice when we are in the position to do so. If Yagami Light succeeded, do you think the world would have been free from crime? Do not forget that real freedom only comes when we the fear of what might happen is way lesser than the willingness to actually give up what causes the unrest in the first place. If we're doing things because we fear punishment, then that doesn't mean that society has been totally freed from evil. It means that when giving a chance it will rise again. Killing people is a way of solving a problem, but that doesn't always serve justice. Thanks for reading. I am sorry for being absent for the past three to four days, these days have really been hectic. Yours Layly, ❤❤❤❤

@DocLayla 13 February 2022

The lizard and rat analogy. The lizard and rat were best friends and like best friends, they do everything to tether. They eat together, sleep together and play together; a real definition of the inseparable. What made the friendship all the more marvelous was how they managed to maintain a good friendship despite their differences. My awesome sponsors. On this fateful sunny day, these two friends were taking a stroll in the forest and then they came across a lake. The lake looked enticing and very clean and since it was sunny, the lizard suggested that they take a bath so as to feel refreshed. The rat thought it was an awesome idea and before you know it, they were both in the water, splashing and singing all over the place. One could tell that they were enjoying their bath. Sokn after the bath which didn't last for long, they got out of the lake and were set to continue their stroll. Just then, the rat became shivering convulsively. At first, the rat thought it was something he could contain but as it got worse, he couldn't even stand on his feet anymore. He soon collapsed and shivered like mad as the fur on his body stood on edge. Seeing this, his friend the lizard became scared out of his wits as he tried to bring his friend back to normal. He rubbed his limbs and belly to increase the blood flow but it seemed that was futile. Luckily for him, Mr tortoise was passing along the route at that time after collecting some wood for his wife. He saw the situation and assessed it. He then called on Lizard to help lit some of the wood he's collected to provide sufficient warmth for the rat. After alot of wood had been burned, they managed to bring him back to consciousness and he was then taken home for further care. When he recovered, rat vowed to himself never to have anything to do with a lake nor any other water body for that matter. He then realized that he was of a completely different nature from his friend the lizard. His nature doesn't provide him any resistance to the effects of water whereas the lizard's nature ensured that he doesn't have a problem with that. Despite them being best friends, it doesn't really mean they have to be the same in every aspect. They sure must be differences. Just because something works for someone doesn't mean it would work for you. In the above story there are two things to learn: 1.Respect, acknowledge the differences you have from those you care about. Just because something works for someone doesn't mean it would work for you too. There's a saying in my language that can be translated as, "if a person dances in a market and had money sprayed on him as a sign of appreciation, you might get beaten by those same people if you dance in that same market". This simply means that your friend's way may be totally different from yours. That doesn't mean anything as long as you still care and love each other. Knowing the differences. Let me sight an example with myself. I and my best friend are in the same school and infact studying the same course. I bet you might start thinking that since we both study same course then we read together but that's not the case. We do everything else together save studying. Infact I can say that I hate studying with her because the mode of study is not the same. While she's a person who grasp things faster when she reads out loud, I prefer silence. She scribble on her blotter as she studies, I do that after I study, and many other differences. We still ask ourselves about things we've read, but never reading together. What works for you. When we were in secondary school and were preparing to write JAMB(for my non-Nigerian friends JAMB is an examination that you must pass in order to gain admission into the university), alot of my colleagues then were busy applying for Medicine and Surgery and engineering simply because their friends where doing the same. They failed to assess themselves before venturing into such things. They simply went "since my friend is going to study that, then I will go the same". At the end of the day they end up not meeting to the requirements or even if they get the admission, they become unable to keep up and they get withdrawn. What works for someone might not necessarily work for you. Know thyself. Thanks for reading. Yours Layly, ❤❤❤

@DocLayla 12 February 2022

How I accidentally sent BCH to a wrong BCH address You know they say when you have plans for something and it doesn't go as expected, it hurts more than when you do not have any plans for it. I just made a very terrible mistake I am not very proud of in sending money from badger wallet to my binance account. I initially used to use bitcoin.com wallet but ever since I changed my phone a week ago due to a damaged engine on the last one, it seems I couldn't access the app anymore. Whenever I tried downloading it from playstore I don't even see its name pop up but instead I see other wallets I am not very familiar with, when I finally got it on playstore, they said that my phone, isn't compatible with the version that's available on playstore. It came as a surprise because the phone I am using now is the same phone version as the one I was once using before I bought this one. So I thought maybe it was the app version that was updated. I decided to opt for badger wallet and it seemed kinda different. At first it looked strange but I later came to understand it, or so I thought. I transfered $25 from my readcash wallet to badger wallet and it went just fine. First step done! I then tried send the money to my binance wallet but then it turned out that badger bitcoincash wallet doesn't transfer through legacy address and binance addresses are all legacy. But when I was using bitcoin. Com wallet it really didn't matter as I could transfer to legacy address. This was entirely different with badger wallet so I tried scanning the QR code of my binance wallet address but still, it didn't work. I transferred the funds from my badger wallet back to my readcash address to see if there was an option that converts legacy to cashaddr because I couldn't find that on binance either. I thought maybe readcash catered for that, so I tried it out. I pasted binance legacy address directly on my readcash and it showed me a link where I could convert it to cashaddr address and that's where I amsw the mistake. As I clicked on the conversion link I was presented with an address. Unknown to me, it was only a sample. It looked too similar to my binance legacy address so I just copied the corresponding cashaddr address thinking it was mine. I pasted it on my badger wallet and transfered the funds to the address. I had to wait for funds to arrive in my wallet thinking they are awaiting confirmation. I waited for about an hour and then after nothing came, I rechecked the address and realized that it was the wrong address. What pained the most was that I had urgent plans to settle with the funds but I guess I have learnt my lesson now. I now know how to use badger wallet and that is a knowledge gained I guess. The reason I had been gathering the money is that I wanted to pay for my documentation which is soon to close. I don't like disturbing my family about every single thing I might need, but since it turns out to be like this and I don't wanna get penalized for not paying the miney before the deadline, I guess I've got no other choice. It was a terrible mistake on my part. I hope I do not make such again. Thanks for reading guys. Yours Layly, 😊😊

@DocLayla 11 February 2022

Fear in death. What is it that you fear about death? Is it how unexpected it comes, like a thief in the night, snatching away the souls of our loved ones? Is it how silently it comes and before you know it, you're gone?.. Or is it about its uncertainty about when it will reach each and everyone of us? What is it to be feared actually :death or living a life without meaning? There's this quote I once read or heard somewhere I can't quite remember, it goes thus, "the most scary thing in this life is not death, but a life without meaning." There's a bossom friend of mine I was having a deep conversation with (we do have such conversations from time to time) yesterday and we were talking about life in general. One topic led to nanither and she asked me if I would want to live long, of course I replied with a positive answer and I asked her the same question and her reply was "I do not want to live that long". It doesn't sound so strange because I am aware that there are people who do not want to live that long but her reason was what really got me. Her reason was that "I am afraid of living long because then life will be uninteresting, and then it wouldn't be worth living anymore". That struck me big time. For all of us, there's a time that comes and you feel life is not worth licing. Sometimes we boincs back up and other times, we bury ourselves in that situation and we seem to be just existing, not really living. That's worse than death because then, you're alive but you're **alive**. A madman whose mental condition isn't going to get any better is sometimes not considered as a human being. A madman who roams the streets has seized to stop living and is merely existing, he's lost all his beliefs, . He doesn't have any goals in life, he doesn't have any dreams..nothing.. He just carry out all natural activities but is not really living. Most of us during our struggling years, those years were we feel like there's really nothing going on in our lives and we used to feel this emptiness within us that we strive so desperately to fill, those times when we were still trying to plant firmly our beliefs and values, those times when you keep failing and failing because you do not know who you really are. Remember those times? Well... With the current level of being you've achieved know, if you feel you are regressing to that stage in your life, wouldn't you feel like you're dying? If you still have that fear in you about going back to that stage in your life, would you consider the choice of dying rather than regressing? Have you ever imagine how you would feel if at the point of your death, you realize that all you've ever wanted to achieve in life have been achieved? Will you feel happy about dying or sad? Although that sounds very impossible as human beings are always with the next goal at hand. They always want to achieve something, they keep striving to achieve other things and we all die in with the intention or in the course of trying to achieve something, but I think it would feel damn good if you achieve the most important things in your life just before your death. When I say achievement, I am not singling out any firm of it. Achievement means different things for different people. Not necessarily money or the job they've always wanted but it also includes being a happy person and being at peace with everybody, yourself included. So dear reader, would you rather have a long life or live a short meaningful one? Thanks for reading. Special thanks to @GarrethGrey07 for the sponsorship renewal. I am very grateful.

@DocLayla 10 February 2022

We move!! Life's situations always find a way to remind us of certain realities when we start slipping. Even when we're still on the right track, we never fail to see something that remember us of some of our values or those things we know are the reality. Sometimes after these kind of experiences, it becomes more ingrained in our mind where we never forget it. That's one of the uses of those religious books you see: the Holy Bible, the Holy Quran and the Scriptures. We know most of the things in these books but we still refer to them, just to remind ourselves of certain things. My awesome sponsors I thank you all from the bottom of my heart So, I had been as broke as a beggar today and my big brother sent me some money. I went outside the school to the nearby ATM machine outside school since it seemed like all the ATM machines in the school have held a meeting not to dispense any money tonight. After withdrawing the money on my way back from school, something terrible happened. Something that happens all the time but still we always get shocked when it happens right in front of our eyes....a motor accident!! It happened right in front of my eyes immediately after I've crossed the road. Although I was so shocked that I immediately fell to my feet, I caught a glimpse of something quite terrible. A car with people inside came with full speed towards a tricycle who also had passengers in it, hitting it with full force from behind. The tricycle hit another tricycle in front of it with a force lesser than the one with which it was hit. It was like a chain reaction. The front of the car was crushed while the tricycle with which the car had a direct impact with looked like it collapsed. The se one tricycle only had a deformity at its rear. The passengers in the tricycle were very lucky as they managed to realize what was happening just before it completely collapsed and they, including the driver, quickly hopped out of the tricycle. They had injuries though. The driver had a very big injury to his head and to his back while the two passengers managed to escape with injuries to their legs only.. at least that's all I noticed at that time. A beautiful elderly woman in the car that did the hitting also got affected as well as well as the driver. I wasn't quite sure what was the matter with the woman but it seems her leg was also affected because I saw her holding unto a packed motorcycle nearby and crying. The driver was rolling on the floor, it seemed to me it affected him really badly. While all these was happening, I looked up and realized that no other vehicles stopped. Even those who stopped only stopped to view and they were all gone in an instant. Vehicles kept moving and moving because they all have a destination they are heading to and then it struck me, ***"the world never stops because you're in a bad predicament"***. Of course this is a universal truth but the reason I "re-realised" it was that there's something that I am terribly holding on to and it seems to keep going away. It made me connect my situation to what just happened and I just smiled. Each and every one of those vehicles on the road have a destination they're trying to get to. Even the ones involved in the accident had destinations before they were met with the accident, and they will never fail to keep up on the route of their destination once they've gotten over it. The truth is that no one stops their own journey just for you as the world is a race and everyone feels they need to move fast. Everyone is going somewhere and you are either part of journey or you're not. You are either a motivator or a hindrance, either way, the journey continues. We never stop moving on this life. If those people had died in the motor accident it wouldn't have changed a thing. Infact their loved ones will still eat.. Humans always find a way of moving. We move!!! Talking about how short and sometimes seemingly meaningless life is, anytime I see a cadaver, I always think "this guy once had a family, he once had loved ones and those who cared about him, he once had a life but now, he is just a cadaver used for teaching student gross Anatomy." It sucks sometimes and you feel like there's nothing to this life. Once you're gone your story is over. No matter how much you think you're loved by people, no matter how much you think you matter, no matter how much you think you're special, all will come to pass and you'll eventually be forgotten. Sometimes you don't even have to die to be forgotten, so what's the point of not enjoying life? No like seriously!! This served as a reminder for me and right now, I feel like I have completely let go of that thing that has been disturbing me. It is really not worth it, and to you to dear reader, that thing that has been disturbing you matters, but it doesn't matter to the extent that you shut down important aspects of your life just for it. Leant to move on. As for the victims of the accidents, I and other passers-by offered whatever help we could offer at that time. Luckily there was a chemist shop nearby and I assisted on dressing the wound of the tricycle driver. The school hospital was the closest so they were taken there and I hope they get better soon. Thank you for reading.

@DocLayla 9 February 2022

They have their own life too.. Do you love your parents? Of course you do! I say that no matter how bad a parent is you can't always hate them. You may not like them and they may not like you, but that parent - children type of love is always present, even if it is yet to be awakened. Our parents always want the best for us, they want us to grow up to be good ambassadors of our family, the community and the world in general. They go through the pain of nurturing us till the age when we have a mind of our own, when we are able to make those big decisions that determine the direction towards which the rest of our lives will stir. Still, some of our parents seek to gain control over those life changing decisions despite knowing that we are old enough to live our own life.. We only have life to live and it is very enough if you love it well.. Alot of us are living our parents life even though they have lived theirs already. It is okay to as parents to advice our children on what is right and what is wrong, besides that's one of our duties as parents but some parents still choose to exert their wills on their children, making them do what their minds are not into, thus wasting a portion of their life.. Meet my awesome sponsors, thank you for your continuous support. Let me tell you a little story which infact prompted me to write something on this : *A level 600(final year) medical student in our university just stopped coming to school. Just like that. He is a very sociable and friendly person so his course mates immediately took notice of his absence. They tried calling his phone but he didn't pick any of their calls and them, sensing that something wrong might have happens to him, went to the house he rented off campus. They asked him what the matter was and told them that he never wanted to be a medical doctor. His wanted to be a pilot but his parents forced him to study medicine. That he is tired of living his parents dreams, that he is depressed, that even if he had made it through each and every level that he would not feel fulfilled as a medical doctor. He wasn't satisfied and he feels like something is missing in his life.* *His course mates tries to beg him to come and continue, even if it means getting only the degree with no intention of practicing but he refused. They had no option than to leave him alone as he pleases.* What is there to learn about this story? Apart from the fact that the guy here in question made it through every level and didn't fail, he felt like something was missing. Now thing of all the people who tried getting into medical school but weren't opportune and had to take a different route in life. Some people want to become doctors for the passion of it, some want to do it for the prestige that comes with it, others want to do it to gain future favors. All have their reasons to go into whatever field of study they want to. You get my point here right? My point is it doesn't really matter what amount of respect a feild of study comes with or what people think. If your mind is not into it, then go do what your heart cries out for!! Now what have the parents gain by forcing their son to study what wasn't his passion. After wasting 6 years of his life in medical school while they could just let him become the pilot he wanted to be, they are now disappointed in him, (when it is themselves they should be dissapointed in). Some of our parents(especially Asian and African parents) want us to become lawyers, doctors, engineers and other "respectable" courses but fail to consider or even listen to what our own interests are. All they are doing it for is to boast and say "my son/daughter is a doctor /lawyer /engineer etc while the son/daughter might be interested in music or something else. If things go wrong, parents would be responsible although some times they fail to admit it. Let them choose. It's their life not ours. Thanks for reading. With this, I will like to end this article with a poem about "children" by Kahlil Gibran. "*Your children are not your children.*      *They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.*      *They come through you but not from you,*      *And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.*      *You may give them your love but not your thoughts,*      *For they have their own thoughts.*      *You may house their bodies but not their souls,*      *For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.*      *You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.*      *For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.*      *You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.*      *The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.*      *Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;*      *For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable."* *Kahlil Gibran, author of The Prophet, was born January 6, 1883, in Bsharri, Lebanon.*

@DocLayla 8 February 2022

Is it really worth it? The law they say is above all: old or young, rich or poor, big or small. Despite this, there are those whom we assume or see as custodians of the laws of the land, despite them being custodians, the law is still above them. When these custodians don't try their best to uphold the law, it's being devalued, if worse than that, they engage in breaking the laws they should be protecting, the law becomes something that a pig could spit on, a donkey can trample on and a dog can gnaw at. If this becomes the case, is it worth it that we as individuals uphold the law? Is it worth the time and effort we put into abiding by each and every single law that seem not to matter anymore because those who should be in custody do not give a damn? Earlier today, something happened in town and all what I just typed in the first paragraph were what flashed in my mind. A group of road traffic personell were busy doing their job which is to control the traffic, ensuring that road users abide by each and every laid down rules and regulations that should be functional on the road. A particular road traffic worker was busy doing his job. After stopping approaching cars on one side of the road to let other vehicles on the other side of the road to pass, a vehicle from the side he stopped refused to stop and it kept approaching. This road traffic user noticed it and beckoned a warning to the man to stop. The man, who happened to be a non-citizen didn't heed the warning and he kept approaching, attempting to go his way before he was given an indication to do so. That angered the road traffic worker and he moved close to the car, tapped loudly on the bunnet and out of that same anger, the driver of that care cleared him! He overrode him and killed him. Just like that! Of course, the driver of the car didn't stop and he was given a hot chase by other traffic workers, as well as some other road users. He was caught eventually after a seemingly endless chase and was given a good beating. The man showed no remorse because he is quite sure that he will get away with what he has done. In fact I can, even say that I am surer than him. If not jungle justice, there's no way the man won't get away with it. As soon as he gets taken to court then the case is as good as dead. On the day of Army Remembrance that took place on the 15th of January, wives of the late soldiers took to the street to protest about how the government have neglected them, about how their husbands have been killed in the process of fighting for the country but then, the government never acknowledged them for once and have abandoned them all together. I asked myself, "that road traffic worker who was killed knew very well that if he gets killed, it wouldn't matter much to the government then why did he have to take such risk in the name of " duty? " He cannot do his job well unless he has complete assurance that the so called government he is serving will protect him. Since they aren't protecting the law, he too cannot uphold the law the way it ought to be upheld in this case. The least they would ask the man killer to do is to pay the *diyya*(*an amount of money paid to the deceased family by the offender who killed him accidentally)* but that too seems avoidable these days. If those who are supposed to uphold the law become negligent of their duties due to whatever reasons, eventually lawlessness in the land ensues. When this happens, everyone feels like they can get away with anything and then chaos ensues and then... The society rots away until it comes to an inevitable end. Thanks for reading.

@DocLayla 7 February 2022

A supposed "holiday!" Today is a holiday meaning that it's a lecture free day! But do you know that, despite that nothing changed at all?! It felt way more busy that other Mondays with a lot of activities in them. The Academic Staff Union of Universities of Nigeria(ASUU) declared the seventh of February 2022 a public holiday as a warning indication to the federal government. They are set to embark on an indefinite strike if their demands aren't met. Well...that means the whole of today is supposed to be a free day but it wasn't so free for me, and I believe other students of my class will say same because instead of resting, we were caught unawares by the impromptu announcement from the biochemistry department demanding we all submit our practical reports within a very short time, this made everyone prepare for what they hadn't anticipated, and we had to do all the practical reports today and submit the same day! A day that I had plans for soon turned out to be just like any other Monday, full of work and the stress that comes with it, but still, I guess I will still try to squeeze some holiday spirit out of the day. It's not the end of the world. The weather seems friendly. Although it's the cold season here it is neither dry nor cold today, just a little bit hazy and I think a nosemask will solve all that. So I am thinking of going to take a walk as soon as I am done with today's tasks. **Sleep**. That **really** had to be on my list for today, but unfortunately I had to exclude it because of my plans which has been blown away by the unexpected practical, but then some people who love sleep much more than I do managed to get some under the department's staircases. 😂 The above person is a male course mate of mine who according to him, he had only had 5 hours sleep in the past three days. He couldn't take it anymore and he slept... Under the staircase. In the meantime we are almost done with the reports. The next item is to conduct the next practicals and then we'd be done for the day. Then I can get that walk I want to get, then I can get that sleep I desire to get. Sometimes due to all the stress, but expected and unexpected, I wish ASUU will make up their mind and embark on that strike they have been issuing threats to the federal government about just so I can get a moment respite and be free of all these, but still, it is just a matter of time and one day it will all come to an end. Just trust the process. So enough of the rants. How have you all been reads tars! I haven't been able to post anything yesterday and the day before because I had a very terrible problem with my phone and it affected the engine. All my very important files that I faulted to care to copy to my laptop where all lost as I had to replace it with a functioning one. My phone has been giving me a lot of poblems lately and I am trying to gather just enough to purchase a new one. Yayy! I just got my first three-figure worth of subscribers!! I got a hundred subscribers already! Thank you all for the love. It wouldn't have been possible without you all. Ugghh! It's my round for the practicals already! Gotta go. Thanks for reading. 💕💕💕

@DocLayla 5 February 2022

The sponsorship came as a surprise @francis105d1. I really appreciate it. More grace.