Tag Archives: People

Day 221

Happiness comes from within. It is not dependent on external things or on other people. You become vulnerable and can be easily hurt when your feelings of security and happiness depend on the behaviour and actions of other people. Never give your power to anyone else.
— Brian Weiss

It’s 9: 18 PM on day 221 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a banana for breakfast, go to the Good Friday Service – the sermon was about the last words Jesus uttered on the cross and how he taught and lived forgiveness – watch TV, feed myself Batura – deep fried bread – for lunch, send a friend of mine a donation request on Facebook – still waiting for a response… fingers-crossed 🙂 – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself custard for dinner and tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck but hey I gave my all 🙂

Today I woke up happy and free even though my father refused to go to church with us because I knew that what he did or didn’t do had nothing to do with me. Are things out of your control causing you misery?

Day 219

4 Replies

Sometimes that mountain you’ve been climbing is just a grain of sand, and what you’ve been up there searching for forever, is in your hands. When you figure out love is all that matters after all it sure makes everything else seem so small. — Carrie Underwood

It’s 10: 32 PM on day 219 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 – @mysunderstood74 (M) made a donation even before I woke up – thanks M it was a nice surprise 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, prepare my Kid of the Week feature which will make its debut this Sunday – this feature was originally meant only for teens and was called Teen of the Week but I struggled to find teens who were making a difference so I decided to feature the kids that my good friend, @laurajteacheroz (Laura), introduced me to – thanks a million Laura 🙂 – watch TV, feed myself two bananas for dinner and tweet about my campaign – no further luck.

As you know Prince William and Kate Middleton are getting married on the 29th of April and although I think it’s ridiculous that their wedding is going to be broadcast worldwide when there are more pressing issues at hand I would like to wish them a happy married life because I believe that everybody – royal or not – deserves a chance to love and be loved. Have you climbed the mountain only to find that you already had what you’ve been searching for?

Day 218

Day 217

2 Replies

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need. – Khalil Gibran

It’s 9: 59 PM on day 217 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a bread and jam sandwich for breakfast, watch TV, listen to music – I love Keith Urban’s songs because truly we all live in this world and all of us can relate to love, hate, pain and heartbreak 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, watch some more TV, continue reading Boundary Lines – the second book in Engaging The Enemy by Nora Roberts, feed myself noodles and vegetable curry for dinner, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign and read some more.

This morning as soon as our housekeeper came into work I was like an excited toddler I asked were the sandwiches enough to feed everybody (if you have no idea what I’m talking about refer to ‘Day 215’) and she replied smiling at my enthusiasm yes, they were and they said to tell you thank you and I just stared at her not knowing how to respond to gratitude they told me to take a photo of you because they want to see what you look like she finished as she went off to do house work and in that moment the frustration I felt on Saturday while making the sandwiches seemed insignificant compared to the joy I felt knowing that those sandwiches meant so much to them. Are you generous in spirit?

Day 216

Day 214

5 Replies

What I am looking for is not out there … It’s in me. – Helen Kellar

It’s 9: 07 PM on day 214 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, email Firstgiving to see if I could pay the Firstgiving fees and credit merchant fees out of my own pocket – they usually get to keep 7.5% of whatever is raised but since I offered to pay a 100% of the donations will go towards building a well in Africa/India – I am so happy 🙂 – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – @bperreault (Bobbi) made a donation – thanks again Bobbi 🙂 – listen to music while feeding myself rice and curry for lunch – it was only the second time in my entire life that I’d eaten alone it and I remembered how lonely it felt the first time so I decided to drown the silence with some noise this time around 🙂 – go to physiotherapy – my physiotherapist is truly the salt of the Earth even though physiotherapy is not the most pleasant of experiences I actually look forward to my sessions because I know that she sees me and not my disability 🙂 – watch TV, feed myself noodles and vegetable curry for dinner, tweet about my campaign some more – no further luck – watch some more TV and continue reading Boundary Lines – the second book in Engaging The Enemy by Nora Roberts.

Today as I was half watching TV and half reading my book it occurred to me that there was no reality show about teens who make a difference which is why I am asking teenagers all over the world to submit stories of their philanthropic efforts by emailing me at adventuresofme@hotmail.co.za the story that I find most inspirational will be featured on an upcoming section of this blog called Teen of the Week (Note: All who wish to be featured must send their submissions along with a picture of themselves before Saturday 12 : 30 PM GMT+2 from next week onwards). Are you looking for change everywhere but within yourself?

Day 213

2 Replies

It is not how much you do, but how much love you put into the doing that matters. – Mother Teresa

It’s 9: 46 PM on day 213 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 – @uncledorothy (Vanessa) made another donation – thanks Vanessa your support has been overwhelming 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my campaign some more – no further luck – feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and vegetable curry for dinner, continue to tweet about my campaign – still no further luck 🙁 – and watch TV.

Today I was watching a short clip about Japanese fan making on TV and I couldn’t help but be awestruck by how meticulously the Japanese men and women went about doing their work and in that moment I realized that as long as you perceived yourself to be creating art you would always be successful in life. Do you do what you do out of love or obligation?

Day 212

2 Replies

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

4 Replies

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

1 Reply

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?