Inspiration Corner

Carole Spiers is one of the UK's Leading Empowerment Gurus. An International Female Keynote Speaker, Conference Chair and Business Mentor who helps you to achieve step by step success with inspiration and motivation. www.carolespiers.com

This was written by an 83-year-old woman to her friend - the last line says it all.

Dear Bertha,

I'm reading more and dusting less. I'm sitting in the yard and admiring the view without fussing about the weeds in the garden. I'm spending more time with my family and friends and less time working.

Whenever possible, life should be a pattern of experiences to savour, not to endure. I'm trying to recognise these moments now and cherish them. I'm not "saving" anything; we use our good china and crystal for every special event such as losing a pound, getting the sink unstopped, or the first Amaryllis blossom.

I wear my good blazer to the market. My theory is if I look prosperous, I can shell out £28.49 for one small bag of groceries.

I'm not saving my good perfume for special parties, but wearing it for clerks in the hardware store and tellers at the bank.

"Someday" and "one of these days" are losing their grip on my vocabulary. If it's worth seeing or hearing or doing, I want to see and hear and do it now I'm not sure what others would've done had they known they wouldn't be here for the tomorrow that we all take for granted. I think they would have called family members and a few close friends. They might have called a few former friends to apologise and mend fences for past squabbles. I like to think they would have gone out for a Chinese dinner or for whatever their favourite food was. I'm guessing; I'll never know.

It's those little things left undone that would make me angry if I knew my hours were limited. Angry because I hadn't written certain letters that I intended to write one of these days. Angry and sorry that I didn't tell my husband and parents often enough how much I truly love them. I'm trying very hard not to put off, hold back, or save anything that would add laughter and luster to our lives. And every morning when I open my eyes, tell myself that it is special.

Every day, every minute, every breath truly is a gift from God.

"People say true friends must always hold hands, but true friends don't need to hold hands because they know the other hand will always be there."

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance.

Carole Spiers is one of the UK's Leading Empowerment Gurus. An International Female Keynote Speaker, Conference Chair and Business Mentor who helps you to achieve step by step success with inspiration and motivation. www.carolespiers.com

Carole Spiers is one of the UK's Leading Empowerment Gurus. An International Female Keynote Speaker, Conference Chairs and Business Mentors who helps you to achieve step by step success with inspiration and motivation. www.carolespiers.com

South Africa
December 2005

We drive along the road to a clearing where we can see a small hut. This is an initiation ceremony hut. This is where African boys are brought for circumcision, prior to them becoming a man.

Women are not usually allowed to visit these dwellings but with Clive our guide at our side, we were invited.

We are introduced to three young men all daubed in white paint. They have been initiated and are now waiting for the full 30 days before they go back to their homes for a celebration.

The General, Headmann (his nickname) comes over to me. He is wearing a hat stating his position and he holds a stick which he puts towards me as an act of friendship. His whole body is daubed with white paint and his only wearing a camisole and a loincloth. He stands erect with pride of his position.

He has been in the camp for 25 days and at the weekend, he will return back to him homestead. Headmann speaks perfect English and so we communicate easily. He has been the longest on the site and so because of this, he takes the title of General.

He is a young man of 17 years old with his birthday on 30th January. He will return for one more years study before going out into the world. He says with sadness that he does not know what he will do when he leaves his studies. He does not know if he will get a job.

His friends and family are able to come and visit him while he stays on the site but usually no-one else.

He tells me that when he leaves the site, he will burn his tent as his past is now left behind and his future lies before him. And as we look around, we see the ashes of many tents and people’s pasts that are left behind them.

He will go home wearing only a loincloth and he will have new clothes given to him for his future life.

There is much emphasis on burning the past and taking on the future.

When Headmann leaves the site, the symbolic hat will be passed onto another and another in time.

And so we leave Headmann and his many friends that surround him. The picture is one of everyone listening to our conversation. Many had not seem him communicate so clearly before – particularly to a white English woman.

And we say farewell, he offers me his stick again. I hold it and we shake hands in this way. We are not allowed to touch each other.

We smile, we have communicated and his story of an ancient tradition has been told.

I walk away knowing that I have been privileged to share in a very special part of Headmann’s life.

I turn around to say ‘goodbye’ again but as I do so, everyone has disappeared. There is no sight of them. It was as if this conversation and experience had not taken place. It was almost as if I had experienced a mirage.

But I hadn’t. The pictures are taken, the conversation is written and the memory banks are stored.

Carole Spiers is one of the UK's Leading Empowerment Gurus. An International Female Keynote Speaker, Conference Chairs and Business Mentors who helps you to achieve step by step success with inspiration and motivation. www.carolespiers.com

There are moments in life when you miss someone so much that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real!

When the door of happiness closes, another opens;
but often times we look so long at the
closed door that we don't see the one,
which has been opened for us.

Don't go for looks; they can deceive.
Don't go for wealth; even that fades away.
Go for someone who makes you smile,
because it takes only a smile tomake a dark day seem bright.
Find the one that makes your heart smile.

Dream what you want to dream;
go where you want to go;
be what you want to be,
because you have only one life
and one chance to do all the things
you want to do.

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet,
enough trials to make you strong,
enough sorrow to keep you human and
enough hope to make you happy.

The happiest of people don't necessarily
have the best of everything;
they just make the most of
everything that comes along their way.

The brightest future will always
be based on a forgotten past;
you can't go forward in life until
you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying
and everyone around you was smiling.

Live your life so at the end,
you're the one who is smiling and everyone
around you is crying.

Carole Spiers is one of the UK's Leading Empowerment Gurus. An International Female Keynote Speaker, Conference Chair and Business Mentor who helps you to achieve step by step success with inspiration and motivation. www.carolespiers.com

Carole is in the business of ‘radically changing the attitudes and mindsets that can hold you back from achieving your ultimate success!’

The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn't already know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being. She said, "Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I'm eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?" I laughed and enthusiastically responded, "Of course you may!" and she gave me a giant squeeze.

"Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?" I asked. She jokingly replied, "I'm here to meet a rich husband, get married, have a couple of kids..."

"No seriously," I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.

"I always dreamed of having a college education and now I'm getting one!" she told me.

After class we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake. We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months we would leave class together and talk non-stop.

I was always mesmerized listening to this "time machine" as she shared her wisdom and experience with me. Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she revelled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.

At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I'll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped up to the podium. As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor. Frustrated and a little embarrassed, she leaned into the microphone and simply said, "I'm sorry I'm so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me! I'll never get my speech back in order, so let me just tell you what I know."

As we laughed she cleared her throat and began, "We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy and achieving success:

You have to laugh and find humour every day. You've got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die. We have so many people walking
around who are dead and don't even know it!

There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don't do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything, I will turn eighty-eight. Anybody can grow older.

That doesn't take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity in change. Have no regrets..

The only people who fear death are those with regrets."

She concluded her speech by courageously singing "The Rose." She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives.

At the year's end, Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago.

One week after graduation, Rose died peacefully in her sleep. Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example, that it's never too late to be all you can possibly be.

These words that I have read, have been written in loving memory of ROSE.

The learning that comes out of this story is :

GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY. GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL.

Carole Spiers is one of the UK's Leading Empowerment Gurus. An International Female Keynote Speaker, Conference Chair and Business Mentor who helps you to achieve step by step success with inspiration and motivation