“I am the captain of my soul” Heritage day – what are we celebrating this year? A heritage of failure? Certainly enough of that in all the other newspapers! Water crisis, electricity crisis, municipality crisis etc… is this really our HERITAGE of democracy? Yes, I am relieved to no longer be ashamed of my country of birth due to race discrimination. In 1986 I backpacked through Europe and in all honesty, I was somewhat naïve politically speaking. I was treated with aggression and disrespect for being a white South African and I remember feeling ashamed. I fondly remember 1994 and the pride I felt to be a part of a peaceful transition. All that seems so long-long ago! Twenty years of democracy and today I feel a great sense of sadness. I believe this country has the potential to be the BEST place in the world to live. We could have it all! I am myself ashamed of my government on behalf of the poor and defenceless, on behalf of the elderly, on behalf of the young in need of education, on behalf of the environment, on behalf of our rhinos. I am ashamed to be a South African. I am ashamed of Ermelo. The water is not even drinkable. I am ashamed of my fellow man. Our town looks like a giant refuse dump site. The sewerage is flowing through the fields into the spruits and running passed the schools into Pet Dam. People are fishing in that water - it is a disgrace. This is our children’s heritage today! I fear being on the road. You need to be highly vigilant at all times, even to just collect my daughter from school, never mind long distance road trips. The state of the roads and the lawless drivers are frightening. Our foreign visitors question their safety. We educate our children to be crime vigilant. We lock doors and security gates. Am I proud to be South African? Do I have hope for the future? Sadly things are looking bleak for my retirement years! Do I want to grow old here? Will I be safe as a senior citizen? Does my daughter have a future here? Heritage? As Robert Betz so eloquently puts it: “We are all participants in creating our leadership. Our leaders are a reflection of who we are as individuals. Leadership does not fall out of the sky like acid rain, it is a product created by the citizens of a country.” As a spiritual person I believe all things are possible, however not as a person/human alone. Man is small and weak. Man is greedy and ego driven. Man only thinks about himself, his own pocket and his own well-being. With Grace all things are possible. Grace brings Hope! With our Creator all things are possible - we are co-creators of our life, we humans have to participate, it is not enough to pray and attend your place of worship. Each one of us has to take responsibility and to make the right choices, it is meaningless to point the finger to the next person. DO THE RIGHT THING! To attempt to do anything on our own means, we only have our little human WILL and our little EGO and failure is imminent. We co-create our reality, with each choice you make, with each behaviour you display, with each attitude, with each action, EVERY SINGLE DAY. William Ernest Henley: “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul”. A good starting point is taking your attitude to be the best you can be. DO WHAT IS RIGHT! Look at the most unlikely to succeed stories like for example Oprah and so many others. It requires an attitude to step outside of the cards you were dealt in life. Be the BEST you can be with the gifts you were given by your Creator. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Recognize the true miracle that you are. You are not an accident. You matter. So many contributing factors had to be in place for you to be created. Just so that you can be here on earth NOW! You are meant to be here. You are meant to participate in your life. What a celebration! “The grass is NOT greener on the other side but greenest where you put your efforts into watering your little patch”. We each need to take care of what we contribute in all areas of our life and take responsibility for the choices we make. This is your true heritage! Karin Engman, NLP Life Coach (COMENSA and ABNLP member) Motivational speaker Published author: “A Path of Choices” [email protected] 082 7246985
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 05:04:18 +0000
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