No beating around the Bush

Hello lovelies, it's been tons and tons of activities this past week that I totally got swamped. So, this post's a little bit of here, there and nowhere, alI at once. I'm that good, lol. We kick off with gratitude.

Life's not a bed of roses, we all know that. It however shouldn't take away from our humanity. Speaking about humanity, a certain someone- George, CEO Nitewaka- was humane enough to design my very own logo, I'm so thrilled *singsongvoice*.Talking about logos, noticed anything different? *grins* Yup, I've been doing some tinkering. So that's that for gratitude, moving on.

I came across this piece online and as with all things literature, I was tickled pink. Enjoy.


Beating around the Bush

Using idioms I find 
Could make you really ’blow your mind’
If you have ever ’rocked the boat’ 
Or got yourself ‘on someone’s goat’
You know that you could always be
‘Sent to distant Coventry’

If you’re ‘down on your knees’
‘Or out like a light’
If you ‘can’t see the wood for the trees’
You’re ‘on the wrong track’
‘Under the weather’
Remember that ‘life is a breeze’

When you’ve got ‘a hot tip’
Or you’re ‘on a good thing’
You’re at a loose end’, but ‘your chips are all down’
Are those ‘chips on your shoulder?’
Or ‘off the old block?’
You’re better off ‘playing the clown’.

With ‘your nose to the grindstone’
‘Your back to the wall’
‘Your head in the clouds’
‘Pulling strings’
“Life goes on’ it’s not over, not over at least
At least ‘til the fat lady sings’

Copyright Tim Hunter 2016.

P.S: I did mention that this post was all over right?

Photo Credit: Google

Sunday Special: Journal of a Missionary Wife 𐌠𐌠

Day 2

The village's awash with rumors of war, I don't even know what's happening but everyone is tense, even Geoff. I've been asked to stay within the walls of the village for the time being but I'm so sad. That would mean missing my daily walk. It begun out of need for solace but had become daily ritual. I don't know if I can take that, but I'll wait and watch.

Geoff had arrived with a stiffness to his shoulders which I had immediately recognised. It would seem things had not gone the way he had anticipated. 

Sometimes I wondered why he bothered. He cared too much and that was his weakness. Although, he always laughed it off whenever I pointed it out, he considered it as strength. I don't understand and I doubt I ever will.

Lord, help him, help us, help the village. Let there be no war. It would be terrible. 

Just the other day, Numi, the eldest woman in the village had recounted her dream. I shudder to remember it, it had seemed so vivid and now these?

Geoff is barely around, he's always in one meeting or the other with the village elders. I wish he wouldn't get so involved but then, I wish a lot of things.  Like starting a family.

Take charge Lord.

Photo Credit: Source

Frank Friday: A Selfish Decision

Hi there. So, it's Frank Friday and I'll be sharing a bit of myself. You know, the bit that's not so put together, the bit that I get to cover with a false sense of bravado on a daily basis, lol. We've all got those bits.

So here's what we'll do, I share, you share, we all share. And what are we sharing? Not PMS o, haha, I know it's scarce and all (a sad development) but we'll be sharing that part of us that's hidden from the world. Where we nurse our fears and uncertainties but please, nurse them no more for no good'll come off that. 

So, here's me opening the show, let's call it a launch of this Frank Friday Series shall we? ;)
***
When I announced my decision to resign from my job, many thought I had taken leave of my senses, that I had gone gaga, nuts, cray cray, cuckoo. Who ups and leaves a job when you haven't gotten a replacement *points finger at self*, that's who. 

But I held fast. Not for me, but for my progeny (more for me) lol. What will I tell them down the years when they find themselves in a similar situation? Oh wait, I'd say "my dear, I was once in your shoe but I did manage so, manage." No, I won't do that to them.

Manage, the common man's song.  That I was in a job that was detrimental to me and I couldn't quit for fear of what people might say or think? I wasn't happy on the job, I knew it and it was obvious. Yet I lingered. Why? Fear. It is indeed true that we are the ones holding ourselves back from greatness. Society has drummed it into our heads to manage, to make do with what we have and as Fela put it "suffering and smiling." I've come to loathe that word, manage.

Hear what someone has to say about this;

“Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness...Instead of removing the conditions that make people depressed modern society gives them antidepressant drugs. In effect antidepressants are a means of modifying an individual's internal state in such a way as to enable him to tolerate social conditions that he would otherwise find intolerable.” 

― Theodore J. Kaczynski

See? The society has conditioned us so much so that we tolerate the otherwise intolerable out of fear. What are we so afraid of I wonder? Personally, I sometimes feel that I limit myself way too much...

Too much so. 

And so, it was with a strong sense of resolve I woke up one day to say, enough's enough and believe you me, it had a liberating effect on me. It was like taking power back from whoever or whatever I had given it to. I felt alive and in charge. And that's just the first step of my self-empowerment.

Now, I didn't arrive at that decision without my fair share of doubt, worries, anxieties and double checking to be doubly sure that I was making the right decision. To be sure, it was a selfish decision, I believe I'm allowed to act selfishly every once in a while. And do I regret the decision???

Hell no!

So, enough's enough. Life's for the living, breathe...

Photo Credit: Google

Sunday Special: Journal of a Missionary Wife 𐌠

Day 1

I rolled out of bed this morning with thoughts of Geoff on my mind. I hadn't slept well the night before and I couldn't even if I had tried. No, not because of the mosquitoes. 

The oil lamp had gutted out sometime during the night I think. My thoughts turn again to Geoff, Lord where is he?

It had been five years, five blissful years that I had promised to go where he went. I had sworn that his God will be my God and his people, mine also. I wonder if I hadn't spoken in haste.

It's 2 am. I say a prayer for Geoff and determine to put my mind to good use. I had clothes to mend and the garden needed tending and I had that corn to mill, oh so much to do.

When Geoff had first told me about the call, I had laughed. Now, I wonder who's laughing. Lord take charge.

8:00 am

It's fully day and still no sign of him. I feel my stomach knot. I wonder what my dad would say seeing me neck deep in cow dung. He had firmly resisted our marriage citing social differences but I hadn't budged and now, here I am in the middle of nowhere. Living with people who love you as much as they hate you.

Everyday of wakefulness is a testimony which is why I'm so worried for Geoff.

2 pm

I keep looking up from the Millery hoping to see Geoff walking down hill, my ears sharpened to catch the first strains of his easy laughter. He was always laughing, my Geoff. That was what had first caught my heart.

Lord, should anything happen to him...

7pm

Oh praise God, the village chief brought back word from Geoff...All's well. Now, I can concentrate on my sewing and then rest.

Photo Credit: Source

Socioquette: Ps & Qs

Social niceties? Nah, not my thing. Tactical diplomacy? Uh uh, I'm bereft of that too. Small talk? Good heavens, no please, I'm fundamentally lacking in that aspect. So what social etiquette am I good at? Why, my Ps & Qs of course, the basics, the little courtesies, I don't joke with them and that's why it rubs me off the wrong way when people take them for granted -the little foxes that spoil the vine. In this instance, it's these often overlooked courtesies that kill would-be profitable relationships.

What would it hurt and who would it kill to say please and/or thank you? Nothing and no one. Most likely thing it may hurt might be your ego, just a wee bruise at that. Like seriously people, let's not overlook these little things.

Admittedly, I may not be so good at making small talk (some refer to it as 'polite conversation') hence some busybody some ones might leave with the impression that I'm stuck up. You see, that may be true cos my tongue actually gets stuck when it comes to social interactions -making small talk. It just refuses to untie itself from my mouth -even after meeting one baba who gave me some words to chew to aid in its loosening, to no avail, e no gree work- and you'd have noticed that if you weren't busy taking offence at my supposed 'coldness'.

Where have we missed it? Who, what, where is to blame. Society? Technology? Imperialism? (No, that's far fetched), something ought to be done and fast. A reorientation's highly needed and possibly, finishing schools like we had in the Victorian era be set up again.

Please, we shouldn't forget this little courtesies that were groomed into us as children in the name of I'm a boss, I'm a supervisor, I'm the president, no. It ought not be so, it reeks of bad manners, simple. So because the other person's a persona non grata, s/he's not deserving of the basics? Let's go back to the drawing board cos this has passed be careful.

Photo Credit: Google