#011. Give your Path to a Dog

Man's civilization is the sum of his constructive achievement, the substance of his well being, the key of his progress.

Jan 11, 2025

It's interesting to begin the year this way: finally exploring what I promised to deliver with this newsletter in a manner that seems effortless.

Good for me. Good for you.

So, almost always, and almost certainly, the newsletter will often come in this format, and you'd leave every post filled with newness. You surely can't leave the way you opened it 😉

I therefore request that you always leave feedback, and, that you open up conversation in the comment. You'll find me moving it forward.

Since it's the first, under each section, I'll put explanation of what to expect. In subsequent posts, I'll leave out the synopsis, or prologue.

Here's what I have for you today:

•reflexion

•my reads

•quotes

•hmmm!🤔

•hahaha!🤣

•reflexion

Finally bringing to you my thoughts— witty, crazy, mystic. For some, it'd just be like picking my brain. And yes, not only that, it'd be filled with events I found shareable. So, let's go right in:

Jan. 1

No longer than I said the second tasleem after Subhi and returned my face to the front that a wafting scent of fried food sneaked across my nose. I looked left and a woman dropped a nylon of something beside a man. She brought it my side too. I touched it. It burned my fingers. I sniffed it. It smelled puff puff. Haa! Hot puff puff in the early morning of New Year. As she distributed the goodies, she murmured something like "It's my birthday, please pray for me."

Before I left home for Subhi, Pàsó didn't show up at the entrance as he used to. When I returned, I didn't meet him still. Must be somewhere in the compound. Almost certainly under the car. Or inside it, on the engine. I know why he hasn't shown up. My neighbour brought in a turkey yesterday. Those bully birds 😁 Pàsó has been running away from it. And he found refuge in the car, his comfort zone. When the turkey was no longer in sight, he showed up. I guess the turkey has already been slaughtered for the New Year's festivities. I set out for mother's place. It was her birthday.

Mother is 65. A cheerful, wonderful 65, and she've got two great grandchildren. You read that right. She's a great grandmother. The thing they say about early marriage. But then, this our own era reeks of things. Maybe the world is going back to those time. By the way, we celebrated mum and you can practically touch her joy. After Asri, I stayed back in the mosque. Laid on my right side. I began to reflect. I shed tears as I remembered my Dad. It hurts. It really hurts.

Jan. 2

We were to visit my guardian, and as we headed towards his house, Adnan was strapped to his mum's back. My gaze was fixated on him, and I thought to myself: Having baby is a miracle. It's the highest of wonders. Just two of you in a house, and a year later, you've become three.

Someone has joined you, from nowhere. And no one is questioning you. As in, where did you get him from. Not the landlord. Not your family. Not the government. Is it because your wife had carried a bump in her tummy for some months?

Or, is it because the baby looks like either of you? So what? Oh! MR NIGER ACAD! Reproduction, right? Is baby not a proof that you guys dey make love behind the curtain? That, you dey put on blue light at night? The last time we visited my guardian, we had no baby with us. When he came to celebrate with us, he didn't ask where we got the baby from? Getting there today, won't they ask where we got him from? 😁

Jan 3.

Back to our base, we alighted from the cab. As I approached the gate, Pàsó started meowing intermittently, as usual. I have known that cats have a fascinating smell sense but have wondered about its extent, like smelling their owners from afar. In a quick information I got from BetterPet and Catster, I found some answers.

Pàsó, on this day at night. It's an unaware pics. Truer than some of you's unaware shots. (Taken by me, Aswagaawy)

Cats possess smelling ability more than dogs, and humans. While human nose contains 5 million olfactory receptors, cat's nose has up to 200 million, which is some 40 times above human sense of smell. With this ability, they can perceive scents from as far as 4 miles, and can find their way back home from that distance. Cats have scent glands in their cheeks and paws with which they mark their territory and people. They therefore recognize their owners by scent and from distance without seeing them yet.

We didn't take Pàsó to mum's place this time, like we did during last Eid. He's grown now and doesn't demand extreme care like a kitten does. I gave our neighbour's girl a loaf of bread to feed him with. I mixed a little milk he can finish at once, and filled his bowl of water.

Jan. 4

I was returning from Ishai and a black dog was on the way. Unflinched by my advance. What a disregard.

I almost shoo it, then I remembered the words of Dale Carnegie in his book “How to Win Friends and Influence People" that reads: "Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite.”

Jan. 5

It was time to sleep. I laid on my back, staring at the ceiling and thought about how things evolve. What was in vogue at a particular time is today regarded as old school. Some powerful statement have turned to cliché. I think of a car, Bintus. An impecunious person can't even think of driving it. They'd rather drive these taxi, as in, these Ibadan and Abeokuta Micra's.

Jan. 6

Obeying the traffic light, and other traffic laws, could mean you saving your own life.

Jan. 7

Take a nap. Once in a while, find time in the day to nap. The benefits are countless and below are some.

In Islam, to nap between Zuhr (midday prayer) and Asri (afternoon prayer) is called Qailulah, and it is a practice of the Prophet (pbuh). So, in addition to the medical benefits, you clinch some spiritual benefits, too. Do you need help finding a nap? Check this.

But I'm not in support of taking coffee. Go natural, friend. To feel awake after a nap, just drink some water and rush some over your head and face. Quickly, your nap length should be between 20 and 30 minutes, the latter has proven to be the best. Naps above 60 minutes has turned to a second sleep and is indicative of poor quality sleep at night.

Jan. 8

Nothing amazed me this day. Or, I didn't put on my thinking cap 🧢

Jan. 9

The day passed too fast.

Jan. 10

Returning from my friend's, Ottun, and as he escorted me, we observed two giant/distinct stars in the sky. He said the one close to the moon was Venus, while the other on the opposite direction could be the planet for tomorrow, Saturn, which is already approaching the moon. I recalled the meteor shower I briefly discussed in a recent newsletter "Some Stars Do Not Fall".

I also talked about comets and how they get very visible periodically. According to Starlust blog, comets are cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock, and dust that orbit the Sun. And NASA posited that there are likely billions of comets orbiting our Sun in the Kuiper Belt and even more in the distant Oort Cloud.

Comet Hale-Bopp, E. Kolmhofer, H. Raab; Johannes-Kepler-Observatory, Linz, Austria (http://www.sternwarte.at) • CC BY-SA 3.0

I first came across comets in the haibun collection of Rich Youmans titled "All the Windows Lit." The titular haibun which has the accompanying haiku "our small house/ under galaxies—/ all the windows lit" is titled "Hale– Bopp" which is a name of a comet. The comet is said to appear every 4,000 years, and the haibun personams were standing outside to witness its appearance since it'd take another 4,000 for it to resurface after that night. They said “The last time it came, the Great Pyramids had barely been built... The next time, none of us will be here.”

When I read up about comets in the Astronomy Magazine, I came across some other comets, particularly Halley's Comet, Comet Shoemaker-Levy, Comet Hyakutake, and Comet Borrelly. All these I mentioned and most of others are named after their discoverers. As in, Halley's Comet was discovered by Edmond Halley. I read that Halley's Comet's next appearance will be July 28, 2061, and it last appeared in 1986. Ottun and I also talked about endtime and the end of time. And how the constellations are moving towards the sound of the Last Trumpet.

•my reads

In this section, I'll share books or essays I'm reading at that moment in time. I may keep repeating some until l finish reading them. So, here we go:

Sympatheia and the Poetic Archive of Human Experience —Interview with Abu Bakr Sadiq

Editor’s Choice: 25 Most Anticipated Books of 2025

Al-Khadir: between Sunni Orthodoxy and Sufi Mysticism —Abu Sahl Adebayo Dhikrullah
The Reality of Tasawwuf: In the Light of the Prophetic Model —Dr. Israr Ahmad
The Metalogicon of John of Salisbury: A Twelfth Century Defense of the Verbal and Logical Art of Trivium —Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Daniel D. McGarry
The Incredible Dreams of Garba Dakaskus —Umar Abubakar Sidi

•quotes

Yeah, it is what it is. Wonderful quotes that touched me. That awed me. Some powerful lines too.

We were in Egypt for seven months, attending scholars' gatherings by day and copying manuscripts by night. One day, we bought a fish but couldn't cook it for three days due to lack of time. Eventually, we ate it raw. Such was the struggle for knowledge.

—Imam Abdur-Rahman bn Abi Hatim

knowing is always a function of doing

—Dr. Absar Ahmad

Death is only the beginning

—Imohtep

We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours.

—John of Salisbury

Life surely has a sick sense of humour

—Patrick Swayze.

If ever you write anything, keep it to yourself for nine years. For what has never been divulged can be destroyed. But once published, it is beyond recall.

—Horace

Man's civilization is the sum of his constructive achievement, the substance of his well being, the key of his progress. Yet in the historical development of human culture, one of the most essential and determining factors has ever been education. Paradoxically, education is both a product and producer of civilization. Besides being the regenerative process whereby man transmits his culture, it is also the revitalizing means whereby he reforms it.

—Daniel D. McGarry

•hmmm! 🤔

Some inspiring and educating posts from social media pages that I come across will be shared in this section. It may include videos too. So, below are what I have for you this time: