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March 2017

Playlist,

Ore’s Playlist March 2017





I wasn’t going to have a playlist this month because of the ongoing series ‘’Headphone & Epiphanies’’ and because I didn’t listen to music a lot this month, I am trying to practice the teachings of Brother Lawrence presented by Steve Case in the book ‘’God is here Connect’’, he teaches not to glorify the means we use to connect to God, understanding that the means can only carry us for so long.


So I tried to connect to God without music, in my thoughts, prayers and conversation with people, in the course of the month I realised that songs began to mean new things to me, the lyrics felt like I had never listened to them and I saw more of God, not only in the songs but in my everyday life, through  my emotions and in my daily struggles. I really enjoyed the joy and peace of God even on bad days, and this month had a truck load of bad days, but what I have learnt and I pray I never forget is to take the deliberate steps to dwell always in the presence of God even in the most mundane moments.


  • Elevation Worship – There is a Cloud: I am a ‘’next phase’’ kind of girl, I am always thinking of what comes after and I tend to lose hope when I can’t see what is coming. This song reminds me to have hope, to understand that God has got me covered always.


  • Elevation Worship – O Come to the Altar: This song reminds me of God’s great love for us that we can always come to him in any state we are and we will be accepted. I don’t think  a reminder of God’s love is ever too much, if anything, I think we don’t talk about it enough.


  • Elevation Worship – Do it Again: Many times we forget God’s sovereign power, we can’t see pass the mountain in front of us, the song sings of God’s faithfulness and reassurance in God’s sovereign power and we all need to remember this every now and again.


  • United Pursuit – Let You Go: I really like this song, it tells a story of a place we have all found ourselves in our Christian walk, where fear still rules and we hold on tight to our religious rituals instead of embracing the truth the bible teaches. The song sings of us letting go of all these things and embracing God, letting God control and direct us.


I pray you enjoy these songs and they bless you!

Let me know how your month was in the comments below and song suggestions

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Headphones & Epiphanies: Derin’s Story

I will be closing out the series with the first entry I received from my friend Derin, I have really enjoyed this series, getting to know people through music, I am sure you have too. 

Thank you to everyone that participated and special shout out to Mr Johnson for helping with the name for the series. 

Leave comments below on series you will like to see on the blog! 


I’m sorry Ore, you can’t ask me to pick songs and tell me to select just five. I promise I tried really hard to stick to just five but I couldn’t. I may have been able to pick just five, if only I had more time.
Music is the only thing that is nearly as important to me as books (and friends and family). Here are twelve songs that have made me cry, smile, feel hopeful among a thousand other emotions. I hope you find at least one, that speaks to you as much as it has to me
Rhye – Open 
This vocals for this song are by Milosh, a man who sounds so much like Sade, listeners were shocked to find out it’s a he.You don’t listen to Milosh, you allow his voice make love to your ears. When he croons “I’m a fool for that sound in your sigh”, you realise only a voice as beautiful as his can sexualize a sigh, and it just feels right. I still haven’t made love to this song yet, but it’s a matter of when, not if.
Wild Beasts – Palace 
In detail you are, even more beautiful than, from afar
I could learn you, like the blinded would do, feeling a way through the dark
You remind me, Of the person I wanted to be, before I forgot.
This song begins with a line that I can relate with on a personal level. I fell in love in 2015, waking up and staring into her face, I understood what exactly what that line means.
Wild Beasts – Mecca 
All we want is to feel that feeling again, Just a drop on the lip
This song evokes nostalgia. Whatever that feeling is to you, you can relate to this feeling of wanting just another drop. For me, it’s the love I spoke about in the previous paragraph, we ended things in 2016. And I can’t help the feeling of wanting just one more drop.
Somi –  Ginger Me Slowly 
Ginger me by candle light and long walks by the lagoon
Ginger me with intellect and wine
Ginger me boy with kindness and cool
This song is exactly how I assume it feels to a girl, when I’m toasting her
Asa  – Eye Adaba 
This song makes me feel so peaceful. I’m not exactly the most religious person. But, Asa puts me in a mood with this song. This song makes me feel relaxed, safe and grateful.
Asa – Jailer 
I’m in chains, you’re in chains too
I wear uniforms, you wear uniforms too
I’m a prisoner, you’re a prisoner too Mr Jailer
Man, there’s bare many potential jailers and oppressors in this world yuno. But Asa flips the script here and let’s me know that a lot of the time, the oppressor and the oppressed are just two sides of the same coin. And that more than anything, our jailers need our sympathy.
London Grammar – Wasting All My Years 
I’m wasting my young years, It doesn’t matter here
I’m chasing on ideas, It doesn’t matter here
As a twenty something year old that frequently feels like I’m making a lot of motion and little movement in life. This song speaks to me. When the familiar pangs of doubt appear, I turn on this song and let Hannah Reid’s vocals take me away. It doesn’t remove my doubts, it only articulates them beautifully and let’s me know, I’m not alone.
Autre Ne Vuet – Counting 
I’m counting on the idea that you’ll stay right here
I need you for a little while
This song is very raw and feels uncut. The artist Arthur Ashin is singing about a period where he was scared of calling his Grandma cause he felt every call may be his last. The rawness of this song makes it feel very cathartic, and it’s a song I’m prone to belting out in my room when I’m alone and thinking of something I’m really counting on to happen, or to not happen
Bon Iver – Holocene 
And at once I knew, I was not magnificent
Justin Vernon sings about the beauty of the universe and how insignificant a single human being is in comparison. This song makes me really humble and at the same time when I feel like I have really big problems, it helps me take a step back and see how small my issues are in the grand scheme of things.
Benjamin Leftwich – 1904
All of our friends survived
When a plane crashed their minds
And in 1904, I found
Some real real strength in my ground
2016 was a tough year in many ways for me. This song was probably my song of the year. It talks about finding your inner strength during turbulent times. It’s a song I turn to regularly when I’m feeling overwhelmed.
Phosporecent – Song of Zula 
Some say love is a burning thing, that it makes a fiery ring
Oh but I know love as a fading being
Just fickle as a feather in a stream
See honey, I saw love, you see it came to me
It put its face up to my face so I could see
Yeah, then I saw love disfigure me
Into something I am not recognizing
You will not see me fall, Or see me struggle to stand
To be acknowledged by some touch from his gnawed hands
I heard this song as the closing credits were showing after a movie my room mate just finished watching. Houck’s voice caught my attention and I downloaded the song and fell in love instantly. The song gained new meaning after the end of my last relationship, I did a few things I never though I would do and I literally saw love disfigure me. But likeHouck sings “You will not see me fall or see me struggle to stand”
Sufjan Stevens – Fourth of July 
This song is about the conversation Sufjan wishes he had with his mom before she died. It’s a song anyone who has lost a loved one can relate to. I lost a mentor in 2016 and a friend in 2015 and this song is what I turn to when I think about them.
In the end Sufjan just wants to light up the sky in tribute to his mum.
And I hope I’m here being a light for Mr Laide and Bolu.
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Through My Eyes: Lekki Conservation Centre

Last year December, I planned to visit Lekki Conservation Center with one of my oldest friends Sope and one of my more recent friends Alex, they both attended the same primary school so it was a good catch up date for the three of us. Plans hardly pan out exactly how we hope, so I live open to the infinite possibilities each day may bring.

Alex invited one of his friends Femi, that lived not far from Lekki Conservation Center, we were about to start our tour, we meet Ife and Bukky. They all attended the same University and we became a happy group of 6.

I plan to visit again but this time with a picnic basket.

Enjoy the photos below!

P.S  Shout out to Bukky for the photos, we discovered we have a lot in common and have new adventures planned. So maybe Ore and Bukky road trip blog post coming soon! Who knows, embrace the infinite possibilities.

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Half Truths and Lasting Memories

This post is inspired by  Nanya Kooper’s collection of poems 14. 



Today I read a collection of poems titled “14” by Nanya Kooper. “To those who have found happiness in the arms of another” is what the dedication of the collection read.  
This got me thinking as to whether or not I qualify to read this book and if I truly found happiness in the arms of another.
I didn’t dwell on my question for long, I proceeded to reading the collection and my answer was waiting for me when I finished reading and I wrote it down, so here it is.
Many times when love ends, we often remember only the hurt and the pain that comes with the end, the things that broke us and all the rough edges that bruised our skin.
We forget the sweetness that was at the centre of our lost love, the things that made us catch our breath and the things that made us fall in love.


The first poem in the collection is by E.E Cummings:


Love is thicker than We Forget


Love is thicker than we forget
More thinner than a wave is wet
More seldom than a wave is wet
More frequent than to fail  


It is most man and moonly
And less it shall unbe
Than all the sea which only
Is deeper than the sea
Love is less always than to win
Less never than alive
Less bigly than the least begin
Less little than forgive


It is most sane and sunly
And more it cannot die
Than all the sky which only
Is higher than the sky


This poem reminds me of all the beauty that good relationships offer, the pain, hurt, breath taking moments, those in-between moments of pointless conversations, arguments and the lasting effect it has on the people in the relationship.


These are all the things that come together to really do justice to the telling of every love story not the things we remembered that are clouded by hurt and the pain we have chosen not to let go of.


So the next time I tell any of my love stories not matter how much the end hurt, I will choose to remember it in full and not in part.
To answer my question; Yes I have found happiness in the arms of another, though it was for a short time and the pain sometimes causes me to forget.

Below are other poems I love in the collection;
To be read on days when I forget why we love as a gentle reminder


I WISH TO LOSE MYSELF by Nanya Kooper  
I wish to lose myself whether in an antique store in downtown London
Or an ocean in Greece where the Medusa was born
Become a Pharaoh, rule in Egypt
While I learn the samurai ways to become a warrior
I dream of Paris and standing on the tower, feeling invincibility fly through me
Yet, I’ve come to such an easy conclusion  
That all I dream of or try to accomplish
Will never mean a thing
As well as my adventure which will lose it value
If not shared with you


To be read on days when I forget why we love as a gentle reminder


PROMISING AND IMPRACTICAL by Nanya Kooper
Small talks and red wine
While the moon sings sweetly at night
And draw a circle around us to block all the noise
It’s imaginary thinking, I know
Yet what’s the essence of this love without imagination?
For I hope to love deep and senseless
Till I age as I get closer to the earth, from where I came
Yet from time to time
Pain to pain
Laughter to Laughter
I’ll never claim to have loved better a design
Lovelier than you.  


To be read to the one that is coming


Noticing You Nanya Kooperby
I have failed to notice how hot the sun is
Why the moon returns at night
Why roses are the flowers of a lover
Why love does not outlive life itself


I have failed to notice all these since I notice you
And when I noticed you I could not help it
They slapped me out it, the marks stayed, memories strengthened


For I’ve never stopped noticing how you look at the sun
How you marvel when the moon returns at night
Why my rose die when you leave and spring to life when you’re here
How you my only lover give out to give in
Sweet splendour, my heart is driven to tears


I never stopped noticing
I will never stop noticing
I thought I will never notice again
Until you came along.

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Headphones & Epiphanies: Moriyike’s Story

It’s hard to pick one or two songs that describe certain phases and stages in my life. Music is so beautiful,many times it feels like air- fresh air (although air that has oxygen is air is more important). When I feel overwhelmed with worry or stress- I turn up the volume to Uptown Funk and within minutes I’m the star of a one-woman party- everyone else oblivious to the reason behind the solitude smile- trying so hard not to burst a move. Do you have moments where you find yourself dancing or bopping your head with no audible music- just dancing to the tune in your head? It’s hilarious- happens to me all the time.

Each time I think about Casting Crown’s ‘East to West‘- I remember my time at Covenant University. My friends and I loved this song! Listened to it so much, that I cannot bear to listen to it anymore (I hate to admit this). Nonetheless, for me it’s just a song that poetically portrays the endless love that God has for us- to forgive our sins, and wash us clean- wiping away our records of wrongdoing. Such radical forgiveness! Such unapologetic love! It’s overwhelming to understand it all.

I just chuckled when I remembered how much I liked ‘Reflection’ by Christina Aguilera– the popular song from Mulan (the disney cartoon). I was probably just starting secondary school at the time- growing into my own and learning to understand and embrace my kind of beautiful- and all the other shades of beautiful around me. I would sing it so passionately, “When will my reflection show, who I am insi-iiiiiii-de”. Haha! I wish I could go back in time and tell my younger self to calm down. 

One can go on and on sharing songs- but my publisher asked me to send in three. Well, I sent three backed up with an essay. Haha. I leave you with this pretty song that I have been listening to of late- Blessings (Chance The Rapper).