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.

ENGINEERED FOR ONE PURPOSE -- OUR BEST SELF

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-- You know what, our life journey serves just one purpose.... and that is to work us towards our better self. Every bit of joy, sadness, success, failure, trials and difficulties are all engineered for that end purpose of shaping us into the best person, individual, creation we were meant to be by design. The self is engaged not for any selfish agenda (although many mistakenly read it as such) but to materialize the hopes and intent of the Great Designer himself. Not even our human frailties or imperfections can keep us from it.
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Until we learn to think out of the small negative box of our mundane lives we will always see ourselves as small.. helpless.. powerless.. inadequate.. ordinary.. trivial.. mediocre.. useless.. worthless.. failures... devoid of talent... and everything else which we negatively call ourselves as we drag our feet down the dusty road of life and living.
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Now do you still wonder why some people make a living and even get rich by telling us to get up and be somebody!? They know what ails us.
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Because we forget, easily forget that we are somebody. But we ARE somebody. We just keep forgetting that we are children of GOD! God's children ----- and that, in any language, is SPECIAL!! That is where our self-worth and self-confidence lie. Let no one tell you otherwise.
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God bless you.

CREATED TO BE ONE OF A KIND

The person sitting across me on the train was a young girl probably in her twenties, slim and petite, with long black hair, chinky eyes, asian nose, thin lips, and pale white skin. Nothing extraordinary in her dressing as I see it duplicated in every young girl or boy anywhere out on the streets.... the casual tee-n-denims and a backpack loosely carried on one shoulder. But she is different.

Because this person I see is so much more than her physical attributes. Her preferences in life, people, food, fears and stuff would probably cause a raised eyebrow. Too how much more would it surprise me if I learned about the insights, perspective, observations and impressions she holds on the bigger world outside. What about family, education, relationships, hopes and dreams? What about her capacity for pain and learning, joy and love, patience and understanding? How much can she hold or give from the heart? What does she do when life gets tough or tougher? Is she one to break into a smile for the slightest reason?

I look around the train and see more faces. Maybe having similar tastes in clothes, maybe liking spaghetti like I do, have parents, families, children, or working at jobs from 9 to 5.. or maybe unemployed like thousands more in the big city... and other teeny-weeny identical things life throws at people at one time. But that's as far as similarities go.

She's different and there's no one else like her inside the train nor out there in the world. And so are we. We are different. Because we were created to be each one of a kind. Uniquely individual. And that makes us so very special. So very specially different. :-)