Quit making yourself small in order to fit into the image that someone else wants you to become.
#BeExtra #BeYou #BeAuthentic
Category: Tips for the day
In A Nutshell…2
Your present circumstances don’t dictate your destination. They only serve as your departure point. Keep walking through them.
Midnight Motivations and Musings #8…
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The story of humanity is riddled with everyday people whose lives become testimonies and inspirations for others to arise from their pits of trouble to sit in victory atop the rubble.
It’s up to you to make your story the beauty around your neck and use it as a propelling force that will bring light into your life and the lives of those around you.
Regards,
Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
Midnight Motivations and Musings #7
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A good number of us tend to search for all the excuses under the Sun to justify why we failed in something and to credit other peoples success with so many favourable conditions, which they supposedly didn’t earn.
That’s telling one’s self a lie, which is like eating comfort food to feel better about something.
Where there is a will, in there lies your way. Find it.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
Lost Boy…Friday Fiction In Five Sentences.
The voice of the security rang sharply and intermittently over the Mall’s public address system.
‘There’s a missing child with us, he is four years old, he is dressed in brown slacks and a blue shirt, please contact the security to identify him,’ the speaker kept announcing.
This went on for hours, but no one came.
Little Ashif was tired, tearful, hungry and hoped Mama would come and get him soon; he promised to be a good boy, if only she would come.
As days passed no one came and the little boy wondered why she never came back, after all, he had been a good boy when she said he should stand and wait; he became the ward of the State.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
P.S. This story came to me based on an experience at the Mall. A child went missing and the loud speakers went on for hours announcing and describing that child.
I was there for three hours or thereabouts and I left with a heavy mind. I wondered if the parents of that boy picked him up or not. I couldn’t help wondering how they misplaced him in such a huge mall in the first place.
*As a security caution, once we arrive any of the Malls here or anywhere, I look for the information desk and get a name tag band which my children wear on their wrists with my number and their dad’s own written on it, where that is not available, I write on a piece of paper and tuck it into their pockets, just in case there is a pandemonium or anything of the sort.
Image credit: Pinterest
A Smile Always Beautifies Things…
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It’s already Monday
That makes it an amazing day
Embrace it with wholesome display
For there is something good in every day
Quick Fun Fact:
Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a space suit damages them.
It’s lovely to start the week and each day as much as we can with positive outlook. I find Leannenz Monday memes interesting.
Do have a fruitful and blessed week awesome people.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
If I Teach You Something, Will You Reciprocate?…
There are things that I do often and quite enjoy doing. A lot of these things are physical and some are not.![1448552289124[1]](https://acookingpotandtwistedtales.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/14485522891241.jpg)
I cook every day to keep myself and my family well nourished. One of the dishes that features in most West African homes is Jollof Rice. Maybe, some day, I will share the secrets of Jollof with you 🙂
I dance a lot too. Not the gymnastic, acrobatic tumbling all over the place, but I dance virtually everyday to the tunes of my music of the moment. However, I guess except I turn to you-tubing, I may not be able to teach you much about my dancing.
I write ever so often. I don’t bother tallying the amount of time that I spend penning something because writing to me is akin to breathing, laughing, reflecting and crying through my fingers.
I have been known to write on serviettes or tiny bits of receipts to catch that fleeting thought – and you need to see me on the days that I am scrambling through my bag trying to find that little piece of tissue on which I wrote something 😉
I actively search out ways to maintain a balance of my inner peace of mind in a chaotic life.
I am not a religious fanatic, but I am unapologetically a Christian.
At most times, I am a peaceful, humorous, friendly, loving and hopefully a kind human.
Let me share with you the little things that I do to create peace within and around. Maybe, we share somethings in common:
- I dwell on positive thoughts – even if it is just one thought that I meditate on each day.
- Walking or finding an hour to exercise either very early or much later in the day. It clears the cobwebs in the head and helps my health as well as the waist line 😉
- Those thoughts that bug me, I write them down and them take time to tear the piece of paper into bits. Its a way of releasing and letting go for me.
- Sometimes, wacky it may seem, I go into the bathroom, face the mirror and just speak my mind, make faces …
- I say my mind if someone has hurt me and I move on. I let go of grudges as quickly as before I go to sleep.
- I am always quick to apologize if need be. No need aggravating and dragging an issue that can be quickly nipped in the bud.
- I doodle, draw and reflect as I draw. The doodle in the picture was my last work done two days ago.
- Writing happy stuff.
- Searching out amusing things to read or watch and laughing out real loud. I like people who can make me laugh.
- Having a date with myself at least once a week. It could be going to the park, spa, museum or as simple as a cafe alone.
- Rest when I am tired (still working on this though, because sometimes other events overtake my intentions).
- Honesty is a key in life that I don’t compromise on and practice. Especially in my relationships.
- Talking to people and not just family and friends. Total strangers too.
- Minimized drastically the amount of time spent watching TV.
- Keeping away as much as possible from negative and toxic conversations.
- Working consistently towards my passion and financial goals.
- Avoiding the spirit of envy and jealousy as much as possible and giving myself a hard telling off once I see the green eyed monster rearing it’s ugly head.
- Accept those things that cannot change and leave bad memories in the past where they belong.
- Learning to be more patient and tolerant with family, friends and everyone else.
- Trying to focus my mind on what needs to be achieved at the moment and living in the moment and keeping it as simple as possible.
These things translate to my inner peace which leads to external peace. What one does not have they cannot give.
So what will you teach me today? I am listening 🙂
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
The Daily Post prompt Teach your bloggers well.
We all know how to do something well — write a post that teaches readers how to do something you know and/or love to do.
Stretching The Vision….
Our external vision are absolutely important, but without our internal vision we are more or less blind.
One’s internal vision acts like a compass, steering wheel and rudder that directs our sweet spirits, whispering through our lives with guidance and grace. 
Our internal vision can be nurtured even beyond what our physical eyes can behold and our expectations.
Have you ever wondered how some of those who have challenged physical capabilities are able to do exceeding great things?
It is from their internal vision.They nourish and nurture it constantly despite adversity.
They walk by faith and not by sight.
What are you doing to build, foster, nurture and encourage your internal vision?
What are you looking at?
Remember that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he!
Thank you izzyasabee for inviting me for a round of 3 day quote challenge. I appreciate the opportunity.
I will equally invite these 3 awesome bloggers to join the quote challenge.
Lounging Recasts!
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Around comes Monday, Quick, so Fast!
The Weekend is simply not so Vast!
Well! Its time to live now and forget the Last!
Till next Friday and another lounging Recast!
The picture above – Quick Forgotten History and Fact:
More than a thousand years ago, on a hill in Cordoba, Abass Ibn Firnas, the first Aviator, boldly set out to do what no man had done before. He was ready to test the first flying machine in recorded history.
It’s lovely to start the week and each day as a matter of fact with positive outlook. I find Leannenz Monday memes interesting.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
I came, I live, I laugh, I love….What about You?
No one likes to dwell on thoughts of death, but the grim reaper is a visitor that likes to call uninvited. He doesn’t ring any door bells when he arrives otherwise he will not meet anyone at home.
So like a thief in the dead of the night, he slinks in!
Since death is an inevitable fact of life that can happen at any time, should it matter to us that our sojourn here on mother earth is remarkable?
Should it not matter to us that we live our lives in such a way that when we kick our individual buckets we would have left a mark that warms the heart of those who remember us and not a shudder of dread with a muttered “good riddance to bad rubbish?”
For all that it is worth, the part of leaving heartwarming thoughts behind appeals to me far better than being a grimace on someone’s face.
If I am well off enough to leave a few heirlooms to loved ones here and there, that would be very nice and dandy, but I think the most important things that I would like to be remembered for are encapsulated in these simple words:
”I came, I lived, I laughed and I loved.”
I came, because I am presently here and was purposefully brought into existence.
I am no mistake (no child is a mistake no matter the circumstance of birth).
I lived.
By being myself
By doing what I love…writing, reading, learning, dancing, talking, drawing, eating and so on…
Living a purpose driven life.
By spending time with my loved ones.
Helping others and sharing with others as much as I can.
By being thankful.
By keeping healthy and exercising.
By mentoring and life coaching both for others and for my own benefit.
By keeping stress at a minimal level.
By dumping the negative thinking.
By forgiving and moving on.
By appreciating nature.
I laughed.
Growing a sense of humour even self-deprecatory humour is healthy.
Laughter is a healer. It is music and fireworks to the soul. Life is so much better with laughter and I want a life enriched with laughter.
I loved.
I would love as much as my heart can expand and the heart can expand so, so much when we give it the chance to do so.
I want to live so that when I die, even the undertaker would be sorry that I am gone.
Not a particularly cheery topic right? However, when you dwell on it, it actually helps to streamline ones purpose and priorities.
So do tell, what part would you like to be remembered for? Heartwarming or Grimacing?
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
NaBloPoMo prompt – Wednesday, November 18
What do you hope people remember about you after you’re gone?
a cooking pot and twisted tales 