THE SAME OLD THING: A TIME WITH THE INSPIRED PEN

Wow!!! How blessed we are to have made it this far. The excruciating pains, the ups and downs, the arduous times and the tempestuous moments of January and February are now things of the past! Here we are now, enjoying A Time with The Inspired Pen on the sixth day of March 2016. It’s quite amazing how each day of the previous months rolled by with unique opportunities but once it said goodbye, it left surreptitiously with the wonderful packages. The month of March was also ushered in with new opportunities- a special opportunity to mend your broken relationships, one more chance to realize your unachieved dreams, a special time to consolidate your ideas and reinvent your shipwrecked business, a brand-new opportunity to turn things around in your deteriorating academic performance and a unique platform to become all you can be but have not yet become. So you see, though we are only six days into this new month, a lot has already been given to us. Today, I want you to ask yourself whether you’ve made the best out of those opportunities or laid them waste.

Yesterday, as I roved about my corridor and thought of what to share with you today, I received a phone call from an old-time friend. It’s been ages since I last bumped into him and I was so elated to hear from him. When I inquired of his current state, my friend’s answer got me giggling like a piglet. He replied “Nothing new; the same old thing!” He-he, “So you mean that big head of yours has not reduced in size?” I asked teasingly and we both laughed it off.

Now, I believe most people would acquiesce to such plaintive response. His response seems flawless. Yes! After all, does something ever change in our lives?
Each morning, we wake up under the same wretched roofs, receive complaints from the same nagging parents and go to school in the same ramshackle vehicles. Our roads have the same old potholes, our schools are in the same bad shape and our examination reports display the same old scores.

What about our marriages? We’ve not seen a considerable change! -The same troublesome spouses, same insolent kids and same meager wherewithal for home maintenance. The business sector is no different- same stories of losing funds hand over fist, same unfavorable working conditions, same inadequate salaries and same unhealthy relationships among co-workers.

The affluent continues to swim ecstatically in the pool of wealth while the pauper goes to bed hungry every single day. The doctor still works in the air-conditioned consulting room while the market woman still has her office under the scorching sun. The lunatic asylum has the same grotesque-looking faces. Oh jeer, my grandmother still wears her old glaucous wig in this era of Brazilian hair wigs! So like my friend said “Nothing new; the same old thing!”

I explained to my friend that nothing ever changes because everyone has become accustomed to the same old things. We are comfortably inured to our failing marriages, the debilitating health conditions and the declining academic performance that we hardly make use of new opportunities to turn things around. We carelessly kick away new opportunities to ameliorate those situations because we think “nothing ever changes”. So as I was saying, I disagreed with him and had to buttress my point of view with a story.

In 391 AD, when the great library of Alexandria was burnt to ashes, only one book escaped the fire. People from all walks of life thronged the premises to see the remains of the great library after the fire. Among the people who rushed to the site was one poor man from Egypt. As they strolled through the charred woods and ashes, the poor man unearthed an ancient tome and then asked the authorities of the library to name a price. Since the book was in a very deplorable state, the librarians gave it to him free of charge. As grimy and mundane as the tome may have looked, little did they know that it contained the key to a treasure. Between the covers of the book was a strip of vellum on which was written the secret to the touchstone.

The touchstone was a hard dark pebble that had a special ability to turn common metals into pure gold. It was the yardstick for measuring the quality of the metals. With the touchstone in hand, one could build the largest gold processing plant and make huge proceeds from it. The inscription on the vellum explained clearly that the touchstone was lying among hundreds of hundreds of other pebbles with the same size and colour. Also, it revealed that the touchstone would give a hot impression on the hand while the ordinary pebbles would do otherwise.

The poor man took to his heels and headed towards the beach. He started his assessment of the pebbles on the shoreline. To avoid picking up the same ordinary pebbles for a number of times, he decided to cast each ordinary pebble into the sea. So whenever he picked up a cold pebble, he flung it into the deep sea. The poor man worked tirelessly throughout the day but unfortunately he did not come across the hot pebble. He carried on with his work, each time casting cold pebbles into the sea. It had become a routine- Look for a pebble, find the same cold ones; fling it into the sea. Look for a pebble, find the same cold ones; fling it into the sea- Day after day, the poor man stood on the shore of the sea with hopes of finding the touchstone but kept on picking up cold pebbles. One sunny afternoon, the poor man picked up the touchstone but before he could realize it, he flung the very pebble he had been working assiduously for into the deep sea. He had become used to casting the cold pebbles into the sea that when he picked up the hot pebble, he didn’t realize it was the key to his breakthrough.

Friends, so it is with opportunity. Except we become cautious and appreciate the opportunities each day conveys to us, we will always fling away those golden opportunities. The month of March came along with awesome packages to help you turn things around in your life. You have the next few days ahead to settle the differences between you and your spouse. You have a brand-new opportunity to achieve your childhood dreams. You have another opportunity to rise from failure to success. You have been given another chance to apologize to your friends for ruffling their feathers. Last but not least, you have another chance to do what you were born to do. Don’t fling it into the sea!

Hello lovely reader, an ordinary has markedly been inspired, so get inspired. It’s not too late; make the best out of the new opportunities.

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Email address : stonzy.opoku2010@gmail.com

Special reader dedication: L.M Serbeh Yaw Frimpong

School of Medical Sciences( University of Ghana)

God richly bless you for your support