A FAMILY IS NEVER PERFECT - BUT IS GOD'S PERFECT GIFT TO US

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Just got back from my early morning walk. Actually, it's already 8morning now and I consider that quite late for a morning walk. The Philippine sun is already out from behind the mountains of Antipolo which does not entirely contribute to a comfortable cool walk around the village. Plus the fact that the village dogs are already out on the streets also getting their morning exercise.... vocals and paws. Maybe next time I will have Scruffy my pet dog along to ward off these pesky four-legged bullies. Now that seems to be a good idea!
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This weekend that passed was spent in the lovely home of my daughter and her husband. It was a pleasant stay made so by the couple ... the loves of my life. Another love (youngest daughter) was there with me and another love (oldest daughter) stayed home with the pets and a much deserved me time. That is smart. We all do need ‘me- time’. I do. Yes, four loves of my life. My family.
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Old folks say that you can’t choose your family. Some families tell of dysfunction within the home which cause so much pain and heartache to its members. Others add to say that you only get the family you deserve. That could perhaps also be true. Everybody is a story and has a story for us to listen to – tales of happiness and woe. And, life being what it is, shall continue to send us lessons for our learning. Much of these lessons are learned in the home with family.
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Mother said these long ago….......... ‘A family is not perfect. It never is. Because each one (in it) is a different person... of different temperament... is shaped by its own acquired set of experiences- insights- perceptions… with his or her own good and bad… traveling his or her own road… and creating his or her own life story. In the natural nurturing order of things, they will expand or develop and in that process increase becoming finally their own person.... one day by Divine design.’
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Now we know why God created families. It is the perfect environment for growth and the only thing that can bring this about is … love.  Where else in this big wide world can this great love be found... but with and in the family.  It's the greatest love of all. Truly God's perfect gift.
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God bless all the families in the world!

 

 

 

OF BLOGGING... STORIES.... AND STORYTELLERS

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There is a diversity of reasons why people do what they do. In every area of our lives -- the whatever-however-wherever it may be -- is what makes up your story. Every bit and piece in it is everything that tells the world who you are. Because everybody is a story.
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But -- that is just one part of the whole..... Completing that is the listener. One is nothing without the other. Somebody tells -- somebody listens. Somebody writes -- somebody reads.
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Try cruising down a blog site, stop awhile and visit a blog or blogs and you will know what I mean. You will begin to appreciate such display of diversity, of interests, and the wide range of expression in telling it. The thing to remember is that it's not just all about words or pictures but it's all about people and their stories. and how it's told.
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Some people, as I have heard them say, remark that it's a frivolous or flippant world and is such a waste of time. I will disagree to that. If some blogs do appear as such it does not necessarily reflect the site or the activity itself but rather it simply points you to the person writing it. The work is reflective of its creator.
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Each day adds another page to our life story. Make it count, make it matter. Learn whatever there is to learn every time the learning comes to your doorstep. Recognize and appreciate the carrier of the lesson -- acknowledge its presence... the person who is simply sharing his or her own story. As you have yours and share it too in your own special way in your own corner of the world and universe.
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Blessings to you and your dear ones. Great day ahead; enjoy! God bless you.

 #learning   #writing   #blogging   #storytellers   #blogworkshop 

 

The What:  Blissful Blogging Workshop

  

The Where:   Tweedle Book Cafe

 

The food --- but of course!

  

The organizers.. and speaker.

 

The storytellers.

 

 

 

New friends.. seatmates.. teammates.

  

#TheLearningJunkies

 

BRAVE IS WHAT HUMANS DO

 

  

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Brave is what humans do. Brave for a diverse dozen or more reasons.... visible and invisible. The visible ones we can easily understand -- it's all around us.... broken relationships, single parents, widows, orphaned children, army wives with spouses away in battle on the other side of the globe, abandoned elderly, losing jobs, not making it on the list of graduates, a father holding on to two jobs to send his children to college, losing fortunes, illness, death, etc.
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The invisible ones are just as many, perhaps even more. A choice many of us choose to hide from the world --- the burden or suffering of an illness, the quiet hurt or pain of betrayal, the hidden tears and grief over something lost, the deep fear or disappointment or frustration over things beyond control, the pain of a mother seeing her child's life go wrong, the heartache of a girl prevented from marrying the man she loves, desired answers to prayers taking too long in coming, and those other things we feel be kept away from prying eyes.
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Oh both lists can be quite long. Where there are trials in a life, bravery can't be very far behind.
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A friend once commented as she scrolled down her list of friends.... 'Buti pang mga ito ..Ganda ng mga ngiti noh? Mukhang walang mga problema.' ------ (Look at them smile.. like not a care in the world ever existed!)
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I looked at the faces she was pointing at... I don't know them; oh maybe some will be my friends one day but I know those smiles. Smiles of people -- brave people -- living brave lives. How do I know that? Because everybody has a story... is a story... and where there is a story you'll find bravery in it. Brave is what humans do.
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Blessings, everyone!! It's just there... open your eyes and hearts.

BEST FIND OUT WHAT HE OR SHE IS LOOKING AT

 

 

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I'm sharing with you one of my most treasured quotes.  It's from a book by Hugh Prather....... 'NOTES TO MYSELF'.  It says.....
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"No one is wrong.  At most someone is uninformed.  If I think an individual is wrong, either I am unaware of something,  or the person is.  Unless I want to play a superiority game I had best find out what he or she is looking at."
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Unquote.
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Allow me some thoughts.......
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Long ago in my blossoming self-righteous youth I would brush this aside as silly because I had this thought in my young silly head that people can be wrong and there can be no explanation to that except that... they are wrong.  But when I was wrong I always pointed to my youth as a ready excuse. Foolish, of course. Ah but the shortsighted folly of youth!
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As we grow older life proves us wrong on many things we thought we already knew. One lesson drilled into my mind by mother was this.....  'Always get to the story. Behind every individual is a story... his story.'  So whenever I hear someone say something, right or wrong, I would imagine mother shaking her finger at me.... 'Wait for the story.' 
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Yes, she was right ....because life did show me that there is always a story behind every right and every wrong. Opinions, insights, decisions, perceptions and the like are all shaped by experiences contained in a person's personal history.  So when a person presents an opinion but which you think is wrong,  hold judgement.  Find out why or how. That person's history influences his or her thoughts, words, and deeds.... the same way it does yours.  It's possible, too, maybe that person knows something you don't know... or maybe he knows nothing of what you already know.  But definitely he is speaking right off his own life journey and experiences.  You would, too, in your own.
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Besides nobody has the monopoly of knowledge or wisdom or information. Further we both may not be seeing the same thing in the same way........... you may be seeing trees but I am looking at its fruits. Like a friend had this crush on a good-looking fella, but I found his manner quite abrasive. But when later I found out why, then I finally understood.
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Seek to be informed. Wait to be informed. With information comes better understanding, compassion, empathy, wisdom.
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As Prather said.....  '..best find out what he or she is looking at.'

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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WHAT YOU DO WITH PAIN RATHER THAN WHAT IT DOES TO YOU IS FAR MORE ESSENTIAL

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An online friend once remarked in jest.... 'You smile to the world like you never knew pain. What a good life you must have.'
That's farthest from the truth; simply absurd. But if you don't mind I will consider that as a compliment though. You don't get to hear something like that everyday! So thank you, just the same.

As it's been said 'everybody has a story and is a story', right? I'm not different because I also have my story.

But I don't do Facebook to tell my story. It has its own place and time. A public place such as this is definitely not that place and time.

Pain. Now that is among the most spoken of or written about word in every history. It's experienced by every living thing, two-legged or four-legged, on our planet. Pain comes in many ways, in different seasons or time, for a diversity of reasons or causes, and in different shapes, forms, or sizes. 

It holds tightly in its grip the whole range of human existence..... the emotions, intellect, spiritual, physical, social, and every interaction feasible to our existence. Am I saying where there is interaction there will be pain, too? Following the principle of cause and effect, I'm saying possibly yes. Pain is an effect (one of several others more) caused by something or someone or sometimes even by the self. 

What do we do with pain? As we see it in people around us or in our own lives we either react to it ...or respond to it... as in fight it or take flight far away from it. 

I have learned through the years that.....'Reacting' could maybe make us even more miserable as it's done with the absence of thought. 'Responding', in effect, could take us to a higher plane of understanding and growth. 'Fighting' it could achieve for us strength of character... while 'taking flight' makes us even weaker in mind, heart, and spirit. 

Pain simply sits alongside its buddies... hurt, sadness, loneliness, frustration, disappointment, bitterness, depression, resentment, discouragement, confusion, and its other members of the same negative pack. They may seem or mean to break you but it can't succeed when you don't let them. They can't hurt you when you won't give them consent to do so.

Therefore, It can be said that what you do with pain (and its friends) rather than what it does to you is that which matters most, in any language. You define you. Nobody else will or can do that for you. 'Life is what you make it', so said a wise person.

And I would like to add....
Let your heart smile through all of life. There's always some reason to smile.

Blessings from above to everybody!

TOSSED INTO THE SAME BOX

"Never be too proud of who you are and what position you hold

because after a game of chess

the king and the pawns are tossed into the same box."

(Author Unknown)

Well, that sure clipped the air-bag wings of my young friend... Yup, an air-bag! Mahangin; ka-irita. But casting irritation aside, I think I can understand the little fella.

You see, a lot of history, perhaps in great measure negatively, went into that person which now created who he is. Everybody has a story, everybody is a story. Your history is you. What happens to you... how people affected or influenced you.. your reactions to situations, things, places, people.. your successes and failures.. your impressions, preferences, choices and decisions, perceptions, beliefs, fears, expectations, frustrations, bias and prejudices, pet peeves, etc. All these make up or contribute to the person that you are. You are a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

To this my other friend quipped  'Well then, I'll say that there are no bad people - just bad personal stories or histories..'  That certainly is one to think about.

I remember it said -- God created us good; He doesn't make junk. So if we turn out jerks in life --- that is something we do to ourselves.

Hope you're all having a pleasant week. Blessings!

A GEM OF TRUTH

Yesterday I was inspired to write a short story, a very short one, about a precious moment lifted from my 'learning moments with Mom' long long ago. But I first posted it in Facebook with the intent of testing the waters there...  if it could hold a niche for short storytelling from this here little old lady. Well, it earned its own share of 'likes' quite amazingly. Thank you. But it's here in the blog that I tell my stories... of how I see life, of what I see as it happens to others, or as it happens to me.

The story below was my learning moment with Mom.... just one of many golden nuggets through the learning years,
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A mother seeing her 6 year old daughter sitting at the front steps asked:  'what are you doing here by yourself?'

The daughter replied with a faint smile:  'I'm waiting for Peter.' (a neighbor's son)

The mother followed up her question with:  'why? and where is Peter?'

The young girl replied:  'I gave my doll to Peter cos he said that he could fix her broken leg... He is home now.'

'When was this?'   asked the mother again.

'Yesterday'  answered the child now beginning to show impatience on her pretty face.

'Come, child, into the house.'   and the mother took her little girl's hands and both went in.

'But, mom, will Peter come with my dolly soon?'  wondered the child.

'We don't know that. But remember this, don't leave your precious things or problems in the hands of other people who may or may not have time for you. Your dad can fix it for you if you ask him to.'  

The mother smiled and kissed away a tiny disappointed tear falling from the child's pretty little brown eyes.            

End of story.

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As you can see disappointments come to anyone and everyone, even children. When your child has a disappointment or two, be there and help ease her or him lovingly and gently through that experience.

Have a wonderful day. Blessings to you and your families.