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I had always wondered why my parents would warn us (my sibling and I) to stay away from the rain or not put our hands out in the rain while we were growing up. Then, the reason given was so we won’t be struck by thunder and some other typical and African fetish beliefs. Things like not sitting on stone; not allowing anyone beat us with broom as boys especially; not putting in our mouth to eat with a knife so that we won’t have plenty teeth on a gum and tons of other superstitions which we took in as true even if we couldn’t find a logical reason to them.

Coming of age later, and being educated made me realize that all those warning were actually about health precautions, not the superstitions attached to them. Our parents, like most parents probably felt we wouldn’t take things seriously if those superstitions were not added.

Lol. What a life!

But it paid off because none of us got our tongue cut out of eating with knife; none went down due to leukemia because we stayed away from the rain, and so many health issues we would have had if we decided to be stubborn rather than listening to our parents.

I am saying, in short, health is wealth and vital. No one can do something about your health except you. My health is my sole responsibility, yes I may get advices in what to do or not to do with it; the decision still lies with me, which automatically will make me seek to know my body and things that will work for it’s good.

I simply call the shot; I make the decision over my life. And this is the way it applies to other areas of life.

Your health is your shot to call; don’t leave it at the mercy of another!

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.