Tag: dailyprompt

The more love I find within, the more love I seem to find around me.

I’m writing less.
I don’t like that I’m writing less nowadays. But I’m equally respecting that. I wouldn’t want to force it out.

My days have been calmer. I’m learning every day to be more present. You know, not rushing through things.
Not having my breakfast while my mind is already rushing through everything that awaits me that day, but actually eating my breakfast and enjoying it. Feeling the aftertaste of tea on my tongue before I take another sip.

I’ve tried to keep my streak on Duolingo. Well, apart from Sunday the 16th, when I went outside to watch the Arsenal match and ended up having a little too much fun.
I got the wrong time. The game was supposed to be at 5 p.m. I thought it was going to be at 7.
The perks of being an amateur fan. Haaaah!
Anyway, I ended up having fun.

I find tiny, cute things to be grateful for in my days and, honestly, they didn’t lie when they said it’s all in the mind. Because apparently, the more grateful I am, the more I bump into tiny, cute things to be grateful for.
The more love I feel within, the more love I seem to experience on the outside.
I’m enjoying the grind lately. It’s insane how much of my Google search history involves bonds, estate management, trust funds, mistakes that quietly hurt a business…
If someone were to bump into my history, they’d think, Damn! Val is really up in the game when it comes to financial literacy.
No, hun. I promise, no. 😂
Apparently, writing captions isn’t just as easy as it comes. You need to do your homework. Like, really.

I got an August read from Rouzie. The book is titled The Longest Holiday by Paige Toon.
Honestly, I only started it yesterday, and with how my schedule is, I don’t know if I’ll be able to finish it before the month ends.
I love the book cover. It has some touches of whimsy to it. Exactly how I love my things.
I keep telling people that I’m going to be the most childish 30 year old to ever grace this earth, and they think I’m kidding.
I’m not. 😂

Anyway, I’m grateful for life. I love experiencing life.
That’s how I told myself this morning…. I’m ready to experience today.
That’s how I want to approach life. As an experience to enjoy.
This was me literally flexing my writing muscles.

Live a little and remember to smile.

Cheers. 🌸

If you had to get a tattoo right now, what would it be and why?

29th May, to my tattoo guy. The first time I felt in my body after a very long time.

Which author would you love to have dinner with?

The author of the book that tore me into pieces with every page, Hanya Yanagihara. A little life gets to be the most grim book I’ve ever read. Nothing seems to get better. You think the next page will bring a little ray of sunshine, then boom you’re balling your eyes out trying to picture whatever traumatic event you just read. It was unbelievably sad. I would love to sit down with Hanya Yanagihara, and understand her thought process… truly get a glimpse of how she managed to come up with a masterpiece that genuinely broke me down but also taught me a lot when it comes to holding out space for people who are battling with intense trauma, and also just understand how one views the world after they’ve gone through intense trauma.

If your future self could send you one sentence, what do you hope it would say?

“Val, your timeline isn’t broken, stop living like you’re running out of time, be as present as you can and love your tiny cute life asin genuinely.” 

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

“Your self concept can never expand beyond your emotional intelligence”

What is your favorite quote?

If you don’t fill the void you have right now, even the version of you that has everything won’t be able to fill that void.  – Julian Roz

What’s a promise you made to yourself that you’ve actually kept?

For years I kept promising myself that I was gonna work on my nervous system. My emotions. I finally did. It’s a muscle. I have days when I fall back in old cycles. But I always pick myself back up eventually 🫂♥️

Flowers Don’t Always Bloom Loudly

June was quieter than I expected……and somehow, I think I needed that.

I welcomed June while I was on transit. Then, for the better part of the month, I was home.
Most of my days looked almost the same.
I’d wake up, stretch, pray, get some work done, squeeze in a few somatic exercises here and there, then do it all over again the next day.

There wasn’t much reading this month either. In fact, I’ve slowly been making peace with the fact that my season of devouring self-help books is coming to an end. Once I’m done with the one I’m currently reading, I think that’ll be enough.

Lately, I’ve found myself wanting to simply live more than constantly trying to fix myself.


A lot of family time….and my little nephew completely stole the best parts of my days.
He’s exhausting in the sweetest way imaginable.

Somewhere in between all of that, I quietly ended a number of friendships. Not because there was drama. Just that some differences are quite intense to navigate….and so those friendships had simply run their course.
Surprisingly, it didn’t feel heavy.
It felt like an exhale I didn’t know I had been holding. I have beautiful memories of those and I’m gonna remember them with a smile.

Towards the end of the month, a few beautiful souls and I found ourselves at Arboretum Kajok’oby, also known as the Tree Therapy…a little sanctuary tucked away in Kisumu.
What was once a home just like other homes…has been lovingly transformed into a space where nature quietly reminds you to slow down. And now it’s simply a safe haven.
Without a doubt, it became my favorite memory of June.

There was something about that place that settled me.
I can’t quite explain it, but I left feeling lighter than I arrived.
It’s one of those places that stays with you long after you’ve left, and I already know I’ll find my way back there.

While we were there, someone asked me a question I’ve never really liked.
“So… what do you do?”
I froze.
I stuttered.
Not because I didn’t know what I do, but because I had never quite found words that felt like home.
Later that day, I sat with myself.
As much as I still think it’s one of the most superficial questions we ask each other, I also accepted that it’s a question I’ll probably hear for the rest of my life.

Maybe people ask it because they’re trying to understand where someone fits in the world.
Personally, though, I’d be far more inclined to ask,
“What part of your work do you enjoy the most?” .…Or, “How much do you enjoy what you do?”
Those answers tell me far more about a person than a job title ever could.
But perhaps June wasn’t about changing the question.
Perhaps it was about finally making peace with it.
About answering it without feeling like I had to justify myself.

Sometimes growth arrives quietly, disguised as a conversation you’ve been avoiding.

I know we’re already well into July, but I’m still speaking good intentions over what remains of it.
May alignment continue finding me.
May I continue participating fully in my own life.
And may I continue being surprised in all the beautiful ways.

This feels like one of my quietest monthly reflections.
Maybe because I’ve been in a bit of a slump.
But not the kind that empties you. The kind that quietly rearranges you while life continues unfolding around you…..and perhaps that’s a beautiful thing too.

To the sweet stranger who happens to stumble upon these words…
Please be intentional about truly living.
Don’t wait for extraordinary moments to convince yourself that life is happening.

The ordinary days count too.

I’m wishing you beautiful moments through the rest of the year. May it unfold gently….may it unfold bravely…..and may it unfold in ways that feel true to the desires of your heart.

Cheers. 🌸

A few gems from Kajok’oby. Picture credits (Suvenia Safaris)

Hit 5,000 steps today and drop your achievement here — we’re cheering you on!

Haaaah! I tried

“Self-awareness is beautiful. It is solid ground to stand on. Until one day you realize that awareness alone changes nothing.”

Initially, you are unaware of the wounds.

Maybe because the pain has been around for so long that it no longer feels painful. Maybe numbness quietly settles in. Either way, you move through life not realizing that you’re bleeding on people.

And that’s the dangerous part.

Because even the good ones end up carrying the consequences of wounds you haven’t acknowledged.

As time goes by, simply forging ahead becomes unbearable. So what do you do? You blame everyone else but yourself.

And woe unto the people around you because you’ve grown up in an era that has the language for these things. Suddenly there are labels for everything. Father wounds. Narcissists. Attachment styles. Trauma responses.

You become fluent in describing everyone else’s role in your pain while doing everything possible to avoid looking at your own.

But even that is part of the process of growing up.

Right?

Yes.

Eventually, you get tired of being a victim.

Victimhood starts leaving a bitter taste in your mouth.

And so you begin the journey toward self-awareness.

Self-awareness is beautiful. It is solid ground to stand on. Until one day you realize that awareness alone changes nothing.

Knowing your flaws and doing nothing about them isn’t growth.

You become the person who constantly announces their wounds.

“I’m just an overthinker.”

“I’m extremely emotional.”

“This is just how I am.”

And while there is nothing wrong with being emotional or sensitive, it becomes a problem when those things become your identity. When every conversation turns into a crisis. When every misunderstanding becomes a battle. When your emotions stop being something you experience and start becoming something you weaponize.

A few years later, you grow tired of that too.

You see clearly that awareness alone isn’t enough.

So you finally begin the real work.

It is such a painful route.

It hurts.

You lose people.

Solitude becomes familiar.

Once in a while, you fall off track and slip right back into old habits. It pisses you off. But you wake up the next day promising yourself that you’ll be better and do better.

Other days, the pain becomes almost unbearable. You seek the aid of your antidepressants. You wait for the medication to settle in as you make a quiet promise to yourself….that next time, you won’t run from the pain.

You’ll sit with it.

Feel it.

Face it.

Until it no longer hurts.

You remind yourself of the cliché that healing isn’t linear. And so you begin receiving even the most painful days with grace, reminding yourself that discomfort is part of being human and part of truly living.

There are nights you cry yourself to sleep.

And then there are lighter nights. Jolly nights.

Nights where laughter returns and life feels a little softer.

Slowly, you realize that you are no longer merely trudging through life.

You are living it.

You stop running.

And somewhere along the way, it starts to feel as though flowers are growing inside your chest.

You begin approaching life with a certain lightness. A softness. A grace you never knew was possible.

You breathe deeply again.

You feel at home in your body again.

Sometimes you look back and cringe at the mistakes you made while trapped in survival mode. The things you tolerated. The things you did. The ways you abandoned yourself.

But you no longer judge that version of you.

You understand her.

You know she was doing the best she could with what she knew.

And so you thank her.

Because every wrong turn, every breakdown, every uncomfortable lesson led you here.

You no longer bleed on people.

You don’t glorify overthinking.

You no longer move through life believing the world revolves around you or that everyone is out to get you.

You have learned to sit with your emotions without drowning in them.

You allowed yourself to truly grow up.

And somewhere between all the breaking and rebuilding, you became your own north star.

And once you become your own north star, you stop searching for someone else to guide you home.