In A Moment - By Rudo Nyangulu

It is in the last moment of life;
As the final curtain begins to close,
That we see the truth of who we are,
The frailty of our station whether rich or poor,
The irrelevance of the 98% of the mundane things we filled our days with;
The irreversability of a life spent in the obligatory rudiments of day to day,
In a life-less manner masquerading as a true calling --

It is in this raw moment of self realisation,
That the hopes and dreams of tomorrow flash before our eyes
As we find ourselves wondering how we are to prepare for what comes next,
Or rather realise we have failed to prepare.
You see, what comes next was never part of that 98%
And the remaining 2% was reserved for denial or self recrimination or both,
Without any reactionary change coming through;
As a result of who we became acquainted with in the mirror of our souls...
This is the moment when we realise that all that glittered was not gold
When our lives are revealed as having been filled with ridiculous cleché's,
The kind that would be unsuitable for anything more than to be forgotten,
Our lives along with them...

In this final moment of self revelation,
We consider how the end would have been different
Had we opted to take the road less traveled --
The road leading to our Creator,
Our hope
Our SALVATION

The Hero Learns Quickly

They cannot fathom how much you stand to lose in failure
That you are the instrument of a flawless design
And all of life may hang in the balance
The hero learns quickly who can comprehend
And who merely stands in your way
~from the television series, "Heroes"~

Five (5) lessons to make you think about the way we treat people.

1 - First Important Lesson - Cleaning Lady.

During my second month of college, our professor

gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student

and had breezed through the questions until I read

the last one:

"What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the

cleaning woman several times. She was tall,

dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name?

I handed in my paper, leaving the last question

blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if

the last question would count toward our quiz grade.

"Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers,

you will meet many people. All are significant. They

deserve your attention and care, even if all you do

is smile and say "hello."

I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her

name was Dorothy.

2. - Second Important Lesson - Pickup in the Rain

One night, at 11:30 P.M., an older African American

woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway

trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had

broken down and she desperately needed a ride.

Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car.

A young white man stopped to help her, generally

unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man

took her to safety, helped her get assistance and

put her into a taxicab.

She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his

address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a

knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a

giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A

special note was attached..

It read:

"Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway

the other night. The rain drenched not only my

clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along.

Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying

husband's bedside just before he passed away... God

bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving

others."

Sincerely,

Mrs. Nat King Cole.

3 - Third Important Lesson - Always remember those

who serve.

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less,

a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and

sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in

front of him.

"How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked.

"Fifty cents," replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and

studied the coins in it.

"Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired.

By now more people were waiting for a table and the

waitress was growing impatient.

"Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied.

The little boy again counted his coins.

"I'll have the plain ice cream," he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on

the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice

cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress

came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the

table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish,

were two nickels and five pennies..

You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had

to have enough left to leave her a tip.

4 - Fourth Important Lesson. - The obstacle in Our Path.

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a

roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if

anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the

king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by

and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the

King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did

anything about getting the stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of

vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the

peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the

stone to the side of the road. After much pushing

and straining, he finally succeeded. After the

peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed

a purse lying in the road where the boulder had

been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note

from the King indicating that the gold was for the

person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The

peasant learned what many of us never understand!

Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve

our condition.

5 - Fifth Important Lesson - Giving When it Counts...

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a

hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who

was suffering from a rare & serious disease. Her only

chance of recovery appeared to be a blood

transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had

miraculously survived the same disease and had

developed the antibodies needed to combat the

illness. The doctor explained the situation to her

little brother, and asked the little boy if he would

be willing to give his blood to his sister.

I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a

deep breath and saying, "Yes I'll do it if it will

save her." As the transfusion progressed, he lay in

bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did,

seeing the color returning to her cheek. Then his

face grew pale and his smile faded.

He looked up at the doctor and asked with a

trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away".

Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the

doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his

sister all of his blood in order to save her.

You do not choose your destiny;it chooses you.And those who knew you before fate took you by the handcannot understand the depths of the changes inside.~from the television series, "Heroes"~

He who cannot forgive others burns the bridge over which he himself must pass

Hard Choices

“I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live.

You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid.

You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab or shoot or bomb your house. So you refuse to take a stand.

Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety.

And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.

You died when you refused to stand up for right.

You died when you refused to stand up for truth.

You died when you refused to stand up for justice.”

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
From the sermon “But, If Not” delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church on November 5, 1967.

So send I you to hearts made hard by hatred,
To eyes made blind because they will not see,
To spend though it be blood—to spend and spare not,
So send I you to taste of Calvary.
—Clarkson © 1966 Singspiration