Sunday 2 December 2012

NOT BY YOUR DREAMS!

‘We live by hope, but a reed never becomes an Iroko tree by dreaming’


Have you ever seen a reed or an Iroko tree? Do you know what any of them actually looks like? A reed is a tall, slender-leaved plant of the grass family that grows in water or on marshy ground. Iroko, on the other hand is a large tree from the west coast of tropical Africa. It is one of the woods sometimes referred to as African Teak, although it is unrelated to the teak family. The color of Iroko wood is initially yellow but darkens to a richer brown over time.

Our ancestors believe that a reed can never grow to become an Iroko tree by dreaming or just aspiring to be one. It takes more than a dream for a reed to transform itself to being an Iroko tree. No matter how you want to see it, a reed is a reed and an Iroko remains an Iroko.

Also in life, it would be almost practically impossible for anyone to become great or ultimately successful by just dreaming. Fine, it is good to dream, but dream alone is not enough to make someone achieve his/her goals in life. There are a lot of people who dream big today; in fact, almost everyone that you see around you have one dream or another but it takes only those who decide to wake from their dreams and live to act their dreams that finally become whoever they dream to become in life.

There are many poor people in the world today who dream to become very rich but refuse to take the steps that would change their poor status. Many of them still talk, think and act like the poor. It is not enough to dream big; if you really want to become big in life, you need to start talking, thinking and acting like a big person. Poor people get attracted to poor people, lazy people get easily attracted to lazy people, bad people are most likely attracted to people who are worse than them and the people with low self esteem find it very easy to mingle with one another. Do you want to know why?  It is simple; there is a natural force that repels every man from people who do not belong to his class or level of reasoning. Until you break loose from your shell and start living your dream, you may never be the person you dream to become in life. A poor man who has many rich people as his friend can never be seen by other poor people as a poor man.

A reed that dreams to be like an Iroko tree will never grow in the midst of other reeds (if it does, it will only end up being a big reed), it takes the reed that grows in the neighborhood of the mighty Iroko to start growing like the Iroko. As from today, start talking, thinking, acting, studying and relating with the people you dream to become in life. You can never be exactly like another person but you can be yourself and live your dream. Remember, we live by hope, but a reed never becomes an Iroko tree by dreaming. May you never lavish in your dreams in life.

Don't start your day without a word from the ancestors...remember, a word is enough for the wise. Sign up with us for a daily feed. Follow @our_ancestors on twitter or email: wordsofourancestors@gmail.com. May your days be plenty!

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