What is Love

1'. Meet Aniyah

                                ANIYAH

What is Love?
I thought while sitting down next to the windows in the partly ventilated hall of St. George's Cathedral.
You see, this question right here about Love is very hard. Some say love is an intense feeling of deep affection(that might be true), because that is what God and our parents feel for us, so I guess I can accept that meaning but that is not the kind of love I'm talking about. No, I'm not talking about the love of God(which I believe) and no, I'm not talking about the love of our parents or close friends, if you paid attention to what I've been saying you would have caught that.
Some people also say that Love is a close bond with another person that goes deeper than affection, attraction, lust or friendship. Yes, I'm talking about the love that you experience with your other half as some others would say, but I don't believe in that. In a country where lust is the beginning of a new relationship and marriages are hardly respected(someone cheating on his/her partner) and where divorce is hardly an option, I don't see a reason to believe in this so called Love.

"Aniyah, please pray for us" calls my Sunday school teacher called out interrupting me from my thoughts 'sigh'
"Gracious Father, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, we thank you for the lesson you've shared with us today, I pray that may it not depart from our lives even after we leave this building, rather may it be a reminder in our hearts, in Jesus name. AMEN". I prayed a short prayer to dismiss the Sunday school. This is how black people pray, in fact I didn't say much. You see if my Sunday school teacher decided to pray, it would have taken much longer.
"Thank you Aniyah, well that was a very short prayer" my  teacher pointed out. See guys, I told you. They have a thing for long prayers and on special occasions, the prayers can be really long.
"Yes Ma, it was" I replied while walking hurriedly to get to my favorite spot in church, at the last row on the right wing for the sermon.
Yes!, I reached there before anyone. It's my favorite spot, at the back of the long row of chairs situated at the right hand side of the church beside the window panels. Why?, because I don't need to socialize with anyone. I don't have any friends in this church, so it makes it easier for me to avoid human communication. It's not that I have a problem with making friends, I just don't want to and I'm guessing from the vibes people give off it's mutual. There was a time I had friends in this church in this church tho, apparently boarding school changes people or the way you're approached. I came back from boarding school and people stopped talking to me, not that I had/have a problem with it, I didn't care. Guess what!, I later found out that they gossip around that I'm a snub, proud and stuck up and all these because I didn't care if they stopped talking to me. Yes I can be a snub sometimes, but I am neither of those two and I absolutely owe no one an apology.

"Let's all stand up for the opening prayer" someone announced from the stage. You see from here on until the sermon, they're gonna keep telling us to stand up for this and that.
Before the main sermon, we have the opening prayer, praise and worship, testimonies, hymns and special songs from the choir. Yes all that before the sermon. We have a long way to go.

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It was a hot afternoon, the scorching sun alerted us of its presence the minute we stepped out of the hall which tried to shield us from its angry wrath with the help of the partially working air conditioners situated at the end of the halls. Usually in our house, we don't eat before we go to church, which is why after church we're always really hungry but it seems like my mum is immune to this hunger since she always takes forever to greet her colleagues. Normally, I would wait around to hurry her up and remind her that we're hungry but today i didn't feel like greeting much people, which is why I walked straight to the car to wait for everyone else.
I stared out the window as I watched people through the tinted glasses, after a long service most teenagers and youths were tired as if the energy they had stored have been sucked out while most adults especially the women looked lively almost as if they had been fed with a reviving spirit. Sometimes watching them made me realize how different they are from us, how they aren't just churchgoers but also came for something more fulfilling while the children still had a huge amount of energy running around. Just around the corner I saw my Dad talking with his friend, a friend we knew particularly well, despite being friends for a long time I wasn't so particularly fond of that particular friend.
As we got back from church, the only duties I had was to  wash the plates, which was only in the afternoon. One would think because we had a lot of workers we were free from duties. Unfortunately not, it's hard to see a black home where one is free from duties(homely chores).