Calamity – Friday Fiction in Five Sentences

May 5, 2017 jacquelineobyikocha9 Comments

Scalding hot tears spilt out of Ifueko’s swollen eyes mingling with the salty dribble from her nostrils into her mouth.

She wailed in reckless abandon, her swaying form gathered into itself as she interjected her pitiful cries with grief-lade idioms ‘Chi mu o, ewu ata mu igu n’isi – My God, the goat has eaten palm fronds off the top of my head’.

‘Why? Chukwu Okike. Why has such calamity befallen me, she asked her God of creation.

The repeated echos of ‘ndo, sorry’ and other words of commiseration from the growing gathering of neighbours and friends fell on deaf ears.

Her five young ones surrounded her on the bare ground of their uncompleted home, their young minds unable to comprehend the gravity of their situation as the men of the compound struggled to bring out their father’s body from the well.

Quick Glossary

Chi mu o – My God

Chukwu Okike – God of Creation

Echos Of My Neighbourhood

Etihad – Echoes of My Neighbourhood

May 4, 2017May 4, 2017 jacquelineobyikocha9 Comments

Roughly translated, Etihad means ‘together, join into one,’ and that’s what the UAE is all about. The United Arab Emirates is made up of 7 Emirates that came to become one Federation, yet each Emirate is autonomous.

The enormous, extraordinary development this region has experienced can only be better appreciated when you see the stark, arid, unforgiving surroundings that it was carved out of.

My foray last week took me to Etihad museum. The museum is located on the same historical site of the Union House, which is where the constitution of the UAE was signed in 1971 to establish its independence.

Etihad is equipped with a library, an education centre, exhibition halls, restaurant/cafe. It offers a series of interactive pavilions, photos, films and more, where visitors can explore the UAE’s history with particular emphasis on the significant period between 1968 and 1974 – through photos, films and more.

It’s always my wish to develop better understanding and appreciation of where ever I am, which is why I haunt museums. Doing so gives one a glimpse into the history and heritage of their surrounding and allows you to see the place through different eyes.

Beautiful photos of fresh snow from Lady Lee’s neighbourhood.

On another hand, after much deliberation, Echoes of my neighbourhood will be evolving a bit. It has run consistently every week for well over a year and I am honestly surprised that I kept up with it. Sometimes, we don’t know how far we can go unless we start.

Going forward, it will evolve into a monthly feature on this blog and no longer weekly. The last Thursday of each month will offer a collage of photographs and post for Echoes. I am in the process of aligning my projects and other interests to create better balance.

You are most welcome to join Echoes of my neighbourhood – last Thursday’s of the month.

Etihad museum, contemporary museum, United Arab Emirates

Uncategorized

DID SHE GET HER ANSWER?

May 4, 2017May 4, 2017 jacquelineobyikocha

An absolutely wonderful read. Are you Joan?

Sweet aroma

calms the child

For months, Joan’s house had been demanding more in upkeep than she could afford. The walls seemed to move in on her each day. She was tired of the old carpet. She looked at everything about it with a jaundiced eye. Everything about it was getting on her nerves. Joan had prayed, nagged, and finagled all the ways she knew to get the new house. It was sooo dreamy and had 600 more square feet than they one she now lived in.

She would have a difficult time paying the extra monthly payment for the new house, but she knew God was a prayer answer-er! So she diligently prayed that something would happen to make the new place possible. She kept her faith in the Lord knowing he could make it happen. She prayed effectually and fervently just like the Bible said to do.

Two years later Joan was still…

View original post 223 more words

Social critic

Two little thoughts…

May 3, 2017May 3, 2017 jacquelineobyikocha12 Comments

One Thought: I guess if I am asked whether I am on Twitter I will nod my response with vigour, but for the life of me, sometimes, I am as obtuse as ever on what goes on there.

I like, retweet, follow and whatever else. I also like seeing the little hearts. However, I can’t begin to imagine why I need to buy other people to follow me as per some of the ridiculous offers that I receive. Follow me to where please if I may ask?

My silliness can get into overdrive as I have a visual picture of a long line of tweety birds matching behind me with their lips pursed in a tweety whistle while I blow my follow me pipe.
…and the other thought: I see a lot of books with reviews claiming award winning this and award winning that. Are these badges given for free?

Recently, I tried reading a badly written – whatever award it won – book, thankfully it was online otherwise my peeve would have made me fling it out of the window.

It was not a bad storyline, but the poor grammatical construction and typos nearly gave me a headache and bad eyesight.

Over to you. What’s you little thought for the day?

Jacqueline

image credit – Pinterest

Art

A Tiger in The House

May 3, 2017May 3, 2017 jacquelineobyikocha15 Comments

My 9-year-old son’s artistic flair keeps improving each day. He drew this two night’s ago and I must say that I’m impressed.

My Thinking Corner

Wonder Full! – My Thinking Corner.

May 2, 2017May 2, 2017 jacquelineobyikocha10 Comments

There’s absolutely no mistake,
Not in the way you were made.
You are the masterpiece of the Master sculptor.
For you are as beautiful as you allow yourself to be.
From within to without,
From the tip of your hair,
To your buck teeth,
To the flat soles of your feet,
You are you.
The you that you are is wonderful,
You are no less than anyone else.
Never spend unnecessary time comparing yourself to another,
For you are made unique.
You must remember to tell yourself this every day.
You have courage.
You have strength.
You have confidence.
You have self-respect and love.
In the stillness of the morning,
In the noise of the day,
In the darkness of the night,
Never fail to tell yourself,
That the sculptor made no mistakes with you,
From within to without,
Until you accept it,
And it is settled,
In your Spirit, Body, and Soul.

Positive affirmations breed positive things.

Rononvan's Weekly Haiku Challenge

Leap in haste – Ronovan writes weekly haiku challenge

May 2, 2017May 2, 2017 jacquelineobyikocha1 Comment

When I saw ‘leap & throb’ as the prompt for Ronovan’s weekly haiku challenge, my mind went to the age-old caution of look before you leap.

Sometimes, I guess we just have to take chances in life especially when it comes to love.

Telling you to look before you leap,
is only a sensible advice,
to prevent breaking parts that will throb.

She leaped into love in such haste,
that she regretted such mistake,
her broken heart throbbed from painful deceit.

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Midnight motivation and musings

How To Overcome Doubts and Live Your Dreams

May 1, 2017May 1, 2017 jacquelineobyikocha7 Comments

At many points in time in our lives, we struggle with doubts and this can balloon into fear which stalls our progress.

No one lives doubt-free. It questions our courage. It questions our passion and our goals. As a matter of fact, when we stop having doubts about our goals, we have to check that we are not settling in that dreaded comfort zone where nothing happens.

How do we overcome these doubts and go on to achieve those things that we desire? Here are simple everyday ways of dealing with your doubts.

Featured Blogs

Featured Post – Share Your Post Links

May 1, 2017 jacquelineobyikocha

Sharing, Blogs, Networking, Growing Readership, Connection, Bloggers, Blog Posts

‘PLEASE SEND IN YOUR LINKS.’

Today’s featured blogs are:

Do step in, explore these blogs and show some love.

Jump in Nothing like wading right in and going after your dreams. An inspiring post that rekindles my thoughts on my video making improvement and skills.

Listening – A better skill Lovely poem, good counsel and indeed, the art of hearing well is to learn when to keep quiet and stop clucking. Just listen. This made me smile 🙂

Put your hands up in the air An insightful post that I totally enjoyed reading. Here’s my comment:

I think this post was made for me. I relate with so much. Caught between and betwixt; not quite mid-life crisis and like you said, mid-life awakening. Awesome and welcome to the land of the 40’s soon 🙂

Sartorial Splendour

Such a simple post, but says many things to me. Sometimes our dreams just seem out of reach, but we find ways to live them. Do step in and say hello.

Why are we museum guards because we can’t make a living with with our dreams and passions, we need to pay our bills and we need health and dental insurance. Therefore when I get off work and change into my street clothes I go from being a nobody back to me, a human being. Many of my guard co-workers express ourselves through our clothing, tattoos, piercings projecting an artistic vibe. Then we are on display as the creative human beings we really are.

The Cross What does the cross mean to you? A beautiful, short read.

Don’t allow the enemy to place guilt before you and miss the message from God. God wants to set you free from the present day conditions that are holding you captive. There is abundant life with Jesus, he was the ransom for us to be Redeemed!

Do you want more eyes on your words?’

Well then, add your LINK INTO THIS LOOP.

Comments are disabled here to keep the loop tidy. Any comments or link you want to send can be added through the link in the post.

Thank you for your understanding and regards.

‘Remember, we create a cohesive community when we come together.

Mundane Monday

Crystal pieces

May 1, 2017May 1, 2017 jacquelineobyikocha7 Comments

Mundane Monday Challenge is created to find beauty in almost everything.

The challenge is simple. Find beauty in everyday mundane things, capture the beauty and upload the photographs.

Like a moth, I am attracted to light. These are just cheap pieces of glass hanging down a lamp holder, but they sure look pretty to me and they tinkle when you shake them.