Positive Quote for Today

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."— Maya Angelou


Remembering My Firsts

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With permission, I have extracted this picture-quote from Pinterest.com. All rights reserved worldwide.

As someone said, life brings tears, smiles and memories. The tears dry, the smiles fade but the memories last forever. Today, let me share with you a few memories I have of my firsts.

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One Sunday in 1994 when I was in Standard One, my kid brother Symo and I, together with our parents, visited a rich relative who lived in Nairobi. During the visit, I got to use a water closet toilet which was a first for me. Before then, I had only used pit latrines at home, school and church.

The water closet toilet mesmerized me. When I went to school the following day, I narrated the experience to my best friend Reuben Mwaura, only for him to inform me that he had used a water closet toilet before.

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Then in April 1996, my eldest brother Joe Kagigite, Dad and I flew to Mombasa on a day I will live to remember because it was my first time to fly in a plane. I found the inside of the plane elegant and heavenly. And I noted most of the passengers in the plane were whites.

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Sometime in 1998, I, together with several other boys with whom I played piano at my hometown Catholic church, phoned Prof. Charles Nyamiti - a priest then stationed at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) in Nairobi. Talking on a phone that day was a first for me. Mark you, those were the days of landline telephone booths, before the era of wireless mobile phone communication.

After talking to Prof. Nyamiti on phone, I beamed with joy all the way back home. And I could hardly wait to share the experience with my siblings.

******
Then sometime in 1999, I had a passport photo of me taken, another first for me. The photo was required by the Wildlife Club I had joined at school.

Well, I can't recall ever getting excited at having a passport photo since I had been captured on camera before. All I remember is me showing the passport photo to my classmate George Gitonga who looked at it for a moment and then blurted out in Kikuyu, "You look like a dead person!"

Apparently, George Gitonga had only seen passport photos in the obituary section of newspapers. That's why he remarked that I looked like a dead person in the photo.

******
One Saturday afternoon in early 2002 when I was a first former at Starehe Boys' Centre, I had my first swimming lesson which was a requirement for all first formers in the school. Getting into a swimming pool that afternoon was a first for me which I had looked forward to in the course of that week. All told, it was a gratifying experience.

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Later on in 2002 that year while I was still a first former at Starehe, I gave a talk to the whole school during an evening assembly. That talk turned out to be my first public speaking experience.

I was nervous as I sat on the podium of the assembly hall before delivering the talk. But when I stood up and began talking, my nervousness vanished like darkness at dawn. All went well. The following day, a prefect in the school commended me for delivering the talk nicely.

******
And finally in November 2005, I bought my first mobile phone with the pocket money I had saved in my final months in high school. The phone may have been primitive compared to modern-day smartphones but trust me, I treasured it with the love of a mother for her child. For the one and a half years I was in possession of the phone, it rarely left my pocket, even when I was in Starehe Institute despite the fact that students in the school weren't permitted to own phones.

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NEW! NEW! NEW! If you who missed my social media update two days ago, let me take this opportunity to inform you that I have created a new slideshow of inspiring quotes. Just click on the "videos' link on the menu at the top of this blog to access the slideshow.

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The True Meaning of Success

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With permission, I have extracted this picture-quote from Emily's Quotes. All rights reserved worldwide.

Yesterday evening as I was heading to the airport to bid farewell to my kid brother Symo who was departing for the British island of Bermuda, I thought about the true meaning of success. One thing I know for sure is that success means different things to different people. What is success to one individual may mean nothing to another.

Take for instance the annual London Marathon. For professional athletes taking part in the marathon, success to them is emerging first and breaking the world record. But for the elderly people in the marathon, success to them is finishing the race, even if it means taking seven hours.

That success means different things to different people became apparent to me when I reflected on a group therapy for Users & Survivors of Psychiatry (USP) that I attended in Nairobi early in this decade. During that group therapy, one woman narrated to us how sick she felt on a flight from Dubai to New York.

Guess what! Had it been me on such a flight, I would have felt high in spirits because I have always had a yen to travel the world. But imagine that woman felt sick to be on a flight from Dubai to New York, meaning she didn't consider flying to America a success.

The late Dr. Geoffrey W. Griffin, the founding director of Starehe Boys' Centre where I had my high school and college education, also didn't like travelling abroad. In 2004 when he flew to London for treatment, the school magazine ran a story titled "Director's First Trip Overseas in 40 Years."

If my memory serves me well, I remember doubting the accuracy of that magazine headline given the numerous opportunities for travelling abroad that arose every year at Starehe. During my close to six years stay in the school, there were teachers and students who travelled to South Africa, Germany, China, Austria, Canada, United States, Great Britain and Australia.

Perhaps for Dr. Griffin, success to him was not touring the world but managing Starehe into a centre of excellence. That's why he delegated those travelling opportunities to other teachers and students.

To me, success is writing skillfully, gaining peer respect and, as I have said, travelling the world. When I was pursuing a degree in electronic & computer engineering at JKUAT, I didn't feel much of a success to be in the local university. My idea of success was studying in such prestigious universities as Harvard where I would school with youngsters of different races, under a renowned faculty consisting of Nobel prize winners.

I am sure some of my classmates at JKUAT felt successful to be pursuing an engineering degree, especially those who were first in their families to attend university. Not me! As my classmates diligently studied for the degree course, I spent my first year at JKUAT applying to four top American universities, including Harvard.

At one time when I was a first year student at JKUAT, we happened to be attending a lesson during which I visited the website of Harvard University on a computer in the lab we were in. A classmate named Patrick Kimamo, on seeing me browse the Harvard website, told me quite frankly that he wouldn't want to study in an institution like Harvard where students are very bright. But for me, Harvard was precisely where I craved to pursue my undergraduate studies.

Guess what again! The same prestigious Harvard that I yearned to attend is the same Harvard that Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of. Maybe for them, success was not attending Harvard but founding multi-million dollar companies that impact lives.

Yes, success means different things to different people. What is success to one individual may mean nothing to another. It all boils down to what makes us feel happy and fulfilled. Ralph Waldo Emerson aptly captured the true meaning success when he wrote:
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
Then Bessie Anderson Stanley, in a poem that parallels that of Ralph Waldo Emerson, also aptly captured the true meaning of success when she wrote:
He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much;
Who has enjoyed the trust of pure women, the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children;
Who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;
Who has never lacked appreciation of Earth's beauty or failed to express it;
Who has left the world better than he found it,
Whether an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul;
Who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had;
Whose life was an inspiration;
Whose memory a benediction.
In other matters, I am still working on losing my weight as I resolved to do in a story I shared on this blog. So far, I have been doing some jogging and resisting the urge to eat a lot. I am trying to break a bad habit I have of waking up in the middle of the night to gobble leftover food. You see, being lean is my other idea of success!

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Bible Quote

"Always be full of joy in the Lord; I say it again, rejoice! Let everyone see that you are unselfish and considerate in all you do... Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything; tell God your needs and don't forget to thank Him for His answers. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand."

~Phillipians 4:4-7 (TLB)

About the Author

Name: Thuita J. Maina
Nationality: Kenyan
Lives in: Kiserian, Rift Valley, Kenya
Mission: To inspire the world to godly living, one person at a time.

Just for Laughs

There was this drunkard named Azoge who loved drinking at Josiah's Bar. On being told a certain Hon. Nanga was flying to America to be conferred a law degree so that he could be admitted to the bar, Azoge replied, "Why fly all the way to America to be admitted to the bar while you can get into Josiah's Bar any time?"



The 7 Deadly Sins

  1. Pride
  2. Envy
  3. Gluttony
  4. Lust
  5. Anger
  6. Greed
  7. Sloth

Author's Note

I am learning to treat life as a journey, not a destination. So I am striving to enjoy each moment even as I anticipate to fulfill my dreams, especially meeting my soulmate and traveling abroad. Tomorrow may never be mine.

Fun Facts

  1. The fear of having no cell-phone service, running out of battery, or losing sight of your phone is called Nomophobia, reportedly affecting 66% of people.
  2. A single Google search needs more computing power than it took to send Apollo 11 to the moon. The Apollo computer was less equipped than a modern toaster.
  3. Besides being some of the biggest names in the tech industry, HP, Apple, Google and Microsoft share another commonality. They all started in garages.
~Extracted from Codingforums.com

Health Tip

So many of us take for granted the wonderful construction of the human body and the workings of its various parts. Some of us even expect it to function efficiently with less than the minimum care and attention. Learn the much you can about your body and how the care of it can help to give you that greatest blessing of all - good health.


Wonders of the Modern World

  1. The Simplon Tunnel
  2. The Sky-scrapers of New York
  3. The Boulder Dam of Colorado
  4. The Panama Canal
  5. The Golden Gate Bridge
  6. The Taj Mahal at Agra in India
  7. The North Sea Oil Drilling Rigs

Great Example for Politicians

"My life in politics was a joy. I loved campaigns and I loved governing. I always tried to keep things moving in the right direction, to give more people a chance to live their dreams, to lift people's spirits, and to bring them together. That's the way I kept score."

~Bill Clinton

Scientific Marvels

  1. Space travel
  2. Heart surgery
  3. Fibre-optics communication
  4. Concorde
  5. Radios
  6. Computers
  7. Anesthetics

My Supreme Desire

Although I'd like to be rich and famous, my supreme desire is to be radiant: to radiate health, cheerfulness, calm courage and goodwill. I wish to live without hate, guilt, worry, jealousy, cynicism and envy. I wish to be honest, natural, confident, clean in mind and body - ready to say "I do not know" if it be so and to treat all men with kindness - to meet any loss, failure, criticism and rejection unabashed and unafraid.



Greatest American Presidents

  1. Abraham Lincoln
  2. George Washington
  3. Thomas Jefferson
  4. Franklin Roosevelt
  5. Theodore Roosevelt
  6. Woodrow Wilson
  7. Andrew Jackson

Making Peace With the Past

"Dwell not on your past. Use it to illustrate a point, then leave it behind. Nothing really matters except what you do now in this instant of time. From this moment onwards you can be an entirely different person, filled with love and understanding, ready with an outstretched hand, uplifted and positive in every thought and deed."

~Eileen Caddy

Toughest Colleges to Get Into

  1. MIT
  2. Princeton
  3. Harvard
  4. Yale
  5. Stanford
  6. Brown
  7. Columbia

Why You Should Trust God

"Men and women who turn their lives over to God will find out that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities and pour out peace."

~Ezra Taft Benson

The 7 Greatest Scientists

  1. Albert Einstein
  2. Isaac Newton
  3. Galileo Galilei
  4. Nikola Tesla
  5. Aristotle
  6. Archimedes
  7. Charles Darwin

You Matter

"Always be yourself. Never try to hide who you are. The only shame is to have shame. Always stand up for what you believe in. Always question what other people tell you. Never regret the past; it's a waste of time. There's a reason for everything. Every mistake, every moment of weakness, every terrible thing that has happened to you, grow from it. The only way you can ever get the respect of others is when you show them that you respect yourself and most importantly, do your thing and never apologize for being you."

~Unknown

The Most Industrialized Nations

  1. United States
  2. Japan
  3. Germany
  4. France
  5. United Kingdom
  6. Italy
  7. Canada

Keys to Success

"...in his effort to withstand temptation, to economize, to exercise thrift, to disregard the superficial for the real - the shadow for the substance; to be great yet small, in his effort to be patient in the laying of a firm foundation; to so grow in skill and knowledge that he shall place his services in demand by reason of his intrinsic and superior worth. This is the key that unlocks every door of opportunity, and all others fail."

~Booker T. Washington

The 7 Social Sins

  1. Politics without principle
  2. Wealth without work
  3. Pleasure without conscience
  4. Knowledge without character
  5. Commerce without morality
  6. Worship without sacrifice
  7. Science without humanity

Cherish What You Love

"Cherish your visions, cherish your ideals, cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts - for out of them will grow all heavenly environment, of these if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built."~James Allen

The World's Largest Cities

  1. London in England
  2. New York in the United States
  3. Tokyo in Japan
  4. Berlin in Germany
  5. Chicago in the United States
  6. Shanghai in China
  7. Paris in France

Benefits of Optimism

"In terms of success, optimistic people out perform their pessimistic colleagues. Research shows that they are consistently promoted higher and make more money while working fewer hours than those who think pessimistically. Optimists also contribute more significantly to social progress. It is the optimists who start and run successful companies, who win elections and carry out reforms, and who make breakthroughs in the realms of science and technology."

~Pepe Minambo

The World's Greatest Lakes

  1. Caspian Sea in the Commonwealth of Independent States, C.I.S. (formerly U.S.S.R)
  2. Lake Superior in North America
  3. Victoria Nyanza in Central Africa
  4. Aral Sea in C.I.S.
  5. Lake Huron in North America
  6. Lake Michigan in North America

Demonstrating His Love

"Take your communication for instance - the way you address others. It ought to be with loving, gracious and edifying words. Never talk people down. Never use words that hurt and demean people. Communicate excellently with others without destroying their self-image or making them feel sorry for themselves. Talk to people in a way that they never forget the excellence of your words, the love and grace of Christ that you communicated. It's how God wants us to love."

~Dr. Chris Oyakhilome

World's Longest Rivers

  1. Missouri-Mississipi (U.S.)
  2. Amazon (Brazil)
  3. Nile (Egypt)
  4. Yangtse (China)
  5. Lena (Russia)
  6. Zaire (Central Africa)
  7. Niger (West Africa)