As Magic Abounds…

December 7, 2015December 7, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha20 Comments

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The air is so crispy
The birds are quite chirpy
The magic of nature abounds
As I imbibe all the sounds

My quick strides grow shorter
My eyesight gets sharper
My senses soak in deeper
Pictures become magically wider

The lady and her dog walk past
Bow-Wow says hello
The labourer offers a fleeting smile
And he works pretty fast

So much floral blooms
And golden, droopy trees loom
Scented float of planted perfume
There is simply no room for gloom

More barking dogs
The tinkle of calm waters
The men play a hand of golf
And a bird catches a grub

A deep sense of satisfaction
Of peace I sense within
As the Sun peeks to say hello
I am happy to embrace me

My passion has called
Now, no longer ignored
I hear the reverberations
Of the magic hidden within.

Writing 101 – Day 1: Magic

Family · Humor - Bellyful of laughter · Life · Personal story · The Daily Post

Twiddle Dee…Truant Me…personal

December 6, 2015December 6, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha24 Comments

Mum, now that I have grown old enough to know better, I am sorry for wasting your funds in the past; this apology was long overdue. Thank you WordPress for reminding me.

You painstakingly paid for several sessions of holiday piano classes with my primary school music teacher, but it seemed like a waste of precious childhood vacation time in my eyes, not when some of my playmates were busy playing hopscotch next door.

So, I hopscotched away my time and never got past clumsily tapping little ditties and the ‘do re mi fa so la ti do’ of piano things.

In simpler terms, I played truant with my piano lessons and I received a thorough telling off, a note-worthy smack and cancelled piano lessons since it appeared that I had no appreciation for the fineness of music.

Who knows, maybe if I had stuck to it, I might have struck the right chord and become a musical child prodigy.

Please don’t dare chuckle when I say that I am now expending my own money trying to play catch up with the piano lessons that I should have learnt back then 😃

However, I am not totally a lost cause, I did learn how to play the flute quite well and it’s not such a bad thing, just that it leaves me breathless.

The Daily Post prompt Strike a chord.

Do you play an instrument? Is there a musical instrument whose sound you find particularly pleasing? Tell us a story about your experience or relationship with an instrument of your choice.

Life · Personal story · Photographs · The Daily Post

I Stare An Enemy Down With My Two Eyes….personal

December 6, 2015December 6, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha34 Comments

As a matter of fact, I have been stung twice in my life by Scorpions!

The first time was as a very curious young toddler playing in a rubble of stones with playmates and I got a shock of a sting from an annoyed scorpion that I must have disturbed while rummaging.

The pain of that episode has receded to parts of my memory that I can’t quite recall, but my mother remembers quite well.

The second incident was as a teenager in boarding school who was rushing to the refectory from prep in the evening.

I unwittingly stepped on my enemy once again and the pain of that sting scarred a part of my mind forever.

The burning degrees of pain, when the venom from the sting of a black scorpion crawls up one’s leg are very memorable and would make a grown man cry.

The scorpion in this picture was captured through my lens, at a safe distance in a rain-forest reserve.

The Daily Post Photo Challenge Eye Spy

Inspiration - Motivation · Life · Poetry/Poems · The Daily Post

Make The Most Of It!…

December 2, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha36 Comments

Sometimes, our approach to everything is a case of mind over matter especially when it comes to weather issues that we have no control over.

To an extent it might be true that peoples moods are highly affected by the weather, maybe there might even be a scientific explanation for this.

However, I maintain that since we have absolutely no control over sultry summer heats or bitter winter chills, we can only exercise control over how we choose to react to either situation.

Each season has it’s beauty, even the harsh seasons like Winter which comes with a lot of challenges, dampness and grayness.

Nonetheless, if we choose to look at things with the attitude of acceptance and positivity, it will also elevate our mind and change our altitude, that we will begin to actively seek ways to make that period pass more pleasurably.

There is no point in wasting a good couple of months sitting in the doldrums of misery, for a situation that cannot be changed. It is a case of Lord give me the grace to accept and endure the things that I cannot change.

When we moved to Dubai in July, the heat was second to none.

It sweltered so badly that one would have surely suffered from heatstroke from being out in such fiery heat.

We simply adjusted and found ways of keeping out of the heat, living and hydrating.

Now the temperature has cooled sufficiently and the weather is absolutely divine.

I intend to wring out every moment of it to the best of my ability whilst it last because, who knows what Madam Winter has to offer next time around.

My little ditty might make you catch a cold but will put a smile on your face.

The Daily Post prompt Climate Control

The idea that the weather and people’s moods are connected is quite old. Do you agree? If yes, how does the weather affect your mood?

Image credit: Pinterest/funny2014.com

A link to my neighbours/Community · Hope · Inspiration - Motivation · Life · Quotes For You · Success · Weave that Dream

The Rolling Train Of Thoughts…

December 2, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha2 Comments

It is very easy to sit down and dreamily wish for the niceties that life has to offer, but the bare truth is that those niceties come at a certain price. That price entails working smart and being less slothful.

Achieving most of our life’s goals emanates from our minds, which now transforms itself into the required energy.

So in essence, how we treat this powerhouse (our minds) that controls virtually everything that we are or we aspire to become really matters.

We have to choose daily, the seeds that we plant in our minds very wisely.

A weevil eaten seed is already faulty and is likely not to germinate into anything, much less giving any yield.

Our actions or in-actions emanates from our thoughts or lack of thoughts.

When we change our thinking, we change our lives.

If our thoughts are not working for us, it is time to switch into a better route of thinking.

As my people will ask with a proverb, “If you are building a house and a nail breaks, do you stop building or do you change the nail?”

As we plant the seeds of our thoughts wisely, may we hold onto belief, hope and grace to bring about increase and a bountiful yield.

This is applicable to everyone, irrespective of our religious or non-religious incline.

Thank you Vincent Wambua for inviting me to partake in the 3 quote challenge. Let me extend the invitation to other inspiring bloggers in the house.

Here are the rules:

Post 3 quotes on 3 consecutive days
Thank the person who nominated you
Nominate 5 new bloggers each single day of the challenge.

Family · Hope · Life · Quotes For You · Success · The Daily Post · Writing

When I Was Just A Little Girl…personal

December 1, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha38 Comments

I have to hum this song of Doris Day in my head while at it:

When I was just a little girl
I asked my mother what will I be
Will I be pretty will I be rich
Here’s what she said to me

Que Sera Sera
Whatever will be will be
The future’s not ours to see
Que Sera Sera
What will be will be

When I grew up and fell in love
I asked my sweetheart what lies ahead
Will we have rainbows day after day
Here’s what my sweetheart said

Que Sera Sera
Whatever will be will be
The future’s not ours to see
Que Sera Sera
What will be will be

Now I have children of my own
They ask their mother what will I be
Will I be handsome will I be rich
I tell them tenderly

Que Sera Sera
Whatever will be will be
The future’s not ours to see
Que Sera Sera
What will be will be
Que Sera Sera

Doris Day Que sera sera

Like most young children, I had as many aspirations as my diapers were changed, ranging from being a newscaster, an actress, a mother, a singer, a nurse, a pilot, a lawyer, a writer, a fashion designer….just about everything that you could think of in the book.

I don’t recall wanting to be a police officer, because the Nigerian police of my growing up years were not particularly inspiring.

We hardly knew what fire service men looked like, because if someone’s house unfortunately caught fire, they would attempt to quench the thirst of the licking hot flames with buckets of water while watching their properties turn to cinders, so I had no aspirations in that direction.

I fancied being a doctor at some point, because of the films that I watched, where they looked so capable and nice in their scrubs.

I dabbled a bit here and there in living my childhood dreams.

A bit of novice modelling and amateur acting, debating and writing for young magazines.

I learnt how to sew and realized that I would rather draw the designs than sew the clothes.

I studied law but I am not a practicing lawyer.

I went into international relations/French language and spent over a dozen years working with Multinational and Diplomatic corps.

After my children arrived, I waded into entrepreneurial ventures and found it to my liking – I love being the boss of me and having time for my young family.

In all my multi desires, the strongest desire which has not fallen by the wayside over time, but has only grown stronger has been my writing aspirations.

This is the flame that I want to keep stoking so that it can burn as high as possible and I think that my cumulative, diverse experiences brings a lot to bear into my writing.

I feel as if my writing is an embodiment of all my past aspirations and even those that are still at incubating stage such as some of my interests in Life coaching and Entrepreneurship. We shall see how it goes.

Now, I find several me’s embedded inside one me: Me (myself), me the wife, me the mother, me the child of my parents, me the writer, me the friend, me the life student and many more me’s to discover.

Life is a consistent transition and as I roll with the constant fluidity of life, part of the affirmations I make to myself are that:

I will live and not die wishing that I had lived better. I will live to declare the goods works of the Lord in the land of the living. I will live moment by moment, loving my life as it is and loving those around me. I will not live in fear of daring to succeed but will dare to succeed and fail forward.

The Daily Post Ballerian-Fireman-Astronaut-Movie-Star

When you were 10, what did you want to be when you grew up? What are you now? Are the two connected?

Image credit: Pinterest

Creative Writing · Life · Photographs · Poetry/Poems · The Daily Post

The Transitions Of A Neighbourhood…

November 30, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha28 Comments

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The cycles of a neighbourhood,

Are the same, even in Hollywood,

And I daresay, also Bollywood.

Dawn to dusk, Year after Year,

We break our backs with wear and tear,

As we aim to make it good.

The Daily Post Photo Challenge prompt Transitions.

Devotions · Hope · Life · Poetry/Poems

Barbara

November 30, 2015November 30, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha15 Comments

The pain stung her flesh,

But couldn’t pierce her soul!

Ha! She laughed in it’s face.

Her defiant laughter, a taunt in pains face.

Fiercely she fought,

Giving it her all,

Victorious she won,

Depriving pain, the gain of it all,

Though this flesh is gone for good,

She has exchanged it for a better one,

Her spirit lives on,

Her laughter shall echo in the winds,

Her unfading presence,

A cloak of comfort,

To those she left behind.

In memory of Barbara Beacham

inlinkz

As most of you know by now, Barbara Beacham, the lovely host of “Monday’s Finish the Story” flash fiction challenge, passed away from cancer, on Sunday, November 22.

Because she was a beacon for many of us, several people have asked that a flash fiction challenge be done in her honor and in her memory. This is a ‘special’ challenge and does not replace the normal weekly challenge which will be posted as normal.

Thank you Priceless Joy for presenting this humbling idea. May she rest well.

Image credit: Pixabay

Family · Life · Love · Musings · Quotes For You · The Daily Post

It Got Stuck On My Hips…

November 28, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha46 Comments

Believe me when I tell you that I ate so much humble pie in the earlier years of my marriage, that it’s not a surprise I got a bit more ample and humble over time.

There were so many instances, that I cannot even begin to recount.

At the start of married life, I assumed that my husband was an Almighty Druid who should be able to read my mind; this was regardless of the 6 months compulsory per-marital counseling classes that we were made to attend.

I think that my mind was doodling wedding gowns in the clouds and what not, when they talked about that communication part.

Well, after the lovely wedding and the romantic honeymoon, we got into the real deal. I had never lived with a man prior to that time, I had never had a husband, so it was trial by error 😉

I see things in brilliant and different hues of colours and my husband sees them in grays and black, so, I learnt that men are truly from a different planet; maybe Mars like they said and women in a World of their own. Though I can say that some of my colours are beginning to rub off on him 😉

After several erroneous assumptions, mostly on my part, and several courses of eating humble I-am-sorry pies, I had to re-calibrate as I realized that:

No, my husband is not a mind reader, though it seems that years of being together are now turning him into one.

No, he is not a druid but, like in the first instance, some magic is happening now.

I realized that in order to make it work, our communication had to get better than my sitting on my high horse with my nose stuck up in the air, expecting him to know those things that lay within my heart and mind, and I daresay that after 15 years, I think we are getting somethings right, since we even finish each others sentences these days 🙂

Now, it’s time to shed the pounds of the humble-over-the- years pies that got stuck on my hips.

The Daily Post Humble Pie

Tell us about a time you found out after the fact that you’d been mistaken and you had to eat a serving of humble pie.

Image credit – pinterest

A link to my neighbours/Community · Humor - Bellyful of laughter · Life · Personal story · Quotes For You · Writing

We Are Frowning Goats!…

November 28, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha13 Comments

In my young mind, when my grandma used Igbo (African) proverbs like ”no matter how much a goat frowned its face, its owner still had to take it to the market to sell’‘ I literally thought she was talking about her goats.

She used to raise some goats that were either sold or killed to celebrate special occasions, and I recall looking at the faces of the goats with curious eyes to determine how they frowned.

It took maturity for it to dawn on me that the proverb was meant to address issues that we were either dodging to do or were difficult to do, yet they needed to be done.

Maybe, I should liken myself to the frowning goat in the proverb above.

For the past few days including today; though today has been super-charged busy for me, I have found every busy reason to dodge sitting down and working on my book.

I know that I could find half an hour to squeeze in yet…

Well, I say to myself, the book will not write itself lady!

Get moving! No matter how many excuses made it still has to get done right?

Like my people would also say; ”if the child likes, he should play pranks all day, his portion to weed at the farm will still wait for him.”

I am sure there are other frowning billy and nanny goats as well as pranksters like my dear self, who are using all the bucking tactics available to skirt around the needful 😉 ‘fess up to your misdeeds and lets get it rolling.

Once again, izzyasabee thank you for the invitation to take part in the three quote challenge which I have concluded and will be moving on to the next round of invitation from Vincent Wambua.

I call on these gems of my blogging World to join the fun.

Thomas Dohling

Kat blogs

SarahC