tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10288418802964625882024-03-13T08:18:36.862-07:00VERACITYTo thine own self be true and it must follow as the night, the day...Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-2634284305529964372016-09-06T10:57:00.002-07:002016-09-06T11:02:52.100-07:00LIFE'S CONSISTENT INCONSISTENCY<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi92FsfdIxdUv11qDsC9YrJ2Co8SAwgF8ktKK4i3Dd_RrH9-mCmBECc8w6QUXP3mJMd4SGZ0fgtiLqxWY_339barayNDpuJ9AE1-KQGPtuDfQthPeDmN_UdGN6bzjMu8fO4DCGCPshQwVE/s1600/tomato.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi92FsfdIxdUv11qDsC9YrJ2Co8SAwgF8ktKK4i3Dd_RrH9-mCmBECc8w6QUXP3mJMd4SGZ0fgtiLqxWY_339barayNDpuJ9AE1-KQGPtuDfQthPeDmN_UdGN6bzjMu8fO4DCGCPshQwVE/s1600/tomato.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: red;">IT has been over a decade but the words come resonating through time like it was yesterday. Emmanuel, the ‘immaculate’ he called himself, and his task was to make sure we understood the essence of the English Language. The immaculate one didn’t just want us to blindly cram the idioms or read the comprehension passages without insight. He would always say life itself is a teaching board, one cannot learn in isolation for every element, every event works to make us or break us.</span></div>
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<span style="color: red;">One of his favourite sayings was this: “Change is the consistent inconsistency of life,” he said it way too often that it became a mantra, a cliché and at some point, a sentence of beguilement for members of my class, but as I starred at the heap of tomatoes the seller just said was N50, I couldn’t help but remember, Emmanuel ‘the immaculate.’</span></div>
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<span style="color: red;">How many months ago was tomato as precious as or even more precious than rubies? I genuinely blinked back my surprise and asked her for a second time to ascertain the price of the fresh, beautifully red fruits. The seller affirmed N50 to my utter amusement. I gave her a N100 bill and requested for two bowls. I made a pot of stew that lasted me 4 days…</span></div>
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<span style="color: red;">Wasn’t it just a few months ago that it seemed like the entire nation would crumble at the feet of the magnificent valour of tomato ravaging Tuta absoluta? Three balls of tomatoes sold for as high as N500. Nigerians resorted to tomato paste and for those who couldn’t stand its stale taste, leafy green vegetables. However, how readily available and affordable were the vegetables?</span></div>
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<span style="color: red;">In those few months, while the price of tomato sky rocketed like Niel Armstrong’s rocket landing in the moon for the first time, leafy green vegetables as well became like princely emeralds. A tiny moth eaten bunch sold for N100 or even more.</span></div>
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<span style="color: red;">Cooking became a hobby for several Nigerians, even the classy ladies with long nail extensions took them off and entered the kitchen. Tuta absoluta waged war against Nigerians and it seemed as though the nation would never recover from its ravenous rape, but did it?</span></div>
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<span style="color: red;">Like immaculate said years ago, the consistent inconsistency of life is change. Today, over 6 balls of tomato sell for N50 and quickly, like the labouring woman, who swiftly forgets all her pains when she beholds her baby, Nigerians have forgotten all the sufferings we had to go through due to the infestation of our tomatoes by the voracious moth. If at all we remember tuta absoluta, it is to laugh off the absurdity of the name of such havoc wrecking insect-fiend.</span></div>
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<span style="color: red;">Dear country men, several of us chanted change and held our breath for it to come. Though change is here, it feels as though nothing has changed except for the inflation rate which is over 17 per cent, unemployment, suicide rate and the free fall of our naira but we cannot afford to lose hope. For like the passing of tuta absoluta into undignified obscurity, these hard times will fade. However, my fellow countrymen, we have to make a decision to be standing, not just standing but standing strong when this fog fades away.</span></div>
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<span style="color: red;">Change, ultimately, is the only consistent inconsistency of life, immaculate said and today, I couldn’t agree with him more. Yes, the reality that stares us in the face is outrageously stupefying, but we must not buckle under the pressure this reality throws us.</span></div>
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<span style="color: red;">Nigerians are a strong breed and for centuries, we have found a way to thrive, to survive even in the face of volcanic eruptions. We lived through Ebola, we squashed Tuta absoluta and though this change may make us feel like the mythical frog which was boiled alive, we must place our focus on the reality that we will again someday, like a phoenix rises from its ashes; relish the succulence of the tomato.</span></div>
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<span style="color: red;">A dollar is over N400 today and several other ills have befallen our economy, but who knows that maybe someday, a bowl of rice will sell for quarter the price it is being sold today? It is only the tough that will find answers to these conundrums. Hence, we must remain tough, unwavering, resilient, hopeful and optimistic that this depression will not kill Nigeria, but will only unveil this nation’s biggest potentials and help us take our rightful place on the Milky Way as the biggest star of this continent. God Bless Nigeria!</span></div>
Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-75399491157441157392016-04-04T07:08:00.000-07:002016-04-04T07:08:46.753-07:00GOD WILL NOT COME DOWN!<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: red; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 20.44px;">IT is becoming unarguably</span><span style="background-color: white; color: red; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 20.44px;"> irksome and disgusting the way we sit, fold our arms and exclaim ‘God will help us’ over the innumerable ills and adversities that have taken the nation hostage. For decades, submerged in incredible religiosity, we have continued to like mantra, chant those words, failing to see this harsh reality – they have become too much of a cliché to change our pathetic situation!</span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.44px;">Harrowingly however, we have become too complacent and content with mediocrity; we never strive to pull the scales off our eyes so that we can awaken to the consciousness that this nation’s ship has, for over a long period, hit an iceberg.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 20.44px;">With the breaking of every dawn, water of minus degree temperature is unequivocally submerging the lower deck and keeps spilling uncontrollably to the middle class areas, but who cares? So long the first class deck is not overrun, all is well but how long will the water hold?</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 20.44px;">The lives of the occupants of the third class deck are seemingly inconsequential and they can drown for what it’s worth, isn’t it? In their craftiness and in a bid to protect their own lives and property, occupants in the first class deck instruct the sailors in the control rooms to seal off the lower areas of the ship, dooming the third class dwellers to a horrifying stone cold death and we chant, ‘God will help us!’ No one raises an eyebrow, no one asks any questions, we simply say, ‘there is God o,’ the 21st century remix of the ancient ‘God will help us’ coined by by the nation’s incredibly hilarious first lady whose theatricalities, posterity will yet guffaw over.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 20.44px;">The word corruption is spoken and we all disdainfully cast our glances at the huge old rock which provides shelter for the nation’s number one citizens and occupants of its highest pedestal. While we may be right to look in that direction with intense abhorrence, we must remind ourselves of the legend of the sanctimonious pirate that went to sea with a tablet on which Moses’ ten commandments were engraved only after he had unscrupulously stricken out ‘thou shalt not steal’. Perhaps, we are doling out selective judgments!</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 20.44px;">Though we may not be committing any fatal errors by pointing our so called ‘holy’ and unsullied fingers at the pot bellied politicians who no longer have necks because they have been vacuumed in by several layers of unhealthy fat gained from illicit grubbing on the sumptuous national cake like ravenous maggots not to mention the indiscriminate sucking of the udder of the ‘oryel’ cow but do we point the same ‘holy’ fingers at the PHCN staff that brings a crazy bill to extort money from a struggling single mother while threatening to disconnect her electricity? No, we simply say ‘God will help us’</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 20.44px;">How about the secondary school teacher that prepares work books not included in school curriculum and makes it compulsory for students to purchase them or risk mass failure?</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 20.44px;">Do we call the police when the house next door is being invaded by robbers while we watch from across the street? No, that is actually a lot more complicated because even if we summon up the courage to call, what number is there to dial? A lecturer fails students massively because a hand out was not purchased. Who would protest the injustice? An expectant mother or her child or even both are brutally murdered at the hands of health care providers due to the lackadaisical attitude with which human lives are handled nationwide and what do we say? The little girl next door is raped and physically abused by her guardian, but what do we say?</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 20.44px;">The government worker reports to work devastatingly late, drops some bags and heads out to nowhere, people complain endlessly in the lobbies waiting to be attended to. They curse under their breaths, hiss, toss and turn in their seats but when the demi-god shows up, who says anything? Everyone scrambles to appeal to the worker just to accomplish their mission and get out. An unqualified person with an empty head is employed for a high powered job and earns six figures while the genius gets to do the menial chores and takes home peanuts because the dullard know people on the board. Promotion skips the hard worker but the layabout gets it twice in short succession and what do we say?</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 20.44px;">Injustice reigns supreme in the four cardinals. Nepotism strolls defiantly on the streets sans any scintilla of caution. In the end, we sum up all of these degenerative acts as ‘man knows man’ or better still, we call them networking.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 20.44px;">Fellow Nigerians, God will not come down and help us. Our freedom is interred, dormant in our own hands, but we must activate it. Rosa Parks didn’t become “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement by waiting for God to help her. She sat on that bus! We cannot fight this individually; justice will only come by juxtaposition. I am certain that it would be infinite wisdom to take a cue from these words of Martin Niemöller, “First they came for the Socialists, I did not speak out, because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists and I did not speak out, because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me,” or be doomed!</span></div>
</span></span>Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-85593938522441254442016-01-18T10:11:00.002-08:002016-01-18T10:25:46.124-08:00MTN’S MEGA FINE: KARMA OR VINDICATION FOR THE COMMON? <div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 20.0pt;">Like the Draconian measures that were
doled out on the Israelites by Pharaoh’s stooges, having them make bricks from
nothingness, MTN has done no other than ferociously rape the proverbial goose
that lays the golden egg-Nigeria. Sans a scintilla of sympathy, in over a
decade of carrying out its telecommunications business in Nigeria, MTN garnered
</span><span style="font-size: 20.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">over </span><span style="font-size: 20.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">35 million subscribers in oil rich Africa’s pride but what percentage
of these devotees are genuinely happy? <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They endure the eccentrics of this service
provider like a wife whose love for her husband has run dry but remains in a
sour marriage out of obligation, societal values and the future of her seeds. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Like several other Nigerians, I was also stuck in
that catastrophic and dysfunctional marriage to a Machiavellian who rapes me of
air time as he pleases, never gives me bonuses even in festive periods, avariciously
yanks away my subscription fee but never gives me internet till my blood
pressure almost reaches 250 from nagging and works an irksome voodoo on my
data, making it disappear magically.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But I stay married to this piece of garbage, why?
I tell myself these hideous lies, like several other wives of the beast- ‘he is
my first love (my first phone line), we have many children (all my contacts
know this line), and we have been married for so long (I have used this line
for over a decade).</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The truth actually is that we all fear a divorce
because we know deep in our hearts its impacts on our lives – businesses and jobs.
How do we wake up and throw into the incinerator a SIM card we have used to
build our businesses? We fear we may lose our clients and our concerns are
genuine. For this reason, we stay, bleating our euphoria dry in an ill fitted
marriage. I did the same too, till our husband went totally crazy and started
shutting us out.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 20.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He called it – SIM card re-registration and we
were all caught in the middle of the crossfire. Could you forget the SIM
registration brouhaha? I couldn’t even if I tried but our husband made the </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 20pt;">National
Communications Commissions (NCC) his</span><span style="font-size: 20.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> alibi.
Insisting it was the body’s directive</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 20.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and subtle threatened us to get re-registered or have our phone lines
disconnected. At least, the lucky subscribers got the pre-information; some
were just cut off without prior notification. However, in the sea of these </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 20pt;">traumatic
experiences, Nigerians marched out in multitudes- hundreds and thousands of
Nigerians stormed MTN offices nationwide to comply with a directive that was
brutishly disseminated or not.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I remember visiting the MTN office at the cradle about three months ago-
precisely in September while the storm of SIM re-registration fiercely raged.
What I was unfortunate to behold that hellish day in Lagere, Ile-Ife awakened
the dragon that has been for centuries, innocuously asleep inside of me. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I saw the scorching sun roasting a heavily pregnant woman tottering at
the edge of labour pains, students who had deserted their school work sat on
burning concretes waiting for the registration exercise to begin. The aged men,
whose heads have become a forest of grey, leaned on parked cars for support and
in a split second, a protest brimmed as irate youths protested the mannerism of
attendants. But in the face of all of these tribulations, Nigerians remain in
this marriage, enduring a union from the pit of hell like the proverbial
patient dog. Turning the other cheek demurely like a docile woman, dusk turns
into dawn, days into weeks, weeks into months and months transform into years
of enslavement.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Alas, providence threw that dog a
very fleshy bone and simultaneously delivered the docile woman of her dumbness
as the NCC slammed MTN Nigeria the super mega N1.04trn fine.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Who says the God of the tailless cow is asleep? Please have a rethink
for it was he who showed up for Nigerians hooked in devastating matrimony with
this beast.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not one Nigerian that I know and share this husband with, displayed a
tinge of sympathy for His Royal Highness, the great usurper of the nation’s telecommunication
realm as the tenebrous wind uprooted him. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 20pt;"> </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 20pt;">Consequently,
our insensitive, inconsiderate and obnoxious husband began to kowtow as he
realised the destruction his once docile wife has grown capable of unleashing.
He saw the volte face in her and trembled as her power grew beyond his
imagination. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In desperation, he began to seek out the elders, wishing their wisdom
could cool the impending eruption of molten magma from the bosom of a pained
ex-lover but the elders, like Humpty Dumpty, sat still and fiddled away.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 20pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All pleas by the
MTN Group to make President Muhammadu Buhari intervene in the N1trillion fine
slammed on it by the NCC, fell on stony grounds like some of the seeds of the
proverbial Sower from the parable in the new testament of the holy writ.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ‘Stop begging, pay the fine’,
‘that serves you right’; ‘just what MTN deserves’ and a myriad of other songs
of triumph rent the national atmospheric. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now that the chips are down, the lion is running from pillar to post,
groveling like a common dog, beseeching the presidency for pardon and the NCC,
for discount. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The latter had been benevolent enough to grant a 25 or is it 35 per cent
discount on the huge fine? That isn’t my concern. I maintain however that our husband must makes restitution and paying that fine is a
beautiful start.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, I relish the words of great Newton “to every action, there is equal
and opposite reaction” but for the sake of the non- scientific minds, I will
say it in ancient Sanskrit- karma – “the sum of a person’s action in this and
previous states of existence.” Yes, this is sweet nemesis for MTN and our
husband must dance naked in the full moon, he must pay his debts! We have taken
the bad services; unavailable network and no service provided by the self
acclaimed service provider demurely but today, is vindication day. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 20pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Though he tries to buy back our love with free airtime attached to
re-registration, I have taken the bold stop to end this unholy matrimony, I
ported, I left MTN after over a decade and ironically, I am enjoying the bliss
of divorce. While our husband struggles to pay alimony, he must understand that
perhaps, he won’t be losing only one wife, are more subscribers going to break
the sacred vows<span style="font-size: 20pt;">? </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 20pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-21651084877945407922015-06-15T06:40:00.004-07:002015-06-15T06:40:48.959-07:00OFFICE ROMANCE<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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<b style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Relationships are a
fundamental part of the human existence. Companionship is equally so integral
that providence orchestrated interaction from the very beginning. Man was
created to socialize and fill the voids of emptiness lurking in the pit of his
soul. However, interactions differ gravely from plain platonic ones to the very
intimate kinds, people relate under different circumstances and at different
places but then, in this one place, anything beyond the plain platonic
interaction, raises eyebrows and draws a lot of attention. You guessed right,
it is the OFFICE.</b></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Most times, it begins
with the very cordial professional interactions but soon enough, it becomes
warmer, when a personal level of interaction is reached and much later, subtle
flirting and sheepish smiles are the order of business. This could be noticed
between singles, which could be considered normal, as so many colleagues have
ended up walking down the aisle in holy solemnization but it is definitely
disconcerting when this kind of chemistry is exhumed between a married and a
single colleague or two married colleagues within the same establishment.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">For Georgina, 28, she
didn’t have to visit Disney land to get her happily ever after, as a matter of
fact, her prince charming had come in the form of the new IT expert and after a
relationship of three years, a huge diamond stone was gracefully resting on her
finger to indicate that she was taken and eventually, a beautiful plain silver
band accompanied it, both sparkling on her penultimate finger. </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: red;"><b>Approximately five years ago, Isaac had
strutted into the advertising firm, looking smug in a designer suit, his
cologne filling the air and a sardonic smile lining his dark lips and she had
said to herself he was nothing but trouble. However, the trouble kept calling
out to her and somehow, she yielded the temptation despite the numerous
warnings from other female colleagues that Isaac was simply a playboy and
didn’t want anything serious. Yet, their romance blossomed every day, a typical
Cinderella story because everyone at the advertising firm thought they were
strikingly distinct and as a result, incompatible but they had choked on their
own words when the invitation cards came flying in.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: red;"><b>Heart break and a child
outside of wedlock was sadly what Derinola got after a whirlwind relationship
with Ikechukwu. Both had been employed into the Human Resource department of an
oil servicing company at the same time. They immediately got struck by cupid’s
arrow and evidently became an inseparable pair. Their amorous relationship was
not in any way surreptitious as they openly expressed their fondness for each
other with tiny gestures at every given opportunity. They would sit together at
lunch and laugh heartily over some weird joke, blow each other kisses in the
hallway when they thought no one was looking. They were officially named the
“love birds” of the organization and everyone was secretly planning their
wedding alas! It never happened. Ikechukwu’s mother showed up one day from the
village and with her was a pregnant girl in her early twenties, Derinola, with
an hesitant smile had welcomed in her prospective mother in law, coddling the
old woman while frantically trying to get Ikechukwu on the phone</b></span></span></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: red;"></span></span></b><br />
<a name='more'></a><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: red;"> and break the
news of his mother’s arrival barely paying any attention to the young lady but
it was shock and horror when Ikechukwu eventually showed up and quickly
introduced her as his colleague from the office without breaking a sweat.
Urging, more or less pushing her out of the house as he screamed “see you at
the office” through the closed door. Derinola was broken into pieces and
enraged. She had gone over to Ikechukwu’s apartment searlier; letting herself
in with the key he had given her two years ago, to tell him she was pregnant
with his baby. She had secretly been glad his mother had come over thinking it
was perfect timing because she had always wanted to meet his people. A
devastated Derinola got a lawyer and sued Ikechukwu to court, but she lost the
case because his lawyer argued that she had consented to dating a married man
with a child on the way. They produced legal papers affirming that the girl
from the village was his legal wife. The court case got too messy and the
organization was forced to terminate both their employments.</span></span></b><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Aisha was the pawn in
her bosses’ game of chess. A naïve personal assistant to the Executive Director
of a top notch Bank during office hours and his mistress later at night, she
felt like the smartest girl in the universe. However, like the English proverb
goes, “you cannot eat your cake and have it too”. Aisha’s </span><span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Waterloo</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> came when the ED, her lover
and married boss, began to force her to “entertain” members of the board and
top officials of from other banks that he paid obeisance to. Life became
miserable for Aisha, as she was caught between the rock and a hard place. She
was constantly hounded by the ED’s humiliating remarks in public and haunted by
his threats and blackmail. Turns out, she wasn’t so smart after all but all of
that emotional torture was only a tip of the ice berg. Ultimately, she paid for
her sins the hard way as she was given an acidic bath on a stormy night as she
closed from work. The ED’s wife had gotten a wind of Aisha’s relationship with
her husband and had decided to teach the home wrecker a message.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: red;"><b>15 years of bliss and
sanctity in holy matrimony was desecrated and flung at the swine when Deborah,
a married mother of three began an illicit affair with a colleague at the
University teaching hospital where they both worked as medical practitioners.
Secret lovers they were but they couldn’t let go of their depraved and
forbidden passions until that which was meticulously hidden became common
knowledge. Deborah’s marriage had crashed immediately her husband found out of
her infidelity as she was served divorce papers by her husband’s lawyer,
leaving her nothing from the separation. On the other hand, Adeyinka’s wife had
made sure she got hold of all the property she could in a fair fight at the
court of law before letting go of her husband and father of her two girls after
a bloody divorce feud.<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: red;"><b>While some relationships
have led to the walking down of a gaily decorated aisle by two lovebirds,
filled with beautiful promises for the future and bliss, others have chronicled
shame, regret, destruction, annihilation of promising careers and ultimately,
colossal tragedies but it takes two to tangle, doesn’t it? </b> </span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-56002497480514510852014-03-23T06:05:00.002-07:002016-04-05T05:17:03.317-07:00NIS Stampede/Deaths:"My perspective"I had just put off the generator set on Saturday night and was desperately struggling to get some sleep alas it was all futile effort because the hotness of my room after the fan stopped rolling was unbearable. I reached out for the plastic hand fan under my pillow and began the exhilarating exercise of fanning myself to sleep as have been my modus operandi in the last two weeks. Electricity supply had been at its poorest peaks and the recent unfathomable hike in fuel price and scarcity of the product has reduced drastically the hours the generator set could stay on. I tossed and turned on my bed fanning myself vigorously and cursing in my mind “which kind country be this? Na this be the 18 hours of power supply wey government promise us? Fuel sef them don become gold, I hissed at the thoughts cascading through my mind and the frustration I was beginning to feel as I was being deprived of a much needed good night’s rest, a mobile phone sound pulled me out of reverie, I reached out and picked up my phone from the other side of the bed with a frown but as I saw the caller ID, it melted into a smile, it was my aunt calling though I wondered why she was calling that late into the night, I hit the green button to find out and immediately, her voice filled my ears but it wasn’t her usual cheerful voice, she sounded sober and withdrawn but spoke urgently “ you dey watch channels”? I replied evenly with “no, we no get light” then she went silent for a while and continued this time in our ijaw dialete, “mi country mi sei boh (meaning, the situation of this country has deteriorated)! Imagine; see as them waste people children lives, Tamarau! She exclaimed. I sat up on my bed and probed further with great agitation, “aunty, wetin happen? who die? Na Boko Haram again abi?. She was moved to tears as she replied several minutes later giving me a load down of the tragedy that took place at the Nigerian Immigration Service recruitment centers nationwide. The horror, the sorrow I couldn’t contain myself as I busted out screaming. All that kept hitting my mind hard were the following words, “it could have been you!” We talked for a few minutes more and she hung up but for me I knew that sleep had eluded me that night. I laid on my bed and immediately got online. What I saw was inexplicable, the National Stadium in Abuja was filled beyond capacity, and I began to wonder if it was a recruitment exercise or another African Nations Cup? My heart shank, I palpitated and began to sweat profusely, this could have happened to me! I kept scrolling down and looking at the pictures pasted online and my heart broke the more as I put to use my mind’s eye and imagined the pushing and pulling, the stampede, the shouts and screams for help and the eventual silence and finally death of these youths all for what? Employment! Something went off in my head and I got furious because trust me I could totally relate to the scenario as I myself have being in similar situations more than once. Yes, I can assure you this is not the first time thronging and stampede had occurred at an employment seeking center because I have been at the receiving end not only once though, I had never seen it result into the untimely death of innocent youths. I have been an unemployed graduate for some years now so believe me when I tell you I related to the news on a personal level. I didn’t just see it as a bunch of people getting walked over and losing their lives, I imagined it as though it happened to me. In March 2012, I was at Port Harcourt for Diamond Bank’s aptitude test. It was done in batches but that day I swore never to repeat that exercise. I was pushed, pulled and even my hair was tugged at until a line of weavon that had been securely glued on came off. I felt like my scalp was been pulled out and what was worst, It wasn’t even successful! In September that same year, I attended a job fair at the national arts theatre Iganmu, Lagos with a lot of hopes and expectation that were dashed momentarily. The population of job seekers at the job fair was unbelievable. It was supposed to be a closed job fair only for 1500 youths who had gone through the World Bank sponsored 10 weeks training for employability in the service sector (ACCESS NIG) but to my astonishment, the place was filled up and as usual, a stampede occurred. I was in the middle of the crowd and was literally swept off my feet and that is no romantic expression, I mean I was lifted off the ground as a result of the pushing from behind and I couldn’t feel both my legs! That was not all I watched helplessly as we were pushed through a glass door, crashing into the glass and coming off on the other side. It was like an action movie, the lady directly in front of me was cut badly by the glass and was bleeding from head to toe; I miraculously came onto the other side, uninjured. I could go on and on but I do not intend to make myself the centre of this article. The truth is, it is not about me but about the thousands of Nigerian Youths that are treated as savages with no respect and dignity having gone through the tedious four walls of the academia. It is about the innocent children who hold the promise of future leadership but are forced to go engage in social vices because all their efforts to secure a genuine job go into flames. It is about a generation of youths that are supposed to liberate their families from poverty but end up miserably being trodden upon like insects. <br />
I write this with a shattered heart and a distraught spirit, how long shall we remain in this ring around the rose’s situation where there is no head way. We talk and talk about these things but that doesn’t change anything. The statistic for unemployment in the country is sky rocketing but the height of this malady is when the youth, who are supposed to be tomorrow’s leaders are made sacrificial lambs over uncertainty. Mr. President in his benevolence and profound love for citizenry has mandated that three members each of the deceased families should be recruited by the National Immigration Service and I applaud the initiative but a number of questions still perturb my sleep every night like exorcised fiends, will that eliminate or mitigate the unemployment as a national problem, will that bring back the 22 youths that met with an abrupt end of their lives on Saturday while in search of employment, what if there were the only literate people in their immediate nuclear family, what if no other people are qualified to take those positions in the home of the deceased. What we need is total rejuvenation and not some patching. What then gives us the guarantee that something similar or perhaps worst would not be occurring anytime soon.Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-41445318803859445912013-12-21T22:51:00.002-08:002013-12-21T22:51:19.175-08:00CAROL.................. Euphoria, agitation, apprehension, frustration, fears, I could go on and on but the bottom line is this. I have been a cocktail of emotions since the last day of the penultimate month when the auto update clock application on my device chimed, 1st of December, 2013.<div>
I starred at the face of the clock listlessly for God knows how long and an emotional pandemonium broke out in my mind. I felt like I had just being drifting in the last 314 days or worse, like the gear of my life has being placed on N in all that time but a question, that will soon be the reason for me being a cornucopia of emotions started to plague my mind, “what have you done with 2013”. It was vastly unsettling and I lost all calmness to the great psychological perturbation that hunted me every minute. Each day was almost like a nightmare and a persistent migraine followed my incessant rounds of mental exhaustion. I thought only of my failures and pitfalls, my unaccomplished goals and unexecuted visions, my dead ideas and lingering plans, disappointments from loved ones, betrayals and most of all the aborted dreams! </div>
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Not for once did I think about the seemingly unimportant things that have been given to me, the sun to dry my laundry, the rain to water the food I ate and the flowers I adore, the moon to help me dream, the birds whose colors are my fashion inspiration, the fact that I can swallow a morsel effortlessly and breath without help but these I later came to realize again that these simple acts are the most important of all through a simple but life touching event that reminded me of what I have forgotten- “the greatest accomplishment is to breathe, a gift providence has bestowed graciously on every mortal regardless of their caste and a gift with which all others can be achieved”</div>
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On Sunday, I reluctantly attended a carol service. I use the word “reluctant” because though I fore planned going for the service, a number of unforeseen circumstances almost completely changed that fact but I will be ever thankful that I made that 11th hour decision to dash out of my residence and barrel down to the church auditorium in good enough time that I didn’t get to seat in the overflow, stuck under a canopy and watching a flat screen.</div>
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The service was exciting and filled with so much life, shouts of joy and pleasant hymns until that ravaging thought gripped me again. The anxiety took over and I was lost in my mental battle, “what are you so excited about, singing and dancing when you haven’t accomplished anything substantial in the last more than 3 hundred days, and it is over because 2013 is gone?” immediately these words ran through my mind, my legs went numb and could no longer carry my body, immediately, I crumbled into my seat, feeling sick to my stomach and pondering on the negative ranting of my mind, aloof and detached but all of a sudden, from the corner of my eyes, I saw something. A sight that completely healed me of the mental pandemonium that has held me to ransom for over a fortnight and had plagued me with incomprehensible self loathe and pity. I had noticed a huge smile, one that sprang from deep down a joyous and appreciative heart. I followed that enthralling smile to behold the face of a young man, dancing, singing and expressing immense gratitude to the creator but that was not what compelled me to thinking, as I further probed, I saw that this joyous young man was barely more than the size of a midget though he had the facial features of a full grown male young adult but that wasn’t all of it, he equally had a disabled leg and was hanging onto a pair of clutches while he frantically tried to dance.</div>
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At that instant, I got up from my seat, silenced the voices in my head and the perturbation in my heart. There I stood, a biologically complete human with an over ambitious and ungrateful heart. I repented immediately and emulated the young man. </div>
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I understand that certain times we feel like we have not reached full potential and strive till we get all we want. I get this because no one in my family is as ambitious, pushy and compelling as I am. With a 60percent of the choleric temperament exhibited in me, it is natural for me to run roughshod to get what I want and complacency is one of the English words I detest the most after dishonestly but the truth is this, sometimes, we get so consumed in searching for what we think we don’t have yet and totally forget to be grateful for we have and many a times, ingratitude is what shuts our receiving door! </div>
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As 2013 wraps up, look beyond your failures and focus on the seemingly unimportant things which ironically, are the greatest of them all- show gratitude for the air you breathe, the water, the sun and the fact that as long as there is life, you will achieve all in due time. </div>
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You have no excuse to be grumpy as the year ends and you better not pout or cry, you know who is coming to town.</div>
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Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you have now was once among the things you only hoped for. EPICURUS</div>
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Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life, it turns what we have into enough and more, it turns denial to acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home and a stranger into a friend. MELODY BEATTIE</div>
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Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-6012832664397462462013-10-07T09:00:00.001-07:002013-10-07T09:00:30.406-07:00TITANIUM
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<span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For the larger part of this year, my musical gaze has
slightly shifted from my usual intrigues, a blend of divas, countrymen and rock
stars to a certain Disc jockey who wears a number of other feathers on his hat
that includes, music producing, song writing and remixing and has worked with
several big names in the music world and big music labels. I got fascinated by
a 2011 trace video “titanium” the beat was amazing but more than that, the
narrative of the video was enthralling. It depicted a heightened level of inner
strength that which you can only conjure up from within you. That video
moistened my eyes at the very end and I have since being drawn to the work of
this famous French D.J. “Titanium” has been for me not just a hit trace track
with fancy beat and laudable lyrics, it represents a muse, and each time I
think I am falling I listen to that beat, and I get all revved up like a race
car’s engine.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Shot me down, but I won’t fall…....…….I am TITANIUM” I
hear those Sia’s words and I soar like something invincible has taken me over
and I am set to face whatever life throws at me. I listen to it on my phone and
on the car stereo and I truly feel like Titanium each time. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Today’s story however, is not about David or Sia, it is
about a great mind that acted out the very words Sia sang while David put the
beat to it. It is the story of a formidable young man who took various shots
and didn’t fall but just kept screaming “fire away” at the top of his lungs in
the just concluded West African MTN Project Fame. A platform I have being in
awe of from the very beginning and a few weeks ago, a brand new season began
with hilarious auditions at different zones but ended on a stunning note and
once again, the phrase came to mind as I watched Adaora and Joseph call the winner,
“the unfathomable twists and turns of life” which I have often chanted on this
blog like a mantra.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was screaming in my living room alongside my sisters
and my mom, we were all beyond shocked! Bemused and euphoric but I was most of
all humbled and then I remembered that a contestant had performed my favorite D.J’s
song earlier and unequivocally, that song had being adequately demonstrated by
the result of the competition after all. I lapsed into a trance for a short
while as my mind skidded back to the very beginning. There were 17 contestants
in the academy and if you had asked me, I would have wagered my last penny that
Olawale could never be the man standing at the end of the fierce battle but
then, Olawale fought and made his own destiny! He wrote his name on the walls
of fame and now walks in the hallway of fame.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I had a different prediction in the beginning and I
arrived there having judged all the 17 contestants by their prowess, talent,
voice, showmanship, panache and style but like it is written in the holy writ,
surely the race is not to the swift and the remarkable turn of events was based
on the following criteria I had earlier almost trivialized- spirit and
attitude. Everything changed the night the contestants did their traditional
renditions, that night epitomized the death of a man’s strength and the birth
of another man’s resilience.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I rooted for Simon from the very beginning, he had it
all working for him and it happened so effortlessly. His performance was
superb, his delivery was impeccable and most of all, he had SWAGGGGGGGGGG. So
much charisma! In my heart, I had crowned my own winner for project fame season
6.0 and I was simply waiting for the whole world to confirm my prediction alas,
I saw superficially because what makes a man succeed after all isn’t just
SWAAAAAGGGGGGGG! It took something extra, something profound, interred in the
very core of man’s being, the inner strength to keep fighting, the spirit to
blossom in constructive criticism and that was exactly what Olawale showcased.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That night Simon was evicted, I saw it
coming. I am no harbinger of doom or emissary of bad tidings but it broke my
heart to see the look of resignation on his face when he again performed Bright
Chimeze with utter Languidity on a stage that was at the moment a battle
field!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I shook my head in disappointment
at his lack of guts and will and announced in my living room that his walk on
the MTN Fame hall</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a name='more'></a> was over and so it turned out.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, I discovered Titanium that night as opposed to
the wood that broke my heart. Olawale and Omolayo! I rooted for them to the
very end because their spirit and attitude called out to my soul. Their display
of inner strength and will was the very rare type that could surmount any
life’s challenges.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Though it seems Omolayo went home with nothing, I
believe that his time in the house will be an inspiration to thousands and
thousands of youths and with such admirable attitude, there is no telling how far
he will go in life and for Olawale, I am certain that the sky is just your
starting point if you keep the spirit alive and Simon, you can be anything you
want to be if you find your inner strength.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This competition has proven didactic in the way I view
every event of life and I think you should ask yourself this question. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">How do you react when a gun is pointed at you?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Do you fall before the trigger is pulled and remain
lying on the ground?<br />
OR<br />
Do you look back at the nozzle and scream “FIREAWAY”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The truth is it could just be a ruse that gun might be
empty or the trigger faulty or perhaps, it might possess just one bullet and do
you think a shot can hold you down? I think that bullet could very well
ricochet!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The choice is yours, TITANIUM OR WOOD………………………………….YOU
PICK.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: red;">“I am bullet proof nothing to lose, fire away, fire away<br />
ricochet you take you aim, fire away, fire away<br />
you shoot me down but I won’t fall<br />
I AM TITANIUM”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoaZ5pjdWfqC2gKSZ7EFwcml35kOkZIvys9MewK57C00Z-lOchFtI8ZqHeHfqgYNefbAw7208JdV6oI9U8t6SybZRbhte-rqT4yek08Sl3dCvyZG5NaJcPzC0tFqRu-NOjSaD7h_rpoUo/s1600/olawale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoaZ5pjdWfqC2gKSZ7EFwcml35kOkZIvys9MewK57C00Z-lOchFtI8ZqHeHfqgYNefbAw7208JdV6oI9U8t6SybZRbhte-rqT4yek08Sl3dCvyZG5NaJcPzC0tFqRu-NOjSaD7h_rpoUo/s1600/olawale.jpg" /></a></div>
Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-73561229708237117142013-07-15T05:36:00.001-07:002013-07-15T05:36:56.204-07:00IYA BOBO.........nemesis is now!!!!<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVwi0roS3rdxcUMzz03tN4EuJf2IQRDHKYHazAwoX7YoSrgf2VvIJ4YLmx39sEBRXzPb2sR29RnnZGmLTxkqejQUmVwP5-R91AYTefYXCyFFpzKJic1IgH65JmZeeTkpyvvstEUxxwMXQ/s1600/clown-fish_4439.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVwi0roS3rdxcUMzz03tN4EuJf2IQRDHKYHazAwoX7YoSrgf2VvIJ4YLmx39sEBRXzPb2sR29RnnZGmLTxkqejQUmVwP5-R91AYTefYXCyFFpzKJic1IgH65JmZeeTkpyvvstEUxxwMXQ/s320/clown-fish_4439.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">What goes around comes around I have often written on this blog.
Yes, be mindful of the stones you throw at the market place, you have no idea
who will be hit!<br />
In this century, change is the most constant thing. Not only can you travel in
a tube moving at almost the speed of light nowadays when it used to be weeks
unending in times past, so also, these days, the evils that men do lives within
them, not after them like our ancestors thought.<br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Today, I would like to share the tale of a certain fish seller, IYA
BOBO as generally called by all who know her and after you read this story,
feel free to either dissent or nod in the affirmative to my earlier assertions.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">A few years back, I met a middle aged dry fish seller, who was
at the moment a mother of four- three boys and a girl. However, her husband and
father of three of her four children looked triple her age. Okay, that was a
little exaggeration but he was well above seventy and I was of the assumption
that she would be in her late thirties or very early forties and I was correct!<br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Moving on to the crux of the matter, Iya Bobo hails from the
coastal area of south western Nigeria, an Ilaje woman who had inherited the
fish trade from her mother. Although she migrated to Ile-Ife, the cradle of the
Yoruba people in search for the legendary greener pastures a few years after
she was given off in marriage to Baba as she called him. I met Iya Bobo via
business transactions as fish, be it fresh or dry and a full blooded ijaw
person is inseparable and it was that search for fish that led my mother and I
one day to the road side fish stall of Iya Bobo and in no time, a business
relationship blossomed and flourished into friendship. <br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Consequently, it never ended in a buyer to seller conversation
when we visited Iya Bobo’s fish stall. It was that between friends. She
confided in my mother about her personal-most especially, her marriage.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">She was devastated about being married to Baba and kept
insisting on walking out of the marriage. My mom advised her not to. Baba was taking
good enough care of her and her children but it seemed Iya Bobo’s mind was
already made up and all my mom’s sermon fell on a rocky place.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Days turned into weeks and in four months, Iya Bobo got hit by
cupids arrow- she had fallen in love with someone her age and wasn’t hesitant
about brandishing her new lover.<br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">That day we visited her fish stall, we were astonished by what
greeted us. Iya Bobo frolicking in the arms of her new lover. My dear mother
confronted her but Iya Bobo’s reply was “mummy, e ma worry, mo ti fi Baba
Oloriburuku sile jare” She went on to do the introduction, “mummy, meet my
dear, he works in the University with professors and earns millions” she
concluded with incoherent English.<br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">My mother called Iya Bobo aside privately and began her
interrogations after which she discovered that the new lover already had his
own family- a wife and about four children in the same town. She warned Iya
Bobo that holding on to another woman’s husband would resurrect consequences
she won’t be able to bear and that providence was frowning at her misdemeanor
but Iya Bobo jovially tossed the advice aside. Iya Bobo behaved like the
proverbial dog that feigns deaf ears to the hunter’s whistle and soon
disappears into the forest.<br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">She continued to bask in the euphoria of her new found romance.
Fish business was flourishing simultaneously as her love life. She even
instructed her children to call her lover, “father”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">She thought she had found a lasting happiness</span></div>
<a name='more'></a> and in no time she
got pregnant. I skipped town for close to a year but my mom kept me posted.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">About a year after, I got a call; “My dear” had deserted Iya
Bobo. The details were gory.<br />
Love had gone sour; the young lover had squandered all her trade money and
accused her of practicing sorcery. He claimed she had bore him a demonic child
and wrecked his life. He had returned to his family.<br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Iya Bobo’s close to a year old baby could not sit or crawl and
wasn’t even growing. People described him as a lizard. Shortly after the
desertion, Iya Bobo fell critically ill. It was rumored that she had contacted
the deadly virus. Baba returned and took custody of the children. Iya Bobo
could no longer afford the house rent, she had to leave for Ikale with her love
child but six months later, her love child died.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">I am not a believer of Karma but Nemesis was sure immediate for
Iya Bobo while she thought she was wrecking another’s life, taking freely what
belonged to another without recompense. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Now you can judge my opening.</span></div>
Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-57776212044542045812013-06-30T07:42:00.002-07:002013-06-30T07:56:05.301-07:00UNFATHOMABLE....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqeCnSQGOkSQpiS8jalC6PKJV6Ky6YgBfGdSVx_LvDdLZwZaKbWuXn4ifWoAUDujCYFnPU7vDbjwT4OJmXM-X3H4GaL5LBpHl-Ty0fGb6nZ9JQm12ZiUdwGPATlSM62SidRyITIkokELk/s150/carrzzz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqeCnSQGOkSQpiS8jalC6PKJV6Ky6YgBfGdSVx_LvDdLZwZaKbWuXn4ifWoAUDujCYFnPU7vDbjwT4OJmXM-X3H4GaL5LBpHl-Ty0fGb6nZ9JQm12ZiUdwGPATlSM62SidRyITIkokELk/s320/carrzzz.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The holy writ in its several admonishing to
mortals explicitly in some cases likened man to the grass that flourishes
beautifully at this instance but is momentarily removed and disappears. Long
have I pondered over these sayings but a few weeks ago, an event occurred which
transformed my random ponderings into a fresh state of perturbation I have
persistently dwelt in, this event I intend to divulge today.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It was a cool Sunday afternoon and I was busy
making a mental note of what delicacy would best quench flaming fires of my
after traditional gigantic “after church” hunger. Walking into the kitchen, I
heard footsteps from behind but cared less, all I was thinking of was good food
until my younger sisters loud scream interrupted my trail of thoughts and simultaneously
crashed my culinary meditations.</span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Berserk,
I turned around, ready to give her the verbal lashing she deserved for being an
unrepentant prankster, alas, I was mistaken. Stunned by the very frantic look
on her face, I became apprehensive as my anger melted into concern and I began
to do subtle probe. She released her hand and let her phone slid into my open
palms as the following words slithered out of her agape mouth “dem just ping me
say my course mate die yesterday”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Wide eyed, my cerebrum began to process the
information. Lecture free week had just ended; she was home for the weekend to
do her traditional exam raiding of the entire house, most especially the store.
Special electives had already been fixed for the next day, in fact, exams had literally
begun. Amidst the hustle and bustle of my mind, I found my voice and slowly
asked, sighing after each word, “how e take happen? When and where e happen?”</span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Well, all the information she had at hand was
this- the young lad in the company of two others were driving from campus to
the school gate and had gotten into an automobile crash. He died instantly,
while the other occupants of the car, his friends, were both rushed to the ICU
of the University Health Center.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I floated out of the kitchen because I couldn’t
feel my legs carrying my body and in the same manner, my appetite drifted from
me. With a broken heart, I found a seat in the living room and perched. She
went on narrating the little she knew about the deceased course mate and the
most recent which was after a test result was released. He was planning and
hoping that he makes a B in the course. He obviously was preparing for strongly
for his exams!</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Who could have fathomed?, alas, the cold hands
of death had snatched a budding rose yet again!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Later that evening, a picture of the car
wreckage was sent to her phone, it was a disheartening sight, one that rendered
the tear ducts unequivocally ineffective.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That night as I lay to sleep, certain
restlessness consumed me as I pondered over the holy writ’s description of a
mortal and suddenly, I froze. An epiphany illuminated the darkness of my
bedroom, no doubt, I realized- Life is a loan and someday the creditor will
come to collect but when? Even the wisest of mortals cannot fathom!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Goose bumps covered the pore spaces on my skin
and I began to shiver under the warmth of my covers at the reality that,- we
could plan all we want, dream all we can, fantasize and give birth to illusions
but we cannot tell of a surety what the next millisecond holds and what the
next minute will bring.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Life is a stage where every man must come and
deliver his roles having not a tinge of insight as to when the playmaker will
scream "CUT"!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Emotions eventually normalized and routines
continued but then, something else happened that got me thinking really hard.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There was going to be a presentation in my
advanced immunology class and I was meant to introduce my group which would be
presenting the topic “DNA fingerprinting”. I had it all planned out. I was simply
loaded and ready to explode but my presentation was rescheduled as time ran out
on us. I saw it as a good sign, an opportunity to do remarkably well. I was
about to make an indelible impression on the professor and the class I thought
but then came the much dreaded however- 5:00 AM on Wednesday morning, day of
presentation, I woke up retching and vomiting!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I was absent the entire week and someone else
did the introduction. All I could do for a whole week was to lie on the living
room couch, cable remote on my right hand and flick TV channels restlessly and
yet again, the same perturbation took me over as I recalled the holy writ’s
analogy of life and every day, ever since these incidences occurred, I pause
for a second, no matter how busy my day seems to be to ask myself these questions-</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If life is a loan? How am I
investing it?<br />
Am I making profits, losses or am I just stationary?<br />
Will I be ready when the creditor eventually comes to collect?</span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">OR</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If life be a stage, as
inferred by William Shakespeare.<br />
What be my role?<br />
Am I delivering the right lines most succinctly?<br />
Is my character in sync with the playmakers script?<br />
Am I delivering someone else’s line or acting out another’s character?<br />
What will happen to me when the playmaker finally screams “CUT”</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I still am perturbed. Lost in the tides of
reason and carried far away by the current of logic. I am frantically fighting
the tides, swimming against the torrent and yet hoping desperately that
providence leads me to find the right answers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #7030a0; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How about you? Think about it. Ask yourself and
perhaps, you could be fortunate to catch an epiphany that will revamp your life
and nudge you towards eternal bliss at the end of this very long journey.</span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">…………..Dedicated to the young lads involved in the
recent OAU road 1 auto crash with profound condolences to friends, family and loved
ones of the great gem who passed away.</span></i></b></div>
Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-34333559504823527982013-06-02T06:36:00.000-07:002013-06-02T06:36:18.690-07:00"THE ALIUS"<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiksWH7k2qAUE_tI55yIVzV97OEqNVKxKW9shv81Uk52XDWAqYdqF2Xtnrh0ty0TpR5BdWAIy6El48u1SDYenNnjHvGiMszPJb0ZVU1AiuTIyC1c8VnNKSSl88VxIT9vRkQTZiCI28taz0/s1600/family.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiksWH7k2qAUE_tI55yIVzV97OEqNVKxKW9shv81Uk52XDWAqYdqF2Xtnrh0ty0TpR5BdWAIy6El48u1SDYenNnjHvGiMszPJb0ZVU1AiuTIyC1c8VnNKSSl88VxIT9vRkQTZiCI28taz0/s400/family.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Dear Reader, I
would like to introduce a rare people to you today. The universe would make
more meaning if only they were ubiquitous, alas! But before I do that, allow me
to do this, saying that I profusely apologize for being mute will not suffice
and sorry I was away seems not weighty enough to adequately convey my profound
apologies. Two months of disappearing on this blog was like to me a death
sentence but it was inevitable. I hope you forgive me for I have being on a
ferocious quest to find equilibrium amidst the recent chaotic circumstances
that have plagued me and almost taken my motivation away. Anyway, it feels
great to be back online with greater resilience for the turbulence of life’s
sea.<br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Momentarily, I would
introduce to you a family and like I said earlier, the world would be a better
place with more of such people but too bad! Good people are hard to find so if
you have any of such rare gems in your life at the moment, here is free advice
from the INSPIRER- “Never let them go” but before I do the introduction, READ
THIS CAREFULLY.<br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Growing up under
the influence of my very kind hearted and amiable mother and also as a protégé of
her last sibling, my dear aunt Stella, I often was confronted with the didactic
saying “ do unto others as you would expect to be do unto you”. These words
were my aunt’s remarkable recipe for an amazing life. As I aged and became
competent to distinguish pleasant from obnoxious, I solemnly vowed to live my
life in accordance with the GOLDEN RULE that my dear aunt chanted as some kind
of mantra.<br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As a little girl, I
wasn’t the sweet kid that always wore a fuzzy smile but I was good. I cared
about people and I loved animals, I remember helping my neighbors take care of
a couple of white rabbits. As little as I was, mothers in the estate I grew up
in entrusted me with their children whom I took to and from school.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We moved out of the
estate and I stopped being a child, I became a teenager groping for self
discovery in the maze of life. Everything changed but my dear aunt’s mantra did
not diminish by a word in my heart but Ironically, I have had it misconstrued
all that time.<br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Over the years, I have
being opined that when one extends a philanthrophical gesture to another
someone or a certain group of people, the receiver is bound by some unstated
law of the universe to return such act of kindness if and when the occasion to
do so surfaces. Well ignorantly, I thought it was an obligation compelled by
nature and scruples! But the very enigmatic events of life have subtly revamped
my assertions. This is my story and here, you will meet “THE ALIUS”</span></div>
<a name='more'></a> <br /><br /><br />
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<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As a lover of art,
literature and the media, it is only natural that I cultivate a desire for TV
hosting. I have somehow told everyone that cares to listen that someday, I will
host a show bigger and better than Oprah’s and Ellen’s put together and most of
the time, I get a resonating guffaw as response but that has never dampened my
spirit for my dream is mine and relentlessly I would pursue it!<br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Well, it seemed
like a window opened up after all in March, I applied to audition as Mosunmola
Abudu’s Co- host on the show “Moments with Mo” and I got an invitation!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The audition was to
be held at the legendary EKO hotel and suites, Victoria Island, Lagos and I had
just about ten days to plan and prepare for the trip and so, I became the “busy
bee”.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I couldn’t afford
to pay hotel bills due to the fact that my finances were a little thin at the
time and I needed a place to stay. So I picked up my mobile and started dialing
everyone I knew and thought rather was certain would offer me a place to stay.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I got the shock of
my life; all my “friends” gave me a blatant NO. I was let down and disappointed
and angry. My spirit sank and just then I remembered my dear aunt’s mantra and
shook my head vigorously in dissension for the first time in my existence but
providence was yet to take over and change my mind.<br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Suddenly, a name
sprang in my heart and I sent a sms explaining my situation with no hope for s
reply. Within a few minutes, I got a message and it read “I live in Ikorodu but
I have a friend that stays in VI, I will contact her and ask if she can accommodate
you and then get back to you”<br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Not much later
another SMS, it was the address, phone number and name of the friend that lives
in VI and below it she wrote, “She said you can come, call her”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I made that phone
call and that was how I met the ALIUS. A wonderful people that opened their
doors and lives to a stranger and didn’t stop there, they went ahead to make
that stranger a part of their family in just about 48 hours. I felt a sense of déjà
vu- like I had known them all my life.<br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Eventually, I flopped
at the audition but losing out on what I thought would be my breakthrough didn’t
hurt a tad because of the ALIUS. I found the strength and courage to go on and
hope to cling also to my dream. I could never say thank you enough to the ALIUS
but I am glad I made that trip and I do not and would never regret that I got a
NO from Mosunmola Abudu.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dear Reader, I would
like to beseech you to keep doing good and never stop. Even when it seems like
you are being paid evil for good because there is an angel somewhere on this
earth that providence will employ to reward you unfathomably. I met my angel in
the ALIUS and you will definitely meet yours.<br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> ..............</span><i style="color: red;">With love and immeasurable
gratitude for the ALIUS from the INSPIRER.</i></span></div>
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Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-87006049602073779392013-03-17T06:36:00.000-07:002013-03-17T06:36:22.581-07:00BOOMERANG<div style="color: blue; text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj3GSSFAp68RTOUW43bP4GeT18hqZTWRi4k9fxh4BrOH0XKU8wB1xwPBHc81pATJoyWnr0MIq-64RTEi6Iz0VKC01ocPL9u72jRFbpR4P0l5JFl4b-WnLZCh7InlLXp985xQ5zICkA6ug/s1600/fishermen-on-the-li-river-guilin-china_19500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj3GSSFAp68RTOUW43bP4GeT18hqZTWRi4k9fxh4BrOH0XKU8wB1xwPBHc81pATJoyWnr0MIq-64RTEi6Iz0VKC01ocPL9u72jRFbpR4P0l5JFl4b-WnLZCh7InlLXp985xQ5zICkA6ug/s320/fishermen-on-the-li-river-guilin-china_19500.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Drowning
in an inexplicable torrent of paralyzing negative energy for the last 72 hours,
I got caught up in a state of mental exhaustion in which I contemplated not
blogging at all this week because it seemed as though I hit a road block
somewhere in my trail of thought every time I pick up my laptop. Anyway, I was
in service today when all of a sudden the barricade damming my trail of thought
broke and great ideas came gushing like tidal waves. It took all my resolve to
restrain myself from jumping on my feet and screaming eureka in the middle of
church. I hope you had an excellent week and with vehemence, I would like to assure
you that this week holds brighter promises.<br /><br />
Often times, I hear people use the phrases” what goes around comes around” or “what
goes up must surely come down”. Both phrases I totally agree with as a
scientist and geography minor. Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese sea captain and
his crew proved the first statement definitively when they circled round the globe
on a three-year voyage from 1519-1522 and came back to the exact point they
began from without encountering an abrupt end. This, amongst several other
works later formed the basis on which fact that the earth is a spherical body
was established while the law of gravity in physics backs up the second phrase.<br /><br />
Today, my mission is to prove both statements without a tinge of doubt but
using a real life situation and not physics or geography. I would like to share
with you an apocryphal story, didactic and very limpid.<br />
In the remote past, along the ancient coastal area lived a simple fisherman,
his wife and son. Their life was austere but beautiful, peaceful and enviable.<br /><br />
The fisherman lived in an isolated hut in the middle of the forest with his
family and every fishing morning, at dawn, along with his little boy, he would
set out with his boat to spread his fishing net. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The catch would be collected the next day, a marketing
day according to their itinerary, and his wife would take part of the fish to
the town market for sale and so was their routine until an impending doom
struck. The fisherman and his little boy left for the river as usual on a
morning but never returned. Joy and peace ceased in the little isolated hut
that now housed only a distraught wife and mother who wailed incessantly for
her missing husband and son.<br /> <br />Days turned into nights, nights into fortnights………market
days passed, years went by but the fisherman and his little boy where nowhere
to be found! Notwithstanding, the sad and lonely woman in the isolated hut didn’t
give up. Somewhere deep inside her, she had the fleeting assurance that her son
and husband were still alive and would come back to her some day. She stopped
weeping and dedicated her life to doing good and helping strangers. Feeding and
sheltering weary travelers who got lost in the forest.<br />
On a sunny market day, she stumbled on two young but ragged looking strangers. Weak
and feeble from the perils of journeying. They looked alike but one seemed
younger and had a deep cut on his left feet. He had walked into an animal trap
in the forest and was bleeding profusely.<br /><br />
She immediately helped them to her hut where she tended to the wounds of the young
lad with healing herbs. Fed them with a nourishing fish meal and gave them a
warm place to spend the night. The next morning, they decided to continue their
journey but she persuaded</span></div>
<a name='more'></a> them to tarry till the wound healed completely. They stayed
with her for three market days and for the first time in over seven years, her hut
felt lively and happy again but alas, they were on a journey! They bade her farewell
with a promise to return her kindness.<br />
Did they keep their promise? You will find out shortly.<br /><br />
On a cool dusk, sitting in front of her hut and listening to the birds chirping,
a vaguely familiar figure emerged from the horizon. Joy leaped on her inside,
the type she had not felt for over seven years since the disappearance of her
husband and son. Soon, another figure emerged and yet another. Two men and a teenage
boy walked closer towards her isolated hut. Emotions welled up inside her and
erupted into shriek the instant they closed up on her, it was her long missen
son and husband. <br />
Eventually they told their story after a lavish meal. They had been captured by
slave traders and sold into slavery in a far away kingdom where they had been
serving for over seven years until something happened.<br /><br />
The prince and heir to the throne went hunting with only his personal guard and
didn’t return for weeks. The palace mourned, as it was rumored around the
kingdom that he had fallen prey to ferocious wild beast. Providence shined on
the palace and he returned to tell a tale of abduction, escape and finally,
help from a poor lonely woman in an isolated hut. The teenage boy was working
at the prince’s chambers one night when he began to hum a tune. The song was
familiar and great perturbation hit the prince, he tried desperately to recall
where he first heard the tune but to no avail. Another night, the same
incidence occurred but this time, the prince summoned the slave boy and interrogated
him. <br /><br />
The boy confirmed it was his mother’s lullaby. The one she used in singing him
to sleep as a little boy and immediately, the scales fell off the prince’s eye.
It was the same tune the lonely woman hummed every night. He asked her about it
but all she said was” it was a happy song before my grave lost, now it is a
song of sadness”<br />
The boy’s father was sent for and he narrated how they got into slavery at the
palace.<br />
The prince ordered their release and sent his personal guard to take them back home;
he said he had made a promise to an angel.<br /><br />
What goes around comes around! Life indeed is a boomerang! Whatever we do, good
or evil always finds their way back to our lives.<br />
So, what kind of seeds are you sowing?<br />
Let this linger in your heart this weekVerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-56356191774487582942013-03-10T09:45:00.003-07:002013-03-10T09:50:28.373-07:00THE GRINDING STONE.<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaBiTxIcm2kzyV1FoKAVF-0gvm8RNsKp93nWVRBivzTWKsNp2alQI_9QNJ8AiogAVNef5Z1kKXwK5zOUjYkUTkoyVEs62eEDv2VwIQmt9WEt1oz1XMoAtlBYdoMhi9bb3KiUUYRxKundc/s1600/grindstone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaBiTxIcm2kzyV1FoKAVF-0gvm8RNsKp93nWVRBivzTWKsNp2alQI_9QNJ8AiogAVNef5Z1kKXwK5zOUjYkUTkoyVEs62eEDv2VwIQmt9WEt1oz1XMoAtlBYdoMhi9bb3KiUUYRxKundc/s320/grindstone.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="color: red;">GRINDING STONE</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">Over the last seven
days, I have been engaged in a ferocious soul searching exercise consequent
from feeling like a huge weight was lying on my shoulders making me usually
lethargic and tardy but as I perused through the chapters of my life’s book I
caught a shimmer of light from some phrase I had learnt long ago.</span><br style="color: blue;" /><span style="color: blue;">
“keep your nose to the grinding stone” that idiom from my days of learning
figurative expressions in my English Language class as a teenage girl struck me
like lightening from a tremendous thunder bolt and as I mused over it, I smiled
from deep within ! </span><br style="color: blue;" /><span style="color: blue;">
Back in the day, it was one of those idioms I found hilarious and almost
preposterous. Each time it came up, I
found myself conjuring in my subconscious an image of a maiden bent over the
ancient grinding stone, hot chilly splashing over her eyes and then a rapid
distraught and ironically comical reaction to her doom. Alas, it was a teenager’s
prank mind envisioning nasty things. That phrase perched like a gentle dove on
an olive branch on my mind and all week, I worked at fathoming it out. My
finding didn’t exactly lift off the invisible weight off my shoulders but it
gave me the strength to overcome that incredible lethargy and tardiness. I felt
able to combat a troll all by myself!</span><br style="color: blue;" /><span style="color: blue;">
Today, I would like to share that finding with you but</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;"> before I do, read this: </span><br style="color: blue;" /><span style="color: blue;">
“Ebiere was born into a dynastic family. Wealth and affluence were the first
words she spoke as a toddler. Everything came to her easy. She had the best
things in life and was the apple of her parent’s eyes as an only child. She
didn’t know the words poverty or struggle ever existed until catastrophe
struck. Her parents were killed in an auto crash and she became an orphan.
Barely eight years old, her vile uncle took the family’s wealth and in a house
where she once was a princess, Ebiere was reduced to worst than a mere domestic
staff. Her cousins who once doted on her, turned her into a cheap rug and
walked all over her, their mother, her uncle’s loving and caring wife, morphed
into Jezebel!</span><br style="color: blue;" /><span style="color: blue;">
Ebiere’s life was like that of a promising seedling that sprouted happily at
the call of the impeccable sun and was squashed by hideous darkness, it had
ended even before it got a chance to begin. So she thought but providence
dissented.</span><br style="color: blue;" /><span style="color: blue;">
A colossal tragedy was to shape the life of a young orphan or dent it but amidst
gross darkness, showed an ember of light in the disguise. Her obnoxious uncle
had fired all domestic staff employed by her late parents but allowed her nanny
to remain in his new employ. He didn’t want anything to do with his niece so
the nanny was meant to be the only source of liaison between them. </span><br style="color: blue;" /><span style="color: blue;">
Ebiere was literally born into her nanny’s hands and the elderly woman had
loved and cared for her like a grandmother over the years. She soon became the
centre of Ebiere’s world- her only family.</span><br style="color: blue;" /><span style="color: blue;">
Life was turmoil for Ebiere and when it was time for her to go to secondary
school, her uncle’s wife enrolled her in the community secondary school while
her cousins attended the best private school but her nanny always told her this
one thing every night she wailed uncontrollably, “have faith my</span></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;"> child and never
remove your nose from the grinding stone” the later part often made her laugh
but Ebiere took wise counsel. Nothing ever brought her down, she kept keeping
on. Hard work and diligence paid off, she graduated senior valedictorian of the
year and was given a full tertiary institution scholarship by the government.</span><br style="color: blue;" /><span style="color: blue;">
She got into the university as a law student and was on a path to take back all
that was taken away from her, and did she?</span><br style="color: blue;" /><span style="color: blue;">
Aided by senior colleagues, she sued her uncle and won. Ebiere got it all back
and built a greater business empire than her parents had. “The evils that men
do, lives after them” is the popular saying but in the case of Ebiere’s vile
uncle, it lived with him. His daughters turned out wayward and the little
savings he had was duped off him by the Jezebel who eloped with a younger man.</span><br style="color: blue;" /><span style="color: blue;">
Well here is my finding, sometimes in life; we are confronted by fiendish woes.
Troubles seem unending and we eventually lapse into a state of mental
exhaustion. We become lethargic, feeling like the entire world is sitting on
our shoulders and beneath the weight, we crumble and then we halt because
moving forward seems at the moment like a death sentence but here is the irony,
staying down is suicide!</span><br style="color: blue;" /><span style="color: blue;">
I would not overate optimism and tell you it will be easy, but what will be
most difficult is not trying. I am not ignorant of the fact also that the
troubles of life come in different packages, sizes, colors and kilograms if you
allow me the use of measures, your weight could be a 1000kg and mine 1500kg but
neither of us can afford to crumble under it and halt.</span><br style="color: blue;" /><span style="color: blue;">
No matter the size, we need to keep moving and that is what I tell myself, keep
moving. A stationary phase is not allowed on this journey, no matter how
insignificant the movement may seem, make sure you are in motion!</span><br style="color: blue;" /><span style="color: blue;">
Yes, if you can’t <span style="color: red;">FLY</span> because of the weight, you can <span style="color: red;">RUN</span> and if it becomes
heavier<span style="color: red;"> WALK</span> and when walking becomes a herculean task, <span style="color: red;">CRAWL </span>and if ever
crawling becomes a mammoth task, if ever you are so heavy laden……<span style="color: red;">SLITHER.</span> </span><br style="color: blue;" /><span style="color: blue;">
You know why? In slithering you will muster the ability to<span style="color: red;"> CRAWL</span>, in crawling,
you will discover the strength to <span style="color: red;">WALK </span>again, in walking, you will build the courage
to RUN and in running, you will eventually gain the confidence to<span style="color: red;"> FLY.</span></span><br style="color: blue;" /><span style="color: blue;">
Stick your nose in the grindstone, will you?</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span>
</span></span></div>
Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-38208802187709263822013-02-24T08:33:00.004-08:002013-02-26T01:57:24.965-08:00ANCIENT JUNGLE.......<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Fellow comrades all
tremble and stumble deep in the jungle</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In their ferocious
search, had not sought out guidance</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Desperate they
neglected the wise gaffer, “keeper of the ancient jungle”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And have all
fumbled aimlessly being self-reliant</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Awed, I guffawed at
their ignorance</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Content, I smiled
smugly</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I solved the puzzle</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">All I needed to do
which no other comrade ever did was to shift my gaze</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Yes, to get the
twinkle that will calm my jingles</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I only had to focus
on the gaffer of the ancient jungle <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1028841880296462588" name="_GoBack"></a><br />
<br />
Often times in life we struggle and work so hard chasing after all the pleasant
things we crave for but there is a secret we most times neglect or are too busy
to discover. A secret that would eradicate and mitigate our struggles as well
as save us a lifetime of perturbation. Like a brand new machine could be
sabotaged by ignorance on the path of its operator, so can the beautiful gift
of life, freely bestowed on us by providence be ruined by a lack of knowledge.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In the midst of our
turmoil, pain and incessant labor we ask ourselves if life could get any easier
and we are tricked into believing that life has to hurt to turn out beautiful
but does it always have to be true? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Imagine two little
boys in a toy factory that have just being given a gift of the newest toy
train. Euphoric, they raced out of the factory, headed to their respective
homes to show off their new trains but they were both confronted with a dilemma
back home. They couldn’t get the trains to start!<br />
They tried all they could and it just got harder. Finally, they respectively
came up with these decisions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The first boy
thought the factory had deceived them and given them bad toys. He locked up the
train in the basement and never spoke of it again. He was fraught with anger.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The other boy got
out his bike</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> and raced all the way to the factory. It was dark and scary but he
had a mission. He was going to meet with the train’s manufacturer and demand explanations
on why his brand new train wouldn’t work.<br /><br />
When I think about life, I think of it as a gift given to us like the trains
were given to the boys but what we make out of life ultimately depends on the
decisions and the choices we make. Life throws a missile at you, what do you
do? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Resign, give up,
act indifferent and blame the creator for your bad fortune or forge ahead by
seeking knowledge from the manufacturer!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<i><b><span style="color: red;">Where purpose is not defined, abuse is inevitable but how can purpose be
deciphered? Don’t just keep wandering in life, ask the manufacturer! Consult
the great gaffer of the ancient jungle.</span></b></i>
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-80804678100313323552013-02-17T12:20:00.004-08:002013-02-17T12:30:24.707-08:00WISHFUL THINKING.....<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ68mZHkENRGW-sxeDeLQK2Wdg2c-6u1vN089pp7NO6Z98lI86X9Fqz9v6V9CYudyF871QB36RUEv2Hq_kzMm7EwZBexSn0pQONWNpnIfm6g3EyvWOH1TzKAE-FxTpEdIELtBWvkN6nQM/s1600/fANTASY+W+W.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ68mZHkENRGW-sxeDeLQK2Wdg2c-6u1vN089pp7NO6Z98lI86X9Fqz9v6V9CYudyF871QB36RUEv2Hq_kzMm7EwZBexSn0pQONWNpnIfm6g3EyvWOH1TzKAE-FxTpEdIELtBWvkN6nQM/s400/fANTASY+W+W.jpg" width="352" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">FANTASY WISHING WELL</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">“What is
yours will always come back to you”. Severally, I have heard this axiom spoken
and used to imbibe assurance into the simple folks by the seemingly wise and
accomplished philosophers but I have always thought that the cliché was
overrated. I equally believed that it was mere consolation for complacency,
tardiness and ultimately, it depicts dangerous folly.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">
As an individual, I aptly believe in being ambitious and strategic. I set out
to achieve seemingly mammoth tasks and a smug smile lights up my face after
every deserved victory. Anyway, another unwavering belief of mine faced
imminent alteration or modification as a result of a didactic occurrence early
last week.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">
Here goes my tale: </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">
Diligence, hard work, good deeds, recompense and consequences are popular words
in my personal dictionary. I vigorously pursue what I want and trust me, I
almost always get it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">
However, that has not being the story of my life in the last 16 months. I have
had series of disappointments, delays in the stead of my traditional
“touchdowns”. The most recent of which became consequential of my publication
“FIGHTING” but in the midst of thick darkness, when not a flicker of light
illuminated. A pale amber beamed.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">
Depressed and frustrated over losing something I desperately wanted, I turned
to my fall back plan which I had treated with negligence. Unfortunately, it
seemed as though my plan B wouldn’t work out too but I was about to become a
believer.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">
Sometime in May 2012, I applied for an MBA in a federal university. I was
certain I would be admitted but the admission process stalled and out of
pressure from every angle, I worked out a plan B as a strategist, I Picked up
another form, this time for MSC in a different university in September, 2012.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">
It turned out that I didn’t get the MBA admission and this I discovered in
January 2013. My only option against my desire was to take up plan B. To my
astonishment and horror, plan B had being sealed since November 2012 and
admission letters were already distributed. Pandemonium erupted in my head as
my beautiful strategy came crashing down and I watched helpless. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">
Well, like people say, life goes on and I decided to forge ahead. I made a trip
to the plan B University for frivolity sake. Guess what I discovered!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">
An admission letter had already being mailed to me a day before but how? I had
no recommendation letter from any one that mattered. I was bemused and decided
to look for answers. I later unraveled the mystery behind the admission. After
all recommendations had being sent in, received and processed. The department
decided to pick out a few deserving candidates using past academic records as
criteria and viola! I got in. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">
It wasn’t my first choice but it definitely has the word providence written all
over it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">
As I walked out of the Department, I met with my good old buddy and after I
narrated my story, he said the following words. ”what is yours will always come
back to you”. I guffawed and replied, “that is an overrated cliché” but he
didn’t stop talking, he went on to add, “Only if you give it a little push”.
Immediately, it hit me like a stone thrown in water and the epiphany widened
like the ripples the stone makes. Yes, I gasped. It makes sense now I guess. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">
Keeping your legs crossed and occupying a stationary position is all dangerous
folly and mere wishful thinking when attributed to the axiom” what is yours
will come back to you” but the moment you launch out of that inertia and “give
it a little push” it will of a surety become yours. So, while I still maintain
my stand that the axiom “what is yours will always come back to you” is
overrated and reeks of complacency, I would like to note also that I am a
believer of the axiom if the prefix “only if you give it a little push” is
attached to the end.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">
Don’t cross your arms and tarry for it to come, push a little, set the ball
rolling and see where it takes you. After all, I bought the form first! </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-76619468242056319522013-02-10T11:33:00.000-08:002013-02-10T11:33:03.366-08:00FREEDOM<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZIuVdURKFflYnDz521a3bUJ-bEPhNbEf1fRRw69kgMkgJqsDuxo6ugkQuHOCJniLom_Im6aR25o2AxMXPmdGIIxTTlZ-FQW-R8CKc0Ei-AOD6oJCMAyHROyM7n-dTTAItUEbWVUFbIPg/s1600/freedom+hyena.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZIuVdURKFflYnDz521a3bUJ-bEPhNbEf1fRRw69kgMkgJqsDuxo6ugkQuHOCJniLom_Im6aR25o2AxMXPmdGIIxTTlZ-FQW-R8CKc0Ei-AOD6oJCMAyHROyM7n-dTTAItUEbWVUFbIPg/s320/freedom+hyena.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red;"> FREE OR BOUND?</span></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> December
last year, I witnessed an occurrence that caused a partial volte-face in my
definition for the word freedom. I observed that perhaps the concept of freedom
was entwined grossly with man’s psychology. In fact, I inferred that freedom is
a state of mind and two days ago, while visiting the zoological gardens of the
prestigious Obafemi
Awolowo University,
along side my irreplaceable friend of over a decade, I modified my observation
into a hypothesis. The incident of the previous year, augmented with my discovery
at the zoo led me there.<br />
<br />
Amidst the numerous activities that characterizes the yuletide is featured a
unique act of benevolence and exchange of gifts pioneered by the legendary
Santa Claus and mimicked by the millions of mortals occupying the planet earth
and so, in the spirit of Christmas, gifts are given and received.<br />
<br />
We received a turkey for Christmas though it has long gone down the sewer via
appropriate channels beginning with the mouth, I would love to tell a little
tale about our Christmas turkey that was not bound but at the same time not
free.<br />
Our Christmas turkey was delivered to us late in the day and so we could not
perform the traditional beheading rites immediately. Hence, our Christmas
turkey had to spend a cold long night outside exposed to the dangers of the
dark. Delivered to us with both feet bound, a unanimous decision was made to
untie the turkey in order to give it leverage for self defense just in case!<br />
<br />
Here is the baffling thing, we arrived the next morning to take our Christmas
turkey on a trip to the slaughter but we realized that it was lying on the same
spot we left it the previous night, untied! All through the drive to the
slaughter, my mind was ravaged by the thought. I pondered over and over it
until I saw the light. Our Christmas turkey had been tied up for so long that
it didn’t even realize the ropes had being cut off. It had been held bound for
so long it had no idea what to do with its freedom. I was consumed by a heart
wrenching empathy for the poor bird. <br />
<br />
I felt its pain, for how long did it struggle for its freedom before it finally
succumbed I wondered? A tiny rope kept a huge bird bound almost all its life
and a night before its demise, the rope was physically untied but our Christmas
turkey remained bound subconsciously and didn’t even try to move from the spot!
<br />
Freedom is defined as the condition or right of being able or allowed to do,
say, think, etc. whatever you want to without being controlled or limited. My
emphasis lies on the second part of the definition, “sans control, limitation,
restriction, impediment, obstacles” which could be physical (substantial) like
in the case of our Christmas turkey or mental (insubstantial) like in this
other instance I am about render.<br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I met an hyena two days ago while
visiting the zoo; of course it was being confined but trust me, it wasn’t some
kind of “level A” confinement. I was thinking that the hyena could break out
and so I became petrified and perturbed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess my buddy read me like a book, like he
always does, and assured me the hyena wouldn’t even move and it didn’t!<br />
<br />
I looked closely into the carnivore’s eyes and I recognized a mental
exhaustion. It had acclaimed mentally to being bound and nothing could probably
ever change that.<br />
<br />
You may wonder why I am narrating the story of our Christmas turkey and the
hyena at the zoo, don’t you? I believe both stories are didactic.<br />
We were all born free, thank Heavens and we all walk free except for people
confined in facilities but how free is that freedom?<br />
It not the presence of shackles and fetters that suggests that a man is bound
but his state of mind determines how much liberty he possesses.<br />
<i><b><span style="color: red;">FEAR, REGRET, HESITATION, INDECISION</span></b></i> are all mental fetters and shackles that
limits a man.<br />
The <b><span style="color: red;">FEAR</span></b> of what the future holds, <span style="color: red;"><b>REGRET</b> </span>for things that happened in the past, <b><span style="color: red;">HESITATION</span></b> to break new grounds and <b><span style="color: red;">INDECISION</span></b> over significant matters at
auspicious times makes a man crawl where he should have been flying.<br />
What is holding you back? I can very well define it as an impediment, a
limitation, or an inhibition but what I cannot do is identifying it for you.<br />
To soar high beyond where the eagles tread, lies the obligation to break out
with exigency but break out you can only after you have identified what it is that
holds you bound and only you can do that. A wise man once said “<i><b>the only
limitations that will keep us bound are the ones we place on ourselves”</b></i><br />
<span style="color: red;"><i><b>How free is your freedom? </b></i></span><br />
You will never know how far you would go until you let that fetter off and
stride on.</span></span></div>
Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-86191246014794165952013-02-03T04:42:00.001-08:002013-02-03T04:53:50.629-08:00REFLECTION<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<h1 style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></h1>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjObwVImCpyIwF3COJC7Vo_MbGgncPxNh4gfeDLdx5PmBXnZ3XF_m27dw7iHIQTzN23GUuaoYif0SwrPCDG-4rEJ9LGX1e3NMi22aH_KEEE-GFtxK9JD812HoQwehUH68_bPIzA5aG4jg8/s1600/yedtyyy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjObwVImCpyIwF3COJC7Vo_MbGgncPxNh4gfeDLdx5PmBXnZ3XF_m27dw7iHIQTzN23GUuaoYif0SwrPCDG-4rEJ9LGX1e3NMi22aH_KEEE-GFtxK9JD812HoQwehUH68_bPIzA5aG4jg8/s320/yedtyyy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<h1 style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></h1>
<h1 style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;">Look at me, and what do you
see? Some years back that really mattered to me. How much I cared about what
other people saw me as, what I looked like through the lens of another
homosapien’s optics and the adulations from the world until I disengaged from
that school of thought.<br /><br />
An inexplicably talented young woman wrote a song I fell head over heels in
love with and its lyrics amidst other excruciating soul searching exercise
became consequential of my disengagement from the “what do you see” cul de sac
and got me trailing the paths of a brand new close I love to call “what do I
see” and I ceased from there on to ask the question I opened with because I
realized that the efficacy of the answer that follows could come from only one
source- me! No mortal could ever unravel the intricacies of another mortal’s
being and shed light to the stark darkness of a man’s core save for divinity
and man himself and so I made a vow to look inwards always. Not totally
disregarding exterior opinions of course but meticulously after intense inward
ferocious foraging, subject the exterior opinions to evaluation by the internal
findings.<br /><br />
So, each time I stand in front of my body sized mirror, I ask myself this- who
is this woman I see starring straight back at me? Trust me, sometimes, my
reflection is someone I don’t know! Sometimes I cannot hide who I am even
though I try and I wonder endlessly when my reflection will show who I really
am inside. It is certainly an odyssey but every day I discover the woman
starring straight back at me, I get closer to unraveling the enigma, me! <br /><br />
Maybe you have entirely discovered who you are or you are embarked on the
odyssey to fathom out whom you are, I hope you find the paths that takes you
straight home and I say congratulations to you respectively! But if you do not
fall into any of the mentioned categories, that implies one thing- you are
still groping in the dark, struggling and seeing yourself from the optics of
the world which in almost all cases is disadvantaged and I am putting myself
under the moral obligation to announce to you today that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>an imminent
danger of inevitable abuse looms like in the saying “a misunderstanding of
purpose results inevitably in an abuse of an invention”.<br /><br />
Of all the wonders of creation, a mortal is the most mercurial and so self
discovery becomes a herculean but eminently significant task!<br />
Who is the man or woman that stares back at you when you look in the mirror?
What does your reflection show?<br /> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><br />
Allow me a partial digression; I would love to share a tale of quaint events,
of the times when man survived primarily on hunting and fruit gathering and
lived in caves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the days of the early
man who enjoyed virgin nature- landscapes, sky, water even the air lived two
brothers. One beloved of his father and the other<a name='more'></a> prejudiced. The father loved
his younger son so dearly because he was a chip of the old block. His voice,
physique, gait, behavior everything was his father’s but his strength. The old
man gazed upon his younger son as a reflection of himself and loathed his
eldest son for his strength which was the only thing he had genetically
inherited from his father; he wished his younger son had got that too!<br /><br />
Life in the cave was torment for the older son, he did all the hard work-
hunting and gathering fruits while the favored son got the best piece of meat
and ripest fruits and so was the status quo. Boys became lads and lads became
young men but not a thing changed, the old man saw to that.<br /><br />
Several years of being discriminated against eventually rubbed off on the older
son and all he ever saw of himself became what he saw through his father’s eyes
in a lifetime of futile efforts to get his father’s approval. <br /><br />
However, several dusks and dawns passed and the young men reached a
marriageable age. The ruler of the kingdom had announced that all young men
enter into a competition that would require them to embark on an arduous
journey fraught with outlandish occurrences for the hand of his only daughter.
It would be a test of hubris, strength, compassion and wit. The young man that
returns successful would be made husband to the ruler’s daughter and next in
the line of ruler ship.<br /><br />
All the young men entered the competition with fervor; the old man personally
entered his beloved son. He wished for nothing more than him marrying the
ruler’s daughter and becoming next in line, that way he knew he had fulfilled
his paternal responsibilities and would meet his ancestors a happy man.<br /><br />
It was the night before the journey the elder son got wind of the ruler’s
proclamation. He had been on a hunting expedition and his father had
deliberately kept the news from him, that bit of information he had got in the
middle of a heated dissension with his father. The old man without flinching
had told him in these words “I look at you and you know what I see, a hunter
and a fruit gatherer. You cannot obviously be interested in entering into a
competition that could make you the most powerful person in this kingdom, even
if you have the strength, it is not who you are or could ever be”. Stung by the
venom in his father’s tongue, the young man ran into the forest. <br /><br />On a hunting
trip, he had discovered a hill in the forest which had become his haven. A
brook ran through it and the water settled in its crest. He had in the past
drunk from its refreshing water when ravished with thirst but that night, he
wasn’t thirsty. He was hurt, frustrated and angry. The moon shone brightly and
lit the hill beautifully; he gazed into the water in the crest and saw his
reflection. His father’s words came rushing back and all he saw was the image
that had being ingrained in his mind his entire life, that of a lonely hunter,
loathed by his father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <br /> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suddenly, out of the horizon, he heard a
faint voice urging him to look closer into the water, at his reflection. He
did, and the voice asked him this question- who is staring back at you?<br />
With a grimace, he answered, a hunter, hated by his father of course.<br />
The soft voice prompted him to look again, this time it urged him to see from
his heart and not from his father’s assertions. His answer was of course
different, he saw a young intelligent strong hunter.<br />
Finally, the voice asked him if the man he saw could embark in the competition
and conquer.<br />
He smiled and answered, “you have no idea what that man has conquered while out
hunting” and immediately, he caught an epiphany! He dashed out of the forest
and hurried to the kingdom; all young men were gathered and set to leave. He
declared his intention to partake in the quest and was granted permission
against his father’s plea and argument.<br /><br />
You can tell who returned successful! Years of hunting alone paid off as he was
able to stand the hardship of the quest. In fact, His favored brother only
returned alive because of his help.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;">
Astonished, his father with uttermost regret begged for his forgiveness. He
became next in line and his family moved to a cave in the ruler’s vicinity.
When asked how he was able to accomplish his quest, his reply was-“ I looked
through my heart and I<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>recognized the
man starring back at me as someone who could make it”</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;">
When you look at the mirror, what do you see?</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><b><i><span style="color: red;">“Reflection is the business of man; a sense of his state is his first duty: but
who remembereth himself in joy? Is it not in mercy then that sorrow is allotted
unto us? ” WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.</span></i></b></span></h1>
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</span>Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-57212359976430258802013-01-20T13:42:00.001-08:002013-01-20T13:47:47.693-08:00FIGHTING!!!<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="height: 278px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; width: 336px;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinpF8tKMvdjRok4B6HC88_6FVffMG5rHpSFu0-aLkn9RHOw6WzlZb0QdS6Z4hwqeC-IqxLoBGJICYsR9p2CQ4JwgIsbCBzWQgOQk2qdPrC6M1cl4mCb6o-hB_wPcXK1A8LuEuSUUBO-0U/s1600/weight_training_for_boxing_Wallpaper__yvt2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinpF8tKMvdjRok4B6HC88_6FVffMG5rHpSFu0-aLkn9RHOw6WzlZb0QdS6Z4hwqeC-IqxLoBGJICYsR9p2CQ4JwgIsbCBzWQgOQk2qdPrC6M1cl4mCb6o-hB_wPcXK1A8LuEuSUUBO-0U/s320/weight_training_for_boxing_Wallpaper__yvt2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red;">YOU'VE GOT TO GET UP AND TRY!</span></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I had been
sitting here, starring at my computer monitor for about an hour and wondering what
point to begin from. Well, an apology wouldn’t be a bad start I guess. Accept
my profound apologies for last week, I was on transit. Seems like 2013 is on
rocket speed! I thought 2012 was fast but right now, I am thinking not so fast.
About three weeks ago, I was cajoled or better still, certain coercive measures
were imposed on me by my very mushy sisters to watch a Korean love story. I hate
love stories but a Korean movie is definitely a NO movie for me, so imagine the
horror and disgust that was coursing through me when I sat sandwiched between my
sisters to satisfy their misplaced generosity. They eminently thought they were
doing me two mammoth favors- softening me up and helping me relax. Well, I did
oblige them and we began the movie, a series of about twenty three episodes but
something happened.<br /><br /> My initial disgust and horror began to fade as I changed my
sitting position from uptight to something more relaxed. I thought the movie
was hilarious, and the female lead was an incredible lunatic! But what I didn’t
realize at the moment was this- the crazy Korean movie was about to become my
source of inspiration, encouragement and strength in a potential adversity. <br /><br />
With hopes as high as the Himalayas and sparkling ebullience, flowing like the long
Mississippi, I embarked on a journey to the “Heartbeat” of the nation in a bid
to experience the birth of a dream that had being conceived and nurtured for
precisely seven months, enough time for a fetus to fully develop and be able to
survive on its own. Unfortunately, I met with a still birth instead and at that
moment of immense despair and frustration with tears gliding down my eyes from
beneath my sunshade as I watched the heart wrenching plummet of my Himalayas of hope with a flinty expression, a temporal amnesia
took hold of my cerebrum but only one word depicted all constancy. It wouldn’t
fade into the stream of agony and regret. All that resonated through my nerves
and veins was <b><span style="color: red;">“FIGHTING”.</span></b></span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> I was lost, it didn’t make any sense. Desperately, I
tried to calm down and understand why I was hearing only that word. At
first my thoughts seemed incoherent but a few minutes later, a nerve sparked
somewhere in the intricate wiring of my nervous system, a quick lightening
provoked a thunder that sucked me into a hundred and sixty eight hours before
the present and it all became crystal. I jolted out of the waves and for the
first time after I beheld the stillbirth, a weak smile played across my lips.
<b><span style="color: red;">“FIGHTING”</span></b> was the family slogan of the female lead I earlier described as an
“incredible lunatic” in the Korean movie I coaxingly watched but you wouldn’t
comprehend how the word became my solace and haven until you meet GEUM JAN DI
who equally was bestowed with the epithet “Wonder Woman” by the cream De la
cream of the Shinwa High.<br /><br />
Born to a very humble and struggling Korean family, Jan Di worked at least five
odd jobs to support her family whose only source of livelihood was a dingy dry
cleaning outlet which also served as an housing facility for the family of four
but poverty never broke their spirits. Jan Di was smart, vocal and had zero
tolerance for injustice, oppression and intimidation. As a kindergarten kid,
she dealt with bullies regardless of the differential in size which always was
prejudiced against her.<br /> <br />The cleaners lived in inexplicable joy and peace in
their little world until an incident that would in the future take them through
innumerable hardships and hazards occurred. With her fighting spirit,</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> Jan Di
rescued a junior of the elite high school Shinwa High from suicide and her
fortune changed- she became big news and was offered a scholarship to a high
school exclusive for the high and mighty and so her travails began. She was
caught in a world disparate from hers.<br /><br /> A young master and heir to the ruling
Korean conglomerate spotted her and so her woes multiplied. His mother made
life literally unbearable for Jan Di- her family lost the cleaning outlet,
their only source of income and was compelled to street hawking. Bills could
not be paid and so her parents left for outskirts where they lived on a fishing
boat to earn a meager means of living. Not only did the matriarch afflict GEUM
JAN DI, she extended her loathe to anyone who was connected to her in any way.
She got her best friend’s dad fired, forcefully took over the foundation of
another of her sympathizers. The matriarch made earth Hades for Jan Di but in
the midst of the storms, the cleaners held onto their family slogan-<b><span style="color: red;">“FIGHTING”</span></b>
and together they overcame!</span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">
It is recorded in the holy writ that if a man’s strength fails him in the days
of adversity, then his strength is little, meager or small. I have also come to
the conclusion trailing the path of the holy writ’s assertion that your
strength can be regarded as failed or failing and quantified as meager only
when you stop <b style="color: red;">“FIGHTING”</b>.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiplxYWUnAsYF8ntXkajIvRU3KtSG_b0MYvAJwM4vJ5GDYtnHP8asmg3tu57N2FtHWMQj1DlVrYbalv2ssKwqZcVqBROilWiFBgmJmbg1Revikgj_EQLtQe9-6lESdHxE0LwOemgDopmW0/s1600/FIGHTING+PIX.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiplxYWUnAsYF8ntXkajIvRU3KtSG_b0MYvAJwM4vJ5GDYtnHP8asmg3tu57N2FtHWMQj1DlVrYbalv2ssKwqZcVqBROilWiFBgmJmbg1Revikgj_EQLtQe9-6lESdHxE0LwOemgDopmW0/s1600/FIGHTING+PIX.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="color: red;">DON'T GIVE UP!</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
It is certainly a brand new year and for you as well as myself, it is the start
of something new. A commencement of lush dreams, enthralling innovations and a
bright burning torch of hope to see them manifest leads us through the
meandering tunnel of wishes. Optimist that I am, I go into every second with
severe ebullience and I never most of the times consider the “what ifs”. This I
guess, has being my strongest point and ironically, sometimes, my fatal flaw
because there are times I get so interred in the positivity that I lose the
ability to manage a negative outcome with aplomb.<br /><br /> I begin to crumble on my
inside in the face of a negative manifestation, an abortion of my dream or at
the sight of a still birth just like I did recently until I remembered
<b><span style="color: red;">“FIGHTING”.</span></b><br /><br />
So, I have resolved to fight through 2013 regardless of its jet speed. In fact,
I already have begun <b><span style="color: red;">“FIGHTING”</span></b> and I profoundly hope that you will do the
same.<br /><br />
It hurts when dreams die and when hopes and aspirations fade into oblivion, we
feel like we have reached the end of the road but the truth is- it is only
actually over when you stop <b><span style="color: red;">“FIGHTING”</span></b><br /><br />
Yes, dreams may die, ideas may be lost but hope can never be eliminated as long
as there is life and strength to fight.<br /> <br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, John C. Maxwell in one of his
book “be a people person” said, “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents
which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant” I concur with him
but this can only happen when you fight to keep your head clear enough to
think!<br /><br />
To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day to
make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle any human being can
fight and never stop <b><span style="color: red;">“FIGHTING”</span></b> that was E.E. CUMMINGS.<br /><br />
As we advance in life, it becomes more and more difficult but in <b><span style="color: red;">“FIGHTING”</span></b> the
difficulties, the innermost strength of the heart is developed. So “if you
can’t go back to your mother’s womb, you’d better be a good fighter” thinks
ANCHEE MIN! <br /><br />I would like to leave you with the very poignant words of William Shakespeare. He spoke of adversity thus </span><i><span style="color: red; font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“</span></i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/28820.html" title="Click for further information about this quotation"><i><span style="color: red; text-decoration: none;">Sweet are the uses of
adversity, which, like a toad, though ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious
jewel in its head.”</span></i><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></a></span><u style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: FrankRuehl; mso-bidi-language: HE;"></span></u><br />
<u style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span></u><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: FrankRuehl; mso-bidi-language: HE;"><span style="color: blue;"><b>NEVER STOP. NEVER STOP
FIGHTING. NEVER STOP DREAMING!!!!!!!!!!!!</b> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-50496241988776570382013-01-06T15:45:00.002-08:002013-01-06T15:56:22.860-08:00BONNE ANNEE 2013!!!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZlTTJCwLFAxw3OWy9K_d10h2nAnRVwH1XJ18knJVC5Vnxi5guLLeRkt_Ln5nM4sXxKBN80n8RFIKnALUHxlQ6chK7yPDF3eRUs-lt6ykLRfLmgROp4I5z1hBSjzHVY2IdQcAt1iEnBu4/s1600/tahquamenon+falls,+michigan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZlTTJCwLFAxw3OWy9K_d10h2nAnRVwH1XJ18knJVC5Vnxi5guLLeRkt_Ln5nM4sXxKBN80n8RFIKnALUHxlQ6chK7yPDF3eRUs-lt6ykLRfLmgROp4I5z1hBSjzHVY2IdQcAt1iEnBu4/s400/tahquamenon+falls,+michigan.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red;">TAHQUAMENON FALLS, MICHIGAN</span><span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As
the year 2012 closed up, I became a cocktail of emotions- a tremendous
euphoria sprang up on my inside simultaneously as a sense of sadness
over goals not achieved. I became nostalgic over the trip down south I
was about to embark upon. Consequently, I was a cornucopia of feelings. I
felt joy, laughter, sadness, peace all unique feelings for respective
circumstances. I was in the car, journeying down to the South West after
the quickest year I had ever experienced when an incident that will
soon make the positive feelings gain ascendancy took place. We were
driving on the right lane facing upwards since the road was not a dual
road and a Toyota SUV was racing downwards on the left lane but
suddenly, this car lost control and was swerving into our lane, my uncle
was at the wheels and was quick to respond with admirable aplomb. The
SUV somersaulted into a ditch at the other side of the road, when it
eventually stopped, all it's four tyres were facing the air, the
windshield was gone! </span><br />
<br style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">We
parked at a distance and hurried to the scene, it was near a village
and so the villagers also were dashing out of their houses to the
rescue. Pride welled up on my inside as I thought how great a people we
are as Nigerians! Inexplicably, the driver and only occupant of the SUV
came out without a scratch! It was a miracle and as we continued our
journey, I received an epiphany that brought about a transmogrification
of my thoughts and obliterated the ingredient sadness in my emotional
cocktail as I again affirmed that the greatest gift of all is the air we
freely breathe. </span><br />
<br style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Of
a surety, you made strategic plans at the beginning of the just
concluded year as I did. You mapped out realizable goals and had
unwavering hopes that dreams will come through. Maybe a few you achieved
and many began to seem impossible and as the month of Immaculate
Conception waned, your agitation grew like mine when it seemed like the
dreams had faded into oblivion. The resultant effect then becomes a
cocktail of emotions- sometimes you are up, excited, ecstatic even until
you remember goals not achieved and your ebulliences collapse but have
you thought about the greatest gift of them all? </span><br />
<br style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">LIFE!!!!!!!!!!
Your ability to breathe guarantees that those dreams would and could
still come to birth. I would then like to welcome you to a year that
dreams come true! The brand new 2013 whose womb is over fraught with
greatness and my wish for you as well as my wish for me is that the
blessings interred in the womb of this brand new year will be delivered
to you and I without pain or labor. You and I will partake significantly
of the greatness embedded in the heart of this year and it will be for
us all a cornucopia of unprecedented events that will cause us to smile
from deep within. Get inspiration and stay inspired this year, it is
all right here on THE INSPIRER.</span></div>
Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-63223585307223273492012-12-23T10:37:00.001-08:002012-12-24T10:35:49.046-08:00HO-HO-HO 2<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV9Vcb__kiwSNvx3Ca2sI_ZulbHzVwlHbOAN-3xN0RUSDAMgaPXD4BwY74Ecs4eED9JfK8V-WP6rJDVNqxdNKtRAmr2EmRd2eSxsZSeZAb1NoX4Q3MHrEj8wtzJreeG_TzTArX-Zh8G3c/s1600/santa-claus_13331.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV9Vcb__kiwSNvx3Ca2sI_ZulbHzVwlHbOAN-3xN0RUSDAMgaPXD4BwY74Ecs4eED9JfK8V-WP6rJDVNqxdNKtRAmr2EmRd2eSxsZSeZAb1NoX4Q3MHrEj8wtzJreeG_TzTArX-Zh8G3c/s320/santa-claus_13331.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red;">Santa is right here on THE INSPIRER</span></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="color: #38761d;">
If you took part in the first ever quiz/ giveaway on THE INSPIRER, here are the correct answers to the set of questions.<br />
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Jungle Bells, Jungle bells.. <br />Q2-The letter D<br />Q3-First of July, Time</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #38761d;">No one got the entire set right................too bad!</span><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC9tvs5-y2xP6cTxRj3P9htqtaxjlSdgk11EHtPPpxKoI7-u25LQsgSjjltK__oq8ggb-j99g3pF85565yK_DwZ1a_N0p5riaWkQvqzpuVyk6QMkW72WUOYRvHgzjcta5w8iz9jWQ5gZ8/s1600/xmas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC9tvs5-y2xP6cTxRj3P9htqtaxjlSdgk11EHtPPpxKoI7-u25LQsgSjjltK__oq8ggb-j99g3pF85565yK_DwZ1a_N0p5riaWkQvqzpuVyk6QMkW72WUOYRvHgzjcta5w8iz9jWQ5gZ8/s320/xmas.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span><br style="color: #38761d;" /><br style="color: #38761d;" /><br /><b><span style="color: #38761d;">In the Spirit of Yuletide, THE INSPIRER in collaboration with T-PRAISE CONCEPT set out on her first ever reach out programme. You can get the details and pictures of the event on our "reach out" page. Touching lives is our priority and it was well demonstrated on a visit to the king's kid home located at Alheri, Jos. See all of it!!!!!!</span></b></span>Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-48883364499002296002012-12-17T01:31:00.002-08:002012-12-17T01:31:55.911-08:00HO-HO-HO<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="color: #274e13;">It is that season of the year again and
the frenzy is encroaching. I can feel it in the air; I can smell it in the
waters and I can almost touch it in the sky. Every single person is engrossed
in the hustle and bustle of the yuletide. This morning, I was jolted to life by
the traditional chirping of the birds behind my window but today, aside from
the usual “wake up sunshine” call, they deliver, they told me something else
and I have no reason to doubt them because they got it straight from the
elves……… Santa Claus is coming to town!!!!!</span><br style="color: #274e13;" /><span style="color: #274e13;">
You probably should start making that list. I thought I d pass on the
information. </span><br style="color: #274e13;" /><span style="color: #274e13;">
Last year I was told the story of the little boy Sammy, who wanted Santa to get
him a brand new bike for Christmas. Read this: </span><br style="color: #274e13;" />
<br />
<span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was coming up to Christmas and Sammy asked his
mum if he could have a new bike. So, she told him that the best idea would be
to write to Santa Claus. But Sammy, having just played a vital role in the
school nativity play, said he would prefer to write to the baby Jesus. Sammy
went to his room and wrote ' Dear Jesus, I have been a very good boy and would
like to have a bike for Christmas.' But he wasn't very happy when he read it
over. So he decided to try again and this time he wrote 'Dear Jesus, I'm a good
boy most of the time and would like a bike for Christmas.' He read it back and
wasn't happy with that one either. He tried a third version. 'Dear Jesus, I
could be a good boy if I tried hard and especially if I had a new bike.' He
read that one too, but he still wasn't satisfied. So, he decided to go out for
a walk while he thought about a better approach. After a short time he passed a
house with a small statue of the Virgin Mary in the front garden. He crept in,
stuffed the statue under his coat, hurried home and hid it under the bed. Then
he wrote this letter. 'Dear Jesus, if you want to see your mother again, you'd
better send me a new bike.'<br />
<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">How
about the story of the 20 years old Ella, let me share as the season demands.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #00b050; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Santa Claus at the shopping mall was very
surprised when a young lady aged about 20 years old walked up and sat on his
lap. Now, we all know that Santa doesn't usually take requests from adults, but
she smiled very nicely at him and asked 'What do you want for Christmas?' 'Something
for my mother, please,' replied young lady sweetly. 'Something for your mother?
Well, that's very loving and thoughtful of you,' smiled Santa. 'What do would
you like me to bring her?' Without pausing, the lady answered quickly, 'A
millionaire son-in-law.'<br />
<br />
</span></b><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Maybe you have not quite decided on
what to ask Santa for; I just gave you a few pointers. Anyway, as you ruminate
on that, follow this closely, in the spirit of Christmas, the most celebrated
festival on earth and space I suppose, THE INSPIRER is setting out to inspire
you some more but this time with fewer words.<br />
How would you love to participate in the first ever “INSPIRED XMAS
GIVE-AWAY!!!!!!!” and win one of two fabulous prices.<br />
It’s a cinch.<br />
For the next two Sundays, effective today, 16<sup>th</sup> December, click on
our brand new HO-HO-HO page and solve a quiz, get it correct and you win for
yourself an amazing Christmas present on the 23<sup>rd</sup> of December to
reach out to your friends and family. Visit the page now, get more details and
begin to play.<br />
Santa Claus is coming to town and you better make sure he visits you.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-68516337432206906892012-12-02T13:33:00.000-08:002012-12-06T06:26:54.732-08:00IDIOSYNCRAZY<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="color: #003300;">They were standing
in the foyer that linked both departments, engaged in what seemed to me from a
distance like a heart to heart. My elder sister was beaming, a beautiful smile
played across the edges of her face. She always wore that smile and never hesitated
to distribute it liberally. I approached them from behind, my sister facing me
directly but her course mate; with whom she was having the talk had his back at
me. The foyer was crowded in its traditional manner and they didn’t seem to
notice me approaching, the young man was so engrossed in the conversation and
was making gestures with virtually every mobile part of his body, “does she
even smile? She walks around with this intimidating look like she is the only
one on the planet. You guys are so different- you are the quintessential warm
and fuzzy lady and your sister is” the epitome of cold and hard I supplied from
behind him. You should have seen his face; he looked like someone who had just
had an encounter with a ferocious wraith. His mouth fell open but not a sound
proceeded forth. Gaze glued to the ground, he waved hastily at my sister and
disappeared into the departmental library. <br /><br />
We began our regimented walk to the hostel in silence until we got away from
earshot, I guffawed and my sister gave me the usual long chastising stare. “It’s
is your forte isn’t it? You simply love being the bad cop”<br />
Still consumed in my laughter, I answered, we both can’t play good cop, it’s a
buzz killer! She laughed too and we continued our chatter all the way to the
hostel, as was our norm. <br /><br />
Back at the university, 99 percent of the time, you would be certain to find me
in my sister’s company and vice versa. The odds were a smidgen of occasions.
People admired our closeness. We shared almost everything. Her course mate was
accurate in his verdict- we were completely different and we still are.<br />
<br />
I wouldn’t walk on the street with a smile plastered across my face, I thought
it was idiocy. I had my jolly times though but I guess they were classified.
You simply had to earn it! I said exactly what I thought without flinching and
more often than not, created a really ugly scene for my sister to clean up
which she always did effortlessly with a lot of poise and finesse. She could
waltz through the lion’s den with her characteristic aplomb!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
At some point down the developmental ladder, I decided I wanted to be just like
my elder sister-graceful, elegant, charming, warm, soft and may be a little
mushy. I decided I was going to eliminate the old me. I was sick of carrying
the invisible sticky note on my forehead that had difficult written all over it
but how long did the charade last? You guess!<br /><br />
I caught the epiphany in our final year at the university and from then on, we
joked about our differences like in the instance above. I stopped getting hurt
and irascible when people made their comparisons and tagged us. It was the
beginning of a pleasant transmogrification. I demystified it. Being different
doesn’t make you an ogre if you can discover how to constructively weld it to
reinvent your personality.<br /><br />
I happen to know a story that I would love to share with you in the light of
buttressing my point. I remember this story very vividly but what I fail to
recall is where I heard it from or maybe read it from. Anyway, it happened in a
very remote period. In the palace of a great king in the east lived a number of
servants. Male and female serving their king with fervor but there was a
certain young lad that had a hunch back. He was discriminated against by the other
servants and considered a curse from the eternal keeper of the kingdom but he
would always refute their words. He believed he was a blessing from the keeper
and pointed it out to all of them unwaveringly.<br /><br /> He also maintained that
someday, they will all treat him with respect like that accorded to a king for
the same disability they antagonize and josh him about. They further mocked him
for his hilarious assertions and so was the status quo at the servant’s
quarters for years. Life was almost unbearable for the hunchbacked servant. He
had not a single ally and was trampled upon at the slightest of mishap with no
one to assuage his shame but he went about his chores diligently and even the
chores of other servants since the chief servant made him everyone’s stooge. Time
passed and nothing changed, however, the king’s daughter began to notice how
hard the hunchback worked and how poorly he was treated. Like a vermin, he
would sit under the oak tree in the evenings when every other palace servant
socialized and play his oboe, a riveting sound that pulled the princess from
her chambers that evening and several other evenings.<br />
The chief palace servant got wind of the budding rendezvous between the
hunchback and the princess and decided to sabotage it.<br /><br /> On a beautiful evening,
after the sun had retired and the moon was gradually unveiling her beauty
simultaneously as the wind whistled in a soft enthralling manner, he began to
lurk around the oak tree till he was certain the princess had clandestinely
arrived at the scene to listen to the mesmerizing sound of the hunchback’s
oboe,</span></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="color: #003300; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">an act which had become her highly revered ritual. He immediately bolted
into the palace to alert the palace guard he had conspired with. The palace
guard in turn brought it to the notification of the king. The king was pivoted
to a spot in rage. With exigency, the hunchback was ceased and led into the
palace court for trial. His verdict was exile and the princess was sent to the
Coventry by her father as punishment for her misdemeanor.</span><br /><span style="color: #003300; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">
Market days came and went, festivals were celebrated and the hunch back seemed
forgotten until a colossal tragedy loomed.</span><br /><span style="color: #003300; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">
The princess had taken ill and became bed-fast, her condition deteriorated
rapidly. She could no longer speak and all that was left of her was her breath
hanging on a thin thread.</span><br /><span style="color: #003300; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">
Panic hit the palace; all the palace physicians could not proffer a remedy.
They were simply useless as so were their healing portions. The king decided to
seek help from outside his kingdom. Guards were sent out and warned not to
return until they have found someone who will heal the princess or face the
executioner’s axe.</span><br /><span style="color: #003300; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">
After a fortnight, only one guard returned with a small calabash, the others
had fallen to the perils of the journey.</span><br /><span style="color: #003300; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">
The king was furious but had no other choice than to administer the contents of
the calabash to the dying princess. That night he sat by her bedside and
watched her sleep because he was almost certain it would be her last. At dawn,
he felt a hand on his shoulder, and a faint voice calling father.</span><br /><span style="color: #003300; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">
The portion had proven to be magical. The princess had recovered fully and the
king ordered a great feast. The palace exploded with frantic preparations for
the feast while the king prepared for a trip outside his palace. It was the
only thing the healer asked for- an audience with the king after the portion
had taken effect.</span><br /><span style="color: #003300; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">
A stunned and remorse king returned to the palace three days later and with him
was the much loathed hunchback that was exiled several years ago. Providence
shined on him out in exile and he was able to master the herbs and the roots of
the forest making him an inexplicably exceptional healer. </span><br /><span style="color: #003300; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">
The feast was in full swing, the king didn’t think of any other time more
appropriate to do what his heart urged. He gave his daughter to the hunchback
as wife and blessed them.</span><br /><span style="color: #003300; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">
Imagine the twist of events; the hunchback became crowned prince and heir to
the throne. He became lord over the servants that treated him with disdain and
the guards that conspired against him. They remembered his words with profound
regret as they accorded him the greatest honor, bowing down to display
obeisance.</span><br /><span style="color: #003300; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">
The new prince was swift to display mercy, he knew what all of them didn’t
several years back, he knew that his difference was not his disability but the
light that would pave his way through the maze of life. He became the finest
ruler the kingdom ever had for his reign was peaceful and prosperous. </span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #003300; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">
Your difference might not be a physical one like the hunchback. It could be
emotional, psychological, a character trait or you might even be considered a
freak because you are extremely intelligent. Yes, it happens! But I want you to
always remember these words as they were the revelation that brought about a
volte-face in my perception</span></div>
<span style="color: #003300; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: #003300; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> ‘<b><i><span style="color: red;">’Our
differences are never a difficulty, an inept or incapacity but they are the idiosyncrasies that constitute
us, our very essence and the core of our being. A viable cocktail that makes
our outputs riveting, revamps us into a unique entity and a cornucopia of
intrigue”. </span></i></b><br /><br />
I was sitting quietly, brooding and fussing over my differences and my
inability to be like everyone else when I heard them in my head and that was
the day I chose to always be me and never try to be someone else no matter how
much I admire them!<br /><br /> Let these words find true meaning in your heart and never
you, under any kind of pressure or even duress, give anyone the permission to
downplay you because you are special in your way, there is just one you-the
original and you are a discovery that will move the world. Be proud of who
stares right back at you when you look at your mirror. </span></div>
Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-25614123848992544242012-11-25T06:28:00.002-08:002012-11-25T06:28:58.857-08:00"INTERRELATED"...THE MLK STORY<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2UhmXFlMu-qs3fyflH3MTzylVEIpOY0qVrnK7LMuNk2DzGRS7QwgCO3a-c0pelK1o1U-DppUhe4nY3DduRdmPuJkvLrKGWj4VGTFSlhicDy1dAMVaEqsuX247u58ReLeTv-616d7srG8/s1600/luther.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2UhmXFlMu-qs3fyflH3MTzylVEIpOY0qVrnK7LMuNk2DzGRS7QwgCO3a-c0pelK1o1U-DppUhe4nY3DduRdmPuJkvLrKGWj4VGTFSlhicDy1dAMVaEqsuX247u58ReLeTv-616d7srG8/s320/luther.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b><i><span style="color: red;">“All life is interrelated; somehow
we're caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of
destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange
reason, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.
You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is
the interrelated structure of reality”.</span></i></b><br />
<br />
</span><b><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">A
humanitarian in all ramifications, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. never kept quiet
in the face of injustice. He was born
on January 15, 1929, in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta,_Georgia" title="Atlanta, Georgia">Atlanta, Georgia</a>, to Reverend <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Sr." title="Martin Luther King, Sr.">Martin Luther King, Sr.</a>
and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Williams_King" title="Alberta Williams King">Alberta Williams King</a>.
His legal name at birth was "Michael King"; his father, who changed
his own name from Michael to Martin Luther, later said that the name Michael
was recorded incorrectly. Martin, Jr., was a middle child, between an older
sister, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_King_Farris" title="Christine King Farris">Willie Christine King</a>,
and a younger brother, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Daniel_Williams_King" title="Alfred Daniel Williams King">Alfred Daniel Williams King</a>.<br />
<br />
Growing up in Atlanta, King attended
</span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_T._Washington_High_School_%28Atlanta,_Georgia%29" title="Booker T. Washington High School (Atlanta, Georgia)"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Booker T. Washington High School</span></a></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">. A precocious student, he skipped both the ninth and the
twelfth grade and entered </span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morehouse_College" title="Morehouse College"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Morehouse College</span></a></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">
at age fifteen without formally graduating from high school. In 1948, he
graduated from Morehouse with a Bachelor of Arts degree in </span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology" title="Sociology"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">sociology</span></a></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">, and enrolled in </span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crozer_Theological_Seminary" title="Crozer Theological Seminary"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Crozer Theological
Seminary</span></a></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> in </span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester,_Pennsylvania" title="Chester, Pennsylvania"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Chester</span></a></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated with a </span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor_of_Divinity" title="Bachelor of Divinity"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Bachelor of Divinity</span></a></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> degree in 1951. King married </span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coretta_Scott_King" title="Coretta Scott King"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Coretta Scott</span></a></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">, on June 18, 1953, on the lawn of her parents' house in her
hometown of </span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heiberger,_Alabama" title="Heiberger, Alabama"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Heiberger, Alabama</span></a></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">. They became the parents of four children; </span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yolanda_King" title="Yolanda King"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Yolanda King</span></a></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">, </span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_III" title="Martin Luther King III"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Martin Luther King III</span></a></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">, </span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_Scott_King" title="Dexter Scott King"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Dexter Scott King</span></a></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">,
and </span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernice_King" title="Bernice King"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Bernice King</span></a></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">.<br />
</span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of
his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading
organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December,
1955, to accept the leadership of the first great</span></b></div>
<a name='more'></a><b> Negro nonviolent
demonstration of contemporary times in the United States. In 1957 he was
elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an
organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights
movement.<br /><br /> The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its
operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and
1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred
times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and
meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he
led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the
entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring
his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro
revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as
voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to
whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with
President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he
was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was
awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by <i>Time</i>
magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks
but also a world figure.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">On October 14 1964, King received
the </span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Peace_Prize" title="Nobel Peace Prize"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Nobel Peace Prize</span></a></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">
for combating racial inequality through </span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolence" title="Nonviolence"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">nonviolence</span></a></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">.
In the next few years leading up to his death, he expanded his focus to include
poverty and the </span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War" title="Vietnam War"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Vietnam War</span></a></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">—alienating
many of his liberal allies with a 1967 speech titled "Beyond
Vietnam". King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C.,
called the </span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_People%27s_Campaign" title="Poor People's Campaign"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Poor People's Campaign</span></a></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">.</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #38761d; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">King was </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Martin_Luther_King,_Jr." title="Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr."><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">assassinated on April 4,
1968</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, in </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis,_Tennessee" title="Memphis, Tennessee"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Memphis</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom" title="Presidential Medal of Freedom"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Presidential Medal of
Freedom</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> in 1977 and </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Gold_Medal" title="Congressional Gold Medal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Congressional Gold Medal</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> in 2004; </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr._Day" title="Martin Luther King, Jr. Day"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Martin Luther King, Jr.
Day</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> was established as a </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_holidays_in_the_United_States" title="Federal holidays in the United States"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">U.S. federal holiday</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> in 1986. </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_streets_named_after_Martin_Luther_King,_Jr." title="List of streets named after Martin Luther King, Jr."><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Hundreds of streets</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
in the U.S. and beyond have been renamed in his honor.<br />
<br />
The world just like King said is a huge interwoven structure. We all are
related and that is what brings about a balance in the universe. Look out for
the man standing next to you. He needs you as much as you need him. We all need
each other! King did it and lived on. You can too………… <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b></div>
Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-10537851649359530662012-11-18T13:30:00.003-08:002012-11-19T08:32:53.271-08:00...........IN SERVICE TO HUMANITY...........<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 30.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><span style="color: red;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 30pt;"><span style="color: red;">BLESSED TERESA OF CALCUTTA</span><br />
</span></b><b style="color: red;"><i><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% aqua; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt;">“whole hearted service to the
poorest of the poor”</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 30.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTrIdL_JDi5COT0o1RiE6fwn6K9p2i70kBscYsAcsG_4ylmj8QjHtCzANmuqMgIYrdt1GHUrmBWc-OQJsBO1Cj2z015aBn3VewDPtsqR64sfV8xAVh_NR69XeynL9bRpfEdhHVaPItqFE/s1600/moda+teresa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTrIdL_JDi5COT0o1RiE6fwn6K9p2i70kBscYsAcsG_4ylmj8QjHtCzANmuqMgIYrdt1GHUrmBWc-OQJsBO1Cj2z015aBn3VewDPtsqR64sfV8xAVh_NR69XeynL9bRpfEdhHVaPItqFE/s320/moda+teresa.jpg" width="244" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt;">Severally,
I have found myself pondering over the enigmatic words of Rabindranath Tagore, The
great Indian poet who said<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: red; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">“I slept and
dreamt that life was joy, I awoke and saw that life was service, I acted and
behold service was joy”</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: red; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">.</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> Overtime, I have come to realize that the
greatest moments of our lives in which we find a compelling joy from within are
the periods we spend in service to humanity. </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"><br />
What then can we say is the most significant achievement of a mortal post
earth’s sojourn? Could it be quantified with the magnitude of wealth he
accumulates, summed up by the number of prizes he wins, or allotted to the
social recognition he gets? You answer that but before you do, read this!<br /><br />
</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: red; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">“Poverty was not created by God, it is we who have caused it, you and I,
through our egotism”</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> those were
the words of a woman that dedicated her entire life to give whole hearted and
free service to the poorest of the poor. She, as well as Tagore viewed life
from a common perspective-</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #7030a0; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> the
magnifying lens of service.</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"><br />
<br />
</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">Popularly known as Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Agnes Gonxha
Bojaxhiu (<i>gonxha</i> meaning "rosebud" or "little
flower" in Albanian) was born on 26th August 1910, but she considered 27th
August, the day she was baptized, to be her "true birthday". She was
born in </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skopje" title="Skopje"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Skopje</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">, now capital of the </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Macedonia" title="Republic of Macedonia"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Republic of Macedonia</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">, but at the time part of the </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire" title="Ottoman Empire"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ottoman Empire</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">.<br />
</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">She was the youngest of the children of </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikoll%C3%AB_Bojaxhiu" title="Nikollë Bojaxhiu"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Nikollë</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> and Dranafile Bojaxhiu (Bernai). Her father, who was
involved in Albanian politics, died in 1919 when she was eight years old. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After her father's death, her mother raised
her as a Roman Catholic, in her early years Agnes was fascinated by stories of
the lives of </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missionaries" title="Missionaries"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">missionaries</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> and their service in </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal" title="Bengal"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bengal</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">, and by age 12 was convinced that she should commit
herself to a religious life.</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa#cite_note-15"><sup><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></sup></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> Her final resolution was
taken on 15 August 1928, while praying at the shrine of the </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Madonna" title="Black Madonna"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Black Madonna</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> of Letnice, where she often
went on pilgrimage.</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">She left home at age 18 to join the </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisters_of_Loreto" title="Sisters of Loreto"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sisters of Loreto</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> as a missionary and never
again saw her</span></b><br />
<a name='more'></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> mother or sister.</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">She took her solemn vows on 14 May 1937,
while serving as a teacher at the Loreto convent school in Entally, eastern
Calcutta. Teresa served there for almost twenty years and in 1944 was appointed
headmistress. Although Teresa enjoyed teaching at the school, she was
increasingly disturbed by the poverty surrounding her in </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcutta" title="Calcutta"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Calcutta</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> (</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkata" title="Kolkata"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Kolkata</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">). The </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1943" title="Bengal famine of 1943"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bengal famine of 1943</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> brought misery and death to the city; and the outbreak of </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Action_Day" title="Direct Action Day"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hindu/Muslim violence in August 1946</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> plunged the city into despair and horror.</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">Teresa received </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_See" title="Holy See"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Vatican</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> permission on 7 October 1950
to start the diocesan congregation that would become the Missionaries of Charity.
Its mission was to care for, in her own words, "the hungry, the naked, the
homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel
unwanted, unloved,</span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> uncared for throughout society, people that have become a
burden to the society and are shunned by everyone."<br />
It began as a small order with 13 members in Calcutta; by 1997 it had grown to
more than 4,000 sisters running orphanages, AIDS hospices and charity centers
worldwide, and caring for refugees, the blind, disabled, aged, alcoholics, the
poor and homeless, and victims of floods, epidemics, and famine.</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">In 1952 Mother Teresa opened the first Home
for the Dying in space made available by the city of Calcutta (</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkata" title="Kolkata"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Kolkata</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">). With the help of Indian
officials she converted an abandoned </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism" title="Hinduism"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hindu</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> temple into the </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalighat_Home_for_the_Dying" title="Kalighat Home for the Dying"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Kalighat Home for the
Dying</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">, a free hospice for the poor. She renamed
it Kalighat, the Home of the Pure Heart (Nirmal Hriday). Those brought to the
home received medical attention and were afforded the opportunity to die with
dignity, according to the rituals of their faith; Muslims were read the Quran,
Hindus received water from the Ganges, and Catholics received the Last Rites.
"A beautiful death," she said, "is for people who lived like
animals to die like angels—loved and wanted."</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">Mother Teresa soon opened a home for those
suffering from </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansen%27s_disease" title="Hansen's disease"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hansen's disease</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">, commonly known as leprosy,
and called the hospice Shanti Nagar (City of Peace). The Missionaries of
Charity also established several leprosy outreach clinics throughout Calcutta,
providing medication, bandages and food.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">As the Missionaries of Charity took in
increasing numbers of lost children, Mother Teresa felt the need to create a
home for them. In 1955 she opened the Nirmala Shishu Bhavan, the Children's
Home of the Immaculate Heart, as a haven for orphans and homeless youth.</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">The order soon began to attract both
recruits and charitable donations, and by the 1960s had opened hospices,
orphanages and leper houses all over India. Mother Teresa then expanded the
order throughout the globe. Its first house outside India opened in Venezuela
in 1965 with five sisters. Others followed in Rome, Tanzania, and Austria in
1968; during the 1970s the order opened houses and foundations in dozens of
countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the United States.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">The Missionaries of Charity Brothers was
founded in 1963, and a contemplative branch of the Sisters followed in 1976.
Lay Catholics and non-Catholics were enrolled in the Co-Workers of Mother
Teresa, the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, and the Lay Missionaries of Charity.
In answer to the requests of many priests, in 1981 Mother Teresa also began the
Corpus Christi Movement for Priests, and in 1984 founded with Fr. Joseph
Langford the Missionaries of Charity Fathers to combine the vocational aims of
the Missionaries of Charity with the resources of the ministerial priesthood.
By 2007 the Missionaries of Charity numbered approximately 450 brothers and
5,000 sisters’ worldwide, operating 600 missions, schools and shelters in 120
countries.<br /><br />
Mother Teresa gained her premier recognition by the Indian government more than
a third of a century earlier when she was awarded the </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padma_Shri" title="Padma Shri"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Padma Shri</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> in 1962 and the </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawaharlal_Nehru_Award_for_International_Understanding" title="Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> in 1969. She continued to receive major Indian awards in
subsequent years, including India's highest civilian award, the </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharat_Ratna" title="Bharat Ratna"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bharat Ratna</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">, in both 1972 and 1980.
Mother Teresa was honored by both governments and civilian organizations.<br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Peace_Prize" title="Nobel Peace Prize"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Nobel Peace Prize</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">, "for work undertaken
in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a
threat to peace." She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to
laureates, and asked that the $192,000 funds be given to the poor in India.<br />
<br />
Towards her demise, Mother Teresa’s health declined rapidly. Mother Teresa
suffered a </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_attack" title="Heart attack"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">heart attack</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> in Rome in 1983, while
visiting </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II" title="Pope John Paul II"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Pope John Paul II</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">. After a second attack in
1989, she received an </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_pacemaker" title="Artificial pacemaker"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">artificial pacemaker</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">. In 1991, after a battle with </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumonia" title="Pneumonia"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">pneumonia</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> while in Mexico, she
suffered further heart problems. In April 1996, Mother Teresa fell and broke
her </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collar_bone" title="Collar bone"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">collar bone</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">. In August she suffered from </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria" title="Malaria"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">malaria</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> and failure of the left
heart ventricle. She had </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiac_surgery" title="Cardiac surgery"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">heart surgery</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> but it was crystal that her
medical condition was deteriorating.<br />
<br />
On 13 March 1997, she stepped down from the head of Missionaries of Charity and
on 5 September 1997, the world felt the loss of an icon.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">At the time of her death, Mother Teresa's
Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 sisters, and an associated brotherhood
of 300 members, operating 610 missions in 123 countries. These included
hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup
kitchens, children's and family counseling programs, personal helpers,
orphanages, and schools. The Missionaries of Charity were also aided by
Co-Workers, who numbered over 1 million by the 1990s.</span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfAZH-QS25MmVHBgn4ceaEDYGwEQEE4h4XbU8UD-vW4H-m9LpHxK_ipmqWswtjHUYCuvfoT15MriukI5Q-lKh099aaSNdFv8Ywon6gqGnidTedjwIkoVT4VQl7t4GLSQE7KE70pppcrGU/s1600/moda+teresa+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfAZH-QS25MmVHBgn4ceaEDYGwEQEE4h4XbU8UD-vW4H-m9LpHxK_ipmqWswtjHUYCuvfoT15MriukI5Q-lKh099aaSNdFv8Ywon6gqGnidTedjwIkoVT4VQl7t4GLSQE7KE70pppcrGU/s1600/moda+teresa+2.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">Mother Teresa </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lying_in_repose" title="Lying in repose"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">lay in repose</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> in </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Thomas,_Kolkata" title="St Thomas, Kolkata"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">St Thomas, Kolkata</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> for one week prior to her </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funeral" title="Funeral"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">funeral</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">, in September 1997. She was
granted a </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_funeral" title="State funeral"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">state funeral</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> by the Indian government in
gratitude for her services to the poor of all religions in India. Her death was
mourned in both secular and religious communities. For over 45 years, she
ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the
Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other
countries. Her </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatification" title="Beatification"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">beatification</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> by </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-highlight: aqua;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II" title="Pope John Paul II"><span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Pope John Paul II</span></a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> following her death gave her
the title "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta”. <br />
<br />
Without a tinge of dissension, you will concur when I say that this is a
classical example of a life well spent. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What are you giving back to your generation
and posterity? How would you like to be remembered after you are long gone? The
answers to these questions <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>do not lie in
frantic brain storming or excruciating soul searching, it is interred in
service. Do great works, pick a place, pick a people and begin to touch lives
no matter how seemingly insignificant. The Chinese emperor said,”</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: red; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;"> one GRAIN of rice can tip the scale”</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: aqua; color: #00b050; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: aqua;">. In so doing, you will be immortalized.</span></b></div>
Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-86085848527556710932012-11-11T14:17:00.002-08:002012-11-11T14:29:25.149-08:00PROFILES-"THE ROSA PARKS STORY"<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;">
<br />
<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 20pt;">Rosa Louise McCauley Parks</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #1cac04; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother
of the freedom movement"</span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #1cac04; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #1cac04; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span></i><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXHimwL-AD1l4zX9iY6Xao6HZFlc4r0Ew3UhPhZz-YH2HnFpDHMD6daq_dBLu7_505lV38ElI_MdRQbJ0TWFPng0Wqd_D09w9TM3E-pF7OcRMKbSsZv7gOKoAH_ZmCIB26yOZducC9nQE/s1600/rosa+2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXHimwL-AD1l4zX9iY6Xao6HZFlc4r0Ew3UhPhZz-YH2HnFpDHMD6daq_dBLu7_505lV38ElI_MdRQbJ0TWFPng0Wqd_D09w9TM3E-pF7OcRMKbSsZv7gOKoAH_ZmCIB26yOZducC9nQE/s400/rosa+2.jpg" width="275" /></a><br />
<i><span style="color: #1cac04; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">
<br />
</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Do you believe in maintaining a negative status–quo or are you a
fervent believer in hope for a revamp? Who says one can’t make a positive
change? This is the story of a woman that endured adversity and consequently,
engraved her name in the stones of eternity.<br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Y'all better make it light on yourselves and let me have
those seats”. Three of them complied.</span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Parks said, "The driver wanted us to
stand up, the four of us. We didn't move at the beginning, but he says, 'Let me
have these seats.' And the other three people moved, but I didn't. The black
man sitting next to me gave up his seat. Parks moved, but toward the window
seat; she did not get up to move to the re-designated colored section.<br />
<br />
</span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Why don't you
stand up?" Parks responded, "I don't think I should have to stand
up." Blake called the police to arrest Parks. When recalling the incident
for </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyes_on_the_Prize" title="Eyes on the Prize"><i><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Eyes on the Prize</span></i></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, a 1987 public television series on the Civil Rights Movement,
Parks said, "When he saw me still sitting, he asked if I was going to
stand up, and I said, 'No, I'm not.' And he said, 'Well, if you don't stand up,
I'm going to have to call the police and have you arrested.' I said, 'You may
do that</span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">.</span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> That was the conversation that birthed the
elated “<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Montgomery Bus Boycott” and
chronicled an epoch of equality for the colored Americans. <br />
<br />
</span>Rosa Parks was born </span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rosa Louise McCauley</span></b><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> in </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee,_Alabama" title="Tuskegee, Alabama"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Tuskegee, Alabama</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, on February 4, 1913, to Leona (née Edwards) and James McCauley.
She was of </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African" title="African"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">African</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee" title="Cherokee"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cherokee</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">-</span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creek_people" title="Creek people"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Creek</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> and </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch-Irish_American" title="Scotch-Irish American"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Scots-Irish</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> ancestry. She was small as a child, suffering from poor health
with chronic </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonsillitis" title="Tonsillitis"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tonsillitis</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. As a little girl, these were her thoughts </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I'd see the bus pass every day... But to me,
that was a way of life; we had no choice but to accept what was the custom. The
bus was among the first ways I realized there was a black world and a white
world.”</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></i></b><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Did the status-quo</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
change?<br />
<br />
On December 1, 1955, in </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery,_Alabama" title="Montgomery, Alabama"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Montgomery, Alabama</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, Parks refused to obey bus driver </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_F._Blake" title="James F. Blake"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">James F. Blake</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">'s order that she give up her seat in the
colored section to a white passenger, after the white section was filled. Parks
was not the first person to resist bus segregation.<br />
<br />
</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Parks was charged with
a violation of Chapter 6, Section 11 segregation law of the Montgomery City
code, although technically she had not taken a white-only seat; she had been in
a colored section<u><sup>.</sup></u> </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Nixon" title="Edgar Nixon"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Edgar Nixon</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, president of the Montgomery chapter of the
NAACP and leader of the </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pullman_Union&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Pullman Union (page does not exist)"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Pullman Union</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, and her friend </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Durr" title="Clifford Durr"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Clifford Durr</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> bailed Parks out of jail the next evening.
Four days later, Parks was tried on charges of </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disorderly_conduct" title="Disorderly conduct"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">disorderly conduct</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> and violating a local ordinance. The trial
lasted 30 minutes.<br />
<br />
After being found guilty and fined $10, plus $4 in court
costs<u><sup>,</sup></u> Parks appealed her conviction and formally challenged
the legality of racial segregation. In the end, black residents of Montgomery
continued the boycott for 381 days, at considerable personal sacrifice. Dozens
of public buses stood idle for months, severely damaging the bus transit
company's finances, until the city repealed its law requiring segregation on
public buses following the US Supreme Court ruling that it was unconstitutional
and on December 21, 1956, Montgomery's public transportation system was legally
integrated.<br />
<br />
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<span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Parks' act of defiance
and the </span><span style="color: red; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Bus_Boycott" title="Montgomery Bus Boycott"><span style="color: red; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Montgomery Bus Boycott</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> became important symbols of the modern </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Movement" title="Civil Rights Movement"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Civil Rights Movement</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. She became an international icon of resistance to </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation" title="Racial segregation"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">racial segregation</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. She organized and collaborated with civil rights leaders,
including </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Nixon" title="Edgar Nixon"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Edgar Nixon</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, president of the local chapter of the NAACP; and Dr. </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr." title="Martin Luther King, Jr."><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Martin Luther King, Jr.</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, a new minister in town who gained national prominence in the
civil rights movement but suffered a lot of hardships as a result. Due to
economic sanctions used against activists, she lost her job at the department
store. Her husband quit his job after his boss forbade him to talk about his
wife or the legal case. Parks traveled and spoke extensively about the issues.<br />
<br />
</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The 1970s was a decade
of loss and suffering for Parks in her personal life. Her family was plagued
with illness; she and her husband had suffered stomach ulcers for years and
both required hospitalization. Then in their 60s, her brother Sylvester and
husband were both diagnosed with cancer, as was her mother. Parks sometimes
visited three hospitals in the same day. In spite of her fame and constant
speaking engagements, Parks was not a wealthy woman. She donated most of the
money from speaking to civil rights causes, and lived on her staff salary and
her husband's pension. Medical bills and time missed from work caused financial
strain that required her to accept assistance from church groups and admirers.<br />
<br />
</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Her husband died of
throat cancer on August 19, 1977 and her brother, her only sibling, died of
cancer that November. Her personal ordeals caused her to become removed from
the civil rights movement. Parks suffered two broken bones in a fall on an icy
sidewalk, an injury which caused considerable and recurring pain. She decided
to move with her mother into an apartment for senior citizens. There she nursed
her mother Leona through the final stages of cancer and geriatric dementia
until she died in 1979 at the age of 92.<br />
<br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In 1980 Parks, widowed
and without immediate family, rededicated herself to civil rights and
educational organizations. She co-founded the </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rosa_L._Parks_Scholarship_Foundation&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Rosa L. Parks Scholarship Foundation (page does not exist)"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rosa L. Parks
Scholarship Foundation</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> for college-bound high school seniors to which she donated most
of her speaker fees. In February 1987 she co-founded, with Elaine Eason Steele,
the </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rosa_Parks_Institute" title="The Rosa Parks Institute"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, an institute that runs the "Pathways to
Freedom" bus tours which introduce young people to important civil rights
and </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Railroad" title="Underground Railroad"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Underground Railroad</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> sites throughout the country. Though her health declined as she
entered her seventies, Parks continued to make many appearances and devoted
considerable energy to these causes.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
In 1992, Parks published <i>Rosa Parks: My Story</i>, an autobiography aimed at
younger readers, which recounts her life details her life leading to her
decision to keep her seat on the bus. A few years later, she published her
memoir, titled <i>Quiet Strength</i> (1995), which focuses on her faith in her
life. Parks resided in </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit" title="Detroit"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Detroit</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> until she died of natural causes at the age of 92 on October
24, 2005, in her apartment on the east side of the city.<br />
<br />
</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">City officials in
Montgomery and Detroit announced on October 27, 2005, that the front seats of
their city buses would be reserved with black ribbons in honor of Parks until
her funeral. Parks' coffin was flown to Montgomery and taken in a horse-drawn hearse
to the St. Paul </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Methodist_Episcopal" title="African Methodist Episcopal"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">African Methodist Episcopal</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> (AME) church, where she </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lying_in_repose" title="Lying in repose"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">lay in repose</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> at the altar on October 29, 2005, dressed in
the uniform of a church deaconess. A memorial service was held there the
following morning. One of the speakers, </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_State" title="United States Secretary of State"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">United
States Secretary of State</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condoleezza_Rice" title="Condoleezza Rice"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Condoleezza Rice</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, said that if it had not been for Parks, she
would probably have never become the Secretary of State. In the evening the
casket was transported to </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C." title="Washington, D.C."><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Washington, D.C.</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> and transported by a bus similar to the one
in which she made her protest, to </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_funerals_in_the_United_States#Lying_in_state_and_honor" title="State funerals in the United States"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">lie
in honor</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> in the U.S. Capitol.<br />
<br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Since the founding in
1852 of the practice of lying in state, or honor, in the Rotunda, Parks was the
31st person, the first American who had not been a U.S. government official,
and the second private person (after the French planner </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_L%27Enfant" title="Pierre L'Enfant"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Pierre L'Enfant</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">) to be honored in this way. She was the first
woman and the second black person to lie in honor in the Capitol. An estimated
50,000 people viewed the casket there, and the event was broadcast on
television on October 31, 2005. A memorial service was held at St. Paul AME church
in Washington, DC on the afternoon of October 31, 2005.<br />
<br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">With her body and
casket returned to Detroit, for two days, Parks lay in repose at the </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_H._Wright_Museum_of_African_American_History" title="Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. Her funeral service was seven hours long and
was held on November 2, 2005, at the Greater Grace Temple Church in Detroit.
After the service, an honor guard from the Michigan </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Guard" title="United States National Guard"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">National Guard</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> laid the U.S. flag over the casket and
carried it to a horse-drawn hearse, which was intended to carry it, in daylight,
to the cemetery. As the hearse passed the thousands of people who were viewing
the procession, many clapped and cheered loudly and released white balloons.
Parks was interred between her husband and mother at Detroit's </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodlawn_Cemetery_%28Detroit,_Michigan%29" title="Woodlawn Cemetery (Detroit, Michigan)"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Woodlawn
Cemetery</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> in the chapel's
mausoleum. The chapel was renamed the Rosa L. Parks Freedom Chapel in her honor.
She received several awards and several public places were named after her.<br />
<br />
The American Public Transportation Association declared December 1, 2005, the
50th anniversary of her arrest, to be a "National Transit Tribute to Rosa
Parks Day" On that anniversary, President George W. Bush signed </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/jureeka/index.php?doc=USPubLaws&cong=109&no=116"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Pub.L. 109-116</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, directing that a statue of Parks be placed
in the United States Capitol's </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Statuary_Hall" title="National Statuary Hall"><span style="color: #0000cc; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">National Statuary Hall</span></a></span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
April, 18 2012, President Barack Obama visited the famous Rosa Parks bus at the
Henry Ford Museum after an event in Dearborn, Michigan.<br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One woman refusing to give up her seat
when confronted with an arrest and jail term gave several other people seats
and changed a long constant custom. Maybe it is time you also stood up to that
browbeat of an employer and several other intimidating circumstances you have
borne in timidity. One can sure change the status quo, Parks did and you can
too! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To live and act for posterity is a
sure way to bequeath posterity. Jay-Z said of the seminal act of Rosa Parks
thus: ‘’Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther King could walk. Martin Luther King
walked so Obama could run. Obama’s is running so we all can fly.’’ There are a
lot of changes to be made…………pick a place, pick a wrong custom and begin. BE
THE CHANGE YOU FERVENTLY PRAY FOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! </span><span style="color: #0000cc; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></div>
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<br /></div>
Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028841880296462588.post-52397173617585943222012-11-04T13:53:00.002-08:002012-11-05T08:09:51.909-08:00THE INDOMITABLE!<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> When life
stares hard at you in the face, do you stare back or simply flinch? The
adversities of life are extremely disrespectful. They show up without notice
and try to tear our dignity into shreds but there is yet a man that can weather
the storms of life and come out unscathed. A giant not necessarily in the
pounds he weighs or the feet he measures in height but him that has unraveled
the secret weapons of life’s battles and has mastery in welding them. Such is
the man that stands unflinchingly at the face of troubles and gives his
challenges a long hard stare that eventually breaks into a chuckle when he
emerges victorious. Today, I would like to share with you three weapons forged
in eternity, in the presence of which despair disappears and only a song of
victory is sure.<br />
<br />
This event happened long before I was born and long before you let out your
first shrill came this thunderous shrill in a hut in the distant land of “Arogbo”.
Surrounded by the traditional midwife and experienced mothers was a set of
triplet screaming in high pitch as euphoria took over the neighborhood. The
long awaited birth had come and the gods had proven to be true for the compensation
for an almost eternal delay was three healthy screaming boys. Kurokimi, the
great warrior didn’t have to fret, he had beseeched the gods for a warrior but
they had given him three. The drums were rolled out and the “ijaw-wuru” freely
poured at every corner of the warriors’ compound, it was a great feast that
lasted for three days and three nights. "Sui generis” indeed!<br />
<br />
The gods bestowed rapid growth upon the triplet; they were bigger in stature
than all their contemporaries and learnt the art of war as boys but the great
warrior, with his wealth of experience soon fathomed out something by the help
of the eye of the gods who lived in the mountains. The clairvoyant saw that the
triplet would conquer great battles, bring down fortified kingdoms and reduce
many a great kings into ordinary men. They would be known not just in their
community but will be revered in distant lands. Their exploits would supersede
their fathers’ and the spoils of their wars would be a city itself but they had
to walk in circumspection and above all togetherness. <br />
The eye of the gods proclaimed that as long as they stood together, there was
no man born of a woman that could conquer them but woe betides them the day
they go separately into battle. The great warrior was pleased and hurriedly
left the presence of the clairvoyant who had not emptied all the words in his
heart for in the spirit world, the boys had been given three unique names and
their names were their weapons in the human world. Their father had not tarried
to inquire the names of the eye of the gods.<br />
<br />
Time passed in a blur, boys became teenagers and teenagers became full grown
men, warriors. Kurokimi the great had begun to fade; his vision wasn’t as sharp
or his grasp as firm. His ancestors came calling and time became a luxury. So,
on a harmattan night, when the sound of the wind boisterously overwhelmed the
song of the night owls, he sent for his sons. His intention palpably was to
inculcate into them final values, bless them and bid them farewell.<br />
<br />
His speech was concise and following words resonated through the howling of the
harmattan wind “your doom lies in your division”. Shortly after, the great warrior
left for the realm of the spirits. It was an abomination for the brave to shed
tears. His sons, brave men, indulged no emotions and buried their father as
tradition would demand a warrior be sent forth. A remarkable ceremony it was!<br />
Thirty days passed and catastrophe struck, the town was being invaded by a
coalition of warriors from the west and the north.<br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pandemonium took over, Kurokimi had just
being buried and the entire town was still in mourning. The king immediately
ordered for all the brave men to prepare for battle and meet the enemies at the
gate before they infiltrated into the city. Kurokimi’s youngest son raised an
argument at the king’s palace. It was tradition to mourn a deceased warrior for
forty days or incur the wrath of the gods! Time had failed them the king
announced; the city was under attack and would be taken in no time if a counter
attack was not launched.<br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kurokimi’s third son further suggested
that the city take to siege and complete the mourning period within the city
walls. No enemy could break down the legendary walls he went on and after that,
they could launch a full attack. An excruciating argument ensued amidst the
warriors. There was an enormous division, a dissension that had gotten way out
of reason. Logic had proven abortive and force was taking over. The king then
moved for a vote, alas, it was in the disfavor of Kurokimi’s last son. The
warriors were to match out at sundown into the valley that separated their city
from the northern and western borders. They were to battle at dawn!<br />
<br />
The last son objected obstinately, he told his brothers he would rather incur
the wrath of the king than that of the gods. He was not matching out until he
had given his father his well earned mourning rite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other brothers tried to convince him
beyond all doubts but the young warrior was recalcitrant. Thirty one days after
the death of Kurokimi, his sons went into battle not as the legendary trio but
as two of three brave brothers. The brave two, blinded by patriotism, let their
fathers warning fall to the wind and matched straight into their Waterloo
dismissing their last brother as a Neanderthal. <br />
<br />
The battle was fierce, the warriors fought gallantly but on the thirty eight
day, they could not hold the line. The enemy had a huge stash of reinforcement
but the army from Kurokimi’s city had lost many soldiers.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> Defeat seemed
imminent, so the horn was sounded for a retreat. It took them two days to get
safely back into the fortress, half of the warriors gone. Kurokimi’s two sons
made it back to the city alive but badly wounded. It was a horrendous blood
bath. The enemy was advancing so; the citizens had to be evacuated using the
underground tunnels, women and children first while the remaining warriors
faced the invaders to buy the escapees enough time.<br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was the end of the city but this
time, the brave trio stood side by side and the third son came up with a
strategy seeing that the army was outnumbered three to one. They set an ambush
for the enemy soldiers who fell straight into their trap and with the city
gates shut; they fought fearlessly and with versatility till dawn. They won the
battle but shortly after, precisely on the forty fifth day after their father’s
demise, his two eldest sons joined him. They were heroes and immortalized,
their effigies standing at the left and right hand side of the city gate. Their
last brother lived to a good old age though his vision blurred, his teeth fell
off, his bones got soft but he became very wise. <br />
<br />
The wisdom that came with old age helped him interpret their names from the
human language in to that of the spirit and he discovered what their father had
not the patience to understand centuries ago. In the realm of the spirit, his
name meant wisdom, his eldest brother strength and the one that stood in
between, courage. The brothers were strength, courage and wisdom and their
names were the weapons the gods had given them. He then understood why his
father overemphasized their staying together because at the end, there were one
person and an augmentation of the trio would consequent a limitless and
inexplicable victory on any battle ground. <br />
<br />
Sensing that his ancestors beckoned on him, he made it a duty to narrate the
tale of his brothers, the indomitable trio to every young warrior because any
man who got to know and worked on himself enough to discover how to weld those
three weapons strength, courage and wisdom will never lose a battle. His tale
lived after him, it is still told up to this very moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
You might be saying to yourself that they were three entities bequeath with
three distinct gifts but I make bold to tell you and indeed with hundred
percent veracity that lying somewhere deep inside of you and untapped are the
same weapons that were forged in eternity. You might have discovered one or two
and are probably satisfied with your finding but there is one yet lying,
unused. Search your insides for it and when you have found all three of them,
learn how to weld them and when you have mastered their usage, stand upright
and give that disrespectful challenge a long hard stare, and then you will be
amazed at who will be flinching. Certainly not you! And it is simply because
you just became indomitable! Break that shackle that bounds you to
petrifaction, Shakespeare said through the mouth of great Julius Ceaser<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <span style="color: red;"> </span></span><span style="color: red;"> </span></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: red;"> </span></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: red;"> "cowards
die many times before their deaths; </span></span></i></b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3rvldsoxx8z8iQUihD8bsykxKwmgZEIuwQ-nBSq5rdRtE9Ox6MyI12WPt-i4hViUg7P1lIIRi8aYAltubEa3wjJjaFhBeWvm_LmV8oL-Ho0SgULSQp_Xz5EXHkVvGZ-HNEM1OPEMhnBM/s1600/african-lion-king_32923.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3rvldsoxx8z8iQUihD8bsykxKwmgZEIuwQ-nBSq5rdRtE9Ox6MyI12WPt-i4hViUg7P1lIIRi8aYAltubEa3wjJjaFhBeWvm_LmV8oL-Ho0SgULSQp_Xz5EXHkVvGZ-HNEM1OPEMhnBM/s400/african-lion-king_32923.jpg" width="400" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: red;"></span></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: red;">the
valiant never taste of death but once,</span><span style="color: red;"> of
all the wonders that yet I have heard</span><span style="color: red;"> it seems to
me most strange that man should fear</span><span style="color: red;"> seeing that death,<br /> a necessary end </span><span style="color: red;">will
come, when it will come"</span><br />
</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> Let strength,
courage and wisdom light your paths through the dark creepy tunnels of fear as
you face it and become indomitable!!!!!!!!!</span></div>
Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845096666732373356noreply@blogger.com0