At an airport I overheard a mother and daughter in their last moments together. They had announced her plane's departure and standing near the door, she said to her daughter, "I love you, I wish you enough."
She said, "Mom, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Mom."

They kissed good-bye and she left.

She walked over toward the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see she wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on his
privacy, but she welcomed me in by asking, "Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?" "

Yes, I have," I replied. Saying that brought back memories I had of expressing my love and appreciation for all my Mom had done for me.
Recognizing that her days were limited, I took the time to tell her face to face how much she meant to me.

So I knew what this woman was experiencing.
"Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye?" I asked.

"I am old and she lives much too far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is, her next trip back will be for my funeral, " she said.

"When you were saying good-bye I heard you say, 'I wish you enough.' May I ask what that means?" She began to smile. "That's a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone."

She paused for a moment and looking up as if trying to remember it in detail, she smiled even more. "When we said 'I wish you enough,' we were
wanting the other person to have a life filled with enough good things to sustain them," she continued and then turning toward me she shared the following as if she were reciting it from memory.

"I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish enough "Hello's" to get you through the final "Good-bye..

I found the above post on facebook years ago and it touched me so much. If you have read my previous posts (I forget which one), I have mentioned "I wish you enough" and left it at that mainly because I could not remember the exact thing. Here it is in its entirety. To everyone reading this, I wish you enough. I wish you enough to make you a blessing and your life a blessing to others. God bless you. 

Selah,

Mira

May grace and blessings never be far from you. And may love, kindness and compassion be the language with which we speak to each other.

"Crazy Youngsters" - Pitch Perfect 2 Official Music Video

"Don't confuse my character with my attitude. My character is who I am; My attitude depends on who you are".

So the above post is a very popular one on social media and I myself have shared it so many times I have lost count. But then I got to thinking one day and I realised I don't agree with the statement in its entirety. Why should my attitude depend on someone else?Its all me. By saying that aren't we justifying the people who respond to everything with violence? I mean if the above quote is to be believed, its okay to be violent in response to you if you annoy me.

At no point should I allow another persons garbage to ruin my day. I mean, isn't it a bit childish to say "but he did it first"? I'm not saying we should morph into saints who do not feel frustration or anger. I am asking that we teach ourselves the art of walking away. There are some people who just want to push you till you react negatively so they can proceed to tell the world what a horrible person you are. Don't give them the satisfaction.

I have come to realise that my character and  attitude does not depend on other people. I choose to treat everyone with the same respect, kindness, compassion and love, no matter who they are. For me personally, that is what humanity is all about. I pray that we are all able to learn to walk away. That very soon the quote will change and become " My character and attitude are the same thing and define who I am. You are not significant enough to cause me to change the essence of who I am".
May grace, mercy and abundance be for all of us. Amen and God bless.

Selah,
Mira.

May grace and blessings never be far from you. And may love, kindness and compassion be the language with which we speak to each other.

p.s. I came across this and I thought it was a beautiful quote whose message is similar to one I have shared before:
" Surrender to what is, let go of what was, and have faith in what will be".

I hope it blesses you like it did me.

Joseph Capehart - "Wolves"

Zedeka Poindexter - "Healthy"

Joseph Capehart - "Fire Escape"

Javon Johnson - "Building"

Happy Birthday Laila

Today marks 19 years for you on this earth and I could not help but look back. I still remember the day I first saw you in the hospital. I remember my first thought was why are her cheeks so big I can barely see her nose or lips. I remember how pissed of I was when you came home and everyone was fussing over you. I mean, I had been an only child for almost 8 years and I was used to being the centre of attention. All of a sudden, I was not. And I was mad. Maybe that's why we had a quite rocky relationship for a while. Never could get along, always fighting. But it is more than that. It is because we were so different in age that by the time you were growing up and probably wanted to bond, I was battling the psychological mess that is adolescence.

Enough about that. I think of today. I think of the beauty of the relationship we have today. I thank God for the fact that we talk more and yell less. That we are old enough to have disagreements and move on. That unlike some 5 or so years ago, we can hang and talk and just be. I don't want to sound like your mother (even though mama is amazing), nut I have learnt a few lessons along the way. And I would like to share.

1. Gratitude. Be grateful for life each and everyday. When you find yourself complaining about your life, count your blessings and start with the fact that you are alive and because of that simple fact, there is an opportunity to make it better and change the course of things. Be thankful for sight, hearing, hands, feet.  Those very simple things we take for granted and yet so many people do not have. Be Thankful. Being thankful for the blessings you have, both big and small, It puts life in perspective. It helps you see all your blessings. It helps you realise you can overcome whatever it is.

2. Forgiveness. Unforgiveness is like a cancer. It festers and it grows. It consumes you and makes you bitter and it hurts you. Fun fact: Unforgiveness only hurts you. See most times people who hurt you and never come back to apologise either are not aware they have hurt you or really just don't care. Forgive them anyway. Simply because not doing so means you carry anger, pain, frustration and so much unhappiness whilst they move on happily with their lives without a care in the world. Life is too short to remain unhappy because of anyone. Refuse to let anyone or any situation make you bitter. Do not allow anyone to live rent free in you head. Forgiving does not mean forgetting. Neither does it mean what the person did was right. It simply means deciding to choose yourself, your sanity and your happiness above all else. It means refusing to give anyone the power to control your happiness. Life is a beautiful journey you cannot fully appreciate and love if you are bitter

3. Love. Love openly and completely. Strength (not the physical kind) is imbibed by those who love openly, completely and unconditionally. Many people do not understand this because logically speaking, loving this way makes you vulnerable and makes it easier for people to hurt you. What they forget is that it also makes it easier for people to love you and because you understand what vulnerability is, you never intentionally hurt anyone even if that is the easiest rode to take. This is true strength.

4. Kindness and Compassion. These two I find go together. They together with love make the world go round. It is truly very difficult to practice kindness and compassion when you do not have unconditional love and once you have kindness and compassion, you begin to treat people better. You treat them with respect and you treat them how you would want others to treat you (Note that treating others with kindness and compassion and respect does not guarantee that they will treat you the same way. Do it anyway. It is never about them. It is about you). There is a joy and satisfaction associated with treating people with kindness because it brightens up their day which makes you feel good inside. It also starts a chain reaction because if they are happy, they are more likely to treat other people better and something you did, puts a smile on so many other faces. It is an amazing feeling. Try it. Be kind to everyone. Be kind to one another. Be a blessing in the lives of the people you meet

5. Faith and Determination. Another two things I find go together. Have faith that things will work out. Know that you serve a merciful God. Who does not give you more than you can bear. And just like the highest diamond has been formed from the greatest pressure, so all the difficult things that happen to you are designed to mould you into a better person. There are days that you will feel overwhelmed by everything. Be grateful for them and keep fighting for the dream  you keep in your heart (I hope you do have a dream. A vision you want to see happen. A picture of your future). The difficult times will teach you important lessons. Learn them. Life will keep repeating the lessons until you learn them. When something happens to you, take a minute to figure out what lesson you are supposed to learn and never forget it. When things are going well, enjoy it and be grateful that your prayers are being answered. Share the joy with those around you.

6. Friends. A friend is a person who understands your silence without you explaining yourself. You see, A FRIEND understands your tears and your smiles. Knows when to talk and when to listen. Tells you the truth to your face and defends you behind your back. Your friends understand you. They celebrate with you in the good times. But most importantly, they will never CONSIDER walking away in times a trouble. These people are only a few in your life. Treasure and treat them right. They are those that walk in when everyone walks out. You will have a lot of people around you who say they are your friends, that's okay. Have fun with them but learn those that are true friends quickly. Know whom to tell what. Your true friends are those people you know you can trust. Let yourself be your best friend too. Treat yourself right. Be as kind to yourself as you are to others. When it is time for you to make a choice about a soul mate, pick someone who is a friend in every sense of the word and who loves you and accepts you for you are. No one is perfect and take it from me, you can't change anyone so don't start thinking. " I will change him later". It won't work. Decide which flaws you can live with. Love him with all your heart but please, take your brain along with it. Love is not all about money. It is about love.

7. Believe. Believe in yourself and know your worth. And never settle for less. Do not let anyone diminish you based on your gender or anything else. I am not saying be arrogant or proud. I am asking you to carry yourself with the grace and dignity of someone who knows her worth, knows how hard she has worked to get here and is not apologising for being a success. Believe in yourself. No one is going to do that. The sky is not the limit, its the staring point. You have a whole universe before you. The storms will come. When they do, hunker down and don't give up. This too shall pass. They say winners never quit and quitters never win but you will find that there are things that are toxic so you have to let them go. Do not be afraid to do so. Never give up on yourself or your dreams. And in pursuing you dreams, enjoy the journey. It is infinitely more rewarding than the destination. Relax and know you can be whatever you want. And you can be excellent at it. Be excellent

8. Patience. Be patient when things do not go your way. It's okay. Patience is not waiting for something to happen. It is how you behave whilst you wait. Learn to smile through whatever it is. Thank God and keep the faith. It gets better. It always gets better. Again, Giving up on yourself and your dreams is never an option. Know that the things that happen to you today will lead you to the place you are meant to be. When you feel all doors are closed, Praise God and be thankful. Do your best and work as hard as you can. More importantly work as smart as possible. Your breakthrough will come.

9. Humility. A lot of people think humility is allowing people to walk all over you. It is not. It is actually recognising that everyone is important irrespective of their social standing. It is treating people with kindness and respect. It is treating people like they are human because your having more than someone does not make them less than. Being humble is recognising that all that you are and have is because you are blessed and not because you are better than others.

10. Integrity. Integrity is doing what is right even if it is not favourable for you. It is honesty and truth. Be a person of integrity that stands up for the truth. Be bold to stand up for what you believe in but never stop learning. Be open to learn new things everyday. You may find that the truth is not what you thought it was. Stand up for the truth even if you are the only one. The only thing necessary for wickedness to triumph is for good people to do nothing.

My life is perfect even when it is not. Because when I apply all these things, I realise that I am more blessed than I could ever have hoped for. My life is perfect even when it is not. I pray that you can get to the point where you can smile through your tears and say I am blessed for it is a truly great place to be. I don't always say this but I will say this today. I love you and I don't ever want you to forget it. Even when I am mad at you, I love you. I wish you enough. I wish you enough sorrow, joy, strength, weakness, trials, love, pain and good times to make and mould you into the best possible version of yourself. May God continue to bless and guard and guide you in everything and may the coming year be better than the past year in every way. I pray God answers all your prayers in according to His will for your life. I pray you have enough. I wish you enough. Happy Birthday Little sis.

P.S. Tell the people you love that you love them. Life is short and fleeting. It is worth more to them now than writing a long tribute after they die. Make the people you love know and feel it now.

Selah,
Mira

May grace and blessings never be far from you. And may love, kindness and compassion be the language with which we speak to each other.

Nora Meiners - "Glowsticks" (WoWPS 2015)

Kevin Kantor - "People You May Know" (CUPSI 2015 Finals)

Dan Roman - "Living With Depression" (CUPSI 2015)

Dan Roman - "Living With Depression" (CUPSI 2015)

Adrienne Novy - "Baby Pictures" (CUPSI 2015)

Nora Cooper - "I Won't Write Your Obituary" (CUPSI 2015)

Today I woke up and two of my favourite mantras greeted me. As if my mind already knew today was one of those days I will need my affirmations. The voice of my consciousness softly whispers:

 "The will of God will never take me where the grace of God will not sustain me; Thus if He brings me to it, He will bring me through it".  

This particular one always makes me feel like I can do anything. It encourages me. It cheers me on as I keep moving through whatever my day throws at me, softly repeating, "Never give up. Keep moving. You will get there". And I am grateful. I am grateful that no matter what is going on, a moment to call myself and to repeat this mantra is usually enough to get me back on track, running like my life depends; Well it kinda does. But that's a story for another day.

And yet, it is precisely because of the first awesome mantra that I needed a second one. This one calms me. It makes it easier to rise after what seems like a knock out the likes of which are only seen in heavyweight boxing. It makes it easy to rise when circumstances force you to question your sanity. When you can no longer define what constitutes reality because what you think is real and true, simply does not exist any more. This morning right after whispering my first mantra, my spirit reminded me of the second. My pick me up prayer.

 "God give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference".

In a way my heart knew this message before I ever heard it being put so eloquently. You see, without the ability to know when to walk away, to let it go and to just stop, all we're doing is drawing closer to insanity. It's not giving up and I am not encouraging giving up. I am encouraging balance. I say this prayer because I need to each day be able to look at the things in my life and decide what to let go of, before its toxicity kills me. I need to figure out what I can change with just a little bit more effort and I need to tell myself that nothing is worth more than my sanity and integrity and so I refuse to pursue something that only subtracts from me. I pursue balance. Again, some days I am so centered I can hear my spirit sing. And I revel in its song. Yet I do have those days that I fill with mindless nothings. With any noise I can find because I dare not listen to my own mind and spirit. I cannot face me. I refuse to listen to my consciousness.

I am glad today was more the former than the latter. I am at peace. I am centered and it is the best feeling in the world. Because I remind myself exactly why I stay on the path I have chosen and my reason is enough to keep me on the path. I pursue balance between moving like a bullet train without a break or a bend in its track and a content old man who strolls on a warm sunny day with the contentment and peace of a life well lived. I seek balance and because of this I know whether I have a good day or a bad day, I am blessed!!!!! I cannot say this enough because even when I have nothing, I have life and if I have life, I can change my narrative. I can write a new story. 

I pray that whoever you are, whatever your story and whatever your day looks like, you will seek balance and remember that you are blessed!!! And because you have tomorrow, you can change your narrative.

And with a bit of love, kindness and compassion, we can change the world.

Selah, 

Mira

May grace and blessings never be far from you. And may love, kindness and compassion be the language with which we speak to each other.

Rudy Francisco - "Complainers" (NPS 2014)

William Giles & Tui Scanlan - "Into The Dark" (NPS 2014)

My rambling mind today

Everyone wants power. I mean who doesn't want power; I know I certainly do.  All too often though, we give away our greatest power to other people. Impossible!! Never!! I know that's what you're thinking. Sadly, its true. We allow other people to determine what makes us happy and that is truly the saddest thing of all. When our happiness begins to rely solely on what another does, or says, we will never be happy, People will always say things that will unintentionally hurt us and sometimes the intent behind their words and actions is to crush us. 

There is a freedom in looking deep within you to discover who you truly are, to discover those things that truly make you happy and pursuing them. You see, not only does it centre you and ground you, it actually improves your physical and emotional health. Once you realise that happiness is a personal decision; Yes I said decision. And yes, I can already hear you dismissing me as an idealist who is unrealistic but hear me out. Once you decide that you will be happy because you are alive, you've had at least one meal today, you have people around you who care for you and also mainly because YOU ARE ALIVE!!! You only need to be alive cos each new day is just a chance to try again and to overcome whatever trials you're facing.

Let me also say this to the sceptics. Yes. I know this is the hardest thing you are probably ever going to do. I know first hand that the beginning is so tough, it's easier to just go back to the way things were. but trust me when I say that if you stick to it, it gets better, it gets easier and u suddenly realise, you're not forcing the happiness, you really truly are happy. It doesn't mean what others do or say no longer hurt you, it just means you refuse to let it get to you. So there are days you will be severely hurt by the words and actions of the people around you. Forgive them and move on. Unforgiveness is a sure way to remain unhappy. It is toxic and kills you. And more than that, the person you are so upset at more often than not either has no idea or simply doesn't care. Forgive people and move on. Your sanity and your health will thank you. So it's okay to be sad, and its okay to cry. Being strong does not preclude these things. What is not okay though, is staying sad and allowing whatever it is to keep you down. you know why? Because that's a sure fire way to become depressed. I have seen depressed and I will never wish it on my worst enemy (If you are at that point where you feel zero hope, you're probably depressed. Reach out and talk to someone. Please. Youra life is too important. If you know someone who seems to be loosing their joy and will to live, please reach out and talk to them and listen. Nothing is too trivial and there is nothing rational about depression. Listening to someone could save their lives. Please show people this little act of kindness. I cannot stress it enough).

The journey to this kind of happiness that comes from within is a life long journey but the good news is it truly gets easier. So be grateful for the good days, and be grateful for the not so good days. Then proceed to learn from them. When I respond, "I am blessed" these days to someone asking me "how are you doing?", its because I truly am blessed. And even though this has been a rough year for me. A truly truly rough year, I can say I am blessed and mean it because this rough year gave me the push to finally decide that my happiness should never depend on other people. I pray you find strength in your trials. That they cause you to grow and not hide and that the difficult times truly make you better, never bitter. 

Selah,
Mira

May grace and blessings never be far from you. And may love, kindness and compassion be the language with which we speak to each other.