Seize the Day!

I stumbled upon this story on a website when I was using Stumbleupon.com this morning.  (If you've never used it, stop reading now and go to Stumbleupon.com! You give it your interests and then it surfs the web for you to find websites that you might like. Its awesome!)  Anyway, I stumbled upon this website, and it was exactly what I needed.  I love this story.  It's simple but its lesson is valuable.  Our minds are so powerful, we have the power to change any situation and to DO ANYTHING.  All we have to do is remain present and in the moment. 

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room.

One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs.

His bed was next to the room’s only window

The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.

The men talked for hours on end.

They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation..

Every afternoon, when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.

The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake.

Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats.. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.

As the man by the window described all this in exquisite details, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine this picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon, the man by the window described a parade passing by.

Although the other man could not hear the band – he could see it in his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days, weeks and months passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep.

She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside.

He strained to slowly turn to look out the window besides the bed.

It faced a blank wall.

The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window.

The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.

She said, ‘Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.’

When God Closes A Door...

My friend and boss, Genevieve, said something to me the other day that is so appropriate for my life right now, and it is a beautiful reminder to keep a positive attitude in the face of change or uncertainty.  She said that her mother always tells her "When God closes a door, somewhere he opens a window." 

Looking back on the past week I have had, this quote proves to be true in my life.  When I graduated from the University of Tennessee almost SIX MONTHS ago (cant believe it has been that long), I was about to make the biggest change in my life, and I had NO IDEA what was in store for me in the months to come.  I got on a plane to SA wondering what my life would be like when I stepped off of the plane.  I have made amazing friends and have met so many people who I know I will miss when I leave SA, but most of all, I have already had the most amazing experiences here.  Who knew, after three years of not dancing, that I would be working in a dance studio and going to dance auditions here in South Africa? 

Genevieve, my friend and boss, and also my dance teacher, told me about an audition last Saturday in Jo'burg for a series of Corporate sponsored shows.  I wanted to go audition not because I thought I would get a job, which I didn't, but because I wanted to have that experience.  It was amazing!!!  The choreographer for the shows was the choreographer for African Footprint, the South African musical that toured the globe.  So, not only did I get to go dance with professional dancers, but I also got to work (a little bit) with a well-established choreographer!  Not to mention the fact that I got a taste of what it's like to be a professional dancer, in South Africa, anyway.

I was obviously an amateur at the audition, and I didn't make it past the first cut, but I was in good company.  All of the dancers there were top notch.  It was cool to just be there.  So, this just shows that whenever God closes a door, somewhere, a window is opened.  So, take a leap of faith, take a risk, go on an adventure! Who knows where it will take you! 

Here are some pics from African Footprint.  It looks like such a cool show!

Guardians of Being

In the weeks leading up to Andy leaving Tennessee for South Africa, I wracked my brain trying to think of a unique gift to give him right before he left.  I wanted to get him something special that would make him think of me, but that would also be a thoughtful present.  A couple of weeks before Andy's plane left, I stopped in Borders Book Store just to browse, not really thinking about the gift I needed to buy.  I went to the Spirituality section and stumbled upon this fantastic little book by one of my favorite authors, Eckhart Tolle.  I picked it up, sat down in the floor in front of the bookshelf in Borders, and read the entire book right there.  It's short, and it reads almost like a comic strip, but the message it has is extremely powerful.  I bought the book, and gave it to Andy when we were saying our goodbyes. 

I reread it last night, and it had the same powerful affect on me the second time.  It reminds us that we have a very important lesson to learn from animals and from nature.  If we stop and pay attention, and let our minds be still, we know that we are all connected by the presence of our creator in each of us.  We are all one, and we should all love one another as one.  That is the only way!

Here is a nice quote from the book, but I suggest buying it and reading it!  Every person needs to be reminded of this!
"You are not separate from the whole.  You are one with the sun, the earth, the air.  You don't have a life. You ARE life... We are ultimately not separate, not from one another nor from any living thing- the flower, the tree, the cat, the dog.  You can sense yourself in them, the essence of who you are...Love the Creator in the creature." 

Well put.  

We Saw A Snake!

                                          This is a close-up of the snake we saw!



Andy and I went for a walk in a Park called Rademeyer on Saturday.  It has a little chapel, a restaurant, and an events venue.  It also has trails to walk through, and zebra, antelope, and ostriches roam there.  It's a little bit of the African bush right in the middle of the city.  The trail we took was about 2.5 miles. 

When we were about halfway finished with the trail, we had just passed through a small forest and came out into a clearing where we saw a couple standing ahead of us looking at something on the ground.  I panicked.  I stopped dead in my tracks as Andy slowly walked towards them.  Sure enough, it was a snake!!!  It was so tiny I couldn't see it from where I was standing, but Andy managed to get a picture of it.  The couple was Afrikaans, and the girl said she had almost stepped on it and then she saw it.

The man asked us what we wanted to do, and said that we should be able to step around it, but that it was in an aggressive position. It took me forever to get up the courage to walk closer.  Andy still had to point it out to me when I was a few feet away from it.  I think it was about 6 inches long.  It was so tiny.  It had a brown body and a black head that was raised off the ground toward us. My friend, who has a snake expert in her family, says it is a Red Lip and that it is only slightly venemous.  She says it would maybe cause a headache if it bit you.  Well, I didn't know that at the time, and it took what seemed like forever, but I finally managed to step around it, and I think everyone was relieved.  Andy thought we were going to have to turn around and go back.  The couple was so nice though, and they waited there until we all had gotten past it.  Just more people to add to the long list of South Africans who have been so extremely nice and welcoming to us.

The entire rest of the walk we were both worried about seeing another snake.  We didn't, luckily, but we did come across a small herd of zebra.  They let us get pretty close to them.  We then saw 3 ostriches, which were also pretty scary for me.  They look vicious close up. 

It was a beautiful day, and we had such a peaceful walk.  It was really nice to be able to get out in nature.  We have missed doing that kind of thing, because in Knoxville we went hiking or to parks or to greenways all the time.  That's how we got to know each other when we first started dating. :)  Here, this is the only park we know of in Pretoria where it is safe to walk around.  There are other parks close to the city center, but we would never be able to go walking there.  They are high crime areas.

The walk made both of us think of beautiful Knoxville.  I wish I would have really appreciated the beauty of the city while I was still there.  It is a very unique place.  Andy and I both hold Knoxville close to our hearts, and we agree that a piece of both of us will always be there. 

But we are here now, and we are trying to take full advantage of it while we can so we won't be saying we wish we would have after we leave.  Here are some pics from the walk. 

                                          Just one of me on the trail with the hills behind.

                                          One of the ostriches we saw walking across the trail in front of us.

                                          The first zebra we came across was alone. 

                                          This is the actual picture Andy took of the snake before I zoomed in.  

A 3 hour drive

I turned 23 on Monday, so Andy and I decided while we were sitting at McDonalds eating our McBreakfasts that we would drive up to Sun City and Pilansburg National Park.  I had already been there. I went with Andy's parents while they were visiting, Andy didn't go because he had to work.  Andy wanted to go though, and wanted to do something special for my bday.  We decided it would be nice to just get out of the city.

It is a three hour drive from Pretoria to Sun City.  It is a big resort with a water park, casino, entertainment center, hotel, and vacation place out in the middle of nowhere in the mountains.  It's beautiful, flashy, and a good family place. We had fun there.  The National Park was okay.  We didn't see as many animals as I saw with Andy's parents, but we did see warthogs, antelope (a lot of them), wildebeast (lots of them too), a family of rhinos, a giant ostrich right by our car, and zebras.  It was a fantastic birthday (thanks to Andy) and we had so much fun, but the most interesting part of our day was the amazing drive!!  There are free range cattle and goats along the highway the whole way there.  It was a beautiful fall day, and the sky was so blue, so with the mountains along the road it was gorgeous.  Andy and I were both in awe of the beauty of the land. 

Scarring the landscape the whole way though were huge mines.  I don't know what kinds of mines they were, but we passed quite a few of them.  You can't see inside them from the highway.  It's just huge walls of gravel and dirt, with brief glances of big industry and more gravel walls.  Near every mine and along the highway are little villages, you can say.  The green African countryside is scattered with tiny shacks, with tin sheet walls and tarp roofs.  There are a few brick houses scattered among the tin shacks.  Most of the little houses have gardens with corn or other crops in them, and various objects are scattered around, like cars, big tires, and barrels. People walk around everywhere.

As we drove past the settlements men, women, kids, dogs, goats all walked along the road.  At intersections men and boys stood selling mangoes and oranges, holding small green lizards up to our windows.  At one intersection a few boys stood with cardboard signs that said "Please Donate to our Cricket Team".  They had on old shorts and torn or no shirts, one holding a cricket bat and another with one side of pads on one leg.  They were visibly dirty, and they looked like ragamuffins.  I think they were probably about 15 and 16 years old. 

Andy and I figured that the people who live in those little villages out in the middle of nowhere work in the mines.  I imagine the men walking to the mine everyday, digging away in the hot African sun for 12 or more hours with his bare hands or just a shovel, only to make a couple of dollars per day, if that.  All this not two hours drive from Pretoria, one of the biggest cities in South Africa and the most materialistic place I have ever lived.  Ironic?  It's sad.

And then I start feeling guily for living in the big city, knowing that these people live like that everyday and thinking about the way we live.  We are so lucky to have what we have.  I feel very blessed to have such a nice life.  Andy and I didn't have electricity for four days, and we thought it was the worst thing ever, and these people are living in 2011, in one of the more prominent countries in the world, without electricity, running water, transportation, internet, everything that most people in America can't go a day without.  It's shocking to me. 

So, there it is. A first-hand account of the huge disparity in the South African classes today.   Living here in this country is amazing, and it is such a unique experience.  I'm so thankful I was able to come on this great adventure, and I am ever thankful for the blessings in my life.  Being here has given me a clear understanding of how good my life is.  I am blessed.  There are so many people in this world with problems most of us can't even comprehend.  We should all be very thankful.

This quote is from a Yoga instructor.  I went to two of her classes. 
"If we all threw our problems into a big pile, we would see what everyone else threw in and then grab ours back."
 It's true. 

The First Post

Well, I've been in South Africa for about three months now.  I've been interested in blogging for a while and enjoy reading other people's blogs.  So, I guess it's just time for me to start a blog.  I haven't been keeping a journal since I've been here, and I really want to record this adventure so I can look back on it years from now and remember what it was like when I lived in South Africa.  I've been having an amazing time here! I have met many wonderful people, made some new friends, seen some crazy things, and have experiened things that I never would anywhere in Tennessee, or America.  I am loving my life in South Africa, and want to record my daily happenings, thoughts, and adventures.  I hope it's interesting.