All In One Year

In One Year I celebrated my birthday making me one year older from last year

In One Year I made a friend and fell out with a friend

In One Year I fell in love, got my heart broken and broke a heart

In One Year I cried, made someone cry, laughed and made someone laugh

In One Year I attended a wedding and attended a funeral

In One Year I had good days, boring days, bad days, embarrassing days, interesting days and not so interesting days

In One Year I lost everything including myself only to find myself and gain so much more

In One Year I gave my all and received nothing

In One Year I gave my all and received much more than I expected

In One Year I gave nothing and received nothing

In One Year I gave nothing and received something

In One Year I tried something new out of my comfort zone that freaked me out and it ended up becoming a new interest

In One Year I was very happy and very sad

In One Year I attained success and I failed 

In One Year I did so much and did so little

I did all this and much more

All In One Year

What of your one year

What did you do?

True Meaning of Disability

You call me names

You make mockery of the being I am

I didn't chose to be born this way

Some ask what sin my parents committed

Well I stand tall, firm and strong

I do so to defend them from your mockery

For they committed no sin

Rather they brought me forth to this earth

A place that was said to be Paradise

But rather turned out to be my hell

But I am not shuttered

My self esteem is not crushed

For I got my own piece of Paradise here on earth

It is my biggest gift

My greatest blessing

To have a mum and dad who love me as I am

To have a sister and a brother who treasure me

They treat me as human

They believe I have potential

They know that my disability is not inability

My deafness doesn't make me hate music

Though I cannot hear it 

I can still enjoy it in my own way

My blindness isn't a limit to me being a success

For It doesn't make me less a human

Nor does it stop me from dreaming

And having a vision for myself and the world

My stammering may make me take time to tell you a story

But it doesn't mean I can't tell you a story

As a matter of fact,

I can be the best story teller

I may not speak cause I am dumb

But look at the brighter side

I make the best room mate when you need silence to study

That I am in a wheel chair doesn't make me hate sports

Neither does it limit me from taking part in it

I can be as good as I want to be

And neither does my prosthetic limb slow me down

I may not have hands

But I can use my feet to paint the whole world with reference to how I view it

With my disabilities I can be whoever I set my mind to be

And I can work anywhere I want to 

Not that I shall get there by pity

But I shall get there by integrity 

Through my hard and smart work

The proof to all my words

Are the living examples of people like

Stephen Hawking, 

A British physicist paralyzed by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS)

Known for his theories concerning black holes and author of the book "A Brief History of Time"

Franklin D. Roosevelt,

An American President who got paralyzed from the waist by a form of polio

But despite that he led America through the Great Depression and World War II with confidence and grace that was not marred by his disability

Ludwig van Beethoven,

A German composer and a virtuoso pianist

He was almost totally deaf but that did not stop him from what he loves to do most

Christopher Reeve

Got confined to a wheelchair after an accident

But that did not stop him

He founded a foundation that researched on spinal-cord injuries

Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder,

They are known for their finest songs and albums 

Which have had great impact on Rock n Roll, blues and soul music

Helen Keller,

The first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree

Marleen Matlin, 

the only deaf performer to win the Academic Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Children of a Lesser God(1986) 

Claude Monet, 

Who was a impressionist painter

Never stopped painting even when he went blind

All these people

Are but few examples to proofing that

Disability is not Inability and acknowledge

Robert M. Hensel's words

Which say

"There is no greater disability in society,

than the inability to see a person as more."

Trailing

Trailing,

Trailing,

Trailing,

Trailing down a road I know not,

A road dark and cold,

A road empty and desolate.

I wonder in an unknown direction,

Stuck at a crossroad,

What way should I go?

What advice should I take?

Standing in the middle of a crowd,

A crowd full of anger,

A crowd full of hate,

With each acquisition they make,

I shrink within.

To nothingness and emptiness,

To isolation and despair,

I am ripped off of my high self esteem,

And brought down to the ground,

To eat the dust of their shoes,

As the crowd shuffles away from me,

Aired openly,

For display,

For all to see,

For all to make a mockery of me,

And subject me to their negative critics.

My life loses meaning,

Unlike pepper soup which you can taste the bitter yet sweet hot pepper,

My life loses taste as well.

It's sweetness,

It's bitterness,

It's worst and better times,

They all no longer exist for me.

I am Trailing,

Trailing and strolling,

That is what is left of me,

Trailing to where I know not.

Something to Think About

I was at a standstill,

Doing nothing in particular,

I had not realized you yet,

Didn't quite know if I wanted you.

But when I did discover me,

I discovered you in the process,

And decided to sought you out.

I started crawling towards you,

All baby steps

Then I got the courage to walk towards you

I tasted the benefits of having you

The feeling of "I am worth something much more than that which I already am"

So running towards you swiftly followed

And now,

Now I want to fly to you

Or at least for you to make me fly

Like a plane that flies by and people see it

Or like a jet that flies above the clouds

One that cannot be seen by the people below on earth's ground,

But can be heard clear enough and still leaves a beautiful path on the clouds, of the direction it followed.

Well That's me

That's me at the stage in my life when I realized what I want to do with my life

What I wanted for my life

And decided realizing it was great

But there was much more than just realizing something

Action was key

Taking the step to explore my realizations

Taking the step to become a success

The success whereby I get to accomplish my purpose for living

The success that Miles Monroe spoke about

The success that ensured I died empty and didn't go with my riches to the grave

But rather shared them with the world

The success whereby my silence is a failure and not an achievement

I want my dreams to be a reality

I want them to be a reality because 

I know me,

And I follow me.

I don't want my success to involve me competing with you

But I want it to involve me competing with me

My Rules

My Principles

Not your rules

Not your principles

I  am being true to myself

Not driven by the conditions of worth 

Conditions put in place by the society

I want to be the real me

Cause I will SWOT out my

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats

And one more thing, 

Passion.

Love for what I do,

The Zeal to wake up each morning and look forward to being me again

Success developed from talents, abilities and interests

Not money, pride, injustice and lies.

I know the success that i am out to accomplish

Do you?

Judge and Judge Not

Judge if you are a judge

A position you hold 'cause it is your work.

Judge Not 'cause it is not in your position to do so

Judge 'cause you are a direct eye witness in a case

Because your statement will determine if a person ends up guilty or not guilty.

Judge Not 'cause your facts are based on hearsay

Judge 'cause you know the whole story

Because you are the one directly affected.

Judge Not 'cause you do not know the whole story

Judge 'cause you will be a victim

A victim who would like to be judged

Judge Not 'cause you shall be a victim

A victim in the same awkward situation

A victim in the same embarrassing situation

A victim in the same weird situation

A victim such as the one you were so quick judge

The person whom you looked at with sneer

And in that situation you would wish

You would wish people listened rather than walked away from you,

You would wish people sympathized with you and your situation rather than scrutinized you,

You would wish people to be gentle and understanding rather than rude and judging

Judge Not 'cause you would wish people did the opposite of what you did to them

Which involved being unkind, rude, scornful, unforgiving and judgmental.

Judge and Judge Not 

For you know what is best

For you know what is humane

For you know no one is perfect

For you know you will one day be in such a mess

Being pregnant before you are married because you were gang raped

Being sexually molested by a family member and suffering in silence

Being a drug dealer because you are looking for money to pay your mother's hospital bills

For there is always more than meets the eye

So even when you judge because you can judge

Don't be too quick to judge.

Judge and Judge Not

Because my story is not yours

Don't be a further cause of my pain and hurt

Rather offer a hand of kindness and love

To ease the pain 

And develop hope and trust.

Finding You

Finding you is like finding gold

The excitement one would get is unexplainable.

Finding you is like finding silver

A metal that makes money, you could imagine its worth

Finding you is like finding diamond

The value and worth it has... many can't afford it but many long to have it

Finding you is like finding an oasis in a desert

A desert in which you had lost all hope of ever being found

A desert in which you had accepted what would come your way for you saw no chances of survival

A desert in which the sun had sought out to kill you by dehydrating you with heat

But that oasis rejuvenates you,

Makes you feel like you have the power to fly out of the desert yet you do not have a plane

The sight of that oasis is the beginning of hope

The beginning of survival

Finding you is like finding a shelter for your head on a rainy day

When your carton on the cold street corridors are drenched in water

And all your clothes socked up in water

Finding you Oh Jesus Christ cannot be compared to finding anything most valued in the world

Finding you is finding Joy

Finding you is finding Love

Finding you Oh My Lord,

Is finding Life.

The Life of a Flower

A little bud it was,

Not ugly nor pretty,

Not hidden nor was it easily spotted.

It's colors remain to be unknown,

All she could do is wait,

Wait for it to mature and grow,

To stretch out itself,

Revealing it's true self,

For all to admire,

For all to take in it's sweet scent,

For bees to come visit it,

To be welcomed warmly with plentiful of sweet nectar.

But soon it starts to wither,

It's color dulls off like a beautiful lady that develops wrinkles,

And less people see the glamour and beauty it once had.

Even bees stop paying it visits,

For there is no longer any sweet smelling and sweet tasting nectar.

The flower then losses its life with each passing minute and hours later it dries up and falls to the ground,

Now to serve another purpose to the ecological system,

To help the tree from which it came from

By being manure.

And soon arises another bud,

A bud bound to suffer the same fate

As the bud of the little she.