Tag: #groundedafrican

I Wish I understood Meow

Bloganuary writing prompt
If you could make your pet understand one thing, what would it be?
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Hi There. I have missed two bloganuary posts this weekend. 😱 I was on holiday, and I was so exhausted at the end of those two days. I will acknowledge it and, accept it and move on swiftly. Right, now that I have that out of my system, on to today’s topic. I think I would turn the topic around and would wish I could understand their meows

Mamacita: 1st of her name. Mother of Gorgeous Kittens. + one of her kittens

Sometimes, it is clear that they really need to get me to do something for them, but I don’t understand Meow, and I get so frustrated. The mother cat is very good at using her eyes to get me to follow her so that she can show me something. She is so good at communicating that she even got a neighbour to help her look for a kitten when it went missing. He was so shocked that he understood her. Meow Meow is good at letting me know that there is another cat at the door that wants to come in, or that a kitten has messed in the house or, if ask him where one of the cats are, he will alert me when they come in. He is such an incredible soul.  Russell is nauseatingly good at letting me know when it is suppertime 😂

The other cats haven’t figured out how to get through to me. They will look at me and meow, hoping I will understand. I will check their food and water, but that is seldom the issue. It is so clear that they are trying to get me to do something, but I have no idea what. So, if I could understand one thing about my pet, it would definitely be Meow.

If you had to flip the prompt around, what would your response be?

Thanks for popping by. Be blessed.

Connecting dots…

What’s your dream job?

Well I definitely say that it is not working on a cruise ship. That’s where I am right now and it is quite clear that these guys work super hard for every penny they get.

Ok so what is my dream job. It’s either a travel journalist or a global qualitative researcher.

Travel journalist

Well this would be for the obvious perk of being able to travel the world and be paid for it. It also requires a great deal of curiosity and awareness of everything around you which must be a pretty cool way to travel. I am assuming that I would need to look at things with a very different eye to the average tourist and I would have unconventional experiences in order to create awareness so that others will try it.

Global Qualitative Researcher

I guess I could just say an anthropologist but not all qual researchers are anthropologists. I would like do a lot of observation as I believe that there is so much to learn through just observing people. I would use the outputs to identify new product or service opportunities for companies. Sometimes old products just need a new story and I believe that observation can help identify that story. I would of course need to interview people as well but most of the research would be done through observation.

Both these jobs require connecting dots for people and this is something that really gives me energy.

That’s it from me for today. Thanks for popping by. Be blessed.

“One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.” — Paulo Coelho

Bloganuary writing prompt
Can you share a positive example of where you’ve felt loved?
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I have read this prompt over and over and I keep asking myself if people have negative examples of where they have felt love? Anyway…I feel loved every day and I only realised this while contemplating a response to this prompt. I don’t think i have ever felt unloved. I have felt unappreciated and perhaps like my presence is unwanted in certain spaces (as can happen), but I have never felt unloved.

Throughout my life, I have been the apple of my dad’s eye. Knowing this, I never had reason to question whether I was loved or not. Knowing that I am loved by someone and, more recently, understanding and accepting that I am loved unconditionally by God has ensured that I don’t need to seek love anywhere. For this, I am eternally grateful, as I know that not everyone has this experience in life. I do find that I have a need to be seen, appreciated and respected. 

There are quite a few ways that this can happen that works for me. An example would be when someone acknowledges something that I have said. It doesn’t matter whether they agree with me or not; what matters is that they hear me. I don’t know why, but that is very important to me. I guess if I looked at my life through the lens of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the bottom three rungs are taken care of (physiological, safety and security, love and belonging), and I tend to look to others to take care of some of my esteem needs, in particular, recognition and respect. 

I am actually blown away that this has been quite an insightful little exercise. I think I have discovered something important about myself! Whadda you know! 🤪 I must admit that until this moment, I hadn’t quite been able to internalise the quote from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Now, I can finally say, “I get it.” 😊

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What insights did you come up with when you contemplated this question?

Thanks for stopping by. Be blessed.