Where the sun never shines.

In my former life as a teacher of English language and literature, I was always intrigued by the idiomatic expression: to take the bull by the horns.

Methinks it was coined by a man whose DNA rages with boiling blood. This desire to foolishly head into the path of a raging bull can only be as manly as one can get. Even the Spanish, whose bull fights are world renown, know better than to take the bull by the horns.

They wear it down by taunting it again and again and again. They spear it continuously. When it is bull tired and fed up with the whole spectacle of chasing after a piece of cloth with a red dot, it gathers all it's passionate energy and charges to meet its death.

The Spanish know that it is wiser to take the bull at its weakest point. If that idiomatic expression was coined by me, it would have read; hold the bull in the place where the sun does not shine. It is in that place that you will control the bull. It is also from that place that you will overcome any and all of those challenges that seem to be overwhelming you.

When you squeeze that place with all your might, your problems will yield to you. You will overcome and sing the tune that is known, by heart, by all those who surmounted seemingly insurmountable situations.

There is not a challenge on the face of this earth that does not have a weak spot. A spot where the sun does not shine. I guess that is why there is this expression in English: Every cloud has a silver lining.

Often times, we are right in the centre of the challenge. How it turns out will depend on how you perceive the challenge. Take the challenge of weight. The kind of weight gain that does not permit you to own your body.

There is an individual, whose name is known to only me. He was big. No! He was fat. He would buy trousers every other week. He had the kind of tyre extensions that are only normal if advertised by a tyre company . When his wife was pregnant, he was at the receiving end of bitter jokes.

One cool Sunday morning, on his way to church, he faced a huge challenge. There were four steps in front of him...1..2...3...4.. steps. Four steps that would get him to the church door. Four of the most agonizing steps that he had to take. He lifted one heavy foot after the other and had to sit his heavy body down on the fourth step.

His daughter then said the most innocent of things: " Daddy, you are just too fat, why don't you be like uncle Jim, our neighbor?"

That was the proverbial straw that broke this fat donkeys back. He took a hold of his health. In the silence of the night, he held onto the figure of fitness that was on his mind.

He cut out sugar from his diet. He threw out everything refined and discovered the beauty of organic foods. He made note of everything that he ate. He was determined to hold this bull in the place where the sun does not shine.

He signed up for his first 5km race. Then he run his first 10km race. Now he has fallen in love with fitness. Now his clothes fit him well. Now his eyes are set on the ultra marathon: the 89km comrades marathon...

No, there is nothing magical in what he did. He recognized the wisdom that issued out of his daughters mouth. He realized that only he had the power to turn his world around.

He decided in his mind and through action that this, his bull, had to be squeezed in that place where the sun will never shine.




Your life is in your hands.
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