#ThankfulThursday – People

Listening to my friend and colleague Vaso talk about people on his podcast this morning, I could totally relate. But I won’t ask like McReynolds to be delivered from people, but that I will be able to help people recognise their best selves daily as much as I can. Sometimes, it’s truly difficult to do that, but the power of the tongue doesn’t permit me to say some things my tongue desires to, cause I’m afraid I’ll just birth or bring into existence what I don’t want to see. 🙈

Well, the trick lately is to look at me and see, what part of me still needs working on, and I work it. So it seems my patience has been pulled in all directions lately, my mind attacked, my self-esteem tugged out…but the funny thing about my self-esteem is I had dealt with this one when I was a lot younger. So the attacks don’t reach there, they simply reinforce me!

How?
Since you asked, let me share…
So at an early age, I heard things like, “you are too chubby, too fat (for heaven’s sake I was a fat baby and fat babies are cute 😌, though heavy to carry and I didn’t like been carried while sitting, do the maths! LOL), your head is big, your …is big, your …is flat, are you Chinese – no disrespect, my people, but I heard a lot? Once, I took a tape and measured someone’s head and his was bigger than mine and yet he said I had a big head!
So whenever, someone mentioned my head, I told them that’s why I was wiser than them.😋
As for the big …, I see most of them now doing surgery to enlarge theirs…rolling my painted eyes at those memories. 👀

Well, people will always be people, but you have to determine the access you give them, the access into your space and mind to the point that they begin to matter or not.

When I wake in the morning, it’s refreshing to see people, even those who are outright annoying, at least they bring you back to reality that you are not yet a Spirit and there are still more for you to work on in this side of eternity. Beyond that, they form my daily interesting characters for #MyLagos Series.

Whatever you are thankful for today, be thankful for people!

@imanikel 041121 (c) Frances Kelvin Otung

#Writer’s Quote Wednesday on a Thursday

I love a Maya Angelou any day.

I’m sure I’ve seen this quote countless times but today I’m using it again to remind myself that I need to be careful how I say what I say on paper and otherwise, since people will always remember how I made them feel.

My intentions are not to make you feel good always, No! Sorry, if you expected that. As sometimes, you will need a wake-up call to change direction and that might hurt 😦

They are not to make you sad all through either, but to give you LIFE and you know Life is a mix of all things bright, beautiful, sad, lone and happy…the good, the bad and ugly like they say. Or LIFE according to the Bible, but whatever it is you choose, I want you to enjoy every remembrance you have of me that I met you and left you better.

That, Colleen, is the onerous work on every writer to give every reader something to stop and think about before taking the next step.

Picture Source: https://cdn.theculturetrip.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/angelou2.jpg

©2016. Frances Kelvin Otung. All rights reserved

Writer’s Quote Wednesday

#WritersQuoteWednesday

You will always know a peaceful person by what they seek after. Mother Teresa refocuses our attention on one another, away from self. The Bible says “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

If we love God the way it is commanded, then loving our neighbour will be easy (hopefully), because that neighbour is expected to obey the rule too (I’m praying they listen). But what happens when they don’t? Does it negate the truth that we have been commanded to love? Peace is an offshoot of the love in your heart. I couldn’t agree more with her…we belong to each other and the sooner we realise that, the better.

I yearn for world peace, but whilst waiting for there to be peace in the world, I will start where I am; and that is in my heart, then my home and the spread goes on and on. How about you?

And if you want to read more about Mother Teresa and what she represented, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa

Mother Teresa’s picture courtesy: http://www.worldmysteries.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Mother-Teresa.jpg

© 2015. Frances Kelvin Otung. All rights reserved.