WHAT do YOU want from Life?
Today I heard someone call this summer the Summer of Death. This was in reference to the yet additional report of the discovery of DJ Am's dead body in his apartment. This news came on the day of Senator Edward "Teddy" Kennedy's memorial service. Which itself came on the heels of the long overdue burial of Michael Jackson, the undisputed musical genius and "King of Pop".
I will not bore with details of the deaths of poster icon & former "Charlie's Angel" Farrah Fawcett, Informerical king Willie Mays, former NFL quarterback Steve McNair, "Kung Fu" star David Carradine, film maker John Hughes, Johnny Carson's longtime sidekick Ed McMahon, the most trusted man in American News Walter Cronkite. I am sure I have omitted another name from this mind-boggling list.
All of these deaths have made me look at my life with a larger magnifying glass. They have pounded into my core that tomorrow is REALLY not promised, so what am I doing today to make my life MATTER, to make it COUNT.
A lot of demons I fight against have to do with me not using the talents God has given me to the best of my ability. God and I are the only ones too, who truthfully know just what the 'best of my ability' is.
I get sick when I think of all the dreams I've had and squandered by not going after them,because I was scared or didn't know how to go about realizing them. I get even sicker, when I pause to think that maybe I hadn't thought my dreams or ME worthy enough to ask for help from someone who may have had better know-how. No matter the reasons though, the thing is I can't go through Life scared, stagnant and stunted. I am meant to grow, to improve, to thrive, to live abundantly, to be free.
A friend of mine who wanted to challenge and change my mindset once recited this poem to me. Needless to say it started me on this journey of thinking that maybe MY WAY of thinking wasn't necessarily the most effective. (I'm being so politically correct here) I started thinking that maybe life just wasn't what I had thought it was. That maybe God hadn't decided that this is what & who I was gonna be, and that I should just be content and go along with my 'lot'.
After being jarred from what I thought had been 'gospel', I continued on the journey, and was blessed to read more, and gradually become open to the idea that I don't know everything. Imagine my surprise when I encountered the very same poem in Napoleon Hill’s classic book ‘Think and grow Rich’. So, it is with delight that I share this poem with you. Prayerfully, it will begin to dislodge and displace some mindsets you may be harboring for no good earthly reason.
I BARGAINED WITH LIFE FOR A PENNY
I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store.
For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have willingly paid.
What if, your dreams really CAN happen for you? They can, but not until YOU decide to free your mind.
© 2009 MP Mokeyane.
