I thought of all the places I want to visit, the memories of you and I linger at the gates of truce.
Category: Insight
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Yasemin Gunes : http://www.pexel.com -
December is here and she comes with the promise of family meetings, home cooked meals and getting to catch up with loved ones, those who’d been toiling in the city-coming home and getting to breathe for a week or so.
For me, it’s all about work, following up on projects, and reflecting on everything I did this year.
I managed to write 12,939 words out of 50,000 words for NanoWrimo- and though I did write every day, most of it were notes, comments, things that caught my eye that were not part of the story I had started, and so, this year, I didn’t get the 50k in.
On reading: I’ve been enjoying the books that are released on Netgalley and reading more which made me feel less awful about not winning this year’s NanoWrimo. I just added some new titles, check these out:
Have a great weekend.
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I heard the phrase, ‘to kill a person with a borrowed knife,’ and it reminded me of how fluid language is. Of the worlds we create with the stories we tell ourselves and choose to listen to.
An acquaintance was disappointed by her father’s actions and decision to sit back while she expected the opposite of him. So, on and on she went speaking of how weak and insecure he was and I listened, not because she demanded me to but because like most of the people I know, it’s easier to make use of your friend who has that Counseling experience and training for free. Sometimes, they are kind enough to buy me my favorite- coffee and chocolate fudge cake.
Aaron Jacob Pilatoe: http://www.pexels.com And when she did breathe, she looked at me and asked, ‘do you think I am being unreasonable?’ I was unprepared for her sudden pause and thought it through, then asked ‘is your father a god or deity that he’s beyond flaw?’
‘No, I didn’t say that. You know he’s not.’
‘But do you know and accept that he is not a god and does not reside up above on that pedestal you put him on?’
‘What are you saying?’
‘I am saying that we treat our parents as gods. Yes, they nurture and provide for us and even protect us up until we can fend for ourselves, and when we see them struggle and falter we believe they have lost it? Isn’t it funny then? Our parents also have scars, they also fail and until we stop treating them as gods, as above reproach, then we too can take a step back and forgive ourselves.’
She laughed at this after a while and said, ‘You assume that I treat my father like he is above failure. I do not.’
And like every conversation that somehow hits a wall, I found myself looking around the cafe and sipping my coffee as she changed the story to something else.
These days, and especially during and post COVID-19 I find myself forgiving the elders in my family for the times they fell short, and I can’t help but be amused by Greek mythology, in reading about how the gods and goddesses would punish each other over trivial matters they could easily resolve. How we put people on pedestals without consulting them and judging them when they fall off the cloud we placed them.
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It’s the fifteenth day of November and at the very beginning I laid out some thirty things I would love to do this month. It’s ambitious of me, given how easy it is to consider a thing done just by talking about it ( that’s why I haven’t been consistent with working out and fitness).
Here’s what I have done and loved doing every day :
- Tune into more podcasts (Speaking of Psychology, On Purpose with Jay Shetty, TED Talks Daily, Huberman Lab are some of my favorites). I also discovered some new podcasts (shared here)
- Participating in Nanowrimo 2022. I have written 12392 words so far.
- Design a logo
- Read more books from my Netgalley shelf
- Stretch in the morning
- Wake up at 6am
- Go to bed by 10pm
- Finished watching the Chinese Drama Ashes of Love- on Netflix. This was a roller-coaster of emotions for me and the only relief was that unlike The Untamed, it had a good ending.
- Wear more brass earrings
- Drink more water and often
- Speak my mind
- Read more blogs by Kenyans ( if you know any that you’d love me to follow let me know)
- Reward myself for what I did achieve this year. Yes, bought four pairs of shoes.
- Review my retirement and savings plan.
- Cook for myself more often- instant noodles is not the only thing to eat.
- Call and talk to my family often
Here’s what I haven’t been able to do:
- Eat more vegetables
- Dance more
- Eat out
- Cut down on processed sugar
- Take evening walks because it rains almost every evening!
- Cut down on noodles ( you can miss a host of things in my house but never a pack of chicken noodles)
- Forgive myself for not fulfilling some of the dreams I wanted to achieve
- Throw down- best explained as the act of cooking and serving a buffet of meals for the people you love
- De-clutter
- Donate some of my books
I got to work on a simple logo design using Canva and learned that there is a lot to colors and fonts that I know nothing about, and in the end- I resorted to black and white.
I am still working on:
- Praying often
- Completing Nanowrimo
- Forgiving myself for not fulfilling some of the dreams I wanted to achieve
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I shared thirty things I’d love to do this November (in this post here) and one of them was listen to more podcasts, learn more from the episodes and ultimately make some little changes to my habits along the way.
These are some episodes that I loved listening to:
- Mens’ Mental Health: Eli and Oscar, engage in a conversation on mental health with Psychologist, Aldo Aluoch Olunya. Podcast: Man Talk KE
- Dr. Gabor Mate talks on Understanding Trauma and how to heal emotional wounds with Jay Shetty. Podcast: On Purpose with Jay Shetty
There is something soothing about listening to podcasts that I did not take time to appreciate and reflect on because I would listen while cleaning the house, doing dishes as long as I didn’t give it my full attention. This month I am more intentional. I listen and take notes (this is something I can’t stop lately) and ask myself whether something shared is true of me or my experiences and I love this feeling.
There are some new podcasts that were recommended by Valery Nangula, via her post 3 Podcasts by African Women to Listen To and I subscribed to two of them:
- It’s Related, I Promise by Muthoni Muchira, Julia Gaitho and Sharon Machira
- Wisdom and Wellness by Mpoomy Ledwaba
Have a great week and I look forward to sharing updates on my NanoWrimo progress because that is a whole story right there.
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November is here and for some, it’s their favorite month, in their favorite season, and for me, it’s the month of writing and prepping for the end of the year.
So, I thought of some of the things I would love to do this month and came up with a list. I am not sure of how they’ll come to be and I change my mind often, so I’ll do a mid-month review and end of month to hold myself accountable. Let’s get into it:
- Pray more often
- Wrap up my thanksgiving contribution gift
- Listen to music
- Tune into more podcasts (Speaking of Pyschology, On Purpose with Jay Shetty, TED Talks Daily, Huberman Lab are some of my favorites)
- Take part in Nanowrimo 2022
- Design a logo
- Eat more vegetables
- Drink tea (So far I’ve had four days of tea and no coffee and I consume 4 teabags a day, so that needs review)
- Read more books from my Netgalley shelf (Just read The Language of Love and Loss by Bart Yates, loved it)
- Dance more
- Stretch in the morning
- Wake up at 6am
- Go to bed by 10pm
- Eat out ( If you are on Instagram check out Kusosi.ke because I have some three restaurants I would love to eat at based on the reviews there)
- Finish watching the Chinese Drama Ashes of Love- on Netflix. I’m on episode 31 of 63.
- Wear more brass earrings
- Drink more water and often
- Cut down on processed sugar
- Cut down on noodles ( you can miss a host of things in my house but never a pack of chicken noodles)
- Take evening walks
- Speak my mind
- Read more blogs by Kenyans ( if you know any that you’d love me to follow let me know)
- Forgive myself for not fulfilling some of the dreams I wanted to achieve
- Reward myself for what I did achieve this year
- Review my retirement and savings plan
- Throw down- best explained as the act of cooking and serving a buffet of meals for the people you love
- De-clutter
- Donate some of my books
- Cook for myself more often- instant noodles is not the only thing to eat.
- Call and talk to my family often
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we look up to the stars and forget the galaxy within,
if it glitters, it’s perfect,
yet we forget that we are dust,
centuries old, woven from generations of warriors we know not of,
we celebrate the fickle and trod upon the strong,
like bees we gather around a hashtag, now like puppets we jump on trends,
we dance, laugh, do what everyone is doing in exchange for numbers…
the very same numbers we know not of, like the stories that make us,
the fears and hopes and dreams and will within us.
She said, “What’s sad is that for a second of joy, to feel a fleeting moment of bliss, I too forget the galaxy within for the star outside.”
Muhammad-taha Ibrahim shared this on http://www.pexels.com -
You are the one who never leaves the one behind,
Who through a simple ‘hello’ opens up the world of ‘are you truly okay?’
And in the hours that I’m cloaked in fear,
Drenched in grief,
Drowning in anguish, it is you who I summon,
The prisoner and the captive,
The light and the dark,
The yes and the no,
The known and the unknown,
It is you,
The One.
Emmanuel Slope. via http://www.pexels.com -
It is 9:17pm as I start typing away and I know it will take me twelve minutes to finish writing what I have to say and hit that publish button. However, my love for referencing time in my blog posts stems from writing in my journal every evening and including the snippets of activities I did during the day.
So, here I am having embarked on a new writing project hoping that the part of me that is a bunch of opinions gets an outlet. I set up another blog this week called Achieng Writes.
I received my September book haul comprised of six books bought from Text Book Centre.
There are two things I am doing more often to improve my writing and that’s: one- writing every morning from nine to ten o’clock and two- taking down more notes, snippets of ideas from k-drama, music and my latest fascination are podcasts.
I started drafting a new book and from the very beginning, it oozes nothing but romance and my younger sister read the first chapter and since then I have been unable to look at it without seeing the sneer in her face!
This year, one of my goals was to publish at least two books and I recently published Laana: Daughter of the Middle World and so far, I still struggle with marketing the book and balancing the networks I have established who always buy my books. The greatest feat for me was connecting with Nuria Bookstore- both a physical shop and online store here in Kenya, to enhance accessibility to readers.
As we move into September, I find myself more at peace reading books written by other writers and taking time off my latest draft. In so doing, I am also listening to more music and the album I have on replay is Chike’s The Brother’s Keeper– the one song that speaks to my worries being Pour me a drink
nilichoandika 