HOW HUNGER GAVE ME A DREAM
I'm very careful not to share any of my painful experiences until the time is ripe for doing so. Today, by the grace of God, I'm studying Economics as a DAFI scholar at one of the most prestigious universities in Ghana, GIMPA; but the journey that led me here is improbable. Whenever I'm flipping through the pages of my dear diary and recalling few of the painful experiences I’ve been through, I can't wait to inform the world about my struggle, survival and success so far. Permit me to share this piece from my dear diary with you so that you can understand why I strongly believe that "the things that are hard to bear in life are sweet to remember."
Today is a beautiful day but I can’t feel it. It's 9:35am and here I am sitting on my floored mattress in this little dusty refugee room in Buduburam Ghana, wounded by this throbbing hunger that has treated me like this for four consecutive days. I never tasted sleep last night. I’m exhausted from praying and thinking. The pangs of hunger are awfully penetrating indeed. Hunger really has the power to enslave anybody, I mean anybody, to the most dreadful of circumstances. Hunger is no respecter of personality. Hunger is a knife that cuts away pride until all pride is slashed out completely from a man’s personality.
I know Hunger does not regard dreams. Sitting on this dirt and ill-ness stained mattress this morning with the confidence gained so far from experience, I can tell anyone that hunger has a huge tendency of aborting dream within the least expected moment. I think this is why Mensa Otabil, the preacher said, "Hungry people function on short -term survival vision." If a man’s dream can pass the test of hunger, that dream is bound to meet eternity.
Honestly, I've never felt hungry like this before in my life. If you ask me how I managed the terrible hunger that came along with the civil war that brought me here, I can simply tell you: it’s more painful to lack a basic need as food under normal circumstances than to lack in total scarcity during a crisis. The painful thing here for me is that there’s food, but I can’t afford it. The love of liberty brought me here-the liberty that I thought would give me food and education at least. But where is that liberty? I can’t feel it; all that I can feel is hunger.
Hunger, I know, is a product of poverty. Hunger produces dirt. How do you expect me to sweep my grimy room this morning, fix this rotten mattress and wash this filthy over-used bed sheet when I have this never-ending battle going on in my stomach? Even if I had the money for the soap and the water to wash now, do you expect me to choose clean clothes over empty stomach? The truth is, at this point, the stomach has the absolute power to dictate to the mind. Every thought that does not include the stomach is bound to fail.
I actually want to take my bath this morning, but the little pride left with me is preventing me from going to credit another bucket of water as I did yesterday. Honestly, I’m not prepared to take any more ugly words from that short man who is selling the water at the reservoir.
Even if my toothpaste had not finished yesterday, I won’t even bother about brushing my mouth this morning because I have observed that it even makes me hungrier. Yes, the same thing happened yesterday and the day before.
The question is: who is responsible for this ugly situation- a situation where ordinary hunger can easily abort dreams and suppress our potential? Is it my parents’ fault or my country’s ill decisions or our continent’s curse?
This question has actually fortified my dream to study Economics. Honestly, I never knew exactly what to truly follow as a dream until I had this life-transforming experience. This was how hunger gave me my dream to become an Economist. Since Hunger gave me this dream I have never stopped learning. Albert Einstein, the man whose life has given me the DAFI opportunity today to pursue my dream once said, “The most significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” "Hungry man, reach for the book; It is a weapon", I was also advised. Therefore, in order to solve this significant hunger problem I need to be at the level where people are thinking new thoughts through education, especially in Economics.
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THE BLIND BOY
Since the beginning of this year, nothing has really inspired and motivated me like this story. This story is so short and simple, but very touching. With the tears of inspiration still in my eyes I cannot say much about this incredible story. Read it and get inspired to face life more positively.
A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: "I am blind, please help." There were only a few coins in the hat.
A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.
Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.
That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?"
The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."
What he had written was: "Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it."
Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?
Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind.
Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?
Moral of the Story:
Be thankful for what you have. Be creative. Be innovative. Think differently and positively.
Invite others towards good with wisdom. Live life with no excuse and love with no regrets.
When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1000 reasons to smile. Face your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear. Keep the faith and drop the fear.
Great men say, "Life has to be an incessant process of repair and reconstruction, of discarding evil and developing goodness! In the journey of life, if you want to travel without fear, you must have the ticket of a good conscience."
The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling!
And even more beautiful, is knowing that you are the reason behind it!
--- Author Unknown --- Submitted by Kartik Bodawala --- India
A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.
Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.
That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?"
The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."
What he had written was: "Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it."
Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?
Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind.
Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?
Moral of the Story:
Be thankful for what you have. Be creative. Be innovative. Think differently and positively.
Invite others towards good with wisdom. Live life with no excuse and love with no regrets.
When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1000 reasons to smile. Face your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear. Keep the faith and drop the fear.
Great men say, "Life has to be an incessant process of repair and reconstruction, of discarding evil and developing goodness! In the journey of life, if you want to travel without fear, you must have the ticket of a good conscience."
The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling!
And even more beautiful, is knowing that you are the reason behind it!
--- Author Unknown --- Submitted by Kartik Bodawala --- India
Courtesy: www.motivateus.com
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It is my pride and pleasure to let you know that the journey that led me to this point in my life is really improbable. I can't say that I am not getting or will never get my fair share of failure and problems in life, because I already know that, " to live is to have problems and to solve problems is to experience difficulties."
One fascinating thing about my success opportunity today is that my personal efforts and sacrifices alone are too limited to have attracted the wonderful things happening in my life. When I look behind me, I see some church members pushing me ahead with their prayers of promotion. When I look left and right, I see few friends and family members driving me along with their words of encouragement and sometimes finances. When I look ahead of me, I see that some great men have already brightened my path with their inspirational success stories.
But when I combine all these strong forces with my own tireless and painstaking efforts and sacrifices, the result is still not equal to the incredible opportunities I have now. Then, I wonder where the extra support is coming from to balance my success equation. I sat down yesterday and felt inspired to write my success equation as: 4 + 3 + 2 + x = 1OO ( i. e, 4% of my present success comes from church members prayers, 3 % comes from the success stories of some great people I've read about, 2 % from family and friends encouragement, 1 % from my own effort and sacrifices; and X representing a certain percentage from an unknown extra power, equating all to 100% ). I know you won't believe that this simple equation was difficult for me to solve. It took me some painful hours but when I got through, I realized that x = 90. Then I wondered what force has contributed this huge percentage to my success in life so far, and why was this simple algebra difficult to solve. In that mood of absolute confusion, when I looked up I saw my Creator smiling at me. "Have you forgotten me, my son? Have you forgotten that even before you were conceived in your mother's womb, I had formed a purpose and plan for your life? " He said passionately. Inmmediately, I felt so ashame of my self and dropped the pen.
But the Almighty One said, "No, Emmanuel. Pick up the pen, and just write a new and shorter equation. Now, write G = 100, that is your success equation."
With the little courage I had, I asked, "But God what does G = 100 really mean? "
He looked down on me from His throne of grace and with a wide smile, He said, "You should have known that I, God (G), have given you all(100%) that you have ever had in you life and all that you will ever have. Remember I share my glory with no man!"
When I heard those strong words, I bowed my head in shame again.
"You see, Emmanuel" My Heavenly Father continued, "You should have looked up first before writing your success equation, it would have been so simple for you. But you were looking around to see who/what have helped you to achieve what you have now and you represented x for an unknown factor in the equation. So the equation was tough, right?"
I looked up to my Maker, smiled and said sincerely, "Oh yea, indeed it was tough!"
Then He explained to me, "This is why most people spend their precious years and tears to solve their success equation; with fears too"
I"m so glad that I now know that my success equation is simply: G = 100. God has simply been solving all my problems through people. That's all.
So what is your success equation? Write it down, smile, solve it and live by it.
