We all matter

 The word '"matter" is a very complex and yet easy to understand word. Wikipedia describes: "there is no single agreed scientific meaning of the word "matter". It hits the nail right on the head if you ask me because we tend to think that different things matter to different people and they are absolutely right in that regard


For my own purposes I think that one's words are an expression of one's true self yet others have a firm belief that talk is cheap. I say that it has importance depending on the person it is coming from and the person receiving the message. This is a universal understanding of most things and speak volumes to each individuals needs and wants and dictates what really matters to them.


Who is to say that the middle aged man who thinks that his money should do all the talking is not accurate in his thinking because the object of his crisis is to be once again adored by the opposite sex. There is method to this madness because like we see on a daily basis that to people who do not have it money matters the most and that is the angle and allure which they tend to use as well.


Well now that we have a basis on where I am heading with what matters I can safely say that we all do matter and the things we think does not affect people negatively, it surely does. So I have realized every time I do something which I do not think is earth shattering but yet it disappoints someone so heavily that I can't bear to see the hurt in their eyes. Same goes for others who do something wrong in your eyes. When someone says or does something wrong, do not just think that they are being malicious and intentionally hurtful towards you. They might not know just how much what they are saying is impacting you negatively. Before you decide someone is your enemy, give them time to be your friend first. You might be surprised if you actually spoke to the person and explained how you felt, they could become aware and you could gain a friendship out of your willingness to share your feelings.


The most meaningful relationships we share as people come from the most unlikely of places. The things that matters to us most are the things we have shared with each other, whether its a memory, trinket or just an old bag  that has been with you everywhere we go. We should realize that people are just as precious and that every individual you come across matters, they might have had a good or bad impact but the impact they have made is one that will stay with you a lifetime.


Go out there and make yourself matter 

Summer of life

Today is a beautiful day unlike any other we have been blessed with before. The reason why I am sounding so lyrical is that I have actually discovered the personal key to happiness. Embrace each day like you were never intended to receive it in the first place.

We are such social and outgoing creatures that we tend to live our lives by the minute and not by the moments that make it all worthwhile. We are so on edge as we are made to believe that we either don't have enough time to do the things we are meant to do and we think that tomorrow is a given. We are so mistaken to think we are guaranteed a tomorrow and that we will live a full and happy lifetime, as all things in life you have to work hard to be happy and you are not guaranteed a tomorrow. I have seen some lives being cut short before they have had the time to make amends with their pasts and with the struggles they have had in their lives.

I will approach each day like the gift it is and appreciate the love I receive from each and everyone that has impacted in my life, whether the impact is small or massive. To show love and to give love for each time we  are blessed by some kind word or even some harsh ones that just motivate you to move on or to choose a different path for our lives. I believe that whatever impact that I will have today is either one that will  improve someones life or change it irreparably.  So to take for granted the interactions you have with people is to approach relationships as a bumbling fool who just stumbles through life on nothing but good looks and a lot of good intentions. Lets take a step into being more thoughtful and have a clear definition into what you want people to think when you leave the room.

Someone that can inspire millions had to start with one and grow their skill and confidence gradually and the only reason they have that kind of reach is because they consciously choose what they want people to think. So I will maintain that my today is a gift and that I will share the gift I have with the world hoping it will help someone in some way in realizing that they too have a valuable contribution to make to someones life today.

Why do we always look down and complain that you don't get paid enough, your car isn't fast enough and your house isn't big enough. Rather say I am in the Summer of my life and I will enjoy each day as my last because tomorrow is not promised today

Contradiction

I find myself often contradicting what I feel and what I say. I say that I hate my job yet I relish in the freedom it gives me all the time. Sometimes all we do and say doesn't coincide with anything we do or say but yet we expect people to understand us and accept us the way we are yet we don't even know how to.

We all have a little identity crisis at least once a week, where you will question even if it is just for a split second if this is really what you are supposed to be doing with your life and with your precious little time. I say to hell with it all because it ends up being propaganda in any case. I say I don't care about the politics in our country yet I cant help but be captivated by the playground tactics being used by high powered officials.

I say I am not influenced by religion anymore yet my entire life, friends, mannerisms and life is this way because of my deep involvement with my religion. So we all have contradictions and contradictions normally represent a lie. All lies start out as someone else's truth, a tall tale we weave because we have heard the scenario before from someone else and just spun the truth to fit our lives. So if all lies lies are based on some measure of the truth then maybe my life and the contradictions it holds do represent a deeper truth and maybe I am the person I am now to just kill a little time till the real me shows it's glorious head.

If you think you are not where you are supposed to be then ask yourself how did you get to the point of realizing you went off course? We cannot know the good without the bad and we have to get lost before we find out where we are supposed to be. I will not pretend like I am a smart ass that has all the answers neither will I be ignorant to my own intelligence, I will try and be a contradiction of note to each category of my personality.

My life is my contradiction and I challenge you to see your own and embrace it.

Simply missing

I hate it when I am proven wrong by someone or something that wasn't even trying to prove me wrong in the first place. We as individuals all have our own way of thinking and the way we do things is unique to each and everyone of us.

So who is to say what is wrong or right these days its just a personal perception at the end of the day that changes from person to person. I have proven this over and over to the people that personally know me I have always asked them the question " What is normal?" much to the dismay of the receiver of this question I will always second guess their answer simply to make them feel unsure. I know that normality and perception is something that is singular to each individual the same way that a personality is as well. We try to be an original all of us but in doing so we just end up more and more carbon copies of our peers and also to some peoples dismay, their parents as well.

Getting to my point that I started out with initially I was once again proven wrong without having an argument and this time the argument was that I could survive on my own. I have always prided myself in being as independent as they come, not needing people and always creating shallow friendships with people so that I could walk away at the drop of a hat. One person came and changed my way of thinking and showed me that even if you are set in your ways, there will be one that will turn it all upside down.

She came as a surprise to me the day we first met, I was under the impression that she was just a pretty woman with only business on her mind. Her honesty showed me something I had missed in the world and that was the sincerity in which she spoke and handled other people. She had pride in what she did and how she carried herself in each situation, even when she was crapping me out. I fell hard for her feisty nature and although there were times when I felt like giving up and walking away she was the one who told me that walking away is not the right thing to do but rather to face challenges head on.

She drives me mad in all the bad ways and in all the good ways as well. She showed me that to miss someone is to give them all your time even if they aren't with you. I thought I did not have the capacity to yearn for someone when they are far away and not in your ever revolving day, but today I realize she is simply just missing.

Although she is far away from me now. She wont be for long, my heart is with her right where it belongs.

A Hand in Poetry

The quiet

the quiet I used to have on the the inside of me is just completely gone
I no longer walk around with a a smile on my lips and a boundless song
Is this the effect of what life's hardships does to a person
All we are faced with in the end is a life filled with sadness and desertion

All this misery and gloom is not the pinnacle of our lives
We should want more from ourselves than just a means to survive
We are dynamic and we are bold beyond anyone's measure
When you were born you were your parents little treasure

Its time to take back the peace that was in your heart before you grew up
This is the times that any man can create his very own luck
Toiling and sweating to please another instead of yourself is a fools errand
I will make sure that my life's successes will be inherent

How sweet it will be to slow down and enjoy a life filled with success and peace
To love life and live a life that is what I require at the least
The humdrum approach of working till I am put out to pasture
That's not for me I wanna fill the rest of my days with joyous laughter

Sitting with what little hair I might have left just waiving in the wind
I wanna sit silent and smiling because I lived my life like a king
The quiet I want in me is one that represents a state of contentment
The last thing anyone would want is a life full of resentment

All I want is my quiet and to take my sweet time
For now what I will take is my peace of mind

Hard Decisions

We all have to admit that we love things convenient and easy at all times and don't really enjoy figuring things out or laboring to get something done. We live in an age of convenience where even things like food have been labeled as fast now.

When I was still a little man grabbing my grandmothers skirt the fastest the food was made, was an hour and you had the best meal of your life because a lot of love has gone into preparing the meal. Now if I go to McDonald's and they take more than 7 minutes I wanna see the manager and lets face it we all have that little tyrant in us. What I fail to recognize however is that this processed food I am eating has no story, no love and no history to it, it's just a way to fill my stomach and not really satisfy me like a home cooked meal would.

So why do we not like to take our time anymore with anything?
We are shown by the mediums of communications that there is just not enough time to to do it all anymore and that everything has to be faster and more effective. Have we forgotten how to take our time and enjoy a beautiful day when we are blessed with one or are we too focused on time to realize what's right in front of us? Stop.Look around.You will be amazed what you see if you just took 5 minutes of your busy day to appreciate the fact that you can see, smell, touch, taste and taste the things surrounding you.

I cant remember the last time I actually stared at a rainbow, it used to fascinate me to no end and I would try to see to the end of it just to check for leprechauns at the end of it. Do we have time for these small things anymore? No, it's not efficient enough to bother us because if it's not fast we are not interested.

So lets take the time to ask someone you see each day at work or at home how they are doing or how was their day, a little can go a long way if we really put a little thought into it. Lets make each day an appreciation day, appreciate the bonds you form, the blessings you have, the impact you make and the people that love and care about us.

Peace and tranquility only happens when we slow down...

Differences

The one thing you can always rely on is that everybody is different, that everybody knows but not all of us are willing to accept

As a young boy growing up in an ever-changing world where everything was changing faster than I could sometimes keep up with. Things such as religion, race, class and stature were the types of things which as a child I was made painfully aware of because these are not the kinds of things that your parents would sit you down and have a talk about like the birds and bees.Although these things change you and also shape you ultimately into the self sufficient person you will become one day, we are not made aware of how to deal with it as a child.

I am not saying that my parents never raised me right I am saying that knowledge is power folks. In countries such as China children first learn about what their heritage is, where they belong and  function in society also where their people come from. Although they are a third of the world's population they are also a very exclusive group that stick to their traditions and values as a people which is quite admirable. I think these are the kinds of things we need to teach our kids and not depend on the schooling curriculum because let's face it a schooling system cannot teach your child it's heritage if they have 70 different races and backgrounds.

Lets go ahead and be proud of our lineage and embrace what our great great grandparents did so that we could sit comfortably and read this bit of info right here. The more you can equip your child the less you will have to face an identity crises when your child wants to be the last of the "mohicans".

Be proud of us being different and remember somewhere down the line you will be someone's great grandparent and wouldn't it be great if they said that it's because you weren't afraid to teach your child where they came from that they are proud to call you their ancestor.

Acceptable

The word "acceptable" is such a broad spectrum that you cannot really define it to a particular meaning as it has so much different relevance to everybody out there. Each of us have been raised and influenced by various factors to have a set amount of beliefs and values and with that we have a certain level of acceptability when it comes to situations.

To a high powered businessman it is acceptable to think of people as assets and not really have any connection to specific people because his values dictate that people are merely assets and if they do not bring value they can be replaced. Now for instance if you take a social worker they have to deal with peoples emotions and all emotional aspects of a situation that could determine someones immediate future. So no matter what we feel is appropriate we cannot really tell anyone how we feel about a situation they are dealing with because our values might not coincide with the proper way to deal with things.

We are by nature very emotional creatures as human beings and when you actually take that out of the equation you are faced with a whole different aspect and avenue that can be followed in most different scenarios we are faced with. Yet we cling so much to who we are as people that it affects each everything we are faced with to a point that we want to sometimes save the whole world all on our own knowing that we cannot even save ourselves in the process either.

I am guilty of trying to sometimes enforce my values and the things that are acceptable to me down on others simply because I feel that everybody would be better off feeling and thinking the same at all times. That in my mind would probably bring about world peace, but I tend to forget that people with the same personalities hate each other more than anything else and we would be worse off than when we started.

I say its a good thing that we are different and that we have our own views because opposites do attract and differences are like colors they jut make the world a beautiful and bright place and at times that's just what we need.

So do what's acceptable and be yourself no matter what......

Healthy Eyesight......

What a beautiful morning I am having today. Weather wise I suppose everybody in Cape Town can just about say the same thing but I think in terms of a hectic morning mine has just been made by a woman in a silver Toyota Avanza.

As usual each morning me and the wifey are driving down the N1 just minding our business when someone with a clear deficiency in carrots and eyesight just decides to cut right in front of us when there is no space in between us and the car directly in front of us. When accidents like these happen then they are always the ones that have no idea how any of it happened at all and want to cry the most about the situation. I say put down the cleenex and pick up a carrot dammit because I know that in that head of yours common sense is just a vague thought and not something prevalent in your mind. If you cannot improve your thinking at least improve your eyesight dammit because even idiots drive Avanza's these days.

But enough about my morning I realize this is a forum for people that wanna just talk all about themselves whole day and I can't indulge my ego just yet. On to the real topic of eyesight and how important is is to each and every one of us and how much we rely on it daily.

Typical routine for anyone is to open their eyes and make sure they are still on the same place they went to sleep (not always the case after a night of drunken debauchery). Next thing you go wash your face to check that your still pretty (in your mind of course) and can still face the world. Every resulting action after that we rely heavily on what we see and that is merely because it is the one sense we can count on the most or so we are told.

Because of this mitigating factor that we all need to take good care of our eyesight and there are also 5 main factors that influence this decline in eyesight and believe it or not I know all 5 and I know that you will find it funny as I did when I read the first 3. http://www.raybanglassesshop.com/?p=23

That list basically says that studying is bad for your eyesight before 25 and if I knew that I would have never gone to school because it is bad for my eyesight. That's always why they said that knowledge is power and if I had that kind of knowledge back then I would have talked my way out of any situations much faster and with much more confidence. So lets arm ourselves with knowledge and go get our eyes tested because lets face it gents you can't possibly blame beer goggles if you are sober.

A "Brand" new day

This morning as I was driving to work I actually had a good look around me at all the people and their cars and the unnecessary things that was stacked up as accessories to their overly-expensive cars and SUV's.

These days its not about buying quality anymore, its all about keeping up with the Jones' and keeping up appearances. At the end of the day we have to ask ourselves is it really worth all the stress from the banks just to look like you can afford a BMW and on top of that just because you now look like you can afford one you actually go and buy one! Its a vicious cycle which I don't know if we are too stupid or just too naive to realize we are in and will be stuck in as long as we follow blindly the trends and the images being forced onto us by the media and huge marketing firms. I am not saying I have a problem with marketing because without it how would we know what our dentist (allegedly) or doctor (some actor they paid) recommends.

Now we are forced to look at our spending as a result of the recession that attacked us like a malnourished wildlife park lion. I for one cannot say that I am now debt free as a result of this because lets face it no bank will even help you if you do not have some kinda debt on your name. The concept is that they will not give you debt if you do not have any debt (Comedians probably invented that policy).

Coming back to the point of how a brand really "improves" your lifestyle by having it. If you really think about it, how is a air infused micro chip embedded pair of trainers going to help improve you taking your child to the park? How will a SUV with hill assist 4X4 going to help you drop off your kids at the school which is less than 5km's away from your house?

Do we really need all the things that the adverts claim we have to have or do we just want it because the neighbor across from me hasn't found the dealership yet, regardless if I really cant afford it. Stop overdrawing your checque accounts and overcharging your credit cards and start thinking about what happens when you cant pay these things anymore.

Lets face it we have a cupboard full of things we don't need and we hang on to them simply because it cost us a fortune and we wanted it first. Its a hollow victory because your wallet is hollow now because of your stupidity.

Unanswered Questions . . .

Conversation is a simple exchange of information that has put us apart from all other species that have been put on this green earth. However I see that some of us still lack the neccessary skills it takes to progress in such a simple exchange.

Take for instance a situation I was faced with yesterday with our rail service METRORAIL. I normally take a train that is scheduled for departure at a set time each morning. For some or other reason this particular reason this train was cancelled (maybe the wheels were flattened). The train preceeding this particular one came steadily  towards my stop and I boarded it, also just letting my boss know of the situation at hand and that I will be late as a direct result of this. I was then instructed just to get a piece of paper to just confirm this situation that I have been put in as a result of my train being cancelled. Before sed situation I was not even aware that you could get a  piece of paper regarding this.

So when I finally reached my destination I moved along to their information center where I was greeted to casual conversation and 3 information agents just ignoring me like they were paid to chit chat and not help customers. I kindly asked for their assistance where I was asked if i knew which train was cancelled and I told them to which I was asked do they have to smell the train number? At this point I had to calm myself down and not let that counter turn into a scene out of the WWE where smack down's were being handed out like free lunches.

10 minutes later I came victorious from that counter with a generic page that any pre-schooler could be proud of and I was off to my job. I now know just how mr Mandela felt when he mentioned that we must be free'd from our opresser's as I was liberated from MetroRails customer centre.

I have to say I felt like a champion for actually getting what I was looking for from Metrorail as there are a lot of people out there that will never be able to say the same.

Here is to brilliant service and a battle well fought

Riots = Results?

You know in a world obsessed with service delivery we have to fight for the things we want. I question how destroying property and affecting others lively hoods in the process is going to affect this change?

Demonstrating in the past used to be all about our freedom of speech and voicing our dissatisfaction with how we are being treated and what we are all about. Now all we are left with are major unions trying to force down their will on industries and using their own members as pawns in their grand scheme of collecting more power.Where are the Mandela's and the Bhiko's that are the crusaders for the people more than they are for the cause, instead we have "leaders" who care more about their wallets than the man on the ground battling to keep his family going.

The protesters have a right to voice their anger at being valued less than their counterparts in other parts of the world and in some cases also in other industries. So I salute the men and women who take a stand for their freedom in a way that many can only admire and carry disdain for those who believe results can be achieved with violence.

The leaders of today need to realize that it is not "power to the people" but that rather they have power because of the people.

Hi all

In the customer care industry which I am a passionate advocate for I wish we the people had a stronger say in how we get treated in SA

Over a career spanning a meager 6 Years I have experienced the rare occasion of actually being blown out of the water by someone claiming to be a "customer service agent". Has it merely just become a a job specification or has the passion completely died down and we have become nothing but phone answering zombies just doing the bare minimum to get by?

I  say to hell with what others do and if you really believe in what you said in your interview (let's face it we all say we are passionate about helping people). Was that just a ploy to get some employment or did you really believe that in your heart?

I for one know that when I said those words I meant every single bit of it and as long as I can I will be an advocate for good service and have each client saying "wow, that was good service"

My motto is "I aim to please and my aim is to please" so lets get cracking and make a customer feel like a king once again.