positive – Esoteric

Dear siblings, I’m not sorry to inform you that you’re all experiments.

Young men! Young, caring, loving men. Your life has more meaning than you may know, your role has more effect than you may think, your being has more pressure than you should have, nevertheless, here you are. Generalizing is a very tricky and sensitive way to go about judging who someone is, or in other cases, could be. BUT young men, the evolved status of your brother-ship has been tarnished by many before us, and we must begin to scrub away that stain. You see, being a brother is the first step to becoming a father. There’s a first for both, but there’s only 1 result, and that is to be GREAT at it.

I’ve been thinking on my role as an older brother for some time now. What I’ve done for my siblings, what I do for them, and also what I will eventually (be able to) do for them. I’m not in any way trying to create a formula or a fixed guideline, I’m simply trying to bring about awareness. My focus is to help you discover just how important you are, and just how important the process is for your siblings and of course yourself.

Before we continue I just want to make one thing clear. When I use the term “brother”, I’m using it as relation by bond and not only by biology. There is no way to run away from your responsibilities, just as there is no way to run away from your influence.

Being an older brother you will find yourself being quite involved in the lives of your younger siblings. Your role ranges from motivating, emotionally supporting, guiding, you’ll sometimes find yourself being a personal driver and at other times, a bank (of course without the payback part), and believe me when I tell you, the list goes on. It’s all an experience, it’s all an experiment. There’s no one way to be a big brother, there’s no one way to be a parent, but this experience is a start to figure out what works for you.

So dear young men,

YES, there is be a lot of pressure and there is a lot of responsibility. Someone will always be looking up to you, someone will always be watching you and you will always guide someone, just know that it’s all practice for raising your own (eventually).

It can be easy, but it will be hard. As long as you try, as long as you transform yourself into the right example, as long as you embrace your responsibility, you will make it work. The trick is treating your siblings how you would want to be treated, treating your siblings how you will treat your child(ren), treating your siblings exactly how you want your child (who will become a sibling) to treat their siblings. The first step starts with you, create a trend that inspires positivity!!

And dear siblings,

Just know that being an experiment doesn’t associate itself with negativity. You should be proud to have an older sibling that’s trying to perfect kindness and positive influence on you. Embrace the love and let the positive influence you.

Best wishes,

A brother trying to be a GREAT brother, a brother aspiring to some day be a GREAT father, a brother trying to lead brothers to be BETTER brothers.

Wednesday September 6th 2017. Just as 22 years before that, my island, my home will remember this date.

While the foreign media, local media, many foreign and local individuals may choose to highlight the negatives, I believe that the positive should not be overlooked. The world, just as much as you and I, are aware of this disaster caused by Hurricane Irma. This horrific, ugly storm that took away so much from so many people. I believe that the experience, the memory and the visuals are sufficient to tell the story for itself. Hours of that terrifying experience is more than enough for one to live through, so why is there a need to force these victims and the rest of the world to live through it again?

Can you imagine, or even try to imagine what it was like living through such a monstrous disaster hour after hour not knowing when it would end? I’m talking about 200 mph wind, gusting , whistling, pressuring through every crack that it can, tearing apart everything it can grab hold of. Heavy rain pouring with no signs of letting up, flooding everywhere and everything that touches the ground. Being trapped in your house, walls shaking as if the storm itself held onto them trying to pull them apart. With such fury and anger, hearing your roof tearing away bit by bit, all you can do is HOPE….yes HOPE! that whatever is fastening your roof will be strong enough to withstand the horrifying grips of Irma. What a scary feeling, what a scary thing to imagine, because that’s all I can do, IMAGINE. I wasn’t there, I didn’t experience this, so all I can TRY and do is translate a fragment of the feelings my friends and family expressed to me.

Wow! Just rethinking the stories has me shook. But as I said before, my focus right now isn’t the weaknesses that Hurricane Irma exposed about my people, but the strengths it did. My Sint Maarten people, YOU are survivors, YOU are strong, but most importantly YOU are ADMIRABLE. Through it all where the odds weren’t in their favor, they are still rising above. Through it all when so much was taken away, they are still rising above. ADMIRABLE is the only word I can think of that can give you an idea of how strong they are and how progressive their strengths are making them. We’re almost a few days short of a month post Hurricane Irma and SXM is already crawling, in some cases even walking. Yes our legs aren’t strong enough to make the steps alone, but we’re getting there. Power is restored to most parts of the island, and so is water. Businesses, banks, gas stations, restaurants, supermarkets, and stores are opened and more are opening as the island progresses. Today, October 2nd 2017 schools are already getting back into full swing, so our kids can already get back intp their routine. Cleaning efforts are being executed on a large scale, so the streets are being cleaned and debris are being cleared around the island. The port is already operational, the airport is undergoing its repair process, but is functional for military and relief aircrafts. Now you tell me, just a few weeks after such a devastation, how can you not be impressed? My island may be small, but we have big hearts!

You know what makes me smile most? The sight of St.Maarten operating as a community. All hands are on deck, everyone is helping one another get back on their feet one way or another. Great initiatives are being made by banks and other other business through these tough times to help alleviate the strain of the people. So as much as it hurt to see my island in the state that it is in, it’s heartwarming to see the progression of the people. One can have nothing else but a smile to see the strides being made, to see how we as people are maturing in the right direction.

So tell me, how can I focus on the bad and the ugly when there is so much beauty happening right in front of my face? My home is being rebuilt brick by brick, house by house, not alone, but together. Together with the help of its people, together with the help of our fellow humans & earthlings, together with the help of the relief efforts, and together with the help of the family and friends of Sint Maarten that’s living abroad.

I’ve always been proud of my island, and this just makes it more clear as to why I am! As I’ve seen so many mention and I love it, “Sint Maarten is just temporarily closed for renovation, we’ll be back soon!”.

Just a FEW pictures of the positive progression that is happening and been happening on St.Maarten: