Happy Birthday, Sis!

I shouldn't be so harsh to her on her birthday :(

Happy Birthday.
You're the bestest sister I could ever have.
I miss you too :)

Sorry ya, for being so angry on the phone call.

Code of Survival? Or the Life Fit for Living?

In the name of "survival of the fittest", we stiff-arm people with ambition or trample over them in pursuit of our goal. We don't set out to hurt people; sometimes we just do.
Of course, we get elbowed and ground into the dirt, too. Life can get rough, and it REALLY is rough.
At some point we will all know what it feels like to lose. You have to learn to take it on the chin gracefully and figure out how to win the next time. That's the great lesson of sports.

But are those things you are fighting for, essential to one’s survival or happiness?

When the whole survival-of-the-fittest thing goes haywire, it can damage the part of our soul that makes us care about other people. When you don’t care, when you’re wrapped up in your own selfishness, man’s inhumanity to man becomes that much easier to ignore.

There’s got to be more to life than just survival. There’s got to be more to life than being better than everyone else. We have to survive for SOMETHING.

And what is this SOMETHING to you, and to me?

No matter how convoluted the motivations, love’s impulses often triumph over our more selfish instincts (maternal love served as a very good example here). Maybe that’s the very thing that makes life fit for living.

If life is a game of survival of the fittest - then I am a loser, big time.

But I rather be a loser than being inhumane.
Because I don't want to just survive; I want to live, in a life fit for living.
Because we were meant to live for so much more...

- Excerpt from S. Dublanica, mostly. Italic being mine.

Going Back To The Beginning

Being human has to do with being made to connect with others. I am not human as God intended if I'm simply an island by myself; I'm fully human when I'm in relationship. My identity is determined not just by who came before me; it's also whoever I connect with.
Life is beautiful because of others.
This is a good time to reflect on who you are too.

Gen 1:26-27

Little Snapshots Of Life

Was reading the "Waiter Rant" before my bedtime yesternight, and I love what the writer wrote about snapshots of lives:

There was something magical in the power of words...
Maybe you'll never hunt another man through the jungle. Maybe you won't climb Mount Kilimanjaro or watch a bullfight in the afternoon - you don't have to. The world's big place. You can't do or be everything, nor should you. Life is bigger than any one man. But when you read about other people's lives, when you read their stories, you catch a glimpse of a world bigger than your own.

"People say you have to travel to see the world. Sometimes I think that if you just stay in one place and keep your eyes open, you're going to see just about all that you can handle." ~ Auggie Wren, Smoke

This, kinda reminds me of what Raymond once shared to me about adventure.
He said, "the greatest adventure is often here and now", and I still remember til this day =)

This is a picture Louis took for me during the recent camp
Actually, I don't look good in here...
But I do like this picture, because it's a snapshot of me - a snapshot of my life ;)

The greatest woman I've ever known

My mom is the greatest woman I've ever known =)
Her love for us gives me hope; one so selfless, so sacrificial.
I’m utterly thankful for this best thing a daughter could ever get.


I wish I could tell you about this one day…

No Choice? Yes? No?

I often wonder, why am I always ended up in a nasty situation because “I've got no choice".
But today, I'm reminded that it's not that I've got no choice, but it's the choice that I would not choose… Just like what I taught my students during our class.
It’s really irony to keep asking the same old question when you already knew the answer.

Why would something started off so well, but ended up so badly? Or perhaps it’s only me?
If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Ha!

Oh well, time brings all things to light. Lets see.

Message at 27th

Stumble upon this article today =)

Dec 29

Homesick for Heaven

“Our homeland is in heaven.” Philippians 3:20

This home we’re in won’t last forever. Birthdays remind us of that.

Not long ago I turned fifty. I’m closer to ninety than I am to infancy. All those things they say about aging are coming true. I’m patting myself less on the back and more under the chin. I have everything I had twenty years ago, except now it’s all lower. The other day I tried to straighten out the wrinkles in my socks and found out I wasn’t wearing any.

Aging. It’s no fun. The way we try to avoid it, you’d think we could. We paint the body, preserve the body, protect the body. And well we should. These bodies are God’s gifts. We should be responsible. But we should also be realistic. This body must die so the new body can live. “Flesh and blood cannot have a part in the kingdom of God. Something that will ruin cannot have a part in something that never ruins” (I Cor. 15:50).

1 of 365 devotionals in Grace for the Moment, Volume II
Originally excerpted from Traveling Light

Maybe, this is it =)

Three

It had been 3 years since you left.

People come into your life and people leave it, but there are only a few could make a lasting impact in your life.
It's strange how people's road mapped out and collide, and their life is changed forever due to the collision.

Life would not be the same without knowing you. I truly thank God for our friendship.
And this remind me of the quote that you've once share to me:
"A lifetime’s not too long, to live as friends..."
=)

Oh, and it's 2 years since the first day I've met him too...

Someday We'll Know

90 miles outside Chicago
Can't stop driving, I don't know why
So many questions, I need an answer
Two years later, you're still on my mind

Whatever happened to Emelia Earhart?
Who holds the stars up in the sky
Is true love once in a lifetime?
Did the captain of the titanic cry

Someday we'll know, if love can move a mountain
Someday we'll know, why the sky is blue
Someday we'll know, why I wasn't meant for you

Does anybody know the way to Atlantis?
Or what the wind says when she cries?
I'm speeding by the place that I met you
For the 97th time tonight

Someday we'll know, if love can move a mountain
Someday we'll know, why the sky is blue
Someday we'll know, why I wasn't meant for you

Someday we'll know, why Samson loved Delilah
One day I'll go dancing on the moon
Someday you'll know, that I was the one for you

I bought a ticket to the end of the rainbow
I watched the stars crash in the sea
If I could ask god just one question
Why aren't you here with me

Someday we'll know, if love can move a mountain
Someday we'll know, why the sky is blue
Someday we'll know, why I wasn't meant for you

Someday we'll know, why Samson loved Delilah
One day I'll go dancing on the moon
Someday you'll know, that I was the one for you


Yes, someday, we'll know... =)

May we have enough happiness to make us sweet, enough trials to make us strong, enough sorrow to keep us human, and enough hope to make us happy.

The Jane Austen Book Club

Grigg Harris: One day, I'm like 10 years old, my dad takes me back to the shed and he shows me some magazines that he keeps back there. He says, "This is strictly guy stuff. It's top secret. Very private. Tell no one."
[he shows a sci-fi magazine and laughs]
Grigg Harris: So from then on... It was like... I don't know... It's like me and my dad and science fiction. These were the first books I fell in love with, and I never got over it.

Cute guy, I like him. =p

Carry Your Candle

There is a candle in every soul
Some brightly burning, some dark and cold

Frustrated brother – see how he’s tried to light his own candle some other way
See now your sister – she’s been robbed and lied to
Still holds a candle without a flame

Carry your candle
Run to the darkness
Seek out the hopeless
Confused and torn
Seek out the lonely
The tired and worn

Hold out your candle
For all to see it
Take your candle
And go light your world

Make us a beacon in darkest time