CHINA TORI

So I decided to leave. I knew I had to. Waking up next to him every morning for the past four months and dealing with chores each day was fast becoming boring.

My spirit kept ministering to me that a change of environment would do me a world of good, especially as we were beginning to get into the habit of falling out every weekend. I heeded and traveled to stay with my uncle and his family.

Truth is, I expected my cousins to disappoint me this time but they didn’t. I met a real mess when I got to my uncle’s house. Everywhere looked and smelled very bad. They have been urinating on their mattress and have refused to wash up; the sitting room even looked like it had not been swept in days.

The first thing my spirit ministered? Go back to him! I swear I wanted to. I need to state at this point that if you have to live with my kind of cousins, your other name would be ‘stressed’. They are a lazy and nonchalant bunch. Nothing in this world bothers them; every advice given always fall on deaf ears.

With one leg out and the other in, I analyzed my predicament. I knew my mother won’t accept this ‘disgrace’, and going back to him? I’d be a coward. So, I stepped in and stayed the next four days on my spirit’s advice; “take care of the sitting room and kitchen and close your eyes to the rest”.

One evening my uncle spoke up, “China, you tidied everywhere the last time you visited, would you please do it again?”. I wasn’t sure I wanted to but my spirit ministered that it will make my uncle happy. So I set out the next morning to clean up.

I spent 5 hours doing what will make my uncle happy. I dealt with knives, beads, forks, buttons, needles, dust and bottles in all the odd places not crayons and books as in other children’s rooms. In the end, a broken piece of bottle tore my left hand open.

I watched as blood streamed down my hand and waited patiently for rage to build up in my spirit, and when it didn’t, I had to ask why. My spirit ministered, “it is not sacrifice when something of worth hasn’t left you”.

I was about to continue working when it stopped me and said “for the ones we love, living connotes constant giving. To make the world a better place, we have to start from our homes, and this means, sacrificing and finding joy in doing so”.

So, I packed my bag and left my uncle a note; “I’m going back home to my husband”.