Tag: Thankful

Family · Hope

Birthdays and Friday musings…

jacquelineobyikocha6 Comments
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

And Friday arrived even before I could turn the page of a book. The days are galloping by so fast nowadays, that sometimes I feel that if one doesn’t buckle down for the ride of speedy days they will practically find themselves flying and landing in 2023 all bushy-tailed and surprised. Each morning, I set a to-do list and by the end of the day I find myself falling short in completing certain things. However, I am also cutting myself some slack and unlearning the ingrained habit of beating myself up when I fall short of my own expectations. What I am trying to do now is to set realistic and practical goals or tasks and prioritize them so that they are achievable. Although sometimes I find myself running around chasing every other thing rather than settling down to doing those things that needs to be done.

Tomorrow is my first son’s birthday and when I look at the young man I am always taken aback at how much he has grown and has now become a full adult of one score, whilst a whole part of me – except for the creaky parts – feel as exuberant and as hopeful as I felt when I was his age. Truth be told, I think I have become quite jaded a bit from life’s experiences and a lot more reserved, though each day, I fight mentally, physically and spiritually not to let the bitter experiences and setbacks get the better of me. I have grown to realize that focusing my energy on things that are out of my control and things that have expired such as the past, is sheer and massive waste of time.

Now to my young man, I pray that life treats you kindly and well. I give God praise for the gift of a son like you and thank Him for His faithfulness and mercy over your life all these years. May you continue to flourish in God’s blessings. May His countenance continue to shine on you. You will find favour in the eyes of men. The earth shall yield its increase for you and so you shall not lack. It shall be in agreement with you to fulfil God’s purpose for your life. As you grow in age, may you also grow spiritually, emotionally, mentally and financially. The Lord will cause you to dwell in good health and everything you lay your hands on shall prosper. His protection shall be over you and He will give you the grace to grow in wisdom. Amen.

I thank God for all the good moments we have spent together, as mother and son. 

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Gratitude, Thanks, I'm grateful 21 Things
Gratitude · Musings

21 Things

jacquelineobyikocha9 Comments

A warm welcome to the new year. It is a great relief to step into a new calendar year albeit a continuation of the previous 365 days. It is amazing what the thought of a new year does to the mind. The elation and relief, the sense of new hope, new beginning, new expectations, new challenges…. the festive sense of new.

I look back at the truly difficult months of 2020 and my spirit knows the untold sense of joy and relief and the lessened burden of trepidation that hung over my mien all this time. I make concerted effort to shake it off and to keep forging ahead and the only way to do so is to stay thankful and grateful for the much that I have and for who I am. Gratitude is my new currency because gratitude is the seed of abundance.

I am deeply grateful for life and time

For my sound mind and body

I am thankful for my loved one’s

For wonderful and supportive friends

For a new dawn today, the beautiful sunrises and sunsets

For favour and not famine

For gratitude and no grumbling

For hope for a better tomorrow for humanity

For bigger dreams and new beginnings

For small achievements

For the beautiful buds and cool weather of this Winter season in UAE

For my awesome colleagues

For having a job that I enjoy

For unbridled laughter

For safety and security

For expanded horizons

For the opportunity to teach

For the ability to pause, refresh and restart

For music and the fresh song in my spirit

For beautiful, heart-tugging memories

For finding joy and contentment in small things

Gratitude · Guide To Better Living

These ‘Buts of Life.’

jacquelineobyikocha27 Comments

No, I didn’t mean to type ‘butts,’ just in case you are wondering. In the most sincere part of your heart, do you ever feel that there are times you are simply not grateful enough? Yes, you may be going through the motions of expressing gratitude and all that, yet some part of you seems to be begrudging because of some ‘buts.’

These silent ‘buts’ that we store in our hearts and hold them secretly as a yardstick to measure how much gratitude is worth expressing;No Ifs, No Buts, Happiness Looks Good On You, Gratitude

“But my dreams are yet to come true,”
“But I’m still broke and don’t know when my slim purse will have wads of cash in it.”
“But I’m fat (well that’s mostly your fault if I may say so).”
“But, if only I lived in a better house, drove a better car, have all that I want…
“But I’m doing all the right things yet nothing is going as right as it should.”

The line of buts can become endless if we keep searching. They might seem harmless, but the truth is that these ‘buts and ifs’ are a barrier to our happiness and success. They block us from simply letting go and losing ourselves in the joy of living itself because we are putting conditions on potential good actions in our lives. By our buts, we train our minds to accept virtual happiness and peace of mind only when certain conditions have been fulfilled.

All these ‘buts’ are crying out loud that we don’t have enough, that we are not happy, that we are not at peace and we will only be if…

To turn things around we have to relearn and reprogram our mindset. Count your buts one by one and contrast them with your blessings – even the most mundane of blessings.

Learning to give thanks with a grateful heart can be a tough lesson. There are days that I have truly struggled, but (well this is a good but) I’ve also learnt that by constantly keeping my affirmatives closer to heart, my number of buts are losing ground and it’s a practice worth keeping.

Gratitude, Thanks, I'm grateful

Gratitude · Lifestyle

This Joyful Morning…

jacquelineobyikocha11 Comments

Walking, Meditating, Thinking, Reconnecting, Praise The Lord, Rejuvenating, Nature, Walk, In Spirit, Thankful

I walk with the gentle wind touching my skin, its crispness a delightful contrast to the heated breeze of weeks past,

with my face turned to the sun that glitters off the face of the waters like a thousand stars, I stare at the simpleness, the glorious beauty of everything.

The birds chirp away, cars zoom past mere meters away along the highway, and they seem to be in a different time zone,

the man with his clinking bicycle rides past whistling in tandem to the music in his mind and a barefoot man hurries past me, earthing himself and getting feet tanned, I chuckle to myself, it’s all good.

Full breaths of the briny fishy sea air I take in, my soul is grateful.
my low medidative instrumental shuffles on, no words yet the chords reach deep inside and curl themselves around my bones; they are soul food for a torn spirit; it gives me healing.

Help me to be a vessel of your peace Lord. Though my humanness gets in the way most times and makes me a poor example of your peace, those moments that I have inhaled and held your peace, I can’t even begin to explain the exquisite state that it leaves my senses – filled with the vibes that everything is going to be alright and yes, to the heart that believes, everything will be alright.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

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After The Tremors…

jacquelineobyikocha9 Comments

Borrowing the words from Jim Reeves ‘We thank thee,’ indeed I am most thankful this morning for a newborn day.

Grateful, Every Day, A Gift, Life
I woke up to the news of tremors felt in the UAE following the powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake which shook the Iran-Iraq border late Sunday, killing at least 145 people.

Whilst in the lift, my neighbour was happy to regale details of how he felt the ground shake last night and I felt so glad that I, yours truly snoozed through the shake and turbulence, however, that left me pondering at the transient nature of life as I took my brisk early morning walk.

Each day, we take the gift of tomorrow for granted. We make plans for tomorrow with so much assuredness, our daily lives often lived in auto-drive and rat race. That tomorrow just fades into another day with lots of unfulfilled hopes and dreams, whilst we wait for the next tomorrow.

Many have lost their lives in this natural disaster; their hopes and dreams brought to a grinding halt. That’s the way it is…a time to live and a time to die, but as we live, we must endeavour to make the best of each day and appreciate the beauty of life that surrounds us as it is.

Every day, find three things to be grateful for.

Have a great week.

Jacqueline

Personal

I am not a superwoman – personal

jacquelineobyikocha21 Comments

Quotes, Being slow, Life, Stress, Speed, Thankful

I believe in being steadfast in everything that I do, but the past few weeks have challenged my usual enthusiasm that I find myself doing the barest minimum.

It’s been somewhat a bag of mixed blessings, thankful to get up and do the things that need to be done in an automated mode and being thoroughly bored in-between – why I don’t know.

I don’t know whether to blame it on the torrid and melting heat over here, on unresolved problems that tug the edge of my mind or on having to take care of my family members where everyone seems to be sniffling, running temperatures, a bug here and there including myself or is it a combination of all?

There are days like today when I feel totally inundated and I simply want to reach out and chuck everything out of the window, then press the stop sign on the clock just to let life pause while I catch my breath.

I work at taking deep breaths and exhaling through the mouth, repeating it a dozen times, each breath let out to let go of pent-up emotions, anguish, and stress. I recognize that part of my stress is the unrelenting drive to succeed and when it seems that I am slower, I feel guilty for being slow which is absolutely wrong. There are lessons to be learned from being slow.

As I write this post, I take a pencil to my to-do list. I whittle it down to 5 simple things, making a clean slate for today and going slow. It’s a beautiful, blazing hot day today and I am thankful for common sense and to recognize that I’m not a superwoman, that there are days that I’ll be slow.

Today, I will only do 5 things – one of which is this, now it’s only 4 things; cook for my household, read other blogs, format my book, write that freelance post for publishing… already it sounds plenty.

Jacqueline

Personal

2 Years! Time Sure Flies When You Are Having Fun…

jacquelineobyikocha35 Comments

Image result for images of thankful

Woah! It’s two years since I started my blogging journey. I was only reminded last night when WordPress sent me a note that my site’s subscription is due for renewal.

Hmm! I had no idea when I started this affair with blogging that I would fall deeply in love with it and stick to it with such tenacity.

I honestly can’t begin to say in specifics how much this affair has made me grow. When I started, I had no iota of an idea what I was getting into – I still remember saying to myself, if the water gets too hot in here, I’ll simply climb out of the tub.

I am enjoying the choppy waters of the blogosphere and I am grateful with all my heart that I answered this call. It infuses me with such satisfaction, most especially friends that I’ve made in this space.

It’s been a wonderful experience and I thank all of you who have been here with me. You are all raising me up to be better than I was yesterday and today.

I truly wish I could have face time with a lot of people that I’ve met here. We would hug like old friends, sit, laugh, share a cocktail and many stories.

I’ll be hosting my monthly blog party this weekend, join me and celebrate.

Jacqueline 

 

Gratitude

This Moment In My Time…personal

jacquelineobyikocha15 Comments

Cease to search for the broken and crooked turns that your life took but let your focus be on the pleasant lanes that you walked through. Jacqueline

Gratitude, Life lessons, Quotes

Having my birthday two days ago sent me on an interesting thought spin. When I was in my 20’s I had no vision of what my life would be in my 40’s because my mind couldn’t think beyond certain things. I daresay this is the case with most people because truly none of us knows what the next hour has to offer not to talk about tomorrow or 20 years down the line.

I remember back then I decided that by the time I was thirty I would have my PhD. and would be deeply entrenched in a diplomatic career that would allow me to be a mediator amongst people and Nations and to travel the World.

My diplomatic career dream started off by working from The Tunisian Embassy to the French Embassy and then The Delegation of the European Commission (EU). I was on a roll.

Fast forward to the present time, I smile as I recall that earnest young lady of my twenties, who had it all worked out in her mind. I forgot that life happens when we are busy making plans. Somewhere in that dream a husband and children featured but the depth of their role was never clear to me. They were simply going to come in somewhere at some point in time.

The fascinating diplomatic career was tossed aside for diplomatic cooking with the kitchen apron and children clinging to my legs and the traveling has been eye-opening opportunities that I had never anticipated – my travel case is always ready to go  🙂

The PhD. is yet to materialize but the desire is not lost, just deferred to the near future. The mediation happens every day though in smaller, tight circles of settling sibling squabbles and gladly dishing out words of advice and wisdom that I’ve acquired along the way.

I’ve played many roles and occupied all sorts of positions spanning over a decade going to two decades, but in all these divergent directions there has remained a pattern of being true to myself and embracing each opportunity with every bit of me.

At this juncture in my life, I am glad. I am grateful for a loving family. I have been blessed by total strangers whom providence brought to me. I am thankful for friends that I have found in unexpected places and still finding, on the path of my journey. I am thankful that though my path has been winding, I see the lines falling pleasantly in place.

Thank you for being present in my life.

Jacqueline

If you wish to participate in a gratitude challenge, 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 fulfillment that comes from having a heart of gratitude. Please check out Maria’s blog, Colline’s blog and Bernadette’s for thankful/gratitude challenges.