Tag Archives: The Oprah Winfrey Show

Day 795

The world is getting crazier and crazier – that’s what I keep learning 🙂

It’s 2 : 28 PM on day 795 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to stretch my hamstrings, publish my Disability of the Day feature, brush my teeth, feed myself an egg sandwich for breakfast, practice typing with both hands, practice sitting up straight to strengthen my core muscle, watch TV and hang out with my sister and her friend.

Yesterday I discovered that people actually make TV shows about people trying to hide their pregnancies from the people they love – I was doing something and the TV was on in the background – and I just remember thinking this is crazy it’s just seems like everything that’s popular these days involves lying, cheating and bringing other people down it just makes me so sad we need more shows like The Oprah Winfrey Show it was sometimes funny sometimes serious but always uplifting. Have you ever wondered what the world is coming to?

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Day 323

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When I die, I want to be
A child in Heaven.
I want to be
A ten-year-old cherub.
I want to be
A hero in Heaven,
And a peacemaker,
Just like my goal on earth.
I will ask God if I can
Help the people in purgatory.
I will help them think,
About their life,
About their spirits,
About their future.
I will help them
Hear their own Heartsongs again,
So they can finally
See the face of God,
So soon.
When I die,
I want to be,
Just like I want to be
Here on earth.

– When I Die by Mattie Stepanek

It’s 8: 25 PM on day 323 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself banana for breakfast, continue reading Love Virtually by Daniel Glattauer, hang out with my brother – he just came back home from a five day stay in the hospital yesterday so he didn’t go to school today – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – Stacey Herbert (@mylifestylemax) made a donation although that was before I tweeted about it so I doubt what I did really made a difference LOL 🙂 – watch TV, feed myself an avocado sandwich for dinner and brush my teeth once more.

Yesterday I was watching the forth-to-last episode of Oprah on which she remembered some of her all-time favourite guests one of whom happened to be then eleven-year-old Mattie Stepanek – Mattie, like his siblings, inherited a rare form of muscular dystrophy, dysautonomic mitochondrial myopathy and was the only one of his mother’s children to live past the age of four but despite all of his challenges he wrote five books – all of which ended up at The New York Times bestsellers list – became a peace advocate and motivational speaker, and lobbied on Capitol Hill on behalf of peace, people with disabilities, and children with life-threatening conditions before he died in 2004 at the age of thirteen – what struck me about Mattie’s story was that he lived his life to the very last second and in so doing left a lasting legacy of love and peace on Earth which really made me think about my own legacy.What do you want to be?

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 247

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A good teacher is like a candle – it consumes itself to light the way for others. – Author Unknown

It’s 7: 31 PM on day 247 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself bread and scrambled eggs for breakfast, drink a cup of 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 :(– continue reading A Purloined Life – the first of two books in Stella Cameron‘s Charmed watch TV and brush my teeth once more.

As you may or may not know after twenty-five years on air The Oprah Winfrey Show is coming to a close and in honour of that I would like to share with you some of the lessons I’ve learned from the most powerful woman in the world. Take a look:

5 Pearls of Wisdom That Oprah Winfrey Has Passed Onto Me

You can change your reality by shifting your perception.
Everything that you seek from others you have to give yourself first.
Nobody has the power to complete you but you.
True fulfilment is achieved by giving rather than consuming.
Everybody wants to feel heard and understood.

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://www.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 220

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Bloom where you are planted… you gotta make a choice to rise above your raisin’. – Dr. Phil

It’s 8: 30 PM on day 220 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself French fries for breakfast, watch TV and finish reading Boundary Lines – the second book in Engaging The Enemy by Nora Roberts only stopping to feed myself a bread and jam sandwich for dinner – it was a story of two people putting their family feud aside long enough to see the good qualities in each other – I know I should probably read more intellectual books but sometimes I just need to switch my brain off LOL :).

Today my sister and I were watching Ricky’s Martin’s first interview with Oprah after he came out of the closet and my mother who was watching the same thing in the sitting room barged into our room, turned off the TV and said what are you watching… this is dirty and a few minutes later I looked her in the eyes and said with conviction there is nothing wrong with being gay because thanks to Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth: Create A Better Life I understood that gay/lesbian people loved each other in spite of their gender and not because of it. Are you seeing life through your parents’ eyes?

Day 197

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No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots. – Barbara Ehrenreich

It’s 10: 46 PM on day 197 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a cheese and lettuce sandwich 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, hang out with my sister and cousin, feed myself rice and curry for dinner, tweet about campaign some more –still no luck – and watch The Oprah Winfrey Show – today’s episode was about Tyler Perry’s horrific childhood and although I was never abused physically or sexually I knew how he felt because every time I saw my father raise his hand to my mother or heard him call her a bitch I felt like a piece of me died 🙁

As you may know by now I LOVE South Africa with everything that I am however, I find it UNACCEPTABLE that human beings are being decapitated like animals in this beautiful country which is why I am calling on all South Africans to download Shout – a soundtrack featuring the best musicians in South Africa (see music video below) – by texting SHOUT to 33335 all the proceeds will go to various charities and causes that help in the prevention of crime as well as to help victims of crime. Do you stay silent about the challenges facing your country because you’re afraid of sounding unpatriotic?

Day 189

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My disability has made me a better person – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 8: 34 PM on day 189 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Batura – deep fried bread – for breakfast, watch the movie Life as We Know It staring Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel and Josh Lucas with my sister (in South Africa March 21^st is Human Rights’ Day so we are given a public holiday)– it was a heart-warming story of two people who hated each other coming together to raise a child after the death of their mutual best friends I would recommend it to anyone who likes romantic comedies – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – two donations were made today: the first one was a $10 from @bonuschief (Frank) and the second one was a $110 donation from @LegalEagleStar (Tom) of EARLY & BALDWIN SOLICITORS – thanks guys you make me want to get up in the morning and do this all over again 🙂 – feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – filled with butternut and mutton gravy – I made a conscious effort not to ingest any meat because I was on lent and it paid off in spite of my brother who was doing everything in his power to get me to take a bite LOL 🙂 – and watch TV.

Today I was watching an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show titled Sister Wives it was about a man, his four wives and sixteen children and I caught myself thinking what, how, why … this is wrong and in that moment I decided that I would not do to others what others did to me because I knew what it felt like to be on the receiving end of judgment every time I went out people would stare and make up their minds about me before I had even said a word. Have your limitations been a blessing rather than a curse?

Day 170

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All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers … Each one owes infinitely more to the human race than to the particular country in which he was born. – Franois de Salignac de la Mothe Fenelon

It’s 9: 15 PM on day 170 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a banana for breakfast, watch TV while feeding myself a chicken polony sandwich for a snack, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck – send the priest who I mentioned yesterday another link to my campaign – he lost the one I sent him before – a few hours later he replied back saying Hey this is wonderful what you are trying to do. If you don’t mind, can I share this with others? Let’s see how many respond. All my support and wishes for your good campaign. Best…. I am not sure how much it will help but he’s trying and in my book that counts for a LOT 🙂 – feed myself butternut and grilled chicken for dinner, watch the Cricket World Cup match: England vs. Ireland – it was positively brilliant everybody had counted Ireland out before the second innings even started only they didn’t count on Kevin O’ Brian scoring a 100 of 50 balls which gave Ireland a 3 wicket victory over England with 5 balls to spare – well done to the Irish they played superbly just goes to show anything is possible if you believe 🙂 – and The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Yesterday I was watching the news and heard Noureddine Mezni – the spokesperson of the AU – say it is an African problem and we have to seek African solution. This is also an internal issue. Libyan people themselves are against external interventions. We are supporting them and strongly condemn the use of force against peaceful protestors and I thought to myself you’ve got to be kidding me ‘it is an African problem and we have to seek African solution’ crude oil prices are raising… everything that happen anywhere affects everybody else that’s when it occurred to me that the problem with the world today is that people are so busy trying to protect their territory that they can’t see that there is truly only one territory – Earth. Do you recuse yourself from certain situation and conversations because you feel it doesn’t affect you or ‘your people’?

Day 169

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Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. — Randy Pausch (The Last Lecture)

It’s 9: 04 PM on day 169 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a banana for breakfast, watch TV while feeding myself a chicken polony sandwich for a snack, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, exercise for 5 minutes, tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck – send the priest that we had dinner with about a week ago a link to my campaign – hopefully he won’t tell my parents because my explicitly told me not to ask people in our community for donations but I don’t know what else to do it’s not like I can spend the whole day at the mall asking people for donations or organize a fundraiser all by myself – they would KILL ME –figuratively speaking – if they found out I sent the link to my campaign to a priest with the intention of getting a donation – feed myself rice and butternut for dinner and watch The Oprah Winfrey Show.

I have always had this theory that everything you go through has something to teach you and looking back now I can prove it: cerebral palsy has taught the power of perception – all my life I had wanted to be like everybody else but then I realized that maybe just maybe God made me different so that I could have the freedom to be extraordinary – my tumultuous relationship with my father has taught me to love myself from within – ever since I could remember I had been waiting for my father to look me in the eye and say I’m sorry for treating you differently just because you are different I love you just the way you are and then one day not so long ago I decided to stop waiting for my father to come to his senses and start accepting myself and I won’t lie knowing that you don’t need acceptance from anybody else and living it are two very different things there are some days when I ache to be seen by my father not as a disabled person who needs help all the time but rather as a human being who needs to know that her daddy loves her – and last but not least my philanthropic efforts have taught me perseverance –before I started my Clean Water For All Campaign I had tried to raise $1 000 for UNICEF I must have asked all the companies in South Africa all of whom sent me long but polite rejection letters saying thanks but no thanks and as I look back on it today I realize that the reason I didn’t reach my goal last time was because I gave up too easily something as you can see I have not done this time around. Have you learned more from an experience than you have from actually getting what you wanted? 🙂

Day 163

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Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you. – Aldous Huxley

It’s 10: 54 PM on day 163 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a chicken hotdog for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – two donations were made today – the first one was a $25 donation from @morsemusings (Dawn) and the second one was a $10.77 donation from @uncledorothy (Vanessa) – thank you guys you’re support means a LOT to me 🙂 –feed myself rice and curry for lunch, join a few Cerebral Palsy groups on Facebook, exercise for 5 minutes, feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and chicken curry for dinner, continue reading Holly by Jude Deveraux and watch The Oprah Winfrey Show – the show was about Ingrid Betancourt’s new book Even Silence Has An End in which she told of what it was like being held hostage for over 6 years in the Colombian jungle and as I listened to her speak I realized that the only thing people can never take away from you is your freedom of choice 🙂

You may remember that a few days ago I wrote a post in which I said you use your life to help others and you will forever be happy as a human being well today I did exactly that I was online spreading the word about this blog and my campaign when I stumbled onto this post on a website called Daily Strength I just can’t help but think… why me? Why did this happen? People say I was made this way for a reason but after all these years I still haven’t figured it out. Someone told me that God has great things planned for me… but all this pain and hardship is not exactly a great thing…I’m waiting, hoping for the great things to come. Why was I made this way and not my siblings? How can I do anything “great” the way I am… isn’t that what normal people are for? to do great things? What was I meant to do that is so great? Does anyone feel the same way? What helps you get through it when you feel like this? after I read that something came over me I signed up for an account and wrote her a reply saying I know exactly how you feel I even wrote about it > http://wp.me/pZonG-J not as a means of self-promotion but rather to show her that she could be great in spite of Cerebral Palsy. Do you use your experiences to help others or waste oxygen feeling sorry for yourself? 🙂

Day 161

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A saint is a sinner who keeps on trying – Nelson Mandela

It’s 10: 16 PM on day 161 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 – no luck today – bread and jam for brunch, create a Facebook account for this blog – add http://www.facebook.com/adventuresofme as a friend and tell me what’s important to you and who knows I might just write a post about it – my blog is your blog 🙂 – and feed myself rice and curry for dinner, exercise for 5 minutes and watch The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Today lying on my bed in deep dismay over the fact that nobody had donated I thought to myself it is the global recession people are broke, jobless and have their own children to feed and suddenly I remembered my own story and thought you were broke, jobless and disabled and you still managed to scrounge $82 together to give water to those in need and that’s when I realized that the mere fact that I tried to make a difference was reason enough to smile. Are you a saint who keeps on trying or a sinner who gave up way back when? 🙂