TODAY IS EVERYTHING. LIVE IT WITH GRATITUDE.

Today is a new day .... literally a new day. Yesterday is gone ... no matter how much you may want it to stay because you had a great time with it ... it can't because it's time is done. Like everything else in life has its own appointed time and too has its beginning and its end.
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But admittedly we live our days like we own it and behave such that if it should end it will when we feel it should. So thus we continue to ... waste time instead of organizing it... waste resources instead of building upon it... waste opportunities instead of nurturing it... waste moments instead of making it count... all with and in gay abandon. Parang wala nang bukas. Que sera sera.. whatever will be, will be. Our wrong. Our bad.
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Maybe nice because, as many believe it, it can relieve us of a few if not all unnecessary and perceived stress and anxiety over the unknown future which we fear so much. Yet have you ever tried to think that those worries and anxieties of the past are no more in the present? Check it out; you'll find most of them gone. Though some of them may be valid when it comes to life's basic needs but the rest of it .... just plain worry and anxiety creating mountains out of mere mole hills.
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Life and time stops for no one. It moves on and along with or without you and me, like it or not. But it does leave the big choice to us whether we want to come along... or just stay where we are and as we are. A friend once said to me that it is something we have no control over. Agreed but only on things which require age or aging. But in the area of growth, development, progress, and maturity is a choice which we each have to make for ourselves alone. How often must we be told that?! Nobody can do it for us. Time won't do it for us either because it is not its business to make us grow inside out .. as we are expected to by a higher authority and divine design.
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So what's my point? What I'm trying to say is this.... hold on to your today with your best! Treasure it... savor it... relish it... love it... make it count... be grateful for it... fill it with worthy things... learn whatever there is to learn from it... create good memories... be the best person you can be TODAY...... for yourself and for others, too. We do not live solitary lives; we all stand connected in many ways, tangible or intangible.
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Allow me this quote from my favorite book (as you all may well already know -- 'Good Morning... God') ......................... "The heart of gratitude is one of My most priceless treasures. The heart of simple childlike thankfulness. How I respond to such a one. How I delight in doing all things well for that dear person. The one with the grateful heart!"
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Also .. Philippians 4:6 reminds us.............
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
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Unquote. 
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Today is a gift.... God's wonderful gift. Let's do with it what we usually do with something we love...... handle it with care!! Love it for it may never come again. Today is for today, not yesterday nor for tomorrow.
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God bless you and your dearest ones.

YESTERDAY TODAY TOMORROW

--- How many times have we gone crazy over something which failed in the past? When things went wrong and we couldn't do anything about it though we tried? When people came into our lives and brought it some sunshine magic and rainbows and yet we didn't notice? When trust and expectations were thrown out to the winds by the mean hand of someone we looked up to? Such bitter thoughts and unpleasant memories can break a heart. We may try to piece it back together again if given that chance, we certainly would want to change things where it needed change. But we can't. No more. It has already gone beyond our control. Because yesterdays are now gone. Gone for good.

--- What about tomorrow? Why do we dread it so much? Why do we punish ourselves hard to achieve a tomorrow we expect to be happy with? Why do we live as if tomorrow is all that matters? Is it really? Are you sure that all those things you have fiercely gathered will assure you just that? Are you even sure that tomorrow will come? How long do you expect to live? What dreadful thoughts! Enough to lose sleep over, elevate your blood pressure, push your migraine to the edge of the cliff, and drain you of your energy, inner spark, and life. And yet tomorrow still is to be born and that too is beyond our control.

--- What then is there left for us to live? Just one word -- TODAY. Today is where we live our life. In our today is sufficient challenge, opportunity, burden, problem, joy, sadness, sorrow, fear, success and failure, and prayer. Today holds enough for us to carry. Today is sufficient unto its own. We don't need the burdens of yesterday or the anxieties of tomorrow added to the present load. How much can we carry? Today is everything that we need. Living today with the best we've got and with the best of what we are will vindicate the past and will take care of our tomorrow. And you know what, this is how Somebody up there meant life to be --- that life be lived one day at a time.

(The picture above was shot by Malen)

DON'T GIVE UP YOUR DREAMS

So you think that dreams belong only to the very young? When they arriving at this special point in their lives begin to think that the whole world beckons to them to experience its adventure, mystery, enigma, wonder, and new surprises? It's commonly the idea. It's a world of many firsts -- the first job, first major project, first recognition -- these and many more fire that passion in the heart. And truely off would they fly in pursuit of those dreams.

But.....

What if something unexpected takes you off that road? What if you are made to surrender or give up those dreams? What if you lose control of your destiny and somebody holds it in his hand? (we're not referring to god or religion this time)

You may feel that there is no reason for wanting to go on, that the chase would be pointless or useless anyhow, that life wants you to do this and not that, that when the dream has broken into bits and pieces it would be too late to put it back together again at anytime. So you resign yourself to your fate.

Are you sure?.....

Because I don't buy that. I know that dreams don't disappear. It's still there tucked up somewhere inside of you. Maybe pushed to the far back or corner, but it's there. And it's simply waiting to be resurrected, to be championed once more. It stays there with its small warm glow of hope and faith that one day YOU will come to your senses and pluck it out of the darness and bring it to the light where dreams truly belong.

It doesn't matter how much you have lost, or how much older you are now, or how strange or foolish it may look to others, or how much people will tell you that it will never work out. It doesn't matter. What matters, and you should etch this in your heart, is that you have picked up the shreded bits of your broken dreams and pieced them back together again. Oh it's true that you may or may not succeed but it's alright. Who cares?! (Lols, I'm taking my dream one tiny step at a time and I don't even know if I'll get there or not.) I think that the wonderful sense of joy and adventure would be enough to restore the glimmer in your eyes, brighten your smile, and put back that long lost bounce in your step! That makes it all worthwhile. Because, believe me, from there... tomorrows could be beautiful. Besides, God is delighted by dreamers with a lot of spunk.

"When you find a Dream inside your heart
Don't ever let it go
For Dreams are the tiny seeds from
Which beautiful Tomorrows Grow"

(Thanks to Parth for this lovely quote, author unknown.)