New Jourey in Saudi Arabia & My Birthday

Ok so its been a month since i arrived in Saudi Arabia and believe me when I say that it has been the toughest month I have ever experienced.
The cultural shock I have always heard about from family and friends but I have never really taken much note there of, brushing it off as being one of those things which family tend to place unnecessary emphasis on, but low and behold ... it has been exactly as they have said it would be.

There are so may challenges which I have to face not only as an educator, but as a woman as well, things which i would not have thought could possibly have the power to hold me back from being the person that I have been for the past 26 years, this has given me a new view on life and a greater appreciation for the little things in life which we usually take for granted.

Today I am 26 years old and its the first time that I am spending my birthday without the people that I love and appreciate, alone in a foreign country and missing the little things which life always has to offer.

So to Me HAPPY BIRTHDAY and I pray that God spares me any more and keeps me safe through the year to come.

xoxo

L.J

First Day New Adventure

We are always starting a new adventure and the first day of those adventures tend to be the most irritating and nerve wrecking moments of our day, purely because we remember the feeling we have more prominantly than anything else. I think this is so because when we feel that weak and exposed we convince ourselves that we never wanna feel that way again no matter what, but you know we can never get rid of that experience no matter how hard we would like to try. The main thing we have to remember is that we learn from these experiences as it helps us to develop and progress becoming stronger with each step we take, thats what makes the moment more cherished and appreciated.

On this day 97 years ago, Nelson Mandela was born, who would have thought that an infant born at that time would have such a huge impact on the future and would alter history? Thats the point nobody though as much, we see our kids, youth , nieces and nephews as kids enjoying their freedom and living life with out the though of what tomorrow may bring, but fail to realise that there is a possiability that one of our kids if not all of them are destined for grateness, it may not be greatness on an an international scale but it could be one on a less dramatic scale, so therefore we need to nurture the further development and progression there of as well. We all start our adventures at birth, but the chapters change through out up until the point of death, what we need to look out for is whether our death would be one which is appointed after we have managed to reach our full potential or not. Nelson Mandela should be the influence we hold closest to our further progression in our daily lives, because he brings forth the rolemodel we should all have , bringing across the message that we have the ability to change the world one task at a time....67 years he sacrificed for the greater good and improvement of humanity...so why cant we start our first day on a new adventure by doing something great for someone other than ourselves!!

Minds Eye

When I get up in the morning there is three things that I dread the most, that is number 1, I dread having to look in my cupboard for what to wear fearing that somehow during the course of the night i had gained so much weight that I have nothing to wear, number 2 I fear that when I look around me someone whom I love and has been apart of my life forever , is no longer with me and I'd have to face the emotions felt when loss has been experienced and finally the 3rd thing I fear the most is that I have lost my inhibition to succeed and carry on with the rest of my life.

The point I'm trying to make is that, we all have some form of fear that we have when we wake up each day and in most cases we let that fear control how our day progresses and then even when we have a great day, we fall asleep just to wake up to the dreaded  feeling once again. Some people never let go of that emotion and they become consumed by it , letting the fear take over their lives and never really giving them a sense of hope for the future, commonly when the thing the fear the most materializes it destroys them...So then how do we get rid of that fear or rather how do we control how much influence it has over us as appose to letting to control us instead?

The answer is that their is no way of controlling it, but there are way in which we can slowly drain that fear away so that we can accept that thing happen and we have no control of it and that more importantly everything is like a circle, once something begins it has to end, but why constantly wait for the end when you can enjoy everything else that happens along the way.
That i think is the way by which we will be able to live in peace and potentially find fulfillment, by simply embracing the fear cos then the echo it exudes begins to fade.

Cos life is full of surprises and most of them is worth being shocked for.

Love & Peace
L.J

Just a thought....

Trying to build old relationship, can sometimes be more tricky than you initially thought it may be.
spent a lovely day with a close friend whom I have not had contact with for about a year and we felt like no time had passed at all when we had lunch and talked like we had just seen each other the day before...so then why is it that we are not able to feel that way about other relationships as well? The simple truth is that when you feel like no time has passed since you last spent time with someone then clearly that is a true friendship.
We all have our obsticles in life but i think that those obsticles may be compared to that of a long lost friend, they always there but never truely there, but some how when we meet up with it , that instant emotion and feeling you get when faced with it determines whether things are going to be okay or whether they are simply going to get more complicated.
That one moment has the ablilty to help us make a choice of whether we wanna remain in a fruitless situation that has the possibility of remaining baren no matter how hard you try to assist in its positive development, or it simply gives us the answer to questions we were simply to scared to ask directly. So in some ways such encounters could be the worst thing ever or it could be the best thing that has ever happened to you or possibly could ever happen to you!!
Shakespear has said it the best, "It is better to have loved and lost , than to have never loved at all...", I think that that statement does not simply only reffer to the concept of love in itself, but rather it has a universal meaning attached to it too, meaning that it can be seen as refering to many aspects of our lives, all the good thing as well as the bad and that everything we ever encountered and failed to see the truth in has a way of presenting that one encounter to us in one way or another. I have simply decided to let things come to me rather than letting myself run after than seeking answers that just dont wanna be revealed when I want them to be revealed. Many times I have been face with difficult encounters and in some way or another they have never worked out to be in my favour, searching irrespective of its negative outcomes I remained persistant and wanted to know what and why things have worked themselves out in the manner that it has worked out, but allas I have found a way to make peace with what has been presented; rather than poking at the issue longer than what it has been needed to be poked at, I have found my peace in just letting them be the way they are presented and not seeking a means through which to alter the outcomes or even just weep about it making myself miserable and fragile. I never really understood what was ment by the meaning that Life is a journey, but now I have been able to understand and embrace its deeper meaning, that being...that there is a broader picture and that like a tree finds its place and has its function in the world, so do the many things we find ourselves in, they all have their purpose and reasons for playing out the way that they have, because if they had not done so we would never really be on a journey... instead we would  simply just  EXIST , rather than Living and what would then be the fun in that?

So my friends I know that you may have heared this many times but just sit back and deal with things as they come along, because in the end the ride we on is actually a thrilling one and will be remembered even when we ourselves fail to remember it.

Love  & Peace
L.J