Monday, December 24, 2012

The Meaning of Christmas

I don't know why, but I feel like I should start with a warning. I am a religious person. I am a born again Christian. I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, born of a Virgin, sent to the world as a gift and a sacrifice for our salvation. I also believe Jesus Christ is God.

How can he be God, and God's Son? It is a mystery (as our Catholic brethren would say), and Scripture also tells us "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God", and that "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us".

What did that all mean? Jesus is The Word, who was with God in the beginning. The Word is God, therefore, Jesus is God. QED.

But this is not a theological argument, or my attempt to bash you on the head with my beliefs. It all boils down to what Christmas means to me. It's the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. It's a big deal because Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection made it possible for a sinner like me to be rescued from a life without God.

Christmas is a big deal for me. So I celebrate it with my family. I celebrate with cake. I celebrate with good food. I celebrate in church, then at home.

I put together all the things I am thankful for - my family, friends, loved ones, good food, and good times, and I enjoy them, offering them to My Father in celebration and thanksgiving. It's my way of saying "For all these things You have given me, for all these things I enjoy, I say thank you because my pleasure and enjoyment of them would have been hollow without the gift of your only begotten Son".

That's what Christmas means to me. On that note, I wish you a Christmas filled with God's love, every good and perfect gift, and the enjoyment of loved ones, good food, and good times.

Merry Christmas!

The Year in Review: Interview Questions

Merry Christmas!

I'm still in the middle of journal review, and I stumbled on a page with interview questions I borrowed from a number of magazines. Sometimes I do stuff like this for fun. Feel free to do the same.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Best part of my job?
The Goo

Listening to? At the moment, P.Square's Alingo (thanks to MTV Base), but my playlist of the moment includes Kirk Franklin, Dietrick Haddon, Marvin Sapp, Fred Hammond, Commisioned, BarlowGirl, Jeremy Camp, Needtobreathe, Casting Crowns, Third Day, Relient K, and Jars of Clay.

Reading now? Hmm. C.J. Cherryh's Faded Sun Trilogy, Germaine Copeland's The Road God Walks, Max Lucado's Cure for The Common Life and Nicole Williams' How to Earn What You're Worth.

Best museum? I haven't been to a museum since I was a child, so I can't really say.

Most worn item in your closet? Hmm. It's a tie between my skinny black trousers, and my blue boot cut jeans.

Snacking on? Cake.

Vacation destination? Kenya or Cyprus.

Favourite actress? Angelina Jolie. She's so beautiful. I love to look at her.

Secretly obsessed with? It's no secret - books.

Gotta have it gadget? My kingdom for a vacuum cleaner. And an MP3 player, or Ipod.

Accessory you would wear every day? Studs.

Most checked website? www.goodreads.com

Personal Style? Soccer mum in transition.

What I love about me? Hmm. I'm still here.

Where have you seen my work? YED (a weekly publication of Poise Finishing School in partnership with Business Day), www.gypsyblack.com, www.sugarweddings.com, Family magazine, Complete Fashion magazine, Weddings A - Z, Hints magazine.

Favourite song on my laptop? Washed by the Water by Needtobreathe.

Guilty pleasure? Chocolate cake.

Favourite websites? www.goodreads.com, www.magicalwords.com, www.storyfix.com.

Growing up, I wanted to be? A business owner, so I could boss people around.








Wednesday, December 19, 2012

The Year in Review: My Favourite Books

Hey people!

Y'alright?

As the year comes to a close (Yay! Another year almost done!), I'm reviewing my journals (yes, I do journal), and taking a look at what this year has been for me. I found a journal entry called My Favourite Books, and thought it would be nice to share it.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not very good at book reviews, so please bear with me.

My favourite books are:

1. The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho: My husband got this for me on our first wedding anniversary. It's such a beautiful story. If I ever write a book like this I can die happy. I loved the simplicity of it. A story of a boy on a journey at the end of which he would become a man in every sense of the word. I loved the story. I loved the way it was told. Both story and storytelling were what I consider stripped down and pure. Nothing unnecessary. Nothing wasted.

2. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis: A rather dark book by a Christian author. I'm scared of the dark, but sometimes dark stories need to be told, and C.S. Lewis did not shy away from it. He didn't sensationalize it. He did not condemn it. He did not celebrate it. He told the story of darkness. I was impressed.

3. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien: I could say this is a simple story well told, but it's much more than that. It's not a simple story - it's a story of magic and hobbits; dwarves and trolls; giant eagles and gold; a dragon, and of course, Gollum. It was a story of magic and adventure, simply told.

4. Ake by Wole Soyinka: This was the first 'grown-up' book that inspired me. I read an excerpt in my English Textbook in JSS2 and I was hooked. I skipped through the pages of the textbook looking for more excerpts and reread them as often as possible. Imagine my delight when I discovered an autographed copy (oh yeah!) in my father's study. Naturally, the book became mine, and I have enjoyed the rambling description of Wole Soyinka's childhood years many a time since then.

5. The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi: My sister recommended this book to me. Her words, "Timi, you'll like this". I did. I was especially impressed by (and a little envious of) the author's age by the time she wrote that book. That aside, I loved the story. I had never read Nigerian fantasy that wasn't heavy on rural melodrama. This was a story with clean lines, and I absolutely love the open endedness (is that a word?) of the end.

So there you have it. My favourite books so far. With my 300 book reading challenge next year, who knows how this list will change? I can hardly wait!

Now your turn, what are your favourite books, and why?

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Blast from The Past Thursday: The Little Hamster

Hey you!

How are you enjoying this season to be jolly?

The Goo attended her first school Christmas party today, and met Father Christmas. I was informed by her teachers that she cried and tried to escape the clutches of the red suited, white bearded stranger who tried to foist a dollhouse on her.

Yup. She's her mother's daughter.

Anyway, Blast from The Past Thursday ended an hour ago, but I'm up so you get to read something I wrote in 2006 (I think). I called it The Little Hamster, and I wrote it when I was having angst filled debates with myself over quitting my job in stockbroking.

Enjoy!

THE LITTLE HAMSTER

One day, the little hamster stepped off his wheel.

Sure, there were food pellets and water jugs that were refilled every day, but he didn’t want to live in a cage anymore.

This made the older hamsters angry. They asked the little hamster if he had eaten a bad pellet or something. They told him the cage was a safe place and that the wheel of purpose was every hamster’s destiny.
He said the wheel of purpose felt like a ball and chain and that the cage was more prison than safe house.

They asked him scornfully, “what will you do now?”

He answered, “I’ll burrow”.

So he stepped off the wheel and it slowed down and stopped, but the world kept spinning and the sun still shined. He broke the lock with an old milk tooth that had fallen off and stepped out of his cage/ safe house/ prison. When he stepped out of his cage and onto the ground, he realized, “I don’t know how to burrow”. Then he thought, ‘how hard can it be? I’m a hamster and that’s what hamsters are supposed to do! It will be as easy as running the wheel of drudgery’. So he put his nose to the ground, then his paws, then dug, wriggling his little hamster body into the ground.

There was something scary, but soothing about the soft, dark earth. It was as comforting as coming home but not knowing if he would survive this was freaking him out. It occurred to him that he could turn around and go back to the security of the cage with its food pellets and daily water refills. Sure, the other hamsters would never let him hear the end of it, but wasn’t life more important than fearing what other hamsters would say? But wasn’t life more important than fear? So he decided right there to stop worrying and keep burrowing.

The other hamsters never saw him again. Once in a while, word reached them that the little hamster had found an underground cave, and had met a little hamster girl. They heard rumours of his little hamster family, of his five little hamsters, and they still kept muttering, “He must have eaten some bad pellets.”

THE END

(PS. Do hamsters burrow?)



Tuesday, December 11, 2012

I'm a Writer: Being Passive Aggressive

Wow!

It's been another two weeks.

I really don't know what to say. Sorry seems to be the hardest word (sing it Elton!)

Anyway, contrary to the title of this post (the first part), I have not been writing. Not really. I should have written 8 articles and cleared my schedule till the end of the year, but I've written 2.

Why? See the second part of the title.

I didn't know I was passive aggressive till I got married. On a side note, you never know how angry and how often you can get angry till you get married. To all my single ladies out there, practice deep breathing and counting to ten before you meet The One. It will come in handy.

Anyway, what does being passive aggressive have to do with life as a writer? Well, when you write for clients who pay you per article, you find out rather quickly that most people are not blessed with your kind of genius. As a matter of fact, they tend to land at the other end of the intelligence meter.

...(excuse me while I count to ten)...so let's say I'm supposed to write 8 articles, and my client is supposed to pay me for 5 articles already written, and does not do so, nor see it fit to inform me that said money will not be paid in at agreed upon time, well then, that just gets my goat.

But I am nothing, if not professional, so what do I do - I delay said client's work till they are gagging for it, and then instead of 8, I send in 1 just before they are to go to press. I don't know why but it warms the cockles of me heart to see them scramble.

Unfortunately, I am also a creature of habit, and after a while, I am unable to bring myself to deliver said client's work in time. Ever again. This pains me because I keep hearing Neil Gaiman's voice in my head saying, "Send in your work on time. Make sure it's good work. Make sure you're a pleasure to work with", or something along those lines. It's just that between myself and said client there is an almost septic yet cordial culture of disrespect.

It's not good for me, and I don't know if I should continue. The work is fairly challenging. The money is handy, but I pick up bad habits very easily, and they have turned out to be such evil communication.

Whatever shall I do?