7 Benefits You Can Get From Meditation

                                        7 Benefits of Meditation
                                      by Kaya Omodele @theabeng

Meditation enhances our spiritual, mental and physical balance, and enables us to experience "the moment."  Meditation also sharpens our focus and awareness; it heightens our senses and alertness.

7 Benefits we get from meditation (holding a meds):

1. Relieve our stress and tension
2. Gain a greater sense of spiritual and mental balance
3. Improve our positive energy flows
4. Reduce muscle tension and joint pains
5. Relieve headaches and migraines
6. Calm nervous/anxiety/panic attacks
7. Achieve a higher heights- a greater sense of spiritual and psychological wellbeing

Abeng Poetry: How To Build A Brick Foundation

                                            Building A Foundation (A Freestyle Poem)

                                       copyright 2016 K. Omodele @TheAbeng

"When we build, let us think that we build for ever." ~ John Ruskin

Don't topple each other down

over indiscretions the dotish

have dished us in the past.

Won't shackle

and bind you

for another's crimes-

her shuffling on like a

visitor in zoo; turning

back on the encaged,

leaving without further thought

-not even, a   lingering

thought    after.

No, that wasn't you!

You're thugging through

determination etched in your brow

Lips pursed! Eyes holding true

heart holding thru

stacking through

thoroughly troweling

building, time piled on time.

Don't punish me for some lame's sins-

those creeps stabbing you deep

daggers in the back; lending

you hearts, then upending your

hopes, snatching I-Do whispers back.

Houses built on sand

inevitably tumble...

But I'm constructing with you,

creating a deep foundation

Erecting deep-rooted pylons,

like Bayna-Lehkem*-shoulder-to-shoulder

-with-Taitu** deep; planted,

taking on Legions of Rome

heads high, defending home

laying bricks in a foundation

mortared with time

poured into time.

*the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik (or Menylek)II

** Empress Taitu was Menelik II's wife. Together the battled against the Italian forces, defending Ethiopia from colonization, ultimately defeating the Italians at the Battle of Adowa.

A Father's Rights vs Planned Parenthood

                       A Father's Rights Vs Planned Parenthood

                             by Kaya Omodele @TheAbeng

In all this drama about Planned Parenthood harvesting tissue from aborted fetuses, in all the quarrels over abortion rights and pro-choice and women's right to choose, couple things been NNNINGing in my ear worse than some pregnant mosquitoes: What about the man's rights, the father's voice? Wgoin mention a father's rights in this whole controversy? The man should at least have some voice in the debate, not true?

hen we

Now, before some of you women's rights banner bearers start hunting for some big stones to pelt me down, I am not talking in behalf of pro- this or anti- that. That is for you, your God (or your there-is-no-such-thing), and your conscience to sort out. The axe I'm grinding is because neither abortion clinics, doctors nor Planned Parenthood don't ever have to consult the potential father (of whom without there would be no seed planted in nobody's egg). There is no law currently in place, that I know of, which enforces the father's rights before the act, to see if that father wants his child brought to term.

However, there are a whole heap of laws holding him financially responsible for supporting the child when the woman gives birth. That seems a little off to me- on one hand, if a man  doesn't want a child but the woman does, the man is obligated. On the next hand, he wants the child but the mother doesn't, now he has no say, no voice in the matter? Wha' de hell???

I see you running for them stones again. Yes, I know, is not my body swelling and aching through pounds of changes; is not me who gon have to wear stretch marks and carry on with hormonal turmoil. You're right. But you can't blame a man for nature, though. If I could carry my child I would. All I'm saying is that the time has come for open dialogue about a father's rights. If this is truly planned parenthood, then there must be other options to consider. Example, paternal custody.

So, when the father wants his child to be born and the mother doesn't, I think that the father's wishes must be considered before making an ultimate, unilateral decision. Abortion shouldn't be the first and only option, the end all be all without even consulting the man. Where are the father's rights. If the mother doesn't want the child, then she can just relinquish all parental rights; let the father have the child.