Is It Really New?

We tend to say Happy New Year, every time the calendar changes to January 1st. But is the year really new? What makes a year new to you? Is it the additional numbers on the calendar, from 2023 to 2024? Is it the energy in the atmosphere? Is it you? Have you renewed your mind now that you've had a chance to live for 365 days on earth and have allowed yourself to learn,  heal and do better, so that the next 366 days of 2024 will yield the results you've been wanting to see?  

What is really new for you in 2024?

What Are You Thankful For?

Often times we find ourselves complaining, wining and seeing life from "our cup is half full" perspective. We live in a bubble that allows us to think and believe we are short-changed. We do practice gratitude, but here and there. Every now and then. And perhaps when something major happens and we realized just how blessed we are. 

However, this shouldn't be the case. We ought to be thankful more often. Thanksgiving should be on our daily routine. When we wake up we can be;

Thankful we are awake

Thankful we can eat

Thankful we can talk

Thankful we can write 

Thankful we can drink

Thankful we can see

Thankful we can hear

Thankful we have in our lives (regardless of how they may be towards us sometimes)

Thankful for that job

Thankful for that spouse / fiancé(e)

Thankful for a roof over our heads

Thankful for the children we have and those we never got to have

Thankful for the rain

Thankful for the sun

Thankful for the clothes we get to wear

Thankful for God's favor, mercy and grace

Thankful in the midst of that trial and tribulation 

We don't have to wait until Thanksgiving to remind ourselves of the things we ought to be thankful for. We are to be grateful in all things and for all things, period!

Take a look at your life and start practicing gratitude, you never know what's just around the corner! 

Xoxo

Mamatembo Safari

Faith It Till You Make It

I was reading the Bible recently and I had a strange thought. Remember when the children of Israel would win battles in the days of Joshua when they entered the promise land, not because they were stronger than every other army, but because God would say, don't be afraid, go fight them and I will give you victory over them. Then it got me thinking. When I go to church and a Pastor says, 'increase your faith,' I failed to recognize that whatever it was that I wanted to see happen or changed in my life, was not for me to do it but for God to do it. So, I thought, the issue was not me believing in me, the issue was me not believing God can solve it. What a light bulb moment. Now, my resolution for the remainder of the year is, "Faith it till you make it." Have faith that God will do it because HE CAN, and watch it come to manifest! Whoop Whoop!! XOXO MamatemboSafari

Silence

Is it just me, or do we get to embrace peace, silence and calmness when we get older? I mean come on, who wants to be at a club on weekends? Who wants to hear nagging friends, kids (I joke), family members, co-workers, neighbors? Don't you just want to be in a place where you get to spend more time with your thoughts? Do some self reflecting, get to figure things out, pray and do whatever you wanna do? I mean, you can watch Netflix, or cuddle with boo (to each their own). But I really mean it, is it just me or is everyone in their mid thirties onwards just want to have more time in silence than anything else? It's one thing to have silence, but it's another thing to let your mind wander towards the negative thoughts. Our brains know how to gravitate towards the things that hurt us, the pain, the sadness and everything bad that's ever happened to us. Who can relate? (anyone??? don't leave me hanging!!) I know I sometimes catch myself having those thoughts like, why did they do this to me? Why did I let myself do or go through that? And it takes a second to jump from being present and sober-minded, to living in the past and being a victim. I hate that. So,these days, I make sure I have my headset on, when I catch myself having negative thoughts, I immediately divert to things that make me happy, that can be some good old-school music, funny reels, a nice movie on Netflix / Prime Video or my most favorite, listening to the Bible on the Bible App. Silence is fun, silence is good, silence is scary, but through silence is when we get to really face ourselves. But we need to know when to stop negative thoughts that creep in when we are doing "SILENCE" xoxo Mamatembo