a cooking pot and twisted tales
Thoughts and Tales…A Lifestyle Blog with a Zing.
This week’s haiku prompt ‘Pleasure & Excite’ gave me several options and pleasure to write 🙂
Life offers opportunities that excite,
sometimes it’s pleasure and sometimes it’s pain,
we simply roll with it.
Her heart went ba-dah-bum,
his warm touch and engaging smile excite her,
loving him her secret pleasure.
Thoughts of the baby excite them
they think of names for their bundle
conceived in love and pleasure.
As I spent some early morning moments attempting to reach in deep into the reflection of my inner spirit to draw strength from there, I oscillated between moments of thankfulness and the selfish wants of human nature to ask and want for more.![hands[1]](https://acookingpotandtwistedtales.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/hands1.jpg)
I totally appreciate this Summer time spent with family doing things together without the harried mix of school runs and homework in the mix. I was even persuaded to rejoin Karate Dojo classes despite my debacle several years back and yes, yours truly is inching up to a yellow belt in no time (though I suspect that the Sensei (Trainer) is treating me nice 😉
The beautiful times spent discovering new things and many raucous moments of sibling squabbles and motherly scolds are all cherished, and surprisingly, my grey hairs didn’t multiply in anguish. We are a palette of individualities meshed together to form one loving and sometimes maddening unit and I can’t have it any other way. If truth be told, I hate to see the Summer season fly past in such a hurry – the good side is that the heat will come down a notch as well – all things being equal.
Underlying my state of thankfulness is certain discontent that I can’t disregard but it doesn’t diminish my gratitude for the blessings of these past days. I guess the Oliver Twistish part of me simply wants more of such goodness so I’ll strive to keep enjoying and living fully in the moments that I’m given.
I hope your heart is grateful for something today.
Shalom
P.S: There are several gratitude/thankful platforms in the blogosphere that you can tune into and get your ithankful going on. I can’t express in words the enormity of Joy and fulfilment that comes from having a heart of gratitude. Please check out Maria’s blog, Colline’s blog and Bernadette’s for thankful/gratitude challenges
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
“Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.” C.S. Lewis
“Love is strong in its passion; affection is powerful in its gentleness.” Jules Michelet
![Feeding_couple[1]](https://acookingpotandtwistedtales.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/feeding_couple1.jpg)
![Couple_1[1]](https://acookingpotandtwistedtales.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/couple_11.jpg)
Call me inquisitive or curious and you are probably right, but I can’t help loving to watch people. It’s called Social Engineering 😉
While waiting for the train, I sat for a quick coffee and sandwich and enjoyed the warmth exuding from the young couple and their gorgeous baby who were seated near me.
My nosy self couldn’t help engaging the Pakistani couple in a conversation. Seeing a man show his wife some tender affection is not a common sight over here and their quiet joy in each other was simply infectious and heartwarming.
The photos are deliberately blurred at their request. It was a privilege to be around them. I went away smiling 🙂
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.
Blogging can be likened to fishing.
You cast your line with a bait and hope.
Patiently you sit and wait, praying to catch a fry.
I’ll suggest you take some music and a flask of warm drink.
It will make the waiting period pass more pleasurably 🙂
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
Image credit: Pinterest
Recently, I had a chat with a friend and we spoke about passion. Since we had that chat, I have been mulling over bits and pieces of our conversation and chewing on the fat of things.
During our chat, she did not out-rightly deride my passion about writing and public speaking, but in her opinion, she thinks that it should be classified as a hobby, since I was not yet making pots of money from either.
In her eyes, I was not yet a serious writer because there is no World acclaimed bestseller title under my belt.
As far as she is concerned, I am writing just for the pleasure of writing. At this point I had my tongue in my cheek trying to rein myself in from saying the first thought that fleeted through my mind, which was @#$#$%$##%!
Calmly, I asked her how much pleasure she was deriving from her work?
If she was that ecstatic about it, why is it that she moans over her job every time we speak, wishing she had the funds to take a bold step away from the rat race bandwagon.
She had wished over a 1,000 times that she had the guts to pursue her desires to own an events management outfit, but like I had equally given myself the leeway of excuses in the past, she had a million reasons why she couldn’t get started in that direction.
I asked her what her plans were in the immediate, interim and long term, towards achieving her goal, but to my surprise, she had made absolutely no concrete plans in the realization of her dreams.
….And she calls me a dreamer!
Her hope is that tomorrow will come armed with all that she would require to achieve her dreams and build her castles in the passing wind.
I told her that ”Tomorrow will never come if we don’t get hold of today!”
I now cheekily told her that I am absolutely pleased with what I am doing at the moment and though I did not give her a detailed breakdown, I drew a sketchy idea of my writing prospects and aspirations which I believe will come to pass even if it delays.
In the meantime, I told her that I was willing to make certain sacrifices to achieve my dreams, since I had also learnt that some of the material expenses which we load on ourselves were absolutely unnecessary. We can live very well without some of these things for as long as is necessary.
I have heard tales and jokes of hungry artists/writers. I have heard about all the hard mental work endured for passion in return of peanuts.
…Then again, I have heard and have experienced first hand, the irrefutable, bone deep pleasure that a true writer derives from answering their call and I then realize the true meaning of the morbid African proverb which says that”we cannot because of the fear of death avoid going to war, if that war means that we get to live the life that we deserve.”
In some ways, she was right that I am not yet making anything out of my vision and dreams.
Now, it is time to write the vision, take the vision and run with it.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
The measurement of success varies from one individual to the other and for me, mine is measured by the amount of positive pleasure that is derived in the pursuit of my passion.
For a whole lot, their success may only be cached on how much money is lining their pockets and if that is the case, then that deep satisfaction and contentment that comes from the unquantified simple things of life will continue to remain elusive in the never-ending need to make an extra buck.
Even though it’s a fact that one must earn a living however, one’s success should not only be determined by the yardsticks of the greenback.
The past fortnight have been such bloggisatisfying time for me that I kept going to bed each night with a wide smile pasted on my face.
It first started with Ben Huberman sending me a very polite and surprising mail inviting me to participate in contributing a theme/prompt for the just concluded poetry class and believe me when I say that my heart expanded in extra warmth.
I had not planned to take the class initially, but I am so delighted that I did and yes, I feel proud to have had my prompt chosen and even if such an opportunity never arises again, this was a big bolster for me, so I am preening. Thank you.
Then Carlos a darling blogger sent me a surprise letter which brought tears to eyes and my heart expanded some more.
In no way did I know that those little words that I kept sharing with him had such meaningful impact enough to warrant taking the time to write me a special letter.
This totally reminds me of these quotes: “Encouragement is said to be the oxygen for the human spirit. Do not forget you are carrying someone’s air with you. Encourage them. Help them breathe” – anonymous.
”Make someone smile whenever you can. You never know how much of a difference you could be making in their life at that moment.”
It’s me Saraa topped my weeks sweetness with her own ration of surprise sprinkles and I continued to smile.
…And to complete my harvest of smiles, few weeks ago at the neighbourhood cafe, I met Lara, a lovely, smiley Filipino lady with whom I had a brief chat when I was busy scribbling and tapping away seriously on my laptop.
She struck a conversation asking me what I was working so intently on. I told her that it was my blog and she requested for the name, which I scribbled on a scrap of paper and gave to her.
Believe me when I say that I never thought that she would even bother. I just thought that she was being polite and that the scrap of paper would be lost even before the ink dried.
Well, I ran into her once again today and with smiles dotting her entire face she walked up to me and said Miss Jacqueline, I have been reading your blog.
You write and rhyme so well. I enjoy reading your blog in the evening. I am following you now and sent you an FB request.
I quickly checked my FB request status which has close to 200 or more requests yet to be answered *covering my face* and I accepted her request right there and then, but I simply felt like I had won some pretty penny.
We chit-chatted some more and I think I hummed back to my house or should I say tweeted back to my house in utter pleasure.
There you have it. I have seen a lot of magic and earned a lot of satisfaction this week. A good evening to you from Dubai.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
Life well-loved is a chosen treasure!
A singular shot to blissful existence!
Benefits we get with utmost pleasure!
He fortifies us with desired persistence!
♥
When his face is sought with fervent endeavour!
Huge burdens becomes less of a pressure!
For he adorns us with unquantified favour!
Which takes us up to a higher measure!
♥
God! Your peace is ever so soothing, your boundless love reassures!
Taking our misery to mirth, taking all our pain to gain!
Your faithfulness is forever as Your mercy endures!
♥
The best gifts of life are all given free in the bargain!
Don’t be poor in spirit! Please cast off those chains!
Hurry! Do, come and join His Train!
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
In fulfillment of Writing 201 – Poetry Day 10: Pleasure, Sonnet, Apostrophe
Treasure
Seek Wisdom like nuggets to treasure;
Embrace her with every pleasure;
For she will give good measure;
Under all forms of pressure.
Secret
If I should tell you my secret;
Would you chirp it like a cricket?
Dragging down my spirit;
Just for a meal ticket.
Home
To my heart, home is where you are;
Your warm embrace and distinct fragrance;
Pulls me in and gives me anchor;
From place to place;
Through seasons of time;
and the parade of many faces.
Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
In response to Writing 101 Assignment 3: Prompts come in many different forms. Sometimes, a single word is all you need to get your mind’s wheels turning. Here are six words: Treasure, Regret, Home, Love, Uncertainty, Secret
a cooking pot and twisted tales 