Tag Archives: Books

Day 1121: Conversations with Myself by Nelson Mandela

“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It’s 12 : 55 PM on day 1121 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to pray, brush my teeth, feed myself boiled egg and All Bran Flakes for breakfast, read 2 Samuel 24, publish my Disability of the Day feature, tweet and Facebook about my campaign -7 days to go still on $1020 at least the goal has already been surpassed (thank you to everyone who has donated and helped spread the word I REALLY appreciate it) – and practice sitting up straight to strengthen my core muscles.

Last night after I finished reading Conversations with Myself by Nelson Mandela I was even more in awe of him than I was prior to reading this book he never compromised on his beliefs, he respected everyone he came in contact with and no task, no matter how disgusting, was beneath him. How do you treat those who can do nothing for you?

Day 1117: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

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Life is about the journey not the destination – that’s what I keep learning.

It’s 12 : 53 PM on day 1117 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, pray, feed myself boiled egg and All Bran Flakes for breakfast, read 2 Samuel 20, publish my Disability of the Day feature, tweet and Facebook about my campaign – nobody donated so far today either 11 days to go – stretch my hamstrings, practice sitting up straight to strengthen my core muscles and start reading Conversations with Myself by Nelson Mandela – again.

Two days ago I finished reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho the book is about a shepherd named Santiago who leaves his whole life behind to follow his dream of finding treasure in Egypt what I love most about this book is that it’s more about what Santiago learns on his journey than about the treasure he eventually finds. Are you in such a hurry to get wherever it is that you’re going that you’re missing out on this journey called life?

Day 1110: Outliers: The Story of Success

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Success = talent + opportunities + hard work– that’s what I learned yesterday.

It’s 2 : 00 PM on day 1110 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, pray, feed myself boiled egg and All Bran Flakes for breakfast,read 2 Samuel 13, play Cut the Rope on the Samsung tablet – it’s apparently good for fine motor skills – make sandwiches as part of Virginia’s Sandwich Run with our housekeeper’s help and publish my Disability of the Day feature.

Yesterday I finished reading Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell the book basically deconstructs success and shows us how successful people become successful we look at people like Bill Gates and think he is where he is in life only because he’s smart but this book shows us that all successful people have talent, a series of opportunities and a willingness to work hard. Are you successful today because you had talent, opportunities and a willingness to work hard?

Day 1100: What I learned from Have A Little Faith

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Faith is believing in something greater than yourself and coming back to that belief every time you stray – that’s what I learned yesterday.

It’s 12 : 38 PM on day 1100 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to pray, brush my teeth, feed myself boiled egg and All Bran Flakes for breakfast, read 2 Samuel 3, publish my Disability of the Day feature, tweet and Facebook about my campaign -nobody donated so far today but Shasta over at Outrageous Fortune donated $20 yesterday (thanks again Shasta) which brings my total to $1 020 with 28 days to go :)– spend time outside by myself – every time I’m out in nature I’m overwhelmed by this sense of gratitude a lot of people who were on this planet yesterday are not here today and yet here I am I have one more day to live and to laugh and to make a difference – practice sitting up straight to strengthen my core muscles and stretch my hamstrings – something is up with my right leg just doing simple stretches hurt like crazy maybe I’m still feeling the aftereffects of my foot infection.

Last night after reading Have A Little Faith by Mitch Albom – a book about what author Mitch Albom learned about faith from rabbi Albert Lewis and pastor Henry Covington – I realized faith is believing in something greater than yourself and coming back to that belief every time you stray. Do you stray from God and go back every time?

Day 1092: Lessons from The Five People You Meet in Heaven

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Reading the words of others is learning from them – that’s what I keep learning 🙂

It’s 12 : 50 PM on day 1092 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself boiled egg and Bran Flakes for breakfast, read 1 Samuel 26, pray, publish my Disability of the Day feature, read Stop saying that – a blog post about what not to say when someone is going through difficult situations this blog post really put things into perspective for me here I was my biggest problem was that nobody was donating to my campaign while somewhere there was a mother facing the possibility of losing her son – watch Slavery: A 21st Century Evil : Charcoal slaves – a documentary about charcoal slaves in Brazil watching the documentary I realized we inadvertently enable slavery by not asking questions about the products we buy did you know you can scan the barcode of a product into the Free2Work app and find out everything you need to know about the product – tweet and Facebook about my campaign -nobody donated so far today either but I’m not giving up because I know God is working on it – spend time outside – I don’t want to look back on my life and remember spending all my time in front of a laptop I want to enjoy life and help people one of my dreams is to spend time at an orphanage I know that the kids there are very loved by the people who work there but I would love to go there and give them a little extra love 🙂 – practice sitting up straight to strengthen my core muscles and stretch my hamstrings.

Last night I finally finished reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom – it’s about this guy Eddie who dies and the five people he meets in heaven who explain to him why things happened in his life the way it did – I learned a few things from the book 1) all life is connected nothing happens at random 2) sacrifice is something to aspire to when you give something precious away you’re not losing it you’re merely passing it on 3) when you withhold forgiveness you’re hurting yourself more than you’re hurting the other person 4) life has to end love doesn’t 5) every life has a purpose. What have you learned from your favourite writers?

Day 850

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Reading enables you to see life through another person’s eyes – that’s what I keep learning 🙂

It’s 4 : 37 PM on day 850 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to take off and put on a t-shirt, brush my teeth, feed myself sweet potatoes and yoghurt for breakfast, publish my Disability of the Day feature, practice typing with both hands,practice sitting up straight to strengthen my core muscles, stretch my hamstrings and watch TV

Last night I finished reading Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom – the book consists of life lessons Morrie (a terminally ill former professor) passes on to Mitch (his former student) – and I would like to share with you some of the lessons I learned from this book. Take a look:

Greatest lessons I’ve learned from Tuesdays With Morrie

Devote yourself to loving others, your community and things that give your life meaning and purpose.
Most of us don’t live life to the fullest because we don’t believe that we are going to die.
If today’s culture of consumerism isn’t working for you don’t buy into it create your own culture.
In the end money and power don’t mean a thing.
Growing older is a good thing because the realization that we will one day die causes us to live better.
Be present in every moment.
Forgive yourself for what you did or didn’t do and forgive others for what they did or didn’t do.
We live on in the hearts of those whose lives we’ve touched.

I LOVE hearing from you feel free to leave a comment below.

Day 323

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When I die, I want to be
A child in Heaven.
I want to be
A ten-year-old cherub.
I want to be
A hero in Heaven,
And a peacemaker,
Just like my goal on earth.
I will ask God if I can
Help the people in purgatory.
I will help them think,
About their life,
About their spirits,
About their future.
I will help them
Hear their own Heartsongs again,
So they can finally
See the face of God,
So soon.
When I die,
I want to be,
Just like I want to be
Here on earth.

– When I Die by Mattie Stepanek

It’s 8: 25 PM on day 323 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself banana for breakfast, continue reading Love Virtually by Daniel Glattauer, hang out with my brother – he just came back home from a five day stay in the hospital yesterday so he didn’t go to school today – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – Stacey Herbert (@mylifestylemax) made a donation although that was before I tweeted about it so I doubt what I did really made a difference LOL 🙂 – watch TV, feed myself an avocado sandwich for dinner and brush my teeth once more.

Yesterday I was watching the forth-to-last episode of Oprah on which she remembered some of her all-time favourite guests one of whom happened to be then eleven-year-old Mattie Stepanek – Mattie, like his siblings, inherited a rare form of muscular dystrophy, dysautonomic mitochondrial myopathy and was the only one of his mother’s children to live past the age of four but despite all of his challenges he wrote five books – all of which ended up at The New York Times bestsellers list – became a peace advocate and motivational speaker, and lobbied on Capitol Hill on behalf of peace, people with disabilities, and children with life-threatening conditions before he died in 2004 at the age of thirteen – what struck me about Mattie’s story was that he lived his life to the very last second and in so doing left a lasting legacy of love and peace on Earth which really made me think about my own legacy.What do you want to be?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

If you’ve given to my cause or you can’t give now, please help me by sharing my cause with others. You can tweet about it like my friend Stan Faryna. This is the tweet he uses: @Nisha360 is a brave, smart young woman trying to make a better world for us all. Please help her do an amazing thing. http://bit.ly/hC7vOu

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!

Day 314

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There comes a time in life where you have to decide that there’s a difference between being polite and being a walk-over– that’s what I learning today.

It’s 6: 50 PM on day 314 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself sweet potatoes and plain yoghurt for breakfast, publish my Kid of the Week feature, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet some more about my campaign – still no luck 🙁 – feed myself oranges for dinner brush my teeth once more and continue reading Love Virtually by Daniel Glattauer – I started reading it about two weeks ago and truth-be-told if something drastic doesn’t happen with the ending this book won’t be getting a good review from me.

Yesterday we had two visitors who I heard complaining that my grandma wasn’t making sense for the second time in two weeks – first to me last week and then to my parents yesterday – she has what is suspected to be Dementia – and although I am almost always well-behaved this time if I could have walked over there I would have ripped them apart because I have a problem with people who pick on people who don’t have the capacity to defend themselves. Do you have boundaries as to what you will stand for and what you won’t?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!

Day 288

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You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge. – Dr. Phil C. McGraw

It’s 8: 35 PM on day 288 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck 🙁 – read Love That Max and Ryn’s Tale Book of Days: Livin to the point of tears – my goodness there are some FANTASTIC parents out there 🙂 – watch TV while feeding myself an egg sandwich for brunch, watch some TV while exercising, publish My Book Self – a new page on this blog which will feature all the books that I can remember reading over the course of my twenty year life – feed myself rice and curry for dinnerand brush my teeth once more.

Yesterday evening while I was editing and adding new books to My Book Shelf I couldn’t help but notice that all but four of the books that I had ever read were romance novels and in that moment I had an epiphany I was looking for love in guys – both fictional and real – because I did not feel loved by father and to remedy that I told myself what I wished my father had told me you’re beautiful I am so proud of you. Are you in denial about what you need?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!

Day 287

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If you judge people, you have no time to love them. ~ Mother Teresa

It’s 7: 32 PM on day 287 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Chapati and beef curry for breakfast, listen to music, feed myself rice and curry for lunch, exercise for fifteen minutes while watching TV, brush my teeth once more –a guest was arriving and I didn’t want to occupy the bathroom while he was here – start preparing My Book Shelf – a page on this blog which consists of all the books I remember reading over the course of my twenty year life – and tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – I woke up to find that Bonnie (@bonnie67) made a donation – seven kids most of who have disabilities and she still managed to find the money to make a donation I’ll never get over it – thank you SO much Bonnie 🙂

Yesterday we had some company over at our house and quite unusually I wasn’t lost in thought thinking she probably feels sorry for me while she was talking to me and as a result before she left she handed me R50 and told me to make more sandwiches on her behalf – I had mentioned that I was making sandwiches for our housekeeper’s neighborhood during our conversation – which surprised me considering I didn’t even ask for a donation. Is your inability to connect with people solely due to the fact that you’re constantly judging them?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!