Heyyy you,

I promised to be here on the 20th, so here I am. If you are a new subscriber you can read the first issue here . How has the month been going on for you? No, don’t do that, don’t just mouth the word ‘fine’. Take a pause to think about it, and give to yourself a honest answer. You could tell me if you want to, but no pressure. But the honesty counts, uhn.

Personally, it’s been a rollercoaster of the good and ‘not-so-good’. I have had to deal with uncertainties in some parts of my life, my parents took ill at some point, and then my sister, and I got a couple of rejection mails. But I also got an unexpected credit alert! You know how that feels, yeah😉. And I started (and finished) a 10k words project, and now I’m writing to you, so I am happy in this moment, almost having butterflies in my tummy.

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Speaking of butterflies, I saw a movie early this week ‘The Butterfly Effect’, and came across this quote in it; ‘It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world’. It is a dumbed down version of the Chaos Theory. I later did some reading about it, and it turned out to be more of a miniature physics lesson so I doubled back, I’m not about that life anymore, abeg. Anyways, what I gleaned from my search is the power of incremental efforts – how small changes can result in a large monumental effect. Exponential increases. I mean, this is logical, but I don't think I've really thought about it like that, how we sometimes neglect the mundane.

What we need to realise is that, sometimes, that level of success you aspire to requires just one yes from that circle, that CEO, that MFA program, that Consultant or that foundation. But, way before you get to the point where this ‘yes’ is handed to you, there needs to be a number of boxes for you to have ticked off, a level of knowledge or experience you must have had, some sort of background story and that, my dear, is often in those mundane - sometimes easy - things we often might skip out on.

In truth, it is highly unlikely that the flap of a butterfly will cause a tornado halfway across the world, and this is because of the damping effect of the atmosphere. The change in pressure caused by a flap of the butterfly’s wing is insignificant relative to the total air pressure to cause a big enough change. But you’ll agree that it is poetic and makes for a nice story😉😂

Infact, my right brain won’t let it go so I’ll paint a story for you. I mean, what if the flap causes a nearby flower to flutter, which then causes a nesting bee to fly away from the petal, the movement startling a nearby lizard causing it to move rapidly away from its resting spot, gliding over a puddle of water (or knocking over a bowl of water in someone’s compound), thereby increasing the rate of convection current from that water source, which also increases the rate of cloud formation and moisture in the air. Now, stay with me, a thunderstorm forms converting all this moisture and water to heat. Take note, we are in the tropics, so this is not so hard to imagine, right?Sha sha, this increased heat causes more air to flow towards the centre (eye😉) of the thunderstorm, and darling, we have a typhoon!

Would it really be remiss to say the butterfly’s wing flap caused all this? I mean, would this sequence of event have really gone through like this if that beautiful butterfly didn’t flap its wings? See ehn, just run me my Nobel Prize already, those scientists are still learningggg!

PS: Don’t you dare point out the loopholes in my story. There is none, and that is that on that.

My point however still stands, tiny consistent efforts can bring about so much change, can be a catalyst for a big change by causing a chain of events knocking down a list of small dominoes, of bigger dominoes over and over. The theory emphasizes how the small choices you make today can impact on your life greatly later in life, so you know what to do. Now, the truth is, it might take years for you to get to your destination of success, which only makes sense that you should start early.

So, write that paragraph, it all adds up; start that line of code, you’ll get it one day; take that course, you know you need that skill; infact, take that selfie, you’ll marvel at the change in a few years. It really is in the little things. And these little things compound.

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See ehn, I've been slacking on reading, majorly because I have been writing. I have been writing everyday for the past week, skrrrr!, crushed out over 10k words and I am so proud. I need to take time to celebrate this tho, it's not something I do often, so for that, I'll make better efforts to get new glasses this coming week. It might not seem like a gift to you if you're not into glasses, but it really is a big deal for me. I'm already looking forward to my improved vision. Plus I'm thinking of getting a bright frame, like red or yellow, so I can put all of that light in y'all's face. Infact, I might just send you a picture of that if I get it before the next scheduled mail.

Anyways, here is an article I really enjoyed, both the writing and the story. It's really long, so you might want to set it to read later. I am set to start reading Aké: The years of childhood this week, and do a few more pages of The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. I hope to do all that. My daily routine has been satisfying of late, and I really want to keep it that way. Fingers crossed I do. Yo, you might have missed this hilarious thread on twitter, cracked me and my friends up😂

Keep smiling, love, till next time. That's June 5th, hopefully.

PS: June happens to be my elder sister’s birth month as well as the end of the first half of the year, so I'm mostly giddy and nervous during it. So here's to welcoming it in good faith🥂

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Till next time,

Affection and Illumination ❤️✨

Maryam.