I'm a full-time mummy

I hope to share with you all the inspiring message from the story of a butterfly that I read recently. There's quite a number of versions to this story but the lessons to learn are the same.

"Once a little boy was playing outdoors and found a fascinating caterpillar. He carefully picked it up and took it home to show his mother. He asked his mother if he could keep it, and she said he could if he would take good care of it. The little boy got a large jar from his mother and put plants to eat, and a stick to climb on, in the jar. Every day he watched the caterpillar and brought it new plants to eat.

One day the caterpillar climbed up the stick and started acting strangely. The boy worriedly called his mother who came and understood that the caterpillar was creating a cocoon. The mother explained to the boy how the caterpillar was going to go through a metamorphosis and become a butterfly.

The little boy was thrilled to hear about the changes his caterpillar would go through. He watched every day, waiting for the butterfly to emerge. One day it happened, a small hole appeared in the cocoon and the butterfly started to struggle to come out.

At first the boy was excited, but soon he became concerned. The butterfly was struggling so hard to get out! Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it had and it could go no further. The boy was so concerned he decided to help. He snipped the cocoon to make the hole bigger and the butterfly quickly emerged!

As the butterfly came out the boy was surprised. It had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly expecting that, at any moment, the wings would dry out, enlarge and expand to support the swollen body. He knew that in time the body would shrink and the butterfly’s wings would expand. But neither happened!

The butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.

It never was able to fly…

The boy’s good intentions hurt the butterfly. His kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Without the struggle, the butterfly would never, ever fly.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life.

If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. And we could never fly.

In fact, it is the struggle that causes you to develop your ability to fly.

 

When I asked god for strength, he gave me difficult situations to face.

When I asked god for brain & brown, he gave me puzzles in life to solve.

When I asked god for happiness, he showed me some unhappy people.

When I asked god for wealth, he showed me how to work hard.

When I asked god for favors, he showed me opportunities to work hard.

When I asked god for peace, he showed me how to help others.

God gave me nothing I wanted; he gave me everything I needed."

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

With the recent uproar on Harambe, the endangered gorilla who had to be killed in order to save the life of a little boy who fell into the enclosure, this will be my final posting with a compiled list of articles of what I have read so far.

So many what ifs, whys, could haves, would haves...

It's sad that a gorilla had to be killed. Those who have been asking why not tranquilize? Well, it takes time to go into effect with a big sized gorilla and might make the gorilla agitated and provoked it to hurt the child. If it works, it might cause gorilla to faint on top/squashed the child. Too high dose might killed the gorilla instantly. (Source: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2016/05/29/gorilla-shot-at-zoo/)

There is also explanation from an experienced person who has worked with many gorillas before on why the zookeepers did not use treats or distract the gorilla to get the child back. (Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1203379103029809&set=a.136952966339100.18704.100000731932790&type=3&pnref=story)

You should also read what has Harambe's previous caretaker said of him as I personally think he knows the gorilla way better than any other experts out there who has never spent time with Harambe (Source: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2016/05/31/harambes-caretaker-he-like-one-my-sons/85216356/)

It's sad that the child can breached through the barriers. The boy went over a stainless steel rail that's a little more than 3 feet high, with vertical bars every eight feet. He made his way through the bushes to the edge of the moat, a distance of approximately 4 feet. From there, he dropped 15 feet to the moat, into a foot and a half of water. (Source: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2016/05/30/usda-review-gorillas-death-zoo-look-safety-exhibits/85165924/)

Those who said the gorilla is dragging the child across the water, how else do you expect a wild animal to move a child? Of course we don't get to see the whole 10 mins video but based on the videos I've seen, the gorilla is protecting the child from the commotion outside. Of course, I am no expert at all so feel free to disagree with my observations.

If the gorilla wants to hurt the child, it would've done so when the child fell into its enclosure, breaching its territory, not taking 10 minutes ordeal to be killed in the end. Apparently gorillas will display signs of attack when they feel threatened or provoked which was not shown when it approached the child. (Source: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/technology/science/animal-behaviour-expert-says-silverback-gorilla-harambe-was-not-trying-to-harm-defenceless-child/news-story/94d83332fbb86df234989f66ae621d67)

Parents, we all know, none of us are perfect. We don't and can't 100% watch after our kiddos all at once, but we can try to minimize any untoward incidents and make sure that while any outing remains a fun and happy one for the family, we also have to be aware of our surroundings as well.

Teach your child about endangered species, zoos, conservation efforts, what to do when you are out and about, dangers and risks etc.

Everyone, a beautiful endangered animal is gone. It will never be brought back to life again. Let's learn from this and double/triple up our watch over our kiddos and others as well, if you happened to observe any children during your outing who are acting very curious and wanting to observe things closer, alert the caretakers of the child.

An article to remind us that social media shaming won't bring back Harambe... http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/nation-now/2016/05/30/cincinnati-zoo-gorilla-harambe-death-child-parents-shaming-column/85165572/

I'm also sharing these articles with you for some real-life events:

• Gorilla Carries 3-Year-Old Boy to Safety After He Fell Into Enclosure in 1996 Incident

• Amazing moment ape saved tiny boy who fell into his enclosure

• Zoo exhibit breaches rare but can have deadly outcomes
  

A bit more info about the boy's mother and I really pitied those on FB having same names as her. (Source: http://heavy.com/news/2016/05/michelle-gregg-cincinnati-zoo-mother-mom-name-gorilla-harambe-facebook-photos-son-petition/)

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

I came across this article which I must definitely share with you all. For your convenience, I have copied the excerpts from the article here. You can click on the image below to launch the video on YouTube:

The geniuses over at MACMA are getting a slow clap from the Internet this week after outsmarting all of those pesky social media rules that prohibit nudity. And it’s all in the name of a good cause.

 If you haven’t heard of it, MACMA is an Argentinian-based breast cancer charity, devoted to spreading awareness and knowledge to women about how important it is to regularly screen for lumps in their breast tissue. According to Little Black Book, MACMA recently hired a company called David to help them come up with a clever way to reach even more women across the globe.

As David’s General Creative Director, Joaquin Cubria, and VP, Ignacio Ferioli, told LBB: “It’s hard to get women over 25 to examine their breasts regularly to prevent breast cancer. But it isn’t hard to make them check their phones every five minutes. Therefore, we decided to get to them [on social media].”

The only problem? Accurately showing women how to check for lumps means … showing women how to check for lumps. Like, on boobs. Real ones.

Unfortunately, videos or images featuring any hint of nudity — including breasts — are blocked from Facebook and Instagram. (Yes, even those that are breastfeeding-related, and completely non-sexual.) Quite the conundrum.

All I can say, though, is thank god for man boobs. And this guy, whose name is allegedly Henry:

“Henry” graciously lend his man boobs to the good people at David and MACMA, and soon enough, they had themselves an informative (and hilarious) video that reminds women not only to check themselves regularly, but more importantly how to do it. The campaign, appropriately named #ManBoobs4Boobs, is getting a lot of play on Twitter, where many are praising the use of “moobs” — and not in a body-shaming way.

According to the World Cancer Research Fund International, breast cancer is the most common form of cancer to affect women. In fact, as of 2012, an estimated 1.7 million women worldwide had been diagnosed. Considering those staggering stats, MACMA’s ad is all the more brilliant, for the way it manages to be both helpful and hilarious, all at once.

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.