What makes me smile?

I’m a happy person, or I at least try to be.  Mark Twain is of the opinion that wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.  I agree 100% with his saying.

I was thinking to myself what makes me smile.  I ended up with a few things I knew meant a lot to me.  Things that make me smile are:

1.       Family (I mean in a good way, okay!  J )  All the silly and fun things we do together.

2.       Boyfriend.  His laugh and jokes.  The way he looks at me and the way he say’s “I love you”.

3.       My dog.  She is a bundle of joy and love, all squished into a pile of fur and legs. 

4.       Friends.  The jokes, the looks, the drinks and the fun.

5.       Colleagues.  All their doings.

6.       Puppies.  So cute, you just want to cuddle the whole day.

7.       Little kids.  They are the same as puppies, just with a voice!

8.       My car.  Looking at it and knowing it’s my very own and of course when it’s not due for a service or new tires. 

9.       Holidays or Vacations.  Thinking of what to do.

10.   Eating a pizza or a burger or for that matter any type of junk food.  That’s now when I’m not thinking off all the calories going straight to my hips.

11.   Sports, fishing, cycling, netball, exercise.  My smile appears after I cursed at myself for doing this to me!

12.   Wine tasting.  Oh what a joy!

13.   A drive around our beautiful Cape Town.  Who wouldn’t smile when they are living in such a beautiful place?!

14.   Rain.  It makes such a beautiful sound when falling on roof tops.

15.   Sun.  It’s beach time!

16.   Butterflies, Earthworms, Lady Bugs, Chameleons, birds.

17.   Nature.  All the flowers and trees and animals in the wild.

I can go on with this list for a while.  The point I’m trying to make is that everything can make you smile, depends on how you look at it.

Therefore, do yourself a favour and put a smile on your dial.

Wedding cake-in-the-middle-of-the Road

What a strange post from me indeed!

I have passed the time of my 13^th, 16^th, 18^th and 21^st birthdays, along with all my friends.  I find myself entering the time of engagement parties and weddings.  How on earth did time fly by so quickly?!

During earlier times it was the norm to get married in your early twenties.  Nowadays I think young adults getting married so soon is absolutely insane, followed by a mess of wedding cake in the middle of the road.  I saw my fair share of friends getting married too young and the problems that occurred within these relationships.  Please understand me correctly … I am not against young adults tying the knot so soon, but I doubt if all are actually mature enough to handle the responsibilities that goes along with being a married couple.  Personally I think this leads too many divorces.

I am in a long-term relationship and find many people asking me the following question, “So, when are you planning on getting married?”  My usual answer, “I am still too little to get married”.  I feel like screaming whenever people ask me this!  Don’t rush things … it all will happen on the exact right time of my life.

I seem harsh in what I mentioned above, but my motto … “Rather save than sorry”.  Yes, I dream of my own, beautiful, extravagant wedding and spending the rest of my life with the one I so deeply cherish and love, but give us time.  At the moment our careers are very important to us and we haven’t even finished studying yet.  Both of us feel that we want all of this extra worry out of the way, so we can thoroughly enjoy our life together.

Rather a wedding cake that everyone enjoys, than a wedding cake in the middle of the road.

Do you celebrate the things you do have?

I was fortunate enough to celebrate Easter with my family and boyfriend.  Although it was a very quiet weekend and we didn’t go away, I still felt very blessed.

This lead me to ponder whether we really celebrate all the things we do have?  I am fortunate enough to still have both my parents, my sister, two grand parents, uncles, aunts, cousins and a boyfriend - all who loves me unconditionally.  I have a home, a warm bed, my own room, food to eat, a job, my own car and true friends.  I have love, health, compassion and peace.  We have no wars and a beautiful country.  These are only a few things I can think of.

Sometimes we forget what we have and complain about the things we want.  My sister, I and all of my friends have everything we need, not all we want, but all we need to lead a happy life.  Yet we still complain.

What about the individual who has no home and has to sleep on the sidewalk?  What about the individual who cannot feed his/her family or him/herself?  What about the individual who struggles to find a job?  What about the individual who carriers around pure hatred?  These are people we should think about before we complain.

Before complaining, think of what you can DO to achieve your goal.  Whether it be saving for a car of setting up a meeting with your employer for more responsibilities in the work place.

Rather celebrate the things in life you do have before waking up one day, just to realise that it is gone …

It is a poor idea to lie to yourself

“I sit in my corner of lies
It's these four walls I despise
Everywhere I look I see a glimpse
Of everything I seem to miss

I lie
I cheat
But it's myself I cannot beat

I scream
I cry
But to myself I cannot lie

These walls are crumbling faster now
This I wish I did not allow
I'm swimming in this thick sea of lies
My excuses I do not buy

I lie
I cheat
But it's myself I cannot beat

I scream
I cry
But to myself I cannot lie

The walls have tumbled to the ground
My commonsense is nowhere to be found
One lie leads to another
Now more than every I need my mother

I lie
I cheat
But it's myself I cannot beat

I scream
I cry
But to myself I cannot lie

I know there is not anything I can say
To change what happened that day
Who I am I trying to fool
It's my emotions that mask, rule

I lie
I cheat
But it's myself I cannot beat

I scream
I cry
But to myself I cannot lie

Sorry is the best I can do
Its the answer I never knew
Till now
It's not my fault, it was you who broke our vow

I lie
I cheat
But it's myself I cannot beat

I scream
I cry
But to myself I cannot lie

Don't tell me how to cope, to feeling
I deal, how I deal
I'm no longer associating myself with you
My life, wall to wall, just keeps on crashing because your so untrue

You lie
You cheat
But it's me you cannot beat

You scream
You cry
But to me you cannot successfully lie”

-       Poem by Emma  Patton

All of us – big, small, old, young, different racial groups, different cultural groups, different religions – all of us, lie.

We are human.  Therefore we are so used to tell a white lie or twist a story around to suite us better.  It is unfortunately a human flaw.  Some of us feel guilt and some absolutely nothing.

There are quite a few people who also lie to themselves.  Those who have problems like alcohol and drug abuse, compulsive liars, those having an affair, etc.  There is a whole list of people like this.  They believe they do not have a problem. 

I think it is a poor idea to lie to yourself.  By lying to yourself, you hurt the people around you, people you might need in future.

Think twice and consider the possibilities before lying to yourself. As the poem above stipulates, you cannot escape yourself.

I LOVE my job

I thought about my job for a while and came to the conclusion that I absolutely love it.

I am fortunate enough to work in the Public Relations Department of a Blood Service in the Western Cape.  Our company consists of about 600 employees.  The job descriptions vary from Promotions and PR, to clinic teams and transport, to lab staff and blood banks, to accounts and purchasing, to IT, to regional offices and many more.

Every day I am able to go to work with a song in my heart, as I know that by doing my little part in the office today, I will be aiding in saving someone’s life.  Although it’s not a direct way of making the difference, I am helping the process along to get to the end result.  I sometimes wonder if the rest of the staff thinks about it in this way. 

In my job I meet wonderful, ordinary people who knowingly (or unknowingly) save up to three lives each time they donate an unit of blood.  I was privileged to meet a blood donor last week, who donated his 200^th unit of blood.  It takes approximately 33 years to donate 200 units of blood, given that the donor donated six times each year.  His first donation was on 5 October 1962.  This is quite a milestone and not many people can reach this number of donations.

I am honored and proud to be part of a team working in the cause of saving lives.  It will be a very tough decision once I have to move along to greener pastures.

The Sound of One Hand Clapping

The evening was a glamorous affair and a huge success.  All has gone as planned.  She danced her heart out and knows for a fact that the rest of the cast also did.  No one made a mistake.  The performance was impeccable.  Her heart was thumping as the curtains rose.  Disappointment fell like a black cloak over her.  The whole audience was clapping with one hand.   

Have you ever thought of what it might sound like if you applaud with only one hand clapping?

In my mind it will sound hollow, not at all like clapping is supposed to sound.  It will sound like a half-hearted attempt, a failure, alone and miserable.  This might be what the dancer felt of her performance when the audience was only clapping with one hand. 

I feel that the whole idea of clapping is like teamwork between the two hands.  Without each other, they will make a very hollow sound.  It will not be as successful as the sound of two hands clapping.

It is the same in our lives.  We cannot make a success if we rely only on ourselves.  We need to work in a team, be it a team of two people or a team of 50 people, but without each other we will not be successful.  We need each other.  Instead of struggling by yourself, ask someone for their opinion or help.  If you are stuck at a certain point in your life or in your work, ask advice. 

Rather be two hands clapping and making a beautiful sound, than one hand making the sound a complete failure.

This is the Life

I was privileged to visit beautiful and extremely warm Namibia last week.  It was quite a drive, but worth the numb bum!

We reached our destination, which was about 13km across the Namibian Border at Noord-Oewer.  We decided to visit only the South of Namibia on this trip.  Our campsite, Amanzi River Resort, is situated right next to the Orange River.  What a site!  We pitched our tents right next to the River.

The River was filled to its maximum capacity, because of the flooding earlier this year.  The current was very strong and we could barely go more than 2 – 3 meters in the water without being swept away.  But what a site it was!

We visited Ai-Ais (meaning “burning water” in the Nama language), which is natural, thermal water.  The water reaches a temperature of approximately 60°C and is rich in sulphates and fluorides.  Ai-Ais is a popular recreation resort, especially during winter months.  There are indoor pools with various temperatures, as well as an outdoor pool.  The resort is closed during the summer months, as the heat from the canyons leads to a rise in temperatures of up to 45°C per day!

While travelling we decided to visit the Fish River Canyon via the Hobas camp site as well.  Hobas is 70km north of Ai-Ais following a very bad gravel road.  The Fish River Canyon is the second largest canyon in the world and the largest in Africa.  The Canyon features a gigantic ravine which is 160km long, up to 27 km wide and in certain places almost 550 meters deep!  The Fish River Canyon was one of the most BEAUTIFUL sites I have EVER seen! 

Upon our trip back to the camping site, we were also privileged to see some wild life.  We saw zebra’s, ostriches, spring bucks, kudos, mountain bucks, birds, etc!

The next few days of our trip consisted of a 3 hour canoe trip (which took us only 1hour and 40min because of the strong current!), reading, splashing in the muddy, shallow parts of the river, sleeping, visiting little towns, the Aussenkehr canyon, meeting new people and eating! 

This was an amazing trip and I realized that this is what life should be like!  I had so much fun with my family and I am sure that I will never forget this trip …

Not all who wander are lost

I researched this line and found that it is used in various cases.  “Not All Who Wander Are Lost” may refer to:

·      Not All Who Wander Are Lost is a 2001 album by Chris Thile

·      “Not All Who Wander Are Lost” was a 2007 single of the album The Last Kind Words by an American groove metal band, Devildriver

·      Not All Who Wander Are Lost is also a line in a poem written by J.R.R Tolkien for The Lord of the Rings

Album names, song titles, lines in poems and a part of life.  But what does this specific little line, with so much meaning, suggest to me?

Societies of today are so set in their ways.  I am as well.  We need a stable, well-paying job.  We need financial security.  We need our own place to call home.  We need people we love around us ALL the time.  It’s who we are. 

There are exceptions though.  Those few people around the world who decide to wander the Earth.  They see, learn and experience so many things in life.  Things many of us will never experience or learn.  We perceive them as people running away from their responsibilities, scared to settle down, making any type of commitment or growing up. 

I am of the opinion that we perceive them wrongly.  People are individuals.  How boring would life be if we ALL settled for working from nine-to-five?  Society needs people like this, these “wanderers”, to keep life balanced.

I think it takes a lot of responsibility to wander throughout Mother Earth.  There is so much paperwork which needs to be 100% correct at all times.  I don’t think wanderers are scared to settle down.  They would be like a bird in a cage and it would just be wrong to keep them in one place for too long.  They do make a commitment.  These people travel throughout the whole Earth.  It is their mission.

I have to admit that I sometimes do envy them. 

Fact is, Not All Who Wander Are Lost.

The Paradox of the Time we Live in

Have you ever wondered what life was like 100 or more years ago?  I do.  I love reading books and watching movies dated during older centuries.

During the older centuries everything seems so calm, small and simple.  People didn’t have stress, anti-biotic or vitamin pills.  They had very big families, but lived in very small houses.  Education was limited, as well as the knowledge of doctors.  People were poor, but they had great morals and they were proud people.  I believe that although times were tough with war and poor living quality, they made the most of it.

In the 21^st century we have bigger houses, but smaller families.  More comfort, yet less time.  We possess more degrees and we have more knowledge than ever in history, but we have less common sense and less good judgement.  We are blessed with more specialists and doctors, but we have more problems.  We have more medicine, but we have “broken” people.  We spend too much, laugh less, drive too fast, get angry so quickly, stay up too late, don’t read enough, watch too much television, but we do not have time for our Religion.

During this century we managed to multiply our possessions and gain higher income, but we have very low moral standards.  We talk too much, we do not love enough and we lie too much.  (Yes, even those little white lies count!)  We have learned how to exist comfortably and managed to live longer, but we forgot how to LIVE! 

We have higher buildings, but shorter tempers. We spend so much, but we have so little.  We buy more, but we enjoy it less.  We managed to land on the moon and come back safely, but it is too much trouble to walk over to your new neighbor and welcome them to the neighborhood. 

We write more (we have so many platforms of communication), but we learn less.  We learned how to rush things, but not how to wait.  In order for us to say more, we build computers with more gigs which are able to store more information, but we have less communication between each other.  We are focused on quantity, but not on quality. 

This is the time of fast foods, leading to bad digestion.  Bigger men, with less integrity.  More relaxing, but less pleasures.  Two salaries in a family, but more divorce.  Beautiful houses, but more “broken houses”.

Therefore I suggest that we do not store items for special occasions, because today is a special occasion.  Read a bit more.  Sit on your terrace or balcony and enjoy the view instead of worrying about what you might need.  Spend more time with friends and family, eat your favourite food and visit places you love.  Use that expensive perfume and those crystal glasses.  Tell people how much you love them and live each day to its maximum capacity!

Every year, week, day, minute and second is special.  USE IT!!