Take that Cupid’s arrow
and bend it to yourself,
for you are worth
all the love
that you keep reserving
for someone else.
When someone comes
there’ll certainly be enough.
An arrow of love…
This life…
Life is an interwoven maze of our experiences. Days blur into each other creating our past, present, future and indeed, life is truly what we make of it.
The past is done and gone. A mere recollection that serves, hopefully, as a compass and guide in our present. A memory bank of moments lived which we sometimes relive in nostalgia or regret. The past we can never return to nor regain no matter how hard we try or how much we want it.
The present is what we live and inhabit and the culmination of our presents make our past, which is why our presence in our present deeply counts. This is where the key to our happiness lies. Staying fully present and living our best moments in the now – no matter how mundane our day may seem – so that when we look back on our recollections – which we tend to ruminate on – we will have fonder thoughts and reasons to smile and not sigh nor wince in regret.
The future is an illusion of time that we do not have. The future is infinite. We postpone everything to an imagined future when all we truly have is ‘NOW’ This is the bane of most of our lives: waiting, postponing, planning! When we truly get to understand that
Live all aspects of your present time as well as you can. Give everyday that you receive the best of you and life will reward you in the same coin.
For the joy of laughter…
Laughter. Music for the soul that’s absolutely contagious. When you see someone laughing at a joke that you can’t hear, chances are that you will smile anyway – even if you don’t realize it.
You do know that laughter improves your overall health? It is a strong medicine that triggers healthy physical and emotional changes in the body. It is a stress buster that diminishes pain, boosts mood and improves our emotional health, strengthens the immune system and grants us a better outlook to life – it even adds more years to our lives.
When we were younger, we laughed over little things countless times a day but adulting makes us become unduly serious about life, with laughter growing less frequent in our lives. Just like the way that we seek out food to fill our belly’s we must seek the nourishment of humour and laughter. Have you ever wondered why comedians never go out of fashion? People pay them to make them laugh.
Sweet peals of laughter trigger the release of endorphins – the body’s natural feel-good chemicals and these endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being. We cannot undermine how much laughing is good medicine for the mind and body. A powerful antidote to conflict and stress. These peals lighten your burden, uplifts your spirit, relaxes your whole body, helps you connect to others, inspires hope and lightens your mind of anger and unforgiveness.
A recent fad I learnt off boasts that laughter burns calories, though I wouldn’t ask you to quit your gym subscription, your daily dose of walking or to join a laughter fest, but finding ones’ funny bone is worth its weight in any priceless gem that you can think of. This priceless serum is absolutely free. It comes without any manual and fun to use.
How to bring more laughter into your life
Laughter is your birthright. Babies start smiling during the first weeks of life and laugh out loud within months of being born and even if you did not grow up in a household where laughter was a common sound, you can learn to laugh at any stage of life.
Set aside special times to seek out humor and laughter, as you would with any hobby that you are interested in cultivating. Eventually, you’ll want to incorporate humor and laughter into the fabric of your life, finding it naturally in everything.
Spend time with fun, playful people. Those who laugh easily at themselves and at life’s absurdities–and who routinely find the humor in everyday events. Their playful point of view and laughter are contagious. Even if you don’t consider yourself a lighthearted, humorous person, you can still seek out people who like to laugh and make others laugh.
An essential ingredient for developing your sense of humor is to learn not to take yourself too seriously and laugh at your own mistakes and foibles. As much as we’d like to believe otherwise, we all do foolish things from time to time. Instead of feeling embarrassed or defensive, embrace your imperfections.
Life brings challenges that can either get the best of you or become playthings for your imagination. When you “become the problem” and take yourself too seriously, it can be hard to think outside the box and find new solutions. But when you play with the problem, you can often transform it into an opportunity for creative learning. It is important to use humor to overcome challenges and enhance your life. Laugh out Loud!
My tomorrow…
my tomorrow came
when today arrived…
for yesterday I waited
on a day that I hadn’t seen…
hoping that if and when
it does come around…
there will be the light of change.
my tomorrow is here
yet my thoughts ain’t truly there…
for how can it be
when in fragmented pieces…
I watch…
the broken circles
of many yesterdays
Sweet Meats…
The semi-circle slow turn showed off the graceful flow of her jalabiya, albeit she wasn’t satisfied with the way her rolls stayed prominent. Reema harbours a love and hate relationship with her abayas. They did their best to conceal the bulge of indulgence, yet constantly reminded her of her ever-shifting shape that spread like butter left out in the Summer sun.
Flopping down on the pink sofa, she flipped through the pages of The Weekend woman, sighed in resignation and popped another sweet meat into her mouth. Delicious and warm, the taste of the succulent morsel gave her joy.
Maybe she should go shopping, she thought. Retail therapy of buying pretty things always made her happy for a little while. How did she let her weight get out of control? Would she ever lose it and look trim again? She didn’t trust Khalid with the help especially the new one Nadia – many a times, she caught him casting lascivious looks at Nadia’s bubble butt that tended to quiver with each step she took. Reema’s musings tumbled over each other and chose to zoom in on her husbands’ recent fascination.
Nowadays, his slumberous thick-lashed dark eyes held a mischievous glint in them and her assumptions of what it meant was giving her sleepless nights. Biting into another piece of spicy meat, she hoped that his attraction to Nadia will not be as fatal as his previous tryst. She truly abhorred driving to the desert to dump a lifeless body.
Work woes…
I know that millions of us have faced this dilemma and sometimes, we are not sure which way to take out of the quandary. You are in a scenario where you are working just to make ends meet and find yourself stuck in a job rut for years on end. You are afraid to quit – because bills have to be paid, you don’t feel like searching for a new job – because you are comfortable in your stagnation and the uncertainty of starting anew occupies space in your mind, hence, it’s a case of the evil God known is better than a good God unknown. You are not particularly enthused with your colleagues maybe because of so many reasons better left unsaid. Simply put, the job has lost its allure.
There are ways to pick yourself up, to boost your mood and to get past the difficult period at work.
Take time away from your desk
Doing so does not equate scrolling the pages of social media, surfing the internet or idling by the water cooler when you should be creating a document or filing a report. Ensure that you take the necessary breaks owed to you and use them diligently. Try and fit in something that you truly you love during your lunch break whether it’s reading a book, going for a cup of coffee at the café in the neighbourhood, meeting up with a friend, heading to the gym, taking a walk, or a Zumba session, the time spent away from your desk will become something to look forward to and will boost your spirit.
Friends
In this aspect you can apply a two-pronged approach. Firstly, create time for your buddies no matter how tied up or how down you’re feeling. It is pretty easy to throw a pity party, retreat to the sofa and vegetate with a tub of ice-cream, pizza and what not, but at this point in time, what you truly need is to spend time with the people you love, people who love you and uplift you. Even a brief chat will remind you there’s more to your life than your present job. You can even pick up an activity, hobby or class to attend together and create more bonding time.
Additionally, make the necessary effort to build friendships with worthwhile colleagues. Though we are to remember to create the right boundaries in our workplace, It’s very rare that there won’t be even one person you get on with, and getting closer could make things more fun. Ask if your friend would like to go for lunch or borrow your book – anything to forge a bond.
Find laughter
Don’t be too glum faced and grimly serious about your job with your mouth turned down or in a straight line and a permanent frown on your face. Indeed, work has its serious aspect, but when you develop a playful aspect for yourself, you will be more lighthearted whilst accomplishing your set goals. As we laugh, we are better able to enjoy things. We release that sense of anxiety, frustration, pressure and undue stress.
Try harder
Truly, it’s a challenge not to develop an apathetic mindset when you’re interest in your job has waned, but don’t forget that at some point in time, you wanted this job. Putting in extra effort can be the difference in feeling bored at work and also makes time go quickly, besides, it gets you noticed. Portray yourself as someone who gets things done and others will be interested in offering you different projects etc. You really need to take things in hand and it might lead to a new, enjoyable and rewarding path.
Furthermore, you can think of better ways of improving your work processes and make suggestions to your boss or those who need to hear your thoughts. It will show that you are someone who thinks outside the box.
Personality pep-up
Though the workplace is an arena where everyone has to temper themselves a bit, but it’s vital that you don’t go too far to dampen your lively or interesting character. If you someone who never has anything to contribute or interesting to say, as a matter of fact, people will be least interested in talking to you or being around you. Engage in work related social activities, share your thoughts of interesting outside the job related topics when discussions are being held. Don’t be afraid to speak up. Inasmuch as you are unique, also remember to be a part of the whole.
Is this the end of an era?
For those of us who enjoy putting our thoughts down in writing and etching our memories in journals and blog pages hopefully not to be forgotten, it is kind of disheartening to realize that there seems to be a natural decline in blog posts, bloggers and blogging. Correct me if I am wrong, but it does appear that the continuously evolving, newer and shinier ways of Social media interaction such as Tiktok and many others that I don’t know of keeps eroding into the audience that was initially dedicated to blogs.
Readers keep minimizing and engagement has dwindled down to the barest minimum. From my own perspective, I think this can be attributed to various reasons,
Personal blogging is quickly becoming a thing of the past, but as I mentioned above, there are multiple types of blogging.
The type of blogging that’s still alive is probably content marketing.
I think that the main shift here is that personal blogging is focused on the writer/blogger whilst blogging with the purpose of content marketing is focused on the reader.
The question online writers today are faced with when content writing is “how to their readers solve their problems?”
And from my observation is that the bloggers thriving nowadays are the ones who are:
- creating problem-solving content
- recommending products (either affiliate products or their own) that further solve their audience’s problems
I feel that in as much as content marketing has exploded in other areas of the internet, like YouTube, Instagram, podcasting etc. the written word still remains powerful.
Nowadays, for the most part, I don’t think people are logging onto their computers or phones excited to check up on their favorite blogger/writers like before. Maybe it’s me, but I would love to hear your thoughts about the blogging phenomenon.
But Do People Really Still Read Blogs?
Tuesday’s Thoughts…
“All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose: Romans 8:28”
There are those times when we think that things are not going the way that we hoped or planned. Our plan(s) seems to fall apart instead of coming together and as humans, sometimes, that sense of frustration sets in.
Countess times, our most important journeys becomes the ones that seem to lead us on a winding path that seems like the dead-end cul-de-sac, but to the glory of God there are no dead-ends. Adversity offers us opportunities to learn, to hope, to be patient, to trust, and to grow. Such seasons are inevitable in our lives and how we navigate them matters most.
When next you are experiencing life’s inevitable disappointments, don’t despair or panic. Never be reluctant to switch to plans, approach but don’t lose sight of the goal. Consider such setback as an opportunity to choose a different, more appropriate path.
Always have faith that God may actually be guiding you to an entirely different direction, a direction of His choosing and in line with His purpose for your life.
A dead-end to you may in actual fact be a highway set by God for you.
Check me out on Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@beyondexisting.j/video/7200670219965123841
When the sun sets…
When the sun sets, it naturally reminds me not only of the end of a day, but the promise of a new dawn and I love them. Back in my home country Nigeria, we used to have very gorgeous sunsets especially where we lived, which was nice sleepy town located around the hills of Enugu.
However, living in these parts, it gets too hot in this horizon of the UAE that most times, I find myself running away from the sun instead of running towards the sunset.
Occasionally, I have stumbled across a lovely sunset here, unfortunately, I don’t think that I have ever managed to capture a great photograph of it.
The best that I have seen so far was around Jumeirah beach, close to the Burj Al Arab and it was truly beautiful.
Who knows, hopefully I’ll get to see another truly remarkable one before I venture away from these parts.
p.s. I finally concluded the bloganuary. So slowly but surely and I have enjoyed it immensely. I has helped me reignite the need to write/blog more frequently. Hope to see you around.
Days of my life…
I can bet my last dollar or should I say dirham that I am the only person still writing Bloganuary prompts. Anyways, it’s the way things are and I have been balancing many nuts per se. Do I wish I had stuck to the prompts judiciously during the last week? Yes, I do, but unfortunately, I didn’t and I won’t beat myself over the head for it knowing all that I have been handling lately.
The thought of writing an autobiography has never been too far from my mind, though I still had to process the prompt. The need to write my autobiography is borne out of a survivors need tell their story and though it is a project that I plan to tackle during the sunset days of my life, hopefully many many more years ahead (who knows) maybe, it is time to chalk it down on the drawing board.
When reflecting on how I would title the chapters of my autobiography, I think it will be broken down in 3 main chunks – not cast in stone of course, but my thoughts twirl around:
Chapter 1: The early years of ignorance
Chapter 2: Then comes turbulence
Chapter 3: Survival and peace
a cooking pot and twisted tales 