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In the year 2021 Ontario had forty-six tornadoes.

I check the weather forecast daily to see whether there is a warning for severe thunderstorms, freezing rain, extreme heat, or wind risk.
Storms could uproot trees, damage buildings, and vehicles,
disrupt power supply or kill people.
There is no timetable for the storms of life. Birds avoid rain, not just so that they won’t get wet but because the atmospheric air is less dense during rain storms and birds need dense air to gain aerodynamic lift for their wings.

Therefore, during rain storms,
they would rather find shelter than fly. They perch and conserve energy.

But not so with the eagle, the king of the air. No matter how strong the storm is, it soars to the sky.
Its long and strong wings are assets for this feat. Eagles’ eyries are built in tall trees or on high cliffs. The pressure of the storms helps an eagle to glide without expending energy.
The eagle knows that beyond the storms there is peace and security.

The eagle rises against all odds to attain greater heights.
An eagle is often used as an emblem by many nations of the world.

It signifies speed, freedom, victory, and longevity.

The success secret of the eagle is adaptable to man when it comes to weathering and rising above the storms of life like an eagle.
For instance, the famous retired Colonel Sanders faced and rose above the bitter storms of life.
He lost his father at the age of five, quit school at age sixteen,
failed as a railroad conductor and as an insurance salesman at different times, was washed out in the army,  and his wife left him at age twenty.
He became a cook and dishwasher in a small restaurant.
He retired at age sixty-five when he initially contemplated committing suicide before eventually deciding
to try out frying chickens with his recipe and selling them to his neighbors from house to house in Kentucky.
But twenty-three years later, at age eighty-eight, Colonel Sanders, founder of the Kentucky Fried Chicken, The KFC empire, became a millionaire, living blissfully, after the storm.

In English language, the word handicapped is a combination of two words, hand and incapable.
So when a person is not functioning the way he is supposed to be functioning, he is said to be handicapped, meaning that his hands are incapable.

The hand is so important that it is used to describe so many situations in life. For example, a crippled man is never said to be leg-capped but handicapped.

When a man who is supposed to bring money out for a function in the family is financially incapable of doing so, he is said to be financially handicapped.
If a woman who is supposed to be married and settled with children in her husband’s house is still being dated, and looking for a fiance, she is said to be maritally handicapped. When a Christian remains a baby in the Lord, after many years of serving God, he is said to be spiritually handicapped.
If someone who is supposed to be a lecturer in the university is still struggling to gain admission into a University, he is described as being mentally handicapped.
But a handicap should not be an excuse for not achieving greatness in life.
For example, blinded from age of six weeks, Fanny Crosby wrote more than 8,000 Christian hymns in her lifetime.
Among the songs she wrote that are still loved by people today are “Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior.”,
“Blessed Assurance.” and “Jesus Is Tenderly Calling You Home.”

Late Prophet T.O. Obadare was a
Nigerian World-renowned televangelist.
He became blind when he fell ill at a tender age but he didn’t allow that to deter him from pursuing his calling.
He was the General Evangelist of Christ Apostolic Church. (C.A.C.)
He also founded the World Soul Winning Evangelical  Mission (WOSEM).
He received an honorary Doctor of Ministry degree from St. John’s University, Missouri. He was a firebrand evangelist, very versed in the Bible. He conducted many healing crusades within and outside Nigeria before he died in March 2013.

At  13, the famous Stevie Wonder was the youngest artist ever to top the music chart in America.
To date, he is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with sales of over 100 million records worldwide, having won 25 Grammy Awards.

Decades ago, during my primary school days, troublesome boys like me used to settle scores after school hours by fighting at isolated locations within the school compound.
An unforgettable day came when unknown to me,
the arrangement we made to settle a score with another classmate was twisted.
No sooner than my challenger and I started wrestling at the back of one of the school’s classroom blocks
than two other boys who were already in hiding came out to join my challenger and the three of them gave me the beating of my life.

I returned home with swollen eyes and bruised arms.
From that day on, I stopped accepting challenges to fight in isolated areas within the school premises. I switched the venue of my fights to the open school’s football field.

My crowning day came barely two months to my graduation when I accepted a challenge from a feared bully in the school. Caleb was a light-complexioned big boy who used to beat up small-statured classmates like me whenever we dared to hold a view contrary to his on any issue.

That one day, I opposed his view during a discussion in the classroom. He attempted to shout me down but I stood my ground, squared up and accepted his challenge for a fight on the school’s football field with schoolmates as spectators.

In no time after we started fighting
I wrestled him to the ground and started punching away at his face till we were separated.

That was how I gained the respect of my juniors, classmates and seniors till I graduated from the school shortly after.
Fourteen years later we became good friends when, by providence, we were both commissioned into the army. To date, both of us giggle understandingly when he calls me the “Champ”.