My recent thoughts…

June 5, 2016June 5, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha20 Comments

Cybernetic blonde invited me for the quote challenge and my mind drifted to African proverbs. Thank you, Brenda 🙂

From time immemorial, proverbs have been used by elders in my place to punctuate and convey important messages during a conversation.

When I was younger and my parents or grandparents spoke in proverbs, idioms, and all the wise words, I barely understood, but as I age, I find them worth ruminating over especially when I find myself in a quandary of thoughts.

“Even the best cooking pot will not produce food when no fire is lit underneath.”

“When building a house and the nail breaks, do you stop building or do you change the nail?”

“If you run after two Hares, you will catch neither.”

These three proverbs above reflect the thoughts that have been going through my mind of late. So let me briefly explain them.

The first is an advice to myself that even though I have all the storyline of my second book known to me until I sit down and flesh it out as I should, those ideas won’t miraculously turn into a book.

The second one has to do with some mind distractions that I’ve been having of late. So many loose ends of things to tie up and I’m using them as an excuse to digress from doing what needs to be done. It’s time to drop that tack and get serious.

Lastly, I remind myself to taper off unnecessary things and concentrate. Running after too many things at once will all make me harried and at the end of the day, nothing would have been achieved.

So, back to tapering off, tacking with the right nails and cooking up those stories.

Do you fancy a whirl at quotes? Indulge 🙂

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

Just hang in there…personal

June 1, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha24 Comments

Honestly, I’m thankful that it’s almost weekend over here and the school exams will be done with tomorrow.

I notice that not only is my mental acuity flagging from all the drilling revisions with the children, coupled with other responsibilities, I also feel a bit tense, so the weekend will be a most welcome pleasure.

The brilliant aspect is that all the grilling revisions are paying off. My first son’s exam grades came in looking shiny, so such news energized me a bit and I’m totally grateful because his subjects gave me more concern than those of his siblings.

The truth is that I secretly nursed an occasional thought of anxiety at his results at the back of my mind but I knew that since fear or worry wouldn’t solve any problems, the best thing to do is to work hard and commit the rest into the hands of God and I am not disappointed 🙂

Gratitude has been teaching me a lot. It has changed my perspective and has enriched my life far more than I can say.

There’s always something to be thankful for. I hope you find some reason to be.

Below is my first Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

Life · Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

Express on WordPress…Streams of consciousness Saturday.

May 28, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha20 Comments

Pressure cooker on the gas. I’m cooking up a storm this weekend. Both in my house and on my blog.

I’m doing my month end large pots of sauces and our traditional soups. It saves my life by several inches to do so.

There are days that get hectic that those earlier prepared and saved bowls of stew and soup saves this lady from expiring.

I’m also stirring some broth in my cooking pot of a blog right now. A lovely Summery blog mingle is bubbling as I write and you are hereby invited to join the mix.

What a lovely thing and way to express ourselves on WordPress. I’ve met lovely people from different locations, Malaysia, London, NY, South US, Nigeria….and the list keeps growing.

Isn’t that impressive that we have this opportunity? I don’t know what your opinions are but for me, it’s fabulous. Let’s keep the wonderful expressions flowing. You rock WordPress 🙂

P.S. You can join our Summer blog party taking place right now. It’s fun and you get to meet fantastic folks. Looking forward to seeing you.

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

Life · Musings · Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

What if?…Streams of Consciousness Saturday.

May 14, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha15 Comments

What if?

An innocuous question that had held me bound to the strictures of stifling memories, until I cut it’s ugly strings.

What if I fail?
What if I had done things differently?
What if the past was not as it is?
What if I hadn’t walked that path that evening?
What if the man hadn’t run into the road?
What if the babies had lived?
What if x,y,z and so much more?

The shoulda, woulda and coulda’s dance before the eyes like taunting pendulum until I seized it’s swaying string and cut it off.

We live in what if’s as if we really could have stopped what has passed with time – which we can’t!

Our what if’s become a cage, the jury and a judge, holding us prey to its sway and except we take away our eyes on that outdated swinging ball, we will remain in the land of wishful thinking and regret where nothing happens.

These innocuous words ‘what if’ aren’t my favourite two words, because it holds probabilities that tend to border on negativity.

Therefore, except the ‘what if’ connotes positivism, I’d rather drop it from my vocabulary and get on with life as it is.

Our Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: Start your post with a two-letter word. End it with a two-letter word for bonus points. I chose ‘what if.’

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

Enchant me with your expressive eyes, that crinkles in laughter as you speak

that I may find myself ever caught between,

the reflections of your pupils and there shall I remain.

*an excerpt of my poem*

food · Health · Lifestyle · Wellness

Breakfast is served! Good morning, This morning.

May 14, 2016May 14, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha22 Comments

I am trying to switch up my nutrition pattern.

Toss out some stuff and replace them with better things.

What’s on my plate this morning?

Eggs and vegetable omelette
Plain yoghurt with a handful of almonds and raisins.
A cup of green tea and mint.

Be kind to yourself this weekend.

If you’ve got a weekend recipe for us, please do share 😊

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Everyday People · Fashion · Life · Photographs

Come take a ride with me…Every day beautiful people # 43

May 14, 2016May 14, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha6 Comments

“Fun is good.” Dr. Seuss

Whichever way you look at life, time will still fly past whether you are enjoying it or not, so, the choice is yours.

My choice is to live and enjoy each day to the best of my ability.

What’s your choice?

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

Enchant me with your expressive eyes, that crinkles in laughter as you speak

that I may find myself ever caught between,

the reflections of your pupils and there shall I remain.

*an excerpt of my poem*

Everyday People · Fashion · Lifestyle · Photographs · Shopping · Travel

Where to my lady? Every day beautiful people #42

May 13, 2016May 13, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha3 Comments

“The World is full of wonderful things you haven’t seen yet. Don’t ever give up on the chance of seeing them.” J.K. Rowling

Naturally, my eyes are easily drawn to vivid colours. Purple is a beautiful, rich and trendy colour.

I wonder where she’s off to with her lovely purple box which incidentally matches her pillow and scarf?

Knowing myself, I would have asked her, alas, sitting behind the wheel and waiting for the light to change denied me the pleasure 😉

It’s Friday this way. Have a great weekend ahead.

Be good to yourself. Blessed be.

Jacqueline

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

The air’s so crispy

The birds are quite chirpy

The magic of nature abounds

As I imbibe all the sounds.

**

*an excerpt of my poem*

Hope · Life · Midnight motivation and musings · Self Help

Midnight Motivations and Musings 79

May 12, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha11 Comments

Life is full of possibilities but you’ve got the leave the corridors of I can’t to the elevators of I’ll do my best to keep seeing change and empowering results.

Most times, change is painful and slow, but once it’s set in motion, there’s an incremental result.

We have to leave negativity behind to see clearer. Always keep an open mind, hearing ears (note that there’s a difference between listening and actually hearing), seeing eye’s – beyond the peripheries and an empathetic questioning mind.

We are called to live life in the fullness of joy and though this might be impossible to achieve 100% of the time, it’s possible to get it 95% of the time.

Love and Light,

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

I can see clearly now the ghosts are laid to rest

Broken visions melded and better than the first

Atop the ladder of scattered dreams and buried bones,

I glimpse the brighter vision reflected and renewed.

**an excerpt of my poem**

Life · Midnight motivation and musings · Self Help

Midnight Motivations and Musings 79

May 11, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha7 Comments

Challenges will come and sometimes they will shake your faith and hope. These tribulations present themselves to taunt and test you. That’s called life.

Unexpected incidentals of life happen when we are busy making plans about other things that we want to do, so in order to brace ourselves for these little bumps, we must equip our system with buffers like hope.

Hope is not an abstract word. It’s a very active word that lives and grows when we build on it.

It’s like a safety net or emergency funds that we draw on when the need arises.

How do we build up hope? I’ll be sharing a post specifically targeted at building hope on Sunday.

Love and Light

Jacqueline

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

Never leave me lonely

With words left unsaid

You walk away into the dark

Like a mist, that melts away.

Family · Gratitude · Life

Is it ever too much? personal

May 11, 2016May 11, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha23 Comments

I must admit to you that there are days when I start out to pray and that little impish voice in me will say “but you thanked God for this same thing yesterday, so why should you bother him to thank him all over again?”

….And the wiser one in me tells me that “God is never tired of hearing my voice and that I should never forget that he inhabits my praise,” which I can assure you keeps the impish voice sulking in a dark corner and wondering what wise retort to come up with.

Unfortunately for the imp, it always falls short.

Yesterday was my son’s birthday which was also a school day, even though he’s of the opinion that such an important day should be spent eating cake and making merry – which is not a bad idea, however, we struck a good bargain – that boy can negotiate 😉

A bargain that he’ll go to school for classes as usual and also join his mates for their scheduled outing to Ski-Dubai, with the promise that we would have a birthday dinner in the evening and also take him to the theme park to play during the weekend.

For some reason, I wasn’t comfortable with the school outing and my niggling mind led me to pray with them and talk to him about being careful.

By mid-afternoon, the day was running smoothly until my phone rang and it was the school nurse. I detest getting such calls because it’s never something to jump up and down over.

The lady nearly gave me a heart attack! Her slow narration on how some other boy got a bit rough at play with my son and mistakenly hit him in the eye had me chewing my nails in angst. A riot of emotions ran through me. I felt like having bionic powers and hurtling off to the school to grab my child, but a little voice told me to keep calm and thank God.

In relief, I thanked God, for it could have been worse. Asides from a slight redness and puffiness which had gone down, he’s as beautiful as ever.

Which brings me to this point of my story.

Each new day is a present day, a new beginning and the fact that I thanked God yesterday for Grace, Mercy, Favour and hedge of protection over my family, should not make me not to thank him today and tomorrow and the next…

For we are told that when we commit our ways unto the Lord, our paths are established. There’s nothing like too much praise when it comes to the goodness of God.

I hope that there’s something that you are thankful for today.

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

@ithankful 🙂

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath