Every breath we take (Repost)

This was written by an 83-year-old woman to her friend. *The last line says it all. *

Dear Bertha,

I'm reading more and dusting less. I'm sitting in the yard and admiring the view without fussing about the weeds in the garden. I'm spending more time with my family and friends and less time working. Whenever possible, life should be a pattern of experiences to savor, not to endure. I'm trying to recognize these moments now and cherish them. I'm not "saving" anything; we use our good china and crystal for every special event such as losing a pound, getting the sink unstopped, or the first Amaryllis blossom. I wear my good blazer to the market. My theory is if I look prosperous, I can shell out $28.49 for one small bag of groceries. I'm not saving my good perfume for special parties, but wearing it for clerks in the hardware store and tellers at the bank."Someday" and "one of these days" are losing their grip on my vocabulary. If it's worth seeing or hearing or doing, I want to see and hear and do it now. I'm not sure what others would've done had they known they wouldn't be here for the tomorrow that we all take for granted. I think they would have called family members and a few close friends. They might have called a few former friends to apologize and mend fences for past squabbles. I like to think they would have gone out for a Chinese dinner or for whatever their favorite food was. I'm guessing; I'll never know.
It's those little things left undone that would make me angry if I knew my hours were limited. Angry because I hadn't written certain letters that I intended to write one of these days. Angry and sorry that I didn't tell my husband and parents often enough how much I truly love them. I'm trying very hard not to put off, hold back, or save anything that would add laughter and luster to our lives. And every morning when I open my eyes, tell myself that it is special.

Every day, every minute, every breath truly is a gift from God.

Postnote- I reflected on this and I'm like "wow". We're all caught up with our daily grind and most of us don't even take time to thank Him for every bit of what we have right now. I'm just putting this out there, I really am thankful of all the things He gave to us, I hope one day I'll give back.

Filipino Hospitality

So lately we’ve been meeting Filipinos around this area (and other farther places), and I’d just like to put this out there, nothing beats the welcome and the hospitality these people have been showing to us, I mean, it’s common to see people of your own race every now and then but the interesting thing is you get to talk to them and they share their experiences, and you hear their stories and it makes you want to work hard because you get inspiration from them. I just want to thank those people who we met and who extended their hands to us, helping us in their own little way. God bless you Filipinos.

This is why I love being a Filipino.

I refuse to be bored now.

3 weeks and 2 days in and guess what? I'm bored out of my mind. Not that I'm complaining or ranting or anything but you know, it's just the way I feel right now. I'm bored and I don't have anything to do except for waking up in the morning, then breakfast, then sleep some more, probably listen to the radio or use the computer (the thing is, I'm not allowed to exceed 2 hours) and then what the heck, lunchtime, then either I wash the dishes or wipe the table and then back to more procrastinating...then it's already 4pm! I wish I could like find something else to do other than just boring myself to insanity (i.e. part-time job). It is really true, it's kind of boring over here. I wouldn't mind if we're in the city, I could go around and like hop to places but we're actually here in a small town hours away from the business district. I wish that all of us get a job already (that's not very demanding) and yeah move out and find a place near downtown so we could start with what we have already. I'm really praying to God. I don't live my life on routine like some do.

Another town, another everything.

Picture originally uploaded by cjdlaron.

Sorry it took me more than a month to blog again here, but yeah whatever. I just wanna tell you that we're already here (in the picture) figure out where that is and I'll congratulate you hahaha. Anyway, I'm just thanking God for everything, I know He's got a lot in store for our family, great things specifically. I have faith in Him and in all of us.

I'm just looking forward ^_^

Precious, Crazy Heart, The Other End Of The Line.

For the longest time I have been binging on DVDs (fake ones) and I really want to watch a lot of latest movies, but for now I have seen these 3. Here are my insights.

Precious- this was one heck of a movie. Award-winning indeed and lots of great singers (actors rather) here. Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz are here plus Paula Patton (I love her) and of course the lead roles, Gabourey Sidibe and Mo'nique proved a lot. I love the story and even though were lots of cuss words, I still got the message.

Crazy Heart- when I saw the trailer, I thought it was fantastic but then I wasn't able to watch it in theatres. I didn't get some details because the audio wasn't that clear but then I thought it had a great storyline.

The Other End Of The Line- I thought this was gonna be pretty boring but man, it had such a chick flick-y feel to it and the cultural touch to this movie was pretty good. I have seen lots of movies that have the same conflict but this one really entertained me.

I will have the chance to watch lots of movies soon:)

The Beach.

I've always loved the beach. Everything about a beach makes me feel so calm and as if I'm in a good place. The sand, the waves, the people, the sunrise and the sunset, it's giving me peace of mind at the time being I was there. It was fun revisiting a beach for the Holy Week vacation, I went with the family to San Fabian, Pangasinan...the beach there was you know, kind of crowded but it was perfectly where I wanted to go to. I braced the waves, the salty water, even stepped on some creepy crawlies (I was squealing inside tell u what) while walking. I also walked by the shore at night, even though it was pretty dark, and the view was amazzzzzzzing. For the first time in a very long time I was able to go to the beach:) Thank you God.

Sunrise was awesome and I swam again for the last time, then we we went home afterwards, it was such a long drive home- probably 6 to 7 hours, but it was worth it cause I was with the family.

Sexuality.

Ok seriously speaking, I don't think I'll ever be open to dating both sexes, that means I'd only be able to go for girls. But that's not how I want it to be, cause in the world that I live in, when someone dates a person of the same gender, they instantly get bashed or talked about but are we really those kind of people? I don't think so. We should not care about what other people think of our preferences cause if we do, then we choose to live through others' opinions thus not having a chance to be happy.

I'll give you an example, you're a guy who dates girls all the time and you realize that all the girls you date don't wanna take it to the next level, just casual flings...and then you share a drink with your guy best friend, then things turn to "yo, dude" to "dude, just one night please?", you engage in such activity that made you think over things, then you wake up next day feeling awesome, then things turn to something you're looking forward to. You found love. You then tell other people about this new thing, they judge you for it, you suddenly feel like it's "us against the world". What do you do? Same goes for girls who are in the same situation.

That's just one of the many things I wonder about. Since I don't know who I really am, I want to get a dose of it to find out.

from Andee.

Apparently I havent told Andee, one of my SOJ friends that we're leaving...she said I was an ass for not telling her. I feel like one now! But this effort made me smile:) Thanks darling.