Tag Archives: Inspiration

Day 76

Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true – Napoleon Hill.

It’s 8: 32 PM on day 76 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread –    and Chicken Curry  for breakfast,    spend time with my cousins – I was a bit sad that this was the last time that  my cousin – the youngest of the two –  would come shopping with us as a single woman but as the saying goes if you love them you’ll set them free 🙂 –     feed myself KFC  Sprinkle Pops – tiny ball-shaped chicken nuggets with different flavours on it – for lunch, wheel myself  out of the dining room and into the sitting room where I wheeled myself to the centre of the room and touch the coffee table – it won’t be long until I am able to wheel myself everywhere  I  just KNOW it 🙂     and exercise for 10 minutes – it was my sister’s turn to help me exercise today and she nearly broke my legs LOL 🙂     

A few weeks ago I was reading an article about Nelson Mandela’s new book Conversions with Myself and I thought to myself I want this book and today my cousins bought it for me as a Christmas present – they took us to the mall and asked us to pick out anything we wanted and Nelson Mandela’s book was the first book I saw in the book store so I took it and it was only when I got home that I remembered that I wanted to buy that book all along.  Have you ever transformed your thoughts into physical reality? 🙂

Day 75

Where there is a will, there is a way. If there is a chance in a million that you can do something, anything, to keep what you want from ending, do it. Pry the door open or, if need be, wedge your foot in that door and keep it open.” – Pauline Kael.

It’s 5: 15 PM on day 75 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Sweet Potatoes and Yoghurt  for breakfast,    spend two hours tweeting about my Clean Water For All Campaign – I know people want to give but obviously I’m asking the wrong people 🙁 –     feed myself rice and curry for lunch, wheel myself around the dining room and into the sitting room – at first I just wanted to make it to the fridge – took a little break drank a glass of water by myself – after which  I began to wheel myself to the first chair to my left and then the second and pretty soon I’d come full circle and I thought to myself I’ve come this far why not go all the way and wheel myself to the sitting room and so I did – I’m freaking AWESOME!!! 🙂 – and exercise for 30 minutes – my hamstrings were killing me and I was sweating like a pig – it wasn’t a pretty sight – kinda like my life really LOL 🙂     

Do you remember a few weeks ago I was in tears because my parents wouldn’t take me to my cousin’s wedding in India? Well thanks to the wonders of modern technology and a brilliant suggestion from my friend @DianaRusso  I might get to go to the wedding after all – I am going to ask her to ask somebody else to set up a high-speed internet connection and a laptop with a webcam on it at both her engagement and her wedding – I know it won’t be the same but I didn’t want to go to the wedding just to take photographs with her I just want to see her tie the knot and know that she’s happy and if this works out I will get to do exactly that – I made a decision about 3 years ago that I wouldn’t let my disability or other people’s prejudges against me stop me from doing something I really wanted to do  and this situation is just a prime example of that 🙂 Is your circumstance stopping you from doing something you really want to do? – If the front door closes try coming in through the back 🙂

Day 74

Knowledge is power – Sir Francis Bacon.

It’s 6: 31 PM on day 74 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a Banana for breakfast,    memorize the common formulae in my notes – I think I’ve got it down pat 🙂 –     feed myself rice and curry for lunch, practised wheeling myself around the house – today I got to The sitting room and tomorrow I’ll get a little further and pretty soon I’ll be able to wheel myself everywhere without any assistance  I just KNOW it 🙂 – and went to physiotherapy – I LOVE my physiotherapist I feel like she’s the only person on the  planet who sees me for my soul rather than my body – I remember once my mother said to someone  this is Nisha my sick daughter and my jaw dropped to the floor – literally LOL 🙂

Today morning I took the plunge and had my blood sugar levels tested not because I exhibited any of the symptoms but because I felt like I should know what was going on with my own body and I’m happy to report that my blood sugar level was 5 – 4 to 8 is the normal range – after I took the test which took less than 20 seconds out of my day I felt a great sense of relief and with that said I would like to ask all of you to get your blood sugar tested either at home – you can buy a portable blood sugar monitor at your local pharmacy – or you can ask your doctor to run a simple blood test because at the end of the day what you don’t know can KILL you.  Will you follow in my footsteps and get your blood sugar levels tested? 🙂

Day 73

First time victim second time volunteer – Gavin de Becker.

It’s 7: 12 PM on day 73 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Oats for breakfast,    learn how to calculate Definite Integrals using Trigonometric Identities – trust me it was as boring as it sounds LOL 🙂 –    feed myself rice and curry for lunch, and exercise for 10  minutes – I was crying the whole time thinking about the fact that my family won’t take me to  India for my cousin’s wedding just because I’m on a wheelchair – I’ve really tried to get over it I really have but I’ve pictured being at my cousin’s wedding ever since I was five 🙁

Today as I was staring at the lavender outside our dining room window it occurred to me that the only reason my father was able to hurt me was because I allowed him to by waking up every day and hoping that today would be the day that he finally realized the error of his ways and came to apologize but now I realize that that day may never come and as hard as it for me I’ve made my peace with it. Are you allowing someone you love to hurt you? 🙂

Day 72

Meditate – empty the mind of thoughts, or concentrate the mind on one thing, in order to aid mental or spiritual development, contemplation, or relaxation.

It’s 6: 49 PM on day 72 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Oats for breakfast, tweeted people about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no one has donated so far today but hey $2 027 is way better than $0 🙂 –    learn how to do Substitutions with Definite Integrals – it’s simple actually just replace the numbers with variables – peeled and ate a banana – I wish somebody had told me to use my wrist rather than my  fingernails while peeling it maybe than I wouldn’t have wasted an hour of my life doing something that I could have just as easily have done in five minutes LOL 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, practise wheeling myself from the couch to the centre of the sitting  room – it took me quite a long time to do it but I think that was because I was watching Oprah while doing it –    and exercise for five minutes – my muscles are a lot less stiff than they were yesterday – I feel AWESOME!!!! 🙂

I used to think that meditation constituted of sitting cross-legged Indian-style and saying Om but yesterday as I was laying in bed listening to the sound of the crickets I realized that meditation is anything that brings stillness to your life. What do you do on a daily bases to bring stillness to your life? 🙂

Day 71

To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature – Adam Smith.

It’s 6: 47 PM on day 71 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself All-Bran Flakes for breakfast, learn the formula to find the area under any graph –∫_a^b▒〖f(x)dx=F(b)- F(a)〗 – help myself in the bathroom – I debated with myself about whether to write this or leave it out and some of you make feel that this is too much information but at the beginning of this journey I promised myself that I would record every success, failure and embarrassing moment so as to inspire the citizens of the world to be better than they think they are 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, and exercise for 30 minutes –I could sense that my mother wasn’t being present while helping me exercise and as a result I became increasingly irritated and my muscles got tighter – overall it wasn’t a particularly pleasurable experience – it never is – but today was especially awful 🙁

As you may or may not know Oprah Winfrey is calling for an end to distracted driving where she is asking people to sign the No Phone Zone pledge agreeing not to text or talk on the phone while driving and even though I don’t drive I fully support this initiative  because at the end of the day NOTHING that anybody has to say to you is worth killing somebody’s mother, father, sister or brother and so with that said I would like to ask all of you to take the pledge and spread the word. Will you help Oprah and I change the world one driver at a time? 🙂

Day 70

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.  ~Charles Dickens ~

It’s 6: 41 PM on day 70 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Oats  for breakfast, learn define Integrals – if I never see the letters ex again it will be to soon LOL 🙂  –    feed myself rice and curry for lunch, practise using my right-hand by clicking the ‘Follow’ button on Twitter – it took me about 15 minutes to click ‘Follow’ 37 times if I had done it using my left-hand it would only have taken 5 minutes but hey the point is I stuck it out and resisted the urge to use my left-hand 🙂 – and exercise for 10 minutes

Today I was in the bathroom doing my own thing when it occurred to me that people are judged by what they can’t do rather then what they are doing and that realization just made me cry because when people first meet me all they see is my wheelchair and the fact that I cannot walk. Do you sometimes spend time in the bathroom crying over your situation even through you might be powerless to change it?