The wild side.

I just finished my tests today and I thought I would share some of my latest thoughts with you. We all have gifts. The people around may not realise that gift because they don’t classify it as talent or as something worth noting. Perhaps you may be the first person to ever walk on the face of the earth with a gift like that. Many of us try to hide our ‘hidden revelations’ as I like to call it just because others don’t see it as unique.

In the past few months I have come across a line of thinking that I always had but never recognised.

I don’t know how to explain it but it’s something like this.

I might be sitting at home reading something when I see the neighbourhood cat making his routine visit and when I see all the jumping and mewing it does and the way it goes around corners like an international spy, a whole Tom and Jerry show just forms in my mind. I can just imagine that cat with a coat and a tie with sunglasses with its own ‘Batmobile’. Just like that.

And sometimes I share it with my friends. But believe me that’s not exactly what a 17-year-old teenager wants to hear. They would laugh and tell me to grow up. But the thing is I don’t what they mean by ‘growing up’. Besides I know better than to just trash something I just realised I had without analysing it and seeing whether it’s good for me.

When Walt Disney was a kid, he would talk to the ducks and the cows on his farm. They were his ‘friends’. It was entirely natural for him. The thing his, he ended up living his whole life bringing those creatures to life. Now, we read his biography and think about how creative he was. But think what his peers would have thought of him and his peculiar character such a long time ago years ago. Such form of creativity was still fresh then. They would have laughed. Today, we don’t laugh at a kid who does that(many still do) because we know Walt Disney was like that and now we know that it is a gift, that it is a talent.

Maybe you can bring junk together to make useful things. Maybe you can make a musical instrument with the cans and bottles lying around.

There may never always be people around who will appreciate that talent.

My question to you is this:

When others laugh at you and tell you it’s a waste of time, are you going to drop it, put a blanket over it, put it under your bed and fake yourself in front of others, giving them your signature  ‘I-don’t-know-what-you’re-talking-about’ look or are you going to stand up and build that talent and help make this world a better and happier place?

These ‘they’ laughed when the Wright brothers’ model planes jumped and hobbled in the air. They laughed at the teenage Einstein’s theory on a better education. They laughed at the determination of Thomas Alva Edison but in the end, they ended up drafting his patents.

Today, many talents are given recognition because somebody else proved that it was valuable and worthy of praise. Maybe you have something to give.

God made us to be who we are as an individual, doing our best for others and for the places where we live.

We all have parts in our life that have to be plucked and thrown away. We try to improve character. But there are also parts in our life that need nourishment encouragement and practice. So go out there and do what you do best!!!!!

Where there’s a shadow

I just had a great and fabulous Sunday and despite me having a test tomorrow, I decided to talk to you. First of all I would like to thank all of you who supported my blog for the past 2 months. Sharing my life with you has been a great experience.

We all know Newton’s law- ‘For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.’

Sometimes I think of how this applies to the abstract things in our lives. We all know the saying- ‘One man’s gain is another man’s loss.’

Not a saying you would always like to talk about but true to an amazing extent.

But I would like to bring it into a picture that maybe you can look back to when you feel like you’ve got no hope.

We’ve all been in the dark rooms of life. Sometimes wherever you look, shadows surround you and haunt you. But this is what I’d like to tell you.

Where there’s a shadow, there’s a light. I heard this line in a song that always moves me- ‘Road to Zion’ by Petra.

When I hear that line. Newton’s law passes my mind. If every reaction had an equal and opposite reaction. .. . .

I tried to put it into perspective.

I’d like to put it like this.

The greater the intensity of the shadow, the greater the intensity of the light.

When you feel like you are going through hell, know that there’s something before you that God has put into place that will balance out the bends and bruises you are facing. God might be letting you face it so that he can polish you, mould you and help you to enjoy the light before you with a much greater perspective and joy. But in the meantime, he will be by your side, guiding you.

So, don’t give up hope. Keep pushing on.

This planet will never be the same without you in it. Because you are unique and you have a unique influence.

Sometimes, the vastness and the large number of people walking on our planet makes us think of how ordinary we are. But the truth is that the larger the number, the more valuable your uniqueness is.

So know that you are valuable.

Lots of love and God bless you indeed. .. .

The diary entry in the cupboard

Just now, as I was rummaging in my cupboard, I came across a piece of paper. I had written this more than a year back when my grandpa died. I wanted to share it with all of you. I wrote this when he died, sitting on my bed after returning from the hospital. I want to dedicate this to every grandpa and grandchild and I hope you will build up on that relationship more after reading this.

 

‘Life has given man a lot of mysteries to solve. But the simplest, and yet, the most complicated of them all is the strong bond between a father and a son, a daughter and her mother, grandparents and grandchildren and the relationship among siblings. Walk into a hospital that so often takes away the mundane mist of life. A tear drops from the eyes of the wounded relative of a deceased soul and makes its mark on the shining hospital floors, but its life lasts only a few glistening moments as it is trodden upon by another, declaring the arrival of a new soul into their family. The tear is no more, neutralised by another tear of joy. This is life. These thoughts passed my mind as I waited outside the emergency ICU, waiting for information. My mother crying, not able to stop the pictures of her father from a lifetime that was ebbing away showing that life is transient. Me and my mother were the last people to see him alive. I could not believe it. When I was a toddler, grandpa was an immortal, someone who would be there for everything. He was one of the most influential people in my life. He was an evangelist who stood up for what he believed in, no matter what others said. Their mocking laughs would bounce off him with such ease that I was sometimes surprised. To me, even today, nearing the end of my teenage years, his life is still the greatest legend. I was his only grandson and the eldest and I had such a wonderful relationship with him. Mother used to say I was his prince. He really did see me like a prince and he used to say it too. He was the greatest entertainer and the greatest thinker I’ve known. My grandpa passed down a lot of priceless things to me. Finding them has been the greatest of all experiences. He wanted me to know God and live a life worth living. He was a man of status but he used to bend down and take in people others tend to avoid. He was an inspiration. A man of tremendous patience, love, honour and humour, kindness, principles and value, we’ll never forget him for who he was.’

I am sharing this with you so that you will realise how great a relationship can be. It is the greatest philosophy.

So often life can be like a white blank room with only you and your shadow. But that shadow will tell you that somewhere in the blankness of life, there is a light shining. That is what relationships can do. It will be that part of you that will stick close by you and point you to the light. It will give you hope and lead you to the right place. In my case, it led me to God. It was the people around me that made me realise that God is no myth. God is a living truth. And today,  he is my best friend. He loved me by giving his life for me and he taught me to learn to give my life for others. That’s what Jesus did for me.

So spend your time on building up your relationships more this week. Ask God to bring into your life more people you can touch and heal. God bless you!!!!!

The Third Person Watching.

Love movies?

Me too!!!

Today, I am going to give you movie lovers, something to think about.

Have you ever seen one of those movies where there has a been a misunderstanding and a relationship is broken because one of them made a mistake?

Remember how you kept hoping for them to come back together. Remember how you thought the person who messed it up deserved another chance? How you kept telling the other person to forgive.

Deja vu. Right?

Do you know why?

Because you were able to see that person in places and circumstances that the other characters in the movie( suppose they were real) were not able to. This made you much more sympathetic to that character. Much more sympathetic than the other characters in the movie. You had a better picture of what it would be like to be in their shoes.

So what?

Well, like Shakespeare did, let us imagine our life to be a movie, or a play. We get mad at many people. We all go through situations where we misunderstand people.

Are we going to think about what that third person would say? That person who knows the whole movie and every step along the way?

According to me that would be God.

I am a Christian and sometimes when I get angry at people I try to ask myself the question, “What would Jesus say?”.

We don’t know what it’s like to be in their shoes. Maybe we would look at them in a different way if we knew each and every part of the movie. It may not always be the reasonable thing to do. But one thing is true. If we would all ask ourselves that question, we may start a revolution of forgiveness and love.

We live in a world that is based on equations. A world where every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction. It always balances. But change occurs when we get a different result. When you forgive and accept somebody who has wronged you, an imbalance is created for the better. Something that makes them think and helps them to forgive somebody else.

So next time you have a chance, think of that third person.

And advertising your view helps to make a difference. When you do something remarkable for somebody you think doesn’t deserve it and others ask you,

” What are you doing, bro?” 

Tell them, “I’m thinking about the third person!!!!”

 

Look who’s talking!!

Hey, everyone. I am just popping in to  share with you something that passed my mind recently.

We human beings are great lovers of judgement and the drama that surrounds it. Well, not everyone, but most of us are. We like to read reviews of everything we see around us. We want info to make the right choices. We always look to the facts when we buy something. Something we never seem to get the hang of, is seeing whether this judging is always good for us.

It is based on this that I would like to talk to you today.

Ready?

Remember that moment when one of your friends said to you not to eat junk food when all along he was holding a giant burger with a procession of fries( side dishes are optional, according to your imagination. LOL!)

Well, remember how you laughed and said, ‘Look who’s talking!!’?

Let’s remake that scene. This time let’s replace your friend with a doctor or somebody who you think knows what he is talking about. If he tells you not to eat junk food and he’s a vegan, would you take that advice the same way you took it when you friend gave it?

Say you took in that advice and did what they said. Will the result be any more better if you heard it from a doctor rather than your friend?

It was something that would do you good but you rejected your friend’s advice because you thought he was not worthy of giving you advice. In other words you labeled him a hypocrite(you use that word when you are discussing a graver matter, not junk food, but you get the idea). The advice will do you the same good be it from your friend or the doctor, if you learn to value advice not based on the person giving it, but based on the advice itself.

Anyway, who’s taking in the advice and using it?

You!!!

I hope you see what I am trying to get at. You are losing out on many a great advice because you are judging the people giving them to you.

So, next time, let’s think before we let go of some golden advice. I am not saying I am always doing this. This is my journey too. We may not be perfect always but we can always change.

I hope this has helped you in some way. God bless you. Keep your eyes open!!!

When the rains come. . .

I love the rain. We don’t have a television in our house. I am not somebody who is going to monologue on whether it is good to have a television or not. The world is changing and people today are more attracted to digital screens than many other things we used to enjoy. But that’s not what this conversation is about. I will have to confess that not having a T.V was sometimes pretty bad to cope with when I was a kid. But I have to say that it did one good thing for me. It turned me to the magnificent world of  books. When kids my age where watching movies, I would be sitting on a windowsill reading a book and watching my own movie. Books in turn, led me to appreciate nature and music. And from there came my love for rain.

Rain to me, is like a musical note. An orchestra of emotions conducted by the heavens. And when those drops of water pelted on the ground, it spoke of emotions, it spoke of life and many analogies would spring up in my mind as a kid. And I loved the thunder, I just loved it. It was like a Mozart composition with an electric guitar in the lead giving out notes filled with distortion. It had a rhythm that was always unique but always familiar. It would come down on different surfaces making different sounds like a drum set.

Well the rains never come until the clouds come. Many times we have to let the clouds hide the sun, so that the rains can come and wash us clean and help us to shine better in the sun. The bigger the clouds, the bigger the rain. Once the rains go the clouds go too. They are of one element. Just of different forms. You can make up plenty of analogies based on that like hard work and success.

When the clouds come, the rains come and fall down on us just like it falls down on the ground. And it renews us. It’s like you read in the Bible, showers of blessings. And when they do fall on us, besides bringing us joy and renewing us, it inspires others just like many poets and artists have been inspired by the rains they saw.

So, the question is, are you prepared for the rain? Are you ready to accept it? Have you made the decision to give away your temporary happiness for a longer one that inspires many others?

Preparing for the rain also includes something else. Planting the seeds. Preparing the fields for the rain. Those plants are going to grow up, transpire, and help bring about another rain. Are you planting seeds of hope, of resolutions and decisions. Just because you lost your New Year resolution does not mean it has to stay that way. Try again and again and again. And those plants are going to grow, nourished by the rains of joy from your hard work and they will bear fruits of many a kind, nourishing and planting seeds of all these values in any and everyone who passes by you in this life.

I hope that this analogy has helped you to see life with new eyes. God made us to be the best. Let us not give up hope. Let us try harder.

LIFE’S ORCHESTRA

I’ve always loved music. When I’m around music, it’s like I’m in my own space, my natural habitat. This is one of the reasons why I’ve always loved putting together music and life. And every time, I find a new combination. It’s pretty much like cooking in the kitchen.

So what did I find out this time?

That life is a song sung by you. It’s up to you whether to go solo or to form an orchestra.

I’ve always loved how the science of music has a lot to do with the life of a human  being. Sometimes it starts with the subtle breezy cello and ends with a crescendo of a live orchestra( fireworks are optional) and sometimes it starts with a crescendo and ends with a subtle note. Life is sometimes like that. Sometimes it’s slow strings all the way and sometimes it’s heavy and you can hear the drums roll and roll again.

What I like about this theory is how every life is always a song. As unique people, we all have different tastes for music. Some like the classic rock ‘n’ roll and some like the slow songs. It’s the same out here in the real world. Our choice of friends is an example. But the truth is every song will have a devoted listener. Just because you don’t like a song it doesn’t mean that there isn’t somebody out there who is going to love it.

Something we often forget is the fact that music is made not to just entertain, but to comfort, to nourish and to build you back up. You may not find it entertaining but somebody else is going to find it comforting and encouraging. In other words, no music is useless.

Well, what does that mean?

It means that no life is useless. 

Your life is a song that God already knows everything about and he did not think it was useless because he made you. So, when you feel like no one wants you and you’re dead weight, remember there is someone out there who loves you and needs your comfort, a comfort only you may be able to give.

The next part of this post is about the way you produce your song. If you are able to put in the right amount of passion, faith, love, courage and soul into your music, it’s going to be on the top of the charts for a long time. Your song of life could reverberate into centuries like Mozart and Beethoven.

You can go solo or you can learn to be a team player. You can shut everybody out of your life and go solo only to realise in the end that you’ve missed on all those magical notes. You can’t play all the instruments. You have to let somebody into your life to help you out. And that somebody should be trustworthy. Learn to be around people who will build you up and keep you there, not people who will kick you down to get higher. Remember the background music sets the mood for you to sing, so it has a great influence. So choose what you should listen to and who you should listen to.

And last but not least.

Once you get there and you are famous and people start to look up to you. Remember your teammates. Remember that they were the ones who set the mood for you to sing. Walk with them through their good times and their bad times and soon you will realise that it is what keeps your song alive.

WHATCHA GONNA BE?

What is your ambition, kiddo?

When I was a ‘kiddo’, I sometimes found this question pretty boring but at the same time, very amusing. It was too common a question but at the same time a chance for my innovative little mind to create something new. In other words, it was different every time.

When I got into my teenage years, it started to form roots. Which practically means that it had to bear fruit and a unique one at that. After all, I had never seen a tree with two kinds of fruit. So I started to look around. Most of my peers wanted to be an engineer or a doctor. It was a pretty net made by a spider controlled by trend and time. But I wanted to break through. It did not take me much time to realise I was a bit different. I was more interested in ‘why’ than ‘when and where’. I loved to write, draw, make music, think, design, create and the list went on and on. Creativity was a passion. Pictures started to form on the corners of my science textbooks. But I loved science. But I did not want the subject to be taught to me. I wanted to explore science myself. That way it would be an adventure.

I found out that I loved to study English, Philosophy, Psychology and stuff like that. I decided that it would be what I would study when I make it to college. Many of my friends and family still say that I may get a better future if I pursue science. But my answer is still no. Why?

That’s what this post is all about. . . .

Malcolm Gladwell says in one of his books,

“It is better to be a big fish in a small pond than to be a small fish in big pond.”

I’ve known this since I was a kid.

If there is one thing that I value about our world today, it is the fact that it still values uniqueness.

You can only be unique when you accept the uniqueness in you. If you let what the world around you decide what you want to be, then you are not being you, you are being the world around you. If you are doing what you do best, then you always have a better shot at being the big fish in the small pond and as in some cases the only fish in the pond. Your skill will be unparalleled because it will be unique.

I would like to quote from one of my earlier posts:

” The world can only be at it’s best when it’s people are at their best. And the people can only be their best when they do what they do best.”

So what are you waiting for? Make a decision to build your talents and help them shine. It is much more effortless than doing something you have to build up from the bottom. When you are being you and when you build up your talents, you realise you are already half way up the ladder.

The next part of this post is about how you should dream your dreams.

What do you want to be when you get old?

I want to be a guitarist.

Sorry, wrong answer.

Want to know the right answer? Here goes. . .

I want to be the best guitarist I can ever be.

That is when you realise that success is a limitless creation, man sometimes believe to be a limited joy.

Third and most important part of this post.

What do you want to be when you grow old?

I don’t know.

I know that many believe this to be a very dangerous position in life, which is in some cases true. But I believe that it may be a very good indication too.

Why?

Because in some cases it may also mean that that person has not yet let others and the environment around him make decisions for him. He is somewhere in the middle. Confused.

What should you do?

The best answer I can give you as a Christian is :

Pray about it. God made you to be who you are. He gave those talents to you for a reason. God made everyone different for a reason. Ask him to show you what you should do. 

So, take the right decisions. Be a blessing to the world. God made you to be you.

 

 

Blocks Of Ice.

If you were to ask me to give you a pictorial representation for life, this would be my answer to you. . .

‘Life is like a road made of blocks of ice, where the ice block behind you melts away and the one before you is invisible.’

Close your eyes right now and imagine what I just said.

The block of ice you just passed melts away slowly. It is impossible to retrieve and it slowly fades away, like memory of a time passed slowly melts away from the human brain. It is a gradual process.

Fantastic. Right?

The human brain is so amazing.

The block you are standing on is also made of ice. You can’t stand there forever. This picture helped me to define a true hard worker. A person who waits for the ice on which they stand on to melt until they can no longer stand on it. They try to make the most out of it every time. This is not based on time. But the way we feel time passing by us.

I’d like to think of myself as two people.

What???

That’s right. In regard to how I do my work.

There’s a me that can do the work in a few hours and there’s a me that can do it in a few minutes. The question is who I want to be when I am on that block of ice.

I am I just going to stand there looking out into the future that I can’t even see or am I going to use my time to the best I can.

The block of ice before you is invisible.

In the Bible there is a part where the Israeli people had to cross the Jordan river. The priests holding the ark of God had to step into the water to part the waters. They had to step into the water. They had to get their feet wet. In fact I see that as a leap of faith, believing God will be with them in what was about to come.

Life is also like that. You just move on, trying to make the best move you can every time.

We are all people moving on blocks of ice, alone. Are we?

In my case, I’m a Christian and in many ways in my life I’ve seen how I am never alone. We all have to trust God to help us make the right decisions because he has seen the whole picture.

So move on. Realise that life is not race. It’s not a walk either. It’s a step every step of the way.