Is Life A Prison?

To many people they consider their lives are like Prisons. This is especially true for people who are in deep depression. There is a sense of total hopelessness in a depression.

Here is a Poem written by "Puff" and it illustrates this sense of total helplessness.

Life Is A Prison

By Puff

Life is a prison,

Oh God let me out.

No one to listen,

To hear when you shout.

*****

Climb the walls of insanity,

Ride the waves of despair.

If you fall it don't matter,

There's no one to care.

*****

Used to wish for a window,

To see birds, trees and sky,

But you're better without one -

Stops you aiming too high.

*****

Watching freedom is painful,

For those locked away.

Seeing joy, love and happiness,

Another price that you pay.

*****

Strong is good, weak is bad.

Be it false, be it true.

Your mind makes the choice,

And enforces it too.

*****

Cell walls built by society,

With rules to adhere.

If you breach the acceptable,

You had better beware.

*****

Hide the pain, carry on,

Routine is the key.

Don't let on that you're not,

What you're pretending to be.

*****

Lock it all up inside you,

How badly that bodes.

Look out for that one day,

When it all just explodes.

*****

Leaving naught but a shell,

Base functionality too.

But killing all else,

That was uniquely you.

*****

So how do you grow,

With a time bomb inside?

Or how to defuse it,

Without destroying its ride?

*****

You can't.

*****

A rather sad Poem isn't it? Well, let's look at something not so sad and to many who are in the work force, you may be able to identify with!

Prison	Office
All expenses are paid by the taxpayers with no work required	You get to pay all your expenses to go to work, and they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners
You spend most of your life inside bars wanting to get out	You spend most of your time wanting to get out and go inside bars
You must deal with sadistic wardens	They are called managers
You spend the majority of your time in a 10X10 cell	You spend the majority of your time in an 6X6 cubicle /office
You get three meals a day fully paid for	You get a break for one meal and you have to pay for it
You get time off for good behavior	You get more work for good behaviour
The guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you	You must often carry a security card and open all the doors for yourself
You can watch TV and play games	You could get fired for watching TV and playing games
You get your own toilet	You have to share the toilet with some people who pee on the seat
They allow your family and friends to visit	You aren't even supposed to speak to your family

Jay Leno Speaks

I love the Jay Leno Show don't you? I love his sense of humour but there is a very practical side of Jay Leno which although made to sound humourous yet they are so true! Take for example Jay Leno's Quote Of The Month shown below.

'With hurricanes, tornadoes, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?'

I am from the 40's and here is what Jay Leno got to say bout those who survived through the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes. Then after the trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright coloured lead-base paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes. Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon.

We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And we weren't overweight.............WHY? Because we were always outside playing............ that's why! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on..... No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were OKAY. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running onto the bushes a few times, we learned to solve this problem.

We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CS's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms. WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping pong paddles, or just a bare hand and no one would call child services to report abuse.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worm's did not live in us forever. We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out very many eyes. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

If YOU are one of them, CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good. While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?

The Old And The New

The Title seems to mean anything but today I just want to share on Friends, Friendship and Working at Friendships which is an article posted on The Malaysian Insider and written by Angela K! Hemm! Reminds me of one of my favourite Jazz singer Sarah K!!!!

Recently, some of my College and University friends contacted me and we had a get together and one of them mentioned that nowadays, he tend to go through the Obituary Section of the Newspaper!!! Well, he did come across certain long loss friends being mentioned there and suddenly he had this desire of to re-connect with old college-mates and varsity friends before they check-out!

If you have read the article by Angela K; I think we can identify ourselves with what she wrote there and the beauty of how we keep those relationships intact even though we sort of seldom keep in contact. The occasional email is what our relationships boils down to.

At my age, above 60, I could not imagine myself being active in the social circles of life not withstanding the fact of being a full-time home caregiver! The internet and blogging attracted me and through this media, I do make new friends locally as well as from afar! Two of my blogging buddies, one from Indonesia and the other from Hong Kong were in Kuala Lumpur a few months back and we managed to meet-up face-to-face.

Although we became great friends online but nothing compares with a face-to-face encounter! Yeah, we know how each of us look like from the photos but in real life things get more real! One can feel the warmth, the personality, and of course the comradeship!

One thing that struck me was at our varsity get together, when one of them came over to give me a big bear hug for we have not meet with each other ever since we graduated which is over 30 years ago! I can still feel the warmth of the hug and the long lost relationship we had in years gone by.v

Personally I hold my relationships very dear and to me, life is about building meaningful, authentic relationships! Life can be a joy if we keep our relationships in tact! This brings to mind about those who are about to leave planet earth and the one thing they wish to do is to make right all broken relationships as far as it is practical. However, in my personal opinion, one relationship we MUST make right is with Almighty God!

Reflections on Sunday - Sam And Esther

Let's watch this Youtube Video and ponder on it shall we?

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Story of Lucky The Golden Retriever

Mary and her husband Jim had a dog named 'Lucky.' Lucky was a real character. Whenever Mary and Jim had company come for a weekend visit, they would warn their friends not to leave their luggage open because Lucky would help himself to whatever struck his fancy. Inevitably, someone would forget and something would come up missing.

Mary or Jim would go to Lucky's toy box in the basement and there the treasure would be, amid all of Lucky's other favorite toys Lucky always stashed his finds in his toy box and he was very particular that his toys stay in the box.

It happened that Mary found out she had breast cancer. Something told her she was going to die of this disease....in fact; she was just sure it was fatal.

She scheduled the double mastectomy, fear riding her shoulders. The night before she was to go to the hospital she cuddled with Lucky. A thought struck her...what would happen to Lucky? Although the three-year-old dog liked Jim, he was Mary's dog through and through. If I die, Lucky will be abandoned, Mary thought. He won't understand that I didn't want to leave him! The thought made her sadder than thinking of her own death.

The double mastectomy was harder on Mary than her doctors had anticipated and Mary was hospitalized for over two weeks. Jim took Lucky for his evening walk faithfully, but the little dog just drooped, whining and miserable.

Finally the day came for Mary to leave the hospital. When she arrived home, Mary was so exhausted she couldn't even make it up the steps to her bedroom. Jim made his wife comfortable on the couch and left her to nap.

Lucky stood watching Mary but he didn't come to her when she called. It made Mary sad but sleep soon overcame her and she dozed.

When Mary woke for a second she couldn't understand what was wrong. She couldn't move her head and her bod y felt heavy and hot. But panic soon gave way to laughter when Mary realized the problem. She was covered, literally blanketed, with every treasure Lucky owned! While she had slept, the sorrowing dog had made trip after trip to the basement bringing his beloved mistress all his favorite things in life. He had covered her with his love.

Mary forgot about dying. Instead she and Lucky began living again, walking further and further together every day. It's been 12 years now and Mary is still cancer-free. Lucky - He still steals treasures and stashes them in his toy box but Mary remains his greatest treasure.

Remember......live life every day to the fullest. Each minute is a Blessing. Remember that.....the people who make a difference in our lives are not the ones with the most Credentials, the most Money, or the most Awards. They are the ones that care for us and give us their time!

I would like some dog-lovers to share some of their own stories about their pets!