New Born Twins

OLD AND YOUNG

Three Sisters

There were three sisters, all roses and of a beauty that let other flowers look pale. The pink one although the oldest was the shyest of the three. Her pink was subtle and pastel but shining like a light in the fresh green.

She grew up with the same delicacy that was her nature, enfolding slowly and without drama. Just a good young rose.

She was so beautiful that she caused strange emotions in some humans who saw her growing.

She created the desire to wipe away any insect that would want to sit on her virgin pink leaves and to punish that ant, that dirty trespasser seriously.

Even when she was beyond that age about which you should not speak with roses and women.... her beauty was still blinding and unbearable.

She died quietly and only then you could see that there were two cousins behind her who had gone unnoticed their whole life.

The end was a strong contrast to her life.

Her younger sister-rose was bold and bright and had chosen a naughty and indecent red. Nobody of her ancestors had ever displayed such a shameless red.

She did not care and threw herself in this world.

Opening quick and living quick. But we have not even seen her pass away so much did she outlive herself. One day she was just gone.

But we remember the youngest one for her stubbornness. She was determined to show the resilience and the strength of a young rose bud. And she would not sway. Or move or look for another way. It was her will to grow straight up into heaven. Heaven the one thing that can not be conquered.

But she out- did the others with her death. What she could not attain in life she reached in death - extravagance. And while living her last days, when the pressure of fighting against the wall was gone and her leaves were free, she was constantly humming the Stones song " DEAD FLOWERS" under my window. I will never forget her. She was a tough little rose.

Know Your Own Mind, Live Your Own Life

" SOMEWHERE along the path of life, every successful person finds out how to live his own life as he wishes to live it."

The younger you are when you discover this mighty power, the more likely you are to live successfully and happily. Yet even in later years, many make the great change - from letting others make them what they are, to making sure that they make their lives to their own liking.

The Creator gave man the prerogative of power over his own mind. It must have been the Creator's purpose to encourage man to live his own life, think his own thoughts, find his own goals and achieve them.

You live in a world filled with outside influences which impinge on you. You are influenced by other people's acts and wishes, by laws and customs, by your duties and your responsibilities. Everything you do has some effect upon others as do their actions upon you.

And yet you must find out how to live your own life, use your own mind, go on towards the dream you wish to make real and solid. Know thyself said the ancient Greek philosophers, and this remains key advice for the man who would be in all ways wealthy.

Without knowing yourself and being yourself, you cannot truly use the one Great Secret which gives you power to mold your future and make life carry you the way you want to go.

( Napoleon Hill in the year 1967 in his book " Think and Grow Rich With Peace of Mind ").

These are some of my favorites thoughts brought to paper forty years back in a fantastic book.

The " Grow " Fine Art Print is available at : Chocolat Negro Recycled Design and Art 

RAINDROPS AND GLASSBEADS

I truly believe that we live in an age now where more and more people develop a higher level of consciousness. More and more people awake to a broader, wider and more enlightened way of thinking that is in it's essence positive and more spiritual.

This is beautiful and very powerful. 

The combined power of changed thinking patterns of many are starting to have a great impact on our world and shape the conditions of our lives. It is known since thousands of years that thoughts are the parents of things. It has never been a secret.

It is now that many amongst us start to live and implement actively this knowledge. If I look around me I see it everywhere.

I have mentioned it before that this is not a blog to describe the socio-economic and political conditions that prevail at the moment in South-Africa. Of course I do live in the cradle of reform against oppression and there are many things on the political scene that I could talk about.

It is also not my mission to describe in detail things like the high crime rate or the poverty gap that exists still in this country. Newspapers and television take care of it and they are doing a good job.

There is no denial in this attitude but I am also convinced that we have to look today at what we want to see tomorrow. 

And tomorrow will be good if the things we look at are good and positive.  

I can feel that everything that I have ever looked in my life, no matter when and where and how young I was.... is still stored in my mind. Nothing is lost and nothing is forgotten although I might think it is. 

It is simply not retrievable because of the fact that I make not complete use of the capacity and the potential of my mind at the moment. 

So to me it makes sense that I have to be selective, very selective where I put my eyes - keeping in mind that everything that I see will burn an impression in my soul and will stay with me forever until the end of my life and longer. 

And this is why this blog looks most of the time at things and moments that are already perfect.

It looks at beauty that can be cultivated further in your mind.

It is my belief that if the things that we want are not yet there, are not present in our lives we can speed up the process by thinking intensely and perseverantly of them. By seeing them in the mind. By imaging their color, their smell, the way they look. By being very selective what we allow ourselves to think.

Rain in Africa is very special. If it rains in Africa people feel so good.  You search the sky if it is turning grey with clouds. The wind brings the smell of rain in the distance and you wish it would rain where you live. 

Where are in the raining season at the moment and these pictures were taken  in the early morning after a  night of rain.It was the type of rain that some call " land rain "  here. A gentle, soft but steady rain that allows the soil to soak up all the water.  The water does not flow away or gets lost. It's like a beauty treatment for the country.  

It was an amazing sight to look at the leaves of one bush early in the morning where raindrops were lined up around the edges of the leaves like strings of the most perfect glass pearls that Cinderella would have worn in her hair for her wedding. All the raindrops were aligned in a harmonious pattern and you could say in nearly the same distance to each other.

You can see more of my pictures in my virtual gallery: Chocolat Negro Flashlight

Or you can buy prints in my Etsy- Online Shop:  Chocolat Negro Recycled Design and Art