Smile, It’s Christmas!

(Photo Credit: Flickr)

Life could be a jumbled mess, even at Christmas but smile, be happy because great things are afoot. That is if you believe it.

Last year Christmas, I was in the hospital. It was like a prison because for the first time in my life; I wasn’t with my family at Christmas. Two months before my admission, I’d had surgery, and for whatever reasons, my body reacted badly to the anaesthesia, and my right knee, ankle and hips bore the full brunt of the invasion. My knee was angry, red, bloated and painful. It was as if it had a life of its own, so morphine, tramadol, and cocodamol became my best pal.

I’d been on the waiting list for over a year now to rectify the anomaly in my joints, but our dear old NHS is also going through a tangled mess of its own, so I have to wait it out, in pain. A few days ago, my joints seemed to have had enough, and I had to seek medical help. It’s especially angrier at winter, so it’s like a vicious circle. So why am I writing this? In spite of my health challenges, I love celebrating Christmas because it’s about Jesus Christ, not Santa or the frenzy buying of gifts. There’s nothing bad in gifts, I’ve bought mine and it’s all wrapped up but it’s more than that. I believe Jesus is the son of God, and Christmas is a time to continue to spread the love of Christ and joy in our world. Although I must confess that as a Christian, it saddens me to see Santa glorified to gargantuan proportion, but hey, that’s life.

Life’s a mess sometimes, and I am using this article to reach out to anyone who’s faced or is still facing disease, disappointments, breakdowns of relationships at Christmas and this holiday season. Live strong, and it would pass. People will always piss you off, your expectations may fall short, and the gaiety of this season may appear fake, but life is truly rich and beautiful. We should always have hope irrespective of our circumstances, that things will always get better. If you’re a Christian, that hope is in Jesus Christ, If you’re of another faith, have this hope that things will get better by channelling your energies to positive things, do good to others and believe great things will come your way.

Smile with confidence, like the boy in the picture because things will work out in ways you’d never imagined.

Merry Christmas my friends, wherever you are in the world and have a fantastic New Year!

2019 is merely days away! Wow!!

On Humanity And Idiosyncrasies

Dec4

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(My ideal place to be now!)

“Man surprised me most about humanity. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money.
Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.” Dalai Lama

If we continually observe the world, it’s really filled with sad news, war, war, and war! Yet in the midst of the seemingly absurd, grotesque, insane, and obscene, we have to carry on living.

My husband and I were having one of our ‘philosophical chats’ when he quoted Dalai Lama, it hit me like a sledgehammer; am I working too hard?

However, after a brief soul-searching I came to this verdict: I love life, I really enjoy living even when I’m working hard and juggling multiple responsibilities with kids screaming for my attention, countless office deadlines and uncooperative plots ( my novels and several other manuscripts I’m working on).

I am absolutely certain that I enjoy my idiosyncratic attitude to living because life has no part two, there are no dress rehearsals or a delete button. We take what we have, use it wisely and hope for the best, and I think we ought to strive to find joy in life in any way we can.

December is a month of frenzy cum feverish spending, planning, office parties. Why not pause for a while, enjoy the snow-capped mountains, (if there’s one in your vicinity), the fake reindeer, and annoying Christmas jingles that normally grated on your nerves.

I intend to, I hope you’ll all enjoy everyday living.

Have a fantastic weekend friends!

Much love, always. 🙂

The Double C

Dec17

This picture calms me down, I’ve stared at it for days, it’s so beautiful!

(Photo Credit: Flickr)

This year would be the first Christmas without my dad. Apparently, it’s been eight months since his passing and I should have gotten used to it now but it hurt most when I know I can’t hear his voice. We were quite close and as this year is slowly rolling to an end, I wished I could hear him call my name softly; just one more time! *sigh*

I miss you dad!

However, acknowledging my grief was a good thing, and it has helped me on the road to recovery. Some days, it was unbearable, other days I limped through it. Then last week, while I was doing the dishes and listening to a song called ‘hallelujah,’ I was overwhelmed and burst into tears but my spirit then envisioned my dad at peace and with Jesus, immediately, my tears stopped and I felt better than I had in months. I still miss him, and it still hurt, but I have that confidence that he’s at peace.

I hope I’m not dampening your Christmas spirit, if I am, just stop reading, 🙂 but there’s a miracle in blogging to friends whatever situation you’re in. A trouble shared is a trouble solved, I think I’ve read that somewhere. 🙂

Now with that off my chest, I saw this picture about two days ago and I absolutely love it. Christ is real, and He’s the reason for Christmas, that’s why I titled this post the double C, ‘Christ for Christmas.’ I don’t think political correctness should still be at play in this beautiful season, and if it is, that’s a shame.

I love this picture

I wish everyone a beautiful and Merry Christmas, to all my Christian friends, I pray the Joy and hope Jesus gives would be yours forever, to my non-Christian friends, I wish you a peaceful and happy holidays.

Much love, always! 🙂

Full Kisses… A Christmas Story!

Dec24

(Photo credit: Yarik Mishin)

I read this story today and it filled my heart with a warm glow… I’ve been shown love and I’ve loved too, but reading this story made me realise that love surpasses material wealth. Please read quickly and go back to your family. I wish you all the love and joy in the world! Merry Christmas my friends!!

Much love, always. 🙂

******

The Gold Wrapping Paper.

Once upon a time, there was a man who worked very hard just to keep food on the table for his family. This particular year a few days before Christmas, he punished his little five-year-old daughter after learning that she had used up the family’s only roll of expensive gold wrapping paper.
As money was tight, he became even more upset when on Christmas Eve he saw that the child had used all the expensive gold paper to decorate one shoebox she had put under the Christmas tree. He also was concerned about where she had gotten money to buy what was in the shoebox.
Nevertheless, the next morning the little girl, filled with excitement,    brought the gift box to her father and said, “This is for you, Daddy!”
As he opened the box, the father was embarrassed by his  earlier overreaction, now regretting how he had punished her.
But when he opened the shoebox, he found it was empty and again his anger flared. “Don’t you know, young lady,” he said      harshly, “when you give someone a present, there’s supposed to be something inside the package!”
The little girl looked up at him with sad tears rolling from her eyes and whispered: “Daddy, it’s not empty. I blew kisses into it until it was all full.”
The father was crushed. He fell on his knees and put his arms around his precious little girl. He begged her to forgive him for      his unnecessary anger.
An accident took the life of the child only a short time later. It is told that the father kept this little gold box by his bed for all the years of his life. Whenever he was discouraged or faced difficult problems, he would open the box, take out an imaginary kiss, and remember the love of this beautiful child who had put it there.
In a very real sense, each of us has been given an invisible golden box filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children,      family, friends and God.

There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.

A Grateful Heart!

Dec19

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”The unthankful heart… discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!” — Henry Ward Beecher

In light of Beecher’s quote, I want to appreciate everyone who helped make my new book a huge success. It’s still an on-going process but the success of a great book rest not only on the written word but the advert preceding the release and after.

I want to specially appreciate Alastair Forbes – http://Kattermoran.com, he was and still a huge source of inspiration to me. Prior to the release of Cydonia: Rise of the fallen, he blogged about it incessantly, he’d also written a review on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. I also want to thank Celestine of ‘Readingpleasure’ who promised to write a post about it and buy a copy from Amazon. Also Ken of WriteOutLoud, you’re a darling. Pamela Beckford of http://pamela984.wordpress.com is still reading as we speak. Ste J is still waiting for the PDF copy, I’ll send it soon I swear! 🙂 To Uzoma, a poet and a great writer, thanks for reading. To several others who requested a copy, I’ll send it soon I promise! 🙂

To many others, I appreciate you, I am grateful for your friendship and kindness. You don’t even have to buy my book or review it. The mere fact that I could write something and people visit my website is enough to spur me on. As of now, my publisher is speaking to a few producers on Film rights on Cydonia… I know it’s still early days yet but I think the book is going to be massive.

agp-sd-c-cover-3dfile

I still need all the advert and PR I can get. The Press release would be out soon, the eBook version would be released within days so is the book trailer but in the main time, if you’re interested in reading a massive 644 pages of thriller to your heart’s content, here’s the link on Amazon US:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_14?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=cydonia%20rise%20of%20the%20fallen&sprefix=Cydonia%3A+rise+%2Caps%2C537&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Acydonia%20rise%20of%20the%20fallen and

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cydonia-Rise-fallen-Seyi-David/dp/0957593031

Well, like a friend would say ( I won’t mention his name… ;)… Enough said… 🙂

How’s everyone preparing for Christmas? On my end, I haven’t done any shopping. Moving home and releasing a new book seemed to have sent me off track but I’ll retrace my steps and do a few shopping now. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and if you’re not a Christian, have a happy holiday…

Just got my internet sorted out so I’ll start visiting more blogs now… Take care of yourselves guys and don’t get into trouble! 🙂

Much love, always! 🙂

Unending Hope…

Dec13

(Photo Credit: JT Kunley)

In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.

Abraham Lincoln

I love this wonderful quote by Abraham Lincoln. It’s not because the guy set a historical ball rolling in the US nor because of his stand on slavery, I love the quote because it simply means that we should LIVE and not merely let the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks or years roll by.

We should live by positively changing the story of others around us – smiling at strangers, giving when we should, not later, helping the elderly, giving to the poor etc.

You may ask, what about me? Why do I have to give all the time?

It’s simple… When you give, you’re enriched! You’re blessed.

Christmas shouldn’t be celebrated with relatives we hate nor endured with a plastic smile pasted on our face. It should be a time of unending love, thanksgiving, not the frenzy buying of gifts that were not needed or wasting money on food that would find its resting place in the bin. I hope this season would fill us with love, joy and laughter.

I pray for nothing more…

And when we live with love and joy, our remaining days would be filled with unending hope.

I had wanted to write another post entirely because my new book Cydonia would be formally available for sale on Monday but I just find my fingers typing this and I hope I’ve been able to touch a soul. Live and live well, our times on this earth are incredibly short. It would be a tragedy to waste it on malice, anger, hatred and all those stupid dross that weight us down.

I guess I better stop now before I start preaching! 🙂

Friends, I need all the ‘ Shout-outs’ I could get for my impending book release on 16th Dec 2013 (just a mere three days away!!) If you would like me to write a short piece for your blog or a feature post with the book cover and details, please let me know and I’ll rustle something up! Thanks guys. 🙂

I hope you’ll all have a fabulous weekend wherever you are in the world!

NP: My home internet is still awaiting the expert touch of an engineer, Sky (my broadband provider) promised to send an engineer on Tuesday. I can’t blog when I’m in the office because my editor is constantly breathing down my neck! I’ve started visiting some blogs and I’m certain I’ll start fully next week! Please do bear with me. 🙂

Much love, always!

🙂

Is It Too Late?

Nov4

(Photo credit: Flickr)

It’s too late to apologise, it’s too late!’ sings a man on the radio and this thought struck me deep and I wonder if sometimes, having a perfect relationship is as elusive as trying to grasp air.

Are some sins unforgivable? Or aptly put, are some relationships beyond repairs?

Take Lillian for example, she gave her twin sons up for adoption, lived a life stoned twenty-four hours a day, then miraculously, her life changed positively. She met and married a nice gentleman who loved and adored her.

But there was a problem, Lillian didn’t tell her new husband about her past, her twin sons were conveniently forgotten. But like a sour thumb, some secrets can’t stay hidden forever. Twenty years later, the twins are grown up, knew they were adopted and wanted answers.

By now, she had other kids, and by the time the truth came out, her husband of twenty years was appalled his wife could forget to mention that she had kids! The sons weren’t that forgiving either, they wanted answers.

This kind of story happens every day, and you may say – there are worse things out there and I agree, but is it too late for Lillian? If you were in her shoes, what would you do? If you were in her son’s shoes, what would be your reaction? And if your were Lillian’s husband, would just pack your bags and leave?

These questions are not easy to answer, but I would love to know what you guys think!

On a lighter note, I wished I’d seen the eclipse of the sun yesterday, it’s one in a lifetime event, but I didn’t, so life goes on I guess! And Nanowrimo is live, but I’m afraid I would not be doing that this year, got too much on my plate as it is.

I received the edited version of my upcoming thriller today and boy, was I thrilled? It was great! I can’t wait to hold the book in my hands…

Hope you’ll read it too when it’s out guys! Counting on you!! 😉

I’m afraid I can only blog once a week now until Christmas, but I’ve been visiting blogs as often as I could, if I’ve not visited yours for a while, please bear with me, I’ll definitely pop in soon! 🙂

I’m moving house soon and coupled with my book and other office related deadlines, I’ve got my hands full. I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas (my kids are already making their lists! 😦 ) Can you believe that?

Anyway, enough rambling! I hope you’re all okay, and I wish you’ll all have a wonderful week, wherever you are in the world!

Much love, always! 🙂

A Love Is Born And Peace Is Given

Dec24

Sorrow (Photo credit: Christolakis)

The angels sing and heralds a glorious cheer

Mourning flees and Hope is rekindle

Gloom was replaced by shouts of Joy

Weeping fled, it was replaced with glee

Sorrows flee to the distant sea as the clouds roar in praise

The sea rise to the songs of glorious beings arrayed in attires of

splendour.

Trumpets sounds and we rushed to cheer!

Merry Christmas I say to my friends and strangers in the street.

I love you all, says I, daughter of

Peace…

********

I wish you my friends, a peaceful and joyous Christmas and to everyone who gave me awards, I appreciate you all from the bottom of my heart! Enjoy this season and give your souls reasons to cheer. Allow no place for sorrow or regret. Enjoy Today, December 24 2012 (here in the UK) is not coming again.

I love you friends:)

Tales Of Five Lies And Stepping Into Greatness!

Dec20

I want to give you my readers, few nuggets to chew on my book, aptly titled, ”Tales Of Five Lies.” And for the record, nobody can predict the end of the world, so why not enjoy yourselves, tuck into your turkey and march into your glorious future!

Excerpts;

It was a dark and lonely place. Time dragged on excruciatingly slow and I was contemplating going back to my comfortable bed when I saw a man darting behind a tree. All my senses came alive and I watched with apprehension, my hand on the gun my dad gave me before he died. I always take it with me as a safety measure.

I stood still watching every movement the man made, I noticed he glanced round briefly, apparently satisfied he was alone then he whistled. Two men emerged from the shadows dragging a bulging bag between them. My mind went wild with all kinds of theory, what could they be burying at that time of the night and how on earth did my best friend got a whiff of their plans? Something was not right, I could feel it deep within my bones.

They got a secluded spot and began digging…

******

Stepping Into Greatness!

That’s it dear friends, hope you’ll put a big smile on my face this Christmas by letting me know what you think of my book, I value your opinions Greatly. 2013 would be a glorious year, just step into your greatness because if you believe it, you would certainly have it! Happy holidays and a Merry christmas! Remember, Life Is What You Make Of It

Merry Xmas Everyone!