When sleep invades
Body and soul, relaxing
Mind and heart, refreshing
Systems and organs, regenerating
The beauty of restful resting.
-
-
Oozing through his head
Clouding his mind
Spilling from his mouth
Insane! Society pronounced him.
He tried to tell them about the voice
Buzzing in his head all day
No one listened
Insane! They said in his face.
Then came the good Doctor
Schizophrenia was the diagnosis
After lots of conversations and prescriptions
I’m sane, he exclaimed. -
Will I birth this one or will I loose it like the others before it?
I didn’t contemplate it much, I was determined to birth this one, so I ran away before he came home.
-
Trivialities and frivolities
Life’s a jumble
Full of gambles
As uncertainties abound. -
Birth
The family is filled with glee
Celebrations and naming
A new branch to the tree.
Growth
Adapting to the environment
Schooling and feeding the mind with several dishes
Preparing to give back the
nutrients in bags to the society.
Death
Retired from active life
Bones aching and aging
The family rain tears of adieu. -
Chris came home excited with the ring after Dr. Tola informed him about Mercy’s pregnancy.
“Mercy, will you make me the happiest man on earth by marrying me?”
“I’m sorry Chris, I can’t.”
“But Dr. Tola said…”
“It’s not yours, it’s for you brother, Nathan.” -
The whole LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Queer) are ideas I grapple with. I can’t seem to understand how a man will love another man or a woman, another woman. It’s all both confusing and uncanny especially the aspect of wanting (cross that), demanding churches to join such unions. What’s much more mind boggling is how children who will be/are born in such unions… Oh! Wait, technically, they can’t bear children. They’d either adopt or get a surrogate, yes, that’s having their own kids nonetheless, however it doesn’t feel right to me. It feels like being told life is grey without being given the chance or opportunity to know that the rainbow also exists. A lot of times I even wonder how God sees it, like does he look down and say something like “it is what it is” or does He accept or condemn them?
Well, whatever be the case, I hope I don’t bear children who choose that part or have family affiliations; nieces, nephews or cousins not because I hate those on that path, but because aside from not understanding it, it just doesn’t feel right. -
The leader who had no title book cover As I began reading, the title of the first chapter “Leadership and success are your birth right” had me asking myself, is this really true? Then came this second paragraph “The powerful lessons I’ll reveal will be given gently, carefully, and with sincere encouragement. Our ride together will be full of fun, inspiration, and entertainment. The principles and tools you’ll discover will automatically cause your career to fly, your happiness to soar, and your absolute best to fully express itself. But above all else, I promise you, I will be honest. I owe you that respect.” which had me saying out loud “Isn’t Robin Sharma promising too much?” but a few chapters in, I see that he absolutely knew what he was promising hence his being so audacious.
The book is filled with so many nuggets masterfully presented as the experience of Blake after meeting Tommy who introduced him to the new philosophy of leading without a title. Blake goes through this journey in a day, meeting four teachers (Anna, Ty, Jackson and Jet) who teach him different aspects of these philosophy through the use of various acronyms in intriguing conversations. The quotes at the beginning of each chapter, the summary of the rules given by each teacher at the end of the chapter, along with the instant action steps helps one to put what one has read into clear focus. Though the book is filled with so much wisdom than can be captured here, I find the 10 human regrets and victories very challenging so I’ve copied them out below:
THE 10 HUMAN REGRETS
1. You reach your last day with the brilliant song that your life was meant to sing still silent within you.
2. You reach your last day without ever having experienced the natural power that inhabits you to do great work and achieve great things.
3. You reach your last day realizing that you never inspired anyone else by the example that you set.
4. You reach your last day full of pain at the realization that you never took any bold risks and so you never received any bright rewards.
5. You reach your last day understanding that you missed the opportunity to catch a glimpse of mastery because you bought into the lie that you had to be resigned to mediocrity.
6. You reach your last day and feel heartbroken that you never learned the skill of transforming adversity into victory and lead into gold.
7. You reach your last day regretting that you forgot that work is about being radically helpful to others rather than being helpful only to yourself.
8. You reach your last day with the awareness that you ended up living the life that society trained you to want versus leading the life you truly wanted to have.
9. You reach your last day and awaken to the fact that you never realized your absolute best nor touched the special genius that you were built to become.
10. You reach your last day and discover you could have been a leader and left this world so much better than you found it. But you refused to accept that mission because you were just too scared. And so you failed. And wasted a life.
THE 10 HUMAN VICTORIES
1. You reach your end full of happiness and fulfillment on realizing that you are all used up— having spent the fullness of your talents, the biggest of your resources, and best of your potential doing great work and leading a rare-air life.
2. You reach your end knowing that you played at a standard of concentrated excellence and held yourself to the most impeccable of standards in each thing that you did.
3. You reach your end in noisy celebration for having the boldness of spirit to have regularly confronted your largest fears and realized your highest visions.
4. You reach your end and recognize that you became a person who built people up versus one who tore people down.
5. Your reach your end with the understanding that while your journey may have not always been a smooth one, whenever you got knocked down you instantly got back up—and at all times, never suffered from any loss of optimism.
6. You reach your end and bask in the staggering glory of your phenomenal achievements along with the rich value you have contributed to the lives of the people you were lucky to serve.
7. You reach your end and adore the strong, ethical, inspirational, and empathetic person you grew into.
8. You reach your end and realize that you were a genuine innovator who blazed new trails instead of following old roads.
9. You reach your end surrounded with teammates who call you a rock star, customers who say you’re a hero, and loved ones who call you a legend.
10. You reach your end as a true Leader Without a Title, knowing that the great deeds you did will endure long after your death and that your life stands as a model of possibility.
Reading this book was absolutely amazing and it put into clear perspective that one can be great being whoever or whatever s/he chooses as long as we lead irrespective of having a title or not. -
When you’re angry, misunderstood and miserable, TITJ.
When you are in doubt, dejected and overwhelmed, TITJ.
When you are stressed, depressed and in pain, TITJ.
When you are happy, excited and overjoyed, TITJ.Whatever situation you find yourself in, TITJ.
-
“Have you told him yet?”
“Ah! No o, so that he’ll think I’m cheap?”
“Well, I told him I loved him and he said yes.”
