MORAL LESSON

 Hello eku, dee de iwoyio.

I would like to share another short story with you again this month.

Long-time ago in the Animal Kingdom,  a sheep was passing and saw a lion crying inside a cage trapped and the lion begged the sheep to save him with a promise not to kill and eat it but the sheep refused. After much persuasion and for the sheep's gullibility it opened the cage for the lion.

Now the lion was very hungry having stayed in the cage for days without food. It quickly grabbed the sheep to kill and eat but the sheep reminded him of his promise. They were still there arguing when other animals came passing and they sought to know what happened. Both the lion and the sheep narrated their own side of the story but because of fear and in trying to gain favor in the sight of the lion, all the animals took side with the lion except the Tortoise who claim not to understand the whole scenario.

Now the Tortoise asked the lion to show them where he was before the sheep rescued him, he pointed at the cage. He asked again, "Were you inside or outside when the sheep arrived"? The lion said he was inside. The tortoise again said, "ok, enter let’s see how difficult it could be inside". The lion entered and the tortoise locked him back inside.

In amazement, the other animals asked the tortoise "why" and he replied "if we allow him to eat the sheep today, he will still go hungry tomorrow and we don't know the next amongst us to be eaten tomorrow.

The Moral of this story; don’t support evil today because it doesn't affect you directly, it could be your turn tomorrow.

We celebrate you if you were born in August. Birthdays are a new start, a fresh beginning, and a time to pursue new endeavors with new goals. May today and all of your days be amazing!

Have a wonderful month everybody! Stay safe and stay healthy.

Eric O. Thompson

YAJ.

Humility

 Hello eku dee de iwoyio.

I would like to share this short story with you. You may have seen it before but it is worth sharing and revisiting because it may help someone.

I recently ran into an old classmate, we had not seen each other for about 30 years.

When I saw him in a hotel lobby, he was looking simple. He wore simple clothes. I felt touched. He walked up to me and was glad to see me again. But deep within me, I was not impressed with his status compared to mine, and poor me, I couldn't hide it. We exchanged contact details and I could see the joy in him as he collected mine.

I offered to drop him off at his home in my brand new Range Rover I pointed to it but He declined and said he had already called for his car. It looked old, a 2001 Honda Accord.

I invited him the next day for lunch at my house. A part of me wanted to impress him, to show off my success and affluence to him, while another was to discuss opportunities and possibly help him.

He drove to where I live. He looked impressed I had taken a heavy mortgage. In fact, I was heavily in debt. we had lunch. He told me he was into small business and particularly real estate. I brought up more business discussions, but he didn't sound too interested. I asked him how I could help him. He said he was fine. I even told him if he was interested, I could help him secure some loans... He looked at me and smiled.

He told me he would invite me over soon to his place. His old car came for him. I was grateful for what I had.  “Fingers are not all equal”, I thought to myself...I was lucky. I worked in a good place.

Two weeks later, my wife and I went to see him in a remote area.

She was reluctant to go because she was not impressed with the man's status as to warrant our visiting him in his house. I was able to convince her that we were close friends in college. We saw the Estate. We asked for directions to his home. Those leading us spoke his name with deference and reverence.

It was a simple but lovely home. It was a 4 bedroom bungalow. I saw 4 cars parked in front. We entered his home. It was simply elegant with a touch of class inside. He welcomed us warmly. Lunch was well served.

During lunch, he asked about my MD. He said they were friends. I saw a company gift on one of his tables nearby. That company owned about 38% of the shares where I worked. I enquired from him about it. He smiled. He told me he owned the company. He also owned the estate.

I did not know when I called him sir... I was in awe of him.

I had learned a lesson in humility, a big one! Appearances are deceptive.

Driving back home, I was very quiet. My wife was humbled and extremely calm. I could perceive the thoughts in her mind. I looked at myself. Living on loans, heavy loans, and showing off while someone who pays my salary is quite modest and living a simple life!

Adjust your perception toward life and others because indeed Deeper Rivers Flow In Majestic Silence!

We celebrate you if you were born in July. Your birthday is the first day of another 365-day journey. Be the shining thread in the beautiful world and be a blessing and inspiration to the people around you! May you be given many more birthdays to fulfill all your dreams!

Have a wonderful month everybody! Stay safe and stay healthy.

Eric O. Thompson

YAJ.

Statements of Encouragement: Legacy.

 Hello eku dee de iwoyio.

I would like to share and encourage you with this article which is an excerpt;

“How Dad's name from his Grave saved my life” by Tunde Jakande

I suddenly took ill last week and had to be rushed to the Hospital.

I was given some Medication that eventually stabilized my condition.

When I became conscious of my Environment, the Doctor who attended to me began asking some health-related questions.

While punching my details into the computer, he asked me; Are you Tunde Jakande?

I answered; yes Doctor.

Are you related to Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande?

Yes.

He immediately stopped what he was doing and went emotional.

That Man made me a Doctor. Oh LKJ!

I come from a very poor home and was brought to Lagos from the East as House help to one of my Uncles. The People were not interested in sending me to school.

While they sent their Children to Private Schools, I was left on my own.

But I wanted to go to School and grudgingly, they sent me to Jakande School which was free. I probably would have ended up as a Street Boy but that man gave me hope.

The day he died, I cried. I prayed for his soul.

Listen I will give you my private number and will personally make sure you are ok.

I am so happy to meet you, Mr. Tunde. Please be my Friend.

The doctor has called me more than five times since I left the Hospital, enquiring about my health condition.

He is doing this not because of money or other benefits but to pay back a deed done by a man he had never met.

How are you affecting the lives of People around you today?

How will or can your deeds today affect the lives of your Children, Grand Children, or Relatives decades from now?

All through my life, People have welcomed me into their Homes, Offices, and lives. They have given me opportunities because of the name I carry.

I realized early that planting positivity in the lives of People and doing good to them is what will eventually impact the lives of my Children and Grand Children on their journey in life.

I urge us all to take a moment to reflect on our values and the reputation we are building for our future generations.

We must reset our priorities and strive to leave a legacy such that someone, somewhere, whom we probably have not met, will say, if not for that man.

We celebrate you if you were born in June. Happy birthday to you. From good friends and true, from old friends and new, may good luck go with you always and happiness too!

Have a wonderful month everyone! Stay safe, stay strong, mask up, and stay healthy.

Eric O. Thompson

YAJ.

Statements of Encouragement: Space

  Hello and eku deede iwoyi o!

I would like to share these three sentences I read in a book some time ago with you;

 Between stimulus and response, there is a space.

In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response.

In those choices lie our growth and our happiness.

Those sentences really touched me that I even coined them for my classes.

I`m sure everybody has also learned from various sources about our freedom to choose our response to whatever happens to us. I have even shared something similar in the past but this aspect of space between whatever happens to us and our response to it is special.

             Stimulus   -------------Response

 I will spare you the detail, but I have come to understand that the size of the space is subjective, that is, it depends on our genetic makeup, our upbringing, and our present circumstances. To some it is wide or long, to some it is short. It is the use of the space that is very important. Some with a short space may cave in when facing adversity while others with the same or wider space size may swim upstream against their circumstances to happiness and make use of their priceless gift. The difference is that they used their space or their freedom to choose differently. The awareness of our freedom and power to choose can excite our sense of possibility and potential and our responsibility or response-ability and accountability. It is certain that there may be things that happen to us over which we have no choice. We still have the power to choose how we respond. No matter what has happened, or is happening, or will happen, there is a space between those things and the response to them. Even if it`s only a fraction of a second between stimulus and response, the space represents our power to choose our response to any situation.

We celebrate you if you were born in May. May you be gifted with life’s biggest joys and never-ending bliss. Happy Birthday!

Have a wonderful month everyone! Stay safe, stay strong, mask up, and stay healthy.

Eric O. Thompson

YAJ.

Statements of Encouragement: Perceptions

 Hello and eku deede iwoyi o!

I will like to share this story I came across some time ago. It goes like this;

A farmer walked into an attorney's office wanting to file for a divorce from his wife.

The attorney asked; May I help you?

The farmer said; "Yea, I want to get me one of those Day-vorces."

The attorney said; "Do you have any grounds?"

The farmer said; "Yea, I got about 140 acres."

The attorney said; "No sir, you don't understand, do you have a case?"

The farmer said; "No I don't have a case, but I have a John Deere....."

The attorney said; "No, you don't understand, do you have any grudges?"

The farmer said; "Yea I have a grudge, that's where I park my John Deere."

The attorney said; "No sir, I mean do you have a suit?"

The farmer said; "Yea, I have a suit, I wear it to Church on Sundays."

The attorney said; "Well sir, does your wife beat you up or anything?"

The farmer said; "No sir, we both get up at 04:30."

The attorney then said; “Okay. let me put it this way, Why do you want a divorce?”

The farmer said; “Well, I can never have a meaningful conversation with her.”

My experience is that, if people really try to understand each other, they will in most cases come to agree with each other because over 90 percent of all communication problems are caused by semantics or perceptions. Whenever people listen to each other with true empathy that puts them on the same page, then they discuss their disagreements in agreeable ways and may possibly solve them through synergy, the third side of the coin, or the third alternative or a form of compromise.

We celebrate you if you were born in April. Don't count your years but the life you live. Happy Birthday!

Have a wonderful month everyone! Stay safe, get vaccinated, or get the booster shot as soon as possible if you haven’t done so, stay strong, mask up, and stay healthy.

 

Eric Thompson

YAJ.

Statements of Encouragement: Reality.

 Hello and eku deede iwoyi o!

There was a popular song in the ’90s called “I Believe I Can Fly.” The song has made its way around the world, inspiring millions of people to believe in themselves. It’s of a similar theme to the old saying you’ve probably heard many times from a parent, mentor, or teacher: “If you believe it, you can achieve it.”

The truth is, just believing something doesn’t make it so. A pig will never fly, and neither will you. There’s a big difference between a fantasy and a dream. Fantasies exist only in the imagination, but dreams…well, dreams can come true.

But it takes work to make a dream a reality. After all, a dream that has no chance of becoming reality is nothing more than a waste of time.

That’s the tricky thing about dreams. The best dreams are bold and ambitious full of hope and possibility. But what makes a dream worthwhile is your ability to bring it into reality. The difference between a fantasy and a dream is reality.

We don’t have the ability to achieve whatever we believe. It doesn’t matter how much you believe you can fly, if you jump out of a plane without a parachute, the law of gravity will take over, you cannot change your mind and it’s all over.

Think about the difference between fantasizers and dreamers:

Fantasizers rely on luck. Dreamers rely on discipline.

Fantasizers wait. Dreamers initiate.

Fantasizers make others responsible. Dreamers take responsibility.

Fantasizers focus on the destination. Dreamers focus on the journey.

Fantasizers minimize the value of work. Dreamers maximize the work they do.

Successful people don’t leave everything to chance. They focus on what they can do and they do it.

If your dream is unrealistic, you will depend on things that are outside of your control to make it a reality. There must be a balance between the boldness of your dream and the reality of your situation.

Successful people have mastered the art of reaching beyond what they’re capable of while depending on factors within their control. This is called aligning your dreams with your talent and skills.

I want to challenge you to look in the mirror and be honest with yourself about your dreams. Are you trying to do things that you really aren’t suited for?

Reality is never the enemy of a dream as long as you are depending on factors within your control. Factors like your knowledge, your skill, your potential, your habits, and your attitude.

Ask yourself these questions as you seek to find that place where dream and reality meet:

What is my dream? What are my strengths? What are my weaknesses?

What are my positive habits? What are my negative habits?

How long must I practice my positive habits to reach my potential?

Believing in your dream isn’t enough. You must understand your reality if you want to see your dream come true. I want to encourage you today—dream big, dream bold, and dream beyond imagination!

But more than that, I want to see you accomplish your dreams. And I believe that is possible—with a lot of work. So what are you waiting for? Go for it!

 

We celebrate you if you were born in March. Wishing you the happiest of birthdays and many more that top the year before, and may all your wishes come true!

Have a wonderful month everyone! Stay safe, get vaccinated, or get the booster shot as soon as it`s available, stay strong, mask up, and stay healthy.

 

Eric Thompson

YAJ.

Statements of Encouragement: Priorities.

 Hello and eku deede iwoyi o! It`s already February everybody!

I will like to follow up on last month`s write-up with this because they work hand in hand.

Anytime a person doesn`t know what his priorities are, he can find himself in trouble because he is liable to make poor decisions. German Poet John Wolfgang said, “Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.” I must admit this has been an area of weakness for me such as pleasing people at my expense. I experienced a crisis that caused me to come to grips with my priorities.

What are your priorities? I once asked my students this question and I want to ask you; In fifty or a hundred years from now what are you doing now, that will still be important? The house you live in, the car you drive, the position you hold, the money you have, etc. won`t mean much. What really matters? I encourage you to work hard to keep unimportant from becoming important and vise vasa. I must tell you that the secret of your success, depending on what the definition of success is to you, is determined by your daily agenda. It boils down to what you do today. Every day of our life is merely preparation for the next. Each is a process.

Growth, success, and fulfillment come from making wise decisions on the priorities for your life and managing them well daily. You need to know what priorities to set for every aspect of your life. It is also necessary to be disciplined and persevere to be able to maintain it and avoid distractions daily.

We celebrate you if you were born in February. May you always follow your own unique path when walking through this life's journey!

Have a wonderful month everyone! Stay safe, get vaccinated, or get the booster shot as soon as it`s available, stay strong, mask up, and stay healthy.

Eric Thompson

YAJ.