A Gentle Reminder

I received this text message from my mother that reminds of something that I take for granted:

"In our everyday life, we may fall into the trap of losing our sense of wonder. Experiences may become so ordinary that we no longer see each.

A moment as a miracle from God. the people we meet, the things we accomplish, our simplest joys - all of these are concrete proofs of the Lord's love for us."

Be Whole

The Missing Piece (by Shel Silverstein) tells the story of a circle that was missing a piece. A large triangular wedge had been cut out of it. The circle wanted to be whole with nothing missing, so it went around looking for its missing piece. But because it was incomplete and therefore could roll only very slowly, it admired the flowers along the way. It chatted with worms. It enjoyed the sunshine. It found lots of different pieces, but none of them fit. So it left them all by the side of the road and kept on searching. Then one day the circle found a piece that fit perfectly. It was so happy. Now it could be whole, with nothing missing. It incorporated the missing piece into itself and began to roll. Now that it was a perfect circle, it could roll very fast, too fast to notice the flowers or talk to the worms.

When it realized how different the world seemed when it rolled so quickly, it stopped, left its found piece by the side of the road and rolled slowly away. The lesson of the story was that in some strange sense we are more whole when we are missing something. The man who has everything is in some ways a poor man. He will never know what it feels like to yearn, to hope, to nourish his soul with the dream of something better. He will never know the experience of having someone who loves him give him something he has always wanted and never had. There is a wholeness about the person who has come to terms with his limitations, who has been brave enough to let go of his unrealistic dreams and not feel like a failure for doing so. There is a wholeness about the man or woman who has learned that he or she is strong enough to go through a tragedy and survive, who can lose someone and still feel like a complete person.

When we accept that imperfection is part of being human, and when we can continue rolling through life and appreciating it, we will have achieved a wholeness that others can only aspire to. That, I believe, is what God asks of us - not "Be perfect," not "Don't ever make a mistake," but "Be whole." And at the end, if we are brave enough to love, strong enough to forgive, generous enough to rejoice in another's happiness, and wise enough to know there is enough love to go around for us all, then we can achieve a fulfillment that no other living creature will ever know.

Harold Kushner

Attitude is Everything!

Being happy in this life isn't dependent on what happens to you, but rather how you respond to what happens to you. It's true: Attitude is everything! So take it easy, smile a lot, look for the rainbows in life, real or imagined, and just be happy. Life's just too short to do anything else!

Does Our Being Alive Matter?

Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter, so that the world will be at least a little bit different for our having passed through it... What frustrates us and robs our lives of joy is this absence of meaning... Does our being alive matter?

Harold S. Kushner

Hold Fast and Let Go

Here then is the first pole of life's paradoxical demands on us : Never be too busy for the wonder and the awe of life. Be reverent before each dawning day. Embrace each hour. Seize each golden minute.

Hold fast to life... but not so fast that you cannot let go. This is the second side of life's coin, the opposite side of this paradox : we must accept our losses, and learn how to let go.

Alexander M. Schindler

I Have to be Optimistic

It's a new year and i have to be optimistic. I'm a self-confessed pessimist. I can always think of ways for things to go wrong in whatever I do. In the past, I would always defend that I was only thinking things through to avoid unexpected results. Thinking that way sucks the fun out of one's life. It diminish surprises in life. To be spontaneous is out of the question when you're a pessimist. Maybe deep inside, I was just afraid to fail again because of my past experiences. Being a pessimist let me cover hind inside a shell or defense mechanic I have created so that I can always say to myself when things don't go my way that it was expected.

But I have to change that mindset. I need to have a positive attitude even when things don't go my way. I have to experience events rather than recreate them in my mind. With the coming new year, I have to be on the positive side of things, to give things the benefit of a doubt, to be happy.

The Necessity of Accepting Favors

One spring day, long ago, Father called me to go with him to old man Trussell's blacksmith shop. He had left a rake and a hoe to be repaired. And they were ready when we came, fixed like new. Father handed over a silver dollar, but Mr. Trussell refused to take it. "No," he said. "There's no charge for that little job." My Father insisted.

If I should live a thousand years, I'll never forget that blacksmith's reply. "Sid," he said to my father, "can't you let a man do something - just to stretch his soul?"

R. Lee Sharpe

Agitated Me

Lately, I'm quite agitated for reason I have yet to discover. Releasing my sentiments with no reservations even against the powerful. I tend to say what I want without hesitation especially my observation on my surroundings that makes a person like me abhor the dealing around me. The rebel in me is unleashed when I see wrong things being defended by people who are afraid of opposing the people in-charge because of possible retaliation.

I am one of the perceived individuals accommodated by the higher-ups. I am not one of them. It may look that way but I am not. I just came to work because it was offered to me and they believed that I can do the job assigned to me. Belief in my abilities is not one of my strong suits. I tend to doubt my abilities because of my fear of failing and being wrong. My doubts makes me cautious but also leads me nowhere. And that lack of confidence really bothers me.

What Life Expected from Us

It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life - daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.

Viktor E. Frankl

Difficult Sleep

Yesterday, my mother came to town for a seminar at the Marco Polo Hotel and she requested me if I could accompany her at her suite. I went last night and stayed in that hotel for the first time. The room was nice and I was wished that my room was that organized. However, I had difficulty sleeping even with the soft big pillows, soft mattress and cool surroundings. I keep turning and turning to find the right position to sleep, and I failed. My body was looking for something that it deemed comfortable to sleep at. I don’t mean that my bed at home is better than what they offer because it is not. It’s just, most of the time, we look for something that we are used experiencing and, oftentimes, we are not that comfortable in the change of surrounding. We need to time to adjust to this new feeling. How like life?

Well, I’m looking forward to sleep in my own bed tonight. As for now, I'll stick to what's uncomfortable yet familiar. And change is brewing ahead.