2013/04/30

Z is for.................

Guess what?! I couldn't find a "Z" proverb. And so, this final A to Z Challenge post will be about something else that starts with Z. Mainly..."Z" words that I like to say because they are a little obscure.^^

Zenzizenzizenzic = the 8th power of a number.

Zoanthropy = delusion that one is an animal

Zodiographer = a person who writes about animals

Zydeco = Louisiana Creole dance music

Zelophobia = irrational or fear of jealousy


Thanks for reading!
Check out my YouTube videos for Slang and Idioms.^^
(link is somewhere on the blog haha)
Later!^^

2013/04/29

Y is for..........

You can't have an omelette unless you break the egg.

Sometimes we have to give up something in order to have another thing.

For example:
As a single parent, I know that I would have to give up a lot of my life and my time to raise my daughter. People all over the world make sacrifices for something else, every day.

And so, this one means to me that:

You must sometimes sacrifice something in order to create a new thing.

2013/04/26

Oh...."X"....you devil, you.....

Thinking of and searching for a proverb starting with "X" has proven to be impossible for me. And so, I will do something different.
Instead, I will quote someone who has a name that starts with "X".

Xunzi was a Chinese Confucian philosopher, and one that I find fascinating. He believed things such as human nature is evil and that goodness is caused by intentional activity.

You can read more about him here.

A quote from him is:

"A person is born with feelings of envy and hate. If he gives way to them, they will lead him to violence and crime, and any sense of loyalty and good faith will be abandoned."



"W" is for.................

"What goes around comes around."

I hear this one often.
Have you ever done something inherently good, and later on....something good happened to you?

Or, have you ever done something bad, and then something bad happened to you?

That's where this saying comes in.

To me, it means that:

Good acts will often reward you. Evil acts will quite often punish you. What you do to others, good or bad, will eventually come back to you.

2013/04/25

"V" is for......

"Virtue is its own reward."

(Virtue: a quality that people consider to be morally good or desirable in a person.)

This one means to me that:

When we do something virtuous or good, we do not need a reward or compensation. The knowledge that we have done good is reward enough.

2013/04/24

"U" is for......

"Use it or lose it."

This one is saying that not using a skill may cause us to lose it.

For instance:
A man knows how to play guitar.
But, he puts his guitar down one day. And then, he doesn't pick it back up for 20 years.
When he does pick it back up to play, he has found that he can't do it as effortlessly as he was once able to. He has forgotten chords; he can't play in time.
Because he has not used his skill in so long, he has lost some of it.

And so, if we have a skill, we must always use it so that we can always keep it.

That is what this proverb means to me.

2013/04/23

"T" is for...........................

"That which does not kill you, makes you stronger."

When we go through trials or tragedies in life, after we have healed and licked our wounds, we become stronger than before.

Our strength lies in wisdom. We have become wise to whatever caused our suffering, and we learn not to put ourselves in that position ever again.

Also, I would argue that we become less naive. Maybe with some of us, our hearts become a little more hardened and a little harder for others to gain access to. But because of that, we are less likely to let those who wish to harm our hearts, in.
Or, maybe our hearts develop imaginary scars caused by the tragedies or sufferings through life, which protect the tender flesh beneath. Each terrible event thereafter causes us less and less suffering because it cannot penetrate through the layers.

At any rate, I believe this proverb to be truth.
When you are going through something so terrible that you think you may die, or that even death would be better....always believe that when you survive it, you will emerge a new, stronger person with wisdom that you didn't have before.

That is what this proverb means to me.

2013/04/22

"S" is for...........

" A Still Tongue Makes a Wise Head. "

I've learned a lot of things during my transition from teenage years to adulthood, like most people do. One thing that I've learned is to "hold my tongue". As a teenager, if someone said anything negative to me, I would retaliate and say something negative back immediately. This, of course, only esculated the problem and caused a bigger argument or fight.

But as an adult, if someone says anything negative to me trying to start a fight, I just say nothing until they are ready to talk like civil adults. This, of course, ends the problem a lot sooner and much more peacefully.

That is what this proverb makes me think of.

Sometimes, it is wiser to say nothing.