The Road That I Am Glad I Took…personal story

February 21, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha44 Comments

It’s a no-brainer that I should follow my heart when I toppled over in love with my husband, right?

Or, should I say, when he didn’t let me get away?

I was so focused on building a career. I had a fantastic job with The Delegation Of The European Union. A young lady with a bright future and a job that opened up so many doors and windows.

Then love came calling and stole my heart away and before I could even say Jack Robinson, he whisked me off to the altar, after a whirlwind courtship of six months.

That was a bold step and today, here we are, sixteen years after and counting.

It was a tough decision for me to leave my job and join my husband back in Lagos and we tried the long-distance thing for a while which was maddening for both of us.

At a point, I knew that I couldn’t take it much longer and decided to resign from my mouth-watering job.

I committed my steps into the hands of The Lord and joined my husband with my rounded belly in tow.

It took no time at all for me to gain a solid employment with British American Tobacco and the rest is history.

Sometimes, I do ponder on the thought: what if I had refused to get entangled with my husband and had stuck to the vision of working my way up as an aspiring diplomat?

I would have probably met some of those diplomatic career goals, who knows.

I will never know the answer to what my life might have turned out to be, but I can’t visualize a life without my family and I have no regrets to have taken this path.

All I know is that ‘all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord.’ Rom 8:28

The Daily Post The Road Less Traveled.

Pinpoint a moment in your past where you had to make a big decision. Write about that other alternate life that could have unfolded.

Creative Writing · Family · Featured Blogs · Life · Poetry/Poems

A Thousand Deaths…

February 21, 2016February 21, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha28 Comments

A Thousand Deaths

I died a thousand times

When you said to me

‘It’s over now’

I carved out my heart

And handed it to you

Wrapped in bows and kisses

Expecting you to know

That to drop my heart

Would cause it to shatter

Fragmented in a million places

But drop it you did.

I died a thousand times

When you died in my arms.

The poem above came to me when I read Lily’s heart rending post I don’t know her in real time. I only read her blog now and again.

The broken pain of her heart reverberated in her words.

How do you condole a woman just bereaved of her loving husband?

Indeed, how do you condole any grieving heart that’s lost a loved one?

You cannot! You are simply there to listen, to offer a leaning support and to help as they find their way.

Every one grieves differently.

There’s no specific order or way to deal with this painful reality that life hands out.

Sometimes all we need is a quiet friend.

For this week, here are a few of the posts that I would like to share with you:

Lily’s Better Half

Hold On from Ronovan Writes.

To television or to tell a vision from Tunisia Jolyn.

Flaws can be adjusted from Joe Cosme.

Personally recommended author services and promotion sites from Smorgasbord.

ABC List from talking to my weight loss Counselor I must chip in here that you should watch out for her inspirations for victory over the scales.

Thank you good people.

My regards.

Health · Hope · Inspiration - Motivation · Life · Lifestyle · Memes · Midnight motivation and musings

Midnight Motivations and Musings #13…

February 20, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha27 Comments

I have been talking to people about ‘thoughts’ for days and I keep reiterating this thought process because a whole lot that we are and become lies within our thoughts.

Our thinking mind is our power house and like a fine machine that when it is properly oiled, serviced and tuned, it brings out the best that it has to give and will even yield outstanding results beyond what you thought was possible.

Keep servicing your mind in the right manner and you will find yourself not only pushing the boundaries of your goals, but exceeding your own expectations.

It’s all in the mind.

Challenges · Hope · Life · Love · Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

Sweet Painful Contractions…Streams of Consciousness Saturday

February 20, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha24 Comments

Contraction! I am doubled over in visceral pain, trying to catch my breath. Now what happened to those breathing exercises, when you need them. I am huffing and puffing, though I don’t resemble the big bad Wolf in any way.

All I feel is the pain that knife’s through me as if my insides would be turned out and I would be rendered to pieces.

It hits again. Another big contraction. In waves, without stopping. I feel battered and almost out of my mind.

This is the labour room and a true definition of the word labour. This is hard work in all it’s beauty, pain and glory. This is nature in one of it’s finest moments. Arrgh!

I want to rise from this infernal bed and run away as fast as I can. As though running away would leave the pain behind.

Nope! This is the real deal. No longer any imitation in the name of Braxton Hicks. He is ready to say ‘Hello Mama‘ and I can’t wait to see him as well, that is if these contractions don’t kill me first.

I try not to swear as a bear down. I wouldn’t like the first words my baby gets to hear from me to be; ‘Damn Contractions!’

Well that was fun to write. Linda thank you for taking me down memory lane with your prompt. I couldn’t think of anything else once I saw the word ‘contraction.’

Have a lovely weekend good people.

Dubai · Life · Photographs · The Daily Post

The Seasons Of Life….

February 20, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha13 Comments

The Daily Post Photo Challenge Seasons

Share an image evocative of the weather or represent the current “season of your life” in metaphor.

Seasons of life

Are as sure as time

From days, to weeks

To months, to years

Ever rotating

From birth,

To growth,

To death.

Unstoppable

cycle.

This is the season of white-out/fog and sandy storms in this part of the World *Dubai*.

Sometimes you wake up and you can’t even see anything in front of you when you look out.

Inspiration - Motivation · Lifestyle · Memes · Midnight motivation and musings · Quotes For You · Self Help

Midnight Motivations And Musings 12….

February 19, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha22 Comments

Have you ever noticed how negative things propagate so fast and how bad news travels like wild fire?

That is equally how bad thoughts try to take root in our minds and multiply like Hairy panic tumbleweed of Australia.

Before you can even grasp what is going on, it’s dug in and developed a tap root that uprooting it becomes a major upheaval.

This is why we must remain consciously vigilant of the thoughts that takes up the space in our minds.

We must consistently nourish our minds carefully as we hopefully nourish our bodies, so, that there is little room for tumbleweeds to proliferate.

Family · Life · Lifestyle · Parenting · Personal story · Quotes For You · Three quote challenge

Your Harvest Comes In Heaps And Spades…

February 19, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha27 Comments

‘Icho ime ife, ime e ya ofuma.’

These wise words echoes in my ears as I write this post and it translates to mean ‘ anything worth doing, is what doing well.’

I remember growing up and having to go to our farm with my parents to till the ground for planting maize, cassava, potatoes, pumpkin and any other crop that was due to be planted. Back then we grew most of our food.

With my hoe, I would make what I considered a nice mound of red earth and when my dad comes round for inspection, he would call me by his pet name for me and in his gentle way, he would say: ‘you’ve done well, but it would be better if the mound was just a little higher’ and would complete his correction with that sentence up above.

This was repeatedly applied in so many ordinary things that we did, from our house chores of sweeping with the broom, washing plates, clothes, weeding the compound to our studies.

Thus it became embedded in my mind, that if you choose to do something, give it your best shot.

If you choose to love someone, love them without placing the conditions that they must fulfill to become worthy of your love.

If you are working for someone, do it wholeheartedly because some day, someone will probably turn around to work for you. As my people would say ‘when you respect the King, Kingship will also come to you.’

In everything that one does, they should do it to the best of their ability. Not for the sake of eye service, but for the sake of self-service.

Sow and Water and leave the bountiful harvest to providence. It always pays in heaps and spades.

Let me leave these three extra farming proverbs for you to mull over with your cup of coffee:

‘Good gardens are not made by sitting in the shade.’

‘As the farm grows, so does the farmer.’

‘If you tickle your earth hard enough, she will laugh for you with bountiful harvest.’

I would like to thank Maria Jansson for her generous invitation to participate in the quotes challenge and would like to extend the invitation to these lovely bloggers.

Melinda

Kay Morris

Sarah C

P.S. No hard rules to participate.

Challenges · Lifestyle · Parenting · The Great Book Of Lists · This Is My Life

Hang Your Bag…The big book of list.

February 19, 2016February 19, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha29 Comments

When La Duchesse Derat started this challenge my thoughts wavered on whether I could cope with adding it to my list , now it’s become a feature I look forward to weekly and this also goes to prove that you can go the extra mile and further if need be.

This week’s TGBOL prompt asking us to make a list of the ‘the words that matter to me‘ is what we refer back home as ‘buying market‘ or ‘inviting the insect infected log,‘ because yours faithfully Jacqueline has a lot to say, but I shall restrict my enthusiasm to 10 quotes.

1. ‘Hang your bag where your hands can reach.’

My parents used this phrase so much *in Igbo language * to teach us how to be contented with what we have and never be greedy for that which belongs to someone else.

They taught us that if you worked hard and with integrity, that yours will come and this is so true.

I can truthfully say that I have never owed for a day in my life because at every point in time even when it requires living the life of minimalism, what I have at that point in time is always enough and I even strive to create surplus from the little bit.

I endeavour never to buy that which I cannot afford to pay for, no matter how beautiful it is and for that, I have peace.

2. ‘For my Grace is sufficient unto the day.

The grace of God is free and belongs to all who seek for it. We all live by grace.’

3.’ As a man thinks in his heart so is he.’

Those things that you dwell on consistently, gradually erodes your mind and heart and becomes you, in the sense that you exhibit them and they control you.

4. ‘Never give up on yourself.’

Even if the World fails you, it’s only over when you fail yourself and stop believing in yourself that’s when it’s really over.

5. ‘For I have not given you the spirit of fear but of love, of power and of sound mind.’ 2 Tim 1:7

6. ‘Dare to dream big for the journey of a thousand miles started with a step, but you need to take that step and keep moving.’

Let your dreams be large. Then take them on. Even if you don’t arrive at that precise goal, you will have a heck of a good time getting there.

7. ‘Be appreciative of the simple things of life and be contented, for there in lies your sense of peace.’

The love from my family and the time spent with them is beyond priceless.

8. ‘Give. Be happy to share out of your bounty as well as your scarcity and you will see even more.’

Giving is not only when you have money in your pocket to hand out. If you do, all the better, but giving starts from the mind. Give of yourself and of the little that you have. Your resources well up and brim over.

9. ‘Be the light that you would like to see shining in others and do unto them as you would like them to do to you.’

10. ‘Be bold and be strong (courageous) for the Lord your God is with you.’ Deut 31:6

Inspiration - Motivation · Life · Lifestyle · Midnight motivation and musings · Quotes For You · Self Help

Midnight Motivations and Musings # 11..

February 18, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha22 Comments

I deliberately did not use the word ‘Suicide,’ just in case you are wondering. I chose murder, for those who take steps to snuff out the essence of who they are in an attempt to replace themselves with who they are not.

It’s a shame to see people suffering setbacks and deep insecure troubled lives due to lack of sense of self and identity crisis and it seems this situation is getting worse in recent times.

They have lost all sense of belonging and have forgotten that they are not mistakes, but are unique, wonderfully made individuals with purpose and a lot to offer.

Some spend their entire lives apologizing for being themselves, the colour of their skin, their background, physique, financial state, religious inclination, gender or physical disabilities and a whole lot of unmentioned issues.

Due to these things, they feel pressured to please and change and fit in until they are totally confused, depressed, oppressed and demoralized.

You owe no one apologies for who you are.

You must own who you are and cease trying to be every woman or man, thus developing confused multiple personality syndrome and having deeper issues.

It’s okay not to be liked by everybody, but the most important person that should like you is you!

You are a hero within yourself and all you need is to surround yourself with the people who love and accept you as you are, and rise to the person that you are meant to be.