Day 208 - Long Forgotten Gods that Decide ALL Life

 

One of the main definitions of a God is having power. Most hold the power of life and death depending on your religion, but no matter what your religion a God never actually affects anything since it is only a belief and the effects are self-created. There are however Gods That give life to every living thing on earth on a daily bases even if you do not praise them. Should they decide to stop providing life for all then All living things would actually die. That is the power of these long forgotten gods.

We all see them almost every day and we all breathe in this gift of life, but we do not realize the value and have taken these Gods for granted: Trees

Yes, trees - Trees and shrubs and plants. Every day they provide us with air to breathe and they do this unconditionally. There is no “ believe in me or burn in hell for eternity” - they simply provide us with life. Every breath you take is a gift from the trees, yet we pay them no attention whatsoever -A tree is just a tree. Instead we destroy massive portions of forests. We cut down trees and shrubs in our gardens, because they are not pretty or in the way. And not once do sit back and realize the real value of these trees.

Every tree is a living being. This being grows and give us air to breathe and we repay this by killing them and disregarding them. We should be falling to our knees and beg forgiveness for our stupidity of taking the trees for granted.

So next time you see a tree – see it for what it really is. Realize that this tree provides you with air to breathe and that every breath is a gift of life. To appreciate the value of oxygen hold your breath. We are not even aware of breathing – it has become an automated thing. Be grateful for this being and what it does and have some respect.

Day 206: SA Matric Pass rate a shame for South Africans

 

The results came back for the 2013 Matric pass rate. Many articles and newspapers and even the president celebrates the fact that the pass rate is above 75%. This is apparent proof that the government has helped improved education in South Africa. What some may not realize is that over the past few years the government has decreased the pass mark all the way down to 30% - meaning that you only need 30% to pass an exam. So, by lowering the pass rate you increase the amount of people that passes Matric. Yet – even with only needing 30% to pass an exam 25% of pupils failed. About 1.2million grade 1 students were registered, but only about 550000 of those made it all the way to grade 12.

The question is what can you as a student do with a very low pass mark? Who would want to employ you? How are you going to get into universities? It is a big problem.

There are so many factors involved as to why students do badly in school. It could be the actual student not studying enough. It could be teachers that are ineffective or schools ill equipped to effectively teach children. The whole school curriculum across South Africa is not good enough.

The pass rate should be increased to 50%. This means if you do not know more than half of what you study – then you do not know it and should redo it. In the long run it will produce higher educated people. But the whole education system will have to be changed for this to work.

Another big problem is that even with very high matric marks, the chances that you will find a job is very slim.

Now there is a new proposal being suggested where no student can fail a grade more than once. So when you fail a grade a second time – you automatically pass to the next grade. Basically you can pass matric by simply failing twice. This is unbelievable, but this is something they want to implement which will mean we will have many people finishing their education – by knowing nothing.

The education problem is becoming worse – not improving at all. Everything that is being done by the government only makes things worse. It is time we find solutions to bring about higher educated students – and not settle for the bare minimum requirements.

Day 205: Anger - The Inner self created Hell

 

 

  Anger is often described as an all-consuming fire that rages within. And that is a pretty accurate description. So what is it that lights the fire? What is it starts the spark and sets loose the anger within? What is the fuel that keeps it going? It could be many things or one thing – maybe someone insulted you or there is a crazy driver in front of you. Maybe you took something personally or you are tired of something. Whatever the reason there is only answer as to what or who puts the match to the inner fire of anger - ME.

Whatever the reason is the anger is always created by yourself. If someone insults me and I get angry – I am the one who allowed the anger within me. The same in any situation – I am always the one creating the anger.

For example a few months ago I developed back problems. Now I was very active physically so a bad back made it almost impossible for me to do simple things. Eventually the whole situation made me angry. What happened then is that whenever my back hurt I would get angry – so I linked anger to my back pain.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to get angry because I am unable to do things I usually could since my back got hurt.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to hold on to this anger and became quickly reactive and irritable.

I forgive myself that I have not accepted and allowed myself to see that I created this anger within myself and that I am the one who allowed it to continue exist within me – within this I am the only one who can let it go.

I forgive myself that I have not accepted and allowed myself to when I am angry to feed the anger by with thoughts and backchat to keep the anger going.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to get angry at myself, because I judged myself as being useless. I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to judge myself a useless and whenever I was unable to do a task to allow myself to create anger within myself

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to whenever my back pain got bad to immediately react with anger – instead of breathing through it.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to link my back pain directly to anger.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to hold on to the anger and not let go of the anger and stop it as soon as it comes up.

I commit myself to realize that I am always the one who creates the reactions within myself and that I am responsible for every one of them.

I commit myself to stop getting angry at myself when I am unable to do something – instead I breathe and realize that anger will not solve anything

I commit myself to when I do get angry to stop the anger and immediately let it go and not to feed the anger with backchat and thoughts.

I commit myself to stop judging myself as being useless and getting angry about it – instead I do what I am able to and realize that it is all I can do.

I commit myself to stop linking my back pain to anger – instead when the pain comes I breathe through it and do not react.

So yes – pain is painful, but it is useless and pointless to get all angry about it. In the End it is not the pain that causes anger. I create I anger.