A little girl and her father were crossing a bridge. The father was kind of scared so he asked his little daughter: “Sweetheart, please hold my hand so that you don’t fall into the river.” The little girl said: “No, Dad. You hold my hand.” “What’s the difference?” Asked the puzzled father. “There’s a big difference,” replied the little girl. “If I hold your hand and something happens to me, chances are that I may let your hand go. But if you hold my hand, I know for sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go.” In any relationship, the essence of trust is not in its bind, but in its bond. So hold the hand of the person whom you love rather than expecting them to hold yours…

My day started just like all the other days for the past 15 years where I get up, make some coffee, shower, get dressed and leave for the train station at preciously 7:35 A.M. to arrive at work by 8:30. While on the train I would always choose a seat away from the crowd so I can read the newspaper in peace and quiet. At work I am always being bombarded with questions from coworkers, suppliers, telephone and then those dreaded meetings so the last thing I need is some stranger to sit beside me and make small talk. I don’t know why but for some reason when I got on the train today it was unusually full, something I don’t recall ever happening in the past. With hesitation I sat down in the only seat available beside a middle aged man that had his head down and seemed to be lost in his thoughts. I was glad that he didn’t notice when I sat next to him as he just continued to look down towards the floor. Shortly after the train left for my 30 minute ride downtown I found myself wondering wha...

A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the “half empty or half full” question. Instead, with a smile on her face, she inquired: ”How heavy is this glass of water?” Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz. She replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.” She continued, “The stresses and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of doing anything.” It’s important to remember to let go of your...

My mother used to ask me what is the most important part of the body. Through the years I would take a guess at the correct answer. When I was younger, I thought sound was very important to us as humans, so I said, “My ears, Mommy.” She said, “No. Many people are deaf yet they manage. I will ask you again soon.” Several years passed before she asked me again. So this time I told her, “Mommy, sight is very important to everybody, so it must be our eyes.” She looked at me and told me, ” Incorrect. There are many people in World who are blind.” Stumped again, I continued my quest for knowledge and over the years, Mother asked me a couple more times and always her answer was, “No. I shall wait for right answer , my child.” Then one year, my grandfather died. Everybody was hurt. Everybody was crying. Even my father cried. I remember that especially because I seldom saw him cry. My Mom looked at me when it was our turn to say our final good-bye to my Grandfather. She asked me, “Do you know t...

I love it when you run your fingers through my rugged hair, I love it when you get jealous because other boys will stare, I love it when you call me beautiful and compliment me so, I love it when you seem so confused as if you don’t know, Ilove the way you stare at me and look into my eyes, My heart gets so heavy and deep that all the time just flies, I love the way you kiss me so gentle you lips so calm, I love the way you hold my hand and rubb your fingers against my palm, I love it when you wrap your arms around me the way that I felt, When you stare me down and hug me tight I just want to melt, I love your beautiful smile everytime I see it I want to faint, Your laugh is so soothing it heals me like you’re a saint, I love the way you whisper to me when someone is nearby, I love it when you say sweet things that make me want to cry, I love the way you look at me with that cute little puppy face, It seems as if you are so sad or simply out of place, I love the way you are so confiden...

HOW THE APOSTLES DIED. 1. Matthew Suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia, Killed by a sword wound. 2. Mark Died in Alexandria, Egypt , after being dragged by Horses through the streets until he was dead. 3. Luke Was hanged in Greece as a result of his tremendous Preaching to the lost. 4. John Faced martyrdom when he was boiled in huge Basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution In Rome. However, he was miraculously delivered From death. John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison Island of Patmos. He wrote his prophetic Book of Revelation on Patmos . The apostle John was later freed and returned to serve As Bishop of Edessa in modern Turkey . He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully 5. Peter He was crucified upside down on an x-shaped cross. According to church tradition it was because he told his tormentors that he felt unworthy to die In the same way that Jesus Christ had died. 6. James The leader of the church in Jerusalem , was thrown over a hundred feet down ...

There once was a farmer who discovered that he had lost his watch in the barn. It was no ordinary watch because it had sentimental value for him. After searching high and low among the hay for a long while; he gave up and enlisted the help of a group of children playing outside the barn. He promised them that the person who found it would be rewarded. Hearing this, the children hurried inside the barn, went through and around the entire stack of hay but still could not find the watch. Just when the farmer was about to give up looking for his watch, a little boy went up to him and asked to be given another chance. The farmer looked at him and thought, “Why not? After all, this kid looks sincere enough.” So the farmer sent the little boy back in the barn. After a while the little boy came out with the watch in his hand! The farmer was both happy and surprised and so he asked the boy how he succeeded where the rest had failed. The boy replied, “I did nothing but sit on the ground and list...

How can a traumatic event like job loss be a gift? It can, if you consider the rarely discussed upside this situation offers – the gift of time. Instead of going to work, you can strategically invest your time to build your professional and private future and to pursue activities that you might have postponed for years during employment. Your time, yes, your lifetime, is your most important commodity – something we usually forget when dealing with our careers. Of course, you will have to find employment eventually, but delaying a full-time job search by a few months might pay lifelong dividends. Consider this: 1. You should expect job loss during you working life:You will work probably ~40 years total in a lifetime. The chance of losing your job at least once is high. That risk is independent of your level of hierarchy, education, performance, or your skills. 2. Your lifetime is limited and unknown to you:While you might expect to live to a certain old age based on actuarial tables, yo...

The V-22 Osprey made headlines after it landed in Kenyatta University. Students were excited but the media pretended to know more about the chopper hence many articles and photos covered the social networks with different opinions about the helicopter’s capabilities. So how special is the V-22 Osprey? The helicopter is unlike any aircraft in the world. It is a joint service multirole combat aircraft utilizing tiltrotor technology to combine the vertical performance of a helicopter with the speed and range of a fixed-wing aircraft. With its rotors in vertical position, it can take off, land and hover like a helicopter. Once airborne, it can convert to a turboprop airplane capable of high-speed, high-altitude flight. This combination results in global reach capabilities that allow the V-22 to fill an operational niche unlike any other aircraft. In short it’s the fastest helicopter and can land anywhere.The V-22 is is powered by two Rolls-Royce T406/AE 1107C-Liberty turboshaft engines, ea...

uring my second year of nursing school our professor gave us a quiz. I breezed through the questions until I read the last one: “What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?” Surely this was a joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Before the class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our grade. “Absolutely,” the professor said. “In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is Smile and say Hello.” ~ Joann C. Jones Who do you meet every day but hardly know? What are you communicating by your lack of a personal relationship with people who you meet but don’t really communicate with on a daily basis? What opportunities to expand our influence and to be enriched by relationships are we missing? Can simply learning someones name be considered kindness? ~ Joe Palmer http://mark...

Everywhere you turn you get an impression that Kenya is on auction: Headlines of public land grabbed for private development, Parliamentary debates on accusations and counter accusations of politicians alleged to have taken bribes, political leaders and civil servants being pushed left right and centre to resign owing to graft allegations, scandals being exposed, security crisis, education crisis, land crisis and millions of many other problems all blamed on corruption as their root cause. Is this a country on auction, everyone trying to get a piece of it before everything is taken? The saddest part is that it's not only the material wealth of the nation that is under threat but also its moral and social wealth. Early this year Principal Secretary for Defence, Mutea Iringo, invited hundreds of Kenyan leaders to his village school, Njuki Njiru Primary School in Meru. Several MPs and other leaders spent the day interacting with pupils inspiring them to succeed in education. I visited...

Entrepreneurship is glorified in our society today. I have enough experience under my belt to remember the “before” picture of entrepreneurship and it wasn’t always this way. When I came out of school in the 80s, you were almost a misfit if you started your own company. Sentiment toward entrepreneurs at the time was like brackish water; they weren’t disdained but they weren’t heroes either. However, in the mid-80s, during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, there was a very specific period of time when you had the emergence of companies like Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, Adobe and MYOB. And during that time, entrepreneurship went from the refuge of the misfits who couldn’t find a job to something that became more accepted. By the 1990s, entrepreneurship had become accepted by the mainstream and today entrepreneurs are rock stars.The purpose of this article is not to give you the history of entrepreneurship but to share a realistic picture of being an entrepreneur that’s outside of the conversation...

Inspiring arts and talents The calendar has been marked for an evening of glitz and glamor at the inaugural Jumia Kenya Glamor Awards scheduled for Saturday 8th August 2015 at the Boma hotel. The gala night will be opened with a mix of performances and a set of comedy by iconic and upcoming Kenyan artists, the dress code will be a touch of orange. The awards seek to recognize Kenya’s arts and talent for their work. This year’s theme is Inspiring arts and talents. Parinaz Firozi – MD, Jumia said, “It takes courage to follow one’s talent, courage that must be recognised and rewarded. We are humbled to inspire and support Kenya’s arts and talents through sponsorship of this year’s Jumia Kenya Glamour Awards and hope that those recognised will continue to nature and inspire others.” The list of nominees has been released and can be viewed below. You will be required to SMS the name and code of your preferred candidate only once every 24 hours to 072474 7777 every sms cost Ksh.1 and equals ...

As the real estate industry continues to boom in Kenya, people are looking to invest in property. This is because investing in real estate has a lower risk than stock and forex trading. There is a wave of owning a house or land in Kenya and many high-net-worth individuals as well as investment analysts are confident of real estate investment. Lamudi Kenya Managing Director Dan Karua said: “Investing in real estate guarantees good returns over time depending on the location of the property and the type of property one has invested in. Land in Kenya is very common and people are willing to invest far and wide because infrastructure in the country is growing fast in different areas of the country.” There are several benefits of investing in land as opposed to the other types of properties in the market. You do not have to do anything to vacant land. Once you buy land, you do not have to spend extra to do anything to land. You can sell it as it is. The most people do is to put a fence roun...

For real estate agents, having an online presence is no longer optional. In a world where so much of our interaction is now online, the advantages of using property portals and social media to reach house-hunters cannot be ignored. Global property portal Lamudi looks at six easy ways real estate agents and brokers can harness the power of the Internet to reach a wider audience. 1. Pictures, pictures, pictures High-quality photo are crucial for creating a strong first impression and, ultimately, to getting more house-hunters to attend a viewing. Research from residential real estate firm Redfin shows that professionally photographed homes are more likely to sell - and for more money. However, you do not necessarily need to fork out thousands for a professional photo shoot. If you are taking the images yourself, keep the following in mind: use a good camera, make sure the property is clean and tidy, and try to take the photos in natural light where possible. 2. Share your property listin...

The ego exists on misery – the more misery the more nourishment for it. In blissful moments the ego totally disappears, and vice versa: if the ego disappears, bliss starts showering on you. If you want the ego, you cannot forgive, you cannot forget – particularly the hurts, the wounds, the insults, the humiliations, the nightmares. Not only that you cannot forget, you will go on exaggerating them, you will emphasize them. You will tend to forget all that has been beautiful in your life, you will not remember joyous moments; they serve no purpose as far as the ego is concerned. Joy is like poison to the ego, and misery is like vitamins. You will have to understand the whole mechanism of the ego. If you try to forgive, that is not real forgiveness. With effort, you will only repress. You can forgive only when you understand the stupidity of the whole game that goes on within your mind. The total absurdity of it all has to be seen through and through, otherwise you will repress from one s...

If you are into financial investment, you’re probably very familiar with Mr. Warren Buffet (1951–present). He is the most successful investor in the world. His investment strategies are legendary and many people seek to learn after him. Even more respectable, he pledged to give away 99% of his wealth (more than $30 billions at the time of the pledge in 2006) to non-profit foundations, mostly to Bill Gate’s Foundation. Mr. Buffet often travels to universities to give speeches to educate and motivate students. Here is one of his speeches to teach us the value of our body, to invest in ourselves, in education for a great future. Imagine that a Genie offers you any car in the world. The catch is that it is the only car you will ever own. What would you do? You would read the manual ten times, change the oil twice as often as required, and you would take fastidious care so that that car remained the car of your dreams forever. Think about what this tells you about your body. You get only on...

On Wednesday, July 8 2015, the leadership of the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy and that of Narc Kenya met the officials of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission in a last ditch effort to express our views on the Strategic Plan that was launched yesterday, July 9, 2015. At the Wednesday meeting, we expressed strong concerns about the Strategic Plan and appealed for postponement of the launch. We made this appeal based on our understanding that a Strategic Plan is an important tool in providing a sense of direction and outlining measurable goals, guiding day-to-day decisions and also for evaluating progress and changing approaches when moving forward. We also expressed very specific concerns about the document, among them: 1: PROCESS: •As Opposition, our views were never sought by the IEBC which came to us at the tail end of the process, when even the date of the launch was already set. 2: CONTENT: Our concerns in regard to Content included: •Since this is the first t...

A time comes in your life when you finally get it…when, in the midst of all your fears and insanity, you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere the voice inside your head cries out…ENOUGH! Enough fighting and crying and blaming and struggling to hold on. Then, like a child quieting down after a tantrum, you blink back your tears and begin to look at the world through new eyes. This is your awakening. You realize it’s time to stop hoping and waiting for something to change, or for happiness, safety and security to magically appear over the next horizon. You realize that in the real world there aren’t always fairy tale endings, and that any guarantee of “happily ever after” must begin with you… and in the process a sense of serenity is born of acceptance. You awaken to the fact that you are not perfect and that not everyone will always love, appreciate or approve of who or what you are… and that’s OK. They are entitled to their own views and opinions. You learn the importance of loving a...

Castro Internet Archive History Will Absolve Me Spoken: 1953 Publisher: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, La Habana, Cuba. 1975 Translated: Pedro Álvarez Tabío & Andrew Paul Booth (who rechecked the translation with the Spanish La historia me absolverá, same publisher, in 1981) Transcription/Markup: Andrew Paul Booth/Brian Baggins Online Version: 1997, Castro Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2001 HONORABLE JUDGES: Never has a lawyer had to practice his profession under such difficult conditions; never has such a number of overwhelming irregularities been committed against an accused man. In this case, counsel and defendant are one and the same. As attorney he has not even been able to take a look at the indictment. As accused, for the past seventy-six days he has been locked away in solitary confinement, held totally and absolutely incommunicado, in violation of every human and legal right. He who speaks to you hates vanity with all his being, nor are his temperament or frame of mind ...