All the spares…

May 28, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha13 Comments

The Daily post photo challenge is ‘spare’ and a number of spare thoughts and photos come to my mind.

Spare Change!

I went shopping at an old souk recently and the amiable shopkeeper of a gift store had a huge frame filled with currency from different parts of the World that he had been to over his 78 years of living.

While admiring his spare changes, I noticed the space with a missing currency and asked him about it, and surprisingly he knew the money that had been in there.

He said it was rare currency ‘Pa’anga’ from the less travelled country of Republic of Tonga, which is a Polynesian kingdom situated in the middle of the pacific.

He had no idea how the money disappeared from his framed collection and that set off all sorts of vibrant imaginative juices in my mind.

I must visit him again, ‘cos I have some conspiracy theories 🙂

My second spare is the kind fella I caught sometime last week feeding the birdies. He obviously had lot’s of spare food for them and the birds flocked gladly.

Feeding the flock.

My last spare is about interesting art.Beautiful art can be made from all sorts of stuff, even rubbish. This creative piece below is made out of spare tyres and was part of an art exhibition.

The creative mind is a wonderful thing 🙂

Spare tyre art

P.S. You can join our Summer blog party taking place right now. It’s fun and you get to meet fantastic folks. Looking forward to seeing you 🙂

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

Taking A Lick….Every day beautiful people # 29

April 27, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha6 Comments

‘Sitting next to you licking ice-cream and doing absolutely nothing, but people watching is absolutely divine and means everything.’ Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Her cute sandals colour matches her pistachio ice-cream 😉

Life · Poetry/Poems · The Daily Post

Life Is A Suitcase…

April 14, 2016April 14, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha11 Comments

Did you know that life’s a suitcase

In which we journey through this maze?

You put the things you feel you’ll need

As you trundle along at your own speed

Good portion of love

Inside your trove

Helpings of smiles

Will go a mile

Family and friends can come along

They are always there to keep us strong

A dash of life skills is worthwhile too

A pinch of resilience without much ado

Good thoughts, positive vibes are simply a must

With good faith and in God we trust

Sometimes some run out of space

They end up with a bursting suitcase

Sometimes we over anticipate

And end up paying for excess luggage

Though life may have it’s bumpy trails

But if we pack with some essential stuff

We would enjoy it as we set sweet sail

That my friend would be good enough.

Suitcase,The Daily Post Prompt

Echos Of My Neighbourhood · Lifestyle · Personal · Photographs

More Miracles, Picnic and Bowling…Echoes of my neighbourhood # 14

April 14, 2016April 14, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha21 Comments

On Thursday’s, I share pictures about ‘Echos of my Neighbourhood.

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

Every Thursday, share a photo of bits and pieces of wherever you are at any point in time. It could be a house, backgrounds of your neighbourhood, activities and so forth and you can tag it Echos of my Neighbourhood, add my link to your post so that I will get the ping from your post.

Every other Thursday, I will publish a post with the links of all those who participated the previous week.

This is just a fun way of getting to see more of the World around us through your eyes since we cannot all be at those places, we could, at least, see them through you.

Bringing you more photos of the Miracle garden. You can check last week’s link here just in case you missed it.

I managed to fit in a picnic/barbeque before the forbidding hot weather of the Middle East rears up its head in full force as well as a bowling outing (though I am not much of a bowler) to round up our Spring break.

Now that school is back in full swing, life is no longer running on a slow lane.

Last Week Echoes took us to different neighbourhoods, hop on let’s go see and we will be glad to see some of yours

Bangkok flower market: Lady Lee Manila gives us a peek of Bangkok market’s fresh flower power side.

Lower Manhattan Delightful photos from Manhattan. There’s something about that city that calls my name 😉

Mercury Colliding Who knew that Kat had such green thumbs *tongue in cheek* 😉

GM’s echoes Thank you, GM for joining in and sharing bits of your abode with us 🙂

Giggles and tales I love the skies and Stella shows us the gorgeous blues and vibrant sunsets as she journeys along 🙂

Thank you to all Echoes’ contributors. I am learning a whole lot from this challenge as well as having fun with it.

It would lovely to have you join us.

My regards.

Blog · Featured Blogs · Share A Link

Featured Posts # 30…Let me share your post links.

April 8, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha

‘PLEASE KEEP SENDING IN THE LINKS.’

Today’s featured blogs are:

Universe, Unicorn, Mountains Can these dry bones live again? A trip up the Unicorn mountain following this sweet flowing mythical read will tell you.

Pangeia You know how those stories come to you as you are between the state of sleep and wakefulness and it turns out to be such delightful reads? This is one of such tales.

Randoms from Gibson city Titbits of a travel in which you meet good people and some downright sour people.

Being Lydia When you read Lydia’s About page, you get that warm feeling as though she’s your favourite neighbour or that aunt who lives in the next town, whom you love visiting her for a lovely natter and a fresh batch of cookies 🙂

Ejected I seriously ponder how Mel manages to keep all these fine details and weave such intriguing plots.

Please visit their blogs and say hello. A few minutes may gain you a friendly support.

‘Do you want more eyes on your words?’

Well then, add your LINK INTO THIS LOOP.

P.S. 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.’

Photographs · Uncategorized

Bend It, Straighten It, Twist It…

March 22, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha29 Comments

I totally curbed my zeal in going photo bombing with today’s photo 101 theme ‘Architecture and Monochrome’ in a city that is an architectural delight.

Buildings sprout like mushroom in this place and each with it’s loveliness in intricacy or even simplicity.

The sprinkling weather of today, curbed my clicky fingers delight, so, I have a mix of new and old.

Some were tweaked in black and white for comparison and in as much as I like both, I think I will naturally gravitate to the bright colours like a happy butterfly 🙂

Blog · Inspiration - Motivation · Lifestyle · Midnight motivation and musings · Uncategorized

Midnight Motivations And Musings #15 …..

February 22, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha21 Comments

All the time spent worrying or nit-picking over issues that don’t add any value to our lives, but rather increases our headaches and gray hairs are unnecessary baggage that we should strive to let go of as much as possible.

Some have become experts in sweating the small stuff, in finding logs in other people’s eyes and generally nosey-poking into affairs that is none of their business, while they leave their own lives to flounder.

On the other hand, some are weighed down with so much that it seems as if the weight of the World is resting on their shoulders.

Isn’t it high time you started tossing away some of that ridiculous load that you are lugging around?

Isn’t it high time you started making your journey lighter and more peaceful?

Think on it. There are some excesses not worth taking along.

Devotions · Family · Gratitude · Hope · Inspiration - Motivation · Life · Love

Across The Seas…

November 25, 2015November 25, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha23 Comments

I am thankful for those celebrating Thanksgiving. I am still waiting for the invite from you, to come over to baste and eat the Turkey, since I am too far away to join the fun, I will simply drool over the photos.

For journey mercies, I thank you Lord. These are no longer days where men set off nonchalantly, undertaking far distance journeys without a thought given to the safety of the journey.

As I continue to be grateful for the simple things of life, today, I am most grateful for the safe return of my husband from trips across Continents.

Yesterday, close to 10p.m when he was boarding his flight after the usual security checks, he called to tell me that they would soon take off.

We had a little chat and in-between, he started talking about his life insurance scheme (I knew that he was saying that to me, just in case of eventuality, but I did not want to fill my heart and mind with any negative thoughts), I simply said to him, we will talk more about that when you get home and in my heart I silently uttered another word of prayer for mercy and grace to be their guide.

I refuse to let the spirit of present fear dictate the pace of my life because that will simply suck the joy juice out of it.

I choose instead for my mind to remain in the state of praise, thanksgiving and grace, since it is a gift that I can give myself and expend without fear of it finishing irrespective of whatever the situation of things might be.

Have a grateful heart today. I want to thank Colline and Maria Jansson for the gratitude challenge platforms that you both present.

Regards,

Blogging · Hope · Inspiration - Motivation · Life · Love · Weave that Dream

How Complete Do You Feel?…

November 17, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha29 Comments

As the days go by, I have truly realized that contentment and peace are not items that can be borrowed, purchased or stolen.

No amount of prosperity or material gains can put something in a soul that is derelict or lacking and no other human is responsible for my happiness but myself.

One can aim to attain the satisfaction of living a complete life from within themselves and not from without.

Personally, I don’t tie the state of my well-being to anything that lacks intrinsic value outside myself and God.

It is a continuous pursuit for me and I strive to achieve this state of being by:

Trying to understand myself and what truly makes me happy.
Staying in tune with my responsibility.
Seeking enabling ways to free my mind and de-stress.
Finding positive things to do.
Strengthening my health and finances.
Extending kindness to others.
Pursuing my passion and interests.
Maintaining good relationships.

Keeping my life simple and trying not to worry as much about things that are not within my power to change but doing my absolute best to change those that are within my line of sight and control.

With all these things on a balanced scale, I feel excited and alive, knowing that each day, I give life my best shot because tomorrow is not guaranteed anyone.

I cannot afford to extend the promise of living and feeling as complete as I can in expectation of events which are merely temporal and may never arise.

Traveling to see new places, buying the little niceties that I can afford to buy are just toppings on a life to be savoured.

In response to NaBloPoMo prompt Tuesday, November 17

What is one place you need to see to feel like your life is complete?

A link to my neighbours/Community · Blogging · Hope · Inspiration - Motivation · The Daily Post

This n’ That….its a variety

November 2, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha41 Comments

The word companionable is synonymous to gregarious and that is an adjective that would describe me fittingly, though I have my moody alone moments when I want to marinate in those horrible, leave me alone juices.

My spirits are perked up most of the time and as a companion to my gregarious personality, my taste runs to eclectic style in things, even with the blogs that I follow which are over Five Hundred in number and range from vibrant pictures, cute pets, sage counsels, wise quotes, health and wellness, security consciousness and so on.

They motivate and inspire me. They enlighten me by teaching new things. They take me places with the clicks of their cameras. They make me smile, laugh and cry and I am glad that I belong to these group of they.

A day spent going through this and that on my reader or email would find me dropping little likes and comments here and there. It finds me laughing, or with my brows furrowed in mindful thought. It finds me in awe or whispering a silent prayer in my heart for someone. I have close encounters with soothing sights and thoughts and belly rumbling bites teasing my eyes.

I truly don’t have a favorite, favorite blog, because I seek out what each blog as an entity has to offer and probably because my reading taste is also myriad, it is pretty difficult to narrow down on one choice. ”Never ask a mother to choose between her children.” Always know that with each day that passes, beautiful ones are born.”

It would be utterly boring if I had to stick to the same kind of blogs and all. A sprinkle of sparkles, a dash or colour blends better to make the muted grays more tolerable.

In response to The Daily Post prompt Companionable

Head to one of your favorite blogs. Write a companion piece to their penultimate post.