IT'S NOT WHAT YOU EAT -- IT'S WHAT'S EATING YOU

My friend plopped on the couch one day... a big plop! So I asked her 'something wrong?' ...and she replied 'Ala lang!' (translated 'Nothing!'). 'Okay let's try that again.... why'd you do it?' 'Whaat?', again she replied. 'Okay that face isn't working with me. Besides you ate up all the shrimp cracklets on the bowl and you don't like shrimp cracklets. So want to tell?'

Then she turned to me and said ... 'did you know that they have this gorgeous chocolate cake at Starbucks? And Coffee Bean makes this fantastic carbonara? J. Co's donuts are to die for too?"

'Hey you're packing in calories faster than you should! What's up??' exclaimed I bewildered. Though I must admit that the cake sounded very tempting! There's a Starbucks store just some minutes away. Anyway......

And the dam burst wide open releasing a flood of tears. 'He's cheating on me!' she bawled between sobs. There you go and her story tumbled out....  a heart so betrayed and deeply hurt.

No that's as far as I go in telling her story.

But her story is telling us this....

Sometimes when people do outrageous things or simply can be so out of character don't get fooled by that. There is almost always one dominant idea or thought which moves them to do what they do.

We don't do anything just because. Always there is a reason behind it. Big reason, small reason, drama, subtle, or sometimes nonsensical. But the reason is there. And what you do with it almost always is where you get your story.

Just like my friend, it's not what she eats.. rather it's what's eating her that's the problem. Or said in a different way, it's not what you do but rather why you're doing it. That's where the gist of the story lies.
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Hope everyone's happy with the day. It's a good one with plenty of good stuff God put into it. Blessings to you all!

YOU WANT SOMETHING GO GET IT

Just an observation.....

Some of my young friends tell of their so many plans, so many dreams, and yet never seem to know what the right one for them is. Confused and bewildered they keep on hammering at a wide range of choices believing that the right one will eventually surface, that somehow things will break and they will hit gold. I’m not convinced with that method. There has to be conscious effort. They have not recognized their path because they didn’t search well.

It’s not always smart to spread yourself thinly over a wide field of prospects. It’s like using up energy and shooting wild bullets with no specific target in sight. Besides it will wear you out faster and pretty soon you will find yourself dragging your feet from one place to another. That’s a candidate for frustration , disappointment and a waste of precious time and talent – one which you can’t afford to lose. Besides Father Time waits for no one.

On the other hand, I have seen other young people take on a well-thought out and planned approach. These boys and girls start out with a well-defined and definite sense of purpose; have equipped themselves with the necessary education and training,  studied their prospects sorting out those which they believe will be a sure fit. They don’t bother with anything which does not fill the criteria they have set down. In such a way they succeed to narrow down the choices to the best of the crop. Once this has been decided then and only then do they gear up for the pursuit and journey armed with a clearer vision of what they have and what they hope to achieve. Surprisingly the required enthusiasm, energy and imagination needed to see it through bursts forth with such unexplained intensity that it certainly amazed me no end. They then were rewarded with gaining greater momentum and ground as they steadily inched their way towards their goal confident with what they know.

"You are the embodiment of the information

 you choose to accept and act upon. 

To change your circumstances

you need to change your thinking 

and subsequent actions."

 -Adlin Sinclair

 To you reading this... GOD BLESS YOU and have a wonderful day.

GRATITUDE TAKES YOU TO BETTER PLACES

One of the things I enjoy doing on a free day is find a nice spot in the garage to sit and watch the day move along out on the street. Of course, the dogs Buddy and Lucky would be there with me.... Buddy rubbing his head against my side while Lucky doing her happy dance of welcome.

There is something so special in that when the usual cares and woes of the day agree to recede far in the background and allow the pleasure of uninterrupted bliss and peace. This is what we need. If it does not present itself to us then we must go seek it out.

Sitting there did far more than I expected. I thought it was just simply fresh air, sunlight, green trees, chirpy birds and happy dogs but it turned out to be more than that. My mind was leaping from one thought to another similar to Lucky's happy dance.

The thoughts.....

How wonderful the blue skies with cotton-like clouds gliding through sometimes making out figures from the fairy tales of my childhood.

How soothing the touch of the fresh gentle breeze on my face with memories of what it was like walking by the seashore in my grandfather's hometown.

How interesting to see the bunch of trees in my neighbor's backyard with their interplay of growth and decay. So much like life when we peel off old unworthy things from living and take in new ones moving us forward with new hope and faith.

How lovely the birds with their songs so inspiring in the thought that they do not work nor toil but are sustained in their needs by the Great One. We would be singing their song too if we learn how to work faith and trust into our relationship with our Father.

...... and how great it is to be sitting here while God puts on such a grand show. I am sure many out there near or far share this experience. And I am sure that they understand it's God's way of telling us just how special, loved, and so blessed we are. Thank you, Magnificent ONE! ...... so much!

"Gratitude can transform common days

into thanksgivings, 

turn routine jobs into joy, and 

change ordinary opportunities into blessings."   

--- William Arthur Ward

 

Blessings to you all. Enjoy your day. God is there. See Him with your heart.


(Big thanks to Mr. Quote Man for sending this quote).


 

EXTRAORDINARILY ORDINARY PEOPLE

A friend a thousand summers ago with a tiny smile on his face gave me this quote ..... 'The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.' - (Jimmy Johnson)  I still remember the quote well. As for my best friend .. life took him into another direction. Well, nothing much we can do bout it when life does something like that to us. But looking back now I can say it was a good thing. God speed, amigo!

You know what.. we may not see it well or are missing it by this much... but we have extraordinary people around us and seen maybe in a grand way for some lucky souls but for those who go through life quietly and solemnly (now ain't that just too serious a word) maybe it would be just too small to be noticed too. It comes to you like the whiff of a breeze..... but a most refreshing breeze .. that is here a minute and gone in the next. But if you have learned and learned well to pay attention you will see and know it. Because that special spark is there.

Extraordinary ..... is that tiny friendly smile from a complete stranger who moves aside to give you space in an almost full elevator. Is that extra banana the fruit vendor slips into your paper bag already bursting with a kilo of nice yellow ripe bananas. Is that ear doctor who painstakingly explains your case and pleasantly assuage your anxieties about it. Is that handyman who fixes the leak in your roof and puts in a little extra finishing for free. Is that neighbor who greets a warm 'good morning' without fail every time he passes by your house on his way to work. Is that sweet wonderful person in Facebook who always finds time to drop you a warm greeting or a cheerful word or two. ......And many MANY more!

It's that little extra a person does but enough to warm a heart, calm a fear, inspire, wipe away a tear, lighten up the day, make someone feel special, give hope, restore faith, or help somebody regain that which was almost lost.

It's just a little extra.. for you maybe BUT to the person you gave it to ----- it's more than enough!... it's everything! it's the world!

Blessings to you, extraordinary all!

PATIENCE BUILDS -- IMPATIENCE DESTROYS

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A friend wrote me an email and in it was everything you can imagine of a person of great impatience. He was sorely sore about something. In short, things didn't come out as expected. I'll reply to his email later tonight. But first the seed of a post has taken root......

The dictionary defines impatience as ..... 'intolerance of anything that thwarts, delays, or hinders..'

Impatience can throw us off the track as we try to hasten processes or procedures innately designed or essential to something or someone. Failure to understand that everything in life involves a process easily paves the way for frustration or disappointment which eat us up or gnaw at our highly tensed nerves until eventually falls into pieces. Impatience is like a crazed bull loosed from the pen which gores anyone or anything that gets in its way.

While patience, on the other hand, is a revered cousin even considered a virtue by many. It keeps us steady and focused on whatever task we might throw ourselves into. In fact, it gains the favor of the gods thus aiding us further towards achievement or fulfillment.

But then it's impatience which gets the better of us most times. So how do we deal with this?

Try simple incremental changes to our approach. Take it slow. Small concerted efforts done or added to the heap will create a huge mound which later we may use to bulldoze our way to the top. Further, small is manageable and feedback-friendly. Seeing results early on enables us to make good adjustments to our stride. And importantly doesn't have to tax our patience or impatience needlessly as we would be with gigantic investment of time, effort, and emotion which results sometimes could take eternity to pull off.

Remember this said 'Rome wasn't built in a day'. And that God could have created the world all in a day but He didn't. That's a lesson to be gained from there. Small simple incremental changes .....  they matter where we would let them matter most. It may take longer... but worth the wait. And this undoubtedly takes the bull of impatience by its horn and leads it back into the pen where it belongs!

Blessings to one and all!

ABILITY TO CHOOSE

"The greatest weapon over stress

 is our ability to choose one thought over another."  

--- William James

When I saw this in my email this morning, the first thought that came into mind was........  So that's why we're all so stressed. It's not because our stresses are bigger or stronger than us, but more so because our abilities to cope are smaller than small and weaker than weak or sometimes non-existent.. thus we can't even make the right choices of good thoughts over bad thoughts. Stress is a bad thought, positivity is a good thought anytime. Even though we know that, we still struggle in choosing the right thought for us or adapt the right mental approach to the stressed situation. So then where have our abilities to choose one good thought over a bad thought (or another) gone to??!  That's for us to figure that one out, don't you think?

Hope everybody's having a wonderful weekend. 

Choose HAPPY!
Blessings, everyone.

SOFT RAIN ONE LOVELY MORNING

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SOFT RAIN

Woke up early this morning my girls still asleep in their beds. Walked to the window to see how the day was beginning.

Rain. A slight one forming a thin curtain draping my window. Yet I still could see through it.... birds unbothered by raindrops were amazingly chirping atop a branch of a neighbor's tree across the street, clouds above fading away gently making room for the blue skies to show, life in my neighborhood slowly waking up to a new day.... to the promise of a new day.

Some people say that life's problems are like rain. It falls on anything, anyone, whenever, whatever. So much of that is true. Different kinds of rain or rainfall fall down on us as there are different kinds of troubles or challenges that man faces each day.

I like this one am having this morning. Because if troubles come like this rain - gentle and soft ......  I would still be able in spite of the pain, hurt, difficulties, or problems to see beyond it all... to see the silver lining that lies underneath the troubled heap. I would be able to understand by the grace of God that whatever troubles may be it does not necessarily have to end my world. But that rather it passes soon enough after it has done its job of teaching me the lessons it wants me to learn. And that if I have paid good attention and remained steady through it all..... I will receive the promise and reward of a better day, perhaps a better life, but most essentially a better version of my old self.

Like soft rain when it is done, I would come out of it refreshed and renewed. Gratefully alive. Reborn. Thank God.

Hope you're all having a good and blessed week.

CREATE SPECIAL

Today I find myself with a day that looks  so ordinary and empty. So I wondered to myself just what am I supposed to do with such a day. Well, maybe I could play music and find myself a quiet corner to sit by my lonesome self and enjoy it. But the choices on my cd rack didn't look too enticing to say the least. Have played them over and over at different times these past few weeks that it certainly wore off its novelty easily.. So I shifted my thoughts to painting. Haven't painted for quite awhile now and I must admit that there were some nice images I was thinking to capture on canvass just last week. But again the images weren't clear enough now to ever make any sense. I guess it's just what some would say the absence of inspiration. 

Well then, perhaps a good book will help make the hours slip by unnoticed. But which one..... 'Purpose Driven Life'.... 'The Alchemist'.... 'The Road Less Traveled'.... 'The Aladdin Factor'.... 'City of Angels'.... '1001 Do-It-Yourself Hints and Tips'.... or that one bought from a book sale which now sits undisturbed on the shelf.... for weeks. Nah, I decided to let it remain undisturbed for some more as I now sense regretting that I ever bought it at all. And I decided too to leave the rest mentioned here alone although those are truly the kind of books you won't mind going back to again and again.

So what have we next? Ah food! Let's see ...... apples? grapes? bananas? oranges???... or munch on raisins? How bout biscuits or some junk food (oh but my daughter is not going to like this when she knows). Hey what about a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich...my favorite... along with a nice hot cup of tea. I'm off cola drinks for good --- something which I don't miss anymore now. Fruit juice? Have run out of that today.

So sandwich it is! And that about makes my day. 

That's all it would take really to turn an ordinary day into something that puts a smile on your face... give a lift to your mood.... and make you feel good inside and out. It's simply listening to the tiny nudge within you.... a tiny push which tells you to pay attention ..... and when you do pay attention it puts you right in sync with the moment. And that could be not just with your favorite sandwich or a cup of tea ... sometimes it could simply be a tiny book which you may have read a hundred times over anyhow.  Whatever it is your heart will lead you to it. In savoring the moment the day is transformed into special. Very special.