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Monday 10 April 2017

Forgiveness is Freedom

Forgiveness is such a strong word. It has the ability to set you free in both body and mind. To have unforgiveness in your heart is to liken it to being in jail. Unforgiveness makes you its prisoner, you become your own worst enemy. You actually give the other party a firm hold over you. That person has all the power over you without even realising it and you find yourself the victim all over again. The bitterness builds up inside you and it actually makes you sick. To walk around blindly in the darkness of unforgiveness and not see the beauty of life around you.

It is all about having a positive attitude in life. It takes a lot to forgive the other party but in reality it is more for you than for them. It frees up your mind and releases all bitterness in your heart. Why do you want to go around being unhappy and bitter with life? So, somebody upsets you, cheats on you, hurts you and generally life gives you a hard kick in the butt and gut. How else are we going to learn life’s lessons, how else are we going to get wise and grow as a person. Yes, it hurts like crap but eventually forgiving the other party allows you to move on in life. It gives you the necessary peace of mind.

I have had unforgiveness in my heart and had to learn to forgive (not necessary to forget) and it felt like a weight off my shoulder. And it felt great not be bitter and unhappy. It was hard and took awhile but I did it and so can you.
Forgiveness is freedom. It is your own choice whether to accept the hurtful deeds or words into your heart.

 Do you want to? Or do you want to let it just wash over you like water on a duck’s back?

 Do you want to be the victim or do you want to be free?

Life is way too short and interesting to let unforgiveness rule you.

 Let it go. Release it all. 

Friday 7 April 2017

Levelling up

When we were young children we could not wait to grow older, to be an adult, little did we know that when we hit our adult years we would look back with absolute fondness to our carefree childhood days.

Being pre-teen we looked forward to being a teenager, to be able to go into the movies that had those age 16 upwards restrictions. Oh, when we turned that sweet 16…..then we were excited as turning 18 was just around the corner. Then it was that grand golden key time of turning 21 years of age. That age that gave us the freedom to the world. But soon that 20 something turned into the 30 something, which came with the responsibilities of child rearing, marriage and job restrictions. 

Then, before you know it, you have reached that grand level of 50 club. Then we have a tendency to look back at our lives and wonder that if we had done certain things differently, if our lives would have turned out differently
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The youngsters look at us with absolute bewilderment when we tell them to stop wanting to grow older and just relax and enjoy each birth year that you have been blessed with. Those years go by in a blink of an eye. Never wish or wile away the years to be older. Being older is not necessary any better, more wisdom to impart to those that have ears to hear and the heart to imply yes. Yet, to level up into the grand years can be enchanting and exciting as well. Less responsibilities, less worries and more time to just let loose and enjoy each precious birth year that is blessed to you.
Birthdays are a grand affair for all ages. One is never too old to enjoy a good birthday. Some are happy, exciting, fun filled times, and others can be quiet and relaxed. Levelling up in the Game of Life can be exciting or terrifying, depending on how you view it.

So to all out there having a birthday and reading this, Raise your Glass and toast yourself to another Level Up.


Well done and may your future Levelling ups be of a grand and auspicious nature.

Saturday 1 April 2017

Symbiotic side of life

The Oxford Dictionary defines Symbiosis as:

1)      A relationship between two types of animal or plant in which each provides for the other the conditions necessary for its continued existence.
2)      A relationship between people or organizations that depend on each other equally.

A Symbiotic relationship can sometimes be beneficial and then again it can also be harmful. To get into the technical side, the list of symbiotic relationships can vary between mutualism, commensalism and parasitism, though these grade into each other, and it is often difficult to tell which is involved in a given relationship. In mutualism, both organisms benefit.

How many of us have a symbiotic relationship, whether with your husband, lover or in the work place or even in the family units around us. The main question is whether it is beneficial to you or whether it is in the harmful, destructive side of life. We all need someone, depend on someone or something in our life’s journey.

 As adults, can we function without being symbiotic? Are we a symbiotic nation? Is it natural to live off others, to the benefit of ourselves, or are we just being selfish and just thinking of ourselves when we feed off the other party for our own mutual benefit. Most symbiotic relationships work well together, one party feeding the other party’s needs in a mutual beneficial manner, living together in harmony.

An interesting, thought provoking topic…… Are we supposed to be a Symbiotic Nation? A people born into symbiosis, brought up in a symbiotic world. Can we survive totally on our own?


 What are your views on this?

Monday 20 March 2017

Is this as good as it gets?

Is this a good as it gets?

Who of us is guilty of having had that thought roam through your head? To let it take hold and find anchor and make you take a good look around you and wonder “Is this it? Is this all that my life has to offer?”

Have you just let it rule you or have you had the gumption to break out of that mould and actually do something about it. To allow that thought to trap you in its web is liken to a fly caught in the spider’s web and just given up and waits, giving feeble attempts to escape but eventually just accepts its fate and allows that spider to enfold it and consume it. We are all guilty of wondering and feeling sorry for ourselves. To have allowed ourselves that fleeting moment of pure acceptance of our fate of the mundane.

Some have managed to break free from those silken bonds and have become the travellers, the adventures, the spontaneous, the optimists and the lovers of life in all its glory. Some are in the throes of thrashing very hard to break free and are the rebels trying to make a stand for themselves and then some have just given up and have become the cynics, the pessimists and the dour people of life.


So, who are you?




Friday 17 March 2017

Writer's Block

You sit at your computer, power it up and then open up the Word perfect, fingers poised over the key board and then it happens…… Wham! Writer’s block! Not a single thought filters through your head. Blank, plain blank.

All the thoughts that you had been thinking of, all the ideas to write on suddenly are all gone. You make an attempt to put words to screen then find yourself deleting all that you have written. You get your daily Prompt via email but yet still nothing!

I am not one to write on Politics (to political for my brain), Religion is also a big No-No for me (very sensitive subject). So, maybe I should write about the many books I read, the love of movies or the love of life and my dogs. Maybe I should write about the antics while being a police office or about my dreams of travel and adventures that have not happened as yet. So with all these potential subjects to write on… Why the Block?


Ugh the absolute frustrating feeling that rushes through you. You feel like a complete failure, a blockhead! You start to question yourself…… Are you really any good at writing a blog? Is this really for you? At this precise moment my laptop is on my lap and my feet are doing a dance and I am wondering What do I write about….. hmmmm maybe a short note on Writer’s Block…..

Wednesday 8 March 2017

Why Me?

Why me? These two simple words next to each other have the ability to turn us into Victim mode. Why me! The eternal lament of the world when things do not go according to plan. When things go wrong or when tragedy strikes that is the first two words that we utter. We yell it out, we cry it out, and we make those words surround us in that bubble called Pity Me.

 Yes, things go wrong and tragedy happens to us all, some in a big way and others in small, insignificant ways. It is the easy way out and yes, I have been a victim of those two words too. We tend to forget that life has seasons.

Just like in Nature which has its Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer so do our lives revolve around Seasons? These Life Seasons are there to make us grow as a person, to mould us into better, stronger people. We are given Trials for our Autumn and Winter Seasons and when we look back onto them in our Spring and Summer seasons we can see that God (Universe) never gives us too much to handle.  Just enough to make us grow in Faith and Strength and Wisdom… that is, if we allow ourselves to grow and not fall into the Why Me trap and just wallow around in self-pity. We need to look around us and see that there are those worse off than what we are going through. There are those that have had serious tragedies and loss and yet still smile and move forward in great Strength. We need to learn from them. To seek wisdom from them.


We need to turn the Why Me over into Try Me and seek the growth that is given with it. 

Tuesday 7 March 2017

Learning

Why is it that when we are in school learning sucks big time. We cannot wait to leave school, to be all grown up, yet when we hear our elders telling us to enjoy our young years we just blow them off. Then we kinda get lost in the world around us with our daily work, marriages and child rearing. The children eventually leave the nest and we just wonder around the house. Then it hits us! Why don’t we start doing online courses, those distance learning courses. For us that were unable to go to university or college it is the ideal learning tool. Then we can’t get enough of the stuff. We page through course after course trying to decide what to study.

I am very guilty of that. I have just finished 2 courses and am looking for a 3rd course to study. Now I want to fill my mind with knowledge, I have an insatiable urge to grasp all that I should have learnt when I was younger. But true to the saying “Better late than never” I will endeavour to forge forth and soak up all that I can before my brain truly succumbs to age. I fill my mind up with articles on travel and have my dreams to hang on to.


Learning…… we are never to old that is for sure.

Thursday 23 February 2017

A world without Writers is a World without Books

Books are the doorway to immense wealth in the sense of knowledge gained, to using one's imagination into a world unlike the one we live in. How many of you still indulge in reading? Most seem to loose the lustre of reading when they hit the adult world. No longer have time for it, way too busy with work or with the raising of children. How many of you still read to your children at night or even during the day? Do you open their minds to all the possibilities out there in their imagination or do you just plonk them in front of the television or games centers so that they can entertain your child.
To me books hold the key to the wonders of the world. Whether you love the good old fashion book with the pages and scents of around the world or the electronic kind that is for easy usage. They are filled with the sights and sounds of the outside world. They can take you anywhere you want to go. To the cultures around the world, to the workings of a politicians mind, to the escapism from reality into the world of Dragons and Knights, of Murder and Mystery. Book or rather should I say to the writers around the world I say thank you for your amazing ability to take us readers to wherever we want to go. To be able to suck us into your world through your brilliant usage of words.
I cannot see our world without our writers...... can you?

Wednesday 1 February 2017

Parenting

As children we thought that being a parent sucked. They were strict and restricted us from having fun. They were like a prison guard and monitored our every move and that proverbial “Blue Bird” that told all, especially when we hit those delightful teenage years. Oh how we revolted against having parents. The curfew times where a drag and seriously stunted our fun days.  And didn’t you just hate it when they threw that “wait till you have kids then you will understand” at you.

Then we hit the 20 something years and we start to see our parents through new eyes. We turned to them for advice on certain things, learned on them a bit more for moral support and also the financial support. Then we have our own children and boy does it hit home. Those words that were uttered by our parents come back to haunt us. The “wait till you have kids” speech. That speech turns out to be so true. How do then turn to our parents for more than just moral support, we turn to them and see them in a new light. How do we appreciate our parents now? We can now see what they went through, all the sacrifices that they made so that we could live without fear and worries. The truths that they kept hidden from us on finances and food worries. How much they gave up just so that we, as children, would not go without. 

The boundaries that they set up for us then make sense to us know. Why they were set up was to keep us safe and to give us structure. The discipline given was to make us into the mature grown adults we are today. So what do we do? We start to do the same with our children. We try to give them the same safe structure that was given to us. We try to instil into them the history that was given to us. We turn into our parents…..the ones that we always use to say that we didn’t want to be like. The same words come out of our mouths……but, yet, this time around we are proud to be like them. Proud to have turned into the adults we are today because of what they did for us. All we can hope for is that what we were taught we can carry over into our children and hope and pray that they turn out to be well adjusted mature adults too.

I use to dread turning into my Mother, now, when I look into the mirror and see her face staring back at me I am quite proud to be called My Mother’s Daughter. I miss her a lot, I miss her laughter, her nutty ways and most of all her wisdom and her love. Never take your parents for granted because the day will come when they are no longer around and the longing for days gone by hits you like a brick wall. All the “what ifs” come rushing in so do now what you can for them. Love them and care for them even if they are hard to live with because when they are gone, they are gone for good. Soak up all the wisdom and advice that they give you even if you do not need it now as there will come a day when you do need it and it is residing in you to take it and use it.

Parenting is not an easy thing to do. You make mistakes but you learn by it. No parent is perfect, even your own parents. It is a full time occupation and not to be taken lightly. It is never over even when your children have children of their own. It is for a life time and can be a most amazing experience that we are blessed with.


Parents…..love them, enjoy them, and take care of them and most of all Treasure them.

Monday 2 January 2017

Enter the New Year

Day 2 of the year 2017 and the world still seems to be asleep. The remembrance of the celebrations are still hanging in the air. Even the cars sound slow on the roads outside. It is as if time has stood still, awaiting the awakening of the world to the New Year. The Auld Lange Syne has been sung and the streamers have been thrown, champagne corks have popped and toasts have been toasted. Families have gotten together and had their family time for the New Year’s Day braai time. Christmas decorations are ready to be put away and out comes the “get ready for the back to school” goodies.

New Year’s Resolutions are being made only to be broken within the first month. My resolution is not to make any but to just improve myself and my way of life. To not make myself miserable with all the “what ifs” that still hang ripe in the air. To take this year by the horns and run with it. To make it my own. The Astrologists and Numerologists have said that the year 2016 was the year of endings and now the New Year of 2017 is to be the Year of New Beginnings. Which I find very apt in my line of thought. I have a new grandchild on the way, my other little cowboy turns a whole glorious 1 year and I have a new daughter in law on the way. I intend to push forward and grow my little online second hand book store and just throw myself wholeheartedly into this year.

To have no regrets, to strive to live to the fullest, to love my God even more and to totally stand in His Faith and shine in His Grace. To own this bloody peri menopause crap that I am going through and to strive to see the good in all the bad, to see the silver lining in that which goes wrong. To learn by my mistakes and to own them. To grow as a person and yes, to even try to eat a lot healthier.

My goals are simple and obtainable so as the sleepy, humid Day 2 creeps into the afternoon, I find that my heart and mind are in sync with each other. To love more and to live more. God willing I have another good 30 – 40 years left on this great Earth so I want to enjoy them to the best of my ability. I want to live to the grand old age of in my 90s and have fun with my grandchildren. To become that Nana that will make an impact on their lives. I want to be able to impart my knowledge to not only them but to those I come into contact with.

We live a life and learn and to go to the grave without sharing our knowledge is surely not what this life is all about. To help others, to teach others, to learn from others and be helped by them. We are given this life to learn and teach and to grow and to enjoy what is given to us.


“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis