Just hang in there…personal

June 1, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha24 Comments

Honestly, I’m thankful that it’s almost weekend over here and the school exams will be done with tomorrow.

I notice that not only is my mental acuity flagging from all the drilling revisions with the children, coupled with other responsibilities, I also feel a bit tense, so the weekend will be a most welcome pleasure.

The brilliant aspect is that all the grilling revisions are paying off. My first son’s exam grades came in looking shiny, so such news energized me a bit and I’m totally grateful because his subjects gave me more concern than those of his siblings.

The truth is that I secretly nursed an occasional thought of anxiety at his results at the back of my mind but I knew that since fear or worry wouldn’t solve any problems, the best thing to do is to work hard and commit the rest into the hands of God and I am not disappointed 🙂

Gratitude has been teaching me a lot. It has changed my perspective and has enriched my life far more than I can say.

There’s always something to be thankful for. I hope you find some reason to be.

Below is my first Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

Midnight motivation and musings

Midnight Motivation and Musings 87

May 23, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha25 Comments

Can you imagine what life would be like if we all encouraged one another to be the best that they can be?

How would it be, if every single soul lit up their lamp of talents and didn’t hide it under a bushel of excuses or discouragement?

I guess absolutely brilliant would be an understatement.

It is commonly said that the graveyard is the richest place with the brightest and untapped talents that are buried and sadly, this is very true.

Let’s keep encouraging those around us to thrive, for we bring about greater good when we do this.

Iron sharpens iron and the energy spent in blowing off someone’s candle is wasted because it won’t make yours shine brighter than it already does.

Below is my first Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

Never leave me lonely

With words left unsaid

You walk away into the dark

Like a mist, that melts away.

Family · The Great Book Of Lists

Those who influence my life…Personal

May 12, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha9 Comments

This week’s prompt for The great book of lists, La Duchesse wants us to talk about those who inspire us, so here goes:

At each juncture in my life, there are those who have inspired me and still inspire me. Their presence influences my past, present, and future.

My Dad: Without doubts, my father -God rest his soul- has remained the most influential man in my life.

He was a peaceful, loving, upright and hardworking soul whose views to life was very simple.

His integrity was impeccable and he would always tell us that once you don’t covet that which belonged to another, you would have a peaceful life.

There’s no day that passes that the echoing whisper of his words doesn’t reverberate in my mind. Especially when he would always tell you that anything worth doing, is worth doing well.

My quintessential mother: A gracious, generous, beautiful woman.

If half of the milk of human kindness that flows in this woman’s veins flows through mine, then I will consider myself a decent human.

She still remains my confidant, my prop, my source of inspiration and light.

My dear Himself: This husband of mine who drives me crazy, loves me and makes me know what love is. He’s a good man. A generous and loving dad to his children.

He pushes me to be better and to aspire for more.

He dreams big dreams and his intelligence never fails to impress me.

Now, if only I can get him to agree to everything I say….;-)

My children inspire me every day. I want to be a great parent because of them.

I want to leave a legacy that when they look back tomorrow, even when I’m gone, they will be happy that God chose me as their mother.

Others: I have a healthy dose of respect for people (famous or not) who wear the aura of positivity despite all the challenges that they might have faced or are facing. Such people inspire me.

My aggressors: Why would I choose such negative crowd?

This is a story that hasn’t been told.

Not because the words and the memories are gone, but because I’m not mentally ready and maybe some day, it will find it’s way into my memoir.

Yes, they inspired me not to curl up and die.

They inspired me to rise out of the burnt ashes from moments of insanity.

I will rest here. Blessed Be.

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

I can see clearly now the ghosts are laid to rest

Broken visions melded and better than the first

Atop the ladder of scattered dreams and buried bones,

I glimpse the brighter vision reflected and renewed.

**an excerpt of my poem**

Life · Midnight motivation and musings · Self Help

Midnight Motivations and Musings 79

May 11, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha7 Comments

Challenges will come and sometimes they will shake your faith and hope. These tribulations present themselves to taunt and test you. That’s called life.

Unexpected incidentals of life happen when we are busy making plans about other things that we want to do, so in order to brace ourselves for these little bumps, we must equip our system with buffers like hope.

Hope is not an abstract word. It’s a very active word that lives and grows when we build on it.

It’s like a safety net or emergency funds that we draw on when the need arises.

How do we build up hope? I’ll be sharing a post specifically targeted at building hope on Sunday.

Love and Light

Jacqueline

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

Never leave me lonely

With words left unsaid

You walk away into the dark

Like a mist, that melts away.

Blog · Personal · Writing

365 Terrific Blogging Days Later…Hurrah!!

May 6, 2016November 1, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha67 Comments

Blogging was an unknown concept. I had no concrete idea what it meant or where to start from. All I had was the desire to write beyond journalling in my diary. FaceBook had been my medium of sharing bits of my thoughts, which was a lot, but something about FaceBook just never settled well with me, so I didn’t share as much.

Backtrack to May 5th, 2015 after a friend encouraged me yet again to start blogging, I googled the word ‘blog’ and WordPress came up. I researched further and before I could say Hey! Presto my first post was published.

I started it afraid. My doubting part told me that since I wasn’t technically on-point I probably suck at it. I didn’t know what a good or bad blog was meant to look like. I didn’t know what ‘spam bots’ were. I had never bothered my life about SEO’s, didn’t know what it was and still don’t know exactly what that Greek word ‘search engine optimization,’ means in real terms. All I had and still have is the burning desire to write and to learn.

I wondered who in their right mind would bother to read what I wrote but after my initial trepidations and decision to leave the excuses, I decided to plod along knowing that I am writing for me.

Why am I back-tracking a bit, because, sincerely speaking, it truly amazes me to think that I started this blog from zero, knowing nothing, with no idea how to blog and what it would be like, to this point where I wonder why I took forever to get started?

Am I glad that I am here? Absolutely, yes.

I have made wonderful friends on this journey. My thoughts have grown exponentially. I’ve pushed myself beyond my comfort zone over and over again and without trying to sound too smart, I look back and say to myself ‘well done, you’ve not done badly, babe.‘

Just a quick view of my present circumstance as they also serve as a measure of growth online…

a. Published my first poetry book.

b. Published 1,178 posts

c. I gained a partner and looking for more 🙂

d. Joined several challenges.

e. I started two blogging challenges that you can join.

f. Attended a number of BU classes.

g. Did my first Nablopomo last November.

h. Hostess to an exciting, monthly blog party 😉

i. Started earning some cents in WordAds 😉

j. Many positive offline strides that my online presence brought about.

Stats: 92,807 views, Visitors: 22,842, Friends: 7,980, Likes: 53,277, Comments: 28,706

Well, there you have the bare bones. These days, this may not seem like much to some, but in my eyes, these are giant strides for me. To another 365 days, I say, let’s go!

Thank you all for choosing to stay with me. For your supportive hands of fellowship, I remain humbled in appreciation. Have a drink and a cupcake on my behalf 🙂

Below is my first Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Dance to your heart’s delight my African child, until echoes of your stamping feet, beating heart; bright eyes, smiling lips; and waving hands, resonates over and over like thunder claps, reverberating throughout the Universe.

Just dance.

Lifestyle · Midnight motivation and musings · Self Help

Midnight Motivations and Musings # 69

April 23, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha17 Comments

I could go on and on about this particular thought because I have so much to say, but I will just leave a few lines.

There are people who live with the constant victim mentality that it does appear that everything seems to be about them.

No doubts, there are those who have been grossly victimised, but what matters most is how they address these issues that face them.

Do they use these challenges as a ladder to rise out of their situation or do they lie their minds down like a mat and allow the aggressor to walk all over them?

The sad reality is that the World is just what it is. It’s not going to change for you because as long as there’s mankind, there will always be those who don’t care about hurting others.

Rather, you will be the one to change your way of thinking and rise out of that slavery mentality that envelopes your mind.

Once you rise out of such thoughts and break free from victim mode, you actually defeat your aggressor by no longer lending him/her free room in your life.

Lifestyle · Midnight motivation and musings

Midnight Motivations and Musings # 66

April 20, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha12 Comments

Personally, I have sometimes found myself in a quandary as I am filled with an ambitious drive to achieve so much simultaneously and the lessons learnt by so doing, is that something always suffers for the other.

There’s no way to do so many things excellently well when the attention span has been spread so thin.

The need to accomplish often comes hand in hand with the feeling that one is a bit behind, thus the attempt to bundle up and get so much done becomes irresistible.

However, taming the desire to rev all engines and streamlining these projects yields a better result.

One feels less pressured and more productive when they set a deliverable timeline for each one and take it one after the other.

Personal · Stream of Consciousness Saturday. · This Is My Life

How many times have I failed? Maybe 5,000 or more. I won’t give up!

April 16, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha16 Comments

No. (Number) That’s what Linda gave us for today’s Saturday stream of consciousness and I had to remind myself over a no. of times to get up and do it.

Today, I have refused to do a good number of things except lie around and whine in my head. Taking a deep breath after the days almost gone, I haul my butt out to get it done.

It’s not a deliberate attitude not to do anything, except binge on food, but some deep lethargy that seems to have pervaded my mind for the past couple of weeks and this has made everything a drudgery.

I know the symptoms for I have experienced it over thousands of times and so many times when I allow the dragon out of its lair by letting the lethargy fester it never bodes well.

Over the thousand no. of times that I have allowed it take over, it dragged me down into its lair and turns me into a dragon myself. Everything that I am doing would give way for this sniveling, annoying, depressing monster who rears its ugly head when it wills.

It’s a good thing that I always have several bowls of prepared food in the fridge and freezer, so that way, my family don’t suffer on the days that lethargy seizes my bones.

Now that I’ve written, I feel better and can’t help wonder how many times I allowed it to beat me. Can I put a figure to the no. of times it got the better of me? I doubt if I can. However today, it’s not going to get my number anymore. Enough!

Life · Midnight motivation and musings

Midnight Motivations and Musings #59…

April 13, 2016April 14, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha21 Comments

The awareness that in actual practice these words are easier said than done doesn’t escape me at all, especially due to the fact that human beings are sensory and emotionally guided.

Nevertheless, we can’t allow our lives to be like flotsams and jetsams, drifting down the bay and tossed about by each wave that casts its ripples our way.

We have to grow some sense of emotional intelligence and let the rational part of us along with grounded tenets built over time help us ride through the rough seasons of life.

If we toss in the towel, fall apart and melt into a puddle with every hard stone that’s catapulted our way, not only will it be such a hectic life but an unruly one as well.

Naturally, we are not hewn from stone and will react to issue’s that concerns us, but we should bear in mind that life continues whether we are in a pool of misery or deliriously happy.

Choosing to be happy or okay is a conscious and consistent effort.

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Family · Gratitude · Personal

The Spirit Of Doubt…personal

April 13, 2016January 29, 2017 jacquelineobyikocha21 Comments

Waking up with the spirit of doubt trying to invade my mind is not my idea of a fun way to rise in the morning. This spirit of doubt was implanted by events outside my control, which affects a member of my loved and extended family *unfortunately, I can’t disclose nor breach their confidence, but nonetheless, this issue weighs heavily on my mind that I found myself entertaining seeds of fear and worry.

Fear and worry add no value, but rather, they take away from the person inflicted by the noisome presence.

They are like creeping plants that grow so fast and try to smother everything good along the way. I am still a fledgling Christian in the sense that I cannot lay claims of having it all sorted out spiritually, but I am so grateful that I have matured enough in the spirit to always remember that God gave me the spirit of love and of sound mind and not of fear.

It may sound juvenile to some, but please believe me, when I say that I deliberately started recounting the positive things of just the previous days and not only did I drown out the voice of fear and worry, but I experienced such upliftment inside me.

The Spring break is over and we are back to the hustling shift of rising early, school runs and what not. I am so grateful for my children and the beautiful time spent together.

My babies are growing up, enough to slap gooey peanut butter sandwiches together, to flip pancakes and make light breakfast for themselves so that their mother can get a little extra lounge time in bed.

For a beautiful, caring soul in my husband who showed me lots of surprising sweet spots through his concern and ministration to my needs these past few days and brought loads of laughter to my lips.

I am thankful for Grace. Grace not to wilt in the sight of pressure. Grace that has stood by my loved one in their trying times and lest I forget, I am thankful for earning my first 34 cents in this blogging space as well as the sustenance to keep at it and not to lose focus.

A lot of times, life brings temptation that seems quite burdensome, but if we keep our face up, the load will slide off our shoulders.

I hope that you are thankful for something today. You can join Colline’s or Maria Jansson gratitude challenge platforms.

Image credit: Pixabay