Tag Archives: Family

Day 287

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

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 286

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Gratitude is the memory of the heart. ~Jean Baptiste Massieu

It’s 7: 21 PM on day 286 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, get one hand out of my jersey’s sleeve – I have got to show my mother that if she continues to help me I’ll either end up institutionalized or worse being a burden on my siblings – spend some time with my cousin – some of things he says about gay people makes me cringe but I still love him like a brother 🙂 – feed myself bun, potato salad and beef curry for brunch, publish my Kid of the Week feature tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – read Do you know where you are going? by Janet Callaway (@janetcallaway) – a very well written and honest blog post about how to get where you’re going in your life 🙂 – and feed myself bun and grilled chicken for dinner.

Yesterday my father was talking to cousin and saying stuff like we don’t go anywhere, we don’t do anything, we don’t earn a lot of money and in that moment I realized that he would never have enough of anything because he couldn’t see what he already had. Do you have amnesia of the heart?

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 280

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It always seems impossible until it is done. – Nelson Mandela

It’s 6: 51 PM on day 280 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself an French fries and a polony sandwich for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – watch TV, tweet and Facebook about my campaign – no luck but at least I know that I know that I did EVERYTHING I could to make a difference 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, continue to tweet about my campaign – still no luck but hey tomorrow is another day 🙂 – feed myself boiled tapioca and beef curry for dinner, watch some more TV and brush my teeth once more.

As I’ve mentioned in one of my previous posts being an Indian girl/woman means your whole life is planned out for you, you grow up, go to school, go to university, get a job, get married, have 2-3 kids and live out the rest of your life there are no shortcuts or detours which is why I nearly fell off my chair when I found out yesterday that my cousin was going to Europe on vacation although now that I think about it this is what I would have said if I were talking to her on the phone thank you for leading the way maybe now someday when I have enough money and want to go on vacation mommy and daddy won’t have a problem with it. Do you have it in you to be like my cousin and do something that has never been done before?

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 278

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You should celebrate the lives of legends while they’re still alive – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 7: 45 PM on day 278 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself an egg sandwich for breakfast, drink coffee, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck– feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck 🙁 –prepare my Kid of the Week feature for tomorrow, go visit my cousin who had just come back home from university – he wasn’t there he went to the movies with our niece and nephew so we entertained ourselves by watching TV while the adults talked in the living room – feed myself McDonald chicken nuggets and French fries for dinner and brush my teeth once more.

As you know I hold Nelson Mandela in VERY high esteem which is why with only a month to go till his 93rd birthday I have created Happy 93rd Birthday Mr. Nelson Mandela – a Facebook page where people can post messages, pictures etc and share their love for Mr. Mandela with the world – and am asking you to participate. Do the legends of your life before need to die before you recognize them as such?

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 272

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Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi. – Oprah Winfrey

It’s 8: 07 PM on day 272 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, publish my Kid of the Week feature, feed myself scrambled eggs and ketchup for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck 🙁 – go to my ten-year-old niece’s birthday party – it was as fun as I expected it to be but you know what being part of a family means you show up for each other 🙂 – watch TV, feed myself a chicken nugget sandwich for dinner and brush my teeth once more.

As you know I have recently become obsessed with reading other people’s blogs and since I believe that things are better when you share them I would like to take things opportunity to share with you my favorite blogs. Take a look:

4 Gems on the World Wide Web

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 265

10 Replies

You should be yourself at any cost – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 7: 17 PM on day 265 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Oats for breakfast, publish my Kid of the Week feature, open a packet of chips –three days in a row – I am SO happy 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign –no luck but on the plus side Bonnie (@bonnie67) did write about my campaign in her latest blog post – thanks Bonnie 🙂 – feed myself chocolate muffins for dinner and brush my teeth once more.

Yesterday lying on my bed waiting to fall asleep I remembered something my mother had said to me moments earlier aunty L (that’s what we’re going to call her for the purpose of this blog) said she only wanted to talk to you and not us and I was just wondering if that was because she read the stuff you wrote on your blog to which I gave no response and she continued please don’t write about the fights that go on in this house… it’s embarrassing and you know what I have to say to that life is not a fairytale and although you can make me a virtual prisoner in my own home you cannot make me edit myself just to make you look good. Are you willing to change yourself at the drop of a hat just because other people don’t like what you say or do?

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 256

2 Replies

Life looks a lot different from someone else’s point of view – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 7: 46 PM on day 256 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign –no luck – feed myself a polony sandwich for breakfast, exercise for a few hours, rest for a few hours – the power was out – watch TV, feed myself rice and curry for lunch, rest some more – I had a headache 🙁 – and brush my teeth once more.

As you know my mother and I have our ups and downs but today as I read Those Special Needs Mothers proud moments by Ellen (see excerpt below) – an American mother who has a son with Cerebral Palsy – I saw life through her eyes and I began to cry because although I often told my mother she was being too overbearing I never once told her that she had done enough so from this moment on I will hear my mother’s words with love and react accordingly. Are you in constant conflict with those you love because you can’t put yourself their shoes for a little while?

For most of life, I’m too busy doing things—or too immersed in worries—to give myself props for mommy-ing Max. Actually, the same is true for mommy-ing Sabrina, who comes with her her own challenges (most of which involve a stubborn streak the size of Texas). But Max gives me a certain kind of parenting insecurity. Plenty of times, I’m just not convinced I’m doing the right thing or helping him as much as I can (and I suspect I am not alone here in feeling this way about my child). I swear, I’d like my tombstone to read “She did enough.”

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 252

2 Replies

You can turn all the negativity in your life into fuel – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 7: 07 PM on day 252 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, practice wheeling myself around – it took me two hours to get from the center of the dining room to the kitchen but that’s okay I’ll practise every day and get a little further each time 🙂 – feed myself chicken hotdogs for breakfast, watch TV, feed myself rice and curry for lunch and tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign –no luck –

Today while I was practising how to get around the house by myself my hands were red and my arms felt like they were about to fall off and I wanted to quit with every fibre off my being but in that moment I decided to do something I’ve never done before close my eyes and think about all the people in my life who have hurt me – my father who is ashamed of me, my mother who constantly refers to me as “sick” and my sister who says with attitude I’m sorry you ended up in a wheelchair every time I tell her that I’m having a bad day – and before I knew it I was two steps away from the kitchen feeling grateful for the fact that I didn’t quit because I realized that I was all I had. Is all the negativity that surrounds you poisoning you or nourishing you?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://www.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 250

6 Replies

Love doesn’t hurt. – Oprah Winfrey

It’s 6: 57 PM on day 250 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a bread and chicken curry for breakfast, watch TV – a huge shoutout to Bridgit Mendler & Co of Lemonade Mouth – a movie about owning who you are standing up for what you believe in–you guys did a great job 🙂 – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign –no luck – feed myself rice and carry for lunch, tweet about my campaign some more – no luck – feed myself Chapati and chicken curry for dinner and continue to tweet and Facebook about campaign – still no luck 🙁

Today my mom and dad were arguing and when he had left she said something along the lines of why does he care so much about other people he’s got a sick child – me – and another one about to go off to university soon and by that time I had already had it up to here with my mom because I realized that no matter what I did with my life I would always be the “sick” child in her eyes and you know what all I have to say to that there’s more to being a mother than taking me to the bathroom and serving me three meals a day sometimes I just need to know that you love me for who I am and not who I could have been. Is your version of love wounding your children?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://www.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 249

2 Replies

I am unique in that I see the best in everybody – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 7: 13 PM on day 249 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a polony sandwich for breakfast, make sandwiches for the people in our housekeeper’s neighbourhood (if you have no idea what I am talking about refer to ‘Day 184’) – we made 3 loaves worth of sandwiches and sent her home with 2 extras loaves we didn’t have time to make sandwiches out of all 5 loaves but it’s really ok life’s too short to sweat over the small stuff 🙂 – feed myself a banana for lunch, finish preparing my Kid of the Week feature for Sunday, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign –no luck – go to physiotherapy – I was so stiff I didn’t exercise for three weeks I vow to exercise every day for the rest of my life I know I’ve said that before but this time it’s for real 🙂 – watch TV and feed myself rice and curry for dinner.

Today I woke up and asked my mother if she could buy five loaves of bread so that I could make sandwiches for the people in my housekeeper’s community – I usually did it on Saturday but Nandipha – our housekeeper – told me she wouldn’t be coming to work on Saturday because she had to attend her cousin’s funeral – and the first words out of my mother’s mouth were she probably eats them followed by my sister who said how do you know she doesn’t sell them and in that moment I remember feeling so offended on Nandipha’s behalf because here she was at twenty-one years of age coming to work and helping me in spite of the fact that her one-year-old son had died just a few weeks ago and all my mother could say was she probably eats them. Do you choose to see the worst in people at every opportunity?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://www.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!