A HUMBLE REQUEST FOR PRAYERS

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I now have lost a brother and his family lost a husband and father. He passed last December 01 after fighting a fierce battle with cancer at Cardinal Santos Hospital. May I humbly request my friends in the blog for prayers for the eternal repose of his soul.

Thank you. Blessings to you all.



 (Won't be around for a few days. Back soon.)

WORDS DERIVE LIFE FROM THE HEART

WORDS --- They can build you up, take you down, disappoint, make you happy, hurt and sad, wonder, and too scare you. In short, words are powerful. Putting it to the test, I paid attention and listened intently when people talk to me. Indeed, words alone have no life, but derive life from the content of the heart. Goodness rooted in the heart translates itself in words one uses -- these words which fly out on virtual wings of compassion and truth. On the other hand, bad intent makes even the sweetest word ring untrue as it operates under the shadows of venom nestled in the heart. It stings hard and deep.

Be careful the words you use with young children. What you say will determine the attitudes they will be carrying with them unto their adult lives. It will influence their perception of the world and the people in it, shape beliefs of right or wrong, their relationships, work habits, ambitions and dreams, and how they would relate to their God. It will definitely define their personality and character. So be careful the words you use with them - it makes a big difference in their lives. And, will eventually redound to yours, too. 

Be careful what you speak. It can mean the world to another person. It can make or break him. Be careful what you write. It can influence great minds and poor minds alike. Both lives will be affected in some way you will never know as their minds 'wrestle' with the words or the beatings of your heart. 

Someone wrote a nice quote which in essence says - 

'Be wary of what comes out of the mouth as it would always spring from the heart. The content of the heart determines the genuine quality of words spoken.' 

IT’S SELF-LESS – NOT SELF-MORE

And do you know why? 

Because they give of their hearts, with their hearts. While the rest of us hang on fiercely to it and everything else which we think give us meaning in life or to our existence. We go to every extent to save it, protect it, prosper it, commemorate it, and marking it 'mine'. But nothing can do that. The stuff we gather through life is just stuff and will be left behind when it's time for us to go. Why don't we instead make this journey worthwhile? Why not try to create places in the hearts of others where we will be remembered not for what we have, but for what we are in the heart. Why not put aside race, color, or creed and the big social divide, just simply connect or reach out with our basic good which has been there all along just waiting to be called forth to do its job. God put it there, but we keep forgetting. 

We also forget that life as in love isn't until given away to serve the greater good. We limit ourselves by thinking 'inward' all of the time. When the biggest potential, adventure, joy, wonder, miracle, and blessing is 'outward'. The flow of life is ... outward not inward, self-less not self-more, giving not keeping, sharing not hoarding .... these are the stuff heaven allows and truly blesses abundantly. 

Flowers in the hands of an old wrinkled simple man is the true meaning of life. This is the key to open the gates of heaven. 

KALEIDOSCOPE

I like this....... 'Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope- a slight change, all patterns alter.' -- Susan Salzberg

Slight change -- huge impact. That's the goal. Specially if life is giving you such a tough time. Another word for it is incremental changes. Small vigorous measures which can greatly resonate within and without of your life. You see, it's like marbles placed in a glass. Try moving one or two or several and watch the rest remaining inside the glass shift, adjust, adapt to the space created. Or try throwing a pebble into a placid stream and notice the ripples created by the pebble when it hits the surface. The water shifts, moves, adjusts. It's not its old self anymore. Something has changed it. The same thing with life when you try to inject some measure of change. It moves old thoughts and habits, shakes up comfort zones, stirs up long forgotten passions and dreams. You are never the same again. Life has changed. And this moves you forward steadily towards your desired goal.

Try it. Shake up your kaleidoscope of life and living. Make it sparkle and shine even more. You can do it with small steps but steadily. There is power in small.

Have a blessed day! God bless.

GOD OF ALL COMFORT

Haven't posted in here in a long while. Here's one now which I am bringing here from the other blog the point of which is to solicit prayers for someone. Please read on. And thank you.

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My friend (won't tell her name) bemoans the difficult life she lives. To her it seems like life is nothing but one struggle after another. She eats trials for breakfast... strife for lunch... and misery for dinner. She's up to here with the turbulence of a misery blotched existence. To quote her.

Gosh, that does sound so gloomy and depressing. I sat there listening to all her woes; she needed to get it off her system or I would guess she would explode. But she's still here standing and waking up every morning maybe without the smile that we should be giving the start of the day.. but she's up just the same. To face her battles once more I suppose.

That's courage, whether she knows it or not. And maybe somewhere there inside her small frame is a tiny spark of hope... maybe still believing that someday she will find relief to all her troubles. She won't tell me,  but when I see her look out afar with her sad eyes I can sense the faint ripple of hope in those otherwise sweet brown eyes.

Because she believes in God. She prays maybe harder than we do. Probably shedding buckets of tears alongside it. But she prays.  I love her for that, admire her even more.

This brings to mind a beautiful song by songwriter Thomas A. Dorsey in 1932....

"Precious Lord, take my hand

Lead me on, let me stand;

I am tired, I am weak, I am worn;

Through the storm, through the night,

Lead me on to the light

Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home."

You know in truth, we're all so much like my friend at some point or another.

May I request you to include a tiny prayer for her... and for every person on this planet who is going through the same challenges and troubles of life... for us all...  to put their hands and our hands in the Lord's --- "The God Of All Comfort".

Blessings and do have a truly blessed day.

WRITE BECAUSE NOBODY ELSE CAN OR WILL WRITE IT FOR YOU

Bringing this here from the other blog for someone who needs to see this.


--- For someone out there who has this huge dream, or even the smallest dream of writing.... allow me to say this:

WRITE BECAUSE NOBODY ELSE CAN OR WILL WRITE IT FOR YOU.

Your talent is not meant to be stored away in a dark corner languishing in anonymity. If you are afraid that people may not like it nor read it. That's the least of your problem. What should concern you is what your heart is nudging you to do. And if it says 'write'.... then listen to it and write. Write for the joy of writing. Write because you love to write. Write because you have something to say. Write because it feeds your dreams and your soul.

And don't worry about making mistakes, to do a good thing well you have to make some mistakes along the way. But learn and learn well. Don't fake it; write what you know. Be honest. And remember that a good piece of writing is one which a reader after reading it comes out of it thinking. And when he does that --- Congratulations! you done well where it truly matters! You have made the connection.

Believe that you can....... and you certainly can!!
Good luck! Blessings to you.

Richard Clayderman on the piano with - La Tendresse

Simply for the afternoon's listening pleasure.

WHAT A DOG AND A CAT CAN DO TO YOUR IMPORTANCE

Miko on the left; Maxie on the right.

I'm bringing this post from the other blog for a friend here in Tapestry. :-)
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"In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him." -- Unknown

Love that quote. I go back to it every time my human impulse is to revel in vanity or ego. Oh yes, we all do that secretly or blatantly. Humanly natural. But it can become quite annoying when we take it so seriously. Otherwise it simply comes and goes.... just like a good pat on the shoulder for a job well done.

We are important only as we see that importance from the perspective of doing what is expected of us as intelligent creatures above our four-legged brothers. And essentially important as we are able to see ourselves as God sees us. Can't fool the Big Guy upstairs.

My pet dog Maxie adores me and I revel in her adoration and adulation... I'm important to her. I'm great to her world.

My cat Miko is the exact opposite... I could go walk by him in all of my human splendor and importance and he would just sleep through that experience. Yawns at my face sometimes.

Maxie sends me off to cloud 9 --- Miko puts me back on the ground.

Importance -- it's not the be-all and end-all of everything nor of you. That is all that we need to know about that word.

OUT OF NOTHING

An empty canvass, a blank page in the sketchpad, an empty garden pot, or an empty day. They all have one thing in common..... nothing! Yet in a few minutes or an hour perhaps something will be there. On an empty canvass is soon painted a landscape with a paint brush and tubes of water colors. On the blank page a designer gown is sketched or drawn, or a face of a stranger. A tiny seedling goes into a garden pot now filled with fertilized garden soil. An empty day becomes visited with joy, fun, surprises, blessings and plenty more that comes to an open heart. I believe that there is nothing which you cannot fill with something if you try hard enough. Or if you can't --- God will.

It all started when God created the world and the universe from nothing. From there everything else followed. So did we. In our own tiny places or corners of the world we too create our something out of nothing. The pattern of our lives --- in our dreams, goals, adventures, in our tiny or big pursuits, relationships, and in the everyday of our mundane existence.

Isn't that simply marvelous that we have been empowered as His beloved children to create and build the good in our lives.. within our tiny personal worlds and out there to the bigger world waiting to be blessed by its creative power.

TEACH BY THE WAY WE LIVE OUR LIVES

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It is not what we leave FOR our children,
but it is what we leave IN our children
that is going to make a difference.
Let us leave in them VALUES.
----Voice of Love--Frozen Thoughts

We should mind what we teach our young children. Careful that they get the right tools from us to help them develop into individuals worthy of respect and of life. Their sense of right and wrong come from our own understanding of it. Their attitudes towards life, people, the world are images of how we ourselves have embraced in our beliefs and attitudes. Until they are set to fly with their own pair of wings, like a mother bird does to her brood we do all we can to make sure that they are equipped properly and ready to be on their own.

Remember when you see your child there is something of you in her.... your good and your bad, unfortunately. It is not enough to simply cross your fingers and hope that she will turn out alright. There's no guarantee. But you can help her battle her wars by instilling in her the steady values that would hold her up in any trial or strife. Nourish her strengths, play down her weaknesses... but also tell her that weaknesses can be turned into strengths too if she puts her mind and heart to the change. And help her grow into a faith as steady as a rock -- the kind God so requires for miracles to happen.

But the best method of teaching I know of .... is to teach by the way we live our lives. Live your values. You may not know it but your children are watching.