While growing up, people would say, “You act like your mum, you look like your mum, you will end up like your mum.” And I spent my time forbidding it.
You may wonder why. Did I hate my mum?
You see, programming is a thing. We are all programmed. Sit down and ask yourself why you think evil is evil and good is good. It’s programming. The day a known evil starts looking good, it is because something in you has been reprogrammed. Now, away from the computer analogy… my mum.
I didn’t know her much as a child. My dad never had great things to say about her because she left him. I believe I was five or six. So, I grew up thinking she wasn’t a good person, and I didn’t want to be like her.
“Know all men for thyself.”
My dad passed, and my mum was more than willing to take me in. She paid my school fees effortlessly (or so I thought — only the feet know where the shoe really hurts). She provided everything I needed to be comfortable. I saw her go far and wide. My mum never stops working. She is always looking for what’s next. She earned titles like “Action Woman”, “Soldier”, and “Tiger”. The woman no dey gree!
She will face the high and mighty, the low and lowly, anyone. She travels for her business, enters dreaded offices to sell, everything. My mum is fierce. Really fierce. The battles life has thrown at that woman are better read than experienced. Yet through it all, she is still kind.
Now in 2025, I look at myself and I understand. I truly am my mother’s daughter.
I see how much I do to ensure the people around me are comfortable. I am not even as fierce as my mum. I don’t run or shrink in the face of battle, but I definitely try to avoid the battle in the first place.
I see so many things in me that are like her. Now, I am consciously learning to appreciate who she is and also not to repeat the mistakes she made. All in all, being like my mum is a blessing. She is a strong human. Indeed, the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree. Try what you may, you will still show traits and resemblance to your tree.
And that brings me to the real gist of today.
Who you are, and everything you are doing, will be someone’s tree tomorrow. A fruit will be born that is meant to look like you.
As you go about your life, always ask yourself how proud you would be if you had a mini version of you. Whether your current life is producing a result worthy of multiplication. Whether the multiplier of you will bring more good than evil to the world.
Stop thinking of yourself as an individual. Think of yourself as a seed that will multiply. Keep this seed as healthy as possible so it multiplies well.
Finally, God is the tree of all men. Ensure you look at the tree always. If you discover that the fruit does not look like the tree, you need to re-adjust.
There is a standard. Follow it.