EVERYTHING SOONER OR LATER BRINGS A PERSON DOWN TO HIS KNEES

🤔Sometimes I'd wonder.....

 Gosh, why these many needs in life -- the need to be somebody, the need to be rich or successful, the need to be out there reaping applause and praise, the need to be powerful weilding influence or money, the need to be on top of things, the need to be loved? Plus the other basic needs of man. 

 Mom would simply shake her head and smile "You ask too many questions, Ellen. But those needs you speak of and more, both good and bad.. ultimately brings a person down to his knees." 

 Whatever we go through in life is there for a reason. Some things we understand... some things we don't. Yet it all touches our lives like rain falls down on creation sparing none. At times it creates chaos, uncertainty, grief, anger, hurt, pain, confusion, fear, loss, doubt. 

We stumble in search of answers to questions gnawing at our hearts and bashing our brains out. 

 No answers. 

 And .....mom was right - we come right back to HIM. He sorts things out and makes us see what we need to see.🙏

PEOPLE BLAST A HOLE IN YOUR LIFE - YOU CAN DEAL WITH IT

😊Stumbled upon these lines today..... "You know, people talk about closure, but I don’t buy it. People blast a hole in your life, it tends to stay open."

🍃 That made me think.

That hole in one's life therefore doesn't really disappear!??? 🙄 So it's not just a skin-deep, superfluous, temporal thing that simply leaves on its own or goes away when the cause is eliminated. It's there as real as potholes and bumps on our city streets which undergo a thousand makeovers but underneath it all still lie the hole or holes. Not wise therefore to simply gloss over a person's pain to make him feel better. So it doesn't work that way.
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'A hole in your life' could mean a lot of things. A hurtful relationship, a betrayal, bad things happening to good people in your life, failures, rejection, and other mountain-size of unpleasantness, to say the least, that hits you straight where it can hurt most. That hole in your life is a core-deep experience. The core, as we know it to be, is usually that place within where you find your comfort safety and balance. But as life seems to have the knack for doing it... one day it sends something to blast through those safe walls and create a hole, a damn huge one, which then shakes up your world big time.
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What a great lesson..... to deal with the holes in our life... not meaning to close them as it never will. It may simply stay there as an ugly bump, a stinging sore and scar, or stays there as a gaping hole... defiant maybe and could hurt you again when someone or something rubs you the wrong way one day.
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But and 🤓BUT you don't let it define you as a person. Rather you let it be a reminder that you above all else can be stronger and smarter than you think. That you know about 'holes in our life'... it's part of the landscape, territory, tapestry, spectrum, diversity, and the reality of the good-the bad-and the ugly ... of our existence, like it or not.
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That you have learned well and have become much wiser - smarter - better - and importantly in control. That you have learned to use the tools wired in you by the Divine to overcome challenge. Now isn't this what they say about true power? 😊🙂😘

IT'S TO NEVER GIVE UP

My neighborhood nestles on the slopes of a mountain.. the Sierra Madre this side of Rizal. So the paths I walk through are never level or straight. It goes up-down and winding round you'll find yourself ending up where you started.This morning as I leisurely walked up a long slope (one of several) I saw this tall slim middle aged guy several meters up ahead running down-and-then-running up again which looked like his own version of exercise. But before I could get to where he was he ended his exercise and went inside the house. Then perhaps would feast on a huge hearty breakfast his wife would have prepared for him! Which seemed unlikely though because when I went past his house it was so quiet and none of the usual aroma of food cooking up in the air (Kidding, of course!)

The neighborhood streets are named after birds. There's Robin, Swallow, Nightingale, Oriole, etc. Really not surprising as the area is a delightful haven for different sorts of birds. In fact, they keep me company on my early morning walks flitting here and there... from tree to tree... or hopping on down on the street pecking on crumbs. All amidst the chorus of tweets and chirps... a full choral ensemble when you get higher up the slopes to dense trees lining up the streets. I remember when I was a kid my father who loved hunting with his friends in the thick forests of Zambales would talk about the birds they saw and one was the Golden Oriole. He loved talking about this particular one; I guess he loved the color yellow. Funny that I would one day years after live on a street named after that bird!

On my way back to the house, I saw this woman brown-complexioned, sun-burned wiry hair, maybe in her forties who from the opposite direction walked hurriedly past me in her weather-beaten flip-flops. But it was not her which grabbed my attention.... it was her worn-out t-shirt and the words emblazoned on it .... Never Give Up.

Never give up! A thought which lingered on my mind as I saw an old man limping on a bad leg but still walking out to the main road..... and this frail young girl in a worn-out dress which saw better days standing in front of her old broken down house holding a new born baby in her arms (bathing in the morning sun) humming softly --- 'okay lang, anak, okay lang...' (It's okay, child, it's okay....) Can you imagine what those words could mean? It could mean a lot of things. But I felt the challenge of life in those words. When I heard it as I walked past them it almost brought a tear to my eye.

So many like them out there in the world battling a problem or some other huge serious concern. But they hold on with every strength or courage they could muster, maybe tired and weary - beaten and worn, but they never give up. No matter how many times they fall they get back up again and fight harder than before... even much harder. One courageous step at a time, one moment to another, one day to the next. I know ... because I had my share of battles too.

Never give up. It should be worth it. It is worth it.
Life is beautiful. Blessings where you allow yourself to see them.

Hope you're all having a good and blessed week. Blessings to you all.
(The Golden Oriole in the photo)