Letter 14: Stay

~ on rekindling dead dreams and believing again ~

Ozioma Okafor

Sep 14, 2024

and He said to my dead dreams

talitha cumi

you see this body

isn’t a place where dead things lie

you see this temple

houses a life-giving spirit

2021 was when I first had the idea of Stay. Then it wasn’t named stay, it was just an idea of an event - a safe space where people come around, have real conversations on different themes, journal, worship, build a community, and leave feeling lighter and whole.

2022, was when the word Stay started to mean a lot to me. Stay: to abide, to remain, to hold on to God, showing up even on the days I don’t understand, even on the days I am questioning. Stay: to keep alive, to choose to remain in this body, on this side of life even when all I wanted was to be no more.

That’s when the event was named ‘A safe space called stay’. A name that could mean anything to anyone depending on whatever resilience or fight they are on in this journey of life.

I’ve always been one to journal, so journal after journal I would write about my plans, visions, desires, dreams, and hosting A safe space called Stay would make top 5. I told my friends about it over and over again, but then if you knew my dance with fear. There was no way I was ever going to take a step to execute, me host an event? never.

On Sunday morning I woke up with these words “and so He said to my dead dreams, talitha cumi”. (rise up; get up)

Once in a while I wake up with words and I form them into poetry. I’m always excited when these happens because I know these words aren’t from me. So, I wrote it down excitedly and headed to church.

On getting to church, the sermon was about living a purposeful life, restoring stolen years, restoring lost dreams, hoping again, dreaming again, going again…

I knew this was no coincidence, I knew there was an old dream I was to rekindle, something I had given up on, something I had delayed and was to do now.

I kept thinking and praying on it through the day and the next and by Monday evening I knew it was A safe space called Stay. I still fought it, because again fear. But after speaking to a few friends, I knew it was time, I knew I had to do what I had to do.

So, A safe space called Stay is here, it’s a book launch with a twist, and I would share more details including a link to register to attend soon.

This phase of my life has been a lot of doing things afraid, walking on water, trusting God will keep me from falling or drowning. This phase has been a lot of bringing back dead dreams, rekindling lost visions. I go back to my old journals and see word for word, things I had written long ago becoming reality.

It reminds me of my last letter about everything happening in its time.

A little exercise for you:

Are there old dreams, visions you once had and somehow abandoned them due to fear and are wondering if they would ever be? Maybe it’s time to revisit them, to believe again, to go again.

It’s been 3 weeks since preorder for The road to healing is not linear started, and 1 week to release day.

How have I been feeling?

While it still feels so unreal, I’ve slowly been letting it sink in. At first, I always referred to it as the book, but yesterday for the first time I referred to it as my book. Slowly accepting the reality of this phase.

Preorder here

I really hope September has been good for you so far, hope your heart is at peace and your mind at rest.

Have the best week yet.

All my love,

Ozzy