Meals on wheels

Today after all I had to do to get ready for my trip, I took dinner to Virginia Grimaldi and family. I felt so good for all the yummy stuff I was able to cook. I am amazed at how much I love to cook but mostly I realized now how much I love to share my food with others. I recall a story I had seen from a group of people in Africa. I reads:

“One day, a western anthropologist went to Africa to study the social behavior of an indigenous tribe. He proposed a game to the children and they willingly agreed to be part of it. He put a basket filled with fruits underneath a tree and told the children that whoever would reach the basket first would win the whole basket and could eat the fruits all by him- or herself.

He lined them all up and raised his hand to give the start signal. Ready. Set. Go!

The children took each other’s hands and started running together. They all reached the basket at the same time. Then they sat down in a big circle and enjoyed the fruits together, laughing and smiling all the time.

The anthropologist could not believe what he saw and he asked them why they had waited for each other as one could have taken the whole basket all for him- or herself.

The children shook their heads and replied, “Ubuntu, how can one of us be happy if all the others are sad?”

Desmond Tutu explains Ubuntu with these words:

“One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu- you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World.

A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.”

What a great lesson to be learned from this story!  And what a better world it would be if there were more people with Ubuntu.  Tremendous things come about in life when we are willing to watch out for the benefit of the entire group rather than focusing on the benefit to ourselves.  I can tell you that from my own experience that my own success has always been greatest when I focus on helping others around me to succeed.   None of us exist in isolation in this world.  We are all interconnected and we all have so much value we can bring to one another’s lives if we are willing to.  Those children in Africa understood something that we as adults could all take a lesson from.

May we all live our lives with a spirit of Ubuntu! Amy

I completely believe in the concept of sharing with others what we have, whether is food, and tangible things or our  knowledge. I am grateful others have shown mercy on me and also shared of their talents.

 

Fountain of youth

Last night Daniel and I were invited to the grand opening of "la Feria del libro" where many vendors come to sell books. We have participation there like it has been done for the last seven years and this time the emphasis is on how to help the youth and young adults from falling into the traps of adversity. This reminds me of the quote:


 “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them”

That is so true.  We rarely recognize how amazing the moments of life are until they are behind us and we are looking back, and then we think “Wow, I wish I realized how great that time was while I was living it”.  Which is really a shame if you think about it.  Because in the moment we couldn’t see that.  We couldn’t appreciate how awesome it actually was.

As I was looking at old photos of myself in high school and College I realized that I wasn’t overweight like I thought I was at the time, and I wish I had appreciated the body I had back then instead of constantly tearing myself down thinking I looked awful, especially now that I would trade that past body for my current one in a heartbeat!  I remember getting  to some skinny jeans and how I wished I could wear  those again.  

I think a lot of us do that.  We don’t see it until is gone and then we think, “if only I had realized it at the time.”  But I certainly don’t want to live my life like that anymore.  I don’t want to wait until I am sick to realize how lucky I was when I was healthy.  I don’t want to wait to have someone gone from my life to realize how blessed I was to have them every day.  I don’t want to have to wait until the moment is passed to see how awesome it was and how lucky I was to be part of it.

I want to start to see it right there and then as it happens so I can savor every second of each experience.  I want to appreciate every friendship and every day that I am healthy and every challenge I overcome as I am overcoming it.  And so I am going to use that quote as a way to remember that I want to love my life as I live it!  I want to enjoy it as its happening and appreciate each moment for being a good day, not a good old day. " Amy I want to make sure that I enjoy my time as of how it is now and forget too much of how much prettier I used to be. What you see is what you get. I am not for plastic surgery.

 

Passionate about teaching

Today I will get the children come to my house to talk about our values. A topic we need to discuss more often to our kids. Teaching is a passion on mine and I can't wait each time when I get to have a chance to teach something I know will affect the lives of this children some day. A post I want to share talks about our passion.

"Today I want to talk to you about passion. I am not talking about passion in the romantic sense; I am talking about passion in the “I am so excited to get up this morning and conquer the world today” kind of passion. There are very few things more powerful than a person who is passionate about accomplishing something. They ignite a spark in the people they come in contact with. They carry such excitement with them that creates a magnetic force that attracts everyone to them. Passion is incredibly powerful.

Have you ever talked to someone who is so excited and so enthusiastic that it was like a ray of sunshine coming right at you?  You can’t help but get excited with them!

As powerful a tool as passion can be, how can people that are not feeling passionate in their lives create that kind of passion? The answer is simple – HAVING A PURPOSE YOU LOVE! When we have a purpose that we really want to achieve that creates passion within us. We become excited to take on the challenge. We become enthusiastic about making the efforts necessary to achieve our purpose. We suddenly have a boundless energy that we didn’t know existed within us. No challenge seems too difficult to us because we are passionate about accomplishing our purpose. How can you tell if you have that passion today? Look at this list of things that Passion Is and ask yourself if you have that passion today.

Passion is:

• It’s always being eager
• It’s going the extra mile
• It’s finding the inner fuel when you thought your tank was dry
• It’s your positive attitude in a world of negativity
• It’s being excited without fear of embarrassment
• It’s doing the unexpected
• It’s an unwillingness to accept second best or “good enough”
• It’s ever enthusiastic
• It lets you execute when you’re exhausted
• It’s never afraid to talk to someone you don’t know
• It allows strangers to become acquaintances, who then desire to become friends
• It influences friends to want to feel that same passion and zeal they see in you

 

So do you have passion in your life? If you do then I say AWESOME and keep up the good work! If you don’t have that passion today then ask yourself what purpose do you want to accomplish? What goal are you trying to achieve? What is your dream and what would it take to make that dream a reality? Picture the end result you want to create and then start planning the steps that will help you make that happen. Come up with a game plan for how you can achieve your goal and then get going on it. You will find that when you can get that picture in your head of what you want your purpose to be then the universe will start bringing the right elements into your life to help you achieve it, especially if you have passion to make it happen. Get excited. Don’t be afraid of anything. Just make it happen! And remember – PASSION IS POWER!" I do believe wholeheartedly that we all need to find what things we find fascinating and have passion for and do them. Teaching has become my new found passion!