Reblogged from A House With A Broken Heart:

Joyce Kilmer

Whenever I walk to Suffern along the Erie track
I go by a poor old farmhouse with its shingles broken and black.
I suppose I’ve passed it a hundred times, but I always stop for a minute
And look at the house, the tragic house, the house with nobody in it.

I never have seen a haunted house, but I hear there are such things;

Read more… 333 more words

Don't let your life be that empty house!

Think positive…
if you cannot do so
think nothing
it is better
than thinking negative.
Marites C. Cayetano

Overpopulation and urbanization has brought with it so many problems that resources have become inadequate to suffice most of the population residing in the cities and urban areas. One of the problems brought by this dynamic change is unemployment. It is almost tongue tying to tell a young boy or girl that there is a bright future in education when they have at their disposal dozens and dozens of examples of fellows who graduated with degrees and diplomas just roaming with no employment to be found. Sooner or later they will be looking to thieves and illegal dealers for role models.

Perhaps that said and done, we need to revise what it means to say education is our future. Back in the day our parents were picked to start working before they even finished their various studies. Jobs were abundant as the employing industry had so much vacant posts due to lack of literate and well qualified human resource. One needed not be creative or competent to acquire a job. Once you had the qualification you had the job. It was a matter of who could do the job and not who could do it best or who has a relation or who can trade their good legs for the boss’ taking.

1980

JOB SEEKER: My name is Thomas Tembo; I have a diploma in journalism’ that sentence would be cut by the employer in mid air.

EMPLOYER: Don’t bother to finish, you have got the job, come tomorrow and start working’

2012

JOB SEEKER: My name is Thomas Tembo; I have a diploma in journalism, I graduated in the year bla bla bla (he spends 15 minute delivering a well rehearsed speech exalting an already well polished profile…in addition to that a resume has already been submitted to the human resource manager)

EMPLOYER:  Am sorry we can’t take you. We are looking for those with 5 to 10 years experience. Thank you for coming though. [In his head he is like, you are male, you got no relation here and… and you look like a threat to me with those papers]

Ok, forget the moral decay rocking our society. The point is, today employment is most hard to find as compared to the past decades. Somewhere along the line things changed and it became the job seeker had to struggle for employment and not the employer as was the case some years ago. Despite the employing system being flooded with a majority of old folks I believe the solution to unemployment might be lying among the victimized group itself; the unemployed, which mostly is made up of the youth.

If only the getting employed attitude could be a little bit given less attention and direct the attention at empowering individuals with creativity which could in turn create job opportunities. Instead of competing for the same jobs everyone is looking for, creativity as its name suggests could create other avenues and new jobs in the process. Competition in its form does not really encourage free will creativity as people always try to get ahead of their opponents and not maximize their maximum potential. Therefore I believe promoting creativity among youth would have more yields than sending them to school with an attitude biased towards getting employed. Things have changed and to get employed by someone these days is not easy. Therefore, for one to progress there is need for one to be creative enough so as to be able to create something out of nothing rather than compete for the available inadequate resources. In the creative world opportunities don’t get extinct while in the competitive world in addition to opportunities being so limited one has to either end up a winner or a loser and unfortunately most of us end up on the losing side.

Imagine if those guys who thought of starting the Coca-cola group just looked up to the government and other already established companies for employment. Imagine how many jobs would have been lost. If the Mulli brothers didn’t think of opening up their ventures, imagine if Gospel Kazako did not come up with the Zodiak idea in the first place. How many people would still be scrambling for the limited employment in the same spheres everyday?

If only the motto ‘education is your future’ meant more than going to school and later getting employed for Malawians. If only the motto meant even creating some of the opportunities, or entrepreneurship in a layman’s language. Because much as jobs might be scarce it does not mean that opportunities are extinct. It is only in recent years that we have seen a number of entrepreneurs coming into the industry. But still most Malawians still live in a 1970 mindset and haven’t yet grabbed the ‘be your own boss’ concept yet.

Let us say if the venture of one entrepreneur carries with it 3 to four employees, one would go for that as means of reducing unemployment rates as compared to the competition approach where tens of thousands of people scramble for one job and in the end only one gets the job.  

The responsibility to create the jobs we most die for is not with the government or other policy makers. It is our own for the taking. It’s time to create. Think creative and not competitive. We can be the generation to beat the odds.

Whatsoever things ye ask for when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Jesus said to his disciples and all those who came to listen to him at some point.

I am not going to spend time explaining the religious aspect of the verse above.  Am only going to dwell on the impact it could have on any one who can dare believe it. So, Christian or no Christian this verse above is got no limit as far as its power is concerned.

First and foremost it is quite important to note the way the speaker puts emphasis on the words ‘believe that ye receive them’  without these words the sentence would still make sense but still the speaker emphasized them. He doesn’t say you should believe when they happen. According to the tense in the verse it follows that ‘ye shall receive’ comes after the believing that ‘ye have them’ has already been done. How strong those words might be is up to us to try and believe.

 Whatsoever we ask of will come to us only and only if we believe in them. The belief that what we think can influence what may come to happen in the future dates back long time ago. Sayings such as ‘speak of the devil and he will appear’ are some of the beliefs we were born to find already in motion. Ever wondered why the local Chichewa saying goes like ‘tsoka sasimba koma mwayi’ and not the opposite? Probably the ancient knew something about the effect of negative or positive thoughts on the future of someone.

Vision and imagination are some of the ingredients that add up to make faith that stands on the beliefs about the future in a way that you want it to happen. Where there is no vision people perish says the Christian Holy Scripture. Set goals and aim to get them. Have visions.  Clearly and solid visions are better than scrambled ones. You can not ask for something you don’t clearly know, and it would be almost insane to want everything in life.

If you wanted to send a wireless message [text message] to a friend, you would not send the letters of the alphabet in their order, and let him/her construct the message for themselves; nor would you take words at random from the dictionary. You would send a coherent sentence, one which meant something. Says Wallace D. Wattles author of the long celebrated book The science of Getting Rich on the same topic.

I hope the above quote has helped explain how important it is to clarify your goals in your own mind.

Keep imagining yourself in terms of the future without losing focus of the present and you will notice the difference. Am I talking about day dreaming? Yes, that is what every uninitiated doubter will call it. But you are what you make and not what somebody thinks of you so ignore that talk and keep your focus and keep on dreaming. You don’t want to perish with those with no vision.

Imagination and vision will help you build the required faith to push forward on every goal you set out to achieve.

Whatsoever things ye ask for when ye pray, BELIEVE THAT YE RECEIVE THEM, and ye shall have them.

TO BELIEVE OR NOT TO BELIEVE, THE CHOICE IS YOURS!

Are you able to read this? Cause if you are, then you should be grateful to who ever sacrificed their quality time and money to make sure you get educated enough to be able to read this article. For certain almost everyone’s education came at the expense of other people’s sacrifice. Some of you might prefer to call it their responsibility but for heaven’s sake taking that responsibility into action is a sacrifice in it self. And because it happened to us it doesn’t mean that it is automatic that every time somewhere someone will take up the charge for us, NO. We have some living examples of some people whose guardians failed to secure a good education for them both in terms of finance and motivation. So we don’t have to take that for granted.
On the other hand it is you who also deserve some much respect and salutation for taking up the chances with both hands because again we have those examples of fellows whose guardians provided finance, motivation and more on the table but the fellows just chose to turn down the offer and remain dumb (hope that’s not a callous word)
Now while some are enjoying the benefits of the sacrifices offered in the past and some are not (but am sure if you are reading this you must be enjoying the benefits.lol) it is only fair for all of us to be grateful to those who jumped through the fire for us, a little gift won’t hurt them.
But above all now that we have seen the light I bet it is only fair to do unto others as we loved it being done to us. Step up and make a sacrifice for someone out there, trust me it will make a change and it will count in someone’s life.

Sitting back and relaxing seem like a cowardice vice in a world where you snooze and you lose. But, mark my words, a well timed reflection and relaxation time is as important as a busy day out working. Most people believe sitting down and thinking over things is a wastage of time. This might be so because most often hard work is associated with muscle and not mind power.
But let’s just say for example, how many of us have taken stock of the resolutions we’ve set for this year so far? Not so many of us have. Much as we might think we are progressing, going back to wherever we scribbled those goals of ours, we might be surprised to see we’ve drifted a few steps backwards regardless of how hard we’ve been working, or vice-versa. Hard work can count to nothing if it’s directed at the wrong place and time.
‘Hurry hurry is not speed’
No matter how good or bad you think you are at whatever you do, let it be known to you today that it is of a great importance to take your time, relax and check your performance. It might be of much value to your progress knowing exactly where you stand. Don’t get busy for nothing, channel your effort at the right time and place.
Good luck as you sit back and relax.

Everything that happens to you and around you is often a thought at first. It is believed that it is a thought that gives birth to action. Whether there could be a chicken-egg argument about what comes first between action and thought among philosophers that remains to be a subject of their own pact. But as far as I am concerned it is thought that comes first. And for those who believe that the world was created by a single higher power am sure it is only logistically fair to say this deity thought first before He said those words which are rhetorically believed to have created the world and the whole universe.
And if that’s the case then we can all agree to say change originates from the mind, in the way we think and perceive things around us. Our attitudes, opinions, beliefs, feelings, values and all other elements that shape how we act are virtually created and stick in our mind.
Therefore if you want a true change that will last a lifetime, a change that won’t be phased by time and space the one place that you might need to start your revolution is in your own mind. Its not in the bank account or the pocket that true change originates, it is in the way you think, it is in what you believe in, it is in your attitude and so and so on but not in the materialistic things that are subject to vanish with time.
Change for the better and don’t forget the revolution for a lifetime change begins in the mind.

HOW TO MAKE 2012 YOUR DREAM YEAR!.

He came, he saw and conquered or She came, she saw and conquered is how most of us would love to be remembered when we are done fulfilling our goals set forth in our lives. Yes, we can saw and conquer but what comes next after we have conquered? The answer is simple, life goes on. People talk about us being the all super heroes or heroines that we are and then after sometime they stop and find something else to talk about. We ourselves feel we are the real deal for a little while and then the feeling that the war isn’t over settles in again and the need to saw and conquer registers again.
It is the choice we make at this point that determine whether we are ready and able to do greater things or we are just meant to be reactors who are only limited to react and not act on the available chances. It would not make sense to step on a lower step in a stair case and yet believe you are destined for the top. You’ve got to ascend on the stairs, one step higher than the last one. That way you can be assured of reaching the top.
Dear fellow grown minds, my whole point is that let us not look down upon ourselves. If we did what we did in the past (whatever that was), there are chances we can do much greater than what we did before. We have the potential let us not settle for less. It is time to rise and not go down backward. If we can challenge ourselves and have the hunger for more attitude greatness could be ours.

People live their lives influencing or being influenced by others. Artists in various spheres, sports personalities, TV show stars, musicians and actors are some of the many groups of people who greatly influence lives in this world, especially among the youth. Most of these guys are people who perform characters in their showbiz life but stay true to themselves in their lives behind the curtains. They give us sight or blind us as to what we should believe is right or wrong. This is much visible in fashion trends where these models set the lead and the rest follows. These guys though are not as perfect as the media paints them; they too have flows and highs like any other man. Like you and me.
It’s unfortunate though to see how some of the guys over copy these models. Its not as if they try to copy, in fact they try to be the models themselves. Copying good characters from these models is not a bad thing in a sense; after all you have to pave way for the great in order to become great yourself. But how do you copy someone’s life verbatim? Where is your life by then? Who is living it or least of all who is copying it? None probably.
You will find there are some Malawian girls who in their desperation to shine forget to be themselves and try to be the Rihannas, Beyonces, Minajs, Hanna Montanas the endless list goes on and on. Their male counterparts are nothing less compared to the girls. Sometimes you will find a fully grown up bearded man trying to live out Justin Bieber or Chris Brown. We have fake Jason Derulos, Kanye Wests, Lil Waynes we know from neghbourhoods we come from. Most of them probably suffering from self esteem defficiency.
All that said and done, the bottom line is that let us live our lives and be our true self. We can copy other people’s lives but let’s not forget to be the originals that we were born to be. Life is too short to live some one’s life. Be smart and be ORIGINAL.