Eat, Pray, Love?

My take is:

"Live well. Laugh often. Love always.
Think deeply. Live simply. Work hard. Give freely.

Speak gently, speak kindly. Care deeply. Love generously.
Be kind. Be thankful. Be honest. Be loyal. Be fair.

Spread Positivity.

Explore. Help. Listen. Understand. Transcend. Pray.

Fight for what you believe in. Let no one stop you. And never stoop down. Be wise.

Play. Laugh as much as you breathe. Love as long as you live."



It's funny because this is what our email signature (the hubs and I) screams right at you when you get a message from us. Believe it or not, it grew from a few words to a lot -- almost like a real email message all by itself. It grew through months and months of learning from these first-hand experiences with people. And it keeps on growing still.

You know, each day blesses us with lessons. Life's lessons brought about by our interaction with others. Everyone is a messenger...the good, the bad, they all come with a purpose: Serving you a bowl of lessons. It's a fruit salad of sorts. That self-righteous neighbor across the street, the pesky authoritative character in your own circle, the most humble human being you've ever met (which defies reality sometimes), a "biatch" who won't get off your back, people trying your wisdom and patience every single day, the sweetest stranger on earth, the smarty-pants co-worker, a greedy but lazy family member, the ever-generous and "going the extra-mile" sales associate. They all give us lessons. They are all there to make us better people in the long run.

Well, if we look beyond the face value of situations and work hard to transcend, that is.

Even the worst of people can bring out the best in you. They are there for you to realize that you are better-bred and so much wiser. To cut to the chase, smarter because you're nicer... And then you strive even harder for your own growth.

Life is a school. Lessons get harder with time, but in the end, we get better. We end up knowing better.

The blurb above is just the tip of the iceberg of what I've learned so far. And I seek to practice it every single day. It keeps me on the right path when challenges blind me with strong retaliating emotions. (I'm only human...)

Like when irritating people throw their weight on me (TODAY, for instance), and then I manage to have the last laugh. Because it's pretty comical how some people can really make a fool of themselves being who they are and doing what they do!

Upsetting? It amuses me. And I'm laughing til my sides hurt.

"You can't call it a day, until you've spread some positivity."

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Parrrr-teyyyyyy!!!

I was asked in Facebook what my take on Optimism was:


For me:

It's not even about whether the glass is half-full or half-empty.

It's about throwing in some ice cubes, sliced lemons, and some honey...

Then baking cookies, lounging at the front porch and being tickled silly,

because you're having a private "it's DA bomb" cookies and lemonade party!




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4th of July Thoughts

If those fireworks were stars, I would have made a million wishes -- for friends and family, my parents, hubby, daughter, all of you and me. I did anyway!


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Blocked!

I must stop apologizing for my sporadic posts. But this blog at inception was really born with very idealistic and surreal visions of spreading constant inspiration to many (yeah right), as with my original 5-yr old but now almost defunct blogsite"Thoughts at 3am", now called "At the Break of Dawn". I shouldn't have piggy-backed that site with Friendster. But how could I have known then?



I'm back here, trying desperately to conquer the writer's block. Or blogger's block, however you may want to call it. I'm blocked, period. Blame it on spreading myself thinly the past months/couple of years. I had no choice but to write paid articles and posts everywhere on the net because let's face it, who doesn't want to rake in the moolah whenever there is an available and inviting opportunity for it? Free bucks, so to speak. All it takes is alloting a smidge of your time to publish some gibberish rigmarole a.k.a. run of the mill product reviews of sorts and then segueing bluntly to the required advertising links which sometimes readers won't even click on. Though it can easily add up to eons if you have a lot to accomplish, read: feeling greedy. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, isn't it? I still can't figure out how this new advertising avenue can work for most (does it really drive traffic; enough bang for their buck?), but I'm doing it because I get compensated for it. Remunerated for being myself -- verbal diarrheic predisposition and all, how cool is that? The whole plot is fulfilled. While my writing skill gets eventually dull and rusty.

I would cringe whenever I notice myself yielding juvenile output (with meticulously correct spelling though, thank you very much, but of course, with "LOLs" and smileys still mysteriously popping out of nowhere as if they were necessary evils and for those I painfully apologize; but it's substantial against the word count I guess, except for the smileys!) But when you're pressed for time, trying to meet a deadline -- with one of the companies sending you a notice that says, "you have 12 hours to publish this so go ahead and take a shower first and don't forget to clean the back of your ears", this, amidst accomplishing some serious career excellence tasks in your bona fide grown up job, who wouldn't succumb to mediocrity? It's a habit-former, I tell you. (And I swear, I almost said "dang" somewhere there). Now you believe me. *kEwL* *LOL* I'm just kidding. I loathe using text/chat lingo, but I embrace it at times. Mine is an affair of the schiz kind with it. Aaaah, my muse still eludes me. I'm halfway through this post and all I've done is nothing but blabber and explain myself. Narcissistic, aren't we?

I digress.

THE PSYCHIC

Have I told you that... (of course, I haven't)...that a "psychic" approached me last weekend? Hubby and I headed down south for a mini-vacation to attend my stepdaughter's graduation. We were hanging out in the mall and I went inside the Saks Fifth outlet called Off 5th to find a friend who we were supposed to meet up with. She's my husband's friend's wife. We ended up trying on different sunglasses and I was caught debating whether to get this pair of humongous Dior shades or not while experimenting with a myriad of angles and double-checking with every mirror available, when suddenly this middle-aged caucasian lady who was talking on her celphone came up to me and said goodbye to whoever she was speaking with, and then old me, "That looks good on you, sweetie." Then she started finding other sunglasses for me to try on. We were even joking that she worked there, but it didn't seem like it. I decided to stick to the first pair that I wanted and she said that it looked good because I have a beautiful face and that it will symbolize a lot of major changes for me this year. A-huh?

[PAUSE]

Then she held my hand, looked away into space and said, "I'm a psychic. You have a beautiful face, and a beautiful spirit. You are always free-spirited and happy. You have a very nice and positive outlook in life. Sometimes though, you look happier than you truly are, but you are able to pull it off. You also have very strong healing powers, a very strong energy within you and you are good at comforting and healing people. It is a gift. You are at your best in the healthcare or medical field, which you've always been in." And I was shocked because I really have always worked in a health-related field (HMO, hospital, clinic, nutraceuticals), that is, whenever I'm not in school pursuing academic exploits as a teacher or student. I confirmed this with her because there was absolutely no way I could hide the surprise, and so much truth that it came with.

Her next question was, "Are you married?" and I said yes. She said, "Your husband loves you. No doubt that he loves you though sometimes he doesn't know how to express or show it. Sometimes you wish he's more there for you emotionally". Uhrm...

"But this year will be a year of a lot of changes. GOOD CHANGES."

And I asked if there was any chance that I'll be pregnant.

She looked and touched my stomach and remarked that it seems "blocked" (what...that too? LOL, whoops, did I just say LOL). She said, "There is a baby boy that wants to be inside you. But it's not happening. He wants to be there but something is blocking it." And so I confessed that I had a still birth three years ago, a cute baby boy named Cody. My personal angel now. (Com'on, with all those truths that she started spitting out, I told myself I might as well dance with it, and hopefully find some answers I've been trying to find, like an itch I've been aching to scratch from a skin rash I've been trying to cover up).

Then she put on a serious face and said, "There are a lot of jealous people around you. All these jealousy and negativity. They are jealous of you, who you are, what you are, what you have. Jealous of you. And all these bad energies are getting in the way. We can undo it." She looked in her wallet and handed me a crumpled and worn out business card.

Her last remark was, "It might be kulam (/koo-lam/)" -- or magic spell, or a curse, but she said it in my mother tongue as if to drive the point home (though she doesn't look like someone who can speak in my vernacular, but if you're an expert in a certain field, of course you'll know what something is called in different terms). And then she left.


I was stunned. And shaken. And it left me feeling as if I was hypnotized for a minute, which also made me panic and worry if I've just given away my social security and all my credit card numbers without me knowing it. But Debbie was there. Unless she was zapped as well. Uh-oh. We seemed fine and unrobbed though. Except for coming out of Saks with a pair of $99. Dior shades for me (snagged quite a good deal anyway), and a pair of Jimmy Choos for Debbie. A-ha! That could be why! Scheming sales people, y'all!

Nonetheless, I still don't know what to make of it. For all we know, she could be guessing. Or tripping. Or just reading what seemed obvious. I could be transparent most of the time anyway, especially if I'm in the peak of an attention-deficit attack. Or do I simply fit a certain predictable mold that she's been seeing through years and years of her part-psychologizing, part-mythologizing practice (I'm not that imbecile not to catch some hints there)? Or could she be trying to pose a threat based on the information I have recklessly supplied as a hasty response to her open-ended suppositions so as to engage me in business, and thus siphon my hard-earned shopping fund from this blogging side job I was just talking about into her personal bank account (and thus farewell, Neiman Marcus Balenciaga Exclusive City Craquele Bois De Rose Motorcycle bag; adieu, new living room curtains; so long, plane ticket back home), just so she could seem to help me find out who these jealous people were -- as if I don't have a clue yet! As if!

For all we know, it could be this earthling who was unceremoniously ditched in favor of moi, or some life form who experienced the same fate in favor of the époux. Or both. Two tyrannized hearts (so they think) of the same bitter league, and/or their minions...a highly likely morphic possibility. I can't blame them. But we all must move on and grow. Everything in this world happens for a reason. It's not a cliché for nothing. Oh, unless it is this kiss-toosh back-biting shark of a witch whose presence lurks around us sometimes in family gatherings, she, whose loyalty is worse than any known polygon in the universe. Old news, my sweet. Old news.

Whatever it is, I just want to see the lady as an angel with a message. And for what it's worth, I am taking it upon myself to deflect whatever spell was cast upon me with prayers to God, Jesus Christ my one and only Saviour (and perhaps because it drove me a little barmy, practicing a little residual skill on casting wiccan spells from when I used to dabble with it back in the day wouldn't hurt either, eh?...so be afraid, my sweet, be very afraid!) I'm just kidding...but boohoowahahaha do you hear my *wicked laugh*?

I'll stick to what she said about GOOD CHANGES coming my way. Good changes not just good things. Meaning something promising and different from the current situation. I'm holding my breath for it. Karma. Bad karma for them. Good karma for me. It will all work out well.

God knows what is best.




















I have faith in Him.





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Smile


Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.

~ "P.S. I Love You" book compiled by H. Jackson Brown,Jr.



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Hiatus

Like I said in my Wonder Wifey site, no, I didn't get abducted by aliens. I'm just on a short hiatus -- enjoying my parents while they are here on a short visit.

Will be back writing in no time! I usually just check in to write the "paid" articles at this time -- on my other sites. Need to rake in the moolah in order to give my parents the best holiday EVER.

Anyhoozens, here's my update in FB as of today:

...ah the soothing aroma of that morning caffeine fix from the next cubicle...TO DRINK OR NOT TO DRINK??? I weaned myself off it and stayed clean for six months until I fell again last month. What bittersweet mistake, a desperate yearning all over again. A whiff so powerful, it gently lures my soul to doom. The cycle lives on, I'm back to square one...


Wish me luck. Gotta get over the coffee withdrawals again. I'm doing good munching on TGI Fridays Potato Skin Chips. *duh*



I'll succeed like I have before, I just need to make it permanent.

That pretty much sums up my battle as of late.

Be kind
, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle ~Plato

And I'm sure you know I had to insert Plato not just to pertain to this war I've waged against my penchant for coffee.

Anyway, life is good. Meanwhile, you might want to visit MY GRATITUDE JOURNAL for more recent updates (click on the link or the image -- if it works at all):







And here's my Twitter update as of today (if you care to know):

yeah!!! RT @RevRunWisdom: Happiness is being with family.




OH YES INDEEDY!


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It's been 2 years since I last hugged them.

So yes, even 30-something big small girls can get that excited too!



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Risky


"Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing."

~ Denis Waitley


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ALL WE NEED...




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24 Hours


I can’t believe how fast time flies, and like I always say —- Time should really get a speeding ticket, y’know. I think time goes faster when you’re older. Every year seems to go by faster than the previous one. And I wish there was a way to pack more hours into the day. Like a Day Booster pack perhaps, where you can choose the number of hours you need to add on, like a 6-hr or a 12-hr boost to your current 24 (where you accumulate points if you buy frequently and 10 points = 1 bonus hour)…I’m gushing. Won’t that be nice? That will be the day.

But God made the day with 24 hours. If you think about it, it is a perfect, beautiful and unquestionable design. It is us humans who screw it up with all our worldly matters.


John Burrough is right when he said, “I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.”
But should we really panic? Should our desire to do things dictate the number of hours in a day we should get? Or should we let the 24-hr day dictate the amount of things we should CHOOSE to do?

My day is always packed with so many things to do: my daily responsibilities at work and at home, so many overflowing ideas needing execution (for my own sanity that is), some extra jobs here and there — sometimes I can’t even find where my head is, books I want to read, paperwork to accomplish, bills to pay, Facebook (duh!) yadadada yadadada…and then there are people to call like my parents back home (and I usually save that for last when I’m about to doze off which is sad because they only get half of me — half has already been beamed up to dreamland).

Today though, I decided to abandon everything in mid-air (including the TV show I try to watch regularly) and headed straight to calling my folks back home early. I enjoyed my conversation with my mom and dad like I always do. But what will forever be engrained in my memory as part of the most wonderful and beautiful conversations with my father is everytime we talked about the piano pieces that he is currently learning (he still strives to learn so many new ones at 73). Because he always tries to sing the tune to me — or hum it when it doesn’t have the words. He did it again today. And even whistled. Whistled!

I always try to join in as much as I can even if I’m off-key. Because I wanted to do my part in creating the special moment. Scheming, am I not! I don’t know if he was doing it on purpose to create a moment with me too. Knowing my dad? Maybe! Or maybe it was just a pure and spontaneous and unadulterated expression of love and bond even if we are thousands of miles apart. Because we are thousands of miles apart.

I’m grateful that I decided to dump my ”To Do” madness for the day. I’m glad I went straight to letting God’s beautiful design come into fruition, and just let the day be what it is, and what it should be made of. Precious. Priceless.


PS.
By the way, I slept soundly. And I thought I even heard some whistling in my dreams.




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PPS. http://teacher-c.blog.friendster.com/2007/02/i-love-my-mom/

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LIVING A LIFE THAT MATTERS

This is Rex Barker, CS (Choosing Substantiality over superficiality ) reminding you to "Choose to live a life that matters."


Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end. There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days. All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten will pass to someone else.

Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed. Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear. So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to do lists will expire.


The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away. It won’t matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end. It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant. Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought but what you built, not what you got but what you gave. What will matter is not your success but your significance. What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught.


What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example. What will matter is not your competence but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone. What will matter is not your memories but the memories that live in those who loved you. What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

This is Rex Barker, CS (Choosing Substantiality over superficiality ) reminding you to "Choose to live a life that matters."

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The One



What am I doing with yet another blogsite?

The news is...this is probably gonna be the last one I'll be putting up in a long, long time. I'm not going anywhere! I just believe that I have finally found THE ONE, the ever-proverbial "The One" that suits me and the vision I have for my blogging career path. It's almost tantamount to something I can marry and stick with for life.

Why?

First of all, I'm thinking of retiring my blogsite hosted by Friendster because I'm seriously contemplating on deleting my Friendster profile. Maybe, maybe not. I aim to stick to a single networking site as much as possible and Facebook pretty much answers all my networking needs, including keeping in touch with my friends. I might try and import my original blog contents here, but I'm not sure yet because my being so crazy sentimental is seriously getting in the way. That blogsite and I go along way...like 2005, way before most people jumped into the blogging bandwagon. That's also the only site I have that's squeaky clean, and I mean non-monetized, tag-free, award-free and ad-free too. I don't sell anything there, and the links are carefully chosen by me as necessary to the post, and not because some company wants me to mention it.

I'm liking it here in my new home (it makes me feel less of a gypsy now). And it feels right. Aaaah, the one...

This will be the portal for all my public spaces on the web. I'm happy with how it looks. This is my second time to utilize a template from Falcon Hive (he/she always nails it for me), and my 6th on the Blogger platform. My 2nd own domain.

I must admit...I’m absolutely embarassed by some of my blogsites because they are monetized —so you’ll see ads, product reviews and forced URL links strewn around including on my supposedly “sincerely written” posts (but don’t worry I’m still far from selling my soul, plus they rake in the moolah so I can’t complain about this no-brainer side job, really). If you're curious, check the right side of this site, I have painstakingly listed all my sites down on the side bar. A few of them might come across as narcissistic for you (ouch!), but seriously, who doesn't blog these days? And let me tell you this. I need them. I need to express myself in so many different ways because of my artistic nature. And it's almost therapy for me because it helps me sort through so many things and experiences, put things on perspective and just embrace life -- imperfections and all. I need it too because I yearn to share my experiences with you hoping that one day, there is one soul out there who will pick up something good, and what he needed exactly.

I’m still in the process of tweaking this site here and there. But I promise you that this is going to be clean, hopefully delivering only the vision, no less. Which is…which is…uhm, I’m still thinking-rethinking the process. (Well, maybe some Amazon Affiliate badges on the side won’t hurt…and some Google Adsense banners --Ad’cents’ is a better name for it, if you ask me). Not even. No paid links or entries for sure.

Woohoo!!!

Come back here for some inspiration fill once in a while. Because I'm hoping to offer that exactly!


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OWNER'S PROFILE

I believe that “the unexamined life is not worth living.”

That was Socrates speaking.

Psychologist/Teacher/Child Dev. Specialist. Professionally, these are everything I'm NOT anymore but I'm still all those in my heart.

I'm happily married to my soulmate who's tough but sweet (and I'm sweet but tough). It's a balanced equation. I have recently come to terms with the fact that I have perhaps wasted graduate studies I worked hard for as I aborted my thesis prematurely when I got whisked away (to the US of A!) by LOVE. *aaaaarrrrgh!*

I am a breathing symphony of human dichotomy.

A bundle of contradictions: I love going out but I'm happy staying home; patient but I don't back down if fairness is at stake; simple with good taste, I love dancing to loud music but I also drink the cosmic serenity of a moonlit nightsky. Candid and funny but deep, a CRAZY woman, a closet geek. I like to talk though I'm sometimes quiet because I'm a THINKER & a DREAMER-- that explains my Attention Deficit! I've got this unquenchable thirst for life's truths, celebrating personal discoveries about the world and proud of my own scheme of things!

I dance in my head all the time, I eat books for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I paint, sketch and create different things with my hands. I guess I'm generally a positive person. I'm satisfied with my life and the choices I've made. Some were letdowns but they gave me the best of life's lessons, so there are no regrets. God blessed me with a journey that told me early of who I am (becoming) and what I want in life while knowing that it doesn't stop there. I would like to make the world a better place for anyone I meet in my own little way, to listen, love, understand and hopefully be the wind beneath their wings. I believe that HAPPINESS IS EVERYWHERE, JUST DON'T BE TOO PICKY. And hey, I've got this big passion for life! I don't fear going beyond my comfort zones and embracing changes because I believe that life should be meaningful and we only got one to live! Join the fun?

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The person behind these blogs from the heart:

And these monetized sites that help contribute to the "Chanel" shopping fund (my only whim):

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