CARPE DIEM -- Seize the day

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-- Haven't written anything for a week now. Well, the nudge wasn't strong enough to make me want to write something or anything. Instead I got busy with each day that came to me. And you know what... it felt good. Being busy with..... Carpe Diem. Carpe diem in simple language means 'seize the day'.
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I got acquainted with that word in the movie 'Dead Poet's Society' which starred Robin Williams. That was years ago and to this day it is still on my list of great movies.
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Carpe Diem. But if you expect it to be doing grand or grander things every time to make the day special, far from it because life doesn't always happen that way. Yet you can make the ordinary mundane things of life special..... very special. Oh sure, at this age and point in time and having traveled far down life's beaten path you could easily say 'been there-done that'. You pride yourself then in knowing so much about places... people... life... living. Well, I remember this from long ago when Mom said to me ----- "Honey, to know everything in the world will take you more than just a lifetime." ..and.. "People don't live long enough to do that", she added with a wide grin. "Don't even try to squeeze it all into this lifetime. What you can do is to make each day that comes to you ...special. Seize the moments."  Carpe Diem.
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A friend loves saying this to me with smug confidence 'Been there-done that.' -- So then does that mean that when you've 'been-there-done-that' then nothing else is left to do or see or discover? That nothing will more or less surprise you.... amaze you..... astound you.... thrill you... mystify you?? That nothing else matters anymore because you've seen them all, know them all, done them all. Really?
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Last night I was on a dinner date with my family at this fine restaurant down Ortigas in the vicinity of the Marco Polo Hotel. You would think that all these many years with my family that this occasion would no longer exude that same excitement felt on the past many dates spent with them. Quite the contrary. You see, the magic is still there as I watch my children and wonder greatly amazed at 'how they have all grown' and at how life has taught them well. 

My thoughts now at 70 are far different than when I was 20 or 30 and admittedly have lost quite a few. But with great joy and humility I give thanks to the One above because the magic's there ... still there Life is beautiful. And always will be..
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Carpe Diem. And the picture below (one taken after quite a long while; courtesy of my eldest daughter) will tell you ... this is me -- your ordinary human being but happy with my day. Big thanks to Someone up there.
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Wishing you all great blessings from the loving heart of God.

LOOK FOR MAGIC

My computer at home is situated by the front window. On this particular morning while thinking what to write, I unthinkingly looked up in the direction of the skies. Amazing blue skies! Clear... soft blue.... with distant patches of cotton-like clouds. And a warm bright sun shining with such gusto making everybody it shines on sweat buckets. That's the downside of a glorious sunny day.

Anyway, easily I could have paid no attention or it would probably just have simply passed me by just like that. Oh yes, we do let it go by unnoticed. Our fault, not nature's.

Who in his human mind and attitude would go through his or her day looking for amazing blue skies such what I had this morning? Normally we would not because there is so much down here below that engages our attention. Rushing to work, taking the kids to school, doing the laundry, running after deadlines, cursing the traffic, hating the government, wrestling with our problems, and a thousand-and-one other things we'd rather do in the name of living. Added to all that we have this queer attitude of expecting the bad or worst in our lives thus pushing ourselves even harder to raise a buffer or shield against it.

Funny, it all started in the home, with our parents. When everytime our mothers would say..... 'eat this.. sleep early... do your homework... behave... don't cry... clean your room... or the monster will come and get you!' So the child in his young mind would certainly think that if he doesn't do as told, something bad will happen. That's a thought carried forward unto to adulthood. Translated as ... 'if I don't do something good, I will be seen as a failure..' So the crazy chase for wealth, success, achievement, positions and titles... and others more.

It can be both good and bad, depending on how you look at it. But it certainly is sad. Because in that crazy chase we tend to push aside that which is essential... a process which dries up the soul. Life is not just the chase, getting, or acquiring. It's part of it yes ... but not the whole of it.

The following lines which I'm quoting here may or may not have anything to do with what I've just written..... but it struck me as lovely. It's from an old movie "My Life In Ruins", a light romantic comedy. Enjoyable. But I liked best this line said by one of the main characters Irv (played by Richard Dreyfuss, my favorite) ------ 'Don't look for obstacles..... Look for magic!'

Look for magic. In blue skies, in rainbows, in the rain, in a rosebud, in the distant mountains, in a baby's smile, in your doggie's loving eyes, in lovely sunsets, in all of nature, and in people.

May your day be filled with magic ... and blessings by the dozens.