When Trouble Comes Calling: What does it mean? What do you do?

Does trouble make you tired? Do you see it as misfortune? What if there was another way to see it? Let us learn from the story of the hawk told by JKO  in this episode.

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Music Credit: https://indiefy.me/wanted-carter

Transcript

Welcome to this episode of Messy Can’t Stop Her, the podcast where we share the stories of women's resilience through chaos, crisis, and the challenges of life. I am your host, Judith Kambia Obatusa. J-K-O. 

First of all, I want to say thank you to all of you that sending me messages about how the podcast is reaching you and how you're applying your learnings. I want to thank those of you who are sharing this podcast to women in the trenches of life. It means a lot to me and I'm very grateful for your support. Please keep on sharing it. One woman at a time will be changing the world. 

So today I want to talk about trouble. When trouble comes calling, what does it mean? What does it mean? Why do I have to go through trouble? Why does it have to be me? So when travel comes calling, what do I do? This is going to be my shortest podcast episode because I just want you to be able to play and replay this message, because I was thinking about it. I can run away from discomfort when I'm faced with challenges. Many of us are in those situations where we cannot run away from the troubles around us. 

Somebody posted something on Facebook today, and she said it was like a little rectangle. And this was the message on it. And Narcissists, they put you through hell, and they make it impossible for you to be able to leave them. They make it too painful for you to leave them. They make it very hard for you to stay with them, and they also make it so painful for you to leave them. So for some people, that's the life they're living, they have nowhere to run to where they are, is discomfort. Some of us women, that's the situation we found ourselves. For example, if a child is going through a hard time, you're not going to be able to run away. Even if you run away, that child is in your heart. So when trouble comes calling, why is it that I have to go through trouble? And I was thinking about it, and this was what I was able to understand. 

Trouble is like sand inside rice. In Nigeria, I'm Nigerian Canadian. So in Nigeria we have local rice. And sometimes that rice is not as well cleaned, as the imported rice and maybe not as well processed. So sometimes you find stones and sand in the rice. So what do you do? 

You put the rice inside the water. And when you put the rice inside the water, the sand sinks to the bottom. The rice doesn't jump out to run away from the sand, but it stays there while you shake the bowl and the sand sinks to the bottom. The more sand there is, the higher the rice rises in the bowl. 

So if you're going through a tough time in life, know that the trouble is leveraged for your rice in like the rice and the water. Stay calm knowing that the one who holds the bowl of your life in his hands is separating the trouble from your life and lifting you above it. 

I use the rice as an example for you to be able to see through your mind's eye. Trouble isn't always bad. In fact, anything trouble can be good. It can be bad depending on how you see it. What is your perspective? So if you see trouble as a good thing, if you decide not to allow trouble to break you and finish you, you be like the rice and that bowl. You will not start running around, you will become so there is the story, a folk story, the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria, this folk tale is from them. They said God was in his palace and the hawk came to God and God said, what do you want? Said, I want food. What kind of food? I want to be eating meat. What kind of meat? He wants to be eating meat that he will catch himself. And God said, okay, go to earth and the first and catch the kind of meat you want to eat. And it flew and saw an eagle and it took to God. And God asked the hawk, when you took this chick, what did the mother do? Said, the mother didn't do anything, she ignored me. God said, return the chick to the mother. The hawk returned that chick to the mother. And I said, okay, go and look for another animal that a bird that you're going to have as food. Saw the chicken with the chicks, took one of the chicks and the chicken was clocking that's going to chase the hawk. The hawk took that chick to God and told God, here is the meat. God asked the hawk, what did the mother do when you took the cheek? And the hawk said, the mother was clocking and screaming and yelling. And God said, that's your food. Sometimes when trouble arises, think that many times when you are in the damn dead, this trouble difficult, hard times. It's time for you to take calmness, to be calm. Because when you are calm, then you will get your direction. Then you will actually find safety. If you're not calm, you won't find safety. You'll be just carried away by every wind of doctrine, every wind of advice. That's when you go and get all these advice that will get you all confused and you will not know your way out. When trouble comes calling, it's a time to become when trouble comes calling, it's a time to restrategize. Go. When you're calm, you can find direction. And many times those who go through trouble, those who dig in their hills and stay like that rifle rubble becomes the stepping stone. I always pray a prayer. I said, let every tumbling block become a stepping stone to greatness that's what it becomes, that stone the sand in the good part of your life as making all those troubles. It's time for you to be like the rice become. Let the one who holds the bull of your life shake down that sand. And the more the sun goes down, the higher you we go. That's all I want to say today. I just want you to take that away more over it. Share it with other people. As women, we have so many hearts that we wear. We can't afford to lose our cool. And that's why anything that you can do to get calmness, real calmness, not calmness that you get through things that are temporary and creates other troubles in one's life, like addictive substances, but calmness that you get from spending time with yourself, spending time in nature, deep breathing that calmness will help you navigate the troubles. Though you cannot run away yet, the trouble will not overwhelm you and mess, it won't stop you. So on today's episode, this is a very short episode, and trouble can be anything. It can be discontent with your situation in life because you feel you can do more. You're not doing more. Next week, I'm going to be interviewing a guest. My guest is a woman that was discontented, but she stayed calm. And through that calmness, as the one who holds the bowl of our lives moved her from place to place, she stayed calm. And the sand, the challenges that she was seeing, they began to come down and she began to rise. I want you to look forward to that episode, because even when I was having that interview, and even listening to the episode, as I listened to the interview,

I'm so grateful for the privilege of that interview, and I know you will be too. So look out for the next episode of Messy Can’t Stop Her. Next week. Thursday sure banker. It's going to drop. Watch my Facebook Instagram pages and you'll be seeing some little little tantalizing tidbits to get you ready. So like I always say, when we do not give up, when we don't allow ourselves to throw in the toll of our lives because of trouble, when we refuse to end that way, when we step up to the podium of our lives, mercy won't stop us. Thank you so much for listening. See you next time. Bye,