@Joewest

Unfriendly Friends Let me tell you a short story before I get into what I'm about to say. There was once a gazelle who was just born. This gazelle was born in a time of turmoil where all the gazelles were being chased bely predators and they had to be on the move constantly. The herd of gazelles had little time to rest or feed themselves and their young. A lot of them died of hunger and starvation even before the predators like lions, cheetahs, wolves, hyenas, leopards etc could get to them. This was a very bad time to be born. But it wasn't its fault. Its mother got pregnant for it even before the troubles began. On the day it was born, the lions attacked!! It was a new born right? It doesn't have the strength I'm its legs to make a run for its life, and its mother on the other hand couldn't carry him around as he was still too feeble. She had to do something real quick before it's too late. She had to act fast. She knew they were in trouble. She couldn't watch her baby die in cold blood. He was too innocent for this life. So she devised a plan in seconds. The rush of adrenaline even make animals do crazy stuff. I thought it was just humans. She decided to him him under a tree, where the ground had long, thick bushes around them. He was real small so, he wasn't seen, and besides, the lions were focusing on the bigger prey. He saw his family being mauled to death buy couldn't do anything. At least there was some sense of survival in him that didn't let him make any sound. Now he was all alone in the wild. No family member to put him through his early stages of life, or no mother to feed him milk. It was a very dangerous place to be. Seeing other kinds of animals with their family made him seek refuge in the most unthoughtful place. It seemed refuge from the owner of the tree which it was kept. A leopard! One would think it. One would have thought it would rather go for other domestic animals like other species of antelopes or pigs or zebras. It had to be a leopard. The leopard was glad that he could get a free meal without even running for it. They bonded real good. The leopard was at every point trying to hold its urge to eat him up seeing he was still very tender to make any good meal. It even almost took the leopard as its mother. Such innocence. Little did he know of the cruelty the world he was introduced to was all about You could feel the friendship and trust that the gazelle had for the leopard. The leopard was even in shock and was amazed at his confidence. At some point, the leopard would think, "am I a joke to him"? There was confusion everywhere even among other animals. It was so unusual. The leopard had to see the end of this. Maybe the gazelle was up to something. He had to see what he was up to. For trying to be buddies with your killer. Until one time, the leopard was really convinced that this gazelle really trusted her like its own parents. There was no remorse anywhere or pity. To her, he was just food like any other gazelle. He was just food who got too close to the cook. He trusted the bad guy. Confused the villain for his best friend. There was no guidance whatsoever, to take him of the wrong track he was going. At the end, he ended up being the leopard's next meal. Such a tragedy for him, and another day's meal for the leopard. From this story, we can learn that not everyone who we claim as Friends are truly good friends. Some are just there to take from you and suck you dry. Waiting for the right time to pounce on you and snuff the life out of you or that which they want from you. Be careful you're not friends with the enemy. Be careful when you wanna choose a friend that has spots, whole you're spotless. You know you're different. Most times we tend to put our trust on the wrong person and want to keep on believing in a lie when the truth is glaring at us. Make more friends that have same vision and mission as you. That have the same core values with you. Don't trust because you're lonely and there's no one else to lean on. You might make the wrong decisions in doing that. Watch your friends closely and protect your back, because that's the most vulnerable place when it comes to friendship.

+1 more

What you can't stand Ever felt like they're not always cooking the caramel right? Ever thought, "well, this flower vase could have been placed in a much better place" or they could have made better use of something.... Well, let's take it to a larger scale. Ever had the feeling that that song would have been better if you were in it? Ever thought that a particular project isn't going well because of bad overseeing, and you could do better? Or the mode of conduct in that hotel isn't nice? All those listed above are just a few things that people can't stand because they feel they can do better of make a change. Its not always a bad thing to be dissatisfied with something or a service or the way a society does its things. Sometimes, it can be an indicator of your destiny or your career path. Most scientists began with dissatisfaction for a particular thing and then brought a solution to that. Michael Faraday was probably fed up with using lamps powered by oil or kerosene. He probably hated the smoke and heat it produces, and it can get nasty. He probably hated the fact that he couldn't get a bright light to do what he wants to. He then imagined how life would be and how easy it would be to just have a bright light that could stand in one place and lit up a whole room without having to be carried around like fire. He had to do something quick and fast. He tried over 900 times before he got it. That shows the level of dissatisfaction he got with using torches and lamps that were lit by fire. You need to come to a place of total dissatisfaction, a place where you can't stand the suffering, the hardship, the disorganization, before you'll be stirred to make a change. If you're just partially dissatisfied, failures can make you quit, but total dissatisfaction will keep you going like it did with Michael Faraday. The Jonas Brothers were probably dissatisfied with the way transport was. Just to get to another country, one would have to sit in a ship for days, weeks, months. So many other people would have been dissatisfied but they just felt, "well, there's nothing we can do about it" and just left it. But the Jonas Brothers would have come to a place of total dissatisfaction that bred an anger in them, and if something wasn't done about that anger soon, they'd explode. They had a to figure out a way to travel faster. Then they brought up the plane. That's huge!! They were ready to make that change themselves and not wait for someone to do it. They were the change they were looking for. In the most popular book in the world, "The bible", there were so many times Jesus was dissatisfied and couldn't stand some situations that He had to act immediately and end it. It was one of the things that channeled the miracles He performed. There was a time He was going into the temple and saw people buying and selling in the temple, He had to sweep them away and throw what they were selling because the temple was not for buying and selling. One of the biggest things that He couldn't stand was sin. That was why He decided to die for the sins of His children. What you can't stand is an indicator for your purpose in life. Remember, keep loving and staying safe. Don't forget to subscribe and leave your comments.

Leave unhealthy competitions A very bad place to is a place where you're in a mental competition with friends and colleagues. You weren't born with anyone, so you do your own thing your own way. Don't be a victim of unhealthy competition. If you apply too much pressure where you agent supposed to, you might get it wrong. Different foods have different length of hours before they're properly cooked. You don't expect to beans to be cooked at the same rate at which rice is cooked. Of course the rice would get soft quicker than the beans would. This same cycle is seen in real life. Most times when we see our mates making it big at a young age, we feel we're not doing enough. Sometimes you might not be doing enough, but most times, that's how life just panned out to be. He got his chance and he used it. Your own chance is gonna come. If you stay in that place of unhealthy mental competition your friends, it can breed jealousy, and jealousy when full blown can bring anger which can also lead to wrath. Your mind would have been polluted before you even know it. Everyone has their own time to manifest. Rather than being in an unhealthy mental competition, let that mindset be turned to motivation. Yes!! Let there success, failures and every other thing motivate you. It should act as a form of motivation for you to do better. For you to know the mistakes they made and try to avoid them. For you to know the path they followed and the right character they put forth for them to achieve what they have. You don't have to be the richest on that circle before you know you're successful. You just have to be in a place where you can boldly say, "I have put in my ideas and made good use of my gifts, and I'm proud of the results". Don't be that person whom the first question you'd ask a friend after seeing him for after a long time would be, " What are you doing now?" "Where do you work"? " Do you have your own business "? Those kind of questions implies that you wanna know if that friend is way ahead of you in life or you are better than him so you can feel good about yourself. If my friend asks me that kind of question when we meet after a long time, I wouldn't trust that friend again. When that kind of question is asked, you might be putting the person being asked in a position where he or she would have to lie because they might still be struggling with life. That has made so many people to live a fake life. And you as a person, don't live a fake life to show that you're also doing well. Be yourself, but always push to be better. Don't push to be better because you want to prove a point, push to be better because being better is a good thing. If you're surrounded with people who like unhealthy mental relationships, let them feel like they've won. Don't follow them into that competition. When they keep bragging about what they've achieved, let them know you're happy for them. You're actually doing them a favour because if you tell them how successful you are, they would develop a bitter heart and that competition would increase in their hearts which would lead to them doing something they're not supposed to. Remember, let others successes be a form of motivation and not competition to you. Till I come your way next time, keep growing, reading and developing yourself. Remember to subscribe so you can get more out of me. Let love lead.

Jet Black Heart Everybody has their demons, even wide awake or dreaming. My demons haunt me in my dreams and even in reality. I've become paranoid to any single unpleasant sound. I always feel like someone is after me. I bought new locks for my house and upgraded the security system. Even my own footsteps have turned to be a nightmare for me. Pills and potions have been my safe Haven there past few months. The break up really had a toll on me. The hours after midnight are scare crows to me. Any figure I see is like a man holding a gun trying to shoot at me. My whole mind is messed up. My emotions are heightened. The effect of pain has been multiplied in me. Sometimes I just wanna take a gun to my head and put all this to an end. Now I have a Jet black heart Every feeling of love in me is dead now. All I feel is anger and pain and fear. Nothing good comes out from my heart again. The blood in my veins is made up of mistakes. The chemicals I've been putting in my system have been poisoning my thoughts. Sometimes it feels good to shut out everything else and just fell anger and wrath. Now I have a heart of stone. My dog doesn't recognize me anymore, and I'm sorry he feels that way. I need help, but I'm too scared to get help. I'm scared the help will take away the anger and the jet black heart I've developed. I need to stay angry and remain stone hearted. But my mum thinks otherwise. My mum thinks there's another chance for me in this world. My mum says, "it'll get better". " There's a whole world waiting for you out there" she says. But I've forgotten who I am. I'm someone else right now. I can't recognize myself in the mirror. Sometimes I cut myself on purpose to feel pain and forget what happened between I and Gwen. If I don't forget Gwen, I could hurt her. I don't want to hurt anyone, so I rather hurt myself. I've been left on isolation for the past two weeks. No one would cone visiting or even place calls. I ordered them not to. Although, deep down I want to see people. But I fear would hurt them physically. There's a hurricane already trying to separate me from the real world. Metallic rock has become my favorite kind of music. At least it helps me to focus my mind on something hard and I can get violent a little bit. A part of me wants to come out of this, but a part of me wants to stay a little bit longer. I don't wanna love again. Love brings pain. I. Done with pain. I've developed a Jet black heart. What may I do? What can I say? Is there a remedy for this disease? I don't think there's a vaccine that can end this. I have a heart ache. I feel like I should have a heart transplant. Mine is damaged emotionally.

On the hill Here's a short poem I wrote for a friend who died when we went camping On the hill, we set our grill We already paid the bills for the kill So now we were about to chill You even had your own lil brother Will Will came along and stood still while you took the pills I told you to stop But you already had a drop of what you popped We had to crop out that of our memories while we cleaned the floor with a mop It was midnight and we set camp Stacy even had cramps but she was calm Tap tap tap... Wake up champ!! Once, twice, three times You still slept calm By dawn, we found out you were gone You were done with this world To meet the creator, the real Don I still miss you Paul Even when I know you're not there I still call Maybe one day you would pick up the call Cause it's lonely standing alone in the hall I hope you all liked it. Remember, keep reading and enjoying my articles good people. Like, leave comments and subscribe... You won't regret having me here

Learn from the ants What can we learn from the ant? As funny as this question may sound, there a lot of things to be learned from ants and demand a verdict. There are depths of answers, teachings and lessons to this question that may surprise you about the ant. These are basic, yet in depth observations about the ant. Sponsors Block (?) https://read.cash/@Read.Cash/get-sponsors-a2b66c10 There are many researchers around the globe daily discovering new Knowledgeable and technological facts about the ant. Fascinating!! It seems like the more they study them, the more they discover the similarities between the ant and man's ways. One interesting thing about the ant attributes is that, if one ant possesses a certain trait, it goes for all ants of the same specie unlike humans whose characters differ from each other. Let's take a quick look at some unique qualities of the ant that humans can learn from: Ants work hard. That's a trait that almost everyone knows. I've hardly ever seen an ant that's not moving. Always moving, always looking for something to do. Ants feed one another in the most caring way. Whenever an ant finds food, it goes back to inform the others and they all come and carry it. It doesn't stay there and eat the food before going back to call others. It's one trait humans should learn. Humans would wanna have their one share first before telling anyone. Its called greed. Ants work alongside. They always work side by side with each other. No gripes or fights. You hardly ever see ants from the same colony fight each other, rather they team up to fight intruders, unlike humans. Siblings can invite a third party to harm themselves just to prove a point. Ants have incredible strength. Ratio to man, ants can pick up objects 50 times their own size and may times their weight. That's super strength!! Imagine if ants were as big as humans, they'd be lifting cars with ease. Ants are very creative. Consider an ant carrying a piece of stick to use as a bridge when encountering an obstacle. That's high level IQ. Most animals don't think that way. And a close look into their holes, you can see how orderly their foods are arranged. Ants are excellent farmers. They create their own fungus type food that is designed to be absorbed very cleverly into their stomach. Anta protect each other. Ants are known to protect one another even onto death. That's extreme and I have experienced that before. A small sugar ant can wrestle with a soldier ant just because he is trying to protect his own. They fight to the death just to protect their queen and her eggs. How many of us can protect our siblings with our lives? So what can we learn from the ants? Most people feel offended whenever they see ants on their unwashed plates or cups. The thing is that, ants give us indications on our sometimes carelessness and not being able to dispose food properly or wash up the dishes. Do an ant watch and you'll discover that ants are so impeccably clean with one another. One of their teachings would be, "a stitch in time saves nine", or " the sooner the better". Whatever the title is, ants know how to finalize things and display patience even in times of adversities. Ask yourself this question. If for a moment, you were able to fight for the right things in life, and defend another to death, would you? How many of your friends would do same for you?

Till death do us part "I don't want a relationship that would end in a break up. I want it to last forever. So, I'm scared to even go into any relationship right now cause if I'm so committed, the pain of the heartbreak would be so much. So, if I'm gonna go into a relationship I would want it to lead to marriage. Don't get me wrong, I really do love you, but I just need time to be sure. I've been heartbroken before, and I don't want it to happen again". Those were the words she spoke to him with tears running down both their eyes. She was only 18, but she wanted something long and lasting. He didn't know if he was ready for that either but, he knew deep within that he wanted her and could do anything in his power to get her. Whenever he pictured himself walking down the isle, he always saw her. He didn't wanna make any promises but he wasn't seeing any reason at the moment to not ho ahead with this move. "I don't know what the future holds for the both of us, we can't predict the future but let's hold on like our lives depend on it. For ever is not even enough time to love you the way that I want, because every moment I find you, I fear the day would strip you from me. You say I won't lose you, but the future is sometimes out of control. So, just stay with me right now, love me Right now, right here, let's build something together right now that can withstand the storms that life would throw at us. If you keep seeing how hard it is that the future might be, you might never take any step. I'm here now, and that's all that matters. The world could end anytime, but let's savour every moment we have right now". Little did he know that her world was gonna actually end tomorrow. The next day, she dressed up for school and boarded a bus going to school. Fifteen minutes into the journey, they had a tragic accident. Their bus had been hit by a trailer on the bridge and tumbled and feel into a ditch. The medical team was there in no time, wheeling victims on stretchers into the ambulance. In not time, he was there also and watched as they wheeled her into the ambulance. He followed her into the bus, telling them he was family. On their way to the hospital, she gained consciousness but with bruises all over, a broken neck, broken arm, and a ruptured skull... When he held her hands, years rolled down her eyes. She regretted not agreeing to the word he said to her the previous day. If only she had savoured that moment with all she had. She just had to play it safe and now, she didn't know if she was gonna have the chance to tell him how bad she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. The nurses were trying to stabilize her on their way to the hospital. Finally they arrived, and was taken into the room where she would be operated on. Shed had lost a lot of blood already and she had several internal bleedings. The doctors knew she wouldn't make it. 5 minutes later, she was gone. When the doctors came out to tell him the news, he broke down and cried his heart out. She died without letting out how she truly felt about him. He wished it had been him on that bus. Her world ended that day. Till death did he part with her. Her death was his only release from the love he had for her.

The Last Born Effect My parents had four kids before I was born. Two boys, and two girls. I came in 2 years after. I came in as the last born and locked up every other passage way. I couldn't cope with having a competition. A competition for the love of my mother. I was nicknamed "Mummy's handbag". I would always cling to my mum as long as she was around me. She loved me and still do. But now, the favours I get from her are limited. Being the last born, my mum supported me in several arguments I had with my elder siblings. At the time, I thought she loved me more and I was happy being moved the most. It was selfish but I loved it. I later grew up to understand that she supported me in those arguments because she wanted to boost my confidence. When I found out, tear dropped from my eyes though. When it came to house chores, I didn't do a lot when I was little. In fact I only started doing chores at the age of seven. Before then, it was all play, eat and sleep. I made my mark as a last born. I would trouble my siblings on purpose and run to mummy. Mum always had a way of defending me. Funny thing was, all my siblings cooperated. I found out later that mum would go to the privately and explain to them to tolerate me that I need confidence boost. I was the shy type when I was little, but not anymore. Don't get me wrong, mum didn't spoil me. I was spanked when necessary. I received little punishments from time to time. But when it came to the fun part, I had a large percentage. I didn't like school when I was little. I still don't like school though. So because I was the last born then, everyone in the house would gang up to tell me a lie that they won't take me to school that day, even when they made it obvious by putting me in a uniform. They'd tell me it was a requirement to get access to the church. Who wears school uniform to church??? Anyway, I was little. So I fell constantly for it. Up until this moment, I still enjoy some last born privileges though. I have more alone time with mum, so we bond more. All my siblings are grown now and done with school so they don't have that time. I'm the only one who has the time to sit and chat with mum and all, so she I get some privileges like free money, free access to her WiFi and all. I lived with my aunt for three years to finish up my high school. Being away from mum at that age had a toll on me. But I endured. My aunt(my mother's sister), told me a shocking story about my birth. She told me that I wasn't planned. My parents had wanted to stop at just four kids. I came out of nowhere. It caused panic between my parents that they wanted to get rid of me. But they just couldn't bare the guilt. They had to keep me. I grew up to be a fine young man. It hurt me when I heard the story, and for a while, the way I looked at my parents changed, they noticed it but when they asked, I didn't tell them. Right now, it doesn't bother me again. Sometimes I wonder, if that's the reason they showered so much love on me, because of the guilt that they tried at one point to get rid of me. Its just a speculation. Right now, I don't really like being the last born. Everyday, chores pile up for me and everyone at home now demands too much respect from me. It just eats me up and all. Who else is a last born here?