Lend Me Your Ears…

March 30, 2016April 24, 2017 jacquelineobyikocha21 Comments

Lend me your listening ears O’ people of mine,

That I may whisper the ancient words,

That I fed your forefathers,

So that you may be a Voice.

You are the land of a great people,

The land of the rising and the setting sun.

A land that overflows,

With the goodness that I have given.

Do not dance naked to the beat of a drum,

That goes thrumming in the dark of the night;

Lest you dance the dance of the dead.

Do not chase the fly senselessly,

Lest you enter the grave with it.

Do not join the madman in the market,

To nod at his music,

Hence, you know not who beats his drum for him.

Do not listen to the ramblings of depraved men,

When you cannot decipher their wisdom or mental health.

Shall you forget the directions your forebears gave you;

In pursuance of the Golden Fleece that only misleads?

Your truths and values, you’ve thrown to the winds.

Scattered like a flock of birds,

Pursued by the booming sound of wealth.

Caution, I implore, lest you cut the cord;

Thus, you shall reap only seeds of discord.

You grasp with greed, You grapple with misdeeds,

Robbing yourselves blind of all that is right.

Lend me your ears O’ people of mine.

That you may hear my Voice,

As I whisper to you in the blowing wind.

Image credit: Pixabay

This Is Who I Am….Streams of consciousness Saturday.

March 5, 2016March 5, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha40 Comments

This is what it is and I have come to accept that. When I was younger, it was a bit difficult to really describe who I was or am and what I am all about.

I can get quite wrapped up in my books and in make-believe Worlds that open up for me in the pages and I find beautiful contentment from that.

Being around lots of people gives me pleasure and I would be the life of the party. Mingling, laughing, dancing and all the merry-making, yet in the background of all this, is some still brook that runs deep inside me. A reserved person looking from the outside.

This different personalities that inhabited one soul, confused me a bit in the younger years of still trying to find myself. I thought that I had to fit into a mold.

That I had to be x or y, black or white, this or that. That I had to be either an extrovert or introvert and every other label that people put out there to pen everyone else.

My mother would say that I was the most quiet child she has when we were growing up, with an acute sense of responsibility, yet at the same time, she would equally say that I am one person that would arrive and would be welcomed as many. ‘When she comes in, we say you people are welcome.’ A one woman riot squad.

In the early days, I never quite understood these things and struggled to fit into one caption or the other.

Now, I am older and wiser, I embrace the me who is a bundle of eclectic this and that and I have ceased with the defining.

I accept and love the me who rages like a wild-fire yet burns in peaceful flames.

The cool sophisticated lady with the blend of a gypsy, wild child.

I admire the me who loves colours in splashes of vivid brightness and the calmness of cool pastels. Who has a myriad taste, yet particular. A me who reads like an open book, yet with curling smokes of mystery.

This is me who loves noise and quiet, who embraces life with zest and calmness. A bundle of contradicting this and that.

No more definitions!

Today’s SOC’s prompt asking us to write about this and that had me looking around for a few minutes then I realized that I am an epitome of lots of this and that.

Inspiration - Motivation · Life · Midnight motivation and musings

Midnight Motivations and Musings… 25

March 4, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha28 Comments

We over plan for tomorrow, yet today has been left with so many gaps unfilled.

How do you guarantee that you have tomorrow at hand?

Did you use your today to the best of it’s ability? Note that I said, ‘it’s ability, not your ability.’

Remember that each day that passes is forever lost to us.

Therefore, in all that you do; work, play, rest, love, care, share and the rest of things humans do, do it to the best of your ability and the full capacity of your day.

Our lives are only worth what we make of it and it’s not the length of one’s days that really matter, but the depth of how they lived.

Photographs · Travel · Uncategorized

From Here To There….Echoes Of My Neighbourhood.

March 3, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha53 Comments

On Thursday’s, I share pictures 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 love the pretty night lights of my evening walk.

Viewing traffic from an overhead walk way.

Catching up on the gist at the train station

From the pictures above, last few days found me perambulating quite a bit. These were taken in the course of last week.

From attending the food festival and sugar craft show, to going to Bastakiya, the coffee museum and imbibing in coffee so potent that it could knock off your socks and you will float in the air with the buoyancy that it delivered.

I learnt a lot about coffee and took hundreds of photos.

It was thick heavy brew, served in small cups. I couldn’t finish mine because, it seriously gave me bright eyes and I think my hair stood on ends from the buzz that I got.

A bit bushy-tailed if I may say so.

Last Week Echoes harvested quite new awesome peeks of different neighbourhoods, so board the flight with me and let’s go have a look see.

Bookyglover Deb shows us some of the rustic parts of my Lagos.

Hell’s kitchen and beyond from Roaming Urban gypsy have you been to Hell’s kitchen?

Fun photos what’s your thought? Would you drive this?

Giggles & Tales more lovely photos from Stella in Stockholm.

Mercury Colliding Kat shows us some part of her neighbourhood that most of us don’t like to visit.

Thoughts and Entanglements These pictures are so haunting they belong in a book

What’s up doc Cute! Took me back to my growing up years.

Looking back A blessed lineage from Mandi

Paula’s I must tell you that I am so envious of Paula’s community 😉

Are we enjoying these views yet? Take a peek at them.

So, when will you add some of yours? Pretty please with a cherry on top 😉

Regards,

P.S. I hope I didn’t miss out anyone’s link? I have that funny feeling.

Lifestyle · Memes · Midnight motivation and musings · Uncategorized

Midnight Motivations and Musings 21…

February 29, 2016February 29, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha10 Comments

Procrastination and evasion deprives us of so much and over time, when we weigh the time wasted debating on whether or not we should take a step, it accumulates to a tidy part of a lifetime.

Procrastination leaves us with so many, what if’s, had I known and should have’s which can be avoided, when we conscientiously take daily steps in living more purposeful and intentional lives.

We not super-human and are bound to falter now and again, but when our focus is targeted and meticulous, a falter will not send us completely off track.

In tying in evasiveness and forgiveness or kindness, some are far willing to cut the entire slack for themselves and granting every excuse under the Sun as lee-ways to dilly-dally, while they use an iron fist of expectation on others.

To lead, or impact on others, you must, yourself be an example worth emulating.

My YouTube Channel · Poetry/Poems · VLogs

Be Free…VLOG

February 28, 2016February 28, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha41 Comments

BE FREE

May I live
Unafraid to breathe
Free from a choke-hold
That becomes a stronghold
May I live
Unafraid to live
Clinging to my expectations
With feral desperation

May I share space
Unafraid of being encased
Free from condemnation of race
That becomes a strong base
Purple, White, Olive, Black and every hue within
May I share space
Knowing that we are first a human race
…And all blood are red in this place.

May I speak of belief
Unafraid and in relief
Free from contentious eyes of disbelief
That becomes thresholds of grief
May I wear my mask of belief
Understanding that to achieve
Peace would be a welcome reprieve
…Which we must seek to retrieve.

May I love you
Unafraid to be bound to you
Free from censors of broken whispers
That becomes harbingers of cold shivers
May I love freely my love
Unafraid to expose my naked bust
Knowing that in you lies my trust
Encased in the warm embrace of your love.

Blog · Family · Memes · Musings · Personal · Uncategorized

Bliss…

February 27, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha39 Comments

Bliss is waking up late on a beautiful Saturday morning, lounging in bed, cocooned beside the warm body of your loved one and talking about everything and nothing.

Bliss is eating a robust, nutritious home-made breakfast, smiling about nothing and everything, and generally feeling happy.

That’s my bliss. So, what’s your bliss 😉 ?

Challenges · Personal · The Great Book Of Lists

These Musical Chords That Tug My Heartstrings…

February 25, 2016February 29, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha36 Comments

La Duchesse seems to know all the good buttons to press to get my heart overflowing with good memories.

I grew up on the staple of a plethora of music from a father who adored music.

Our mornings started with music for as long as my dad was alive. Played on the Grundig turntable and then on to Bangs & Olufsen sound system.

I suspected my dad wanted to be a musical maestro and he had a gentle deep baritone.

I love music and barely discriminate except when they are offensive and filled with cuss words.

I love the oldies and the trending ones as well. Most days, I join my children in singing the new songs, especially as we drive around town and I teach them some old ones. We love turning on the radio and just having a go at it.

However, deep in my heart there are those beats that are ‘my forever’ rousing strings of chords. I shall choose 10 out of the string beats of my memories and 6 from recent ones.

They are those beats that I grew up listening to over and over as I grew up in my parents home. Their sounds always transports me right back to the butter yellow house with the red roof. The house of my childhood.

We thank thee from Jim Reeves
The Archies. Sugar, sugar
Handel’s Messiah
Kenny Roger’s Through the years
Miriam Makeba
Nat King Cole
Bob Marley
Michael Jackson
Dolly Parton
The Beatles

I rock these ones below with my children:

Dido – Life for rent
Adele – Hello
Nico Vinz – I am wrong
Afrojack – Ten feet tall
Dimtri Vegas & Like Mike – Take me to a higher place
Mark Ronson – Uptown Funk

Blog · Echos Of My Neighbourhood · Photographs · Travel

Souk Madinat, the Mosque and Others..Echoes Of My Neighbourhood.

February 25, 2016June 7, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha25 Comments

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

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

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.

Last Week Echoes harvested quite new awesome peeks of different neighbourhoods, so board the flight with me and let’s go have a look see 🙂

What a good catch from dollops of heedful ramblings.

More of Copenhagen from Giggles and tales.

Dogs of our lives from Mandibelle

Fabulous shots from Jazzytower

This photos from Kat Myrman took me back to my former neighbourhood in Cypress – Houston. Sniff sniff

Harlem on my mind from Roaming urban gypsy.

I bet I saw a pirate in this shot from Writing in North Norfolk

Such cute sights from Never A Dull Bling, makes you wear a smile.

Fantastic Moosey shots from Honestme363.

Are we enjoying these views yet?

So, add a of yours? Pretty please with a cherry on top 😉

Regards,

Blogging · Gratitude · Inspiration - Motivation

A Little Seed Sown…

February 24, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha45 Comments

It all starts with a little seed, that you plant, diligently tender and leave in the hands of the Lord of bounty to reward your efforts.

Last week, I applied for WordAds to be added to my blog since I am interested in earning a stipend for the hours that I am plugging away on this blog.

The initial feedback was a bit disconcerting for me. Basically, the response boiled down to the advice that I should go and wait and that they will get back to me if they find my stats satisfactory.

Given that my blog is a premium blog, for ads to be put in, you must have to meet a certain measure of traffic, which I presume is the general rule.

To cut a long story short, I went to sleep not to glad and I remember in my sleep, asking God to please not let my labour be in vain and reminding him of his words that a labourer is worthy of his wages.

To my delight, yesterday, I got a notification that my blog has been approved for WordAds and saw the ads placed on it.

It’s a gratifying moment for me and I am deeply thankful for this opportunity.

‘It will all end in praise.’

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