Of all the forewords I have been asked to write in my short but eventful literary life, this one has to be the most priceless because I have been given an opportunity to bring my own perspective on a matter that affects the lives of many of us. I am both honored and humbled therefore to add my thoughts ahead of what promises to be both an enlightening and a challenging read.Once in a while, a book is written that demands to be read! This is one of them because it is a book about you and me, about the aspects of our lives that we are in denial about, the aspects that are often unexamined. As a result, we miss the opportunity to grow. The greatest weapon of destruction ever invented has to be ignorance and a closed mind. Even the Lord, warns, “My people perish from ignorance”.

When I look at the state of the world, at people’s faces, at the growing levels of greed, disease, poverty, restlessness, violence, hatred, and a sense of quiet desperation from the injustice between fellow human beings, I have to also wonder whether our lives are what God intended for mankind.Each time I have an attack of this kind, I always come to the same conclusion; that it is not possible, we could not have been created in the image of God simply to be miserable. What would be the point? We are the crowning glory of all Creation, aren’t we??

I have to believe that God created us in His image because He had a purpose for each of our lives. I guess it would be helpful if we could each arrive on earth with a little message folded in our little hands from God reminding us why we are here and what our purpose is. I can assure you it is way more significant than what you have done with your life as you read this.

I am a living example of someone whose life has been about broadening the confines of a life into which I was born when I discovered that I could be far more and I could do much more with my life. That was when I believed that I was created in the image of God and had been given dominion above everything else upon earth.

The greatest discovery of life is that moment when we realize that society teaches us about what we can never be or accomplish than how truly magnificent we are, how powerful we truly are. Human beings are creatures of habit and we make assumptions about so much in the world. This book is challenging us to remove the blinkers and the
scales from our eyes, to renew our minds and our hearts, to keep our minds open, to question the human system into which we are born and to understand not just ourselves and our world, but the many other worlds around us.

The best lesson anyone ever taught me was from my mother when she taught me to live within my means. I closed all accounts more than 20 years ago except my bonds which I have always paid off within 5 years. The system seduces us to create a credit record to keep us trapped in a consumption culture.

The morale of the story you are about to read is that we are responsible for our lives and that choices have consequences. My invitation is for you to pay attention to your life script and to live both purposefully and mindfully. We re-claim our power when we are fully present. The invitation of this book is for all of us to live according to Jeremiah 29:11

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

May you each be enriched by the pearls of common sense and the wisdom captured within these pages. Practice senseless acts of beauty and random acts of kindness.

Blessings

Wendy Luhabe