Summer heat If Midas had his touch that could turn anything he had his hands on into gold, wish that I had the touch to turn anything I lay my hands on into ICE! Summer just gets hotter every year this side of the globe. I’m surrounded by Hot! Hot! Hot! -- Walls, furniture, doorknobs, bed sheets, steel gate, even water coming out of the tap is HOT! Ugh! The mood is sluggish. Humans with deep creases on their sweaty brows drag their hot feet in sluggish tempo to the heat of the sun. Dogs sleep all day long hoping it would make the sun set quicker. The wind won’t even oblige with his usual howl but simply pokes at the tree tops not wanting to rouse the leaves in their stupor. Ah but such consideration is not appreciated this time, Mr. Wind. What’ll it take to make you mad this time??! C’mon, Mr. Wind, blow furious!!!!
Don’t let your college persona determine who you will become. This is something I’d like to say to a friend’s son who is so depressed because he can’t find a job – yet. He took up engineering and he feels that everything seems to be blocking him from becoming one. Let me quote this from something I read just recently. – “. …Unless you really loved who you were in college. It doesn’t matter if you were the nerd, the dumb jock, the bully or the wallflower. College is over and your new life is beginning. Now is the time for reinvention if you deem it necessary. Think Madonna—but maybe not her cone bra phase. If you were the wallflower, break out of your shell. If you were the bully, try to be nicer. The world is waiting -- try to be the best person you can be. Make good decisions. Remember, the decisions you make after college have real-life consequences.” Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t mean that you waste your education away. What I’m saying is --- you can’t let it determine you or your future. There is so much you can do, not just being what you studied for. That’s limiting you. Further quote – “The school you graduated from does not determine the quality of your future. There are still small-minded companies that only accept applicants from the supposed top universities but don’t let that stop you. Just because you came from one of the more popular schools doesn’t mean you can rest easy. And it doesn’t matter either if you came from a school that no one else has heard about. It is you, and not your diploma, that will make your future.” Unquote.
Don’t be afraid to make honest mistakes. So you think that the world will stop on its tracks because you bungled up? Or that your friends will think you stupid or a loser? Or that you will disappoint dozens of relatives and other people who think so highly of you and your talent? Excuse me, but I remember when I was burning over some mistakes, my mom simply said to me that -- the best lessons come wrapped in blunders, mistakes, failures, and errors. Because only then will you be able to smooth the rough edges of your character, hone your talents to perfection, and grow into the person you were meant to be in God’s blueprint of our lives. How then can I, or anyone for that matter, ever become this entire gorgeous package if not through the fire of disappointment, failure, and mistakes? But she too warned me that it was going to hurt. Oh okay, but isn’t the sun better and brighter after the rain?
Be gentle to yourself. Don’t be quick to blame yourself when things go wrong in your life. Don’t bash yourself so hard believing that you did so badly and you deserve to be thrown into the fire…that you deserve to be devoured by the flames! Dump that attitude. I don’t buy that. If we fail in one area of our life --- we still have the rest to shine in! Besides it’s not all our fault; bad situations come, jerks cross our paths, and other people’s bad decisions affect ours. So why blame it all on ourselves? Does that make sense now? Be good to yourself – you’re much better than you give yourself credit for!
Friends keep you grounded. Sometimes you see better through their eyes, hear truth through their ears, and understand wisdom through their thoughts and insights (someone on the outside looking in) of your own concerns and dilemma. Friends are like a warm fireplace on a cold lonely night. Don’t forget them --- the old friends who have stood the test of time and the new ones which are giving you a fresh new perspective on life. They keep your feet standing firmly on solid ground. Let me tell you this, I function better bathed in their affection, loyalty, devotion, encouragement and inspiration. I can handle anything as long as I know my friends are by my side – not behind me, beside me, below or above me ---but by my side!
Learn to say ‘no’ “Ohhh… she’s a sweet gentle girl, so sweet and accommodating. I have yet to hear her say no to a request.” So says my high school teacher. Yup, that’s me… was, rather. It took me a good many years to learn to say ‘no’. It was always a ‘yes’ even if I had better things to do at home, even if my mom wanted me to run an urgent errand for her, even if I had a close deadline to meet, even if I had to review for a big exam, even if the request ran against my better judgment, even if I thought the request was wrong and in bad taste, even if I didn’t like the person because of his motives, or even if I didn’t want to do it at all.
You have to be true to yourself. You can’t always be Mr. or Ms. Nice Person with everybody a 100% of the time. Know your limits; in turn that should make them understand theirs, too. Learn to say ‘no’ when what they ask of you makes you uncomfortable or unhappy. You see, if they saw how it’s going to affect you, they wouldn’t be asking it from you in the first place. So saying ‘no’ may even jog them to clear thinking or stop them in their tracks and lead them to reevaluate things. Learn to say ‘no’ when you think that would lead to hurting others more. Sometimes what may seem harmless to you cuts deeper with somebody else’s heart. Learn to say ‘no’ when you don’t want to do it. Heck! You don’t want to do it-- period. Just be nice about it and honest! Learning to say ‘no’ is respecting 'you'—knowing yourself. Only you would know what you can give and what you can’t. You can give better with what you have and not with what you are without.
Set your sails to the wind yet anchor yourself on God. No matter how you look at it, God’s presence is in everything. I can’t imagine seeing something in which God didn’t form or create with His own hands. Yes, both the good and the seemingly ‘bad’. The latter may be hard to understand for some of us but seeing God’s hand in ‘misfortune’ can be understood with the heart, not with the mind. Everything happens for a reason. Although God gave us our minds, I think He operates on the level of our hearts. I have gone through the many storms in my life but I learned to anchor my heart on God. Strong furious winds buffeted my sails and huge waves rocked my ship but my anchor kept me safe and steady through it all. Whatever the name each of us may know Him to be, He still is the same one God who holds us individually and collectively, regardless of race, color, or creed, in His Holy able hands. I won’t have that any other way!
There's more flashing through the screen of my mind but then I think that I'd rather have a good tall glass of chilled lemonade right now. Btw, somebody once said that he had problems holding on to his 'ideas' 'perceptions' 'insights' losing them almost always to forgetfulness. I told him to jot it down in a 'writer's notebook'. It's not a diary or a journal, definitely not a blog. It's just a plain ordinary, maybe small notebook -- one which you can put inside your bag or pocket ready for your snippets of writing anytime anywhere. Handy to write down 'ideas' which come waltzing into your mind unexpectedly. Then when the right mood sets in, you can come back to it and pursue the Muses further. :-) Now then back to my cold lemonade! Bye for a bit.
posted on Friday, March 31, 2006 8:12 AM
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