This morning I woke up at 1:30 AM. Unable to sleep, I decided to start studying for my English class, yes I’m in school and I love it!  Although it is time consuming; I enjoy waking up and stimulating my brain instead of letting it go to mush.

Today was different, instead of me being excited about learning something new (which I do get excited about every morning), I longed for something more, I wanted to learns more about the past.

The past is a beast sometimes, we long to go back to a state when everything was happy and perfect, a world when everything was just right.  But is that right?  Should we back track down memory lane? Or should we just keep looking forward?

It’s so confusing because we learn from George Santayana-“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.  But then we learn from certain scholars to never look back.  Who's right? Or all they all wrong?

On a personal level, I thinks it is somewhat healing to look back for just a moment.  It’s never right to keep looking back and dwell on the past, and in some cases it's a sin ( like Lot's wife did in The Bible), but today, just  for a moment,  I wanted to remember a feeling I forgot,  I wanted to remember just for a second why I get up and do things every day.

To make it even more meaningful I wrote a song about it, but I'm not going to tell you which song I’m talking about.  A good musician never tells people what to think or feel, they allow others to imagine it for themselves.

Feel free to visit my website www.maxinesoakai.com and checkout my videos and music! And see if you figured out what song I’m talking about, great job!  You've felt my rift!

Until then,

Ofaz

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"I Am the Light" featuring David Osmond

Recently a close friend of my family passed away and it got me thinking this morning about a best friend of mine who died a few years ago. It’s amazing how death can be such a big turn in our lives.  One day we’re going one direction, and then the next day our course has completely changed.

Even if we have “lived a good life” it still has a enormous impact on our reality.  I remember hearing a man who's spouse had recently passed away say, “she is now dead, and is now only a thought in my head”.   I thought how lonely and empty that statement was, she’s more than just a thought in your head, she’s a part of who you are!  For those of you who don’t know there is life after death, death is just the beginning of a great new world.  This life is a probationary time for us to prove who we are to ourselves, and to God.  I know this because if you listen closely you can actually feel those who have left; you can feel their spirit still lives.

After my friend passed away my life took an amazing course into music.  All of the sudden, everything I felt and heard inside of me was coming out onto paper and into music.  For the first time in my whole life, I felt connected to another world, a world that seems so familiar, but yet new at the same time.

In discovering this, I wanted everyone to feel what I felt in hope that it would comfort them as it has comforted me.

I've always believed if you have a gift, share it, so others can breathe.  Music is my air, it’s what keeps me going, it’s what gives me energy and keeps me believing.

Here’s a song I wrote after my friend passed away.  It’s called “I Am the Light”, sung by me and the talented David Osmond.

Until then,

Ofaz!

"I Am the Light" by Maxine Soakai featuring David Osmond

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"Women"

I've been in the studio lately working on a new track that I’m collaborating with Feel Good Music Coalition on.  The track we are working on is called “Women”, inspired by girl power, with a tropical touch.

Today’s music degrades women, making them seem “easy” and carefree, teaching young  girls that looks are the only thing that matters.  Don’t get me wrong I enjoy looking my best, working out, and eating healthy, but I mostly do those things because I truly enjoy them, and because I want to live to be 100 years old and still be able to run up mountains every morning.

Everyone who has ever had a great example of a woman in their lives knows that women, in particular special women, have shaped and molded them to be their very best.

Just this morning, I listened to a story given by Tad R. Callister  (link of speech below) about a boy who was ranked the lowest in his class. His mother didn't know how to read because she was one of 24 children in her family who only had a 3rd grade education.  She was married at age 14 and was later divorced and left to raise two sons in the ghettos of Detroit. However, she was extremely self reliant, and new God would help her and her family.

One day while working as a maid, she cleaned houses for the wealthy, she realized rich people had libraries and read a lot!  She went home and forced her children to read, read, read!  By the 7th grade Ben (the boy) was at the top of his class, and he later attended Yale University on scholarship, and then went to medical school at John Hopkins.  Then at age 33, Ben became a chief of pediatric neural surgery and a world renown surgeon. How is this possible?  Because of a special woman, a mother.

This is what a real woman do; they do their best with what they have, and make a master piece of it.

Human life is beautiful!  We all demand attention and love, and that is what a real woman does. She loves and gives attention to others and helps change the world.

Real women delight in celebrating a loved one’s success because they have contributed and sacrificed all of their time in the making of it.  The inspiration a real woman gives is to inspire a person to be the unique individual they are meant to be by embracing their own rare beauty.

Look up women! You are great! Your selfless hours of work, staying home with kids, feeding neighbors, taking old women on walks, and loving more than is imaginable is not unseen and holds great impact.  You’re beautiful just as you are!

From one of the most beautiful women who has ever lived, I share this quote.

“I don’t want to drive up the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.  I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.  I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children.  I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping weed someone’s garden.  I want to be there with children’s sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.  I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived”

-Marjorie Hinckley

Ben's Story

MaxineSoakai.com 

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