Happiness is a choice word

12 Feb 2019 14 Comments

by Phindela Muses in Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

“Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭13:20‬ ‭ESV‬‬

http://bible.com/59/pro.13.20.esv

As I grow older I discover I have more things to do and less time to spend on the social media spaces. I am not sure whether I am now slower or I am running out of time and am trying to accomplish all that I can in the life God has given me.

Anyway, whichever way it is has caused me less time on the social media sites. I came here because of a thought that continues to haunt me.

I have lived two score plus three years on this earth and a large part of this has been in quest of peace and happiness.

I cannot claim the copyright to happiness but in the journey and quest I have learnt a few things.

1. Happiness stems from the heart. This has taught me to find first, peace in me before I can demand it from someone else. One cannot give that which they don’t own or that which they don’t have in their hands.

2. You owe yourself happiness. Happiness stems from a heart that is at peace with itself. I have seen people walk with a spring in their step, whistling at every turn and when they are asked what is happening they can only summarize by saying I don’t know much but I have peace and I am happy!!

This has taught me that I cannot expect the world at large to create peace and happiness for me. The fact that I have a persona that is me implies that all that which I desire to have is already packed into my DNA and awaits unpacking. (By me).

3. Happiness inspires blessings. Isaac craved a delicious meal to make him feel good in order to trigger a blessing to his son. The resultant meal, despite being prepared by the unintended son, was so delicious that despite his misgivings and suspicions, Jacob went to bless the usurper.

“He said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, so that my soul may bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near now and kiss me, my son.” And he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him and said: “Surely, the smell of my son Is like the smell of a field Which the LORD has blessed. Therefore may God give you Of the dew of heaven, Of the fatness of the earth, And plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, And nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren, And let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, And blessed be those who bless you!””

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭27:25-29‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

https://www.bible.com/114/gen.27.25-29.nkjv

Israel decided to adopt two of Joseph’s sons and make them his in exhuberation.

The same Israel had no happiness or peace with his original two sons and he denied them blessings.

“Reuben, you are my firstborn, My might and the beginning of my strength, The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power. Unstable as water, you shall not excel, Because you went up to your father’s bed; Then you defiled it — He went up to my couch. “Simeon and Levi are brothers; Instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place. Let not my soul enter their council; Let not my honor be united to their assembly; For in their anger they slew a man, And in their self-will they hamstrung an ox. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; And their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob And scatter them in Israel.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭49:3-7‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

https://www.bible.com/114/gen.49.3-7.nkjv

4. No one owes you your hapinesss but your hapiness and peace can be infectious.

I have seen lovers gaze into each other’s eyes and smiles spread past their dimples and they tell each other “ you make me happy”.

I have since learnt that a sad person cannot spread hapinesss and what makes other persons happy through you is deep seated peace and happiness that one’s person exhudes .

So in conclusion, please remember no one owes you your peace and happiness yet your peace and happiness can be a catalyst to a happy and peaceful world. You and me owe the world at least that.

#iamphindelasson

#brokenbutnotafraid

Sitting in the dark

25 Dec 2018 10 Comments

by Phindela Muses in Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. – Plato

Silence is like sitting in the dark. After some time, the shadows and silhouettes become defined.

It is not the shadows that would have solidified. It is our eyes and perceptive ability that would have adjusted and sharpened.

I have watched my camera lens try to pick and clearly define my objects of interest to me. On auto zoom it will zoom in and out until it picks and defines with a crystal clearness the optimal image.

At times all we need to do to see the issues and matters ailing us is to sit the darkness out and let our perceptions deliver the true image to us.

We should not fear sitting in the dark, the dark does not define us.

The dark defies us , dares us to panic, make rushed decisions and up and run. Then the darkness would have won.

Sit out the darkness, get clear images, do not make decisions on hazy images. It will dawn to your eyes soon and you will be able to pick your way out of the maze without headbutting walls and tripping in the labyrinth.

#iamphindelasson

#brokenbutnotafraid

Good day Your Excellency Sir (5) : The reign of fuel attendants

23 Sep 2018 8 Comments

by Phindela Muses in ED Mnangagwa, Uncategorized, Zimbabwe Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Good day Sir. I hear you are at the United Nations General Assembly Sir. I wish you all the best in that huge forum.

After the Cabinet reshuffle there was a follow up where you did some remarkable changes.

https://www.herald.co.zw/ed-reshuffles-permanent-secretaries/

The fact that some changes indicate a bold determination is a plus to you Sir though some people still are at pains to accept the addition on another Ncube to the Cabinet. ( I am not complaining).

The Nation awaits your next move on your return but I belive you are aware there is a matter threatening the strident steps the Nation is trying to take going forward.

The fuel queues are back and the fuel attendants are kings (and queens) again. This time they are slowly making us feel the pain of “neglecting” them for so many years of fuel abundance. The ones with jerry cans have to learn humility and suddenly the executives and their big cars are under the security guard ‘s mercy and starting orders.

Your Excellency Sir, the vile fuel blackmarket is back and it’s evil cousins are rearing their heads again in fuel hoarding, increased fire risks and exortionate black market prices.

The economists say everything hinges on the transport which is obviously run on fuel.

I am not sure what has caused the shortages, from panic buying, hoarding to alleged skint forex reserves but what I know is that the Country cannot run on vapour Sir. Neither can can it thrive on the blackmarket Sir for its daily survival.

I hear whispers of sabotage. I cannot prove or disprove them but the fact is that there is a challenge that needs your attention.

As you return to our beloved country, and as we expect your decisive move on this matter may I quote Abraham Lincoln, ” Nearly any man can withstand adversity but the greatest test to a man’s character is when you give him power.”

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/04/14/adversity/

I am afraid your birthday cake still lives to be devoured another day as the empty fuel tanks and the fuel attendants re-reign.

Your move Your Excellency Sir.

#iamphindelasson

#thereformagenda

#brokenbutnotafraid

Good day Your Excellency (4) : Of Cakes and Cholera

16 Sep 2018 15 Comments

by Phindela Muses in Cholera, ED Mnangagwa, Uncategorized, Zimbabwe Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Good morning Your Excellency. I am made to understand that yesterday was your birthday. May I take this opportunity to wish you well and all the best as you serve the Nation Sir.

With the aged [you say] is wisdom, and with length of days comes understanding.
Job 12:12 AMPC
https://bible.com/bible/8/job.12.12.AMPC

Picture courtesy of https://twitter.com/TrevorNcube/status/1041297127153061888?s=19

I pray that the age you attained will usher you more wisdom and that you will derive more understanding from the length of the days that have been credited to your name.

https://www.chronicle.co.zw/zimbabwe-reloaded-servant-leadership-free-of-corruption-red-tape/

As I went through the archives I came across your commitment to be a listening leader and I appreciate the fact that the mantra of servant leadership has continued beyond the elections rhetoric.

I cut short my birthday writting here Your Excellency Sir.

May I then appeal to you on another matter which I am made to believe you are already seized with : Cholera Sir.

For reasons that I would rather not dwell on now, we find ourselves facing a dilemma of critical proportions with horrific memories assailing people who were affected by the same scourge in 2008. I need not go into details but I only wish to point out that we do not need the grief , pain and scourge of that year Your Excellency.

It will take your hitting the ground running Sir, it will take your marshaling the nation forward Sir, it will take the buck stopping with you to hound this tiger to the horizon and see it over the cliff Sir.

The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set aside the important things in order to accomplish the vital ones.

Brandon Sanderson, The Alloy of Law

I am afraid the cake has to live to be devoured another day Sir. A vital matter awaits.

Good day Your Excellency Sir. May Zimbabwe see better days.

#iamphindelasson

#stopcholera

#thereformagenda

Good day Your Excellency (3): Cabinet files

07 Sep 2018 9 Comments

by Phindela Muses in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Good evening Sir. On a lighter note I realise and recognise that you have three Ncubes in your Cabinet. You can never go wrong with Ncubes Sir.

From the onset of my letters to you, I sought to appeal to you that there was an inherent need to inculcate a new leadership culture in our country. Gone must be the patronage ilk and in must come the servant leadership mantra. I am grateful that so far you have committed to be a listening leader and a servant leader.

I hear the Cabinet is down to 20 and the age averagely is now hovering at 55.

I hear a renowned banker is now in the Finance Ministry and I hear some permanent ministers have been unglued.

I hear a large part of the country is happy.

Thank you for listening your Excellency. I pray you continue listening.

A leader of good judgment gives stability; an exploiting leader leaves a trail of waste.
Proverbs 29:4 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/pro.29.4.MSG

I believe the appointments were the easier part. Avoiding disappointing the nation is the bigger task Sir.

I pray that the path to the reform agenda and servant leadership does not detour nor derail.

#iamphindelasson

#thereformagenda

Good day Your Excellency (2): The marked finger

02 Sep 2018 8 Comments

by Phindela Muses in Uncategorized

Your Excellency Sir. I have a tale of two pictures of one finger. I have greatly resisted adding the screen shot of the now infamous text you sent me before elections to the above pictures.

I am elated that you spoke about being a listening leader and invoked servant leadership in your inauguration speech.

I will not claim you listened or read my previous blog https://phindelamuses.wordpress.com/2018/08/25/good-morning-your-excellency/ but I am glad my plea for you to commit to the servant leadership cause seems to have resonated with you.

Your Excellency, my two images are of the same finger:

  • The first one is from voting day. Fresh and royal hue with anticipation and promise.
  • The second one is today. Almost a month later and now half way up the finger and chemically altered by the day to day detergents.

Therein lies my story your Excellency. One month down the road this mark will be gone but the commitment and expectation still stands.

Tomorrow I might accidentally handle a corrosive detergent that will rub of the remaining mark and all that will remain is the gallery picture and this blog.

Sir, I wrote this blog to indicate that expectations are beyond the nail growth and nail clippers. Promises are beyond chemical discolouration Sir. Expectations and promises are what is driving the nation currently Sir.

I have heard backyard automotive experts say at the worst the remaining vapour in a car’s fuel line might take your a few metres forward before the deadly stutter and stall.

I have never tested the theory but I have a feeling we are running on vapor here your Excellency and sooner than later we will need solid fuel injected into the country’s engine. I forbid, and may the thought perish, that the country will stall Sir.

As you go towards the Cabinet appointment Sir my prayers are with you. I will be praying that you do not forget servant leadership and the reform agenda.

Thank you Your Excellency Sir.

#iamphindelasson

#thereformagenda

Pithing my fulcrum

27 Aug 2018 Leave a comment

by Phindela Muses in Uncategorized

I do not know
Why until now
I have failed to see this
How did I miss such bliss?

Some old man
With a wizened mane
Once whispered to me
A little statement with glee

He said,
And when I remember I go sad
My son don’t worry about the wedding day carriage
But pray and worry about the marriage

The ecstasy is in the day event
Happiness is in the life event
I remember this lesson
Though I can’t recall the person

So the inauguration
Was the celebration
Now comes the hard call
Can we turn the pole?

Can this fulcrum positively pitch?
And render a bountiful pith?
Me thinks we have no option but to together row
So that our land doesn’t blow

My pith my Lord

Good morning Your Excellency

25 Aug 2018 18 Comments

by Phindela Muses in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Good morning Your Excellency

Sir, allow me to justify my engaging you by using a term I learnt from the recent events at the Constitutional Court. Sir I would like to justify my pith of the fulcrum by attaching the following annex.

Arising from the above text, I can safely conclude that your engaging me was based on the premise that I will respond to your text.

It is the same premise that I now invoke Your Excellency to request a reciprocal event from you. It is obvious I am not eliciting a vote because there is no more an election at stake.

Your Excellency all I am eliciting for your attention is just a few matters, but knowing that you are a busy man, I will restrict myself to one point at a time.

THE REFORM AGENDA

Your Excellency, it is a given that this was not the best of performances in the overall political sphere. We applaud the peace and liberty of association that took place. I will not bother to break down the nitty gritties but I would like to draw to your attention that we need to go forward irrespective of how we feel about what what happened.

Your Excellency, in the next five years the moot is to drive a reform agenda. Please take note that this must not be read to mean a faction. Re form is meant to introduce a better way of dealing with issues and giving an ethos better impetus.

What do we want to reform? Our dream and drive is to see and actually influence a change in leadership perceptions. I am aware that you have committed to be a listening leader. I, and many others want more, we want you to be a servant leader.

And it is not only you that I and others want to be a servant leader , we want all the people thrust into leadership not to ever lead unless they understand that they are going to be serving as servant leaders. Yes. That’s it.

Servant leadership will turn this nation around Sir.

I know that you are busy ref the inauguration tomorrow so I will leave this reform agenda after just presenting one pillar and repith my fulcrum next week.

Good day Your Excellency

#iamphindelasson

Time and chance 2 – the local town seers: seeing beyond the town

12 Jul 2018 17 Comments

by Phindela Muses in Uncategorized

11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 King James Version (KJV)

In the first episode, I discussed how Elisha defied all odds to remain focused on the goal ; his master and Elijah acknowledged that what Elisha desired was a mammoth task but if he focused and saw his master being taken, the double anointing was his. Elisha focused and saw Elijah being taken and the double anointing was his to take.

But the journey had been a long one and had taken a long journey through three cities each with fifty seers who knew Elijah was going but seemed keen only on the glee but not the benefit.

Now the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha, and said to him, “Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today?” And he said, “Yes, I know; keep silent!”
II Kings 2:3 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/2ki.2.3.NKJV

After failing to dissuade Elisha from remaining behind at Gilgal, they then travelled 95km together to Bethel. I am not sure what conversations they had but I know Elisha would not be dissuaded to turn back.

https://www.distancesfrom.com/distance-from-Gilgal-to-bethel-Israel/DistanceHistory/39100799.aspx

But then there was another obstacle. At Bethel there were fifty seers who were in tune with what was going to happen to Elijah and they were all keen to make sure Elisha felt the grief.

But still Elisha would not be dissuaded he told them to hold their peace and focused on his master.

It was at Bethel that Jacob had an encounter where he dreamt angels of God descending and ascending on a ladder set upon the Earth but reaching Heaven.(Genesis 28v 16-19)s o the city was prominent and had eminent prophets but the seers were limited by the city history and could not see to the realm of double anointing.

The trip went on to Jericho of the famous wall toppling miracle and another company of seers prophesied Elijah ‘s departure too but still Elisha focused on what he knew: his master. The fifty seers remained in Jericho in the same manner that those in Bethel had remained.

Another crowd stood at the Jordan, another historical site of a miracle. The ever flowing river had halted and dried and the Israel family had crossed on dry ground to their inherited land. Another fifty efforts at dissuading Elisha but he remained focused on what he knew and his master.

At the end of it all Elisha obtained his goal and defied the 150 seers who wanted to only blight his joy and derail his path to a double anointing.

The seers remained seeing the events that would cause pain to others but they did not see the way beyond their towns’ history.

Elisha belived beyond the 150 dissuasions, Elijah’s discouragement and dwelling on history.

Today you can defy all the world’s reasons blocking your path to a greater purpose.

You can see the beyond the blight and discouragement by staying focused.

#betheroutinebreaker

#brokenbutnotafraid

#iamphindelasson

#watchoutforyourtimeandchance

Your time and chance…

04 Jul 2018 29 Comments

by Phindela Muses in Uncategorized Tags: ,

This blog was punctured into being by a discussion with a senior colleague this afternoon. (Thank you for the push Memory Mugwagwa.)

I say punctured because for weeks I have been haunted by the following scripture that I had read and heard so often but did not understand it the way I do now.

I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong, neither is bread to the wise nor riches to men of intelligence and understanding nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all. [Ps. 33:16-19; Rom. 9:16.]
Ecclesiastes 9:11 AMPC
https://bible.com/bible/8/ecc.9.11.AMPC

Everyone understands how the swift may lose the race and how the strong may be floored. We can easily attribute it to many things from human ego to human frailty.

Everyone understands that our confidence easily turns to a bundle of nerves when the unexpected happens.

But I love the later part of the scripture.

But time and chance happens to everyone….

This is my liberating moment and I want to share it with you.

Everyone has the DNA to be a champion and everyone can stand on the summit of the highest hill : If only they awaited and bided their time and chance.

Some miss their time and chance by moaning over the speed of those who have obtained their time and chance.

Some lose patience by seeing the first one hit the rope but do not realise that if they had put more energy, time and chance would have landed them a photo finish and a joint first on the podium.

Time and chance come to those who await with patience , diligence and acumen.

Elisha was a prophet in a town that had at least fifty more prophets who were tuned to the spiritual going ons because they even prophesied to Elisha the imminent departure of Elijah but despite their being tuned to the correct spiritual wavelength they missed the chance and time to the double anointing and remained the ordinary city prophets.

All they sought to do was to remind Elisha of the pending pain and loss but they did not realise that the same departure could also earn them the double portion.

When the local town seers tried to derail him, Elisha remained focused on what was going to get him the double portion of anointing :

And when they had gone over, Elijah said to Elisha, Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you. And Elisha said, I pray you, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me. He said, You have asked a hard thing. However, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you–but if not, it shall not be so.
2 Kings 2:9‭-‬10 AMPC
https://bible.com/bible/8/2ki.2.9-10.AMPC

Elisha’s time and chance to the double anointing was not centred on moaning, comparing, complaining or even grieving the imminent loss of his revered Master. No. It was premised on him remaining alert, steadfast and focused.

As they still went on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire parted the two of them, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it and he cried, My father, my father! The chariot of Israel and its horsemen! And he saw him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.
2 Kings 2:11‭-‬12 AMPC
https://bible.com/bible/8/2ki.2.11-12.AMPC

….. and Elisha SAW Elijah being taken !!! Therewith the deal sealer. Therewith his time and chance and the rest is history.

Every man has his time and chance but many miss as they focus on the tune and chance arriving for others.

Focus, patience, alertness and vision will land you your time and chance.

On your marks….

#betheroutinebreaker

#brokenbutnotafraid

#iamphindelasson

#watchoutforyourtimeandchance

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