Tag Archives: Inspiration

Day 212

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?

Day 210

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There’s no time like the present to make all your dreams come true – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 10: 22 PM on day 210 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, tweet about my campaign some more – no luck – feed myself bread and vegetable curry for dinner and continue to tweet about my campaign – still no luck 🙁

On March 8th of this year I read about Brennan and ever since then my life has never been the same which is why after days of posting messages of support on Brennan’s Brigade – his Facebook page – I asked to meet him via Skype – I’m still waiting for a response but hopefully Brennan and I will be chatting on Skype very soon :). Do you live your dreams every day or postpone them for a better day?

Day 209

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Subdue your passion or it will subdue you. – Horace

It’s 10: 00 PM on day 209 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself rice and curry for brunch, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself bread and peas curry for dinner and tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck.

Today as I was lying on my bed tweeting about my campaign in excruciating pain I came to the realization that nothing, not even the betterment of the world was worth sacrificing myself over with that said although I will still work hard for my campaign and feeding scheme my first priority is to gain independence from my parents and become more whole as a human being because at the end of the day I am of no use to the world if I’m empty. Is your passion slowly killing you?

Day 208

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It doesn’t matter how old you get what you parents say will always hurt – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 9: 55 PM on day 208 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself bun and baked beans for breakfast, make sandwiches for people in my housekeeper’s community (if you have no idea what I’m talking about refer to ‘Day 184’ ) – everything went off without a hitch I guess it’s true what they say there’s a first time for everything LOL 🙂 – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, listen to music, watch TV, feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and tomato chutney for dinner and tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck.

Today my mom and I got into an argument and although I don’t remember what it was about I will never forget feeling like a ten-year-old in a twenty-year-olds body when she said all you have to do is lie around. Do you inadvertently hurt your children with your tongue?

Day 207

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A child can ask questions that a wise man cannot answer. – Author Unknown

It’s 10: 01 PM on day 207 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, watch TV, listen to music, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – Georgina (@edumazing) made a donation – thanks again Georgina 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, go watch the movie No Strings Attached starring Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman at the Hemingways Mall – the movie was really funny but it has to be said the sex scenes were a bit too frequent for my liking maybe it’s because I’m Indian and believe that sex is an expression of love that should be kept private – go visit my cousin, feed myself strawberry yoghurt and tweet about my campaign – no further luck.

After the movies my brother, his best friend and I opted to stay in the car while my parents went to do some grocery shopping and out of the blue my brother’s best friend asked him why do you laugh so much and he replied rather matter-of-factly because I can and in that moment I remember feeling so mesmerised and deciding to follow in my brother’s footsteps by doing things just because I can unless there’s a reason I shouldn’t. Have the words of a child changed your outlook on life?

Day 206

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Everything you say and do reflects upon you – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 10: 40 PM on day 206 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself bun and baked beans for brunch, continue reading Engaging The Enemy by Nora Roberts – finished reading A Will and a Way which was one of two books in the same book – it was basically about two people – Michael and Pandora – setting their differences aside to make sure that their late uncle’s fortune didn’t fall into the wrong hands – I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys romance novels – watch TV, feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and baked beans for dinner and tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck.

Today I was watching the first episode of season nine of American Idol and there was this one particular guy – I forgot his name – who rubbed all the judges up the wrong way with his bad attitude and as I watched him interact with the judges like they owed him something I realized that it didn’t matter how much talent you had – which he didn’t – if you weren’t nice to people you wouldn’t get anywhere in life which explained why I seemed to get along with everybody I met – every time I was with someone I made a point of making him/her feel like the centre of the universe. Is what you say and do an accurate reflection of you?

Day 205

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The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them. – Mark Twain

It’s 9: 51 PM on day 205 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Uppumavu – an Indian dish made of rava. The name is an amalgam of two words : “salt” and “flour – and bananas for breakfast, semi-undress myself – I was so happy when I got my left-hand out of the sleeve of my shirt and I know I could’ve taken my whole shirt off had my mother not barged into bathroom and insisted on doing it for me I’ve got to make her understand that even although I don’t need her help as much as I used to I would always need her – 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 Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and baked beans for dinner and continue reading Engaging The Enemy by Nora Roberts – I started reading it on vacation and I have to say reading a 2-in-1 book isn’t as weird as I thought it would be 🙂

Today lying on my bed with a book in hand it occurred to me that reading gives birth to empathy with that said I would like to invite you to participate in my 38-Week Reading Challenge all you have to do is read one book for every week that is left in 2011. Are you an illiterate who can read?

Day 202

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You should do what you know is right regardless of what anybody else says – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 3: 10 PM on day 202 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a banana for breakfast, survive a five hour road trip back to my hometown of Lusikisiki (see picture of our journey below) and eat rice and curry for lunch – I let my mother feed me just this once because I didn’t want to make a mess in my aunt’s living room.

Today when I was in the car on our road trip a friend of mine send me a text via my sister’s cell phone and my father overheard me saying to my sister tell her I got the bread and he asked what’s this about bread so I reluctantly told him that my friend and I were approaching bakeries to see if they’d be willing to donate bread to enable me to make more sandwiches for my housekeeper’s community (if you have no idea what I’m talking about refer to ‘Day 184’) and all he could think to say was I will buy the bread otherwise people will think we are eating the donated bread and in that moment I came to a maddening realization that all my father cared about was his reputation. Are you guided by other people’s opinions or your own intuition?

My 16-year old sister - Neethu - and 10-year-old brother - Kevin - in the backseat of our car

The security area of Nelson Mandela's house in Qunu - his hometown

Day 201

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There is no I in TEAM. – Unknown

It’s 9: 26 PM on day 201 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 – no luck – listen to music, feed myself rice and curry for lunch, watched TV while feeding myself bread and baked beans for dinner and tweet about campaign some more –still no luck.

Today as I watched the Cricket World Cup final India vs. Sri Lanka and heard my parents joyous screams when the match resulted in a victory for India I realized that the reason people were so passionate about sports was because they felt connected to something greater than themselves if only for a few hours. Do you support a specific team to feel a oneness with others?