Henry Ford
The first clue to his talent was when his father gifted him with a watch at the age of 17. All who knew him were astonished at how quickly he was able to dismantle and reassemble the watch – giving an idea of his Engineering inclination. Many were so impressed, they entrusted their watches to him, earning him his first reputation as a watch repair man. (more…)
Which mother doesn’t remember this interesting phase of pregnancy? All I can say is whoever named the rooms ‘Labour ward’ knew exactly what they were saying. At some points in the process, I wasn’t even sure if I was on earth or heaven (in fact thinking about it, I must have been mid-way most of the time). Many times during the process, I gave up in my heart and only recommitted to the task, thanks to my amazing midwife and the ultimate desire to see the reality of my dreams. (more…)
One thing I also remember from those pregnant days is the scans. This was all so new to me but exciting. I remember the anticipation at my first scan… my grandmother had multiple sets of twins and I wondered if I was having 1 baby or 2 babies…. Then I remembered as the foetus grew, the scans were now designed to check if there were any abnormalities I needed to be aware of. (more…)
My first daughter was born just over a year after I moved to England. Being my first full summer living on this side of the world, I quickly realised that open air barbeques were extremely fashionable. You can’t imagine how I felt when an older lady from church pulled me aside on one of such barbeques and suggested it was probably not a good idea to eat barbequed meat because of the pregnancy. What? Living in Nigeria and being raised by my suya-loving father, barbeques were the closest to that and now I had to give it up for this baby – really? (more…)
The discomfort of pregnancy – the days of not being able to get up, the times of morning sickness and just the whole concept of not knowing what will happen tomorrow is nothing compared to the feeling of elation a woman experiences when the baby is finally born. Been there, done that and I can say without fail, the awkwardness of the pregnancy is nothing compared to holding your baby! (more…)
In England (and a few other countries), Mother’s day is celebrated in March; the shops are beautifully decorated and gifts jump out to you on shelves. Like Christmas and everything else, it’s become another ‘commercialised event’. This year, as we approach Mother’s day, I can’t help thinking about the invaluable lessons I have learnt by being a mother. In my opinion it’s the lesson of Conception to Birth. It’s what I call The Secret Growth; it’s the growth that you might not necessarily see but is mounting up to a tangible unveiling. My topic this series is around the discussions of the baby in the womb up until the time it is born! (more…)
Think about the last time you travelled anywhere…Its fresh in my mind as I just got back from France 2 days ago and this time I actually drove down. I remember getting out of the Eurotunnel and putting the address of my hotel in my Satellite navigation device; it calculated the time-of arrival, which was roughly 4 hours – sigh! Based on this time estimate, I came up with a plan – I would take a break after driving 2 hours, refill my tank after another hour and a half etc. You can’t imagine my surprise when I realised it was actually a 3-hour journey. You see, my SatNav was a lot smarter than me and had taken into consideration that France is 1 hour ahead of England. So the 10am showing on my SatNav was actually 9am UK time! (more…)
Interpreting the light
As we saw last week, my yellow paper was definitely showing as green when the light passed passed through blue filters. Same with the way we perceive life, a lot of conclusions we arrive at as we relate with people in everyday life are actually coloured by the filters through which that circumstance or situation is judged. (more…)
Isn’t this the story of life?
Aren’t our perceptions and resulting successes limited by the interpretations and conclusions we draw from our perception?
How many times have you lost out on a relationship that might have propelled you to success because of difference in opinions and view points? (more…)
Zero in on what works
Think back to a time you achieved something ‘mega’ – it could even be as far as when you were in secondary school… Now ask yourself ‘how did I achieve that?’ Okay I’m laughing again because one of the successful times in my life was when I was in secondary school; I was always top of my class. I remember doing this exercise – trying to debug my brains of the many things that made me successful. (more…)