Sometimes We Need Reminding

sometimes i can't be creative with subtitles

A picture of the sunset after a rainy day in October 2022, Osogbo, Osun State, Southwest Nigeria.

Last night, I saw a status update of a brief piano performance of “Turn your eyes upon Jesus”, and it reminded me of Lauren Daigle’s cover of the song, which is really the reason I like the Hymn so much. This opened up a lot of memories, and this morning, as I listened to Lauren Daigle’s Album “Look Up Child”, and I thought to myself, “how could I have forgotten how much I love Lauren Daigle’s music?”.

It broke my heart a little because for some years in my life Lauren Daigle was a big part of my music, “Look Up Child” (the track, not possibly the album) was my ringtone for a long time, and now I haven’t listened to her music with intention in a long, long time.

Listening to the Look Up Child Album woke so many feelings and was a lot of comfort. A very beautiful project and an incredible artist behind it.

That experience is the origin of this piece. This is one of the fortunate cases where I can trace my thoughts to the very start. In many cases, with my thoughts, I’m never able to connect origins to end points or even remember origin. And so as you proceed in this piece, don’t find it weird if the beginning doesn’t flow logically with the rest. It’s how thoughts flow.

That experience led me to think of how we need to be reminded of things, because if I never listened to the Album, I would never have been reminded of what warmth that Album gave me. Our mind is fickle, we forget things, or we don’t remember them as they really were, or diminish our experiences. Our lives are filled with so much activity, information, constant motion and daily hurdles such that we are so quick to discountenance what we’ve known in the light of our present, and we fail to acknowledge all that history as part of our truth.

We constantly need reminding that we are loved, that we are up to the task, that we are capable of so much more, that we are beautiful, that we can be adventurous, that we are strong, or that we are capable of kindness.

This thought also led me to think of a google doc of an email draft from January 2024 that I had stumbled upon yesterday (a few hours before the status update). It is my practice to first draft my emails in a google doc and never on my email app first. It was a draft of my response to a friend that I no longer speak with as much. Since we stopped talking, when I think of them, I think of how they suddenly weren’t an active presence after they occupied a presence in my life. However, reading that email draft also reminded me of their intentionality and what a good presence they were. A part of knowing them that I recently have found easy to gloss over. If you’re wondering what gender has the pronoun “they”, it’s the gender that’s “prefer not to say” in forms. Hahaha!

Sometimes, we need people to remind us of what we’ve been and what we are, but we also have a primary duty of reminding ourselves. To remind yourself, you must have a true account that you can return too. This requires capturing and saving your life and living in whatever form you can. For me, one way is pictures. I don’t take lots of pictures of myself or allow them to be taken so much, but I capture everything around me. The skies, water bodies, trees, people, things I find funny, screenshot everything, everything, especially in that moment when I am moved deeply or lightly by them or form a sentimental value.

Unintentionally, this has helped me create something to return to. So when I feel unmotivated about my life and career, I stumble on a screenshot of a webinar I paid for with my money on something academic, and I am reminded that I have it in me to be disciplined and committed and passionate. Or a screenshot from back when I used Boomplay as my streaming platform that reminds me that Alicia Keys was once my favourite artist or that I loved Roxette.

Find a way to capture yourself, so you don’t forget yourself. Your memory is that fickle. Write about your experiences, your feelings, your moments. Take pictures, make videos and very importantly, talk about it. Share yourself, especially the parts of you that otherwise would never be known.

For me, It’s the lives I have lived that reminds me of the infinite possibilities that lie ahead.

I do not fail to consider that the past might not be a pleasant memory or something you want to be reminded of, perhaps for you, It’s going to be proof of how far you have come and what you don’t want to be going forward.