A wordsmith with a vivid imagination, an eager mind and a burning desire to carve out tales. As I journey with my muse to that land of all possibilities and self discovery, I hope my personal evolution will serve as a beacon of inspiration for anyone who chooses to stop by.
JoiningColline’s Gratitude challenge will help me to stay hinged on the blessings that I am surrounded with, no matter how minutiae they may seem.
The song ‘count your blessings and name them one by one,’ plays in my mind as I write this. It will indeed surprise you what the Lord has done!
There is always something to be grateful for and when we are thankful for what we have, it actually makes it enough. Fear disappears and abundance appears!
Our lives may not be perfect, but gratitude bestows reverence on us, changing the perspectives of how we experience Life and the World.
Today, I am simply grateful for the simple things of life.
For more in-depth understanding of a word that I have read before and accepted its meaning literally.
As I was bleary-eyed this morning and trying to have a quick devotion with the children whilst pulling on my canvas as well (multi-tasking Mama) I was trying to explain the concept of Psalm 27.1: ”The Lord is my Light and my Salvation” to my young ones and I floundered a bit, before my light-bulb of understanding came on. That our lives could be likened to a very dark house in need of light. We pay our electricity/gas bills so that we may have light supply in our house, but we can still be in that darkness with its cast shadows and monsters lurking and growling at us, if we fail to turn on the switch to let the light shine. We are the ones responsible for turning on the switch and nobody else! For this revelation and explanation to my young ones, I am thankful.’
For sustained good health of my family, I am grateful.
I am grateful for getting my exercise in today.
I am really grateful for a quick power snooze without any perturbing thoughts.
For the warm, tasty home-made chilli soup that I indulged in. I am truly thankful. It does not escape my mind that some unfortunate souls are somewhere without warm food or shelter. Not because they love it that way, but because providence found them there.
Take not for granted the little things that makes your life beautiful. Like my people would say, “when you are eating a piece of fruit, think of the person that planted the tree.”
I do exclaim quite a bit, even in real life! I think we Africans tend to like a bit of drama, with all the Ahs! Ohs! Hei! O’s, Ehh’s! Hmm’s! that dots our spoken words to emphasize the thoughts that goes with the words.
So genetically, I practice this as a true African to help you get the drift of my thoughts!
I very well can’t add all the hmm’s and hah’s to my writing or can I?
I think those punctuation marks were created for a purpose and I am not even sure that I am using enough of them!
Therefore, when I am making an expression that goes on and on and I am not sure how to do that, I use continuous spots or should I say dots! It represents a pause……., so that you can mull over that thought!
I love little bits of colours here and there ( sometimes, I think I am a magpie that is forever attracted to shiny stuff).
I love to smile too! Even on paper. 😊 Well, not on my thesis, I guess Master Prof. will not find that very impressive and will assume that it is a lame attempt at buttering up 😕
When I write, a lot of times, if I don’t have my headphones on, I say out my words as I type or write them, as though you are in here with me and I try to simulate your answer and how we would twist the topic to 7 Sundays.
My pencils do suffer anxiety attacks from not knowing which of them I will chew to bits the following day and my keyboard has suffered a nervous breakdown a time or two.
My family have grown used to the queer awesomeness of this Lady of the Manor and my husband’s roll of his eyeballs when my laughter gets raucous makes me share tidbits of juicy bits from this awesome community.
Sometimes, most times, I have to reduce my words when I am bursting with so much to say. I keep silent in my head to allow you get in a word sideways as well.
It is a shame that the banter we share has to zip through the cyberspace, bypassing some
word- nappers across all the oceans before making it safely to you and sometimes it takes forever to arrive.
No, I am not a mad-hatter, but I do have my writing and real side quirks which makes me who I am.
That’s some of my quirkiness (I hear that they grow as you get older). So let me know about yours.
We all have strange relationships with punctuation — do you overuse exclamation marks? Do you avoid semicolons like the plague? What type of punctuation could you never live without? Tell us all about your punctuation quirks!
This post is inspired by my yesterdays observation as a social voyeur and I came away with a good number of lessons even though the young baby had no idea that his display was teaching me some of life’s simple lessons.
The weather in Dubai had cooled sufficiently that you could go down to the pool and relax without turning into burnt offering, so when the kids came back from school and raced through their homework, I agreed to take them to the poolside.
They swam whilst I lounged with my fave read of the moment ‘My Vision – Challenges in the race ofExcellence‘ The book of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, the Ruler of Dubai and Vice-President of the United Arab Emirates.
I was quite engrossed in the glossy pictures of the Sheikh and his Falcon when an insistent shrilling cry of a child roused my attention.
I watched this tiny young fella; just about a year old by my estimate, wrestle and put up a squiggly fight with his parents as they tried to squeeze him into a floater.
He wailed. He tried to tuck his legs under his butt. He squirmed and wriggled and did his very best to escape the inevitable, but alas, he lost the battle.
His Mama managed to persuade his cute plump legs with those gorgeous baby folds into the float openings – I have something about babies. I adore them 🙂 and if nature had not decided I would have had a family of 7 children!
Well, back to our story. When mama had the young fella secured in, into the water he went with his father.
A baby bellow, squawk and shriek all followed his affront from being put in the pool! I gathered that it was his first experience.
By this time my entire attention had diverted from my read to watch the child and I unfortunately missed capturing on camera the initial bloody battle moments and his attempted maneuvers.
His dad held him and they made their way from one end of the pool to the other a couple of times and in no time at all the young chap was chortling happily and was all smiles. I was smiling too! 🙂
This went on for a little bit and before you could say ‘hey presto’ he got right into the groove of things.
After a worthwhile half an hour paddle and it appeared he was getting cold, his dad decided to get him out of the water and another loud protest ensued.
To my amazement the little fella did not want to come out! Here was a young thing screaming like the sky was about to fall a few minutes ago before he was persuaded albeit reluctantly to get into the water, now doing an about face and exhibiting his reluctance to come out!
They bundled him into a towel eventually and:
An ordinary, mundane experience left me with a good number of reflections:
How we always tend to draw a conclusion about an experience without even trying it out first.
How a new start of everything is filled with nervous trepidation and yet when we do apply ourselves, we conquer.
How fear and not faith always seems to be the first primal reaction to change in the human life.
His dad’s steering hand figuratively resembled the hands of God to me. When God wants to steer us in the right direction knowing that he is taking us to a good place but we stubbornly assert our independence until he lets go and allows us our free will.
How little encouragement and motivation (though forced in this case) can help us get on higher grounds. Growing pains in anything may be difficult but they are always surmountable.
How we are always reluctant to stop doing something (good or bad) when we have started it.
That we should be floats for others as many as we can encourage and motivate.
In this little application, not only did he conquer, but his joy resembles self-actualization.
So there it is, I bet the young fella will not forget the good experience from his first dunking and would be happier next time around.
If you gleaned anymore hidden message in this little story. Please do share.
Ever so often a brilliant bulb comes on in my head with an idea hovering within.
I am not the dullest knife in the pack, so my genie lamp does come on frequently you know 😉
Hatching good ideas seems to be a pastime, but the big question is what do I do with all the hatched ideas that I incubate?
Sometimes, nothing at all! A lot of times I share them with others who go forth to continue with the hatching!
Nevertheless, I have recorded a few successes here and there, one of such is that I am here talking to you!
Another happened several years ago, when my dear husband was on assignment in Lagos.
I wasn’t prepared to return to the formal workforce again, because I wanted to have time for my young ones. I looked around, saw the need to provide quality culinary and baking services, so I jumped in with my two feet.
It was not an easy feat with the ups and downs of Lagos, but the three years spent doing that business, were exhilarating, financially rewarding and extremely tasking.
I started out with a team of six staff, consisting of a cook, a baker and his assistant, a driver and service girls.
We started à la carte meal supplies to corporate enterprises that required our freshly made finger foods and huge pots of jollof rice, stew, pounded yam and soup etc for their workshops, training’s, meetings.
It was a crazy time. We would sometimes start work at 4:00a.m. in order to get every thing ready and deliver to the customer by lunch time and race through the infernal Lagos traffic jam with a customer calling every five seconds to know if you are almost there.
Sometimes, it required prepping stuff the day before in the evenings in order to meet deadlines.
I would come home worn out but satisfied and we got lots of referrals from satisfied customers.
Within the space of a year, I outgrew the space that I had rented inside the shopping complex and I needed to secure bigger space.
With money in my pocket I went hunting for land to purchase. Purchasing a parcel of land, I built and equipped a bakery and modern kitchen from scratch coupled with a little office for myself and a staff cloak/relaxing room.
Several learning obtained from the experience:
Catering business is a grueling business but financially rewarding!
You work harder to ensure the success of your own business than any other employment.
Learning how to effectively manage a retinue of 10 full time staff and several ad-hoc staff (the staff number grew within a year) with all their quirkiness.
Customer is key to your business. Keep your customer happy and you grow your business.
I actually started putting a cookery book together but….
I became not only a Business Owner, but also a Manager/Supervisor, Procurer, Human resources Officer, Accountant, Marketing Executive and all the hats that needed to be worn.
I invested and gained a property from the process.
I provided employment opportunity for others.
It gave me extreme satisfaction to prove the naysayers wrong. At the initial onset, even my husband was not too keen on the idea, until he saw me buy my first bus cash-down. NOT ON CREDIT! To obtain loan in this part of the World is no piece of cake, especially when a business is viewed as a new venture.
When I started building the bakery/kitchen without any form of loan but the sweat from my brows, he was amazed at my tenacity and success.
Sadly, our nomadic lifestyle of moving from one Continent to the other made it unfeasible to effectively run this business from afar.
Another day, we could share more brilliant bulb ideas over a cup of coffee!
Now I am looking at other possible ventures, let me go and put on my thinking cap.
The weight of unforgiveness lodged in the heart, Is an albatross that hinders enjoyment of peace!
Its weight drags you down and keeps you low, Making every other thing go so slow!
Forgiveness is not an easy feat, When we revel in the bitterness of it all!
But do remember that holding on to that bitter vile, Is simply holding on to dead waste and pile!
Holding on to that heavy weight, Is giving heavy rent-free space in your head, To business that has no business being there!
Even the weight of not forgiving yourself, Bears hindrance to your future!
Never equate seeking justice to a crime, and bearing the blunt weight of unforgiveness.
They are not the same! Neither are you Lady Justice!
Unforgiveness takes a prisoner! And that prisoner is you!
Do not equate trust and forgiveness, For they are both not the same!
Trust lost by an erring party, may be regained if they work for it. You can choose not to trust, or to trust with a pinch of salt. It is called being cautious, wary, sensible or careful.
You cannot choose not to forgive, Because this applies to you!
The act of unforgiveness is like poisonous lead! In the spirit of your life, whose effects soils your waters!
This is a gift that you must give yourself! It may not change your past but, It will define your future!
Set your heart free! Let that grudge go!
Set your heart free! Let that hurt and pain go!
Set your heart free! Let the healing begin!
Set yourself free! Unlock that door!
I never said its easy! But take a step, spread your wings and fly!
You have been transformed into a mystical being who has the ability to do magic. Describe your new abilities in detail. How will you use your new skills?
The Sun sets, leaving wisps of orange and lavender ribbons across the blue tinted sky.
Anastasia leans on the rail of the promenade deck of the cruise-liner, her soft floral dress blowing in the breeze. Alastair’s muscular arms wrap around her, sharing his warmth in the gentle breeze.
It’s a beautiful day. Their wedding day.
A clear Autumn sky without a gloomy cloud in sight. The aisle and pews decorated with hues of Autumn, in orange gold, red and faded green; her best season of all.
She felt like a fairy princess floating down the aisle to a wedding march of soft tinkle of waterfall and chirping sounds of birds, accompanied by the choristers well modulated sweet rendition of their song. The wedding party was sublime. Everything! Picture perfect!
As the ocean-liner cuts through the waters to a blissful honeymoon, Alastair nuzzles and plants a soft kiss behind her ears. She wants the moments to last forever.
Try not to waste time on darkness that robs you of your light!
How you spend your time, defines who you are or who you become!
Some people suffer from major ego-dysfunction and seem to dwell only in dark, negative auras; that once you get sucked in, they rob you of the light and energy that you require for yourself and others!
They are not interested in your time nor the positive energy that you channel to them, but the narcissistic pleasure they derive from waste!
Remember that change cannot be forced down a person’s throat! That person has to desire the change itself, because true change starts from within to without!
You may share your empathy with all, but choose wisely those who dine in the inner cores of your heart!
Use your light for greater good, your life will be better for it!
”Hia!” ”Is this not where I hung the shirt?” Ikem queries the silent night. His brand new blue second-hand T shirt with the Chelsea logo was gone! Could it have been carried by the breeze? ”Ah! Ah!” ”I just washed and put it out here not too long ago to dry in the light harmattan breeze!”
His other frayed shirt is hanging and flapping in the wind as if in mockery of his thoughts. He knows in his heart that one of those crooked eyed boys in the neighbourhood has pilfered the new one! ”Maybe it is Jude that took it o.” ”Jude!” ”Jude!” ”Jude!” he bangs on the Jude’s door, to no response.
This reaffirms his decision to go home to the village for Christmas in a couple of weeks and proceed to Onitsha with his cousin Chuks. “From the look of things Chuks seems to be doing well at Onitsha.” ”I will join him and start afresh from there.” ”I am tired of this place!”
”So what am I going to wear for tomorrow’s event now?”
He had just walked out of the dingy common bathroom of their quarters bare-bottomed feet; the sling of his worn-out slippers had finally died a natural death on his trek back home after a hectic days hustle.
It was dark in the neighbourhood. ”O boy, these NEPA boys have dismantled and collected the wires o”, says his neighbour Jude, seated on a heap of cement blocks outside, enjoying the nights fresh air. Their light connections are haphazardly and illegally done, coupled with their inability to settle the NEPA officials with something for the weekend.
Child naming ceremony
Ikem chooses not to let such things bother him right now. He is moving to higher grounds in a few weeks time, besides he had purchased quite an assortment of apparels including two new sandals and sneakers that he will launch over Christmas in the village.
As a matter of fact, if fate continues smiling the way it has been these last couple of weeks, ”I might even consider buying a G.S.M torch light phone and a few items to take to Mama and Nwanneka.’‘ ”It is almost my turn to collect the accumulated funds from ‘Isusu’.”
He felt happier than he had in a long while as he quickly washes and hangs his shirt to drain before he retires for the night. Tomorrow will be a good day, he whistles as he goes along. Papa Emma’s is having the child dedication of his twins, and surely the celebration will be followed by several plates of rice and meat coupled with free drinks to go around.
Party Jollof rice with plantain and moi-moi
He plans to join them to go to church. He has not been to church for so many months. It was tiring attending church services that were fast turning into fashion parades, whilst he had nothing fashionable to wear. It always made him feel ashamed.
Now! The new Tshirt he planned to showcase tomorrow has disappeared. “Thank God I didn’t wash the Chinos jeans as well.” ”I will just have to wear something else!” He muses to himself.
Links to the earlier series are at the top of the page. Thank you
Quick Glossary for words that you might not know:
Child dedication: Child dedication is a symbolic ceremony undertaken by Christian parents soon after the birth of a child. This rite is intended to be a public statement by the parents that they will train their children in the Christian faith.
Chuks: A shortened form of an Igbo name given to boys which could be derived from Chukwuka, God is greater, Chukwuemeka, God has done so well, Chukwudi, God lives, Chukwuebuka, God is very big etc
Isusu: An informal means of collecting and saving money through a savings for the enablement of kith and kin ventures.
Harmattan: Harmattan is a cold-dry and dusty trade wind, that blows over the West African subcontinent, from the Sahara Desert into the Gulf of Guinea between the end of November and the middle of March (winter).
Hia! Just an exclamation like Oh dear!
Moi-Moi: Nigerian steamed bean cakes made from a mixture of washed, peeled black-eyed peas, onions and fresh ground peppers (usually a combination of bell peppers and chili or scotch bonnet). A very protein-rich food that is a staple in Nigeria
NEPA: National Electric Power Authority was an organization formerly governing the use of electricity in Nigeria now replaced by PHCN (Power Holding Company of Nigeria).
Nwanneka: An indigenous Igbo name given to a girl and it means: ”my siblings are supreme or very important.”
Onitsha: A city with one of the largest commercial markets in West Africa. It is situated on the river port on the eastern bank of the Niger river in Anambra State, southeastern Nigeria.
To settle: The act of adjusting or determining disputes between persons without pursuing the matter through the formal process. In this case, it is giving something under the table to the officials.
I found a lot of treasures in the neighbours backyards this past week. Will share just a few. Do take a peek.
When we came here for a look-see in December, to help facilitate our migrating decision-making process, we spent weeks in a glitzy, glam hotel having a tour of the lovely city.
Hotels spuriously dot Dubai’s landscape to meet the needs of a teeming tourism industry which keeps blooming by the day. From the 0 stars to 5 stars and the only 7 Star hotel in the World!
Naturally, I got a bit friendly with a few of the staff, especially a young lady that tended to our room. I have no idea if I was drawn to her because she is of African descent, but I remember observing her very earnest yet polite demeanour as she rushed through her duties like a fire-ball in a haste to get her job done in record time.
The little tips that I gave her were highly appreciated and by the end of a few days, we became a little more friendly. I even suggested to her that I would like to share a day working with her for the heck of the experience to her alarmed and vehement refusal.
Out of piqued curiosity an interview ensued on one of the days that she was making up the room, little did I know that I would use the excerpts one day!
I will keep her name different and no mention is made of the hotels for privacy sake:
Me: “Lydia, where are you from?”
Lydia : “Somalia.”
Me: “How long have you been living here?”
Lydia : “Three years now.”
Me: “Wow!” “That’s been a while!” “Do you live close by?”
Lydia: “Not at all.” “The outskirts, after Sharjah.” “It’s too expensive to live in the city.”
Me: “That’s far! (I exclaimed with the little idea that I had to the terrain). ”What time do you leave home?”
Lydia: ”Most times 5 or 5:30 in the morning!” ”I have to be at work by 7:30.”
Me: “And I see you here till late evening around 9.00pm or so when the bus is taking a bunch of you home.” “Doe’s the bus take you home?”
Lydia: “No it stops us at a metro station and we find our way from there.”
Me: “Oh good!” “So how do you like it living here?” “Was it easy to transition from your place?” “I thought it was a bit difficult to move here as a single woman, given the rules and regulations?” A battery of questions came from my end and all these while she busily went about her duties in the apartment, changing sheets, fluffing pillows etc.
Lydia: “It’s okay to live here even though it is more expensive than Somalia, but this place is better.” “An employment agency engages a lot of us.” “We cannot apply directly by ourselves and they are the ones that obtain the visa after medical tests and other requirements have been satisfied.” ”The agency gets a fraction of our income – they are actually our employers and they deploy us to work in places where they get contracts.”
Me: ”How did you get to know about the agency?” ”Are you happy with the work?”
Lydia: ”My cousin told me about them.” ”We were searching for a proper way to leave Somalia because of certain hardship due to conflicts.” I observed the flitting of emotions on her pretty face, but I didn’t interrupt as I was regaled with bits and pieces of what home meant to her.
Me: ”So what about the job?” ”Is it tedious?” ”Is it okay?” ”What has your experience been like?” I asked leading questions trying to probe a bit beyond the surface.
Lydia: ”Sometimes, I do about 35 check-outs in a day.” I got to understand that, that meant putting rooms in immaculate states when an occupant has checked out.
”Some days can be very stressful especially when some occupants are difficult and don’t want you to disturb them until when they are ready.” ”Then they call and tell housekeeping that nobody has done up their rooms; meanwhile, they are the ones that put a do not disturb sign on the door.” ”What can you do?” ”You just have to manage.” She stated philosophically
”Every job has it’s problems, but if I get money, I will open a hairdressing salon.” ”I know how to make hair very well.” Her face lit up at such an anticipated prospect.
“This is actually my second place of work.” ”At the first hotel that I worked in, I was nearly assaulted by a client.” ”It was during a festive season and the hotel was fully booked at that time.” ‘‘I was assigned to work that floor for the week and this man kept making overtures but I ignored him.” ”On one of the days that I was cleaning up the toilet (and he is a very messy guest), he followed me into the bathroom, got aggressive and tried to force himself on me.” ”I barely managed to extricate myself without getting seriously hurt, but the Indian housekeeping manager informed me two days later that I was fired for upsetting a customer.”
”I was lucky that the agency was understanding and they deployed me to this place.” ”This is a better hotel, she enunciated quietly in her sing-song drawling accent. ”The manager is a nice Egyptian Christian.”
I was very disquietened and left the interview at that with a bigger tip than usual.
a cooking pot and twisted tales 