Pic of the Day

The Silver Lining in Problems

Five Reasons why Allah (God or any other name you use to attribute to a higer power, I'am a muslim)  uses problems The problems you face will either defeat you or develop you – depending on how you respond to them. Unfortunately, most people fail to see how Allah wants to use problems for good in their lives. They react foolishly and resent their problems rather than pausing to consider what benefit they might bring. Here are five ways Allah wants to use the problems in your life: 1. Allah uses problems to DIRECT you. Sometimes Allah must light a fire under you to get you moving. Problems often point us in a new direction and motivate us to change. Is Allah trying to get your attention? “Sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change our ways.” 2. Allah uses problems to INSPECT you. People are like tea bags…if you want to know what’s inside them, just drop them into hot ever water! Has Allah tested your faith with a problem What do problems reveal about you? “When you have many kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience.” 3. Allah uses problems to CORRECT you. Some lessons we learn only through pain and failure. It’s likely that as a child your parents told you not to touch a hot stove…. But you probably learned by being burned. Sometimes we only learn the value of something… health, money, a relationship. . .. by losing it. “It was the best thing that could have happened to me, for it taught me to pay attention to your laws.” 4. Allah uses problems to PROTECT you. A problem can be a blessing in disguise if it prevents you from being harmed by something more serious.. Last year a friend was fired for refusing to do something unethical that his boss had asked him to do. His unemployment was a problem – but it saved him from being convicted and sent to prison a year later when management’s actions were eventually discovered. “You intended to harm me, but Allah intended it for good…” 5. Allah uses problems to PERFECT you. Problems, when responded to correctly, are character builders. Allah is far more interested in your character than your comfort. Your relationship to Allah and your character are the only two things you’re going to take with you into eternity. “We can rejoice when we run into problems…they help us learn to be patient.. And patience develops strength of character in us and helps us trust Allah more each time we use it until finally our hope and faith are strong and steady.” Here’s the point: Allah is at work in your life – even when you do not recognize it or understand it. But it’s much easier and profitable when you cooperate with Him. “Success can be measured not only in achievements, but in lessons learned, lives touched and moments shared along the way” Allah Knows Best…This was forwarded to me in an e-mail...share the Love if you feel the message...I just did.

Words to Live By

"As much as we thirst for approval, we dread condemnation," ~ Hans Selye


"Don't complain about the snow on your neighbor's roof, when your own doorstep is unclean." ~ Confucius


"A great man shows his greatness, by the way he treats little men." ~ Carlyle


"The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated." ~William James 


"There is nothing I need so much as nourishment for my self-esteem." ~ Alfred Lunt


"Every man I meet is my superior in some way, in that, I learn of him." ~ Emerson


"Did you ever stop to think that a dog is the only animal that doesn't have to work for a living? A hen has to lay eggs, a cow has to give milk, and a canary has to sing. But a dog makes his living by giving you nothing but love." ~ Dale Canergie

FATHER FORGETS - W. Livingston Larned

Listen, son: I am saying this as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and the blond curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen into your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside.

There are the things I was thinking, son: I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a towel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called out angrily when you threw some of your things on the floor. At breakfast I found fault, too. You spilled things. You gulped down your food. You put your elbows on the table. You spread butter too thick on your bread. And as you started off to play and I made for my train, you turned and waved a hand and called, "Goodbye, Daddy!" and I frowned, and said in reply, "Hold your shoulders back!"

Then it began all over again in the late afternoon. As I came up the road I spied you, down on your knees, playing marbles. There were holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before your boyfriends by marching you ahead of me to the house. Stockings were expensive - and if you had to buy them you would be more careful! Imagine that, son, from a father!

Do you remember, later, when I was reading in the library, how you came in timidly, with a sort of hurt look in your eyes? When I glanced up over my paper, impatient at the interruption, you hesitated at the door. "What is it you want?" I snapped. You said nothing, but ran across in one tempestuous plunge, and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms tightened with an affection that God had set blooming in your heart and which even neglect could not wither. And then you were gone, pattering up the stairs.

Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my paper slipped from my hands and a terrible sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me? The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding - this was my reward to you for being a boy. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected too much of youth. I was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years. And there was so much that was good and fine and true in your character. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself over the wide hills. This was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me good night. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I have come to your bed-side in the darkness, and I have knelt there, ashamed! It is a feeble atonement; I know you would not understand these things if I told them to you during your waking hours.

But tomorrow I will be a real daddy! I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer, and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: "He is nothing but a boy - a little boy!" I am afraid I have visualized you as a man. Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your cot, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday you were in your mother's arms, your head on her shoulder. I have asked too much, too much.

W. Livingston Larned

Our Deepest Fear

Finding the Good in: GOODBYE

Why do the people I really like always have to leave?? Why can't they all be in the same place. Someone always has to leave. Then I have to say goodbye, I hate saying goodbye. Goodbyes are hard but who said hellos were easy? So what I need are more hellos. They say goodbyes aren't forever and hellos never last, its the space in between when the future becomes the past...so babes I want to be your favourite hello and your hardest goodbye. 

When I miss you too much (no doubt) I will re-read our old phone and e-mail conversations and smile like an idiot. See, its not always the goodbye that hurts the most, its the memories of you that I can't forget and the flashbacks that I will always have. Whereas you are leaving me behind, I am left in a place imprinted of our memories and time together. All the things we used to do. All the laughs we had. All the embarrassing things I did. What shall I do with the days and hours that are counted until I see you again? You know what I realised today? Goodbye makes me think about all that I took for granted. All the things I wished I said to you. All the promises I wish I kept. All the stuff we should have done. But, c'est la vie. 

Enough about me. College is the best time of your life. I mean when are your parents ever going to pay several thousands dollars to move you in another town, and you can party every night? Exactly!!! Never thought of it that way huh??? So live your life, do you. Pursue your happiness. Don't live down to expectations, go out there and do something remarkable. If you should forget me for a while that's owkay, as long as I know that you are happy, then I am good. I know that in the midst of it all, you will always remember me. 

So don't cry that you are going away. Smile because we met. Because I managed to intimately know the incredible person that you are. And you kept up with all my bullshit. So the silver lining is; smile because our paths crossed. Don't be so sad at the goodbye, a farewell is necessary before we can meet again. The reason it hurts soo much to be apart is because our hearts are connected. Yeah, we could never be sisters because God knew our mothers couldn't handle us together, so He made us friends. 

I do feel like a woman of the world, now the earth seems so spacious. With so many loved ones scattered everywhere. We may not always be together, but you will always be in my heart. I love you.

***P.S: This is how I will feel in a while.  Right now, I wish you would stay with me and not leave. I am fighting back the tears at the very thought that I cannot randomly surprise you and annoy you. That I will not be able to see you everyday. That we will not do random hanging out. Right now, I have to take each day at a time. I have to keep it together, and that in time I will find a way to deal with the constant reminder of your absence in my life. 

"This is my wish for you: A sunbeam to warm you, A moonbeam to charm you, A sheltering Angel so nothing can harm you.  ~ Irish Blessing"

I Will Always Love You

I am writing this for you. I know that anyone may read this but I want you to know that I am writing this for you. No one else will understand. No one else knows. They think this is for them. But no, its not. I am writing this for you. I feel the need to come clean today. 

You were that one person that understood me the most. You have always been there for me, always appreciated me, always had my back, and seen a person in me that I would have never seen in myself. You gave me the freedom for my free spirit. You didn't try to tame me.  You made me comfortable enough to remove the facade that I save for everyone else. You taught me so much, the only person who could make me feel like I mean the world and yet be insignificant at the same time. You taught me to take things slow, to not always talk so much but to listen, to not always be in a rush but to silently bless everything around me. You taught me the true meaning of perseverance.

I had loved others before you, but only you seemed to have that profound effect in my life. It wasn't always good between us. Sometimes all I wanted to do was hurt you. Sometimes you took me for granted. Sometimes you wouldn't give me what I needed. Other times you made me feel like I didn't matter. You were so confident that I would always be there that you stopped noticing me, yet I loved you more than life itself and I showed you. I was so vulnerable with you, enough for you to leave with lifelong scars should you hurt me, yet trusting you not to do so. You wouldn't do the same with me. Its true what they say, love is a sweet tyranny, because the lover endures his/her torments willingly.

What can I say, every time I look at myself in the mirror, I see a part of you smiling back at me. I loved you more than I loved myself, you approval was what I lived for. I wanted to make you smile, to bring you out of yourself. I went out of my way to always make you happy, always make you pleased with me, always make you love me, so you can never dream of leaving me. You loved me for no big reason, and I lived each day to give you reasons to love me.

Then something happened. You, or maybe me, we broke. I don't know why they call it heartbreak. It feels like every part of my body was broken too. On the good nights I wished you all the joy, that you would find all the happiness you desire that you couldn't have with me. On the bad nights,  I wished I was a little kid again, skinned knees are much easier to fix than broken hearts. Have you ever been hurt as a kid, and the place tries to heal a bit, and just pull the scar off of it all over and over again. You made go so far as to wonder if the person in the puddle is real, and all I am is just a reflection of her.  You made me question everything in my life. I became reclusive - like a hermit crab. Hiding behind my shell, forcing people to believe in the smile on my face and turn a deaf ear to the deadning cries of my heart. No one could help me fix it. No one knew what to do. I had to decide when it was enough. When I will stop giving life to all the hurt you served me on a cold platter. It was my call.

In the end I had to accept the inevitable. That even though I gave it my all, I lost you. I tried to tell myself that giving up doesn't always mean that I am weak, that it means I am strong enough to let you go. After everything that we went through, I have never stopped loving you. Ask me why I keep on loving you when its clear that you may not feel the same way about me; its this little problem - as much as I can't force you to love me, I can't force myself to stop loving you. There I was, the most independent and smart woman I know, broken into tiny little pieces, wrecking havoc in anything good that still remained in my life. My friends didn't know what to do with me.

I can't forgive and forget. I have picked one. I am going to forgive you, and forgive myself for all the things we did and did not do for each other. I have come to terms with all that has happned, we both have new people in our lives, they do their best for us. What we had is over and finished long ago, I am putting my all in what I have been blessed with right now. He is not you, but I am a firm believer that the Lord always knows what he is doing.  He chose him to be in my life and not you. I love him so much more that he was patient enough to wait for me to sort out my muddled emotions. I love him because he never judged, but tried to understand. All he did was put me first. All he did was love me. All he did was give me a brand new heart and allowed me to keep my shattered pieces that you left behind. All he did was love me in his own fashion, and then made me find the faith to believe in love again. His love.

Finally, I want you know that I will always love you, and I will always love him more.

It brings a smile on your face ;)

I Wish You Enough

This is my wish for all of you my followers...I received this in an e-mail a long time ago...

"Recently I overheard a mother and daughter in their last moments together at the airport. They had announced the departure. Standing near the security gate, they hugged and the mother said, "I love you and I wish you enough."

The daughter replied, "Mom, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Mom."

They kissed and the daughter left. The mother walked over to the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see she wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on her privacy but she welcomed me in by asking,
"Did you ever say good bye to someone knowing it would be forever?", "Yes, I have." I replied. "Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye?"

"I am old and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is the next trip back will be for my funeral," she said.
"When you were saying goodbye, I heard you say, "I wish you enough". May I ask what that means?"

She began to smile. "That's a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone."
She paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember in detail and she smiled even more, "When we said, "I wish you enough", we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them."

Then turning toward me, she shared the following as if she were reciting it from memory;
"I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright. 
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more. 
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger. 
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all the you possess.
I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final goodbye." 

She then began to cry and walk away. "

***They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but an entire life time to forget them. Learn to love and cherish all the people you will never forget. 

Thank You Love...

I can be a challenge.
It might be difficult to wake up next to me every morning.
To get out of bed and to put on that smile.
To put an effort in loving me when I least deserve it.
I want you to know, that smile, that faith and that love
is what keeps me going some days.
Even through the rough times, you remind me that you are amazing.
You really are. 

I know that I am not perfect.
sometimes I turn my back on you instead of embracing you.
sometimes I take you for granted.
Sometimes I judge you on the pedestal I put my girlfriends.
Other times I use the things you tell me against you,
I manipulate you to get what I want from you - and you let me get away with it,
understanding me enough to let it be.
Most times I love how you try to love me with all the imperfections,
put up with incessant chatter, the worries and pressures I put myself through,
and even calling me beautiful on my fat days. 

For all the times that I am too self absorbed in my faults,
and you show me how perfect God made me for you; 

For all the times I beat myself up, you just hold me and let me rant; 

For all the times I mess up when I didn't listen to you and you refrain from saying "I told you so.";

For all the moments I have been blessed to spend with you, all the love you have been showing me;

I want to say thank you.

I want you to know that I love you.
And that I thank God everyday that He chose to send someone as wonderful as you into my life.
I want to promise you that I will not love you for the rest of your life,
because I am not sure if I will always be there.
I do promise you that I will love you for the rest of mine.
Thank you dear  Lord, I am eternally grateful for this miracle in my life
that you blessed me to live with everyday. 

Valentine's Trivia

Too independent???

"I don't need you in my life. I do not need you to buy me clothes, I can do that for myself. I can afford the house I live in, I can buy the car of my dreams, I am financially independent, I am spiritually whole, I am smart, talented and going places. I don't need you in my life. I choose to have you in my life. I want you in my life, I am good at being independent, but I want to try interdependence. Independence with a mix of dependence with you, and I don't see that there is anything wrong with that. I am fine by myself but I choose to be with you. "

This another random stream of thoughts from another more random discussion which made me come up  with the above quote. As women we have become very independent - some would argue too independent.  Like we have gone from one extreme to another, from overly dependent to too much independence that we stifle a man. Nowadays a standing apparatus that defies gravity is not enough to snag a good woman,  there are many requirements, we want to know the past, what are the plans for the future.

Generally, there are so many rules right now governing relationships..." Like don't stay because you think it will get better, or the only person you can control in a relationship is you; maintain boundaries in how a man treats you; never let a man know everything about you, he will use it against you later; never make him feel that he is more important than you even if he has a better education or in a better job; don't make him into a quasi-god, never let a man define who you are; compromise is a two way street;  take care of your own hearts... and the big one is: DON'T SETTLE"

It is amazing that the pursuit of happiness has become so much difficult, it is impossible to determine what makes us happy in the first place, let alone start searching for it. As women, we have raised the bar and the standards very high that we have become very calculating and pre-mediated in most of our actions. As humans we cannot deny our intimate nature to be social, the need for other human beings, family, friends, colleagues, haters - name it. Women are too independent, men are too lazy, the battle of the sexes will always continue. The key part will always be to stick with the consequences of whatever decision that we make. If we remain single well and good - and the consequences. If we are in a  relationship well and good - and the consequences.  If we are married well and good - and the consequences.

It reminds me of this make-believe scene where in a brief conversation, a man asked a woman he was pursuing the the question: "What kind of man are you looking for?"

She sat quietly for a moment before looking him in the eye and asking, "Do you really want to know?"
Reluctantly, he said "Yes." She began to expound..."as a woman in this day and age, I am in a position to ask a man what he can do for me that I can't do for myself. I pay my own bills. I take care of my household without the help of any man. I am in the position to ask, what can you bring to the table?"

The man looked at her. Clearly he thought that she was referring to money.

She quickly corrected his thought and stated, "I am not referring to money. I need something more. I need a man who is striving for perfection in every aspect of life. "

He sat back in his chair, folded his arms, and asked her to explain. She replied: "I am looking for someone who is:
1. Striving for perfection mentally because I need conversation and mental stimulation. I don't need a simple minded man. 
2. Striving for perfection spiritually because I don't need to be unequally yoked; believers mixed with unbelievers is a recipe for disaster. 
3. Striving for perfection financially because I don't need a financial burden. 
4. Sensitive enough to understand what I go through as a woman, but strong enough to keep me grounded. 
5. Someone who I can respect. In order to be submissive, I must respect him. I cannot be submissive to a man who isn't taking care of his business. I have no problem being submissive...he just has to be worthy. 
God made woman to be a helpmate for man. I can't help a man if he can't help himself."

When she finished her spill, she looked at him. He sat there with a puzzled look on his face.

He said, "You're asking a lot." She replied, "I'm worth a lot."

Is she too independent???

Food for thought...

To my dear followers...

this is a writer to read, I love how she uses simple words to compelling effect, 

how she can draw you into her crazy world of writing...

leaving you breathless and intoxicated, 

simple poetry, a short story here and ..a humorous banter there...

this is a promise of a feast...so what are you waiting for??

read on here...

tunumariya.blogspot.com 
tunzmariya.blogspot.com
truetunu.blogspot.com

My Pic of the day: Kisses

Success

As I struggle in my journey to persue "the success story of my life", I face many obstacles and I keep making many mistakes, I haven't perfected the story but the theory and guidelines are in place as I stumble through them...I want to keep building my foundation to be so strong so it  can support my multi-dimensional story...to reach higher levels to achieve my fullest potential...

I am a graduate in economics, so i tend to think that way. We have this paradigm called cetris paribus (all things stay the same) its an assumption we take when we build on our theories...which brings me to my personal paradigm, that we cannot control everything. The only thing under control is YOU and more specipifically your perspective on whatever it is that is going on under any circumstance. So i try to compartmentalize everything into cetris paribus and deal with me. (and that is some tough work!!!)

Then there is fear, sometimes the fear of  regret and failure is what is holding us back. Making a fool out of ourselves, falling headlong infront of people you respect, the "I told you so" flunged at your face are the things that hold us back...so I try to tell myself that failure is part of the journey to success - as long as I don't  make it a destination.

Energy, insight, being gentle with yourself as you change are key features in the success story I believe. It's not about where you are at, its about where you want to be. Sometimes the problems or challenges never go away until you work through them, that is life's way of equipping you with necessary skills that tend to become handy later on. There is a lesson in everything that happens to us, wisdom to be gained everywhere and gratitude to be expressed for every little thing. 

I think the beauty of success is not limited, any one person can define what success means for them. Success doesn't need to be limited to one aspect of life, but each of us needs to be clear what success means for them and write your own story. Once the story is written, we have to remember that it is not cast in stone, every day we have to do something, a little act of faith, a little reflection of where we are going is really where we want to be. 

Finally I want to say is that: Success is a straircase - not a doorway.

hmmmmmm

In order to be irreplacable you must always be different.

How can you attain different when you are faced with the same thing everyday?

Look at the melting chocolate above...begging to be paid some attention...

if you wait too long...it will all melt and the taste will not be the same. 

I think this analogy would hold true in any day to day activity that we engage in..

be it the work place, the relationship, the cleaning...

the key is to find something exciting in the mundane...and its not an option

if you don't, you get stuck in the rut...

suddenly you won't be able to distinguish one day from the next, 

the most joyful things in life start to become a chore, 

the things/people you love become the things/people you use to love, 

the dreams become a distant memory, 

before you know it, you start questioning why you wake up everyday anyway!!!

Let's be patient...

You tell me I am going to Hell...who told you?? When was that your job??? Get off your high horse...

and let us try this....

Please let us try not to judge, let us try not to condemn...

 ....but rather let us be tolerant and patient with one another... 

Different

Sometimes I want to scream. Scream that its not fair, scream at everyone to stop expecting so much from me, scream at anyone to accept me, to stop judging me to just let me be. Yes, I am a different kind of breed to the usual Zanzibari Muslim woman, married at that. Yes, I was born here, lived here and grew up in this very island - its just that I went to a different type of school. I went to the International School of Zanzibar, after that the International School of Moshi and then to the University of Dar-es-Salaam. I normally credit these facts to the reason why I turned out the way I did. Obviously if I was never schooled in those places I would have been just like everyone else(thank God I am not).

The result is not always good. I always have to explain why I speak such fluent English, even though I grew up in Tanzania. As shameful as it is, I know the geography of the rest of the world but I don't know the geography of my own country. Half my phone calls are unintelligible to those around me and I sort my friends by continent, and all my best friends are at least in 5 different countries. and then I still live in Zanzibar, where different is rare. Everyone is so sure of how their life is going to be, there are so many set rules that i always find myself breaking, so i tend to stick out like a sore thumb. Owh, I am owkay dress code wise I can fit in - but the moment I open my mouth...all hell breaks lose. I think the great majority of us are required to live a life of constant duplicity. See due to the background I had I can't help but be affected by it, yet my muslim home and society have specific expectations that always contradict my said back ground.

I was taught in school that it okay to question things, but all I see around me is that people take things as they are. I want to dress in jeans and go swimming in swim suit, but my society categorises that as an abhorred action. I want to have to be someone, most people don't understand that notion. I know people here but its hard to make friends, everyone knows everyone else, they have been together for the past 10 years...they are even scared to open their doors to me. I am always torn between my desire to be myself and my secret need to fit in sometimes, to be normal for lack of better word. This constant battle, some of my friends tell me I have a split personality. Its hard to say the opposite of what I feel, grovel before what I dislike and rejoice at what brings me nothing but misfortune - and funny enough I catch myself doing that time and again.

But on a fine day like this, I want to say to all of them that judge me all you want and keep the verdict to yourself. You may call me a loner, weird, different, but inside myself is a place i live all alone, its a place i go to for renewal. It is my heaven. They laugh at me because I am different, I laugh at them because they are all the same

My Pic of the Day

..marriage from kids perspectives...

...too funny...and had to share...

Blessed and Grateful

I want to be grateful for everything blessed me with...yet when I try I can't fully count how blessed I am...

I am alive- thank You 

I am healthy - thank You

I have two feet - thank You

I have a wild imagination - thank You

I have a family who care for me - thank You 

I have friends - thank You 

I am a Muslim - thank You 

I am employed - thank You 

I have a loving husband - thank You 

I live in a war free country - thank You 

The sun shone for me this morning - thank You 

I can hear birds chirping outside my window - thank You
 I have a heart and can feel things deeply - thank You 

I was well rested during the night- thank You 

I have food to eat - thank You 

I have my own place that I am converting into a home - thank You 

I have a beautiful mind which can vocalise my gratitude to You - thank You

...and the list is endless...

Owh I don't want to lie to myself and say I don't have problems, I do. But how else will I know when things are good if they never change to be bad? Of all the things being given our way and we are filled with unexpressed gratitude, that can also be a problem too. I mean if we shift our focus and see only those blessings that engulf us everywhere, our whole lives would take a new look.  I am sure God loves testing us so that we can push our own imaginary invisible limits we place on ourselves, I think sometimes He wants to see how quickly we will run to Him when we have problems, and will we remember Him when we are rejoicing? I mean if i am not grateful for what i have now how will i ever be grateful to future blessings yet to behold?

I like to always reminding myself that if it is good it will pass, and if it is bad it will also pass. That bad phase I am going through, something will give and it will get better. I will do everything in my power to make it better and leave the rest to Him. I like to console myself by telling me that one day I will look at all the past heartache and smile.

I want to be more gentle with myself as You are to me.
I want to be more forgiving to myself as You are to me.
I want to be more understanding of myself as You are to me.
I want to have more fun with myself as You try to remind me to.
I want to be of service to myself as You are to me.
I want to have more faith in myself as You have in me.
I want to be more trusting with myself as You are of me.
I want to try not to get caught up judging You, doubting You and Your will,
I want You to catch me always being grateful so You can continue bestowing them to me.

The road of life may seem long and with you by my side, I can travel it, the challenges are great but i can overcome them. God's blessings are always a big surprise, how much you recieve depends on how much you believe...and of course to who much is given much is expected.