Mimi's Thoughts

Listen

Sometimes God just tries to speak through several means when He really wants us to hear Him.

Ene called me today, she told me she had only just read the post I shared with her and she just had to call me immediately.

Ene is my friend’s sister and we had shared stories about our writing at her dad’s 80th birthday party and I promised to send her something of mine that I thought she would love. That was a month ago.

Fast forward to today, after doing a back and forth with God on a particular topic, she got a whisper from Him and just as if God wanted to confirm this, He reminded her of the post she was yet to read and when she did read, my post was just a confirmation of the conviction she had received earlier.

Why hadn’t she read the post all this while? Could God have known she would need this confirmation today? Damn straight. He knows, He waits, He makes us wait too… and at the right time, He lets us… He tells us.

All we always have to do is listen and be attentive. He is going to use different ways to speak and to confirm His word.

John 10:27

1 John 4:1

James 4:8

Prov 3:6

Maybe I do

I saw the cast; Diane Keaton, Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon and I knew I couldn’t ignore it

This very witty comedy drama is a must watch.

Young lovers, Michelle and Allen have a fight about Allen’s fear of getting married. They both go home to their parents.

The parents decide it’s time to meet and when they do, they discover that they already “know” each other…very well.

The six of them try to work out and resolve this very complicated situation.

The film is based on a play written by Michael Jacobs titled Cheaters.

Thank you Michael Jacobs…I didn’t only see a meaningful film with thought provoking conversations, I also had a good laugh.

Just Do It

This is an excerpt from my first medium post on 20th May, 2022

I love to write

I recently had a friend of mine tell me “you don’t write like you talk”. She had just read a post from my WordPress blog and was having a hard time reconciling my written words with my spoken words. I totally understood her dilemma.

I have never been much of a good talker. I talk okay, but I can say anyone would understand something I wrote better than if I spoke it. It is the reason I miss those letter writing days. My sister and I have good memories of letters we wrote each other.

These days I always carry a small notebook with me. I scribble lots of my thoughts and ideas in them. You could also find a few scribbles on my phone as well. I have lots of them.

I thought it would be nice to share my thoughts and ideas and so I went ahead and got myself a WordPress page. I didn’t post a word until 11 months ago. Just like that, I woke up one day and decided; This is the day. It felt really good to see people read, like and also leave reviews. It made me happy.

Today WordPress sent me a 9th anniversary message. How does someone procrastinate for 8 years? I really wonder.

A piece of advice I gave myself:

“Mimi sometimes you don’t need to procrastinate, you don’t have to plan, you don’t have to rehearse… Just do it”.

Jennifer Lopez

I’m not sure how to even begin…

I’ve been a fan of Jennifer Lopez’s movies since the first time I saw The Wedding Planner. I don’t think it’s her acting I love, although she doesn’t do bad at all.

I really love romcoms, even the cheesy ones…provided there’s a good story line. So maybe that’s what makes me love Lopez’s movies.

When I got a netflix notification for her latest movie, I wasn’t so eager. I didn’t know what to expect. The movie The Mother is an Action Thriller film. I needed a little time to process that.

I need to add, this is nothing like Parker, Money Train, Out of Sight or any semi action movie you may have seen her in.

This is Jason Bourne kind of action…and she is the “Jason Bourne”.

I finally saw the movie last night.

🤦‍♀️

I don’t know if it’s the story line that bothers me or its lack of proper structure and/or direction… I can’t really tell. Nothing stands out exceptionally. It didn’t grip me at all.

I didn’t even hit the pause button in the moments when I had to leave to room to do a thing or two. That’s very unusual for me.

…but one thing I am sure of is this, Jennifer López can pull off any role. She did justice to the character.

She is definitely Action Thriller Protagonist material

Grieving Never Ends

A few days ago, it was the remembrance of my late uncle’s passing. It had been a very painful death… The fact that he died and the way he died… All painful.

To add an insult unto the injury, someone thought it would be a good idea to create a post with gruesome images of the incident… Somehow, the entire family got to see this post. This brought so much sadness to all… A few actually cried.

Almost everyone I know has lost a loved one and we all know how much it hurts. Often, when time passes, we assume that we have all grieved and have moved on… This isn’t true.

We must continue to live life, we learn to wake up and put on a bold act and go about our lives… Then we get used to doing it easily and time continues to pass. The truth remains, in our alone time, we remember. We miss them and sometimes we even reminisce. We look back and sometimes we still hurt.

We continue to grieve. But we must continue to live. So it appears as though we have stopped grieving.

Grieving never ends.

We must be sensitive to EVERYONE who has lost someone. Even if this person was a mutual “someone” . We mustn’t assume that everyone is at the same phase of grief as we are. We all grieve differently.

Today, I am sending a purple heart to everyone who is grieving the loss of a loved one. May you find strength to keep keeping on as you remember them and especially on the dates they passed.

Mother

Happy mother’s day JMS.

JMS – Josephine Mbatomon Shango.

My cousins, sisters and my husband use JMS especially when we want to talk about her special traits… Most of them are listed in I’m just younger.

Thank you for for making me the mother and woman that I am today. I’m really enjoying who I am. I owe most of it to you.

Thank you for all the sacrifices, most of which I didn’t realise till I became a mother.

As you read this dear mother, know that I appreciate you.

💜 You deserve all the Purple hearts I can give.

Beginning

The one thing we fail to consider when we want to achieve a goal is the number of obstacles we will face.

Achieving a goal in life, especially in adulthood is like a pentathlon.

I had decided that today (13th May,2023) would be the day I start my #100daysofhappiness challenge. I genuinely want to be happy and I thought I should give it a shot.

The day started as early as 7am with a husband and wife squabble. Hopefully, with enough effort and understanding from both of us, everything continued amazingly smooth.

To kick start the 100 days of happiness, I had been looking forward to a preplanned lunch date with my friends (secondary school mates). Somehow, almost everyone cancelled and so we had to reschedule.

I didn’t want to let the cancellation put me in a bad mood; I was already dressed up and ready to head out when the last message for reschedule reached me.

And so I went out.

I went with SonTer (my son) to Ifeanyi from Sunday vibes and did a little restocking for the home. We stopped over for some take out and we headed home. It was a refreshing outing and I was happy.

On our way home, we remembered we hadn’t gotten eggs and drinking water… that’s when I got really happy today at D.O Brothers Store .

#100happydays #intensionalliving

What you seek, you find

As weird as it may sound, one of my happy places is D.O Brothers store. It isn’t a fancy place where I can hang and chill. It’s just a place where I stock up on my household needs.

It is a walking distance from my bake shop and seven minute drive from my home.

It is a family business and the owners are very friendly with their customers. On most evenings, the crowd is usually overwhelming for Zubi and Onyeka at the payment stand. Almost every family stops by between 6pm and 7:30pm.

When I walked it today, I decided to write about them and their hospitality…it is top notch. It’s the reason many people go there.

I had just come from Ifeanyi’s place and I wanted to add to my happy day…I saw a girl and asked her to take a photo of me.

Two minutes later, I found out her name was Shidoo and she was an agent for Nestle Golden Morn. I told her my son loved it and I bought a pack.

She told me I qualified for a scratch card for the purchase and when I scratched, I won ₦200 airtime in my MTN line.

I had set out to have a happy day and it turned out really good.

Change is sure

For a while now I have been thinking a lot about my friend Dooyash, the friend I wrote about in What kind of mum are you?

We have been friends for as long as I can remember, we started nursery school together at age 4. We were also roommates in our final year in university.

Dooyash lived on Golden morn. A breakfast cereal which she had at any time of the day.

Lately my son, who has never liked Golden morn…ever, has suddenly fallen in love with it. It’s why I think of Dooyash these days.

SonTer never liked anything that even tasted like breakfast cereal. I remember how he used to feign puking whenever I fed it to him. The last time I tried was the day he froze and feigned shock for a few seconds…he is dramatic…like his mum.

This sudden love for something he never liked makes me realise, nothing stays the same… everything and everyone is subject to change.

One thing, Different ways…?

I came across a video where several clips were put together and in every clip, we had Lady Gaga saying the exact same thing over and over again.

In the first two clips, it seemed so meaningful and touching… even Bradley Cooper (the subject of her repeated words) looked interested…but then by the third, forth, fifth…hmmmm…it just didn’t seem to end.

As the pondering human that I am, I began to wonder if there was a thing I had gotten used to saying so much that people probably had begun to get tired of. I think I’m going to have to ask a few close friends and family… They are on the receiving end and would know better than I would.

As a receiver, one person who came to mind was my husband. Sometimes I pause and wait, knowing exactly when he’s going to throw in his own. I bet you… He says the words “There’s a difference between working hard and working right” atleast once in every two weeks.

I am wondering, is there a way we can use that very line we like and have gotten used to using without actually repeating the same words? … I am wondering.

Same thing but different ways.

We must all have our common/worn out line or quote… Do you know yours?

Care to share?