Anytime I behold nature and its phenomena such as the rain, the grasses, the flowers, the sun, moon, stars, the chilling atmosphere after the rain, the smell of the earth after the rain, everything reminds me of what heaven may possibly look like as portrayed in novels and movies. But the mountains amaze me profoundly. Many times, countless times, I'll ask myself, "how was it made?" And anytime I come across one, I'll wonder "how magnificent!" I can't explain it, no one near me could give me any suitable explanation about the mountains.
Growing up as the last child, as we all know almost all last kids are cherished by their parents and inevitably hated by the siblings. 😩 Yeah, I bet, if anyone will come from no where and just hijacked your parents and attention from you and you will never want to retaliate. 😂. So, I happen to always have the chance with my dad every night right after dinner to share with me some myths and legends especially of the Yorubas, British history and so on. Then I learnt in one of my father's myths about creation and it was stated that the sand Oduduwa brought from heaven that wasn't well separated by the chicken he brought was what formed rocks and mountains. Hmm, what a fabulous one, isn't it? 😂 You wouldn't want to argue with myth, no one ever did.😂
Until a decade ago when I met Zeruka, an unbelievably fit man in his early 30s. You know what the guy does? He breaks rocks for living. I mean he breaks ROCKS to put food on his table. Back then, my family settled in a rural area where there was a particular piece of land adjacent our house and the land needed the intervention of Zeruka the rock breaker. Zeruka would keep his tool at our place as it was the nearby house. His hammer, driller, and so on. Zeruka wouldn't consume any heavy meal like other Africans, no, he only ate rice but of 5-7 cups at a time. You really need to see Zeruka after regular eight hours of work, drenched of sweats and yes, here's the most interesting thing. His heart beat faster than anything in comparison, it beat like it was outside the ribs 😩. You couldn't stop looking, it was so unreal!!😱.
Yes, I got the chance to ask Zeruka what inspired him to be a rock breaker and he said, "the rock makes me alive while breaking it. If there's anything I enjoy doing most, it's breaking rocks, because it reminds me of the barriers of life needed to be broken. Any way or the other we are all rock breakers in life, the more we break, the more we get fulfilled and free and yes, stronger. I'm not so good doing things rationally that was why I failed in school and I knew I had to live and to survive and to break my barriers. So the only way left for me to live is to break any obstacles and look at it, the rocks on this land is an obstacle needing to be broken. Then, I know I have a purpose. To break so as to survive."
I was left dumbfolded, my jaws had fallen apart. I couldn't put my words together before Zeruka left. That same minute I realized what the mountain was. Ever since, I've loved siting on the rocks or mountains at night watching the moon. ⛰️❤️🗻
Pictures displayed are shot directly with my mobile phone. And also edited by me. 😊 Love them? 😎❤️⛰️
PC: Buroda Ade.™