Tag Archives: Blog

Day 220

Bloom where you are planted… you gotta make a choice to rise above your raisin’. – Dr. Phil

It’s 8: 30 PM on day 220 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself French fries for breakfast, watch TV and finish reading Boundary Lines – the second book in Engaging The Enemy by Nora Roberts only stopping to feed myself a bread and jam sandwich for dinner – it was a story of two people putting their family feud aside long enough to see the good qualities in each other – I know I should probably read more intellectual books but sometimes I just need to switch my brain off LOL :).

Today my sister and I were watching Ricky’s Martin’s first interview with Oprah after he came out of the closet and my mother who was watching the same thing in the sitting room barged into our room, turned off the TV and said what are you watching… this is dirty and a few minutes later I looked her in the eyes and said with conviction there is nothing wrong with being gay because thanks to Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth: Create A Better Life I understood that gay/lesbian people loved each other in spite of their gender and not because of it. Are you seeing life through your parents’ eyes?

Day 219

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Sometimes that mountain you’ve been climbing is just a grain of sand, and what you’ve been up there searching for forever, is in your hands. When you figure out love is all that matters after all it sure makes everything else seem so small. — Carrie Underwood

It’s 10: 32 PM on day 219 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a banana for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – @mysunderstood74 (M) made a donation even before I woke up – thanks M it was a nice surprise 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, prepare my Kid of the Week feature which will make its debut this Sunday – this feature was originally meant only for teens and was called Teen of the Week but I struggled to find teens who were making a difference so I decided to feature the kids that my good friend, @laurajteacheroz (Laura), introduced me to – thanks a million Laura 🙂 – watch TV, feed myself two bananas for dinner and tweet about my campaign – no further luck.

As you know Prince William and Kate Middleton are getting married on the 29th of April and although I think it’s ridiculous that their wedding is going to be broadcast worldwide when there are more pressing issues at hand I would like to wish them a happy married life because I believe that everybody – royal or not – deserves a chance to love and be loved. Have you climbed the mountain only to find that you already had what you’ve been searching for?

Day 218

Day 217

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Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need. – Khalil Gibran

It’s 9: 59 PM on day 217 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a bread and jam sandwich for breakfast, watch TV, listen to music – I love Keith Urban’s songs because truly we all live in this world and all of us can relate to love, hate, pain and heartbreak 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, watch some more TV, continue reading Boundary Lines – the second book in Engaging The Enemy by Nora Roberts, feed myself noodles and vegetable curry for dinner, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign and read some more.

This morning as soon as our housekeeper came into work I was like an excited toddler I asked were the sandwiches enough to feed everybody (if you have no idea what I’m talking about refer to ‘Day 215’) and she replied smiling at my enthusiasm yes, they were and they said to tell you thank you and I just stared at her not knowing how to respond to gratitude they told me to take a photo of you because they want to see what you look like she finished as she went off to do house work and in that moment the frustration I felt on Saturday while making the sandwiches seemed insignificant compared to the joy I felt knowing that those sandwiches meant so much to them. Are you generous in spirit?

Day 216

Day 215

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You cannot be your mother’s confidant – that’s what I learned today 🙁

It’s 9: 36 PM on day 215 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a bread and jam sandwich for breakfast, , make sandwiches for the people in our housekeeper’s neighborhood (if you have no idea what I am talking about refer to ‘Day 184’) – it was a nightmare we had to make 6 loafs because 3 wasn’t enough I ended up crying out of frustration which was embarrassing to say the least hopefully it won’t be like this next week:) – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, watch TV and watch She’s Out Of My League starring Jay Baruchel, Alice Eve, T.J. Miller on DVD – it was about learning to believe that you deserve the best in life and although the storyline was really sweet the raunchiness of it all ruined the movie.

Sitting at the dining table making sandwiches my mom looked at me and said your dad left me in the rain and told me to go into the hospital with someone else – they were meant to go visit this kid who had been in a scooter accident together – he looked at me and said who would go anywhere with you my mother continued wiping her tears with the inside of her palm and in that moment I suppressed the urge to wring my father’s neck and attempted to soothe my mother but after an hour of hearing her whine I was reaching the end of my rope and blurted out either get a divorce or shut up not because I liked or even loved my father but because I didn’t have the strength to carry my pain as well as hers. Do you burden your children with your problems?

Day 214

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What I am looking for is not out there … It’s in me. – Helen Kellar

It’s 9: 07 PM on day 214 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, email Firstgiving to see if I could pay the Firstgiving fees and credit merchant fees out of my own pocket – they usually get to keep 7.5% of whatever is raised but since I offered to pay a 100% of the donations will go towards building a well in Africa/India – I am so happy 🙂 – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – @bperreault (Bobbi) made a donation – thanks again Bobbi 🙂 – listen to music while feeding myself rice and curry for lunch – it was only the second time in my entire life that I’d eaten alone it and I remembered how lonely it felt the first time so I decided to drown the silence with some noise this time around 🙂 – go to physiotherapy – my physiotherapist is truly the salt of the Earth even though physiotherapy is not the most pleasant of experiences I actually look forward to my sessions because I know that she sees me and not my disability 🙂 – watch TV, feed myself noodles and vegetable curry for dinner, tweet about my campaign some more – no further luck – watch some more TV and continue reading Boundary Lines – the second book in Engaging The Enemy by Nora Roberts.

Today as I was half watching TV and half reading my book it occurred to me that there was no reality show about teens who make a difference which is why I am asking teenagers all over the world to submit stories of their philanthropic efforts by emailing me at adventuresofme@hotmail.co.za the story that I find most inspirational will be featured on an upcoming section of this blog called Teen of the Week (Note: All who wish to be featured must send their submissions along with a picture of themselves before Saturday 12 : 30 PM GMT+2 from next week onwards). Are you looking for change everywhere but within yourself?

Day 213

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It is not how much you do, but how much love you put into the doing that matters. – Mother Teresa

It’s 9: 46 PM on day 213 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a banana for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – @uncledorothy (Vanessa) made another donation – thanks Vanessa your support has been overwhelming 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my campaign some more – no further luck – feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and vegetable curry for dinner, continue to tweet about my campaign – still no further luck 🙁 – and watch TV.

Today I was watching a short clip about Japanese fan making on TV and I couldn’t help but be awestruck by how meticulously the Japanese men and women went about doing their work and in that moment I realized that as long as you perceived yourself to be creating art you would always be successful in life. Do you do what you do out of love or obligation?

Day 212

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Having a meltdown isn’t necessarily a bad thing – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 10: 14 PM on day 212 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a banana for breakfast, practise wheeling myself around the dining room for an hour, exercise for an hour, listened to music, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, start reading Boundary Lines – the second book in Engaging The Enemy by Nora Roberts – watch TV, feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and vegetable curry for dinner tweet and Facebook about my campaign – no donation were made but I did decide to name the well Brannan’s Well hopefully none of my donors will have a problem with it (if you have no idea who Brennan is refer to ‘Day 177’)

Today as I was teaching myself how to get around in my wheelchair I accidently got myself stuck in the doorway leading out of the dining room and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t push myself forward so I just sat there in tears thinking God I know how me being disabled is beneficial for the world inspirational factor and all but what about me I just want to go from one room to another without assistance from anybody and a few minutes after that something came over me and I just decided that I wasn’t going to be the kind of disabled person was a burden on my family and society. Have you ever made a life-changing decision after having a meltdown?

Day 211

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Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else’s skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too. – Frederick Buechner

It’s 9: 10 PM on day 211 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself bun and jam for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, watch TV, feed myself noodles and vegetable curry for dinner and tweet about my campaign some more – ‘Big Sigh’ made a donation – ‘Big Sigh’ I don’t know who you are or how you came across my page but if you’re out there somewhere reading this right now I would just like to say thank you, thank you, thank you 🙂

Yesterday I read on some website that April was Autism Awareness Month in the US and today I made it my mission to learn as much as I possibly could about this developmental disability by watching Youtube videos about it (see below) and what I discovered was that communicating with a person who had Autism was like speaking English to someone who could only understand Chinese which gave me a tremendous amount of sympathy for all those affected by Autism because I knew how difficult it was to be different without having the added burden of a language barrier. Do you have the capacity to feel compassion for those marginalized by society?