By Charles Leyman Kachitsa This day as I write is after Christmas, a day celebrated the world over regardless of what ones conviction, belief and faith is. As some people have been advocating perhaps 2020 should be struck off our calendars as a year cancelled to the elements. Yet it has been in such a time that humanity has thrived and shown resilience, in times when all seem to be a losing cause. If we pay attention we can and would have learnt a lot during this year. For one thing 2020 has shown us that any man made arrangement is not permanent and that given certain circumstances every one has room to adjust which mockingly looks at each one of us and laughingly pose the question as to why we have no inner peace to forgive, giving up what would be considered a rigid position. Another question is whether there would be any pride left in running away from danger as again it has shown that any dangerous situation demands that those fleeing the scene have no iota of doing so proudly, as some would say you cannot do that majestically. Reminds me, what someone told me that to rescue a King/ Queen from a dangerous situation, you need to slap them hard first on their face perhaps for them to lose their pride before you do so. We are now poised to accept that the year 2020 is coming to an end. There is nothing we can do about this. As they say life goes on. But as we accept this, again our own human arrangement of the days to make it into months and eventually into years, there is need for a deeper reflection. One of the things that the situation in the outgoing year has brought to the fore, is the question and meaning of life itself, what is life? what is the purpose of life? By extension as we reflect perhaps a proper question on an individual basis would be to seek our own personal purpose in life. Have we lived to a life we would say we have positively contributed to God’s purpose of life in people and in our own? Consequently, we may need to adjust if not already planning to do so in our definition of positive living for the coming year, one of which tenets is that we do not take things for granted. On this note having said the above, all what I can say is that on behalf of all here at Leyman Publications; I, the management, staff and all – Wish you a Happy passage to the New Year 2021. Take it that things will be positively different in the new year which if you will and with our best of wishes should all bring happiness never experienced before to you and all associated with you; family colleagues, spouses, you need to name them. HAPPY NEW YEAR 2021! The quotations this week are an extraction from a book that about a month ago we looked at and learnt important life lessons from. I had not finished reading the book. but having done so have seen that its quotes all fits well as you reflect in crossing over to the new year 2021. I am sure that the selected quotations from this book listed below, will enlighten you to one or two additional reflective areas over your life, read and enjoy: THE SECRET OF THE AGES by Robert Collier “Take the miracles of Lourdes, or of St. Anne of Beaupre, or of any of the dozens of shrines that dot the world. What is it that affects the cures? Two things – Desire and Faith. ‘What wouldst thou that I should do unto thee?’ the saviour asked the blind man who kept following and crying out to him. ‘Lord that I should receive my sight.’ And again of the cripple at the Pool of Bethesda Jesus asked – ‘Wouldst thou be made whole?’ ——- Sounds like foolish questioning, doesn’t it? But you remember the story of the famous Saint of Italy, who travelled from town to town healing the lame, the halt, and the blind. A pilgrim hastening to a town where the Saint was expected met two lame beggars hurrying away. He asked them the reason for their haste, to be told, to his astonishment, it was because the Saint was coming to town. As they put it – ‘He will surely heal us, and where will our livelihood be then?’” “Youth is not a matter of time. It is a mental state. You can be just as brisk, just as active, just as light-hearted now as you were ten or twenty years ago. Genuine youth is just a perfect state of health. You can have that health, and the boundless energy and capacity for work or enjoyment that go with it. You can cheat time of ten, twenty or fifty years – not by taking thought of what you shall eat, or what you shall drink, not by diet or exercise, but solely through a right understanding of what you should expect of your body. ———- Thomas Parr, an Englishman, lived to be 152 years old, and was sufficiently hale and hearty at the age of 120 to take unto himself a second wife. Even at 152, his death was not due to old age, but to a sudden and drastic change in his manner of life. All his life he had lived upon simple fare, but his fame reaching the King, he was invited to London and there feasted so lavishly that he died of it.” “Our unconscious is a tremendous storage plant full of potential energy which can be expended for beneficial or harmful ends. Like every apparatus for storing up power, it can be man’s most precious ally, if man is familiar with it and, hence, not afraid of it. Ignorance and fear. on the other hand, can transform a live electric wire
Author: Charles Leyman Kachitsa
Inspirational Quotes for the WEEKEND
By Charles Leyman Kachitsa Frogs are known for their jumpiness, well depending on which ones you have encountered since there are some variety amongst their types that do not know how to jump. This world of ours is full of amazing things, I never knew before that fish can fly yet given circumstances they do and that’s what takes them in waters from one pond to the other or in some cases as they move upstream in their seasonal journeys jumping over sea or river stones. Ever tried to catch a jumpy frog? It is a good exercise, I remember we used to be sent by our teachers in primary school to catch them for science lessons where we studied their body parts. In fact the lessons were supposed to be about human body parts entirely. However, starting with frogs which you could study in real time as you dissected them, made it easier to associate the parts with human body parts. Not suggesting that people are jumpy, but yes some are. In later life, it was relieving to learn that not all frogs are jumpy which again is very true of people. Also to learn that the noise they make at night if paid attention to is to the advantage of people especially those walking or dwelling near, especially in the jungle. As is normally the case, when frogs stop making their nightly noise without human provocation or intervention indicates presence of danger to the people nearer to their surrounding. Could be that another monstrous animal is within ready to pounce on the unsuspecting people. So I would say pay attention to the noise that frogs make and the times of silence during those noises. Perhaps we can learn from frogs. For this week’s quotations we look to one of the greatest philosophers of our times and his teachings. Most of the analogies he gave are universally true and of wide application across cultures and tribes. I am sure that you will find these quotes not only inspirational but of importance as life lessons for proper harmony on oneself and with others, read and enjoy: CONFUCIUS FAMOUS QUOTATIONS “The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.” “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.” “The man who says he can, and the man who says he can’t are both correct.” “If your plan is for one year plant rice. If your plan is for 10 years plant trees. If your plan is for 100 years, teach the people.” “In a country well-governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.” “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” “It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.” “To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge.” “When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” “The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.”
Inspirational Quotes for the WEEKEND
By Charles Leyman Kachitsa In some regions of the world it is difficulty to count days. In such places time and the day of the week does not mean anything. The world seem to be at a stand still with life lived as things unfold. Many people have desired a state of nothingness. It has been proved past and present that thinking and marking of the days for future events has an effect to most on their brain as they worry and plan for the coming episodes. Also bringing too much negative emotional experiences from the past has been proved to destroy the present. In fact any form of remorse is usually as a result of digging personal bad experiences from the past. Most remote rural area livelihood is lived on day to day basis where time has different meaning from that assigned to in urban areas, modern city life. As to which is a quality life between modernity with time pressures and time stale living, people may have their own judgements and opinion. The quotes this week continues from the book we extracted from last week. The book is a satire on what can happen to justice and the rule of law where equality is demoted to lip service. I am sure that you will learn one or two life lessons from the selected quotations below extracted from the book, read and enjoy: ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell “And then, after a few preliminary tries, the whole farm burst out into Beasts of England in tremendous unison. The cows lowed it, the dogs whined it, the sheep bleated it, the horses whinnied it, the ducks quacked it. ——-Then Snowball (for it was Snowball who was best at writing) took a brush between the two knuckles of his trotter, painted out MANOR FARM from the top bar of the gate and in its place painted ANIMAL FARM. This was to be the name of the farm from now onwards.” “And yet the animals never gave up hope. More, they never lost, even for an instant, their sense of honour and privilege in being members of Animal Farm. They were still the only farm in the whole country—in all England!—owned and operated by animals. ——– After the hoisting of the flag all the animals trooped into the big barn for a general assembly which was known as the Meeting. Here the work of the coming week was planned out and resolutions were put forward and debated. It was always the pigs who put forward the resolutions. The other animals understood how to vote, but could never think of any resolutions of their own.” “It had become usual to give Napoleon the Credit for every Successful achievement and every stroke of good fortune. You would often hear one hen remark to another, “Under the guidance of our leader, Comrade Napoleon, I have laid five eggs in six days” or two cows, enjoying a drink at the pool, would exclaim, “thanks to the leadership of Comrade Napoleon, how excellent this water tastes!”…” “There, comrades, is the answer to all our problems. It is summed up in a single word– Man”
Inspirational Quotes for the WEEKEND
By Charles Leyman Kachitsa There are times that the unexpected happens, ideas coming from the remotest areas, coming from the least people you expected. Such is the wonders of the universe, just showing that without doubt there is an invincible power somewhere running life affairs and giving the knowledge, skills to who ever wills to tap from this unlimited fountain. Before everything, our villages were full of technology. Technology being any method to improving any previous system be it in reducing human physical, emotional exertion of energy or where other implements were used thus improving their efficiency. Which means human beings have ever wanted to improve themselves wherever they are. One would want to find out why all the fuss, why wanting to improve things that are already working? What gain is there in improving a seedling that if planted will germinate regardless in the name of mass production and reducing its time to harvest. The answers may not be here or there but to say it is nature at work. Nature in any form wants to grow, everyone, everything wants growth, it is one of the wonderful things of creation and not that we be praised for it but that the creator be glorified for that has ever been his purpose; expression of unlimitedness, expression of growth in any direction one desires to look. The quotes for this week are from a book that in the recent past was banned in several countries for its expressive satire. Perhaps, as the saying goes, ‘truth hurts to the hearer if they see themselves as the unseen subject in there.’ I am sure that the selected quotations below from this book will enlighten you to one or two life lessons, read and enjoy: ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell ““Four legs good, two legs better! All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” ———- “No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?” “Several of them would have protested if they could have found the right arguments.” ——— “Man serves the interests of no creature except himself.” ——— “Four legs good, two legs bad.” ———- “The only good human being is a dead one.” ——— “If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” ——– “they had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind, when fierce, growling dogs roamed everywhere, and when you had to watch your comrades torn to pieces after confessing to shocking crimes.” “Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” “Comrades!’ he cried. ‘You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink the milk and eat those apples.” “Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever.” ——— “The distinguishing mark of man is the hand, the instrument with which he does all his mischief.” ———- “Windmill or no windmill, he said, life would go on as it had always gone on–that is, badly.” —— “All men are enemies. All animals are comrades.”
Inspirational Quotes for the WEEKEND
By Charles Leyman Kachitsa By the time that they had the sense to open their mind to observe, watch and interpret correctly what was before them, the chance had already gone. Quite often as one of the proverbs in my vernacular suggests, to succeed selling unsaleable goods you need to be the first seller at the market. Some have taken such premise above religiously to the letter while others have their own opinion and most have stated that one strategy as for example the one wanting to be first early to set up a stall at the market should be taken with other tactics. Some of them say that any product you would care to name needs to be promoted for people to buy it perhaps except those that are called ‘giffen goods.’ There is the notion that people skills must also be sold properly yet all also agree there are some skills that by their nature are ‘giffen’. Which skills need to be sold and which people need to do that is a very subjective matter, as it in some cases remind people of history best forgotten. However, each era has its fashion and trend, follow the fashion may be an advice most who are asked can give. This week’s quotations continue from the book that we extracted from last week. Within self are potentials that most are blind to, this book read in full will show you that the power you seek is you. I am sure that the selected quotes from this book below will enlighten you to one or two life lessons, read and enjoy: THE SECRET OF THE AGES by Robert Collier “The ‘Seven Wonders of the World’ was built by men with few of the opportunities or facilities that are available to you. They conceived these gigantic projects first in their own minds, pictured them so vividly that their subconscious minds came to their aid and enabled them to overcome obstacles that most of us would regard as insurmountable. Imagine building the pyramids of Gizeh, enormous stone upon enormous stone, with nothing but bare hands. Imagine the labor, the sweat, the heartbreaking toil of erecting the colossus of Rhodes, between whose legs a ship would pass! Yet men built these wonders, in a day when tools were of the crudest and machinery was undreamed of, by using the unlimited power of the Mind.” “It is one of the prominent doctrines of some of the oriental schools of practical psychology that the power of expelling thoughts, or if need be, killing them dead on the spot, must be attained. Naturally the art requires practice, but like other arts, when once acquired there is no mystery or difficulty about it. It is worth practice. It may be fairly said that life only begins when this art has been acquired. For obviously when, instead of being ruled by individual thoughts, the whole flock of them in their immense multitude and variety and capacity is ours to direct and dispatch and employ where we list, life becomes a thing so vast and grand, compared to what it was before, that its former condition may well appear almost ante-natal. If you can kill a thought dead, for the time being, you can do anything else with it that you please. And therefore it is that this power is so valuable. And it not only frees a man from mental torment (which is nine-tenths at least of the torment of life), but it gives him a concentrated power of handling mental work absolutely unknown to him before. The two are co-relative to each other.” “You are not commanded to pick out certain occupations as being more entitled to the Lord’s consideration than others, but ‘Whatsoever ye do.’ Whether it be in the exalted and idealistic realm of poetry, music and art, whether in the cause of religion or philanthropy, whether in government, in business, in science, or simply in household cares, ‘Whatsoever ye do’ you are entitled to and have all of inspiration at your beck and call. If you seem to have less than all, it is because you do not utilize your gift.” “Is not the answer that, to a great degree at least, and perhaps altogether, this world round about us is one of our mind’s own creating? And that we can put into it, and get from it, pretty much what we wish? You see this illustrated every day. A panorama is spread before you. To you it is a beautiful picture; to another it appears a mare collection of rocks and trees. A girl comes out to meet you. To you she is an embodiment of loveliness; to another all that grace and beauty may look drab and homely. A moonlit garden, with its fragrant odors and dew-drenched grass, may mean all that is charming to you, while to another it only brings thoughts of asthma or fever or rheumatism. A color may be green to you that to another is red. A prospect may be inviting for you that to another is rugged and hard.”
Inspirational Quotes for the WEEKEND
By Charles Leyman Kachitsa A nation of inquisitive people as some would say is a good one for development. Others may disagree that people in a nation, the citizenry need not concern themselves with anything but productivity; thus working to earn a living or doing some sort of enterprise without any interest outside their arenas. The advent of social media, generally the advances in communication technology has meant that information more than ever before is available at our finger tips. Whilst as it took months, years to have important information one is looking for unavailable within their locality, nowadays it only takes seconds as in most parts of the world people move about with computers in their pockets in form of mobile phones which can be used to search and access whatever data they want. This however, has made the debate as to whether an inquisitive nation is good or bad for productivity an interesting one. For people who may be on the side of discouraging citizens inquisitiveness in affairs around them for development, they could point out to support their assertions the number of manhours people spend wastefully nowadays on social media. Often these man hours are spent on idle talk for instant just proving to others that the colour red is red or that hair is hair. On the other hand, those who may be on the side of encouraging inquisitiveness in nationals on the environment around them to spar development, they could defend this by pointing out that inquisitive minds generally trigger credible productive researches. And research done properly through strong institutions has made most nations we term as super powers to be where they are today. The quotes for this week are extracted from a book which as a continuation of the theme from the previous week’s one, has potential when read in full for you to realise the potential powers within you. I am sure that the selected quotations below will enlighten you to one or two life lessons towards fulfilling your potential, read and enjoy: THE SECRET OF THE AGES by Robert Collier “The evidence of this is all about you. Take up some violent form of exercise – rowing, tennis, and swimming, riding. In the beginning your muscles are weak, easily tired. But keep on for a few days. The ‘Life Principle’ promptly strengthens them, toughens them, to meet their new need. Do rough manual labor – and what happens? The skin of your hands becomes tender, blisters, and hurts. Keep it up, and does the skin all wear off? On the contrary, the ‘Life Principle’ provides extra thicknesses, extra toughness – calluses, we call them – to meet your need. —— All through your daily life you will find this ‘Life Principle’ steadily at work. Embrace it, work with it, take it to yourself, and there is nothing you cannot do. The mare fact that you have obstacles to overcome is in your favor, for when there is nothing to be done, when things run along too smoothly, this ‘Life Principle’ seems to sleep. It is when you need it, when you call upon it ur-gently, that it is most on the job.” “Now we are entering a new age – the Mental Age – when every man can be his own master, when poverty and circumstance no longer hold power and the lowliest creature in the land can win a place side by side with the highest. —– To those who do not know the resources of mind these will sound like rash statements; but science proves beyond question that in the wellsprings of every man’s mind are unplumbed depths – undiscovered deposits of energy, wisdom and ability. Sound these depths – bring these treasures to the surface – and you gain an astounding wealth of new power.” “Man, without reasoning mind, would be as the monkeys are – prey of any creature fast enough to pull him to pieces. At the mercy of wind and weather. A poor timid creature, living for the moment only, fearful of every shadow. —– Through his superior mind, he learned to make fire to keep himself warm; weapons with which to defend himself from the savage creatures round about; habitations to protect himself from the elements. Through mind he conquered the force of nature. —– Through mind he has made machinery do the work of millions of horses and billions of hands. What he will do next, no man knows, for man is just beginning to awaken to his own powers. He is just getting an inkling of the unfathomed riches buried deep in his own mind……” “For Psychologists and Metaphysicians the world over, are agreed in this – that Mind is all that counts. You can be whatever you make up your mind to be. You need not be sick. You need not be unhappy. You need not be poor. You need not be unsuccessful. You are not a mare clod. You are not a beast of burden, doomed to spend your days in unremitting labor in return for food and housing. You are one of the Lords of the Earth, with unlimited potentialities. Within you is a power, which, properly grasped and directed, can lift you out of the rut of mediocrity and place you among the Elect of the earth – the lawyers, the writers, the statemen, the big business men – the DOERS and the THINKERS. It rests with you only to learn to use this power, which is yours – this Mind that can do all things.”
Inspirational Quotes for the WEEKEND
By Charles Leyman Kachitsa It is a principle of life and the intention of the creator that we all need to grow and must grow. All living things do grow one way or the other including in strength. Look at the trees or generally plants, they all grow from their form of seedling to a small shoot susceptible of being tossed around by the wind to a capable huge trunk so strong to withstand stormy winds. Growth is a necessary part of life. With humans growth, if normal, bring more changes in life than was there before. It might be in stages but it is still growth, such that one transfixed for a prolonged period at any stage of growth in their life, is considered abnormal or a misfit in society. Growth in people signifies body or bodily growth, changes in language by accumulation of more vocabulary and change in temperament, of course it also means building of more resilience and strength in facing difficulty life elements. At a higher level it means a change in ones world view and generally meaning of life. We all indeed need growth or should we say need to embrace it as we have no control but to grow. The final extraction of quotations for this week are from the book that I have come to realise has meaning to living life as it was meant from the beginning. The book when read in full, makes you understand that humans have no limitations in their potential for doing things, it all depends on what you want and how you define your purpose on earth. I am sure the selected collection of quotes below from the book will teach you one or two things in that respect, read and enjoy: MIND INTO MATTER – A New Alchemy of Science and Spirit by Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D. “The important point here is that the end points emerge into space and time because of our desire to have a story. You and I conceive of the beginning and ending events and then we measure them, see them, or sense them in any manner given to our senses and our abilities – our sensibilities. The story emerges at the instant we sense it, not before. We create both a past and a present or a future and a present for every story we believe to be true.” “As it turns out, the story line with the greatest probability becomes what we are aware of. It becomes our remembered history. This history, in turn, becomes significantly meaningful. And meaning itself has a quantum physical basis. Significant meaning arises as the most probable story between an event in the future and an event in the past. Hence, that which is meaningful turns out to be that which is most probable, the most plausible, and that depends on a lot of things including what we believe and what culture we accept as real.” “…..we seem to ‘live’ the history as it happens. We make it a ‘living’ story. We live in a river of time in which the source of the river (our past) and its final destination ahead of us (our future) already exist. ….. —— Notice I use the words observed and imagined here. The observation of an imagined history requires that both starting and ending events be specified. Leave one of them out and you do not specify a precise history; nor will you have a memory of it; nor will you experience it. Now, by ‘specify,’ I mean something rather specific: To specify a history, it must ‘enter consciousness,’ be ‘content for the mind,’ ‘lay down a track in memory,’ and so on.” “The alive and vibrant soul subjectively experiences life through our bodies. The world that we see with our everyday eyes – through the filter of our senses – derives from a more ‘objective’ world. That ‘out there’ objective world and the subjectively experienced ‘soul world’ conflict with each other. Spiritual teachers have taught us that when living spirit descends into objective matter a fight ensues. So if we become too involved with the objective, external processes of life, we tend to lose touch with perception from the soul level. When we go within to an internal quietness, as in meditation, we begin to perceive something deeper and more meaningful than just the objective ‘out there-ness.’ So, if we have lost touch with our souls, we need to spend some quiet time- not in thinking, not in going over the day’s list of everything that has to be done, but in being with ourselves in ways that allow a deeper inner reality to bubble up from within our consciousness.”
Inspirational Quotes for the WEEKEND
By Charles Leyman Kachitsa African proverbs are crafted such that the meaning of the words should first be entangled in some cases, by going back to precedents before you can for certain point to their meaning. They have one uniqueness though, whether they are intended to portray a negative or positive character of a person, situation, things generally, they always carry that message using respectable words. More interesting with African proverbs is that although most cultures of the continent and its people are construed as passive, non assertive, this is said without understanding the richness of assertiveness in words that make up their proverbs. You just have to attend a village court session in Africa to appreciate the richness of language. One other unique attribute is the genderness and ageness that African proverbs carry. There are proverbs that by their nature can not be said in the presence of women by men. On the other hand, women can not freely say some proverbs in front of men and that constitutes the proverbs’ genderness. It makes sense as well that some proverbs are the providence of adults and cannot be said in front of children and this make African proverbs attribute of ageness or others would simply say age friendliness. The quotes this week are extracted from the same book as last week. A book which puts human beings function of thought process as the centre of power, one that recognises that as people we have all been given that power, that’s if we choose to tap into and possess it. I am sure that the selected quotations below from this book will enlighten you to one or two life lessons, read and enjoy: MIND INTO MATTER – A New Alchemy of Science and Spirit by Fred Alan Wolf Ph.D. “Even so why do we choose to do the things we do? Does God have anything to do or say about the actions we take? It seems apparent that some, perhaps gentle, force is guiding our hands and minds. How does this force come into being? How can we discover it? Somehow, we need to understand not only the players in the game of life – molecules of life following complex but necessary patterns – but also the rules themselves running those patterns. How do these rules arise?” “……..As we evolved along the long line of time, dating back three million years or so to our earliest ancestors, why didn’t we develop the ability to run faster or to fly as birds, as hares and eagles do? Surely these characteristics would have assisted us even more than mutual cooperation. But we don’t have these characteristics. True, we might desire them and turn that desire into machines that artificially give us great speed and the ability to lift ourselves off the ground – which, of course, we have done. But our desire, so far, has not provided us with these physical characteristics. If natural selection was at work during our long history of evolution why wasn’t the possibility of wings on our backs or long rapidly moving legs encouraged? Why didn’t the ‘blind watchmaker’ chose these characteristics for humans?” “…… Thus, particular heads of industrial states of a society, reading Darwin, create the industrial environment as ‘proof’ that the theories are correct. These heads then adopt the Darwinian theories of science ad make them popular with people ready to except the theories and advocate them, further fueling these machines of society. This circuit becomes dominant and stable wherein what we think is supported by the environment we live in, which in turn limits and directs our thinking, thus enabling species survival. ———- We see an example of this everyday, Companies believe that to survive they must improve their products. Within months of its introduction to the buying public, nearly any product we see on the store shelf will now bear the words ‘new and improved’ on its label. Changing a commercial product for the better is considered a necessity for business survival, a notion that fits with Darwinian improvement of a species through natural selection. Just as you or I select the ‘better’ product off the shelves thus insuring its continued production. Nature selects which species shall go the way of the dinosaur and which shall go the way of the housefly.”
Inspirational Quotes for the WEEKEND
By Charles Leyman Kachitsa The use of space so called proxemics when talking about its use in communication, is a vast array. The use of space has cultural connotations for its practice as different societies interpret space differently. It would be interesting to study the effects that social distancing brought in by the current Corona Virus pandemic may have caused on traditional ways in use of space for its corroborative meaning, especially for communication, more specifically where two or more people are interacting (talking to each other). Traditionally use of space on people interacting with each other has had a wide area of interpretations for instance on denoting people’s social status (class), or relationship (intimacy and or diplomacy) as well as temperament whether one is angry, happy or fearful. Also showing aggression as in advancement to attack or a show of withdraw in surrender. In most cultural settings, the use of space is never a taught thing of life, people grow up learning as they observe the use of it from others around them pointedly older members. The subject falls on the other side of the practice of symbolism which modern generations mistake for exaggerated adoration yet it is one of the most important aspects of life from since man found himself on earth. Humans like their space and symbols. The quotations this week come from a book I have just finished reading which is about what our minds are capable of doing. It talks about human creative delegated powers which most do not realise they have. I am sure that the selected quotes below from the book will enlighten you to one or two life lessons, read and enjoy: MIND INTO MATTER – A New Alchemy of Science and Spirit by Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D. “…….. Within your own mind and body lies a majestic story filled with drama, pathos, humor, intelligence, fantasy, and fact. It is no less than the story of the entire universe, particularly its own creation, transformation, and ultimate purpose. And while most stories require a separated listener and a storyteller, in your story the listener and the storyteller are one. Here you will see that the way in which you go about telling a story to yourself – a story that includes you – actually points out that without you there wouldn’t be a universe! And we shall see how this story called YOU unfolds into a panorama of life, literally a you-niverse — our ultimate goal being to understand the sacred transmutation of mind into matter.” “But like the ocean washing ashore, the tide eventually wanes. The water returns to the sea. The shore asserts itself. Eventually all distinctions disappear. No boundary lasts forever. Nothing lasts. Everything returns to the great ocean of oneness. Life, death, and all patterns move vibrationally. You can think of this as the impossible life/ death principle. ———— Even space and time — the arena in which we spend our lives – are not real but projections coming from something far deeper and mysterious. Even this arena will disappear.” “He explained that when we allow words to hold power over us, when we attach negative or fearful emotional significance to words, we suffer. Thus, by not letting words invoke images, the words lose their power and become meaningless sounds. ——– Well, that may be easy to say, but as we all know, words can and do leave their marks on us. In her book Refiguring Life, Evelyn Fox Keller points out that ‘the notion that words are one thing, acts another, was radically undermined when linguist J.L. Austin laid out his theory of ‘speech-act’ in a series of lectures at Harvard University entitled How to Do Things with Words.’ Austin showed that words are not always descriptive but are often action provoking. Examples include marriage vows, declaration of war, or the classic Jimmy Cagney line, ‘Take that, you dirty rat.’ Keller goes so far as to state that all language is action provoking and this includes scientific language as well.” “So, we might say the reason that there is a problem between science and mysticism is that the mystics are looking at creation from the viewpoint of awe and wonder and want to see everything as creation and nothing as transformation. The mystics might say that the laws of transformation are themselves merely illusions we create in our minds because we human beings want to have some control over our lives. We want to make sure that nothing gets created from anything. If something did, then the reverse is just as bound to occur. What got created could get un-created, it could be destroyed, vanish into nothing once again. And who wants that?”
Inspirational Quotes for the WEEKEND
By Charles Leyman Kachitsa We normally talk of life paths in two ways as that of wellness and misery. May be ideal to present these as, one the path to truth and goodness and the second as the path to destruction and evil. Often it is concluded, when you have taken a path whether by choice or through fate or by adopted DNA as others would say, which one you are on by people’s judgement. It is agreeable that in life there are always two sides at play in whatever situation and that instinctively always the right path is desirable. It is common knowledge that choices make people go on one path leaving the other. Sometimes one would think with faith that they are on the right path thus unknowingly, only to discover in time it was a futile journey they took. The paths are not always straight, our hope is on the premise that one can start on the not right path but has the choice, all things being equal, to change their own course. The quotes this week are a final extraction on the book, of useful wise sayings that when you read provokes in the inner you, the desire for knowing more about yourself and what surrounds you. I am sure that the selected quotations from the book given here below, will give you enlightenment to one or two truths, read and enjoy: OUR CHILDREN NEED ROOTS AND WINGS by Dr Harvey Collins Kwiyani “Every time they mispronounce a word or emphasise a wrong syllable because they are speaking English with a foreign tongue, or when they are asked to spell out their name because it is an African name, or they are asked to repeat something they just said because the other person did not get it, they are reminded that the journey of the migrant never ends.” “There is always a cost—no matter how small—to migration. While migrants make efforts to settle in their new homes, they usually have to deal with the anti-migration rhetoric that ever so often dominates political conversations and news cycles. Anti-migration political leaders often paint migrants as people who make life less enjoyable for the natives and must, therefore, be prevented from arriving and settling in their country or, if they do, their numbers must be kept to the minimum. Migrants get wrongly blamed for taking people’s jobs, taking advantage of the welfare system, or as one American politician puts it, ‘raping our women’ — being portrayed in a negative light to strike fear among the people and discourage any sympathy or hospitality. Non-white migrants become easy targets of racist and xenophobic talk. However, white migrants usually face the stigma too, especially if they speak with a foreign accent. All of this plays out with the second generation watching, usually internalising their otherness.” “Unlike their parents who lived in religious homes in a religious world, and whose entire worldview was shaped by religion as they grew up in Africa, who were actually discipled in school (right on the public sphere), these young Africans in Europe have to maintain their faith—a public Pentecostal Christianity—in the private sphere. Insisting on being religious in the public sphere often brings misunderstandings, marginalisation and social exclusion. They have to speak both the Pentecostal language of their parents at home and the secular languages of their friends at school well in order to belong in both worlds. They almost literally leave their religion at home when they go to school. They participate in their parents’ prayer vigils and long worship services, yet, when away from parents, they can be just as secular as any anti-religion Westerner. Many of these migrant children will easily lead worship and play musical instruments in church on Sunday and act totally secular on Monday.” “Millions of black people, most of them at the prime of their age, were forced to provide free labour in the diaspora for hundreds of years. All sorts of reasons were used to justify the enslavement of the Africans, but primary among them was that Africans were less than human, primitive, and made to serve the Europeans and others. In the Americas, they were allowed to reproduce, ensuring a steady supply of people to enslave. In the Middle East, black men were castrated — they could easily bring more people from Africa. Economies emerged that were built solely on the broken backs of generations of black people. Slavery eventually lost its pull, and colonialism emerged in its place. They could not use slave labour anymore to enrich themselves, so they went for Africa’s resources. Black people were still less than human but still the continent’s resources could help build Europe, America, and the Middle East further. Now, we have a new form of slave trade and a new type of colonialism, both take advantage of the political and economic instability in Africa and the ensuing migration of Africans to other parts of the world. This current migration is connected to the old one. There is still in this a motivation to continue dehumanising black people, making them deny their heritage and erase their history to turn them into a history-less people who can be made into anything as needed.” DR HARVEY COLLINS KWIYANI Dr Harvey Collins Kwiyani originated from Malawi some years ago. He stayed for several years in the USA before relocating to the UK. He teaches theology, missiology, and leadership courses at several places in the USA, Europe and Africa but is currently based at Liverpool Hope University as Senior Lecturer where he teaches African Theology. He founded and continues to be the general editor of African Missiology. He is also author of several books including such titles as, ‘Sent Forth: African Missionary Work in the West’, ‘Mission-shaped Church in a Multi-cultural World’, and the book, ‘Our Children Need Roots and Wings.’