Cutting Cave: Welcome to 2025!

There was the story of a man who separated himself from people and lived in tombs and around grave sites. It was written that this man would sit down in a cave, cut himself, and then cry(Mark 5:5). It is counterintuitive that anyone would cut themselves and then cry. It seems irrational, you may say, but it occurs to me that this is what we all do intentionally or unintentionally.

As I use it in this post, Cave is a metaphor that allows me to think about those places, spaces, conduct, belief systems, and environments that undermine our visions of possibilities, potential, and living out our most authentic selves. Some psychologists will call it self-sabotaging or self-defeating patterns and behavior, both good and bad, which could be a variety of things: procrastination, overspending, overworking, the lists are inexhaustive.

There is a difference between cutting and cultivating. To cut is to condemn yourself from redemption. To cultivate is to prune yourself. That is digging to find your best and highest self. Judeo-Christian text suggests that we are pruned to bear much fruit(John 15:2). So cultivation or pruning gives room for growth. In cultivation, the things we cut and throw away are excess, like in the flesh we cut away in male circumcision, but in cutting, we cut to self-harm and throw away because we conclude it is irredeemable.

Cultivating is mining to find your best self languishing under the cloak of trauma, grief, conditioning, and negative and societal scripting. I use cultivation because God is a Gardner, and if you subscribe to the Judeo-Christian text, everything started in the Garden.

So, my pecking order/goal this year is to

Cultivate joy! God and my ancestor permitting and tempering the demands of my academic life. More beauty sleep to cultivate the beauty woven into the tapestry of my DNA.

Cultivate creativity and curiosity.

Cultivate my inner critic to know when it is working for me and when it has volunteered itself without my knowledge to 'village people,' shame, or negative scripting. I know my inner critic is working for me when it says, “Ololade’s daughter XYZ could be better if you rest a little bit and resume later.” I know it has been conscripted when it says, “ole, alapa stainless (lazy with a light arm like a stainless plate); some of your mates have published 100 articles in 2025 already.” I thought the year just started a few minutes ago.

Cultivate vulnerability to hear out my critics but not be constrained by them.

Cultivate Innovation as “the pursuit of what can be, unburdened by what has been”

Cultivating self-compassion, Someone said, "You cannot shame yourself into the change." You have to cultivate the habits that lead to change.

Cultivate rest. Workaholism is no longer pride for me but creative productivity.

Cultivate resilience and a 'soft life.'

Cultivate my 'crazy' by tethering methods to my ‘madness’ (Only people who listen to my PoP will get this). Between, my PoP, who is now my Dad, is back in Church!

Cultivate our nation through a collective demand for accountability and responsibility. Our country cannot turn people into zombies by criminalizing freedom of speech, gaging press freedom, and persecuting dissenting opinions. Leadership has to cultivate citizenship by being servant leaders who use our shared resources to serve all, not just a few.

I admit this is easy to write but more challenging to implement, but we would try.

I pray we draw on our inner confidence and equip ourselves with the skills to aim high and the tools to climb to become our highest selves.

Happy New Year!