In this video is a segment called Split Personality on the Connect the Dots podcast. The host, Louis poses questions, to which we both delve into these questions and give our perspectives.
Check out the Connect the Dots podcast on You Tube.
Thank you for stopping by! 🙏🏽💖
One day it felt like I was on top of the world. Living life with the finest things. So, it seems from the outside looking in. A career that I love. Helping people with services to enhance their lives. A comfortable home fully furnished. Plush yard, lots of square footage. A luxury car. Foreign import with butterfly doors and heated seats.
You understand where this is going.
Next week, on a Monday morning, I woke up. Feeling good, I have my cup of coffee with French vanilla creamer. My apple fritter is in the microwave for ten seconds. I sit down in the kitchen and indulge in my daily breakfast. After, I get dressed in a beautiful Blue A-line dress with a plunging neckline. Slip into my heels and do a quick turnaround in front of the mirror. Ok, I’m all good. Out the door, I go.
An hour later, I arrived at work. Walk into my office and sit down. Let me check my calendar for the day. A knock at the door distracts me. Irritated, I respond, “come in!” The big boss walks in. A dry expression on his face. He sits opposite my desk. “Good morning, Amani, do you have a minute?” Mr. Walker firmly asks.
“Yes, of course. Is everything okay?” I responded. “Well, no, it isn’t. I have some bad news,” He retorted. “We have to let you go. The company is downsizing and there is no place for you. I’m sorry.”
“What! Are you fricking serious right now? I have a mortgage and car payments!”- I angrily shouted at him.
Mr. Walker stood up, turned to me once more and said, “I’m really sorry.” Then he left my office.
Devastated by the news, I started to panic. It felt like someone sucked all the air out of the room. In an attempt to calm down, I sat. Swiveling in my plush, comfortable, high back, leather, office chair. A sly grin slowly formed across my face. The wheels of a plot were coming together in my head.
Security came into my office. “We are ready to escort you out now,” says the squatty guard with masking tape on his glasses.
I gathered my personal belongings. Before exiting my office for the last time, I stood in the doorway and took a final look. As I turn around, all eyes are on me as I walk down the long hallway.
Now, alone, in my car. I exact revenge on Mr. Walker. Who does he think he is firing me! He has some nerve! I’ll show him how much of a big boss he thinks he is. I use an AI app on my phone. I prompt the app to create a picture of my co-worker with a handsome, young, buff, attractive man. The image shows the young man and the woman in a seductive embrace and smiling.
The co-worker is the wife of Mr. Walker. The caption on the image reads, “this is what satisfaction looks like.” I add heart and fire emoji’s. Next, I press the send button. A huge smile takes over my face, and I am smiling so wide; it starts to hurt. Feeling such a sense of gratification, I sit in the car and wait.
Five minutes pass and Mr. Walker storms out and is talking on his phone. “Who the hell is this man you are with? Have you lost your mind woman!” shouts Mr. Walker. Meanwhile, I am sitting there watching and listening to the conversation unfold. He sees me sitting in my car grinning and gives me a dirty look. He continues to shout and yell at his wife as he drives off.
I get home and find two cars in the driveway. One belongs to my husband Malik. The other, I have not seen before. The smile quickly fades and concern takes over. It is 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon and Malik is supposed to be at work. Walking inside I hear romantic music playing. The baby-making kind. A pair of women’s shoes are in the living room.
Immediately, I got angry. I head to the bedroom and push the door open. My husband and some hussy are in bed together. My bed! “Malik, what are you doing at home and who is this bird?!”- I demanded. Stuttering, he replies, “nobody, she is nobody. Baby, I can explain!”. Yelling back, “there is nothing to explain. Get out!”
Feeling deflated and humiliated, I retreat to the bathroom and slam the door. Now, I know how Mr. Walker must have felt when he received a text with a picture of his wife and another man.
The moral of the story is that two wrongs never make a right. Amani is a woman who defines her life by appearances and status. She quickly learned that when you use manipulation tactics, it does not end well. Amani felt so proud of herself for sending that fake AI image to her boss, Mr. Walker, who had just fired her. She was in for the shock of her life when she came home. Amani found her husband, Malik in their matrimonial home with another woman.
The get back is not so sweet anymore!
Thank you for reading! 🙏💖
Image credit: Clarence Alford from Pixabay
Through the narrow lens
is a big bad world
take a step back
sit for a minute
absorb
assess
process
the ways of denizens
in the big bad world
hurrying, night and day
bumping shoulders
not breaking stride
Through the narrow lens
we venture to the street
no clear destination
evaporation into the night
Thank you for stopping by to read my poem, Through the Narrow Lens! 💞
I drew inspiration from the prompt for WDYS by Sadje. Thank you as always for the prompts each week.
Image credit: Rafael Garcin @ Unsplash
The dawn’s early light
Tells of a downward plight
Or the perilous fight
Nearly fifty percent
Land of the free
Home of the brave
Depraved of housing
A basic human need
Nearly fifty percent
Work for mere cents
Either part time or full time
Heavy bombs on descent
Unhoused, homeless, no roof
Paycheck in hand is no proof
Proof of simple liberties
Nearly fifty percent
Show up every day to work
With income, not enough
To secure a dwelling
Prices ever going up
Nearly fifty percent
No place to call home
Across the U S of A
Shall free men stand
Be free in this land?
In God we trust
Always a must
Walk by faith
But not by sight
Nearly fifty percent
Not of unemployment
But homelessness
Nearly fifty percent
Image created with AI using Copilot
That one place
Place no one knows
Knows not where to look
Look but unable to find
Find your place of peace
Peace not to be disturbed
Disturbed for only one minute
Minute that feels like eternity
Eternity only an exaggeration
Exaggeration of time
Time only imagined
Imagined to be infinite
Infinite it is not
Not by a longshot
That one place
Place now found
Found, no longer sacred
Sacred, private, peaceful
Peaceful once, now tarnished
Tarnished, perturbed, just bothered
Bothered, tense, no longer a place of refuge
Refuge from the outside noise
Noise like loud and quiet chatter
Chatter unnecessary and shady
Shady in times when light is needed
Needed to block out murder masked as self-defense
Self-defense now used as a cover up
Cover up for ill behavior of the letter groups
Can’t we all just get along
Along with each other
Other people, faiths and skin tones
Skin tones, just the outer part
Part of the core of a human
Human, we bleed the same as you
You are not entitled to harass at will
Will led by your lack of understanding
Understanding nothing when it comes to rights
Rights to which you are not the dictator
Dictator to all people you deem unworthy
Unworthy to be here just like you
You in all your glory are delusional
Delusional, unfair, self-righteous to a fault
Place of peace, interrupted
As I write this, I am thinking about everything going on in the world right now and in the recent past. Too many people are senselessly losing their lives, and for what? People who feel that they are more powerful than you. People who feel that we are not worthy of life on this earth. The same way they are living and breathing; we have the right to be here too. The world is in chaos and a lot of us are experiencing unrest. Any semblance of peace, fading away. It is a sad state of affairs.
I can go on, but I think from the poem, you get where I am going with my sentiments. The price of peace should not be this expensive. Such a simple concept seems like too much to ask. Peace looks different for all of us. Be it 10 minutes alone with your thoughts, a one-hour nap, 20 minutes of meditation or cherished time with loved ones. Maybe, a day of not having to look over your shoulder in fear of being snatched up on the street.
Thank you for taking the time to read the post. My hope is that sooner rather than later, things will look up. I know in my heart that better days are to come. Prayer is always bigger than any problem.
Stay well and be blessed🙏🏽💞
Virtuous woman, what
A thing of the past
Resolve, compassion, dignity, and the like
Dissolving over time
Into the abyss
Softness given freely
Hearts willing to give
Discarded, taken for granted, time again
The point of no return
Is when she says, No
Get out my face and go
Softness gone, heart shut
Willing, no longer, spent are days in limbo
Virtuous she remains
Now, the wall is up
Check out Delicate Flower, She Be
Thank you all for taking the time to read my poem. 🙏🏽
Heirs, inheritance and hereditary are all the same in different ways. Confusing; I know. So, look at it this way. If you are an heir, you may be sole or jointly next in line to inherit property. If there is a will prepared by the decedent of such property this eliminates any confusion about who the said property belongs to. The absence of a will is what creates the heirs property situation.
Heirs property can create in-fighting among families who may feel that they are the rightful owner. Court papers need to be filed in the state if someone would like to transfer ownership into their name.
Inheritance can be something medical or tangible like real estate or money in the form of a trust fund. Other property can be named and left to a person(s) when someone dies. Family heirlooms or automobiles, art collections and/or coin collections. An example of a medical inheritance can be in the form of a genetic abnormality. You might inherit sickle cell or a heart condition. These conditions are passed down from one or both parents to their children.
High blood pressure is a form of hereditary disease that runs can run in a family. It is just one of a host of other medical conditions that get passed down from generation to generation. Going back to heirs property which is something passed down from generation to generation.
As you can see, heirs, inheritance and hereditary are the same in some ways depending on the context of how you are using it. What a confusing trifecta!
Thank you for stopping by to read! 💞
In this video is an interview with me about the blog, Inspire By O’Nika. Why it was started and when. Connect the Dots host, Louis asks questions about the content of the blog and the motivation behind it. We talk about other ventures like the IBO Podcast and the You Tube channel, by the same name which I also started. The interview gives a little insight into the person behind the blog.
Inspiring and lifting other’s up is what I love. Check out a throwback post, Re-create; Dare to be You.
Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to watch🙏🏽 Thank you for the interview, Louis! Don’t forget to check out Connect the Dots podcast on You Tube.
Social media is here to stay. Do you think it strengthens or destroys meaningful real-life connections? It can go either way. I think it all depends on how you use it and how much of it you consume.
Some people live by social media. What I mean by that is that some people take what they see and hear online and apply it to their personal lives. They start to believe everthing they see and they lose the autonomy of their own personal beliefs.
Social media is used for a variety of reasons. Some people use it to help boost their business. Others use it for personal entertainment, recreational use. It can be a tool to use to showcase your hobbies and personal endeavors. If you are a singer or an artist. Maybe you want to share some educational information.
SM can strengthen connections because you can find useful information about some things in your life and gain a better understanding. You may be looking for a way to empathize with someone in your life and form a better relationship with them. It can open the doors for communication and bridge the gap for some situations.
It can be destructive when people are purposly using it as a means to hurt others. Trolling and saying hurtful things to others. It’s like cyberbullying. Other times people hear stories about infidelity and then they start thinking negative of their mates.
The key to it, in my opinion, is to limit the time spent on social media. Also, know what you believe in and stay true to that. We all are entitled to our opinions and that’s what it is, opinion. Sometimes we confuse it with facts. Just remember that we had real life before social media. Real life is always better than the internet. Have fun with it, make others smile, inform, share your gifts.
As always, thank you for reading! 💖🥰
We make all kinds of connections in the world. We connect with each other in person, by email and online. Do you ever stop to think about these connections and how they are formed? Some of us connect by a common interest; say music for example. We might have a quick conversation with someone at the record shop. Yes, there are still some around. But outside of that, the conversation is null and void.
Does it mean that since the two of you love the same kind of music that you are friends?
The misconception is the thinking that because you are in agreement with something or someone, that you have a deep connection. I’ll give another example. If you see someone who wears the same type of clothing as you, you assume that the two of you are the same. I caution that this is a misconception. Just because someone looks like you, does not mean that the two of you think alike or have the same interests and can form a bond on just the outer looks alone.
Another misconception is that if a person does not really talk to you often but you cross paths with them, that they do not care for you or are not fond of you. Sometimes, it can be that that person is shy or afraid to spark up a conversation. Do not assume that because you see someone frequently and the two of you exchange few words that there is animosity.
We can also confuse a person doing a nice gesture for us as their way of inviting us into their lives. It can just be that; a nice random gesture.
What I am trying to get at is that sometimes we connect with others solely based on one mutual interest. Does that mean that we can relate and connect with them in most other areas of life? Values such as their beliefs about family, marriage, children. Their opinions about politics. This is always a slippery slope. Maybe they have different beliefs on religion that are opposite from what we believe in.
Can you answer this? What is the biggest misconception about human connection?
Photo by Seljan Salimova on Unsplash
Music is a universal language. Jazz, rhythm and blues, rap, gospel, house, soul, rock and roll, disco and go-go. Some of these styles of music are a fusion from multiple genres. While some don’t want to admit that, just read the credits and you will discover. Groups that you thought might have been considered a “black” group, have some origins from other cultures.
Nonetheless, June is Black Music Month or African American Appreciation Month. President Jimmy Carter declared it in 1979. However, it wasn’t until 1998 that it was officially acknowledged.
Music has a way of getting a message across in song. Some people use it as a way to express their feelings. A way to release and purge. Music also brings about feelings of happiness. Others use it as a way to promote consciousness or bring awareness to the injustices going on in the world. Music has a way of uniting and bringing people together, no matter where you come from. It is so uplifting to hear the right song and it gets you singing along or dancing.
It amazes me how much music has changed over the years. New styles and artists emerge. Languages change too. Meaning the way artists enunciate in their music, sometimes you can’t understand a word. Some songs sound like the chorus is just on repeat and not many lyrics to it.
The one thing that I noticed is that songs in today’s time are much shorter. Back in my day, songs were an average of 8-12 minutes. Today, songs are averaging less than 5 minutes. To me, that is a snippet! Oh well, what do I know right?! Music can make you dance, cry, sing, smile and so on.
What is your favorite genre of music?
Thank you for reading. Stay well and be blessed! 💕🙏
Shopping in peace is all we want to do. Why is it that African Americans and the Hispanic populations get followed around the store? Racial profiling exists and it is time to put these stores on notice. Why Are You Shadowing Me? is a video message about just that. What can we do to stop the discrimination and unfair treatment?
Share your thoughts about this issue.
As always, thank you for watching! 🙏 Stay well and be blessed! 💕
“Hate is too great a burden to bear. Hate injures the hater more than the hated. “-Coretta Scott King
Life is so precious. Why live with hatred in your heart?!
💕 Stay well and be blessed🙏
Moving from one state to another is something that we see often. There are many cities and places in the world where it is a melting pot of people from different areas who have set up shop and made a home away from home. A person who moves to another place is referred to as a transplant.
How much time should pass before you consider yourself from the new area? I hear differing opinions on this. Some people say if you are living in a new state for 5 or more years, you are from that place. Some say 7 years or more. I have even heard less time than that. 🤔
What do you say? For me personally, I will always say my original place of origin is where I am from. What about you? Do you adopt the new location and cite that place as the answer to the question,, "where are you from?". Tell me your side of the story. Please share how you feel about the subject.
As always, stay well and be blessed💞😊
The door to the bodega
Opens with lyrics
🎶🎶 Aguanilè
Aguanilè, mai mai
Feeling like you stepped right onto an island
The groove moving up your spine
Bop your head move your feet
Lips turning upward forming a smile
Let me get a Ham with American cheese
And a buttered roll on a Kaiser bun
A grape strawberry Mistic, a quarter water too
🎶🎶 Aguanilé
Aguanilé, mai mai
Waiting for your meat to be cut
The lyrics fill the air
You start to dance, salsa or two step
You get to the front to pay
Bum at the counter beggin’, “let me get two loosies man!”
In a hurry to get back, you get mad
Then you hear
🎶🎶Aguanilé
Aguanilé, mai mai
Forgetting the unfolding drama
You move your feet, your hips, your butt
While waiting you go to the lottery case
Slipping a piece of paper to the cashier, play these pick 3 numbers
Oh and a pack of watermelon, grape and apple Now and Laters
🎶🎶Aguanilé
Aguanilé, mai mai
The door to the bodega
Closes behind you
Ears flooded with police sirens
Horns blowing
Arguments and expletives
Feeling like you stepped back into a war
As always, thank you for reading! 💞🙏