ghreytness

What's your story?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 09:02:00 +0000

I recently came across the story of Helen Adams Keller, and reading about her was so inspiring. She was a blind and deaf disciple of Anne Sullivan Macy, who despite being physically challenged did not consider her own self to be handicapped, made a name for herself as a women’s liberation activist. She was a writer and a social worker, more than that Helen Keller was the first “deafblind” person to earn Bachelor of Arts degree.

The story of how she passed through the isolation imposed by the almost complete lack of language and blossomed to a woman who people came from far and wide to listen to, became widely known and recognised through the dramatic depictions of the play dedicated to her; “The Miracle Worker”. Her birthplace in Alabama is now a museum.

The story of course is very intriguing, but what really became of concern to me are;

Am I living a story? Would my story inspire others? Would my story even be worth telling? This are reaffirmation questions.

Heroes have come and gone, leaving behind stories that inspires us. Without doubts we can all be heroes even in your own little way, with your actions, words and way of life you could start writing your story.

You see this been a hero thing is not an exoteric, extraordinary thing, it is very easy to accomplish. Just attach purpose to your life and let your life be a meaningful addition to the world.

Jennifer Lopez, during the 43rd American Music Awards which she had the privilege to host said “As kid, I watched the American Music Awards every year. I liked the excitement, the glamour, the artist became like my heroes that really inspired me and made me dream that someday I could be one of the lucky ones who gets to appear onstage and perform”.

This got me thinking, it is truly a chain process. We are inspired by others and we in turn inspire others. It would be unfair to just receive and not give out right? If Helen despite the odds could still build a platform on which she told her story, what excuse do we have not to?

Richard Branson was giving a challenge of celebrating 65 people who deserves an award. And he said this is about people who have put others first. For me he meant people who have put themselves inline for others, who gave a part of them to one or two persons. The wrong concept we usually have is that it takes to save a country or the universe to be that hero. Make yourself become a source of smile to one or two persons and you are a hero. Especially in this season of love, when we are celebrating the greatest Hero of all time.

Share your exciting story of you being an hero with me via farapopoola@gmail.com or farapopoola@yahoo.com and I will share them on my blog for the world to see and hear about you. And your story can stir up a few others to do more.

Opportunity goes to the first 10 top inspiring stories by 25th of January 2016.

Default mode

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 08:49:00 +0000

In this continuous cycle of life and time, where every night leads to another busy day, and every moment runs out almost as immediate as they come. Each day for many of us is filled with various important activities lined up to keep us occupied or productive.

And every now and then we hear phrases synonymous to phrases like "Time No Dey" which means there is NO TIME. Actually there is sufficient time for Eternity. Time isn't limited, but we are limited in time. As important as it is to live in this consciousness and fully maximize our time, it is even more weighty and redeeming to schedule periods of silence into our lives.

The classical composer Claude Debussy said, “Music is the silence between the notes.” We fall under the spell of a piece of music not simply because of what we hear, but because of what we do not. Without enough silence between the noise, even the most beautiful music is transformed into a disorganized cacophony.

Similar to composers, we arrange the music notes of our lives in bits in our limited space in time, but as against symphonies we as composers use the power of our everyday thoughts in composing. Every thought appears like a musical note giving order and rhythm to the tune of our lives. The best you are at composing, the best for you. The song we create either moves us towards our dreams or keeps us stuck and this becomes the story we tell and the testimonies we share.

When we make out time to rest and reflect on our inner lives, our core values, deeply held-on beliefs; when we keep that silence, skip those busy notes and allow ourselves to reflect about ourselves and our future; ask questions about our existence, contributions and purpose, we will have clear definition for our life and true answers for our questions.

What are your thoughts like? Do your thoughts create a pleasant melody or do they sound like crashing thunder? Where can the symphony of your thoughts take you? For our lives to be healthy, powerful and attuned to our best purpose, we must engage daily in two things; firstly, reflecting on our deeper and inner self and secondly, having the confidence to tell the truth to ourselves, considering the truth of our inner being.

In our age of continuous busy-ness carving out time may be a bit disconcerting. But the benefit of engaging in meditative reflection keeps our mind in an active but inwardly focused state which allows us to discern who we really are and not just what we are, how we want to live our lives without the interception of our ego. Afterwards, we can then move forward with what we have learnt and spark positive changes in ourselves and the World around us

BE FREE enough

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 11:19:00 +0000

There's this story about some farmers who were to plant pumpkins on a piece of land. Owing to mistake, a particular farmer's pumpkin seed fell into a glass jar hanging by the vine and he decided to have it grow in it. At harvest time, he saw that the pumpkin had grown in perfect proportion to the shape and size of the jar and all the other pumpkins well planted were far bigger than his.

Many of us wouldn't expect more.
That pumpkin had walls built around it, and it could only grow as much as the capacity of the Jar. Apparently two things were wrong with that pumpkin; Firstly it grew under restrictions and Secondly it was growing in the wrong environment.

Interestingly those farmers are each and everyone of us, and the pumpkin are our thoughts. The greatest human restrictions are not the physical walls of prisons, the greatest human prisons or restrictions is in our mind, in our thoughts. We only are responsible for the building of these walls around ourselves. As difficult as it might be to cross physical boundaries it is even more challenging to cross the boundaries you create in your head. The boundaries you set in your mind becomes the limit to whatever you can create, who you can be and how far you can go or how much you can grow.

Our boundaries control how we maximise our capabilities. The truth is we are all blessed with unlimited capabilities and resources, we can BE FREE enough to explore them. It is said that you are what you think and you can never be better than who you think you are, why not just think the best.. so you can be the best.

Asides the limitations, another problem the pumpkin had was Environment. It couldn't have been well rooted, it couldn't have got the best nutrients for growth. Many a time coupled with limitations or not, we trap ourselves with environments, habits and people that wouldn't let us grow. And we know because we are built to work best doing things that we enjoy doing and keeps us connected to our source. It is very important that we surround ourselves with the best possibilities for growth.

Go ahead and break those walls, BE FREE, think outside the box, make ridiculous decisions, break protocols, bring out the best in you and do all u can to be continually better than your best, expand your horizons because there is a lot of unexplored horizons out there. And more importantly surround yourself with the best possibilities for growth.

THE CINDERELLA WAY.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 20:18:00 +0000

Over and over again we have heard and talked about being successful. We all want to be successful but many of us don't know how to go about it. This is probably not the first article or book you have had the chance to read but I am going to show you success in Cinderella way, from the greatest fairytale ever told "Cinderella" .

Cinderella was a beautiful young girl of unparalleled goodness and sweet temper. Before her mother passed away, she gave her two words "courage" and "kindness". Cinderella ingrained this two attributes into her character and it aided her
in achieving her dreams.Most of the time we have goals and dreams but we lack the courage. We fail to pursue our goals and dreams because we are afraid it won't work out. Fear is a great enemy of success, therefore to achieve success you have to do away with fear and replace it with courage. Believe you can do all thing, believe you will scale through. Believe you will and you will.
After the death of her mother, Cinder as she was popularly known was forced into servitude, she was maltreated, ignored and abused but she repayed them with kindness. She loved them and did all she could to help them. An excerpt from the story- Don't let whatever you might be experiencing change your attitude, maintain a positive attitude. Negative attitudes don't change negative situations, they worsen it.
The courage and kindness paid off when she met the prince. Cinderella became a queen.Her step-sisters tried to stop Cinderella but someone helped her. Her "Godmother". There are people out there who are ready to help you,but they need to see your commitment,courage and kindness before they could. Cinderella became the queen and forgave her step-mother and sisters. Have the spirit of forgiveness,you will need it to achieve success.
Also,I want to point out that talent is just a treasure but graciousness and kindness is priceless. Without doubt it is a great advantage to have intelligence, courage and a good attitude. These and similar qualities are imbibed by the things you put into you.
CINDERELLA WAY: COURAGE, KINDNESS and POSITIVITY.

STARTING THE RACE- racing series

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 09:03:00 +0000

Have you ever participated or witnessed a race and just from the beginning you could take a good guess of who would win. I remember the incident that occurred during my state's biennial inter-school games (2010).

My school was well represented of course by the best runners. During the female 100m, the students from my school were very excited in anticipation of a win from the reoresentating athlete based on her past set record during the previous games and we had high hopes for this race as well. When the gun went off, to our huge shock, we found her lingering behind at the starting line for about 2 seconds. In a situation where 1 minor second is difficult to come by, you can tell the rest of the story.
There is something unique about the start of every race and that is because it goes a long way in determining the end. At the start, more energy is required to overcome initial reluctance ( inertia), that is why we often describe an athlete's start as good or bad start. It is also a decision-making point. Beyond this point there must be no hesitation and mistakes are too costly to be made since opportunities for realignment might be rare.
From the starting point it is imperative to have a clear idea of the big picture God has given us as individuals. This will help us with concise orientation of time and energy. Just like I mentioned in the first part of the series, it is important to leave the glade, start your engines and get to racing and even more important to start the race on a good footing.

STILL IN THE GLADE?- Racing series

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 29 Aug 2015 15:08:00 +0000

Often, more than norm we have come across the aged saying- "life is a race". Now what do you think?. Is it really a race or some other thing. For me this realization came clear when I got to the senior

secondary school and just like virus advised his students, my teacher also did the same, explaining that from now and ever more we all have our individual race to run. We are all involved in a race of some sort, even not trying to run is part of the race.
          Then the question comes, are you really running in the race?  The gift of life is like getting tickets to a race with an individual stop time, it doesn't necessarily mean you are racing , you just might be a spectator. The real miracle in racing is not just finishing the race but starting the race.
            Not racing in the race might seem cool, just like staying in the glade might be comfortable, predictable and would not involve taking risks and making ridiculous decision but racing is the fun part, it's how you can get the chance to achieve great deeds and the sense of fulfillment. When you put yourself in the line to race, you expose yourself to some unknown, uncertainties but yet you give yourself a chance to be better, a chance to affect people, the opportunity to encourage other racers and non-racers.
           Since you are already in the race by nature and your time is ticking and limited, its best you RACE and if racing then, its best you do it well. Other parts of this series will expose you to things and thoughts that will make your RACING worth it. STAY FINGERS CROSSED!!! PEACE!

Glade*- culled from the novel "the maze runner".

AUTHORS NOTE

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 10:02:00 +0000

Hello readers,
I want to express my profound gratitude to you all. Thank you very much for your support. It has been a source of encouragement to me and now I feel like giving you all the best of me, but as you might know am still growing though #smiles. I have decided now to begin a series titled RACING.
I encourage you to keep checking or preferably register to the blog and get an email alert each time I drop a post.
Now! let's go catch fun, experience and information with the RACING series.

84600 seconds

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 22:13:00 +0000

Suppose you wake up one day to find an envelope on your bedside which isn't supposed to be there. On checking it you find 86400 dollars and a note signed by your fairy godmother, saying that the money is rightfully yours- a gift from her with no strings attached but whatever is left unspent at the end of the day would disappear. How much of it would you spend? All of it right?.... Of course all of it.
If you would spend all of the 86400 dollars,
why is it we often leave a large part of the 86400 seconds we were gifted with everyday unspent! and by unspent I mean wasted. It is not really about spending when it comes to time because one way or the other we all don't leave any second unspent at the end of the day. The big quest is "how do you spend the 86400 seconds in every waking day"?
         I have come to realize that the concept of time is not as vague as we think it to be. It is as part and parcel of our lives as money is, infact it is more valuable as a currency than money.If you want to know the value of a minute ask someone who missed a flight, to know the value of a second ask someone who lost a race by one second, to know the value of a mini second ask someone who was involved in an accident.
          The future is not just someplace that we would get to someday neither is it just a faraway time that would come someday. The very next second to the one you are currently in is also in the future. What you do with the near future determines what the distant future would look like. You have the ability to shape your future, it all depends on what you do with the 86400 seconds that you have everyday.
           Everybody has the same number of seconds in a minute, minutes in an hour, hours in a day, days in a week, weeks in a month, months in a year. What makes the difference between the rich and the poor now is what they did in the their past. WHAT YOU MAKE OF YOUR TIME IS UP TO YOU.

SET OR BE AN EXAMPLE

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 15 Aug 2015 05:52:00 +0000

The moment I set my sights in this title I knew that it was an impossibility. While I may try to live my life as a good example for others to model with a good path to adhere to, the thought of another person using me as an inspiring beacon is flat out crazy, dangerous, and a very bad idea. I am who I am, I do attempt to live in a positive way, I work to be kind and gentle, but I drive myself to distraction with my verve and enthusiastic determination, I would never wish

this bundled vigor and force upon anyone else. So maybe instead of being the example, I'll just work to set an example.
The moment I set my sights on this second proposal, I knew that it, too, presented an impossibility. Setting an example comes with my own interpretations and designs on what setting an example means. I can tell the truth, act with goodness, obey the laws, and fulfill the roles of a good citizen. Now it is up to outsiders to determine if this is an example that they would like to emulate. Do they like my truth and believe it is the best way to act and think? Do they find my goodness adequate or do they note some areas that are lacking. The same holds true with obeying the laws and acting as a good citizen. Suppose we are driving through the desert and suddenly a red stoplight appears. We stop - it is red, after all - and even though there are no cars, trucks, or pedestrians in sight in any direction we wait. We wait patiently for the light to turn green. But imagine that green never appears. Is the light broken? Is it a trick? It is a test or morality? If red means stop, am I allowed to select when to go? If I decide that I have the right to go as a good citizen, is this a one-time green light or do I now have the privilege of interpreting every law to meet my current demands.
Suppose, too, that mixed into this red light/green light scenario, I have motives and justification for changing the law to suit my needs. For example, my dog is sick and I must get to the vet or I know this light to be broken and so to expedite my day and the day of each driver of all of those cars stacked up behind me, I am permitted to just head out without consideration of the law and its intelligence or foolishness.
Or can I rearrange the light situation to suit my needs? I stop and then proceed to make a left turn. I drive down the road and then make a legal U-turn and then come to the aforementioned light. If it is green, I can now turn legally right and thus continue my trip. Unless, of course, the U-turn was prohibited and the light or the former red light is now green and the former green light, you guessed it, is red. Or what if my original intent was to turn left and now I have a red light obstructing my path. A moral dilemma, a tough choice, a conundrum with no correct answer appears in my conscience.
If I can neither be an example or set an example, what choices remain. Maybe I should just be myself with the caveat that I will do not harm or at least try very hard to do no harm. Am I allowed to live my life with full happiness, joy, and diligent determination and if others want to follow, they may? I believe this is the truth that I will seek: Live an Example that I hope aids others.

source:ezinearticles.

MAKERS OR CREATORS

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 11:38:00 +0000

One event that usually caused a lot of uproar and excitement back in my secondary school days is the annual inter-house sport competition. Not only students but even the members of staff were affected as well. Classes were stopped a week to the competition

and all focus and energy was directed towards "the day"

I remember vividly the first inter- house sport I witnessed . I was so excited and bursting with energy.The enthusiasm in everybody could be felt in the air, expectation was high, it was a long sought relief from curricular activities and everywhere was colourful,noisy and lively.

What really caught my attention was the noise. I noticed that while some people were making the noise, some people were the cause i.e, creating it. Each house was represented by athletes and cheerers - the noise makers. The question is which would you like to be , the maker or the creator? Do you want to invent, birth ideas or other remarkable achievements that would cause your generation to make noise or do you want to celebrate the achievements of others. There is something in you that your generation is waiting for. Make a decision today to affect people and contribute to your world. Be a noise creator not a noisemaker.