LIFE CANNOT BE LIFE WITHOUT PEOPLE IN IT

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I was on my way down the hill at the tail-end of my morning walk when this silver-haired gentleman-foreigner heading my way from the opposite direction on seeing me slowed down and greeted me with a huge smile and a question... "How many times do you go round the neighborhood?" I replied "Twice, most times." To this he smiled even more and said.. "Good for you!" And walked past me still wearing his big wide smile..
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Apparently he too was doing his usual morning routine. And so were other Filipino residents of the neighborhood at that early hour. But one thing looks quite clear to me.... Filipinos are shy .. in fact, just too shy to jump at the opportunity to make friends or simply share the good vibes of the moment with someone. They hold back too much that the golden opportunity flies by swiftly and becomes lost forever.
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I remember Mom said this long ago....... "The art of giving and receiving does not come naturally to many. But it can be learned. Start with loving yourself, life and everything in it."
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Life without people would be similar to a landscape of meadows, mountains, rivers, forests running endlessly beyond the horizon and even farther. Magnificent but somehow incomplete. Full yet empty.
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People, on the other hand, bring into life those thousand-and-one things which make it come pulsatingly alive. Challenges... perceptions... insights.... excitement... adventure... joy and happiness... creativity... productivity... emotional diversity... development... growth, etc. Add to the same pot the worrisome and wearying disputes... arguments... sorrows... questions... destruction.... conflicts... negativity... and other things more which make you want to bang your head on the wall. These things happen between man and man interacting and colliding in a manner they alone best know how. We can include what happens between man and nature interacting and colliding too.
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Life cannot be life without people in it. Truly by God's design.
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Wishing for you and your family God's blessings beyond measure.

BILLY IS A PLANT

Today I have a little story for you............

Billy is a plant. A tiny one built close to the ground. It has no stalk, no branches but just a tuft of spike-like leaves of green and white. It looks like a dwarf sitting there in its tiny corner of the garden kingdom which other residents are tall leafy branch-y plants, one hedge, a bush, and a towering tree.

Sometimes I wonder just what goes on in the mind of Billy. 

What’s it like being small and growing in a place of giants and not getting equal chance or opportunity to shine or be noticed. Always there will be some other plant bigger and stronger. They get more of the water, more of the sun, more of the touch, more of the beautifying. They get to see more of what’s outside the garden kingdom. It makes me think that even in the plant kingdom there also is competition, struggle, and survival.

There was a time when I thought Billy gave up. It withered, shriveled, and almost was reduced to nothing. Almost gone, I thought to myself. So I mentally took note to find a replacement soonest I could get to the plant market. But I became busy. Well, the days turned into weeks and then a month went by when I remembered about Billy.

I rushed to the garden expecting to see empty soil and perhaps ghostlike traces of something which had inhabited it before.

But lo and behold --- Billy!

Still small, still short.. but now a rich thick tuft of spike-like green and white leaves pointing up to the skies. And happily, it seemed. I don’t know how Billy did it but I don’t need to go to the market plant anymore and nevermore. 

Billy tough Billy! Life may be tough in the garden kingdom – but Billy showed them who is tougher. Billy gave me a lesson I will remember for the rest of my life.

I hope to grow like Billy.


(In the absence of a picture taken of Billy, I surfed the internet for something and found this.... it sure looks like Billy; must be a close cousin; I can see the resemblance.) 
 
P.S. Billy is a real plant in my tiny garden.

BE INTERESTED. GET INTERESTED.

I like this from Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) .....  "One thing life has taught me:  if you are interested you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. When you are genuinely interested in one thing,  It will always lead to something else."

Writing is a passion. A passionate interest that has led me to fill up so many notebooks and notepads with so much writing ... some made full and then some left half-empty ... but definitely many. I write long and short, some make good sense and others just ho-hum. But I write. Essays, stories, poems, journals, blogs. Even if it's just a sentence.. a line or two... or a phrase... or an article for a local magazine or e-magazine site. It does not matter. Just to see the words stumble out of my pen on what once was a blank piece of paper or page is enough to get the heavenly stars into my eyes colliding with such ecstatic glee.

Furthermore the plus side of it is to discover that the writing opens other doors of interest which I would usually never have paid much attention to. When writing about creative hobbies one day in the blog my mind took a sudden shift just out of the blue thinking about trying my hand at painting. So I did. Took out a canvass, borrowed my daughter's water colors and paint brushes, and sat down to paint. Happy to say that I have today at least a dozen finished paintings lying around the house somewhere. It was an exhilarating experience that I would truly strongly suggest that you give it a try.

On another day while in the midst of writing, a new thought entered my mind as I gazed at the blue jeans left on the sofa by my daughter (oh yeah, she's a mess hahah...) -- why not sew a bag from an old pair of jeans? Yeah, why not?!! And to make a long story short I have sewn two ladies bags out of two old worn-out pairs of blue jeans. And three more pairs are simply waiting to be transformed by my new-found needlecraft skill. Try it and you just might surprise yourself.

Eleanor Roosevelt is right...  when interest gets hold of you your whole world is transformed by wonderful discoveries one after the other.  Truly wonderful opportunities unfold and present themselves to you.

Be interested. Get interested. With life, with living.