Screws In The Sand…Mundane Monday

February 1, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha16 Comments

Trablogger says, this is is a challenge created to find beauty in almost everything. The challenge is simple : find beauty in everyday mundane things, capture the beauty and upload the photographs.

Nope! It’s not what you thought! Now straighten your mind out 😉

Devotions · Inspiration - Motivation · Photographs · Poetry/Poems

Look UP!..

January 31, 2016January 31, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha13 Comments

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To the glorious Heavens I look,
The abundance of Above
Is a Free Gift to all
Who look up
To See
It.

Challenges · Inspiration - Motivation · Lifestyle · Stream of Consciousness Saturday. · This Is My Life

An Averted Anxiety Moment…Streams Of Consciousness Saturday.

January 30, 2016February 1, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha25 Comments

Today is one of those days. I woke up with AN anxious pressing of thoughts, yet my mind was scattered to the four winds and I initially could not pin down what it was that caused the pressing niggles.

It was such that I felt like not doing anything but just crawling between the sheets and allowing the thoughts marinate and vacillate.

This was not the ‘I am feeling lazy today thoughts,’ rather, it was more like the ‘let me stew in some unknown worry and annoyance thought.’

However, I knew the fore-warnings and the possible resultant effects of such marinating. I would gradually spiral into a ball of anxious worry wart and by the end of the day, the snappy, stressed dragon will start showing it’s ugly face and it just goes downhill.

So I had to actively decide to turn my ANxiety moment into an active moment and I did just three things before the emotional waves came into balance.

These are the three simple things that I did:

I prayed briefly with my children.

I dragged on my exercising clothes and lazily sweated out for an hour and twenty minutes.

After the sweating, I sat in my thinking corner and turned to piece my thoughts apart to try and put my fingers on the niggles. Some thoughts were dealt with and resolved as quickly as a phone call. Other thoughts were written down and turned into action points to be resolved at assigned specific times.

Doing these three things decompressed my mind. I found myself back to a balanced tandem and my day continued on a good note.

Those moments of ANxiety can possibly be turned into moments of ANswers, but it takes a lot of conscious effort to deal with it.

I have learnt over time, that putting pressing thoughts or issues off or pushing them under the rug does not make them go away, rather the rug only gets higher.

This is my first post in relation Stream of Consciousness challenge and we Linda has asked us to use ‘an’ for today’s prompt.

Inspiration - Motivation · Little rants · Social Issues · Three quote challenge

Nope! You Can Never Go Wrong…

January 28, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha23 Comments

People watching is a social science hobby that I spend quite a bit of my time engaging in. Observing people in recent times, some of the little things I see shows that there some fine redeeming human values which seems to be at loss these days. I am quite sure a good number of you would have observed these things as well.

Two days ago, I watched an elderly lady who was counting her steps struggle with the few things that she had and a couple of the items fell from her hands.

She paused briefly, bending gingerly to try and gather them and from my observation, she probably has Arthritis.

My natural instinct was to run up and help her, unfortunately my distance was a little far off to offer immediate assistance.

Meanwhile, two young men, probably in their mid-to-late twenties stood two steps away from this lady, puffing away on their cigarettes and not one of them bothered to render a helping hand to a woman who looked old enough to be their mother.

For all you know, they were probably busy videoing her difficulty for their YouTube Channel, which seems to be the new thing these days.

People would rather spend time shooting a video of a dying man in an accident instead of figuring out how to help.

I honestly had to curb my desire to make my way over and give them a talk or two about chivalry, they might not take it well.

However, I gave them a thorough scolding in my head 😉 and reminded myself that I have to keep teaching my boys how to be gentlemen.

By extending a hand of fellowship or help no matter how little to those around us who need it, we can never go wrong. We are actually not just helping others, but staying in touch with our humanity.

These are some little nuggets of quotes that you might wish to spend a couple of seconds on.

‘Instruction in youth, is like engraving in stone.’ African Proverb

‘The old woman looks after the child to grow its teeth and the young one in turn looks after the old woman when she loses her teeth.’ African Proverb

‘We rise by lifting others.’ Robert Ingersoll

Several dear bloggers have invited me for quote challenges and each day, the invitation increases by a notch.

I don’t like to let these things trail for so long, but I also don’t like to just toss quotes out there with nothing to say about them.

I try to look at the things that I observe around me and let them serve as lessons or inspirations for my thoughts.

I would like to thank Sepultura and That Little Voice for their generous invitation extended to me, to participate in the quotes challenge and would like to invite the following bloggers below to take up the quote baton and run with it.

Bunkaryudo

Sheridan Johnson

GloverDeb

No pressures at all. Just go with it if you wish to.

The Little Rules are:

Post three consecutive days.
You can pick one or three quotes per day.
Challenge three different bloggers per day

My regards,

Gratitude · Inspiration - Motivation · Lifestyle

Why Not? Are You Too Much Of A Man?…

January 27, 2016January 27, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha39 Comments

Is it possible to wake up and express a heartfelt gratitude for everything, without a ‘but?’

Some gentleman openly made a scornful statement, asking why we should have to express our thankfulness and gratitude for all to see? Why couldn’t we just be thankful in our minds?

I thought it through and my wonder is, maybe he feels it’s not manly enough to be seen doing something as sissy as being grateful or thankful? Who knows.

Anyway, to this retort I say, why not? We talk about virtually anything and everything under the Sun. So why not gratitude and thankfulness? Must we save it only for the day of Thanksgiving, on 24 November?

Is it because the word carries the connotations of Religion or Christian tenets?

Well you are wrong! I think it would be wise to remember that the state of gratitude is a life tenet, which does not respect any doctrine, dogma, race, religion, age or sex.

Thankfulness is a state of being that is the mother of all virtues. When we are thankful, we have less to grumble about. When we are thankful, it makes the little that we have enough. When we are thankful, we are not going to be envious and envy breeds wickedness.

We don’t have to look far to find things to be grateful for: family, food, shelter, friends, clothing, seasons, life, nature, beauty, truth, salvation. The list could go on for decades.

A heart of gratitude opens doors of love, peace and plenty.

Today, I am grateful for life and good health. It’s really a privilege and nothing can truly compare to the promises that I have in God.

A grateful heart will always find satisfaction. May your heart find a grace for gratitude. Like the Bible tells us, ‘God inhabits the praise of His People.

You can join Colline’s or Maria Jansson gratitude challenge platforms.

Five Sentence Inspiration · Lifestyle · My Thinking Corner · Quotes For You · Success

Tuesdays Trickles 6…My Thinking Corner.

January 26, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha23 Comments

Every Tuesday, I share snippets of thoughts that I call ‘My Thinking Corner.’

I would like to invite you to participate. The challenge is quite simple.

Each Tuesday, share your very short snippets of positive, inspiring, motivating, health, spiritual, writing advice, clips, posts etc, that can serve as a prop to motivate others and simply add my link to your post.

I call it my thinking corner because, I actually take out a bit of time just to think through things, encapsulate my thoughts as much as possible and detoxify my mind.

It might work for you in a different way, but the idea is to get the positive thoughts flowing.

Please send in your little thoughts. You never know whose life you might inspire.

The single truth that we tell ourselves is a million times better than the half-truths that we are told by a dozen.

Hope is that last little flicker in the rubble of our burnt ashes. When you stoke the embers sufficiently, the flames will come alive.

Our dreams can never be the same neither will our journey. You must dream your dreams and not wait for hand-me- downs.

An empty heart will never have anything to give. Fill it with good things and it will overflow naturally.

Once that little voice in a mind asks, is this all there is? Then, there must be more to be done and we should be on the quest for that more.

Here Are Last Week’s Thinking Corner Thinkers 🙂

Small Choices. Rosema of Reading Writers little nuggets in brief.

The gift called today from Oba of the King’s Oracle fills me with beautiful thoughts.

Tuesday’s thoughts by Bisi of Femininematerz connects the dots of rising to the skill of your art.

Deep thoughts of Trickles and Tears from Diane of Ladies who lunch reviews.

Persevere. These very few words from simply me speaks very loud and clear.

Let’s hear your thoughts, quotes, advice et al.

Blogging · Inspiration - Motivation

Let’s Do The Mathematics Of Blogging…

January 25, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha70 Comments

If I were to lend an ear to a new blogger, my first words would be: Cartoon Teacher | lol-

Go to school! WordPress Blogging University offers such facilities at no cost. Get involved and learn how to make your blog better.

Don’t sweat it! Don’t chew off your fingernails in anxiety with your eyes glued on the statistics of your blog right from the onset.

If you keep your eyes on that statistics dashboard, it will leave you with lots of angst, which can get pretty exhausting.

Easier said than done, but if you really want to grow, you have to be pragmatic in your approach.

Write from your heart and not someone else’s heart.

After the writing, go and mingle with others as much as you possibly can.

No! Don’t just pin up a post, then go off to the beach to pluck your toes in the water and your butt in the sand, surfing YouTube and sipping pina colada. Your blog will not read itself. Nope! It won’t.

I will say it again. ‘MINGLE IN THE MIX.’ As time goes on, you will find your footing, gain some lovely friends and it will surely grow.

Be social media friendly. Yes I know it’s Evil, but it has it’s good sides too 😉

The Truth and Nothing But The Naked Truth is that every good and successful blog out there took a lot of work and time from the blogger.

Lest I forget, please check the grammar as well. No one likes to read mumbo-jumbo. An occasional mistake can be overlooked, but I must warn you that there are grammar Nazi out here looking for who to catch 😉

Now Go Ye And Be Blog Happy. Every successful blogger started with zero follows and when you add these recipes plus more, you will see the digits come up.

The Daily Post Key Takeaway.

Give your newer sisters and brothers-in-WordPress one piece of advice based on your experiences blogging.

If you’re a new blogger, what’s one question you’d like to ask other bloggers?

Image credit: Cliparts.co

Family · Mundane Monday · Photographs

Freshness…Mundane Monday

January 25, 2016January 25, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha29 Comments

Trablogger says, this is is a challenge created to find beauty in almost everything. The challenge is simple : find beauty in everyday mundane things, capture the beauty and upload the photographs.

I love the crunchy taste of fresh vegetables and fruits as well as its beautiful, attractive colours.

It’s taken years to arrive at a point where my last two kids can nibble at them. While I sit with them, they always eat it like people who are swallowing bitter pills and once my back is turned, it turns to selective picking and tossing.

What’s with kids and veggies?

Health · Hope · Inspiration - Motivation · Photographs

The Buoyancy Of Optimism…

January 23, 2016January 23, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha45 Comments

Yesterday, I watched my very dear friend, Ekaete Augustine-Edet run her very first Marathon of 42.195 km in Dubai and that made me so proud.

She flew in from Nigeria with other queens of marathon. These are women who are mothers, wives, workers and all. They are in their late thirties, mid-forties and late forties.

The interesting thing is that most of them only started training several months ago.

What impresses me most is that she wasn’t sure she could do it. She was nervous about it, but she set out to do her best and she did it.

Running 42.195 km for over 4 hours is not a walk in the park. Now that is optimism and determination.

‘Well done Ladies.’

P.S. I didn’t run, but I was there to whistle and cheer them on and of course to take pictures 🙂

The Daily Post Photo Challenge Optimistic.

How do you fuel the fires of optimism?

Inspiration - Motivation · Life · Quotes For You · Three quote challenge

When You Agree…

January 22, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha29 Comments

In my place, there is a saying which states that ‘when you agree, your God agrees with you.‘

A blogversation that I had recently with an awesome blogger brought back this saying that my dad used ever so often back to my mind and I spent a little time dwelling on the thought of it’s meaning.

As a child whose parents used lots of proverbs to buttress a point, I never quite understood some of what they were trying to say to me then, but as time went on, these kernels of words planted have been germinating profusely and I find wisdom tucked inside them.

It is a common belief back in my place that each person has their own little ‘Chi’ or ‘God’, also perceived as a guardian Angel and that whatever limitations the person sets for themselves, that is equally where their God will set himself.

If you buy into the myopic view of a misguided person that you are not good enough, then you will remain so.

If you set limitations for yourself with all the usual excuses: because I am poor, black, brown, fe/male, tall, short, etc, you will not grow past your limitations. To grow past them you have to stop agreeing to the negative feedback of ‘You Can’t.’

‘What are you agreeing to?’

There is no disputing the fact that there are socio-economic challenges, gender limitations, race boundaries and all the conceivable ceilings out there that hinders us from breaking through the invisible barriers to our perceived success, but wait a minute.

What of the glass ceiling that you have placed on your own mind? No one else will break through it and free you other than yourself.

In as much as there are things we are unable to stop from happening, we have the will power to choose how we react to these things.

Do we remain victims of our own minds, or do we break free from the bounds of mind enslavement of whatever it is that we are agreeing to and become victors?

The choice is yours. What are you agreeing to? What ever it is, is what your God will agree to as well.

I shall leave these little quotes here for you to dwell on.

‘It is not what you are called, but what you answer to.’ African proverb

‘As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.‘ Proverbs: 23.7

‘Be careful how you are talking to yourself, because you are listening.‘ Lisa M. Hayes

For the quotes challenge invitation, I thank Kaushal of Expressive Human for the invitation, and would like to invite the following awesome bloggers to participate in the 3 days, 3 quotes challenge.

No pressures at all to do so.

The rules are: