Dear Stranger dressed in plastic bags

Thanks for the complement, but if you only knew I smile because of a reason. You came to me dressed in trousers and plastic bags thinking I will chase you away, but I still smiled at you instead. Your compliment touched my conscience and from then I drifted my attitude into wanting to give you something worth a million, but all you asked for was five Rands.

As you approached me I was going through my bank statements, credit cards and trying to budget my way through this month’s finances. I reached for my bag and doubled the request. “May God bless you and double the amount from where it came from” you said.

Dear stranger, so you should know, your blessings came upon me and I want you to know that was the last that I had, I hope that you have used it wisely. A pastor once said to me, “when you give, there must be that feeling that wishes you could turn back the heads of time and take it back, on the other hand you will feel great and proud of your giving. That’s when you know that you have given yourself something.Yes, when you give with emotion, you will receive back, just remember to keep giving willingly, and as time goes on, you will be blessed greatly.”

I want you to know, that I’m grateful that you asked me, even though I didn’t want you to at the beggining.

"Rock journalism"

“Rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read” (Frank Zappa) – Comment

Has the practice of journalism in our country reached a state of rock journalism? Publication after publication we read about interviews that we conducted with Public figures who can’t talk sense at all, can either read. Have we reached the age where Rock journalism has hit our shelves?

Look at what the phone hacking scandal has turned out to be. I sometimes ask myself if that is what frank referring to? Rock journalism at its best and it is sure having a great impact on the media industry, and thereby leaving thousands of people jobless.

Rock journalism? What does it mean to you?

To depend without choice

In the society that I grew up in, people like to be independent. They like to be seen as individuals and like to stand out. People who live in Soweto came from all the different directions of the country,  and there seems to be a dying spirit of UBUNTU – which means a person is who he is because of others.

As the children we adapted the trends and beliefs that society reflected upon us. People wanted to drive their own flashy cars, and live in mentions just as the western society has taught us through it's channels, we became very competitive. Competition demanded a lot of money, and the high demand of money lead to crime. Society began to die, in its own hands.

The only people who had to depend on were my parent, the only source of income at that time. Well to some people they depend on their jobs so they can feed their families and strive to fit in society. They depend on the trains to arrive early so that they may keep their jobs; the patient in ICU at the hospital depends on eskom to keep the electricity going as he is breathing through the machine.

Even though we may be taught or inherited independence from an early age, and we keep making endless alterations on our culture.  As much as we may hate on depending on the next person, we all have to depend on someone else in the world at a given point in time. We may not like the idea, but we just can’t make it on our own.

Top 200 achievements

In life we have to be grateful and be thankful to every achievement we have reached. A wise author once wrote that “the daily practice of gratitude is one of the conduits by which your wealth will come to you”

We have a number of things we want to achieve from an early age, and once we had achieved these things, we felt some sense of greatness, even though it was difficult along the way or it may have been a breeze for others, all the feeling at the end had something similar. “We all felt great to some extent”.

A list of 200 achievements may sound impossible to most, but think about it, grab a pen and paper and start dotting down all the achievements in your life, from the smallest to the greatest of them all. Isn’t that how we are supposed to do things? Start with baby steps; then we end up on the Olympic race tracks. Let’s try it together, and make a list of 200 achievements since we came to existence. Be creative about it and Include the ones that you want to achieve in the future. Take a comfortable seat wherever you may be, and relive those moments.

What motivates me?

Hay fellow bloggers out there, It’s me again, the suitcase guy… isn’t it an irony that the question what motivates you? Reaches me at a time where I have two suitcases at home and I don’t know what to take with me on my journey back to Cape Town. “Take everything”, a friend of mine suggested as I was battling with my decision making. That would be the best solution ever, but those who fly a lot locally they would inform you that you are only allowed 20kg of luggage. So I have to select the best, out of the best. That’s the same process that is used when our job applications are being processed. Never the less, we still have hope and we keep going and going till some door opens, even if it takes years, there is that thing that keeps us going.

Travelling is what motivates me. Don’t you start thinking that packing my bags and getting in a bus and arriving at a destination is what thrills me! It is more than that. It is the whole experience that motivates me. The countless smiles that I come across on my journey through life, the fantastic people that I get to make friendship with, the kind of impact that I get to have on these strangers, the experience of learning new things and being a free soul that is not limited by anything.

Yes, I’m motivates by you. I’m motivated by your dress code when you walk in the streets of my desired destination. I’m motivated by the empty fields and structures that I see when I’m seated at the window seat. I’m motivated by new experiences and these things are why I wake up in the morning, look at myself in the mirror and smile, just because that im advancing and growing as the days go by.

A friend in need-

Some people are naturals; they were born to do it. They were born to do anything, or whatever it may be. Some of us, we have to learn the hard way. We would have to undergo hours and hours of training and years of education to get it right, while some people are blessed by God with the talents. The good news for us is that we do not have to do it all alone. So we decide on getting assistants, partners, lovers and the cream of the cake, we get the best friend. Someone we can rely on at all times. We go out to get that person whom we hope that he/ she may pick us up alone the way when we fall down.  Even though we may sometimes thing that we can do it all by ourselves, we will need that extra boost along the way.

When we invite people into our lives, there is bound to be change. “Not necessarily” you might be saying. The time you take off from your lunch breaks, that hour that you sacrifice to spend time with your new buddy, that’s change. People don’t like change, even though they know very well that it is good. Now we need to understand that change is constant and it will impact our lives as long as we still live on earth.

You can’t waist your life sitting and wondering how your life could have turned out to be if you could have asked for a little bit of help. Just take the brave step and do it. After all, you are who you are, because of other beings that exist, and existed around you in your lifetime.

Gravity won’t pull me down.

Gravity once got me down on my knees. My face was up against the ground, tears creating some form of land marks, and with no chance and no idea of how I was to survive my situation. That my friend was the lowest moment of my life, but there was a part of me that kept fighting the idea of accepting defeat. I felt it from deep within me shake. It was as if I got an injection of pure adrenalin, and it sure pumped me with hope. Something a friend of my taught me, and I’m so grateful he did because it powerfully worked for me at that moment in time.

My self-motivation started to get up on its feet. The voice in my head calmly whispered to me saying: “Stand up and go look at you in the mirror. Smile, fix yourself up, and walk straight up.” And so I did, while I listened to the voice within me pick up the pieces.

“Don’t let gravity push you down”

The 10 most unexpected consequences of being online

Hay you fellow wicket bloggers out there. It’s me again, with yet another blog. Have you ever got into trouble, but it wasn’t your intention. Think about it buddy, Have you ever thought of the consequences of being online? You can get into deep trouble with your parents, your boss, or perhaps destroyed your reputation.

For free with no extra charge, I’m giving you the 10 consequences of being on line.

1.  To be online means your privacy can be invaded, no matter how u may have set you privacy settings, be it Facebook, twitter or anything.

2.  When you apply for a job my friend, they are definitely going to search for you on the internet.

3.  You can be easy to find

4.  Your reputation can be built with a good foundation and someone may provoke you, leading to a heated emotional fight, resulting with a reputation that you may have not asked for.

5.  Your information may be hacked and used criminals, unfair isn’t it?

6.  Some people can just spoil it for you, for instance, let’s say you wanted to build a professional, business like image for yourself online, the will post pictures of you drinking, or having a blast at a party on Facebook and tag you. This will be in line with their perceived reputation and not with yours

7.  It is very addictive

8.  Information overload, everyone has their views on a subject and everyone posts it up on the net.

9.  No matter where you are in the world, you can be reached; it becomes a tool for long distance lovers.

10.              It cannot be controlled, but can be managed and you have an influence, what you posts matters.

On earth, Lightning strikes

They always say “lightning doesn’t strike on the same place twice.” I say it doesn’t have to strike twice on the same place; it sure gets it right the first time. And yes, like scientists say, I choose to believe it is a myth. It doesn’t happen more often because it finished the job the first time around.

 Sometimes life hits us so badly, we may feel like we may have been strike by lightning, and to some people it happened to them more than once. When life strikes you, you feel it… and sometimes you will forget who you are. On the other hand when lightning strikes you, you will sure feel it… and by God’s grace, you will remember who you are, that’s if you make it out alive. They’re similar; it’s just that in life the chances of living after being strike, are more likely to be 9 to 10 and you can completely forget the moment without the traces. Lighting on the other hand will surely leave you with the scars.

Mountain climbers take pictures when they are at the top of the mountain. They are smiling, exited and triumphant in the picture. They don’t take pictures along the way because who wants to remember it?  In life we push ourselves because we have to, not because we like it.

Nobody wants to remember the sad moments, the pain and the anguish of taking it to the next level. Nobody takes pictures of that, nobody want to remember all of that. We just want to remember the great moments; we want to remember our graduation days, our greatest achievements, and for mountain climbers, they want to remember the breath taking moment at the edge of the world, they want to remember that view from the top of the mountain. That’s what keeps us climbing, it’s worth the pain, and that’s the crazy part about it. It’s worth anything. Lightning doesn’t often strike twice, it’s a once in a lifetime thing.  Even if it feels like the shock is coming back over and over again, eventually the pain will go away, and the shock will wear off.

The elephant in the room

Hay you bloggers out there; it’s been ages since I’ve been blogging. I always say life is more fun when you move around, and when we grow up, we tend to change and be different from what we used to be. Behaviour changes as well as our mental status. Sometimes we stop being friends with others because we feel that they are not fit to be our friends anymore. We fall and bruise ourselves, but no matter how bad the wound may be, we always find our way up. It tough growing up, that’s one thing out parents don’t tell us. Those my friends are the moments were the elephant has got into the room and it keeps growing bigger and bigger, and you have to adjust the house for it to get shelter.

The changing of the look of my blog, the blog name and all, is to try to reflect where I am and where I aim to go. Therefore, I settled for the “suitcase guy.”  So here I am, on my journey moving around, Blogging for me and for you to be entertained. How hard can it be? And when I feel that the elephant is in the room again, you will feel the need to adjust,  move or change.