08/08/2022
*The Dream Chasers: the story of Thanksgiving Day *
_...and just once when you look away, and they are all grown up, and you can't find your baby no more..._
😊
I and our principal Mr. Kenneth sat at the back. From there we could see the roof of the Sacred Heart chapel. It must have been built for days like this.
Under it's rich and quiet opulence, our graduands lifted their voices and touched the rhythms of their souls with affectionate songs to the Almighty.
_Ibu olileanya m_
_Nna m I bu ebe m zoro_ _ndu m ooo...!_
_I bu olileanya m_
The rendition of the psalm wasn't so plush but the meaning towered up to the heavens.
How could they have come this far? These children who crawl, run, and fall.
'God.' They sang. We have in you, and the hope that you are, hidden our lives...
Because you are our hope.
The priest Rev. Fr. Augustine, decorated his sermon with gainly humour. He spoke about the journey. And when our beautifully dressed chasers thought the dream was NOW. He told them that it was about to start.
I think I moved to the back. And there was Tobe and Ebuka fanning the flame of some dying embers (something about something we terribly needed for Mass). They were smiling and sweating. And I took a snapshot for memory.
_The journey of 6 years is like keeping aglow the dying flame of a burning wood, even under the rain._
When it was time to dance, the girls were in high spirits and in high heels. Let the legs show the stomping and thumping tales of the battles that were won.
I saw the way in which our mothers hugged their shy sons.
_Mummy I'm no longer that much of a boy_😂
But you are still a boy. Maybe I'll tell them, how my grandmother cuddles my father. Family, you see, is everything. I was watching, keenly looking at how love is loved.
First, the principal pointed me towards his son playing the keyboard. The lovely hum of a proud father. Then I saw the way Mrs Eze held on to her son Edozie, and then the Ubani's rotating about Giovanni like the earth about the sun.
Maybe long and long after we had left, Blossom Fount would still be warm with the hugs we left, and all the smiles we poured, and all the laughs we made, and all the love we shared.
And for all the pictures? They will say in the years to come. That there was once a farmer, who planted a seed and now it has blossomed into a beautiful fruit.
The theme of our upcoming graduation is: *the seeds have blossomed.*
Keep a date with us on the 20th of August, 2022.
Mazi. Chino.
