The Gift

Hey!

I just thought I would take a moment out to explain why my blog is called "The Gift". Basically it comes from the saying "Every day is a gift, thats why its called the present". I called my blog the gift because every day I get to write something I care about is a gift to me. I am greatful for new day that begins and ends, especially the ones which I get to share with the people I love, and every day I spent with the people I love who are no longer with me in person were also a gift.

Leanne x

Insperational Quotes

Through the hard times in life you should always try to remember the good things in life. Here are a few of my favourite quotes:

• Though you may be under a dark tree, always look for the light shining through the branches
• Trials give you strength, sorrows give understanding and wisdom (Chuck T. Falcon)
• Fall seven times, stand up eight (Japanese proverb)
• The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing (Albert Einstein)
• Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes like meaningful (Joshua J. Marine)
• Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to row beyond what you were (Cherie Carter-Scott)
• A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart (Johann Wolfgang Gorthe, from "Faust")
• No one can make you feel inferior without your consent (Eleanor Roosevelt)
• Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy (Anne Frank)
• We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
• It is in the shelter of each other that the people live (Irish proverb)
• Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me. (Carol Burnett)
• There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered (Nelson Mandela)
• If you dont like something, change it; if you cant change it, change the way you think about it (Mary Engelbreit)
• You must be the change you wish to see in the world (Mahatma Gandhi)
• In order to accept change and the suffering it brings, we need to find meaning in it ( Mary Norton Gordon)
• The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step (Lao Tse)
• Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed. (Storm Jameson)
• The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each others life (Richard Bach)
• The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him abdolutelt no good (Ann Landers)
• You havent failed until you quit trying
• Take the first step in faith. You dont have to see the whole stair case, just take the first step (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)
• As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others (Nelson Mandela)
• A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out (Walter Winchell
• If you can not feed a hundered people, then just feed one (mother Teresa)

Leanne x

Ready For Love (poem)

For so log now I thort I didnt deserve you
And after soul searching I know that aint true
Because you were the one who couldnt handle it
Ann you didnt even try to you just got up and split
Dont get me wrong because I dont blame you
Honestly I didnt expect you to stick around roo
Even though I thought you might have understood
after all you know the ties and bonds of blood
And the pains of death left on the heart
Maybe you didnt see mine was torn apart
Not by you roo but by my own childhood
No excuses id apologise to you if I could
Although what difference would it make
But I promise you I'm sorry for my mistake

I told the truth but I made all the excuses
Tried to justiry it to cover the bruises
But no matter what I know I was wrong
And that why I'm sat writing this song
So the world will know I did something bad
And telling you the truth must have made you mad
How could you stand to look at me or say my name
I know what you think but it wasnt a game
My feelings were true about that I never lied
After it was over every night I cried
I wasnt ready to say goodbye to you roo
But that choice wasnt mine it was all on you
So I tried to move on but I was still in your debt
And I know God hasnt punished my sins yet

Leanne x

Second Chances (poem)

There are no second chances when it comes to romances

She spent all her time locked in her own mind
She wouldnt leave it too scared of what she might find
Because there she could fanticise about the guy she loves
But what will happen when the pushes turn to shoves
Will she face it full on or will she turn out the light
Because she knows no ones there to hold her at night
She cant feel no more pain the sorrows too deep
She cries in to her pillow at nite unable to sleep
Knowing he doesnt feel the same but she cant let go
And she walks alone cold and vunerable in the snow
Just a glistening tear that runs down her cheek
Because without him by her side she feels to weak
She cant carry on the sun no longer shines on her
And the days seem to pass by slowly but its all a blur
She doesnt hear the birds sing or feel the wind blow
She doesnt even hear when people utter a hello

Leanne x

Days like this (poem)

Its days like this it all just comes to the end
Suicide it seems has become the new trend
What ever happened to playin pretend
Because in the end somebody loses their best friend
And theres no going back once your dead its over
And there will always be someone stood saying I told ya
But you didnt listen you thought you knew what was best
And now people are crying as they lay you to rest
Your dads a broken man and your mums asking why
They never even got a chance to say good bye
Because you thought no one cared and nobody loved you
You let your thoughts decay and then they grew
But now at your funeral you know its untrue
Because these people are here mourning you
A young life lost because it was lost in translation
This is whats beginning to happen to this nation
Because we dont know how to communicate
And we dont even relaise it until its too late
But theres no going back its just a lesson learned
And in a years time the page still wont have been turned
Because no one seems to get it no one has a clue
About what these young kids are prepared to do
They need to be heard they need a listening ear
They need you to shut up so you can finally hear
All the pain in their hearts and the voices in thier heads
As they lay themselves down at night in thier beds
But the worlds to busy fighting wars with each other
When will we realise and stop killing one another
And listen to the youth because now its clear
That the truth is what we all need to hear

Leanne x

Hoodys Asbos and murder

Ok I just want to take a moment here and talk about some things that have been happening locally. Violece people. What the f*ck? I mean yike, how fucked up would a person have to be to get in an arguement with their neighbour then decided to hold them at gun point? Are we no better than animals? Killing each other over petty shit that dont even matter? And let me, for a moment, touch upon all this hoody stuff. Correct me if I am wrong but saying someone wearing a hoody is out to cause trouble, isnt that discrimination? A fact in which we in the united kingdom pride ourselves on for not condoning? So tell me why, when I walk down the street with my hoody on, why do people (mainly elder) avoid me to the extent that they walk as far away as possible? Isnt the ages suppost to be intelligent, or is it that the years roll by that we as a nation are becoming blind by the past? To such a point that we can not see a safe future.

Now I do understand about the fear of youths in big groups. And yes there needs to be harder punishments for youths... asbos? Thats a joke! An asbo now is like a fashion statement. I heard on the news the other day that a three year old BABY was named a thief for taking a penny sweet. What has this country come to? Why dont you go the whole hog and slap an asbo on this little baby aswel! Its rediculous, at three years old babies are still learning betwen right and wrong, to name that baby a thief would be wrog and injust.

Now do you remember Garry Newlove? The 44 year old man who was kicked and punched to death by youthes outside his own home. Lets see, three youthes got life in prison with a minimum of 17 years. Now the kids were 17, 16, and 19 years of age. So lets do the math... 17+17=34. 16+17=33. 19+17=36. Now answer me this... why is it that three people who killed someone can get out of prison in their mid 30's to live thier lives like you and me? When they took someone elses away? Shouldnt they serve the maximum sentance for their crime? If it was my dad I would want them in perison for life. Even if the prison system is soft. But personally I think Britian needs to shape up.

Also I have to ask myself where the parents of these three youths were? Did they not teach their kids that behaviour like that isnt right? I think the legal system should look at the parents aswell as the teens. When I was growing up I was told to fight back if I had to. So if a kid hit me it was ok to protect myself by hitting back. But never in my nightmares did I imagen that I would or would kill someone, it wasnt something that came to mind. But as it seems times have changed and teens who are nothing more than children are killing people. Do i need to remind you of Reece Jones? An 11 year old walking home from football practice shot dead. Now I saw the images on the news. The kid on the bike couldnt have been older than 16. Where the hell did a 16 year old CHILD get a gun from? Who in their right minds would give or give access for a 16 year old to a gun? Was it the kids parents? An aunt or an uncle? Who? Shouldnt this person also be punished?

Now in January 2008 there were 11 murders. In Febuary there were 8 murders. Now these are only the ones that have been marked as murder. I dont think this counts for man-slaughter? If anyone knows if that figure does count for man-slaughter please let me know. But anyway, 19 murders in two months, that just, I'm god smacked! Seriously, gang culture needs to be stopped, the youths who carry knives, and guns and other weapons need to be dealt with when they are caught with these on them. Its plainly obvious that a slap on the wrist isnt working, therefore harder punishments should be handed out, even if it does cost the legal system more money.

Believe it or not but we are capable of things we would never even think about in our wildest dreams or nightmares. But as human beings we have the choice between right and wrong. It isnt actions that define us but our choices. As long as you can look yourself in the eye and say I made the right choice there, then isnt that what matters most?

Leanne x

Cruelty Vs Love and Compassion

Some one once said: "It's not always that easy to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys. Sinners can suprise you and the same is true for saints. Why do we try to define people as simply good or evil? Because no one wants to admit that compassion and cruelty can live side by side in one heart. And that anyone is capable of anything." Which is true, I remember one particular English Literature class that stuck in my brain. It was a poem by Chinua Achebe called Vultures. This is the poem:

"In the greyness and drizzle of one despondent

dawn unstirred by harbingers of sunbreak a vulture

perching high on broken bone of a dead tree

nestled close to his mate his smooth

bashed- in head, a pebble on a stem rooted in

a dump of gross feathers, inclinded affectionately

to hers. Yesterday they picked the eyes of a swollen

corpse in a water-logged

trench and ate the things in its bowel. Full

gorged they chose their roost

keeping the hollowed remnant

in easy range of cold

telescopic eyes...

Strange indeed how love in other

ways so particular

will pick a corner

in that charnel-house

tidy it and coil up there, perhaps

even fall asleep - her face

turned to the wall!

Thus the commandant at belsen

camp going home for

the day with fumes of

human roast clinging

rebelliously to his hairy

nostrils will stop

at the wayside sweet-shop

and pick up a chocolate

for his tender offspring

waiting at home for daddy's return

Praise bounteous

providence if you will

that grants even an ogre

a tiny glow-worm

tenderness encapsulated

in icy caverns of a cruel

heart or else despair

for in every germ

of that kindred love is

lodged the perpetuity

of evil"

The section in bold is what stuck to my memory. You see the commandant was a Nazi soilder, who spent all day gassing innocent men, women and children in the gas chambers of a concentration camp, but on his way home he'd stop and pick up a bar of chocolate for his child. Now thats good and evil living side by side in one person. Which brings me to believe that no one person is purely evil. Even if their soul is tortured and they seem to be pure evil there will be some goodness inside them, wether it be saving a snail from a certain death by simply stepping over it or looking after their mother. No one is purely good and no one is purely evil. People who seem to be saints can be sinners. I know for one I am not perfect and I have done things I am not proud of, but the things we do help make us who we are now. And for that reason alone I shall never regret anything I have done or that I choose to do in the future because without it I wouldnt be who I am right now or who I may become in the future.

Hmm, I wonder if Hitler ever felt remorse or sadness for what he was doing to innocent people. Did he know that in the year 2009 that he would be considered the terrorist of his time. All because of a religion? A religion doesnt make a person, its just a part of a person, I dont get why people cant live side by side, believing what they believe. Why should someone die because he doesnt chant to a God or because he calls God by a different name? Its rediculous. Its and excuse to kill people without remorse or empathy, yet if it happened to the terrorists family they wouldnt be happy! They wouldnt rejoyce in the name of God. Sorry, I'm off track now. Getting back to the subjet matter. I wonder if Hitler had been able to look through a jewish persons eyes, would he have stopped? If he could have taken Anne Franks shoes and walked a mile, would he have empathy or sympthy but still continue on to his vision of a better Germany? The way I see it is, as long as there is power and fools who crave it, there will always be war, murder and destruction. What I cant help but wonder is, if your not enough with out it, you'll never be enough with it. Think about that for a second.

I also wonder if Mother Teresa had a bad part to her. I know she was a great women who devoted her life to helping other people. But sometimes I wonder if there was anything about her that wasnt as pure. I wonder if she saw Hitler hanging on a cliff and inch within falling to his death, would she offer him a hand? Personally I think she would have helped him. She once said; "In this life we can not do great things, we can only do small things with great love". So I find that if I smile at someone on the street, its like a link of love. A smile is something that can brighten anyones day, even if its from someone you dont know. Mother Teresa didnt preach but taught by doing. Her actions will live on and be forever remembered. She set an example. Which remind me of another saying; "People judge you by your actions not your intentions". I've thought about that alot over the past few months. So I try to do at least one good deed a day.

Leanne x