Songs of the Week

Music inspires me in all kinds of ways! I thought I would share some of my favourites of the week so enjoy!
Peace and love!
Win

What roles do you play?

I have always loved elephants.

Only a few things keep me purely interested for a long amount of time. A lot of things move my heart but not many move my soul. But, since I was a kid, there is just something about them that has always kept me mesmerised and I still don't know why.

Together they travel in herds with their families and are very royal to their herds. When one family member dies, they don't leave the body to rot away to be ruthlessly eaten by vultures. No. They bury their dead by covering the deceased with branches and leaves and twigs. Some have been observed to find them shedding tears over their loved ones and return to the grave for months and years to come. 

"Hans Schomburgk, a famous African hunter and explorer, gives an example of the elephants burying their dead. Once his fellow had to kill an elephant who became dangerous. The body has been removed to avoid possible infection. A day later they observed that another elephant have brought its shoulder blade bone and put in the place where this elephant died. And since that time each day comes to the place where it killed him and stays there about two hours each day. They decided to check this and it got to be true: the elephant stayed about two hours and right where this tragedy took place"

Individually, they possess great intelligence, picking up skills taught by men remarkably well, and are able to show signs of great happiness and joy. I see innocence and dignity when I look at them and I see they play their part in life very well with responsibility. And it got me thinking about us as humans and how we play our part...

What roles do we take on from the moment we are born as individuals separated from our mothers' wombs to the very last breath we take? What roles define us in life? Do we play our roles well?

We are first the sons and daughters. We are young. We are curious. We take great pleasure in the little things like getting a toy to play with, being played with, running on a wide plane of grass and getting to feel that tingly sensation on your feet. We are passionate unknowingly and rebellious: we resist when we don't want to eat what our parents feed us with, we cry and shout when we don't get our way.

But still, we cannot stand on our own two feet. We need the support of our parents to guide us as we walk and talk. We need them to teach us so that we can distinguish what is right and wrong as we emerge and get more involved with other people and the world around us, so we don't make many mistakes that we may end up regretting that will cause us pain.

We are also sisters and brothers. The siblings we grow up with have a great potential to grow into life-long companions. Because they are our blood, the people who we feel we can genuinely reveal ourselves to first before we can reveal ourselves to the world. We fight with our siblings; we do many things to annoy them as they annoy us in return; we shout at our siblings for being inconsiderate, for being 'mean' and we sometimes ignore and choose to stay in isolation. But this is normal. 

How we grow up as individuals goes back to our family unit. When love is present in our family unit, we are in the safe nurturing cocoon. As we grow up, we take our family values with us. And as long as we choose to stay loyal, they will always be a part of our lives. They are the most important definition of our identity. 

We start becoming students and friends as we associate more with the society.

Teachers first define our growth as, aside from family, these people are the next set of adults who teach you something new. They teach us to revel in our knowledge, to realise our skills and to effectively use them and to set ourselves goals so we achieve. It is during our learning years that we begin to find out about what we enjoy, learning deeply about science, about the world, about religion... We learn because we have to and most times we simply hate it. But we also learn because we are curious again. And as the years go by we get closer to finding out exactly what our passions are. What we really love and believe in that makes us act with strength, courage and dignity. This is where we find out the second definition of our identity.

Friendships and how our friends contribute to our lives with their presence also gives a whole new meaning to our values and our ambitions and our ways of thinking. In return we give them a helping hand, we respect their goals and wishes so they too can fulfill their ambitions, or just be someone who understands them and act with love when we are all away from our families. But there comes a time when we realise not all friends are trustworthy; some friends may take advantage by seeing us by our assets, engaging in gossip or acting with ingenuity. This is when we learn to take care when we choose our friendships and realise that sometimes the best way is to part ways with those who do us more bad than good. 

In time, we become husbands or wives, our last definitive role.

Here, we meet the greatest friendship you will ever gain in your life. We identify ourselves as someone's beloved because it is here that we set a whole new set of rules and identity for our own emerging family. Here, we are fragile. Sometimes our role as a husband or a wife may end. Sometimes we may be lucky enough to find love that is as big as the love of a family to see us through to the rest of our lives. 

Do you play your roles well? What role has defined you most in your life?

A Great Story

This is by Tyler from  http://advancedriskology.com/

I have not written the following story whatsoever and fully credit the great writer above; I only found this story on his website (click here to see) and it was so mind-opening for me that I just had to share it here!
Go check out his site, it is one of the more established and unique blogs where Tyler gives you a whole new outlook for living life in a different way...

The Dreamer Who Made Big Plans

The last five years had been hard on Sarah. She always thought she’d grow up to be an adventurer. When she was little, she dreamed of becoming a travel photographer.

So where did everything go wrong? Why was she sitting here in this call center trying to sell kitchen knives to grandmothers?

“Something has to change,” she’d say to herself as she sat down with her cup of mediocre coffee each morning. “Someday, I’m going to get out of here.”

Weeks went by and things got worse. One day, someone yelled at her for calling during dinner. She cried. Her boss said that was “unprofessional” and put her on probation.

That night, Sarah decided to make a plan. “I want out of this job in six months!” she thought to herself as she pulled out her notebook and pen to start scribbling notes. “But how am I going to make that happen?”

She thought for a minute and came up with a list of things she’d need:

1. Enough money to live for six months.
2. A new place to live that’s less expensive.
3. Some connections to help her get her freelance business started.

And just like that, the plan was in motion. Soon, she’d be off and traveling, not a care in the world.

She told a few of her close friends what she was up to, and they were all scared, but excited for her. They had lots of questions, and Sarah was happy to answer all of them.

But then, one of her friends asked, “What’s the very first thing you’re going to do once you quit?”

Sarah thought for a second and realized she didn’t have an answer. “I don’t know!” she said. “I guess I’ll figure it out once I get there.” No one thought twice about it, including Sarah.

A few months went by and Sarah had been mostly faithful to her plan. She was saving money, she’d been on the lookout for a cheaper place to live, and she’d even made a few new friends that were freelancers.

Out for beers one night, her new friends asked her, So, Sarah. You’re only a few months away from your goal. What’s the very first thing you’re going to do when you quit?”

Sarah realized she still hadn’t worked on an answer, so she just replied, “Well, I’ll probably just take some time off and then figure it out then.”

Everyone shrugged it off and went back to drinking.

One month before her deadline, Sarah started to panic a little. She’d made a lot of progress toward her goal, but she still didn’t know what she’d do once it actually happened. For years she’d imagined what it would feel like to be this close to “living the dream.” Now that she actually was, it was all a little confusing.

She had a vague idea of what she’d like to be doing, but that pesky question, “What’s the very first step?” kept creeping into her mind and she kept pushing it right back out.

The next week, Sarah’s car broke down. For a few days, she rode her bike to work. “I’ll only have to do this for a little while until I quit,” she reminded herself.

But then a funny thing started to happen. Sarah started to panic more and more. She knew what she wanted, but she just couldn’t commit to putting her plan together. She tried to reassure herself that it would all work out once she got away, but she could hardly buy her own story now.

One day after work, she was riding by a new car lot and saw the car she’d always wanted in just the right color. There was a sign out front that said, “SPECIAL SALE! TODAY ONLY!”

“What could it hurt to take a look?” she thought. Two hours later, the papers were signed and she was driving off the lot.

That night, when she told her new friends about the car, they seemed disappointed. “I thought you wanted to quit your job, Sarah?” they asked.

“Oh I still do!” she fired back. Her savings were gone, and it would take another six months to get them back. “But this is just what I needed. Now I’ll have more time to think about just howI’ll get started with the new job once I’m ready to quit.”

“Well, do you at least know what your first step will be once you do?”

“I’m working on it. I’m sure I’ll figure it out soon.”

Sarah knew she was going to have to be diligent to save all that money again, so she started working longer hours, and taking as much overtime as she could.

Five more months passed by, and Sarah was exhausted. She’d been working like crazy to meet her goal. And then she noticed that panicked feeling again. This time, she knew just what to do. Rather than let the feelings get to her, she’d just work right through it! If you can’t address it, just ignore it, she thought.

One evening after a particularly long day, Sarah’s boss approached her.

“You’ve been doing such a great job, Sarah,” she complimented. “I’m really impressed by all your hard work.”

“Thanks,” Sarah replied halfheartedly.

“I’ve talked to the management team, Sarah. We want to give you a promotion.”

All of a sudden, Sarah perked up. “You do!?”

“Yes. We think you’re just right for the job. You’ll be making a lot more money, but you willneed to go back to school for a while,” said her boss. “You can start the new job now, but the school will take about two years. We’ll cover some of the cost, but plan on spending about six months of your own pay. What do you think?”

Sarah sat quietly for a moment. Her heart was racing. She thought about her goal to quit, that was coming up again shortly. She thought about all the money she saved to do it. Most of all, she thought of her new life as a freelance photographer. No more phone calls with angry people. No more bosses telling me to work late. No more sitting in a cubicle.

Then, she thought about how any of that could even be possible. She realized she’d still never thought about the first thing she’d do once she broke away. All she saw was the end goal, not any of the steps to get there.

She panicked again. Her boss was waiting for an answer. “Sarah, you seem shocked. What do you think of all of this? It’s a great opportunity!” she said.

Sarah took a deep breath and composed herself.

“I’m thrilled. And I already have the money saved up. When can I get started?”

That night, when she got home from work, she walked into her apartment and sat down to think about what had happened that day.

As she replayed the events over in her head, she slowly soothed herself.

“I made the right decision,” she muttered aloud to no one in particular. “Obviously I wasn’t ready to quit. Now I’ve got some time to really think about this.”

Hang on a little longer!!

I have read multiple blogs so far, there are so many out there of different content and I continue to find them interesting, new and inventive. 

Finally I have the time to update and launch a good solid blog of my own. 

I want this site to be a good source of inspiration with content that explores issues and things that are on my mind. My aim is to have a site where people can share their views and ideas that challenge us in our thinking and behaviour and inspires us to live a good life, no matter what age we are. 

So watch this space! I hope many of you can join me on the journey and can have many discussions going! 

Win 

Forever Young - Youth Group

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