Rononvan's Weekly Haiku Challenge

Brutal – Ronovan writes weekly haiku challenge

 

Image result for images of cheetah and gazelle

Life in the jungle is brutal

The Cheetah pursued with power and grace

The gazelle raced for her life

Image result for American flag

The race is not to the fleet,

neither power, a free gift

but wisdom from above trumps them all.

******

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Ronovan writes weekly haiku challenge prompt ‘Power & Race.’ You can join us.

 Please, do visit my new site and say hello. Thank you🙂

Midnight motivation and musings

Midnight Motivations and Musings # 97

Happiness[1]

It’s been said a billion times and yes I will say it again, ‘life is too short to live miserably,’ and at the end of this living what exactly would you have achieved if misery has been your only destination?

There’s never going to be one Eureka moment when happiness runs up to you at a bus-stop and clings to your pants legs with eagerness to become your life tenant.

Neither is it something that someone else can hand over to you. The people around you may help in stimulating your state of happiness, but they don’t owe you the responsibility of making you happy and as a matter of fact, handing someone the reins to your happiness is a big mistake that you can’t afford to make.

It’s an active emotion that must be pursued daily and requires your contribution. The state of being happy is not a one-size fit all recipe, and each person has to find their own mental and emotional state of well-being which exists not because everything in their life is perfect but because they appreciate and enjoy their imperfect moments.

No one should sit and wait for happiness to happen to them because the state of happiness is not a destination you arrive at, but a continuous journey of the mind.

Blessed be.

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.

From the very first poem, “Dreams,” this book captivates with passionate and perceptive words. Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha captures a broad expanse of the human experience in this book of richly layered poems.

Out of the silent breath

 

Finance · Guest Posts · money

My Breakup Letter To Debt.. First Guest Post.

Yay! My very first guest post is from Pamela of ‘My money counts – money, modest living and enjoying life.’

I met Pamela in the blogosphere several months ago and I have totally enjoyed our interactions. Her posts are insightful, fact-filled and very hands on approach.

Her witty letter to Debt  is a personal relationship with being indebted and how she got out of it. I enjoyed reading it and I am sure that you will 🙂

Dear Debt,

It’s been a roller coaster ride with you, but it’s time we part ways. I don’t know how much more uncertainty I can take from you. You said you would always be there for me. I thought you had my back, but you lied to me.

There were so many secrets and lies you kept from me. How can a relationship grow that is built on lies? Like the time you said you had my back and convinced me to buy my living room furniture on credit. You told me we could afford it. You said we would be ok, so I listened. Or when you told me that you would take care of me once I was done school and encouraged me to spend the little I had and more without giving a second thought. But I am done school now and your words were just empty promises. Where is the help? Where were you when I needed you, debt?

Why am I even surprised? You were never satisfied with what I could give you. You always wanted more and more from me. The more I got for you the more you wanted. I felt like I could never do enough for you. Like the time I got us the big screen T.V and game system, but that wasn’t enough for you. You wanted the new laptop and cell phone too.

Was it ever enough for you? Did I ever make you happy? You used to make me happy. I used to get so excited to see you. We had some of the greatest times together you and I. Like the time we went on the road trip together or bought all those cool things together. You used to whisper sweet nothings in my ear. You had me wrapped around your finger. Then the trips, gifts and promises stopped coming. Then you stopped coming around. Now when I look at you, I can’t trust you anymore. You deceived me…so I am moving on.

I will just come right out and say it, I met someone else. His name is cash and he is so good to me. He never lies to me or deceives me. He always has my back and is satisfied with what I can give him. We are building new memories and going on our own adventures together cash and I.

I want to say, thank you, though because if it wasn’t for you, I would never know how great a healthy relationship could be. Cash is the love of my life and I have you to thank for it.

So long and have a good life. Please change your ways so you don’t mess up the next girl’s life. Oh and don’t forget to lose my number.

Your Ex,

Pamela

Image credit: Pixabay.com

An excerpt about Pamela in her words. She can be contacted through this link: MY MONEY COUNTS.

Hi I’m Pamela. I am 30 years old African Canadian personal finance blogger that likes to help other millennials eliminate their debts. My professional and educational background is in accounting / finance, but I was not always good with my own money. After some life lessons learned, my husband and I embarked in a journey to pay off $120k of debt in 2.5 years. We now live debt free and our building our wealth. This letter is a comical relief on my experience with debt.

If you are interested in guest posts, you can contact me through my contact page on my blog or through this email address: JacquelineObyIkocha@gmail.com

Blogging · Family · Writing · writing ideas

What’s your Expertise?..

Though the Business Dictionary defines an Expert as: The basis of credibility of a person who is perceived to be knowledgeable in an area or topic due to his or her study, training, or experience in the subject matter, the word expert connotes more meaning for me.

In my layman’s opinion, an expert is that person who is able to teach me something that I need to know and he/she knows it better than I do.1448343636737[1]

In my place, there is a proverb that says that “what one does not know is bigger than that person”  which highlights the truism that knowledge is indeed power.

My young children seem to be more abreast with the electrical gadgets in the house than their mother and they are always amused when I have to call one of them to ask for help in fixing or putting on the new-fangled plasma screen TV etc, in return they get called praise names by me, like ”my Bobo genius, Mummy’s Champion” or any name that pops into my head and you can see their glow in proving valuable, so in such little instances, they are my experts.

During my growing up years, I believed that my dad was a genius and an expert.

He tinkered and fixed just about everything that got broken in his spare time, even those of our neighbours.

It occurred so often that it became the norm to see an honorary auntie or uncle come calling with a broken iron or kettle or car issues and you would hear them right from the entrance of our house saying ‘‘Jay, Jay Martins (that was my dad’s alias among his friends) biko/please can you help me look at this thing? I wonder what is wrong with it?”

He would collect it, fiddle around and in a lot of instances, he got it sorted. This was done freely.

It was just a hobby and not his job. He was not a trained engineer. He studied and worked as a crop scientist, yet his interest in knowing how things worked not only made my mum and his friends happy, but it put a lot of joy and smiles on his face.

Personally, I do not view expertise in the literal sense of the word of just being knowledgeable in a field of study, but the appropriate application of that knowledge to achieve required results.

Prowess in a particular field of knowledge may not be a subject of interest or a need to know information for me and therefore at that point in time, it is almost irrelevant.

On several occasions, I have asked other bloggers how they were able to do something that I found admirable and as I go on, I keep my eyes and heart open so that I may glean off the expertise of others while still working on developing the muscles of mine.

What areas of your life would you consider that you have sufficient prowess to be deemed an expert? Have you ever given it a thought?

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

NaBloPoMo Prompt – Who is an expert you admire and why?

Wednesday, November 25

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