To be honest, I didn’t think I was qualified to tell you anything because 2020 did not start well for me, asides the emotional stress, it was that time of the month and if you know cramps well then you can understand that it has the ability to make you question your whole existence. Like whom did we really offend?

 I didn’t know how to come and wish you a happy new year when I had been clearly unhappy. The mantra “New Year new me” was littered all over Instagram and I just rolled my eyes at them. I started building resentment and self-doubt when I saw other peoples achievements in the past year.  I began second-guessing myself. I am sure if I checked my blood pressure at the time it would have been high.

 It took me a while to realize I was doing the wrong thing. I was breathing and sane yet I could not say a thank you to God for keeping me alive. Ingratitude is the sole source of unhappiness and this is how we limit ourselves. We don’t appreciate our present level yet we hope to attain greater heights.

Ungratefulness makes you focus on those things you lack instead of the abundance and utility of what you already have in the present. And when you don't appreciate where you are now you may never get ahead.

Just be grateful and give yourself peace. I have learned to move at my own pace and motivate myself daily because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. My purpose is not a relay race, so I will only move on Gods timing.

Today is my birthday and I am grateful for life

• I am grateful for the ability to write

• I am grateful for the kind of friends I have made over time.

• I am grateful for Family and

• I am grateful for you, yes you reading this. What are you grateful for? tell me in the comment section. It can be anything!

Today is my birthday and because I love myself. I bless myself and I declare that I become more purpose-driven. That my voice is heard across continents. That my life becomes a model for people to be inspired. That my words reach and sooth the unreached. That I become prosperous.
Say a prayer for me too, bless me.

Just for fun, here are 10 random facts about me. Tell me random facts about you in the comment section. I would love to know them really.


Here's mine.

• I have never tasted Pizza in my life (guess my age)

• I don’t like boiled eggs

• I think plantain is overrated

• I don’t read as much as people think I do but I am a fast reader

• Chubby boys are my spec

• I am allergic to roadside soya milk

• I don’t really like the color red

• I have never watched high school musical 

• My love language is physical touch.

• My favorite thing to eat is beans or bread.

Can you guess anything about me, if you are right I'd email you a personal heartfelt prayer and I'll call you.

 No human being was made for the streets yet there are millions of people making a living from the streets. There are homeless people, feeding from hand to mouth and brutally exposed to harsh weather conditions because there is lack of food and shelter.
We must understand that it was never a choice for them to make because sane human beings don’t choose to be in disadvantaged positions, particularly the innocent children roaming the streets, negotiating starvation with safety.

“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” 
― John Holmes

It is true that poverty has dug deep into the textiles of our society today but what is untrue is the saying that we cannot do anything to mitigate, eradicate and change the situation.

charity is willingly given from the heart- Rush Limbaugh

It was mother Theresa who said ‘’if you can't feed a thousand people, then feed just one’’ this is to say that nobody is too small to make an impact and it doesn’t matter where we are or the little we think we have, there is always room to be kind and charitable.
This is why Miss Ebere Chinelo Ezeigwe and her team have created the PCI(project charity and impact) to reach youths, adults and children in order to reduce hunger, poverty and ensure Good health and wellbeing. The beautiful thing about this project is that it focuses not only on nourishing young bodies but also minds. To grow their intellect and equip them for the modern society.
This project is captured in goal 1,2, and 3 of the UN 2020 SDGs. The target includes any class of less privileged. The outreach could include intellectual programs in the future. PCI kicked off her maiden edition on the 14th of January 2018, at Abakaliki Ebonyi State. The project has been pushing and improving since then
This 3rd edition looks forward to reaching out to the rural areas of Akwa Ibom State with food items and free medical services on 26th January 2019

Photo from Bennett Tobias via unsplash

In Miss Ebere's words "I want to give back to the society through charity works (the drive is unstoppable), free trainings(when we must have gotten sponsors), so we can build enough impact in the world.
My target is mainly the growing generations (children and mostly youths) because they are the future we see,  but we sometimes remember the aged and the less privileged generally."

From Bill wegener via unsplash

This is a worthy cause to take on because there are lots of lives you can change by joining this project. There are thousands of talents wasting because they lack opportunity and chance. Be a part of something that gives people life, hope, purpose, comfort, reason and innovation. I volunteer and you should too.



 To volunteer or sponsor and for further inquires contact them via the cell numbers 08169693842 & 08063825792.

When I wanted to write this, I had a lot of thoughts like is it even Valentines Day? What do you even know about self-love? Is this blog for you or for people? Etc.
 Well, the reasons I shouldn’t write this blog post are the same reasons I am writing it. First, It would be such a shame and a great disservice to humanity if the only time we want to talk about love or show love is during valentine’s day. Secondly, self-love is a daily, reaffirming and conscious effort and we have so much trivialized it. Thirdly this blog is our blog and we will learn together.

“Eat as you love yourself. Move as you love yourself. Speak as you love yourself. Act as you love yourself.”  

THE PROBLEM WITH SELF LOVE  

    Often times we seek attention and validation from other people so much that we forget that it is our duty first to validate ourselves before others. I wanted this post to be a love letter to myself, something you can read to yourself too but once I start typing the spirit starts leading and trust me to follow Amen!

 I think the problem we have is that we expect so much love from others when we have not given that measure of love to ourselves. If we are going to be logical about this why should I even love you if you don’t love yourself? If you don’t value yourself what will be my gain if I choose to value you?

“Your relationship with yourself sets the tone for every other relationship you have.” 

IS SELF LOVE EVER ENOUGH?

 Back in secondary school, I wished someone would send me love letters. I had friends who received lots of them and I didn’t know then whether I wanted them because I loved to read or because I felt unloved. PS: I am more likely to read and reply to a text or email than I would receive calls or even call back. I think if you know me well you should know this by now.

 My birthday was the best period for me in secondary because I got a lot of handmade birthday cards and notes. People wrote sweet things about me and I still have most of them.

These cards were almost as sweet if not sweeter than the love letters I read from my classmates/seniors. some of their boyfriends were bad writers and poets but ok ( people of God, I am not being a hater, It’s true) I mean what is the meaning of ‘’the color of your daywear takes my breath away’’  mtcheww uncle go and buy pink oxygen and fix your respiratory problem abeg.

Image by Claudius Hegedus via unsplash

I wanted my own Love letter but now I know better. I was not satisfied with birthday cards I wanted a boy to validate me, to exaggerate my qualities and give me butterflies.

 I didn’t love myself enough to know that I didn’t need a few words from the opposite sex to feel loved and appreciated. This is what we do to ourselves and its bad. When you don’t love yourself enough anybody can give you half baked attention and you will take it like that because you don’t know your worth.

“Loving yourself isn’t vanity. It’s sanity.” – Andre Gide. 

THE BIBLE AND SELF LOVE 

You know in the bible It is written that If you don’t love you don’t know God and If you don’t know God my guess is you will not make heaven, stay with me, now God says love your neighbor as yourself meaning that you are loving this neighbor with the measure of love you have for yourself and if you don’t have it, well you can’t give what you don’t have.  Also even if you manage to love this neighbor and you don’t love yourself you still don’t know God because Love is missing somewhere and you still may not enter the kingdom.  self-love is required for you to enter the kingdom of God. The same goes for forgiveness, forgive yourself for that avoidable mistake or whatever thing you think you did! it goes both ways. 
When it comes to relationship I have a slight problem with this ‘ my other half, my missing rib thing’ because sometimes it is largely misunderstood and it lures some people into thinking that every human being is incomplete and needs another human being somewhere to complete them. Build the love and fulfillment for yourself. You are a complete human being already, you are not half baked or half-formed. God only said it is not good for man to be alone. 
He did not say I have made man Incomplete. you are whole and hopefully, you meet someone who is whole and together you both become wholesome. You don’t even need to start measuring your worth, you were born worthy.

image by Tim mossholder via Unsplash

“A healthy self-love means we have no compulsion to justify to ourselves or others why we take vacations, why we sleep late, why we buy new shoes, why we spoil ourselves from time to time. We feel comfortable doing things that add quality and beauty to life.” – Andrew Matthews 

Image from @contentpixie via Unsplash

HERE IS MY SELF LOVE POEM TO YOU
Dear girl/ boy, man/ woman
I look at you and I see the essence of living, the color of your eyes paint a perfect picture and I don’t know a better view. 
I gaze at the wonder Lines gracing your palms and I wonder what beauty lies in our path as I take your palm in mine.
 I may not know what it means to be perfect but I know you’re the most perfect version of imperfection there is.
 Every arc and curve on your body is an atlas outline of the beauty in your making. I want to ask the creator what Mother nature and Earth did to deserve such a bedazzling creature.
 I feel the texture of your hair, even the baldness of your scalp and all I can say is there is no uneasiness there. It is smooth enough to fit any crown, to lead any troop, to be queen, to be king, to be anything.
 I am in awe of your lips, how your tongue touches your teeth then forms a mini pout before your teeth slightly bit your lower lip into an invitation when you pronounce the word love. I love everything that you are becoming, everything that you are and are not. I accept you. I take you. You are enough.

1john 4:8; Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love

Whole + whole = wholesome

“The fact that someone else loves you doesn’t rescue you from the project of loving yourself.”

So this is a love letter to me and to you. Read it to yourself first before anyone else.



I am out please; it is not time to write my wedding vows. All I am saying is your matter and you matter equally so give yourself love and attention. Eat out by yourself some time, Netflix and chill alone sometimes. Now tell me one thing you love about you whether it is your physical appearance or character traits then write them down.

 I love that I can hype people, I love my Lips when I wear lipsticks or glosses and I love my collar bones even though they are almost nonexistent. Let’s hear yours.

How to heal

 I ask because I have stalled on this subject and I found that it is deeper than cuts, burns, open wounds etc. I am talking about the kind of healing that comes from within, the kind that gives you this freedom and weightlessness that is almost orgasmic, now I don’t mean sexual healing( it is part of it, I am just not the go-to person for that subject) so I am speaking  of spiritual healing, one that comes from the within, from the heart, it’s a mental thing.

It is impossible to talk about this kind of healing without forgiveness, see grudge is like an open wound that exists internally, you continue to bleed inside till your blood becomes stale and your body turns grey maybe not physically but something dies inside of you when you don’t lay aside every weight. I watched a video online and I heard a woman rant about how she had been duped by her husband and how she suffered for years due to the loss, what struck me was her response when she was asked If she had forgiven him, she looked the camera in the eye and she said ‘’I will never forgive him till I die."

I get that it is hard but we have so much normalised resentment to the point that we feel it comes from a place of power but the truth is forgiveness is really an attribute of the strong and there is nothing powerful about holding pain captive. Funny thing is you are the one carrying the burden, for all you know the offender has moved on and you are still here sulking.

What does it mean to heal?

To heal means to become sound and healthy again and it is not even an easy task, everybody has something they need to heal from and sadly it may be little things, your friend spoke to you rudely and forgot to apologise, you feel your parents are not treating you right, you just got out of a bad  relationship etc, truth is some of us are out here yelling I am over it! It’s not that deep! I have moved on! but we both know that’s a lie that studied abroad.

Sometimes we claim to have forgiven yet we secretly nurse the idea for an opportunity to show ourselves. If given a chance we would retaliate as per let me give them a taste of their own medicine. On a lighter note I remember fondly a time when my friend finished a drink we were to meant to share (Capri Sonne(strawberry flavour) to be precise.

I was looking forward to drinking this chilled yumminess because who doesn't like Capri Sonne.

She was sipping this thing with so much energy and I just thought no she can't possibly finish it , she might just be ravenously drinking her share but behold and lo I heard the "krr krr" sound as she squeezed the hell out of this juice. I was really thirsty.
 I remember just feeling ah! my friend, I love you but I must do my own. That scenario may just sound fleeting or trivial and Indeed it was. we genuinely laughed about it but this is how we often react to bigger situations.

we say I forgive you but I pray I get the chance to retaliate so that we can be even but if you get even with everybody you can't beat the odds. It is just vain and self deceitful to hold back while claiming to have let go. People will intentionally hurt you and you must let go because hurt people hurt other people and it raises a generation of broken people.

 So dear Capri Sonne snatching friend if I ever finish a drink meant for both of us do know that it will not be intentional and l am not retaliating or hurting, it will truly be a friendly gesture with a sprinkle of tough love Haq Haq Haq.

Healing does not mean a return to the original state, it is simply accepting to move on despite the limitation. There are physically challenged people who have become great today but they are still physically challenged then there are physically challenged people who continue complaining and falling in and out of depression-like it is some treasure hunt, yes people are different but sometimes it is the choice that makes the difference.

 Where does healing start 

 Healing starts from the mind and if you can’t close that portal of anger or revenge in your mind there will be no open doors for you in reality. Healing is different from curing, you can cure without healing but you cannot heal without curing. Curing is removing evidence of the disease, the hurt, pain, etc but healing is to be made whole. Biblical example; when Jesus took leprosy from the 10 lepers, they left and only one came back to give thanks and Jesus said ‘’ Rise and go thy faith has made thee whole” why did he say that if healing and curing were the same things? Basically, 9 were cured and only one was healed. When you are healed everything about you is intact, preserved and prosperous. This is not a sermon so  go read Luke chapter 17:11-19

Jesus asked, “Weren’t all ten healed? Where are the other nine? Didn’t anyone else return and give praise to God except this outsider?”

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up and go. Your faith has healed you.”

 Healing is deeper and must always come from within. So forgive yourself, heal! yes you are getting old and you want to be young and getting it, yes you may not be doing well in school, yes you don’t have money, life will always happen but heal so that you can move on. What we do most times is temporary we just cure the situation and it only lasts a while that’s why people keep getting sad and depressed over one particular issue.

I don’t know if I was coherent enough but learn now that nobody owns your happiness, learn to be thankful and forgive and forget, yes you can forget! Forgetting doesn’t mean your brain will go blank it just means you are mature enough to open up a new chapter without flipping through the previous one. Give that person another chance in your heart.

Give yourself another chance and if you fail today, heal and start again, now take two minutes to think of that friend or family member or anybody you vowed not to forgive or you partly forgave, you may not call them or anything just take a deep breath and say ‘’I let go’’ free them and free yourself! Take back your peace of mind.

Read Titilope Sonuga's How to heal a wound I think it's amazing 

Photo: @oliviaeze03

When I decided to type this post  I  had a long list of reasons to give for not putting up a blog post for three months. I have felt a piercing type of guilt each time my divine friends ask me "Hey Rose you have not posted in  a while." and I say one of these reasons that I consider very valid. 
I have thought this through and in all honesty these valid reasons  I have are mere excuses and once again I am sorry for that.
I thought long and hard on what to post because quite frankly my brain has been racing through hurdles ,then I decided to just give it to you the way it is in my head, so here goes...

Photo credit:@oliviaeze03

I have come to discover that humans beings are blessed with the gift of evolving , growing, forming and taking shape,  what I mean is if we are truly dust and God moulded us just like clay in a potters hands then this can only mean that we have the ability to break, crack and be remoulded , we also have the ability to take whatever shape we want to take after we have been broken. Add that to the fact that God breathed his life into us, He gave us a part of himself. So there is divinity in the air that dances through our nostrils.

My point is you cannot carry the breathe of an all knowing God and not know anything. You cannot have the spirit inside of you and not be productive. The bible says in

Psalm 150:6 "let everything that has breathe praise the lord" 

 This means that whatever you do with this life you have in you must praise God.
You may wonder where I am going with this but 
All I am saying is if you know the calibre, specie and magnitude of who you are created to be , you would step out of your comfort zone and make a difference.

 I am writing down my advice to myself because I need these words as much as you do.
I have big dreams and I know you do too but our present lifestyle can be detrimental to the actualization of this dream! 
What effort have you put in to fuel your Ambition,  purpose etc.

We all want to be great, but we have to realise that greatness comes  with expensive rates. You cannot be in your comfort zone and expect to be successful and explore other time zones.
See eh excuses are indeed the killers of destiny. You know why excuses are destructive, it's because it's a layered form of  procrastination. 
At least when you procrastinate you know that ah! I might just be lazy, you are simply marinating your ability till the point that it becomes stale and soggy. But excuses can be  very tricky , it's like saying I won't write because I have school work to do, it's I can't go to church because it's raining,  it's the it dosent matter if I finish the whole pot of spaghetti I deserve it after this level of stress , it is the let me spend this money after all I have been broke before and I did not die. 
Just stop it! excuses come fancy and cheap but they will cost you longterm.

Lastly,  learn to value,serve and appreciate the community you have. If you have a buisness idea , if you are a creative, content creator or anything just make do with what you have. Don't wait to have 50,000 followers or subscribers or buyers before you start. Value the audience you have now....the bible says he that is faithful in little.... 

Luke 16:10

Verse Concepts

"He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. 

Luke 16:10 New International Version (NIV)

10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 

 Matthew 25:23

Verse Concepts

"His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.'

I had that problem. I have an average  of 400 views on this blog half of which  I am sure are family and friends,  I remember feeling sad that even inside the 400 not up to 30 are subscribed. I just gave up and that scripture came into my spirit ,so ask yourself am I faithful with the little I have? Because that is the only way God can multiply you, that is the only way to grow. So Today I decide to be faithful to you!

Photo credit:@oliviaeze03

And drum roll please Iyanu started a powerful blog that has inspired ,uplifted and entertained me, it literally drew tears from my eyes, pls visit  https://iyanuadebiyi.com/  to begin this Holy walk with her❤

Hey,so I just thought to document this here, It is an old poem I wrote,the inspiration came from basically watching the sterotypes black girls have to go through and how we are constantly seeking validation for our beauty, then I listened to Dylema's poem "what if a black girl knew "....I just thought to remind all black girls that they are just perfect.

WHAT IF A BLACK GIRL KNEW

 #1

Word of advice for people aspiring to write,  your first draft is not meant to be perfect when I wrote this poem I thought it was the next best thing after maya angelou's Phenomenal woman but looking at it now I can see the flaws , better ways I should have put tenses etc.,I am working on a poem with this same theme and I am encouraged by my growth. So never discard your first draft use it as a reference point and don't beat yourself up, it does not have to be perfect - Roseline Mgbodichinma 

Storytime

It was my darling's birthday( the fair one on black ) and I missed it because I traveled.  I got back and I thought let's go out and hang. let's just chill.

After many hours of indecisiveness, we carried ourselves to this eatery. Now, this was not our first time there. I have never been impressed by that place but this time it was worse! The customer service was zero.

L-Eunice M-Olivia R- Me

Someone said I should give them the benefit of doubt, that maybe something went wrong on that day. so I will not call them out. And I still go there occasionally to get other things e.g bread. I won't be risking any other thing, till I am convinced there is a change. 

I  wrapped the so-called chicken in my bag, I plan to add it to the Egusi soup I am cooking because I can't just leave my money there and of course we would not put salt in the soup because the one they used in frying or baking the bone they served us will be enough for two soups.

Anyway, lesson learned. 

@oliviaeze03 shot it!

Here are 10 signs you are in a bad restaurant. Let me quickly add, go with your guts and leave the restaurant when your order goes wrong, don't pity anybody or try to patronize to the point that you poison yourself. Please be guided!