HAVE YOU GOT A THICK HIDE? Writers Quote Wednesday.

March 23, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha33 Comments

Rhino, Rhinoceros, Armor, India, Animal, Strong

“I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide.”
—Harper Lee, WD

I can’t agree more with this quote above. I know one or two people, who for better want of a word to describe their predicament they ‘are ashamed of saying that they write.’

They are perpetually on the defensive about their hobby and hope to become a successful writer, so they chose to hide it.

Sometimes, I wonder if being a writer is such a terrible thing, except of course when we lop off your head in our stories and paint you black too 😉

For such people, I will say, grow skins as thick as that of a Rhinoceros, if you are definitely sure that this is the life you want to live. It’s grits, nerves and more grits.

If you feel shame for something that you love doing, then maybe, it’s not yet your thing, otherwise, how do you expect to make a headway with it?

Be prepared to hear things like the type of conversation I once had with man in the gym, who wanted to know what kind of things I write, he was sure that I wrote only housewife’s romance or sexy stuff *his words not mine*, which by the way I like to read, depending on my mood. I read extensively and across all genres.

I simply didn’t appreciate his stereo-typing and didn’t even want to bother educating him further. I cast him as a dirty villain in a short fairy tale and gave him a crooked, bumpy nose too 😉

I have had several requests to write articles for free because they feel that it will give me exposure, and in my mind, I am like ‘You don’t say!’

Be prepared to hear things like:

Are you really planning to make a living out of this? Asked in a condescending voice

I wish I had your opportunity, to just daydream and write

You know that writing is a dying industry right? In my mind, I am holding back from shouting, no you are the one dying, you buffoon! I didn’t utter that aloud did I 😉

Have you gone viral yet? I guess you have now become a flu.

So, while you are getting on with it, saddle up and let the rude, inept comments roll off your back. Don’t sweat it, what they think doesn’t matter, it’s what you think that matters.

Writer’s quote Wednesday.

Image credit: Pixabay.com

Finding Bright Pops…

March 21, 2016March 21, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha28 Comments

Finding pop was not as easy as I anticipated. Hmm! The Photo 101 themes are getting tricky.

I had to look in-house and out-house for any relatively satisfying pop.

My meandering made it starkly obvious that we love rich, vibrant textures here and the shinier, the more attractive it seems.

Anyway, I managed to scrounge for a few popping items *at least in my eyes*.

The no access sign made this girl only more curious.

Something comforting about the rolled towels

The bones couldn’t fit in and I didn’t want to rattle anything

Whatever they are *floaters, I guess* they will certainly make a popping sound.

Lifestyle · Self Help

Midnight Motivations and Musings # 35

March 17, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha13 Comments

Dreams don’t only occur when we sleep.

We can also dream with eyes wide open, okay maybe glazed over with a silly goofy smile plastered on.

I am learning to deliberately sit back and stretch my mind the way that I would stretch my muscles and even though this might sound juvenile, it surprises me sometimes, how far I can stretch them.

It tells me that if my mind can conceive it, then I can find ways to accomplish it by giving it my best shot.

We tend to use all the self limiting excuses under the Sun as a limitation to arriving at our desired goals.

Maybe, it’s time we tried to dump the excuses and start dreaming as well as whittling away at it.

Good luck.

Lifestyle · Self Help

Tuesdays Trickles #13… My Thinking Corner.

March 15, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha28 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 helps give me clarity of vision and might help you too.

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 measure of our riches is in how rich we are in spirit. There are no buts about it! If we are not rich in spirit, no amount of material wealth will satisfy.

In the pack of rat’s during the rat race, it’s easy to forget that the competition is against your own competency and not someone’s own. You have to find your speed and push to break your own records.

You have to become a friend to have one yourself. If you are prickly and unfriendly, then it goes without saying and shouldn’t be a surprise that you will find none willing to bear such consistent sour disposition.

The power of thinking big actually starts with the sensible act of starting small.

If we fail to use the seasons of our lives as we should, there will come a time when we are in the Winter of it and the questions the season will ask is what you did with the Summer of your life.

Our Thinkers Thoughts came in from:

Stressed reading, stressed writing These words from Rosema are so short, yet sweet and pack’s good dose of inspiration.

Feeling encouraged sometimes, it all gets too much, but a kindle of encouragement gets you some good ways.

Annette’s I like this post so many times. The candid thoughts and willingness to look at oneself is the only way to grow.

Free Spirit a brilliant thought said in haiku.

Words of wisdom are words that are succinctly said and truly are full of wisdom.

Inspired series are you staring your fear boldly in the face?

Thank you to all the contributors. May these words take roots in our lives and may our harvest be bountiful 🙂

‘So, when will you share those nuggets of wisdom of yours?’

Life · Photographs

Across The Bridges..

March 14, 2016March 14, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha9 Comments

Connections can be built in split moments, while some take a good while to be established.

Every part of human life is filled with one atom of connection or the other. From the technological services that surrounds us that makes it easy for us to be in touch with each other, to the various modes of transportation all around and to the physical fellowship with fellow mankind.

So when we consider the theme of today’s photo 101, we realize that the very essence of life is all based on the singular desire to connect.

Sports has a way of building connections

High tension wires connecting us with essential services.

Lifestyle

I am learning to eat to live…TGBOL

March 12, 2016March 12, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha27 Comments

I knew that I was forgetting something and that’s The Great Book Of Lists.

This week’s word is about food. My favourite dishes and more.

I like food, no doubts about that but the strange thing is that I am also not finicky about it.

I am adventurous as well, as long as it’s not a live squiggly creature.

The shameful truth * with my eyes covered* is that I would probably prefer to eat desserts 365 days of my life to proper food.

Cooked food bores me easily especially since I do the cooking and this hasn’t helped my weight struggle. After cooking for my household, I will reach for a piece of croissant or cookies.

It’s been a struggle to break that cycle and I am trying to find ways of eating better.

That being said, there are some dishes that are constant faves of mine and I will resist adding the sweets 😉

Jollof rice is a one-pot rice dish popular in many West African countries, eaten whenever desired.

Party Jollof rice with plantain and moin-moin

2. Nigerian porridge beans and fried plantain

3. Oha soup and pounded yam is a traditional soup made from cocoyam paste, Oha vegetable, dry fish, meat and other condiment.

4. Soft boiled yam and egg sauce

5. Pepper soup is a special peppery broth, made with a mix of spices, lots of pepper, and scraps of meat, most especially goat meat.

6. Isi ewu is another delicacy prepared with special spices and the severed head of a goat, cut into little bits.

7. Peppered Gizzard

8. Blueberry pancakes with maple syrup

9. Chilli bean soup

10. Mashed potatoes, mushroom sauce and steak.

11. Lasagna with lots of cheese and ground beef.

12. I love Pasta.. in all forms

P.S. Images borrowed from Nairaland and Pinterest.

Life · Photographs

Finding Solitude…

March 11, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha14 Comments

Finding solitude in this bee-hive of a city, is literally akin to finding a needle in a haystack or seeing a camel trying to squeeze it’s hoof through the eye of the needle.

Well, that was my thought initially, until I started looking through thousands of photos and luckily found a few pictures that depicted solitude for today’s Photo 101 theme ‘solitude.’

I wasn’t sure that I would catch any solitary looking people today, especially with the particularly gray looking weather that we have, so I dug into my photos and found some reasonable offering.

Solitude is also not when one is all by himself, but equally a state of the mind.

A person can be in a crowd and yet feel all alone.

Quietly, enjoying his lunch break, I suppose.

Driving for miles on the desert track and all you see is sand, an occasional off-road 4 x 4 and the Sun in the distance.

This poor fella is all by himself in his enclosure. He’s as curious about me as I am about him/

I was gripped with the desire to peek and see what he was looking at when I walked past.

I like this photo of the man parked by the road side and staring at the fireworks in the distance.

I wonder what little birdie is seeing up there.

Life · Musings

Tuesdays Trickles…My thinking corner.

March 8, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha10 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.

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.

We cannot plow our fields by sitting under the shaded tree, chewing on a twig and turning the garden of our dreams in our minds. Our hands must get dirty in the muck and the hoe.

To climb up to that success ladder, you must unfold those hands cradling your chin and hold the ladder.

Your children can teach a lot of great life lessons, especially in patience. You will realize how elastic your patience truly is.

Life has no short cuts except you wish to cut it short.

A lot of people want to be somebody notable. Be patient and be yourself first of all. There’s a whole lot of being in you.

Our Thinkers Thoughts came in from:

Giggles & Tales prayers from the heart shows us that the only way is really to put those difficulties into prayers.

Dollops of heedful ramblings simple message is age old and yet has never gone out of fashion.

Annette’s message gives me lot’s of hope for indeed, you are never too old to dream a new dream.

Friends on my mind can I count on you or are you there just when it’s all beautiful?

Honest me I fell in love with this. Wish I could find one for my house.

Deb’s words of wisdom are little nuggets that speaks volumes.

Parenting with purpose Seye’s colourful messages always grabs my attention.

Thank you to all the contributors. May these words take roots in our lives and may our harvest be bountiful 🙂

‘So, when will you share those nuggets of wisdom of yours?’

Humor - Bellyful of laughter · Life · Memes

Then and Now…

March 7, 2016March 7, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha36 Comments

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil has changed to:

Look at the evil with eyes wide open and if possible with magnifying lens tied to a binoculars.

Capture the data of the evil with your high definition zoom cameras.

Listen to all contorted/distorted variations of the tasty morsel of evil with big pitcher ears and headphones.

Then go ahead and shout it through every social media forum available, Telephone, Email, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc and try to break the internet by making it go viral to gain all the likes available and hopefully, the highest bidder for your captured evil will come knocking at the door with a fat cheque.

You can check Leannenz for past Monday memes.

Inspiration - Motivation · Lifestyle · Self Help

Midnight Musings and Motivations #26…

March 6, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha13 Comments

Opportunities don’t run up and hug us as we traipse down the alley of nothingness.

Opportunity has to find us doing, for it to turn up and when it does turn up, do we recognize it?

It comes in many forms and a whole lot of times, it may not come wrapped in a nice box with bows and flowers.

Do we stand in the way of our own progress with all the road blocks that we inflict on our path, waiting for an opportunity that will land in our laps while we sit on the rocking chair going back and forth and gossiping about the neighbour?

Sometimes, we have to push ourselves out of the rocking chair to get where we want to go.