Decisions and the Ripple Effects

Photo by Simon Matzinger on Pexels.com. A nice, snowy, magical road!

When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.
Paulo Coelho

I want to touch briefly on decisions but before I do that, it’s December folks! Yay! I can’t believe it’s already December ( honestly, I’m grateful 2020 is rolling away!)

We’ve all been living in the backdrop of the pandemic, and while many lives have changed dramatically, we’ve all been affected by the events of this year, one way or another. It’s been sobering, sad, inspirational, boring, and the list go on. The human cost has been huge, my prayers go to anyone that has been affected by the faceless virus.

On the bright side, we now have a vaccine! (different vaccines, by the way). But like everything in life, many people are pro-vaccine, some are not. (I will be taking the vaccine when it’s available). On my side, I have been very busy as usual but I am determined to update my website as often as possible, starting now.

Photo by Louis on Pexels.com. I love the picture of this dude. He’s probably contemplating how to spend the rest of 2020 Covid free! 🙂

Something happened to me recently, it’s just a mundane thing but it got me thinking. It’s true that we may not be able to determine our race, family, or the colour of our eyes, however, there are some decisions we make that will ultimately change the trajectory of our lives.

A couple of weeks ago, I was on my way to a very important meeting. Before I left home, I decided to check the backdoor again, there was nothing bad in being extra careful but that last-minute decision ultimately changed my day. I was still able to go for my meeting but I was very late, and I hate giving a bad impression but there you go. Some decisions have deeper consequences and could be life-changing, and that is the reason we need to tread carefully and weigh our options before committing to a project or an idea.

We should weigh our decisions carefully. Life has no rewind timer. Our decisions shows the type of person we are and the content of our character. The late Adolf Hitler had friends and followers and they murdered millions of people, and he started by convincing people to follow him.

They made the call. They made the decision. Aptly put, think before you act. Your life may depend on it.

Does anyone have any decisions they made that changed their lives? I would like to know in the comments below.

I hope everyone will continue to stay safe.

Much love to you! Always!! 🙂 🙂

The Human Story

Jan17

(Firemen tackling the Australian bush fires)

The scene was total and absolute destruction. It’s more like a disaster movie. A BBC reporter claimed on the news today that the acres of land burnt in Australia is akin to fifteen million football pitches. Throughout the Christmas and New Year celebrations, I watched with growing apprehension as Australia burns with such ferocity, it was like the end of the world. And in other parts of the world such as Indonesia, Kenya, and a large swathe of Africa, people were losing their lives in natural disasters such as flooding, landslides, etc.

Thankfully, it has started to rain in Australia, but we’re not out of the woods yet. The worrying climate event around the world forms part of our human story.

Climate change is a reality. Temperatures are rising as large sheets of ice in the Arctic continues to melt. And yet, some governments around the world were paying lip service to improve pollution. We are literally killing our home, planet earth. All our bickering, superiority, and worries pale into insignificance if we lose our home. We lose everything.

When I compared the drama surrounding the semi-retirement of Prince Harry and his wife, Megan, from active royal duties, to the heartbreaking news of our climate, it was a welcome distraction. Don’t get me wrong; I think the press has unfairly vilified Megan, but she is also human as we all are, but the challenge that is facing us all dwarfs any drama playing out in the Royal family. Or the Middle East, for that matter.

Speaking of the Middle East, I was on my way home in a cab earlier this week when the driver suddenly retorted.

”Solemaini is alive, everything is a conspiracy, President Trump is colluding with the Iranians to increase the price of oil!”

”Well, we can’t be sure,” I muttered nonplussed, and I didn’t know how to react. Then he continued,

‘The world is a stage; there are men in power who control everything that happens in the world.”

”You’re right, but what about climate change?”

”I don’t know about that,” he replied.

His response got me thinking. The average person may have an opinion about every topic and incidents around the world, but Global warming is still not that important. Sir David Attenborough hammered home another warning today, and we need to act now. I genuinely hope our human story will not end in tears because we live in such a beautiful world!

I’ll touch on other matters now. It’s a bit surreal that while I was busy running around, working, attending hospital appointments, I haven’t updated my website for months, although I feel guilty life’s been, well life. This is my first article in a long while, and I’m sorry if I’m ranting.

I am currently working on a short film, a documentary called ‘Chasing Humans,’ for one of my Master’s degree modules. The film touched on core topics around safety in London. I wrote and directed it, and I’ll keep updating on the progress of the film.

I have missed many awesome articles from my WordPress family. I will visit every one in a couple of weeks after meeting some of my deadlines.

It’s so good to be back. I hope 2020 would be an excellent year for us all.

Much love, always! 🙂

Body of Clay – What Do You Stand For?

Mar23

Paragon Of Beauty. Can You See Beyond Those Deep Lines Of Experience?

( Photo credit: Flickr)

It’s sometimes funny the way we hold on to things, and I mean material things as if we are going to live forever. It’s an open secret that someday, we will call it a day on this part of heaven. We may try to change the subject or try to push it to the deep recess of our minds but our times here in this part of heaven is limited.

That’s just the basic truth.

The woman in the picture is beautiful, but she is aging, and afterward, she would become one with the earth. Studying her face, she seems to know who she is, and she also appears to be living a good life.

What about you? What do you stand for? What are your beliefs? Are you an ‘I’ person or a ‘We’ kind of person? (I want you to ponder on that and give me an answer in the comment section below).

I love taking good care of my body, and since finding out several of my physical limitations, it has not ceased to amaze me how fragile we are. I am now indulging myself in things that are really important and soul-satisfying.

I love smelling flowers, my house is littered with pots of flowers. I appreciate water, I watch mesmerised as it flows through my fingers. I love the sun, the ability to walk, run, and play is just beautiful. I appreciate that now.

Since our time is short, isn’t it foolhardy to fight or keep malice? War is a gory affair. Humanity has pillaged and wasted blood throughout the millennia. I watched the news with slight irritation as grown men are throwing insults at one another. They are actually playing with war, and it’s not pretty.

I urge you all to enjoy every minute of your time, even if we all live till hundred, one day, time will be up.

So let’s stand for all that is good, excellent, and kind.

Have a great weekend all!

Much love, always.:)

The Bystanders

Jan27

(Photo credit: Flickr)

Today marked the 7oth year of the liberation of that notorious death trap in Poland, Auschwitz. It’s a solemn day for the 300 hundred survivors who attended. Roman Kent, who gave a very moving speech where he implored people not to become bystanders, those words stood out for me. The word struck a chord in my heart, and I realise that by and large, we could be guilty of being a bystander.

We can do more to make the world a better place, but rather, we sometimes turn our eyes away, thinking, ‘it’s not my problem, I’ve got enough of my own.’ True, we all have one baggage or the other tied to our tired gait, but if every human on this planet (minus ISIS, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram and all those crazed lunatics prancing about killing innocent people in the name of their blood sucking god, they relish in murders anyway), decides to stamp out evil, malice, hatred and our differences, we would be living in a crime-free world indeed.

I don’t want to be a bystander, I really don’t. If we all feel like that, maybe, there would be a chance that the world would prevent another near annihilation of innocent people.

For this post not to be an irony, I have to state categorically that Auschwitz is practically repeating itself all over the world. Killings of civilians continue unabated while the world looks on unperturbed. If I were to be the president of the world, I would abolish all weapons of mass destruction. However, since I am not, and would never be, I think I would be able to abolish hatred on my street.

Spreading a little love around need not bring any ills to the giver, and while I go to work daily afraid of a bomb going off by a crazed Jihadist, I still have hope that one day, all that ails the world would soon be forgotten.

I know we can’t choose where we come from but we can choose where we go from there.

I remain your loyal friend. 🙂

NP: I have missed several posts from some of you, please bear with me friends. This new adventure I’d recently embarked upon (writing two novels at once) makes me search for time, but I would find it and visit your lovely sites soon!

Much love, always! 🙂

Living In The Moment…

Nov5

(Photo credit: Flickr)

The most important thing is to enjoy your life – to be happy – it’s all that matters. Audrey Hepburn

I agree with Audrey on this and I hope everyone is having the time of their lives. Time certainly flies with incredible speed, I can’t believe that it’s almost five weeks since my last post, I’ve been neck-deep in series of projects which is going on fine but I miss everyone dearly. I’ve often squeezed time out to visit some of your blogs, but I find it extremely hard to write my posts. My work load has lessened considerably, I’ve dealt with most of the deadlines, and finally, I can breathe amidst the chaos that was my office.

A lot has happened, I celebrated my birthday on Oct 14th, it was a blast, and the rest of the month flew past. I hope everyone is okay? I’ll be visiting all your blogs often as time permits. I would also be updating this site often now, I miss you guys! 🙂

Now, on living in the moment, on October 29, 1941, Winston Churchill visited Harrow’s school graduation in London and said these immortal words,

”Never give in–never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

I know someone would find this quote helpful, it certainly made me realise that to live my life well, in the moment, I just have to believe and press on towards my goal. I want this to be a short post, so I’ll cut it down now! 🙂

I hope you’ve all had a great week so far, I wish you all joy, peace, and protection! Stay safe friends and don’t get into trouble.

Much love, always. 🙂

In The Beginning… There Was Nothing…

May28

That was how it was.

The Beginning of time. Time is predominately the controller of our destiny, but then, I believe that in life, time would not have meaning without proper documentation. Therein lies the work of a writer. I’d always told all who cared to listen that I would die a writer, and I mean it. If I become the Prime Minister today, I won’t feel fulfilled if I stopped writing. It’s like the air I breathe. Almost all my friends knew of the recent event in my life, and that really crippled me somewhat because I sort of lost that desire to write… I simply lost interest but now, I’m back and it’s as if I’ve never taken a hiatus, I guess I simply needed to rest.

With that out of the way. I’ve been graciously invited by Sherri Matthews of www.sherrimatthewsblog.com to join in a blog hop, she splashed my shy face on her blog a few weeks ago and today, she’s my muse! 🙂

Here’s the lovely Sherri!

Isn’t she gorgeous?

Sherri has worked in both the legal and medical fields but her defining and most fulfilling career was that of full-time mum for many years to her three, now grown children. Widowed young, remarried twice more, Sherri has faced many challenges, both in her home country of England and in California, where she lived and raised her family for almost 20 years.

The call of the pen beckoned throughout but it wasn’t until 2011 when Sherri lost her job due to office closure and her daughter was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome that she began to pursue her writing dream.

Now, while writing her first book*, Sherri writes articles, poetry, short-stories and flash fiction, some of which have been published in national UK magazines (Prima and Your Cat), as well as writing on her blog, ‘A View From My Summerhouse’. She also guest blogs for a variety of websites.

Today, Sherri lives, writes, walks, gardens and takes endless photographs in the West Country of England, happily with her husband, daughter, two cats and a corn-snake called Charlie (her daughter’s, acquired after many years of persuasion).

In Sherri’s words, she passionately describes her writing career as progressive: Read that here:

”I can best define my writing process in a few short words: I fly by the seat of my pants. I struggle to rein in my writing discipline and have yet to attain a working balance, even though on an ideal day I get all my off-blog writing completed first thing in the morning before I dare check my emails.

However, ideal days don’t happen very often. So many writing projects vie for my attention and I know this is all-too common for many writers. I am learning, I hope, to listen to the writing voice that yells the loudest!

The problem is that I could write all day (on my book) and nothing else would get done. When I decide to take a ‘quick look’ on my blog, the day is lost. Certainly, I write every day. Just not on my book.

This is something I am working on changing and hope to achieve in the very near future. A cottage by the sea for six months without any internet would be very nice…maybe!

Still, I am making progress, albeit slowly! As I press on with my book, I am soon to have a poem and a ‘slice of life’ story published in two anthologies. I am also pursing ideas for putting together some of my poems, photographs and musings borne out of my private struggles (in pain and joy) while helping my beautiful ‘Aspie’ daughter navigate through life.

It is only recently that I dared to call myself a ‘Writer’. Ultimately, I pursue the holy grail of writing so that I might, one day, be able to say that I am a ‘Published Author’.”

You can find a lot about Sherri on this awesome sites:

*Memoir Book Blurb: http://sherrimatthewsblog.com/memoir-book-blurb/

Blog: www.sherrimatthewsblog.com

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/aviewfrommysummerhouse

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sherri-matthews/60/798/aa3

Sherri is a fantastic friend and a precocious writer. I can’t wait to devour her book when it’s out, hope you would too. Do me a favour and stop by her site to see what I’ve raved about! 🙂

It’s good to be back blogging fully. I would still be stopping by your blogs as soon as I could! Much love to you my friends and do enjoy the rest of this rainy week (at least in London!)

Peace! 🙂

Seyi David

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!

🙂

Paid In Full…

Nov25

(Photo credit: Flickr)

I heard this story yesterday evening and after careful research, I found out that the story is true but it has been embellished over the years. Nonetheless, the message inherent in the story is still commendable and I just want to share it with my friends.

Here it goes:

‘One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one dime left, and he was hungry. He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door.
Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so she brought him a large glass of milk.
He drank it slowly, and then asked, “How much do I owe you?”
“You don’t owe me anything,” she replied. “Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness.”
He said, “Then I thank you from my heart.”
As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God and man was strong also. He had been ready to give up and quit.
Year’s later that young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease.
Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her room.
Dressed in his doctor’s gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once. He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day he gave special attention to the case.
After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, then wrote something on the edge and the bill was sent to her room.
She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of the bill. She began to read the following words:

“Paid in full with one glass of milk”

Signed, Dr. Howard Kelly.‘

”Kindness is not a gift, it’s a choice.” Sam Adeyemi.

This week, as you go about your daily activities, let love and kindness fill your heart, and you would indeed save a life, maybe it could be your life you’ll be saving. I love you all and do have a fantastic week!

Much love, always!

🙂

Temporary…

Sep17

(Photo credit: Leon Tarac)

I like this wise saying from American author Napoleon Hill that, ‘one of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat.’

Defeat can be an ongoing thing when we give up. Most of us know the story of Abraham Lincoln, how he failed severally before becoming a President people celebrate till today. I’ve seen countless temporary defeats (I’ll call it delay) in my short life, but do you know what I do? I learn from it and find out what caused the delay in the first place and do it again. And I tend to succeed,

I just don’t pack it in and give up!

Life is too short and too beautiful to give up at the first sign of defeat. I laugh at the face of danger and failure, because I have a dream of what my life should be and I’m not gonna rest till I achieve my goal and purpose in life. Do you know that you can beat cancer? Poverty? Low self-esteem? And all those dross of life that makes living akin to running a race in the mud! It’s all in your mind.

My husband used to say this and I agree, ‘you’re the only one that can make yourself happy… no one can!” And I will add this as well, that you’re the complete integral part or clue to your success in life. I can go on and on but I hope this week will be a great week for you… and if there is a temporary defeat lurking at a corner of your life, just pick yourself up and go again.

I wish you love and peace wherever you are in the world, and remember, temporary defeat doesn’t mean failure! Enjoy the rest of your week my friends!

Much love, always!

🙂

What Is Our LIfe!

Aug4

”WHAT is our life? A play of passion,

Our mirth the music of division,

Our mothers’ wombs the tiring-houses be,

”Where we are dressed for this short comedy,

Heaven the judicious sharp spectator is,

That sits and marks still who doth act amiss.

Our graves that hide us from the searching sun

Are like drawn curtains when the play is done.

Thus march we, playing, to our latest rest.

Only we die in earnest, that’s no jest.”

SIR WALTER RALEIGH (1554-1618)

I love Sir Walter Raleigh‘s poems, it’s poignant, somewhat melancholic but true. He hits the cord in the right places for me, and in a way, I want to be reminded of my fallibility, hence, my love for this morbid poem (so says my friend) Life is deceitfully short but our footsteps can still lead to great things if we so wish! My only prayer is, may generations yet unborn, write our stories well.

Have a great week ahead!

Much love, always.

🙂