I love the story of redemption. The ability to be able to start again, rebuild and succeed appeals to me immensely.
And that’s what heaven did through Jesus’s crucifixion on the cross. No matter how bad we’ve erred the fact that there is redemption means heaven is looking at our frailty through the eyes of grace.
I am a product of heaven’s grace through the redemptive power of Jesus, and I am proud of that.
I leave you with this song from the Prince of Egypt ‘Through Heaven’s Eyes,’ it blesses my soul. Have a fabulous week ahead, friends!
”Human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning.’‘ – Samuel Butler. I agree because life and love is a journey. Find out more in this short documentary I wrote and directed with a friend.
Here’s a transcript of the film:
Life is a journey, and it starts with a cry… the cry of a new-born baby. It ends with moans, groans, or the contented sigh of an older man or woman who’s led a fruitful life.
Or it can end in running feet, a chase, a stab, searing pain, blood splattered on the sidewalk, the cold street receding away as a young life flitter away into nothingness…
A life cut short…
Humans are chasing humans and killing without thought or regard for the pains inflicted on unfamiliar people.
Life can end well, or, it may end in tragedy.
Twenty years ago, I got married to the man of my dreams, and two years later, I was in the hospital, in labour, and anticipating the birth of my son.
It was a complicated process. A short life, my son passed away two days after he was born.
My life stopped briefly.
I didn’t know how to process my grief. I cried every night, and I prayed every night.
Days passed. Time didn’t wait for my grief. And I healed with the love of my husband and family.
Three months later, there was a miracle.
I was pregnant again. This time, everything felt different, but I was hiding my fears. I smiled openly while I cried and cringed inside, wondering if the new life growing inside me would live, and survive.
Nine months later, I welcomed another son. He lives. He’s kind and makes me laugh. He’s energetic and loves life. I had two more children, a daughter and another son.
My family means everything to me.
But something is wrong.
I’ve lived in London for over fifteen years, and every time there’s a young life wasted on the streets, I remember the child I lost.
Although my son died as a new-born baby and in different circumstances, I relive the pain every time I read or watch the news of another senseless killing of young people on our streets.
My eldest son is now 17. He’s brilliant and hardworking. He had one of the best GCSE results in his school, and he’s currently studying Medicine at A levels. He wants to be a doctor. Samuel wants to help and make our society a better place for everyone.
But should I be afraid anytime he’s out of the house? Or because of the colour of his skin?
Can I have hope that things will improve, and that love may conquer hatred, racism, anger and the ugliness inherent in the human soul?
My son believes in a better society, a better world.
Rafael Benedetti wants the world to see goodness in him. Fay Beneddeti intends to champion the course of women and family. These people are keen to see positive changes in our society.
Maybe, there is hope Afterall.
I won’t be afraid anymore.
Hope, no matter how fleeting is still better than fear.
Loving humans can be a reality while chasing humans could become a myth.
The scene was total and absolute destruction. It’s more like a disaster movie. A BBC reporter claimed on the news today that the acres of land burnt in Australia is akin to fifteen million football pitches. Throughout the Christmas and New Year celebrations, I watched with growing apprehension as Australia burns with such ferocity, it was like the end of the world. And in other parts of the world such as Indonesia, Kenya, and a large swathe of Africa, people were losing their lives in natural disasters such as flooding, landslides, etc.
Thankfully, it has started to rain in Australia, but we’re not out of the woods yet. The worrying climate event around the world forms part of our human story.
Climate change is a reality. Temperatures are rising as large sheets of ice in the Arctic continues to melt. And yet, some governments around the world were paying lip service to improve pollution. We are literally killing our home, planet earth. All our bickering, superiority, and worries pale into insignificance if we lose our home. We lose everything.
When I compared the drama surrounding the semi-retirement of Prince Harry and his wife, Megan, from active royal duties, to the heartbreaking news of our climate, it was a welcome distraction. Don’t get me wrong; I think the press has unfairly vilified Megan, but she is also human as we all are, but the challenge that is facing us all dwarfs any drama playing out in the Royal family. Or the Middle East, for that matter.
Speaking of the Middle East, I was on my way home in a cab earlier this week when the driver suddenly retorted.
”Solemaini is alive, everything is a conspiracy, President Trump is colluding with the Iranians to increase the price of oil!”
”Well, we can’t be sure,” I muttered nonplussed, and I didn’t know how to react. Then he continued,
‘The world is a stage; there are men in power who control everything that happens in the world.”
”You’re right, but what about climate change?”
”I don’t know about that,” he replied.
His response got me thinking. The average person may have an opinion about every topic and incidents around the world, but Global warming is still not that important. Sir David Attenborough hammered home another warning today, and we need to act now. I genuinely hope our human story will not end in tears because we live in such a beautiful world!
I’ll touch on other matters now. It’s a bit surreal that while I was busy running around, working, attending hospital appointments, I haven’t updated my website for months, although I feel guilty life’s been, well life. This is my first article in a long while, and I’m sorry if I’m ranting.
I am currently working on a short film, a documentary called ‘Chasing Humans,’ for one of my Master’s degree modules. The film touched on core topics around safety in London. I wrote and directed it, and I’ll keep updating on the progress of the film.
I have missed many awesome articles from my WordPress family. I will visit every one in a couple of weeks after meeting some of my deadlines.
It’s so good to be back. I hope 2020 would be an excellent year for us all.
It’s 75 years tomorrow when allied forces landed in the vast beaches of Normandy, France. Several European nations came together after Germany occupied France. These brave soldiers waged a decisive battle against Adolf Hitler and his German forces entrenched in occupied France, and their bravery finally fostered peace in Europe, and the rest of the world.
Whether we have been able to achieve enduring world-wide peace is still up for discussion at a later date, but the Allied forces put an end to the gory adventures of Adolf Hitler, and many of us live in relative peace today. The fight for freedom was encapsulated in a moving speech by William Churchill on May 18 1944, he said:
‘’We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land, and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory despite all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be.’’
The United Kingdom, under the leadership of William Churchill, joined the rest of Allied forces to fight against a force so brutal it is intent on the total annihilation of several nations of the world. The Allied forces worked towards the goal of defeating the enemy on 6th June 1944.
They are our heroes.
The world is not totally at peace, but what we have today is a luxury we can only dream of if Adolf Hitler’s dream to rule the whole world was realised.
Let us rejoice today, and hopefully, the coming days will see a more peaceful world free from slavery, racism, poverty, murders, hatred, and petty human emotions that inhibit living peaceful lives.
NP: I haven’t been able to update my website due to health issues, work commitments, and postgraduate studies. I have respite for a few months and would endeavour to post more articles and would also visit many blogs as much as I can.
‘Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods, Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come.’ Robert H. Schuller.
A second makes a year, and in fact, it makes a lifetime! When you calculate every second of our lives, add that to decisions we make in split seconds, and there, that’s our lives all tidied up and going in seconds. That’s all it takes to cross over to the New Year, just one second. And that got me thinking about decisions and the much-celebrated New Year’s resolutions.
We all have to make choices in life, and when doing that, that’s when the seconds ticked by. From the second we decide whom to marry, to the second we choose our careers to when we define our life goals, the seconds are counting.
We can make the seconds of our lives count by weighing up our options, and in the case of the young Saudi Arabian woman who renounced Islam and barricaded herself in a hotel in Thailand, she must have decided to run away within seconds. That decision will now change her life.
Thankfully, the UN has approved her refugee status, and Australia is keen to allow, and process Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun’s asylum application. This brave young woman made a decision that ultimately changed her life.
So whatever you do this year, make the seconds count!
Life could be a jumbled mess, even at Christmas but smile, be happy because great things are afoot. That is if you believe it.
Last year Christmas, I was in the hospital. It was like a prison because for the first time in my life; I wasn’t with my family at Christmas. Two months before my admission, I’d had surgery, and for whatever reasons, my body reacted badly to the anaesthesia, and my right knee, ankle and hips bore the full brunt of the invasion. My knee was angry, red, bloated and painful. It was as if it had a life of its own, so morphine, tramadol, and cocodamol became my best pal.
I’d been on the waiting list for over a year now to rectify the anomaly in my joints, but our dear old NHS is also going through a tangled mess of its own, so I have to wait it out, in pain. A few days ago, my joints seemed to have had enough, and I had to seek medical help. It’s especially angrier at winter, so it’s like a vicious circle. So why am I writing this? In spite of my health challenges, I love celebrating Christmas because it’s about Jesus Christ, not Santa or the frenzy buying of gifts. There’s nothing bad in gifts, I’ve bought mine and it’s all wrapped up but it’s more than that. I believe Jesus is the son of God, and Christmas is a time to continue to spread the love of Christ and joy in our world. Although I must confess that as a Christian, it saddens me to see Santa glorified to gargantuan proportion, but hey, that’s life.
Life’s a mess sometimes, and I am using this article to reach out to anyone who’s faced or is still facing disease, disappointments, breakdowns of relationships at Christmas and this holiday season. Live strong, and it would pass. People will always piss you off, your expectations may fall short, and the gaiety of this season may appear fake, but life is truly rich and beautiful. We should always have hope irrespective of our circumstances, that things will always get better. If you’re a Christian, that hope is in Jesus Christ, If you’re of another faith, have this hope that things will get better by channelling your energies to positive things, do good to others and believe great things will come your way.
Smile with confidence, like the boy in the picture because things will work out in ways you’d never imagined.
Merry Christmas my friends, wherever you are in the world and have a fantastic New Year!
‘A dream doesn’t become a reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.’ Colin Powell
Everybody has a dream, at least I think so. Some dreams are easy, go to work, come back home, take care of your kids, and you’re clean. Some dreams need getting used to; those kinds involve the lives of others, maybe a nation, a state, or a council.
Take Theresa May, for example, the nation is hooked on her decision, whatever happens with Brexit will go down in history. As a nation, we attach the success or failure of Brexit to the Prime Minister. As the country and the rest of the world waited with bated breath at the deliberations going on at Number 10, I wondered what the Prime Minister must be thinking. As a journalist, I wished I could ask for an interview and ask her how she felt to be in the eye of the storm. And as I penned these words, everyone at the cabinet meeting represents us. And what about the other side of this divorce process? The EU officials in Brussels are also having their meeting while they waited for the UK to announce the decision to either go with the draft agreement or dump it.
When the decisions you make can affect the lives of others, then you have a peculiar dream. You have to climb a pedestal to reach those kinds of dreams and if you fail? You take many people down with you. Those kinds of goals are unique. However, a parent doing two jobs, training her children to be outstanding citizens also deserves an accolade.
I love Oscar Wilde’s quote,
‘To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist that is all.’
You have to live to make a mark in the world, to make a difference. How can we live? How can we find our purpose in life? You can find your purpose in life when you find out what drives you. What do you love doing? My mum loves teaching, she eventually ended up as a teacher and later the head teacher. I have a cousin who loves taking care of sick people; she ended up being a doctor. She goes to the hospital with a smile on her face every morning because she’s found her purpose in life and that gave her the impetus to get up in the morning and make a difference in people’s lives.
I hate slavery of every form. Modern-day slavery, abuse of any kind makes my blood boil. I detest human trafficking and prostitution. I hate every form of injustice. However, how can I correct these anomalies? Through the written word, the dissemination of information. It’s what I call enlightening. People are always afraid of what they don’t know, but when there’s knowledge, a lot of wrongs could be rectified. I believe that’s one of my purposes in life.
A few years ago, on my way home from work, I went shopping. As usual, I bought more groceries than what was on my list. So instead of taking a bus home, I called a cab. Immediately I entered, the cab driver gave me a wide grin. I’ve had a rough day at work, and barely held it together until I got home, I was bone wearied, the epitome of exhaustion, so I wasn’t in a mood for a chat. But my cab driver looked relaxed and was beaming.
‘My name is Shan, Miss, what is yours?’ He asked throwing me a wide grin, and as his eyes darted to the car mirror, our eyes locked briefly. I gave a tired grunt.
I told him my name, and he kept on talking about how he loved London, going to the park with his family and relatives and how he loved his job.
Out of curiosity, I asked,
‘What’s your purpose in life?’
Without hesitation, he answered,
‘To make people happy, to make people glad they entered my cab.’
That caught me off-guard. I thought Shan would tell me about making money and being rich. That cab guy has found his purpose in life.
(Allied forces in a landing craft, 6th June 1944)
