Blog · Humor - Bellyful of laughter

Your Patience Please…

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Please bear with me if I’ve been tardy in responding to your comments or even visiting your site. This girl’s life has been on the fast track for several weeks now and with children back in school – the demands grew a bit more.

I’ll do my best to respond to your comments and to come visit asap.

Thank you, remain blessed and eat some cake 😉

Jacqueline

Writer's Quote Wednesday

Your Strength – Writers Quote Wednesday Writing Challenge.

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You never know much strength you have, until you have put yourself to the task.  Jacqueline

Your strength lies often in your brain
and not just in the brawn,
your strength lies often in your wisdom
and not just in the intellect,
your strength lies often in your diligence
and not just in an attempt,
your strength lies in your tolerance
and never in bigotry;
your strength lies with others
and never just on your own.

I would describe myself as a self-driven and purpose minded person, but sometimes I fall short of my own expectations and possibly the expectation of others as well.

However, I’ve learnt with time that when I partner with others, like my family, colleagues, and friends like you, I achieve far more than I even imagined.

Starting my blog was delayed for years because I felt that I didn’t have enough of what it takes to maintain a blog, but here I am today, plugging away everyday without looking back.

Now I don’t even have enough time in the day to attend to my writing needs due to all other responsibilities that have my name written on them. Nevertheless, I take a moment at a time and apply my best and continue the act of balancing the rest.

I enjoy the prompts for WQWWC. They give me the opportunity to reflect and possibly make my own quote around the topic at hand. You can always join in.

Jacqueline

Strength – WQWWC

P.S. Our monthly Meet and Greet/Blog Party comes up this weekend Sat 27th/Sun 28th August. Hope to see you there.


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My Thinking Corner

Tuesdays Trickles – My Thinking Corner.

Every Tuesday, I share snippets of thoughts that I call ‘My Thinking Corner.’

I would like to invite you to participate. The challenge is quite simple. You can check this link for more details.

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♦ You have to believe in yourself and your talent. You must believe that small fact with your entire being.

♦ That little faith that you have in yourself is not just a catalyst for change but keeps you going even when doubt begins to set in.

Lovely nuggets of integrity come in from Lady Cee and words of wisdom from Deb Glover. You need to check these out.

I hope these words add some value.

Regards,

Jacqueline


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Writer's Quote Wednesday

The Miracle Lies In Your Eyes…

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The gift of life itself is a miracle, and I see this phenomenon every day. Jacqueline

If you’ve not seen a miracle, then take a second long look in your mirror, for you are staring at one. The expectation that miracles must happen in a spectacular manner creates a vacuum in appreciating the miracle of each day that we receive. Each day that the Sun rises and we open our eyes to the splendour of the Earth is an absolute miracle.

Thoughts of miracles remind me of a what my mother always said, that “May Thy Kingdom come is not only when the Lord Almighty steps his feet down from heaven for us to see, for the kingdom lies in the soul,” and she would say this to punctuate a blessing received.

This equally applies to miracles. For the fact that something is quantifiable, explainable and understandable doesn’t make it less a miracle. Each day that dawns without effort from you and I is a miracle. The majestic beauty of the Earth is a miracle. Conception is a miracle. Watching my young ones grow each day is a miracle. Hearing that bird sing and watching it fly is a miracle, watching the flowers bloom and many uncountable examples out there are natures splendour and nature is a miracle.

Let our eyes not become too jaded

Nor our minds too cynical

that we fail to see

and fail to comprehend

that the beauty of life

lies in our perception

and appreciation 

of all the miracles 

that nature has placed in our path.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

We received the prompting word Miracle  for this weeks’ Writers Quote Wednesday Writing Challenge. WQWWC is a challenge that I enjoy participating in and you might find it interesting as well.


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Support Me.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

What are we doing? Stream of consciousness Saturday.

Concentrated emotions tend to erupt one way or the other when the proper channels of expressing and addressing these issues are not being explored and the end results are not always pretty.SoCS badge 2015

A lot of social issues that we are currently battling are the build-up of so much hurting and unresolved issues that society has been sweeping under its huge carpet that it keeps mounting until there’s hardly any more space to squeeze in more rubbish and with the aid of our new improved social mediums to stir the hornet’s nest,  ‘Kaboom’ the combustion is let loose and we are left bewildered, hurt and in pain.

We truly can’t continue the way we are going. Holding in oppressive feelings, ignoring and suppressing them, violence or hiding heads in the sand has never resolved any problems; channels of dialoguing should be opened up to deal with concentrated issues of the past and present.

I remember when I was reading stories about Auschwitz gas chamber, the concentration camps and watching escape from Sobibor, I couldn’t stop crying for days. It was a hard read!
I just couldn’t fathom that amount of deep-seated wickedness and concentrated effort to annihilate others just because they don’t fit into a certain category of someone’s description. People were profiled and marked out for destruction.

If we look into history, the depth of man’s inhumanity to fellow man in these concentration camps, on slave ships, plantations, and so on, is despicable and you would think that we learn, however, the sad news is that we simply haven’t learnt from history or maybe some choose to ignore history and write their own.

It seems that we haven’t learnt that racial profiling only builds hurt and harm. We forget so quickly and if things are not properly handled they will certainly spiral off the hook.

I’m very much attuned to what happens around me and the society at large, so in as much as I may not be in the vicinity of an incident, history has also shown that a war can be triggered in one place and its effects ricochets everywhere and for several weeks these disheartening news have pierced my skin and derailed my concentration on my writing.

I sincerely hope that people begin to think clearly and understand better and that we get a grip of these turmoils sooner than later.

I believe that the indomitable spirit of humanity to hunger for greater good and peace will prevail.

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.

Stars, Five Stars, Logo, Icon, Symbol, Five, Rating

Wonderful, evocative poetry by a talented writer. Left me hungry for more. Jacqueline can write! Linda Bethea

Out of the silent breath

If you enjoy my works and would like to do so, you can fuel my creativity with a slice of cake or coffee😉

Life · Three quote challenge

My recent thoughts…

Cybernetic blonde invited me for the quote challenge and my mind drifted to African proverbs.  Thank you, Brenda 🙂1465108007692[1]

From time immemorial, proverbs have been used by elders in my place to punctuate and convey important messages during a conversation.

When I was younger and my parents or grandparents spoke in proverbs, idioms, and all the wise words, I barely understood, but as I age, I find them worth ruminating over especially when I find myself in a quandary of thoughts.

“Even the best cooking pot will not produce food when no fire is lit underneath.”

“When building a house and the nail breaks, do you stop building or do you change the nail?”

“If you run after two Hares, you will catch neither.”

These three proverbs above reflect the thoughts that have been going through my mind of late. So let me briefly explain them.

The first is an advice to myself that even though I have all the storyline of my second book known to me until I sit down and flesh it out as I should, those ideas won’t miraculously turn into a book.

The second one has to do with some mind distractions that I’ve been having of late. So many loose ends of things to tie up and I’m using them as an excuse to digress from doing what needs to be done. It’s time to drop that tack and get serious.

Lastly, I remind myself to taper off unnecessary things and concentrate. Running after too many things at once will all make me harried and at the end of the day, nothing would have been achieved.

So, back to tapering off, tacking with the right nails and cooking up those stories.

Do you fancy a whirl at quotes? Indulge 🙂

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

 

Lifestyle · My Thinking Corner

Tuesdays Trickles….My Thinking Corner // 16.

Every Tuesday, I share snippets of thoughts that I call ‘My Thinking Corner.’

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

Each Tuesday, share your very short snippets of positive, inspiring, motivating, health, spiritual, writing advice, clips, posts etc, that can serve as a prop to motivate others and simply add my link to your post.

I call it my thinking corner because, I actually take out a bit of time just to think through things, encapsulate my thoughts as much as possible and detoxify my mind. It helps give me clarity of vision and might help you too.

It might work for you in a different way, but the idea is to get the positive thoughts flowing.

Please send in your little thoughts. You never know whose life you might inspire.

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  • To have a gift without putting it to work is as good as having none.
  • Between your trying and your triumph, you have the ‘umph’ waiting to be heard.
  • Opportunity is a flippant bird that flies off too fast, but temptation can be an albatross leaning on your doorbell with all its might, thus you must be quick to hold on to opportunity and slow in opening your door to temptation.
  • Your enemy can’t lure you to commit evil that you didn’t sign up for in your mind.
  • Your journey here on earth is to enrich it with your essence. How are you doing in your assignment?

I enjoyed the thoughts sent in by some rich thinkers. Look in and see. You might be inspired to share your thoughts.

Today’s Nuggets Stella’s snippets are full of enriching advice. ‘There’s always a way.’ All you’ve got to do is to look for it.

Tuesdays Thoughts Dupe’s short snippet is not only deep but calls for you to take an inner look at yourself. What do you see?

Tuesdays Trickles Do you still have your common sense with you, or has it gone with the wind?

Never Surrender Are you failing forward, or sitting in the dump?

Positive Choices Annettes’ post gives me serious pause to thought. WHAT are your choices? In her words and I quote below:

I need to share with you the fact that I am going through some trials right now. I have turned things over to the God of my understanding. This is new to me the FAITH thing. Never really thought about prayer or something bigger than myself.

‘May our reflections serve us well and bring about transformation that transcends beyond us and our peripheries.’

Thank you to all thinking contributors.

Jacqueline

P.S. Please let me know if your link is missing. There are some contributors that I can’t find their pingbacks. I think it’s better to always pingback to the most recent post of Thinking Corner.

 

The Daily Post

Handwritten Smiles…

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Handwritten.”

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If I say that I think through my fingers would that sound senseless? I hope that doesn’t make me an oddball because I am doubtful if I can change this pattern of putting my thoughts on paper every day. I love acquiring note pads and the loss of one feels as if I have lost a friend, because I must have propagated some of the pages with little parts of my grey matter.

I write everyday, before I transcribe on my laptop. Different colored pencils and pens fill a little pouch which I call my assistant, because the different colors that I use depends on what I am writing about. Silly concept right 🙂 Oh well! That works for me.

As a matter of fact, I was writing a thought that I am fermenting in my mind as a poem. It is not complete but I guess it will have to do for now, since you asked. So here goes:

I have come to know that LOVE is when you take away all the lovely, flowery packaging of romance and lustful passion that surrounds the person that you are with and you find out that you still care for them.

That when the door of happiness closes in our face, another door will open for us if we allow ourselves to take our glance away from longing for the one that got shut. Often times, when we are busy staring at the shut door, we fail to see the open window.

Love will surely come to those who still hope and have the courage to build trust again even though they have been disappointed in the past.

I hope you find the someone that will make you smile.

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha