When I wrote the last episode of my first serial, The Confession after a 10-week period, I decided to embark on a short break which took longer than originally expected. This break was to afford me the opportunity to regain the mental strength that was drained from writing that serial.

Believe me or not, each episode was a laborious, quasi-tortuous moment for me as it was an unfamiliar literary territory for me – out of my comfort zone. And in a manner akin to how Bishop Dag Heward-Mills established a ‘new church’ and called it First Love Chapel in Legon (ostensibly to return to where it all begun), I also, reverted to my comfort zone, and shared with you Worthy Gambles.

Unfortunately, the vicissitudes of life incapacitated my literary faculties and I went AWOL. But hopefully, I am back at post now and ready to share with you some nuggets I picked up whilst on my long sabbatical.

Actually, I planned on resuming a week ago. But after powering on my laptop and saying a word of prayer, and going through the notes I had jotted down to expand, I could not find the right words to string together to add ‘meat to the bone’, as it were.

To the initiated, I experienced what is known as a writer’s block – or so I thought. Maybe, it was the accumulated stress from the week so a nap would do the trick, I thought. I figured wrong. I woke up at dawn on the Monday and spent about 4 hours trying to do what I usually did in an hour and half, and realized it was an exercise in futility, my dear readers. I was better off sleeping, and would not have shown up at the office with bloodshot, baggy eyes. The sad reality was that I had gone rusty!

I once read a motivational piece on social media about a man who quit going to church because he thought he could read his Bible on his own and needed no one to interpret it for him through a sermon. Unsurprisingly, his Pastor knocked on his door one cold evening and sat beside him in front of the fireplace, without uttering a word.

He picked up a red-hot coal with a pair of tongs and placed it away from the burning area. After sometime, the once red-hot coal darkened, losing its hotness. The Pastor picked it up again and tossed it back into the fireplace, where the coal became lit again from the fire.

The Pastor stood up and walked out the door without bidding farewell, just as he had come without exchanging pleasantries. The man then realized he had been preached a wordless sermon. He was back in church the following Sunday and never missed a service until he died. Did you read it too?

Dear reader, from that experience last Sunday, the parable about the servant who was given one talent by his master who was embarking on ‘80 days around the world’ journey of sorts, forcefully came to mind. A cursory look at our entertainment industry reveals quite a number of otherwise talented artistes who took a break but have been unsuccessful at launching a comeback after many attempts, save a few.

What is that one talent given you? Are you using it effectively? Is it growing? Wait! Are you on a break? You can’t afford that ‘luxury’ – you can grow cold and darkened like the once red-hot coal.

I shared 45 original pieces last year and decided to grow my gift this year by doing a minimum of 52 – at least, one musing each week and also do 2 short stories. Sadly, I have only done half of that and less than what I did last year, kind courtesy my decision to take a break (note break in italics). It has been an unfulfilled year re my one talent in ‘one corner’ (m’ate dweee ankasa).

So on a rather dismal note, I sign-off with my signature:

More Vim…Let’s Go…