A link to my neighbours/Community · Dubai · Echos Of My Neighbourhood · Photographs

Echoes Of My Neighbourhood #5…

jacquelineobyikocha25 Comments

On Thursday’s, I share a picture about ‘Echos of my Neighbourhood.’

I would like to invite you to participate. The challenge is quite simple.

Every Thursday, share a photo of bits and pieces of wherever you are at any point in time. It could be houses, backgrounds of your neighbourhood, activities and so forth and you can tag it Echos of my Neighbourhood, add my link to your post so that I will get the ping from your post.

Every other Thursday, I will publish a post with the links of all those who participated the previous week.

This is just a fun way of getting to see more of the World around us through your eyes, since we cannot all be at those places, we can at least see them through you.

I look forward to seeing your pictures.

Best regards,

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

 

At night, when these skyscrapers come alive with the twinkle of their lights, I simply let my mind absorb it’s beauty and roam free. I think of all the humans contained within. The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and The Downright Dodgy.

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Last Week Thursday, Echoes received a decent number of entries from these awesome bloggers below and I encourage you to take a quick sneak peek.

From Kat Myrman’s glimpse of her hometown, we see Dr. Pepper bringing the Superheros to town.

Oba’s shot of Lagos ‘Okada’ had me thinking of my Lasgidi home.

Pancake Bunnykins glimpse of the beautiful Suriname River behind Zorg Hospital makes you think it’s more like a hotel.

Never a dull bling shows us some insights of her work neighbourhood and that very cute live bunny.

There is definitely something stunning about black and white pictures and Tildy of Beespeak shows us snippets of her neighbourhood in black and white.

Spiritual Journeys  queer tree deceives the eyes.

Now, let’s see yours.

Creative Writing · Humor - Bellyful of laughter · Poetry/Poems · The Daily Post

If I Was Set Free…

jacquelineobyikocha39 Comments

Super powers are certainly lovely to have, if such possibilities exist, however, I doubt very much if I can have those kind of super powers that would make me appear and disappear at will, besides, I am not sure I am keen on the connotation that this power might be used for negative endeavours.1452698473919[1]

I think I am far too gregarious to appear and disappear. In my language, my mother would call me “the one person, who is welcomed like a crowd of multiple people,” and my love for life around me, almost makes it impossible for me to sneak around.

Even if I had the luck to possess such skills, my reverberating energy would definitely alert those that I am trying to hide or seek from.

That said, I do think it would be lovely to possess the super-powers of a very convincing tongue; so that when I get to sit down with an agent/publisher, I would look them straight in the eyes, wearing my heart on my sleeves, I would tell them my writing thoughts and they would simply nod and nod.

They will have an auction war over my works and sign a fat check, sending me on my merry way to go and hammer out some more words. That’s my dream of super right now.

If I had the wings of a cooing dove,

Soft and gentle I will perch on your cove,

I will coo into your listening ears,

Understanding your sighs and your tears.

If I had the sweet tweet of a Nightingale,

Enthralled would you be with my tales,

You will let me out of my cage,

So that I may soar through the glades,

Tweeting high and free in the blue skies landscape.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

The Daily Post Prompt Now You See Me, Now You Don’t.

You have a secret superpower: the ability to appear and disappear at will. When and where will you use this new superpower? Tell us a story.

Devotions · Gratitude · Hope · Inspiration - Motivation · Life · Love

I am grateful and blessed to have you as my friend…

jacquelineobyikocha47 Comments

Life brings friends our way who turn out to become our families in almost every sense of the word and I am particularly grateful for such a friend as my dear good friend Mrs. Ekaete Augustine-Edet. 1452678658237[1]

We have journeyed together from our days as single ladies working at the French Embassy, Lagos Nigeria almost two decades ago, to today as mothers and wives and she has remained such a steadfast friend, sister and motivator.

She is one of the driving forces behind my starting my blog, because she believes in me and my writing skills. She kept asking me when I would start my blog, until I got started.

She is there anytime I call with a need or something on my mind. I had reason to make such a call and as usual she selflessly gave of herself, her time and her pocket.

I thank God for a friend like you and really don’t have much words to appreciate your kindness.

On another hand, I have been blessed with running into interesting characters since last week.

Two lovely neighbourhood dogs, Lola and Cookie and Meow, The cat seem to have adopted me for reasons best known to them, though I do stop to say hello to the cute dogs when I am taking my walk and they are out and about.

Meow is a lone ranger, but always appears by the chair where I sit sometimes to watch the World go by and he rubs himself on my pants legs seeking attention.

I am more a dog person and not particularly a cat person but strangely, this would be the third encounter where different neighbourhood felines come up to say hello.

Since I don’t know much about felines, maybe those who do can tell me what this indicates.

I am grateful for little meaningless moments like this. They end up meaning a lot when we appreciate them and each moment that I spend in a state of gratitude, the phrase that the best things in life are for free couldn’t be more true than it is.

There is so much to be thankful for. Just look around and you will see.

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

Regards and blessings

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Photographs · Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesdays…a full head of hair.

jacquelineobyikocha28 Comments

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Photographs · Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday….clowning about

jacquelineobyikocha9 Comments

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Photographs · Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday…Friends

jacquelineobyikocha10 Comments

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The Daily Post

Fast Forward Please…

jacquelineobyikocha18 Comments

In as much as it can be fun to reminisce and recall those lovely times or not so lovely times that we had as teenagers and even as toddlers, I think the year is still a bit young for me to be living in the doldrums of the past and feeling wistful over things that are bygone.1452617116684[1]

Ask me again, on a day that I have just finished listening to a heart tugging music or read something sappy, or better still, hang around till the next holidays and toss the question right back at me, then, I just might be in the mood for poignant reflections that would have you pulling out your tissue box.

Now as it is, my brain cells are in the front drive and looking totally forward to newer forays and exploits. Today, this moment, now, is my present, so let’s focus on that.

Turn the next chapter please.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

The Daily Post Prompt If I could Turn Back Time.

If you could return to the past to relive a part of your life, either to experience the wonderful bits again, or to do something over, which part of you life would you return to? Why?

Creative Writing · Haiku · Hope · Lifestyle · Poetry/Poems · Social Issues

Crystal Meth…

jacquelineobyikocha34 Comments

A fascination of the Stars it held,

Purported to pleasure he heard,

Hope he keeps away from the Meth.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

PLEASE NOTE! ‘The usage of crystal methamphetamine is dangerous.’

This is my first time participating in ‘Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Prompt Challenge‘ with the prompt words, ‘crystal’ and ‘hope.’

Five Sentence Inspiration · Hope · Inspiration - Motivation · My Thinking Corner

Tuesdays Trickles

jacquelineobyikocha15 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 might work for you in a different way, but the idea is to get the positive thoughts flowing.

Every last Tuesday of the month, I will publish a post with the links of all those who participated through the month and their thoughts.

I hope to see you join. Best regards.

 

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  • When you run your own race, the chance is high that you will win, but when you run another person’s race, you will spend your time looking at their behinds.
  • The beauty in you, will only shine when you start to see for yourself that you are a masterpiece.
  • Motivation comes from the constant recharging of the muscles of your mind.
  • Remember that the lessons from the heat of a fiery experience, refines you into a more exquisite quality.
  • To those who still have hope, the strength surely comes.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Life · Writing

Save Me From Myself…Help! This is torturous.

jacquelineobyikocha45 Comments

I am not crazy and I am not exaggerating.

Sometimes, my muse runs off into the wild winds not to be found.

But that sometimes is very, very rare.

As a matter of fact, I am wishing that the muse would run off for some days and let me have peace.

How do you quieten the thousand voices of characters in your head, with ideas racing from pillar to post and vying for your attention.

A lot of times my body is tired but my brain remains supercharged and the voices just won’t keep quiet.

It’s totally driving me mad.

Even when I say that I am not going to think. I STILL THINK.

Hey! Is anybody out there? I need good tips of how to kill a muse and get some sleep.

What do you do to keep the voices in your head shut? Short of hitting my head with a sledgehammer!

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha