Hold On Ah..! My friend..! For your sake for my sake hold on! the branch right there too slim. The rock over so too sharp. I see the blood running... hold on! Ohhh! my heart in my throat hold on! Don't fall now just so. The rain falling slippery slope down below. forsaken we are battered we are hold on! Ehhh! let me pull you push you up. let the blasted old piece a cloth go! Hold on ! wipe the tears see the sun and let it light the way. Hold on! for you and I because this is our journey.
Author: Simone
Loves to tell and hear untold stories about people, places and experiences!
Healing Wounds
Healing Wounds Do you see that knife in my back? Let it stay there to stem the flow of a river of blood crimson red dead red the blow dealt at the hands of a friend. Is seek I seek a healing give me the bissy kola nut to stem the tie of this feeling of dying. In the curls and twirls of these words I find a home to perch and wait out the storms while I recover... Out of breath now I grasp a leaf of life to stop slipping in my own gore. The escape I see is crowded now other souls that seek relief. In a ball I wait my turn, In and out out and in to keep out the dim tide.
Co-Worker Or Bestie?
Whether or not you get along with them, doesn’t matter, you see them everyday of the work week! Sometimes more that you see members of your own family. Some you want to make friends with some you don’t, but remember, they are most likely just temporary friends. Now, I am not saying that I have not made some great friends at work -genuine people who came there that way and remained so- some were never great and will never be. However, I am talking those who are not so great but think they are or worse pretend they are. It has always frustrated me that some persons you have to work with are so disingenuous, you see what they are doing but because they are being crafty about things, you cannot prove that they are faking their “kindness”. Those great advice and “gentle criticisms” are not always coming from a constructive place, a good place, a real place, a place of love and genuine concern. Just keep in mind that these persons will smile compliment and encourage you out of a position or even your good name -behind your back of course.
It is important that we realize that our disappointment with them is not their fault, but our fault. We forget that most persons are at work for a paycheck, to advance in their field, because they love their jobs or because of all three not, to make friends. Yes you can get closer to people by networking, but in the workplace the networking is to create contacts as a means of professional development, not so you can be that social butterfly. Sometimes we lose track of our purpose and get caught up in office gossip or become too focus on what everyone else is doing, or worse sharing personal information that can get spilled at the proverbial water cooler- now with corona is that even a thing? But we get the idea. The dynamics of the workplace has changed with this pandemic but the workplace culture is sometimes hard to shift, especially since those working from home are just experiencing a temporary state of being, eventually we will have to go back to being in the same space with the people we work with. I have come to appreciate more the importance of separating work from personal life and so realize many instances when I have acted in such a way that blurs the line between professionalism and unprofessionalism, in what a share and how I behave and think.
You will find nice people everywhere, you will also find not so nice people pretending to be nice everywhere. When it comes to those you work with you have to tread carefully. You may end up working with that person for a while and the type of relationship you have with them could affect whether or not you are comfortable there. We are not there to be most popular, to have a lot a friends or belong to the “elite” group, or, to construct an image built on lies to be accepted and fit the culture of that workplace. No, we are not working to do all of those nonessential things. What we are there is to make a mark, get what we came for, be ourselves, respect everyone based on where they are in their journey and not be pressed about things that have nothing to do with us, to be friendly, to share not overshare.
Life is too short to be spending time on things that do not matter based on the journey we are on. When you realize that you have been approaching your work relationships the wrong way, take a step back. Sometimes you may have to re-evaluate the work relationships you have to realize that what you have are not friends but acquaintances. Consider yourself blessed if you do have one or two persons who you have been able to form a life long friendship with at work but do not expect it. Know that most of those work friendships are more temporary than you would like to admit. I have come to realize this as the months have gone by. Some of those who were easy to access because they were in close proximity, are now difficult to connect with. You realize that the friendship was dependent on what you offered at a particular time and you were that colleague and not that friend. Do not confuse the need to collaborate with the need to be everyone’s best friend. Instead focus on your goals and work towards them and do not get sidetracked but remain, open (but do not make your life an open book), honest (about your work and not the details of your life), positive and constructive. Work hard for the money but do not lose yourself along the grapevine.
Overdose
Overdose I feel something pulsing I feel it just here. I see the lights an aurora engulfs me. Will I be born again? Or Lazarus from the dead? dinoflagellates bloom and I see glistening reds and blues. Silver badge on sliver skin but no silver lining to pin. I grab something green maybe this will help. but it is invisible to everyone else. No one wanted to wear it "the color does not suit me". So I stopped. Breathed in and swallowed to much and drowned. As I sink I feel the weight of my grief and so I closed my eyes. Hannibal greets me in the dark forces me awake. I struggle and reach for the fading thread of light and the promise of a new day.
Midnight Blue
Midnight Blue Like a dream it consumes me. I rest my hand where my heart use to be The dagger remains buried deep, like fault lines no longer aligned. lava spews ready to burn me alive. Will I heal? My shame milady evergreen. touch me not! Or I will fall apart never to be clued back together again. Do I want to be? I shiver and shake in fear of what's to come drenched in impotency. my past chases me threatening. the laughter of yesterday mocks me. What could have been? Warmth removed, replaced by midnight blue. I stand alone inconsolable as I must. Will I die before life returns, before the dawn awakens me?
Lucky Man
A lucky man is in a desirable position, everyone wants what he has, right? He is successful and is an example to many, a kind of a role model, right? Today we look at Chapter 10, “The Luckiest Man in Babylon”, in the book, The Richest Man in Babylon.
It’s good to have a dream, to want something better or to want the best for yourself. However, at times, we are too eager to experience the end result and we do not take the correct steps to get there. We sometimes look for short-cuts and refuse to look too closely, because if we do we are fearful we will not experience the destination.
The Parable in chapter 10, is of a man by the name of Shurra Nada, the luckiest man in Babylon. Now if ever there was a hustler – the go getter kind thank you very much – then it would be Shurra. He was able to squeeze the last drops of luck out of every meager opportunity that came his way. His pickings were slim to none because he became a slave in Babylon. Captured and made a slave, he worked overtime to not only gain his freedom but he was able to drop a gem stone of wisdom that had been entrusted to him: work is the best friend he will ever know. You want to get something, well, you have to work for it, it is not going to find you waiting on a couch or in bed.
As a slave he was advised to make work his best friend but to what end? So that his master could get richer and he poorer? No, in order to get out of his situation and while he was a slave it did not mean he could not use the little opportunities there were to get out of that situation, no matter how impossible it seemed. He did not work to be recognized as a loyal worker or to get worker of the month, every month, but to be independent of his master some day to “cling no longer to thy master”.
But misfortune befell him, and his plans were derailed. sounds familiar to anyone? While his situation moved from impossible to beyond impossible, he still worked, waited and looked for any opportunity. Like many of us do, he asked himself this question, “was I to work the rest of my life, without gain of my desires, without happiness or success?” Like many of us he was at the end of the line ready to wallow, and he would have been within his rights to do so. But he did not, he worked towards the same goal, his freedom. But when he lest expected, his good deed in passing on the knowledge to a fellow slave to make work your best friend paid off. That same friend having gained both his freedom and eventual wealth, because of that advice, came back to free him!
His luck did not come from his working and saving and dreaming. Neither did his master look at his efforts and rewarded him with his freedom. His luck came in the guise of a fellow slave who had remembered his work ethics, his profitable advice and decided that he would help him when he could to return the favor. He received a return on his investment – that advice, all he had, was enough to get him out of a bad situation to have his mountain top experience.
What treasures do you have within in you that bring you luck? Be a lucky man.
The Plan
Chapter 9 from, The Richest Man in Babylon, is different from the others. The chapter is entitled, The Clay Tablets from Babylon and takes place in 1939. The focus is on some clay tablets that seem valueless – old relics – and the message they contain, gems that are invaluable to those who take the time to look closer…
The clay tablets contain nothing new, nothing to see here! Just kidding! What we see unfolding before our eyes as we read it is the importance of having a plan AND executing it. I am good at having a plan BUT I am not consistent, which can be devastating in all areas of your life. Dabasir, the camel trader of Babylon that we met in chapter 8 has left the legacy of planning and budgeting as a means to realizing wealth. Over the years financial experts talk about tracking your spending, budgeting and planning ahead. To think you can get this advice free of cost, if you have a chance to read the contents of this book. All you have to do is download it or listen to it on YouTube. But seriously, the chapter gives a detailed account of Dabasir’s determination to repay his debts, rebuild his life and thrive. Once a slave, he rose to become a prominent member of his society. All those years a slave, but in his mind, though his body was captive, he was never one.
We can take heart at Dabasir’s action, for even in the toughest battles when everything point to our defeat, if in our minds we are always victorious, we can never be defeated.
“Yet it is the plan that hath made my success…for I am convinced that if I follow it further it will make me rich among men”.
Those clay tablets had survived for centuries, to one day help those who needed the wisdom they contain the most. Dabasir’s legacy survived through the actions of those who followed the tablets instruction, a formula that made him one of the richest men in Babylon. Do you have a plan and if you do, have you started to work on it or are you still waiting, thinking and talking?
