My Thinking Corner

Second Chances – My Thinking Corner

Second Chances, Experiences

We have an Igbo proverb that says ‘when you choose to carry a clay pot up the slippery slope and fall thrice if the pot does not break, your waist would break.”

Repeating the same mistakes not only brings us heartache and failure but makes Wisdom to question our common sense.

It’s commonly said that to err is human, but why do we make the same mistakes over and over again?

It does seem as though our brains don’t learn from our past mistakes to the extent we might hope, as a matter of fact, dwelling on our past mistakes might not be the best way forward.

Instead, be more proactive and think about the future and what you can achieve if you avoid pitfalls.

 

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

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Writers Quote Challenge

A Bit A Day…

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Tackling small tasks a bit a day

leads to greatness and it’s so okay

give your best in doing it well

at long last it’s results will tell.

This poetry is my contribution to Oneta’s quote for last Writers quote challenge prompt:

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble. Helen Keller

Interestingly, Helen Keller’s quote reminds me of a saying that my parents were fond of ‘anything worth doing is worth doing well.’  

This principle ‘to give it my best,’ has stuck with me in the little and the big things and especially now as I wisen up each day. I may fail in my attempt, but I am certainly going to keep doing it until I get it right.

I find that chores that used to bore or irritate me in the past have ceased to be so because of my approach and positive attitude towards them.

I’ve been training my mind to see the beauty and the positive sides of even the most mundane task and the interesting thing is that my views and perspective keeps expanding by the day.

Even the weekly task of cleaning the house that I do with the kiddos, we turn up the music and jive to the beats while dusting and polishing and the chore just breezes by 🙂

Positive energy can make a lot of difference.

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The Writer’s Quote Challenge is a weekly blogging event. Either make up your own sayings or use a quote from a famous author that you find gives you inspiration. Each Thursday, a hostess will post the prompt and all you have to do is participate.

Our hostesses are:

Bernadette at http://www.HaddonMusings.com

Jacqueline at http://www.Acookingpotandtwistedtales.com

Joan at http://www.familyparentingandbeyoned.wordpress.com

Oneta at http://www.onetahayes.com

Please join us. You can check this link for more information.

I look forward to seeing you.

Jacqueline

Inspiration - Motivation

Double Take…

Row, row, row your boat
gently down the stream,
merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
life is but a dream.

Humming this childhood nursery rhymes made me think beyond the words of the rhyme in a way that I had never thought of.

Life is certainly a dream and your dream is what you make of it.

When you wake up to life, life will surely wake up to you.

Staring at that boat – called life, with your hands in your pocket won’t get it across the seashore; you’ve got to start to row the boat of your life diligently.

Grab your oars.

Jacqueline

Mundane Monday

Bloom on the rocks – Mundane Monday

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.

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In my usual meandering, I came across this blooming plant sitting on top of the rocks and a thought crossed my mind.

We should see the rocks in our path as our stepping stones. That way, you can bloom where you are planted because love can grow even among the hard rocks.

A nondescript plant became a little lesson in nature and life.

Unfortunately, it was a bit steep to go up and since I’m not much of a rock climber, I admired it from below.

Jacqueline.

 

Featured Blogs

Featured Posts – Share your post links

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‘PLEASE KEEP SENDING IN THE LINKS.’ 

Today’s featured blogs posts are:

Do step in and show some love.

Walk on in faith Beautiful snippet of wisdom.

Love drops – Useful resource

Mack A post that’ll make you smile.

Burden- unburdened Poignant poem from Philip. Anyone who makes us feel like a burden is not worth our time.

Autism in our nest Inspiring post. Raising an autistic or any challenged child is a walk in grace.

‘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.

‘We create a cohesive community when we come together.

Writers Quote Challenge

Prompt – All New Writers’ Quote Challenge

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Here’s my weeks’ prompt for writers’ quote.

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Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations – Author unknown

When I want to clear my head, I either take a long walk or a long drive and just admire my surroundings. It gives me room to be by myself, to mull over things and to return with a clearer perspective. It’s actually an indulgence and a source of rejuvenation for me, just to go off and wander.

Most times, my wandering yields total satisfaction.  Issues that appeared so difficult earlier becomes less burdensome by the time I’ve taken them apart piece by piece and I am equally rewarded by the sights, sounds and total experience of being out and about.

I’ve literally stumbled on beautiful destinations while trying to navigate unknown routes during my walkabouts or should I say drive about.

Just on Saturday, I took off to somewhere and got lost, in trying to navigate my way back to the right route, I stumbled across this beautiful waterside with loads of lovely boats and yachts. I parked my car, took several photos, enjoyed the sights and was thankful I’d missed my way 🙂

I’ve equally experienced lots of beautiful results that are the culmination of things that appeared difficult at the onset and the lesson that I take from these experiences is not to be misled by a tough beginning because the situation can turn around and it would end with praise.

The Sojourn

I’ve walked many miles on these feet of mine,

my knapsack strapped on my back and

my hope held within my heart.

Many times, I have no idea where my steps would lead,

most times the terrain has been difficult to navigate.

Countless times I’ve stubbed my toes and fallen to the ground,

bled through my sole, blisters, corns and callous decorate my feet,

But, I can’t, I don’t and I won’t stop going,

for the rainbow in the horizon keeps beckoning and

the breathtaking beauty ahead makes the sojourn worthwhile.

Jacqueline

Bernadette at www.HaddonMusings.com

Jacqueline at www.Acookingpotandtwistedtales.com

Bernadette and I invite you to join in on our blogging event called The Writer’s Quote Challenge. We have decided to pick up the baton that Colleen and Ronovan have handed off.

We are continuing the same format and here that is: there are no rules to follow. Either make up your own sayings or use a quote from a famous author that you find gives you inspiration.

Each Thursday, we will post the prompt and all you have to do is participate!

On your own blog post do a pingback to this post and make sure to “like” pingback” on everyone else’s post. A pingback is when you embed (or copy) the URL of my weekly prompt into your own blog post.

Make sure to check our weekly prompt to see if your entry is there. You can copy URL of your blog post and include it in the comments section of my original weekly prompt if that works better for you.

Copy the badge above and include it in your own post. Tag your post on your own blog as “The Writer’s Quote Challenge,” so we can find the posts in the reader.

Featured Blogs

Featured Posts – Share your post links

1456149614808[1]

‘PLEASE KEEP SENDING IN THE LINKS.’ 

Today’s featured blogs posts are:

Do step in and show some love.

The stain of ingratitude A beautiful post to start off the day.

Motivation An uplifting and cheerful Christmas beat that will have you tapping your feet.

Can I get one more chance? Ah! Life hands you circumstances that make you wish that you would rewind the clock just for a second time around. Sad, poignant and enlightening.

Total Recall A must read for you, you and you. We all play this comparison game.

Why write with Nanowrimo? Why do you take part in Nanowrimo? I enjoy reading other people’s take on why they write and their approach. You always glean something.

‘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.

‘We create a cohesive community when we come together.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

The Sharp Drama’s of My Life – Streams of Consciousness Saturday

Sharp contrasting thoughts muddle my mind with sheer self-castigation as I look at the year dwindling to an end and find myself counting the things that I had mentally set out to achieve for myself but find that I fall far short of my own expectations. I started out the year on such a highly motivated note but I guess that I am suffering from battered emotions syndrome. Some are self-induced, while life brought it’s own baggage along. I am seized with the desire to do absolutely nothing almost to the point of it getting scary.

Sharing my thoughts might help to crank up my gears and pull me out of wallowing in shallow thoughts and sheer laziness. I have an attitude that believes in pulling myself out of depressive moods, but for reasons that I can’t put my fingers on, I simply wish to burrow down, dig the hole deeper and just roll in the muddy waters of woe-is-me.

Self-pity has never been my thing otherwise, I would never have survived some of the hard balls life had tossed my way. I find that despair and depression are twins and that most times it’s far easier to give in to the whiny pair than to get up and fight. I find that as a highly motivated, driven person that the bar I set for myself is usually high and that whenever I fall short of these expectations, I feel the burn.

I’m trying to step back and take all the necessary thoughts into account without clouding my mind with any unnecessary feel good feelings or numbing myself with so much work that I’m too tired to think. That is why I deliberately chose not to blog for some days.

Sometimes we have to go through the motions and not bury our emotions otherwise, they will simply fester and actually grow bigger. I’m not making excuses for falling off the wagon and failing to achieve the short goals that I set for myself, I am not making excuses for depression that hits me at times with visceral pain and trying to wave it away with a wand.

I will not try to shake off these Debbie Downer feelings and cut short my low moments because they will simply hibernate and possibly drag their sorry ass selves into my next year. No! I can’t have that.

I am sitting here in my raggedy PJ’s and floppy rabbit slippers, with a carving knife in the shape of a pen. I’m going to cut myself to pieces, bleed, cry into a box of tissues, eat chocolate, drink stale wine, eat chocolates again, watch a soppy MGM movie, cry some more again, cut myself some more until my nose gets bulbous and my eyes are swollen shut from crying tears that cause my shoulders to shake.

I’m not going to look pretty, but I can bet your bottom dollar that I am going to feel marvellous after all the shakeup. Then I’ll patch up the pieces that I shredded.

P.S. Please excuse me for not visiting for a while. My door is shut while I’m going through some drama. I’ll be back shortly.

Yours,

Jacqueline

SoCS – ‘sh’

My Thinking Corner

Tuesdays’ Trickles – My Thinking Corner

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This quote above is me talking to myself lately. I’ve embarked on different things and there are days that I wake up believing that I know what I am doing, but by the end of the day I just feel as though I am bumbling around mindlessly as though the hills that I have to climb are so high and the valleys cold and lonely.

On such days, I whisper a silent prayer of hope in my heart and holding on to my little seed of faith, I keep following the green light, knowing that all things work together for my own good.

In face of doubt, don’t relent. Take a deep breath and reevaluate. What is there to gain in turning away from your direction? What is there to gain in forging ahead? Much more. So, let’s keep on our course.

Bisi shares a short, inspiring and uplifting post with us. Please check it out and support her.

Thank you.

Mundane Monday

Lessons From The Stubborn One – Mundane Monday

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.

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Looking at this shrub that jutted proudly and stubbornly out of the half cemented, sandy patch brought a lot of thoughts to my mind in relation to human life and I’ll share a few:

My mother always says that “when the beat to the dance changes, you change your rhythm or you are out.”

When life gets uncomfortable one just doesn’t give up, but they look for other ways of turning the discomfort into a comfort zone. That’s the only way to survive, for surely harsh times will come, but might not endure.

When others are planting shallow roots, take the extra time to make yours several inches deeper, because a strong foundation withstands more turbulence.

Sometimes, when our circumstances change, we should take our eyes away from the immediate picture that doesn’t look too bright and focus on the strength within as well as the bigger picture ahead of us. Like is said back home “that food that is hot right now, will eventually cool down, for no condition is permanent.”

It’s amazing how a small, jutting proud piece of grass made me philosophical, but what is the alternative to standing one’s ground?

Giving up?

That’s not an option!

Have a great week.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha


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