Tag Archives: Inspiration

Day 157

I praise loudly, I blame softly. – Catherine the Great.

It’s 9: 48 PM on day 157 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a chicken polony and lattice sandwich for breakfast, watched TV, practice wheeling myself around the house – I made it as far as the living room and no further but you know what hell will freeze over before I give up on myself 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, play with my brother for a while – I LOVE kids they’re so in the moment every moment and when with them it’s like your transported back in time to your own childhood – thanks buddy 🙂 – feed myself a toasted chicken polony sandwich for dinner and tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours –a $5 donation was made by my friend @morsemusings (Dawn) who by the way has donated to my campaign more times than I can remember – thanks Dawn I can honestly say I am a better person for knowing you 🙂

As you may know I have an opinion about everything and I will not hesitate in ripping someone to shreds if I perceive them to be doing something that is hindering human progress but every so often I see something that I believe deserves a standing ovation which brings me to the Touching Lives initiative by the SABC – our national broadcaster – on every news broadcast they shine a light on a story that needs attention and ask the public to help out by donating money/goods/services. Are you always the first one to blame and the last one to praise?

Day 156

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¹⁵ “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! ¹⁶ But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! (Revelations 3: 15-16)

It’s 9: 46 PM on day 156 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, peel and feed myself a banana for breakfast, watched TV, feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today but hey at least I got the word out and tried my very best 🙂 – exercise for 15 minutes, edit the questionnaire I’m using for my book and send it to my friend in Austria for her to fill out (if you have no idea what talking about refer to Day 153) – and feed myself Batura – deep fried bread – for dinner.

Today @DrJackKing (Jack) invited me to become a part of Youth Voices Advisory Round Table and I won’t lie at first I was a little hesitant because I thought I wouldn’t be able to manage my time effectively but after he told me that it was about making the voices of the youth heard and showing them that they too could change the world I was all in because I believe that you’re either a part of the problem or a part of the solution with that said I urge to email Jack at drjeking@yahoo.com and find out if you’re eligible to join us at the Youth Voices Advisory Round Table. Are you hot, cold or lukewarm? 🙂

Day 155

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Sometimes you’ve got to shut the door on the world and open up to yourself – that’s what I learned today.

It’s 10: 58 PM on day 155 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Batura – deep fried bread – for breakfast, watched TV, feed myself a chicken polony and lattice sandwich for lunch, listened to music – you know how they say the best things come in threes I think they were talking about The Jonas Brothers aside from their good-looks – which is what I’m sure most girls are interested in LOL 🙂 – they can really sing – edit the questionnaire I’m using for my book and send it to my friend in Ireland for her to fill out (if you have no idea what talking about refer to Day 153) – feed myself rice and curry for dinner, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – a $21.54 donation was made by my friend @DrJackKing (Jack) just when I was about to go to bed – I was so grateful – thanks Jack 🙂 – and exercise for 10 minutes.

Today as I sat on the toilet and remembered how my parents had basically ordered me to go to the bathroom because they wanted to call it a night I was so overcome by this feeling of powerlessness that I just cried for the next fifteen minutes even though I knew that everybody in the house could probably hear me after which I wiped my tears away and asked my parents to help me out of there and looking back on it now I realize that the ultimate sign of self-respect is giving yourself permission to feel what you feel in the moment regardless of who is watching or listening. Do you always say no to yourself and yes to the world?

Day 154

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Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them. – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

It’s 11: 07 PM on day 154 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – for breakfast – originally my mother had put chicken in it but I remembered just in time that it was Meat-free Mondays and took the chicken out – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today 🙁 – feed myself Batura – deep fried bread – for lunch, exercise for 20 minutes – I was in SO much pain the whole time I kept thinking I’m not going to complain, I’m not going to complain, I’m not going to complain – edit the questionnaire I’m going to use for my book and send it to my friend in Malaysia for her to fill out (if you have no idea what talking about refer to Day 153) – and feed myself rice and curry for dinner – my mom had put beef in there but I noticed it straight away so I was able to go two Mondays in a row without eating meat – I am SO proud of me 🙂

Today as I was making my rounds on Twitter telling people my story I met @noxhanti (Noxi) from Burnley in the UK and she told me that her mother had gone into exile with a group of people including Former President Thabo Mbeki during the apartheid era and that was when I truly understood the enormity of the sacrifices that ordinary people made to ensure that South Africa became a democratic country and I felt so guilty because I knew that I seldom thought about or appreciated those who fought for a free South Africa so to Noxi’s mom – I apologize for not knowing your name – and hundreds of others just like her I say thank you for bringing racial equality to my country. Are you the brave man or woman who’s going to bring peace to today’s society? 🙂

Day 153

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Isolation is the beginning of oppression – that’s what I learned today.

It’s 11: 11 PM on day 153 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself mangoes for breakfast, meditate for two hours – we had a power outage so it’s not like I had anything better to do but still it was nice 🙂 – feed myself barbecued chicken for lunch, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – Emma from Cambridge – who by the way had donated TWICE before – sacrificed her Starbucks/Dunkin Donuts for a week and donated $5 – I LOVE people like her who sacrifice what they want to give others what they need 🙂 – formulate a questionnaire for the book I’m writing – I’ve always wanted to know how woman lived in different parts of the world so about two days ago I came up with this idea to find woman from different countries all over the world on Twitter and ask them to fill out a questionnaire consisting of 20+ questions ranging from their skin-care regimes to their religious beliefs – and send it to my friend Amy of the PennDragonArt Studios for her to fill out.

Today as I was doing research to find out if Twitter was available in all 209 countries of the world I discovered that China – one of the world’s largest economies – blocks Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and BlogSpot and I thought to myself what’s the use of living in a country with a 8% GDP if you cannot communicate in the way you want and I realize that all forms of abuse – human rights, domestic, bullying etc – begins with cutting the person/people off from the rest of the world with that said I am calling on China and all the other countries who have placed bans on all forms of media to lift those bans and allow the voices of their people to be heard. Are you unwittingly facilitating an environment that lends yourself to being abused?

Day 152

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I am a woman in process. I’m just trying like everybody else. I try to take every conflict, every experience, and learn from it. Life is never dull. – Oprah Winfrey

It’s 11: 25 PM on day 152 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 today – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, go visit my cousin, feed myself a KFC Twister for dinner and watch the movie Eat Pray Love – it was SO relatable I could see Elizabeth in every woman I had ever met – I would recommend this movie to the entire female population 🙂

All my life I had been under the misconception that once I had the house, the car and the money my life would be perfect but after watching Eat Pray Love – the movie based on Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling autobiography of the same name – I realize that perfection is not a destination but rather a journey. Are you a woman in process or do you believe that you know everything that you need to know about yourself? 🙂

Day 151

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You can be friends with someone regardless of their age – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 10: 02 PM on day 151 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, sent thank you to Clare – the Facebook friend of mine who I sent a donation request to yesterday – for the $21 that she had made – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, went to physiotherapy – did you know… your muscle tone changes according to your emotional state – you learn something new every day 🙂 – feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and chicken curry for dinner and finish reading The Last True Cowboy by Kathleen Eagle – it was a nice book but towards the end I felt like Kathleen was dragging the story on just to fill the pages.

A few week ago I was at my physiotherapist’s office and she was beggaring me about enrolling for college classes and I said something along the lines of why are you always on my case and she looked me in the eyes and said something that I never expected to hear from another human being in my lifetime you have a brilliant mind I just don’t want to see you waste it and looking back on it today I realized that I was withholding from her the love and affection I felt towards her because she didn’t fit my description of a friend. Do you have a strict criteria that needs to be met before people can start calling themselves your friend? 🙂

Day 150

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Seek not the favour of the multitude; it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them. – Immanuel Kant

It’s 9: 48 PM on day 150 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a toasted-cheese sandwich for breakfast while watching TV, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, exercise for 30 minutes, feed myself pizza for dinner, update my Facebook friends about my campaign and asked one of them for a donation – it occurred to me that I was putting too much emphasis on the Twitter users and not enough on the Facebook users.

Today as I was lying on bed tweeting, updating my Facebook status and doing everything that needed to be done I remembered something our old reverend once said in one of his sermons one who is popular with everyone is not popular with God and as I remembered that I thought you know what I do not care if people walk in the opposite direction or change the subject for fear that I might ask for a donation because I know that God is proud of me. Do you measure your success by the extent of your popularity? 🙂

Day 149

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Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough. – Oprah Winfrey

It’s 9: 20 PM on day 149 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a chicken polony and lattice sandwich for brunch while watching TV, exercise for 10 minutes, feed myself rice and curry for dinner and tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today

As you may know I preach gratitude to EVERYONE I meet but today as I laid in bed remembering how guilty I felt for asking my mother to take me to the bathroom I thought to myself with tears in my eyes who feels apologetic about needing to go the bathroom God I hate this: I hate having to check if a place has stairs before I go anywhere, I hate needing to be bathed, clothed and pushed around everywhere and in that moment I said to myself tomorrow the dawn will break and you’ll feel better once again and with that I realized that gratitude gave me the foresight to know that anguish and disillusionment doesn’t last forever. Are you thankful for what you have even in the ‘bad’ times? 🙂

Day 148

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Unless you choose to do great things with it, it makes no difference how much you are rewarded, or how much power you have. – Oprah Winfrey

It’s 8: 45 PM on day 148 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – two donations were made to my campaign – the first one was a $20 donation from Andrea of the Brite2Briter Kids Foundation –and the second one was a $16.15 donation from Abdullah – I am SO grateful to both of them 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, exercise for 10 minutes while watching TV, feed myself grilled chicken for dinner and continue reading The Last True Cowboy by Kathleen Eagle – I read for a few hours before it occurred to me that my mom had to turn off the lights and go to bed – there’s just something about reading that I LOVE so much when I read it’s almost like I forget the people who stare at me my mall, my father who prefers that I go to the other room when people come to visit, my mother who somehow manages to minimize everything I do and my sister who I could never quite live up to.

Today lying on my bed trying to concentrate on the words I was reading I couldn’t help thinking I wish I was Justin Bieber for a day and in that moment I was so overwhelmed with frustration because most celebrities – Oprah and Alyssa Milano excluded – write a cheque and think that that is all there is to giving but having donated money to various different charities myself I can tell you that donating money pales in comparison to giving someone else an opportunity to give and showing them that they can live a fulfilled life without being caught up in the vicious cycle of consumerism. Are you doing great things with your power? 🙂