It’s a harvest…Sisterhood

September 6, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha18 Comments

I have 2 biological sisters. They are very, very dear to my heart (the two very’s used here are for both of them, so that they don’t fight over who exactly the very is for, if I only use one 🙂 We fight and love each other to bits (never try to get your word in; you might find us showing you the way out, whilst we make a cuppa and settle our differences). They are my rocks of support and cheerleaders. Never hesitating for a moment to kick me in the butt when I need it; and plenty times too. Hey! Wait a minute! I am human you know 😉

Now, I have so many other sisters, across Continents and all the oceans that divide us. Their words of encouragement, humor, virtual hugs, pokes and friendly advise have come to mean so much to me and the saying that ”wherever we are, it is really our friends that make our World, be it one, two, three or a dozen” is very true.

Thank you aidly193 for this warm nomination. You sparkle 🙂

Now to the nitty gritty. The rules of the award are:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you, linking back to their site

2. Put the award logo on your blog

3. Answer the ten questions sent to you

4. Make up ten new questions for your nominees to answer

5. Nominate five blogs!

The questions asked are:

1. What is something you’ve always wanted?

Ans: The whole truth and nothing but the truth, something that I have always wanted is actually not an item that can be put in finite figures, nor can it be bought in the shops. It is simply ‘Peace of mind.’

2. What is your dream car?

Ans: My dream car changes like fickle breeze. Today I would ooh and aah over a Tahoe, tomorrow it would be a Corvette. I once had an affair going with a Range Rover until my husband bought one. Then the ardor cooled off and my roving eyes started wandering to the Mercedes Benz G wagon. I have expensive taste. Come on! Girls like toys too you know 😉

3. What is your favorite meal?

Ans: This may come as a surprise. I love everything edible, but you can catch my goat any day with plain Yoghurt (not the flavored ones) sprinkled with nuts. However, the bane of my life is gooey, chocolaty cake or ice-cream.

4. What is your favorite book?

Ans: I have fallen in love with so many books over the years that it is really a difficult choice to settle on one. The book that sticks in my minds eye as a child is The magic faraway tree by Enid Blyton. It simply made the World magical to me. As an adult, nothing beats my Bible. The treasures buried within never cease to amaze me.

5. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Ans: Recently, I have been thinking of so many parts of Asia.

6. What did you do for your latest birthday?

Ans: I was treated to a handsome breakfast orchestrated by hubby and kids. A lovely dinner (where I was allowed to have a large dollop of sinful ice-cream) and a beautiful set of silver jewellery, plus nail polish from my daughter, hand-picked flowers and body spray from my boys 🙂

7. What is your favorite genre of music?

Ans: My love for music is very eclectic and purely depends on the mood that I find myself in. It could be something calm and soothing to rollicking Afro pop. The short and simple thing is that I love every noise called music (that does not include the yowling from the cat).

8. What is something most people don’t know about you?

Ans: Shh! Can you keep a secret? I sometimes feel lonely in the midst of a crowd. Does that count as a secret?

9. If you could have dinner with anyone from history, who would it be?

Ans: Why does Adolf Hitler come to my mind? I would sit him down and give him a piece of my mind.

10. What is your shoe size?

Ans: A whooping size 11. I envy all those dainty feet of other women, but I guess the feet size has to match the height of it’s owner 5ft 11in.

Now my nominees are:

Lynz real cooking: For all those lovely meals you keep serving up online.

Nena: I am happy I found you.

Oluseye Ashiru: For your lovely prayers and sage parental counsel.

Lucid gypsy: For the lovely interactions. Your posts make me smile.

Nedoux: I am glad I found you.

Do follow the rules above and kindly spill your guts below. Enjoy 😉

Are you a shopper or a penny pincher?
Do you have any hidden talents?
Do you dream often?
Do you think romance books and fairy tales influence our choice of a partner?
Are you an emotional person?
Are there any causes that you strongly believe in?
How are you feeling right now?
How do you make decisions?
What is your secret desire?
In a short prose, describe your town.

Looking forward to reading the scoop. Be blessed.

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Uncategorized

Share a Post

September 5, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha1 Comment

The Daily Post

My Very First Crush…

September 5, 2015September 5, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha7 Comments

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “First Crush.”

Who was your first childhood crush? What would you say to that person if you saw him/her again?

My very first crush came in the figure of a poster. I adored him from thousands of miles away, through the small handkerchief sized screen of a black and white television.

He was Thomas Sankara; Burkina Faso’s late revolutionary leader. His calendar post hung on the wall, where his imaginary words turned me into a renegade princess. Unfortunately, I was still too young when he died and I never got the chance to flutter my eyelashes at him.

Then came the second crush, who lived in the neighborhood. He was not quite as handsome but fairly manageable too.

He never knew I had a teen crush on him and when I ran into him several years ago, not a missed heartbeat or flutter did my heart suffer. For some reason, I kept staring at the balding shiny patch of his head, since I stood several good inches taller, trying to figure out what it was that had kept my young heart crushing. I couldn’t remember.

We exchanged pleasantries and went our merry ways. Me and my brood of kids and him with his bulging briefcase to do what it was that he did.

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Creative Writing · Hope · Poetry/Poems

Where’s happy?…..

September 5, 2015September 5, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha10 Comments

”Where’s happy?” she asked the Four Winds,

Digging in the rubble of hurt, lonesomeness, misguided thoughts,

hopelessness and more hurt,

Her fingers bloodied from sharp pricks of the jagged rocks of pain,

despair, mistreatment and more.

The Four Winds kept still in its gentle sway,

And not a peep, did it utter at all.

She hurried left and she scurried right, In a frantic search for happy;

Under plumped pillows and beneath feathered billets;

She languished, seeking happy with anguish.

Across the gin counter and inside many bottles,

”Where’s happy?” She asked, but bottle wouldn’t share its model.

Under the lights, she took to flight;

Strange lips kissed, but happy still missed;

”Where’s happy, Strange lips?” she asked;

Strange lips mumbles and fumbles;

Humbly admits, ”I don’t know and I need happy too!”

Dejected and weary, bloodied to the bone;

A moment of stillness, she maintained in her soul;

“Where’s happy?” She whispered to her soul;

”Right here with you,” little Happy said.

”Right here, where I have always been, my dear.”

”How come you are right here?” She asked in surprise,

”Whilst I ran helter, skelter, looking far and wide,”

”But you were no where to be found!!”

”You looked in the wrong places!” Happy declared.

”And asked the wrong faces,” Happy shook her head.

”I am always here, right within you,”

”If only you will keep still for a moment or two.”

Uncategorized

A Letter from One Mother to Another

September 4, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha9 Comments

May we pause to think about refugees who are presently in precarious situations that are not of their own making.

Uncategorized

Revving my engine…

September 4, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha9 Comments

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Forward Drive.”

What is the one thing that drives you to wake up in the morning and do whatever it is you do? Is it writing, family, friends, or something else entirely?

Do I have a choice in this matter, as the case may be? Even on mornings when my inner motivational battery is low and I feel like camping some more on top of my cosy bed, human needs wade into my cocooned brain.

From waking the kids to make sure they get ready for school, to a hurried breakfast and a to-do list as long as my arm, my inner engine revs to go.

I am a morning person and I love to wade into all the task while my tank is still full.

Over the years, a force of habit of making a to do list the previous night before sleeping has helped in taming a day that could otherwise spiral into a runaway event, which would in turn leave me dissatisfied, when I review how much in road I made with the items that had to be attended to.

Naturally, the contents of my list vary each day based on the exigencies of that day and it can always be found by my bedside table along with a jotter (just in case I wake up in the middle of the night with a thought on my mind) and whatever literal work that has caught my fancy at that moment.

Jacqueline

Creative Writing · Weave that Dream

Rivals…

September 4, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha22 Comments

In response to the cue art Faces from Creativity Carnival :

It rankles! Yes it does. Maria sits mute at the dinner table, her roiling thoughts consumed with jealousy and anger. Mama, cracks a joke that maybe a widower with a dozen children would fall hopelessly in love with her homeliness but it is a struggle to plaster a smile on her face. She knows the icy look in her eyes must be as cold as the Arctic but no one notices.

She can’t seem to help her unbidden thoughts and distorted feelings for Ella. Ella, her identical twin but there are no two people who are more different. Maria’s distorted feelings of animosity, envy and sadness have accrued over the years.

Even her name is prettier for pity’s sake – Maria thinks. They saddle me with a staid, homely, sensible name “Maria” and “Ella” gets to be called a fairytaley, princessy, frilly name.

Ella the glitzy, charming one. The one that drew the boys like mindless bees to her honeysuckle petals. The one who got all the accolades, yet didn’t exert herself much to earn them.

Mama keeps saying that Ella will go places; our ballerina tutus are the same, yet mine always managed to look crumpled and my flats had a hole in the toe. I made that hole! In rebellion too, she recalls in remembered pleasure. She hated the ballet lessons and all that pirouetting made her dizzy. “No spotlights for you, my young lady” auntie Anna would say. That sounded like doom to the young lady’s ears.

She loves to draw and paint, but no one seems to notice. They noticed easily how unruly her hair is, how her skirts are always overrun with watercolor and how her finger nails are eaten to jagged bits, from nervous energy.

Ella is always immaculate. No hair is ever out of place. Her bubbly energy takes up the entire air meant for both of them and sometimes Maria feels like the evil step-sister waiting for the Sword of Damocles to fall and swish Ella’s head off her shoulders.

Maria prays. Every moment, she tries. Trying to staunch the flow of ill-feeling by saturating them in heartfelt prayers, but those moments of peaceful thoughts did not last.

Today she feels so petty and angry as she watches Ella weave her sticky charm, yet again on a beau. Our budding romance is dead on arrival, Jeremy has just bitten the dust, she thinks.

Debating all the painful, slow ways to eliminate her sibling rival and shaking with an itchy, ugly desire to slap Ella’s face, Maria slowly rises from the dinner table and leaves for her room. No one notices.

The Daily Post

Churn it out….

September 3, 2015September 3, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha13 Comments

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Inside the Bubble.”

I peer up at the doctor in his protective gears with anxious eyes, dreading the worst.

I can’t quite define the emotions in his eyes; the transparent plague mask seems to disassociate him from warmer expressions and he tut tutted yet again.

“Say aarrghh,” he requests. His vocals come out a bit wobbly through the thick surgical mask.

I oblige willingly. Sticking my tongue out as far as I can. Anything to get rid of the plaguing ailment will do.

A poke here, a prod there, several vials of blood and muted instructions to nurses who are equally garbed like they are all ready to take off on a jaunt to Mars; they all shake their heads.

“What?” I ask through hot, parched lips?

”Am I dying?” I brace myself for a heart-stopping, gut wrenching response.

”I am not ready to die now,” I start protesting to my audience who peered at me like a new specimen for study.

Then came the blissful words of the doctor in the mask.

“No ma’am .” “You are not dying, but you have a very contagious infection called bogusmogusoperansuswhatamacallit.” “This is a very viral blah, blah, and can be fatal if not well managed.” You will be fine in a month with the right amount of treatment, but I am sorry you will have to remain quarantined here in the hospital for the required month.”

I feel too elated to nag or to worry. I feel extreme gratitude to learn that it is just a passing virus. That I still have a chance to live.

“Can I have my writing materials?” I ask hesitantly. Willing him to say yes with the power of my mind

“Of course yes you can ma’am” he answers politely. I imagine that his lips move in a smile.

My gratitude is complete. A month of solitude. Time to churn out that book, my agile mind picks up its trail of thought for my novel.

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Creative Writing

Escaped..

September 3, 2015September 3, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha24 Comments

In response to Flash Fiction For Aspiring Writers run by Priceless Joy with the photo prompt from afairymind

Annalise stands shivering in the early mornings chill as her cotton shift can barely keep her warm. She impatiently watches the noisy steam locomotive as it pulls up to the station, willing it to stop quickly so that she can hop on.

She casts furtive glances over her shoulders, every step of a passer-by stops her heartbeat in its tracks.

It was still incredulous to her simple mind on how easy it had been to sneak off and she knows that the luxury of time is not at her disposal.

They will soon discover that the lump under the scratchy blanket is a plumped dud. All hell will be let loose.

A fresh start is inevitable, away from it all, but all that she has pinched is just enough to get her to Oregon.

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

The Daily Post

Dancing to the beat…

September 2, 2015September 2, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha17 Comments

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Your Number One.”Number one

My late dad adored music so much that now when I think of music and him, I think that he might have had a secret desire to be an artist or a maestro.

He played a plethora of tracks from diverse artists that right from my toddling days I grew up to appreciate and have an ear for all kinds of music. What I fail to understand is why I cannot carry a tune to match my love for music 😦

When I use the word diverse, this ranged from classics such as: Hallelujah from Handel’s Messiah, music from Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, James Brown, Bob Marley, The Jackson 5, Miriam Makeba, Fela Anikulap-Kuti, Sonny Okosun Elvis Presley, James Last, Don Williams, Dixie Chicks, John Lennon, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Ray Charles, Diana Ross, Donna Summer and a host of others

I think the music that sticks in my heart, the track that evokes bitter-sweet reminisce of my childhood and which makes my heart swell in gratitude to the man that nurtured me is the Jim Reeves classic “We Thank Thee”.

This was played in our house very early in the mornings and almost served as our waking call. Whenever I hear this track play anywhere, it transports me right back to our old family living room. To the smell of Sunday breakfast of fried eggs and plantain.

My dad helped to form the love that I have for music and dance today.

To you daddy, I say thank you and I love you always. May perpetual light continue to shine upon you as you rest in peace.

Please take a moment and listen to Jim Reeves, We thank thee and Halleujah from Handel’s Messiah.

Hallelujah

Jim Reeves – We thank thee

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha