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Book Review - The elephant whisperer

Lawrence (the writer) described the adventure as both physical and spiritual. This story takes place in majestic Africa. South Africa to be exact. The writer described elephants as the planets most powerful animal. I asked my friend Bard and was told that the African bush elephants are the largest land mammals, and they can weigh up to 12,000 pounds. They are also incredibly strong, and they can lift up to 9,000 pounds with their trunks. The writer mentioned "the magic of Africa" and I smiled because this fits with my feelings about the beautiful continent. There was drama with the elephants from the get go when the elephants escaped. It kept me interested but I knew that this would not be the end for the elephants else the book would not be three hundred some pages and there would be no story to tell. I was engrossed in the story and I was deep into a world that was foreign to me. It was surely an adventure. When I reached the middle of chapter five by the time the animal ps

A message of hope

I came across a proverb today that says, "He who plants a tree today, plants hope". I found that it came from a poem by Lucy Larcom and I was motivated to write about hope. The proverb can be taken literally and figuratively. This is encouraging us to take action today for a brighter future. Trees take time to grow. Sometimes we have to have patience. There is another proverb that goes, "Take a step without seeing the entire staircase". Have faith and hope for the best. Have good intentions and hope for good outcomes. Sometimes it is easy to become hopeless. To feel despair. To give up on our dreams. Don't give up. Don't lose hope. A breakthrough might be right around the corner. We have to think of things that within our control and take action accordingly and hope for the best. There is a growing body of research on the power of hope. For example, studies have shown that people who are more hopeful are more likely to achieve their goals, live longer, and b

Book Review - The measure of a man - a spiritual autobiography

It took two days to complete reading this book. My review is really from my notes as I read the book. I read with an open mind and I set out to absorb as much as I could. I love that he acknowledged his wife for her love and support at the beginning of the book. The book had me questioning my own values and virtues. I felt his humility from the get go. I got a sense of calming and authenticity from his words. He had me thinking about how much of our being is influenced by our environment and nurturing during our formative years. He was not afraid to take chances from small and that inner child remains with us through adulthood. He had a good memory. Most of my younger days are a blur to me. Letting go has been a coping mechanism of mines for a long time. Letting go has affected my ability to hold on to memories and feel attachment. I reminded myself of the wanting to be grounded. To be appreciative of where we come from. To be rooted in sensibility and understanding. Racism is horrible

The measure of success

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There is now a "for the love of reading" stand at the cafe in my village. The cafe sells samosas and cakes and sno cone. I picked up two books to read and review. I need to read more books and this will make me a better writer. I am sharing my before thoughts in this blog post and I want to compare with my after thoughts. These two books might be worlds apart but I feel like they will help me think about the measure of success. The Elephant Whisperer explores the life and journey of a herd of rescued elephants. I feel like all of us have messed up at some points in our lives. How do we learn from failures? How do we overcome challenges? How do we journey on despite these? How do we rescue ourselves from defeat? Sometimes life presents us with unexpected opportunities to learn and grow and become better. What can nature and animals teach us about ourselves and life? If we love what we do and we are guided by love then success is inevitable or perhaps immaterial. The important

One blog post at a time

In 1994, Justin Hall created a site called Links.net, which is generally considered to be the first blog. The term "weblog" was coined in 1997 by Jorn Barger, and the short form "blog" became popular in 1999. Blogging began to gain popularity in the early 2000s, thanks to the rise of easy-to-use blogging platforms like Blogger and WordPress. That is around the time I started blogging. Some 20 years ago. I was fascinated to read the thoughts of ordinary persons other than the mainstream media. I could also participate with my comments. 3 years ago I created this new space and now today I have reached 200 blog posts on this new blogging space. This is a milestone that I want to celebrate. It is a celebration of creativity and enlightenment. A triumph of the human spirit. It is time well spent in mindful pursuit. Life happens one day at a time. Thoughts and experiences turn into words that turn into paragraphs that turn into blog posts. A journey of a thousand miles be

Love is the answer

Life is a test. There are so many questions. Many answers can be found in love. Love is the answer. God is the answer. God is love. We are all born with the capacity to love and the need to be loved. It is a core human function and feeling. At our core is love. Circumstances, problems, situations, experiences and influences may add layers to our being that hinder us from giving love and feeling loved. It would be nice if we could peel away those layers and let love flow. God loves us. He has given us guidance. He is closer to us than our jugular vein. He wants the best for us in this life and in the next life. Some people say that they have no religion and that love is their religion. All religions teach love as a fundamental good. We might lose sight of this. We might become caught up in dogma. We might become jaded by bad examples. But love remains the essence of all religions. Muslims like to say that the religion is perfect but we are not. Blame us and not the religion. I am a Musl

A bunch of random thoughts

Does randomness exist in the universe? Well it depends on how we define randomness, doesn't it. I wonder if some things appear random to us only because we do not have the capacity to predict it. Is the universe predictable? Lets say that the start of the universe created a chain reaction of events. What would have been the effect of having a different start? Does that completely change everything? Is the life of the universe a loop where periodically everything restarts? Does it start the same or does it start differently? To me, free will is an example of randomness in the universe. I think that our actions are not predictable. I think that the reactions of the universe are predictable and determined by the laws of physics. But I am reading that randomness may be a fundamental property of the universe as discussed in quantum mechanics. Some scientists believe that the laws of physics are deterministic at the macroscopic level, but that they break down at the microscopic level. Th