A few weeks ago a friend of mine in England sent me an email to let me know that one of the legends in the self-development field was having a contest.
Contestants were to write an original story between 400 and 800 words long dealing with success principles and the winning article would be included in his newsletter which gets sent out to 150,000 subscribers.
So I immediately got to work. As it was for a contest I wanted it to be slightly more memorable and intense than one of my usual posts.
A few days ago the finalists were chosen, and sadly I wasn’t among them.
But, there is a silver lining – since it wasn’t selected I think it’s fair for me to share it with my readers.
Do you think it was good enough to be included in the finalists? Any suggestions as to how I can improve it?
Adrian Shepherd
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How quickly we forget
Just two months ago a 9.o magnitude earthquake caused a tsunami that ripped through northeastern Japan and rewrote history.
The nation had to grapple with not only the devastation that was caused by the natural disasters themselves but also the aftermath of a possible nuclear meltdown.
The whole world stood by and watched with both awe and fear, wondering just what would happen next.
Over 20,000 people lost their lives that day.
Some communities were wiped off the face of the earth.
Living in Osaka just a few hundred miles west of where everything was taking place I received messages from all over the world with people asking if I was alright and what the situation was like here.
It may be hard to believe but it was like nothing had changed.
Some friends closer to the situation weren’t quite as lucky.
There were constant blackouts leading to food shortages as refrigeration wasn’t possible.
Simply filling up your tank became a three-hour excursion. Some fled in fear.
While others waited unsure of what to do.
It was a dark time and a stark reminder of the power of nature that will have far reaching economic implications and end up being the most expensive natural disaster in history.
And yet, today there is barely a mention of it on Yahoo or CNN.
The people who are there are still living with the pain of what they went through while the rest of the world has moved on.
Sadly we have forgotten. But it’s not just news halfway across the world that we forget.
We forget things much closer to home as well.
We forget just how much our loved ones mean to us.
We forget how blessed we are to have everything that we have in our lives from food and water to family and friends.
We should never forget that each day we wake up is a good day, because it brings with it hope.
Hope to create a better tomorrow for ourselves, our families and the world around us.
I always loved the movie “The Shawshank Redemption” because it reminds us we should never give up and always keep hope in our hearts.
I remember the words of Andy Dufresne, the main character in the movie, saying, “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
I hope I will see my son grow old.
I hope my wife will be by my side on our journey through life.
I hope my friends and I can build the lives we have always dreamed of.
I hope.
It’s easy to forget all that really matters to us when we’re busy trying to achieve all that we’ve dreamed of.
I hope you won’t.
Hi, Adrian!
I do see your point. However, I thought that you should focus attention on “We shouldn’t forget anything easily” and “We should feel grateful to even little things”. Not “I hope…” Because I felt something wrong with the connection between the beginning of “the earthquake” and “I hope”. Also I guess the movie said, “never give up” more than “shouldn’t forget”.
Over 7 years ago I applied a contest like you did and i did well to learn from the experience. So, you might learn a lot too, right? Oh, I should say I’m a very lucky to have you as a friend and teacher.
Thanks for the message Mika…as you might already know, the first chapter of my book is devoted to gratitude so I wanted to address this in a different manner. I am saddened that we, myself included, forget that which is important in life. And being grateful is one thing, but these days I’m amazed at how little people talk about the tsunami despite it happening only two months ago.
And the movie most certainly centers around the concept of hope for a better day which is why I chose it. No matter how dark today is, the sun will shine again. We must never forget that.