HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015 - STRENGTH UNDEFEATABLE

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To quote....
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"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable." ------ Helen Keller, Let Us Have Faith (1940)
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Unquote.
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It is that time of the year .. again .. when we reassess, reevaluate, review, or look back to the year that has passed. The highs and lows of it, its triumphs and failures, its joys and sadness, its successes and bloopers, its dare-do and dare-not, its friends and enemies, its good and its bad. Life!
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There may be things in there which we would like to change ....and then again some which we may hang onto quite stubbornly, whether it be good or bad. And then again some who believe that life is just what it is, that it can't be changed.
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Well, whatever your belief is.... life is what you make it, good or bad. Nobody can tell you what to do with it; nobody has the right to. You are your own author... you write your own story.
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You can make it an adventure.... or an endless chain of excitement.... or an endless round of merriment.... or a pocketful of challenges.... or buckets-full of tears.... or a hopelessly boring one........ The choices are all up to you.
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Savor the triumphs achieved but please don't try to heap blame on things, circumstances, and people when life suddenly turns sour. Because life is all about choices. Even in bad situations you still have a choice. Stand up to the choices you have made and make.
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Life is what you make it.
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Let's look forward to the best year 2015 can be for us all.

  HAPPY  NEW YEAR!!! 

 Be blessed. Stay blessed.

Love you all. 
 Thank you for being with me through all the writing.

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ONE LOVE THROUGH THE YEARS

This beautiful song is usually played in weddings, anniversaries, and other special days carved out with love by earthly lives.

This song is my special song for the only love of my life. Thank you, GOD, for being there through the good and bad and everything in-between with your magnificent love and care.................. through the years and forevermore.

MY ONLY LOVE THROUGH THE YEARS

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This beautiful song is usually played in weddings, anniversaries, and other special days carved out with love by earthly lives.



This song is my special song for the only love of my life.
Thank you, GOD, for being there through the good and bad and everything in-between with your magnificent love and care.................. through the years and forevermore.



NOTE:
Had to repost this because the link in this one faltered frequently.
Thank you for bearing with me. I just had to have this song here... it's a special one for me.

ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS REMEMBER (A repost)

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This piece was written in the blog in 2005. Bringing it here now because a good friend needs to see this.

Blessings, everyone! And again.... MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
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How easy to think that life is drained dry of joy when feeling down in the dump. I’ve had those days. It never really goes no matter how you will it to. It keeps coming back to you like a bad dream or an irritating glitz on the face. Bad days are here to stay. I guess it’s there to put some balance in our life like telling us that life can’t be all nice and sunny every time. We can’t have it all as a familiar song goes.
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So then what‘s to do? Walk around with gloom on our faces? Sulk and mope in our room? Drag people down to join us in our misery? Blame everyone and everything for how you feel or for what’s happening to you? Be angry? Isn’t that just how people behave when confronted with a bad day? I do. Yep, I'm like you.
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I had a bad day today. Nothing worked today. Nothing I ever did got me the results I wanted or expected. So I was flustered and upset by it all. I got irked and disillusioned on how the day was turning out to be. It could be better but it just wasn’t. This day is hopelessly gone as far as I‘m concerned.
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But is it really gone? Although it’s so easy to give up and let the bad day have its way, but must I simply give up and just label everything today as ‘spoiled’? Maybe-- just maybe there is a way to tip the scale to my side and perhaps save the day.
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At that particular point, there was a knock on my office door and Glenda walked in wearing a huge smile.
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“It’s Timmy Boy’s first birthday and I’m giving him a party this Saturday. Glad if you could come”, she spoke with undiminished brilliance in her smile.
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Fascinated by her smile, without a second thought I agreed.
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What a remarkable smile! Such a smile one sees in birthdays, anniversaries, baptisms, debuts, weddings, graduations-- such joyous moments of happiness, fun, and laughter. I remember such occasions very well and how it filled the hearts with warmth and love all around. I remember enjoying the little one blowing out her first birthday candle on the Snoopy-designed cake; .......the shy smile of a blushing debutante (my daughter) on her first dance; .......the radiant face of the bride, (my niece); .......I remember so thrilled on my daughter's graduation day as I watched her walk onstage diploma in her hands....... -- the wonderful delightful times of my life. I remember them all now.
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That’s how my day finally ends-- with lovely precious memories. Already gone yet its sparkle undimmed and undiminished with each passing of time. Remembering brings back to life the first joys felt then. Golden memories, golden joys. I felt them now. It saved the day for me. All you need to do is remember—it certainly makes your day. Gosh, thank God for beautiful memories.
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LIFE IS BOTH THE SMILES AND THE TEARS

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This morning good friend, Mr. Quote Man, sent me this quote. And I liked it. Because I know that it would ring a bell in many hearts out there. It speaks to your memories of how life happened to you then and as it continues now.

That's what I have learned, too. Back then, I was waiting to be happy because I thought that life was meant to be lived happy. And it did not begin until I felt happy. But I was proven wrong many times. Then I finally got it.. That the pain, hurt, fear, confusion, disappointment, frustration, anxiety, weariness, defeat, and even so much more which made my heart cry ----- were also called life.

Here's the quote:

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin.....
But there was always some obstacle in the way,
something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business,
time still to be served, a debt to be paid.
Then life would begin.
At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.

---- Alfred Souza

Beautiful, isn't it?
Remember, folks..... Smile and the world smiles with you.

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.

THE BEST OF ALL GIFTS --- FOR ALL SEASONS

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So what's on my mind today?

Oh but plenty! On top of that list is missing my family.... mom, dad, Jesse, Doddy. Centuries gone by spending Christmases without them. It sure can get down to your bones missing them so much. Talab sa buto-buto yan! You would probably think that I should be used to it by now, after all it's already been years. But no! It can be pretty lonely on some days.

So what I'm saying is....... love your family.... love your parents..... love your siblings. Treasure them with every moment that comes to you. Don't think that they will live forever-lives for you. Life isn't that way at all. Don't take them for granted. Maybe some days you wished they didn't exist... because their preferences for you ran opposite to yours. That ain't new; it is the most talked about - written about - and experienced part of that famous bond since time-knows-when. Children will never understand them in every generation passing but, believe it or not, they always understand their children.

It's simple why and how ---- love rules in their parenting skills. Whatever their ways, it's always about love. They love their children according to what they know. Although they may be misunderstood at times being such imperfect creatures just like the rest of us but they fiercely desire only the best for their children -- over and above all things. 

Never mind those so called exceptions-to-the-rule because that's just what they are.. exceptions. Exceptions live side-by-side with the norm. And there's always a story behind every exception. In the same way that there are dozens of stories behind the norm or usual.

Look at your parents.... see them for what they are ---- loving you with their heart... loving you with their life. Just like St. Joseph and the Blessed Mary loved their Blessed Infant Jesus .... forever love.

That's the best gift you can get for Christmas --- the best for everyday of your life. They are God's gift to us. But I guess you already know that by now. 

May God bless you, your parents, your families.... your Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, my dear dearest friends in the blog!

MOTHERS --- GOD'S GIFT TO THE WORLD

Dad, mom, and two brothers.

 

This isn't bragging, not at all! Look around you........... your neighbor's mother -- your security guard's mother -- your wash-lady's mother -- the president's mother -- your mother -- your mother's mother -- the parish priest's mother -- even the corrupt official's mother ....  they are all MOTHERS. They give parenting their very best in ways they each know how. Maybe it's not popular nor the standard but they just give motherhood their darn best!! Their darn best! It's what they know. If they succeed, great is the award awaiting them in heaven. If they fail, there's always a bigger story behind that.

How their child or children will come out is beyond knowing. Because what the child becomes when he or she grows up ---- is that child's choice. Life is always about choices. Don't blame it on your mother, father, family, spouse, circumstances, or God ---- life is what you make of it. Life can be either good or bad..... according to You!

Love your mother... love your dad... love your parents. Love them for doing their job as stewards of you as commissioned by God. Whether they do their job well or bungle their job is not your judgement to make --- that is God's area of expertise.

I have missed my mom for centuries now; still do. God took her home just when I needed her most close to me. So I was left to weather life's storms as an orphan. True that it would have been easier with them by my side. Have shed buckets of tears missing her so. Her absence broke my heart. But God had his plans.

This I will say.....  Mom was my hero. She was, is, and always will be God's perfect gift to me. Always will be as she guides me from above.