SWEET JOURNEY: START THE JOURNEY WITH GOD

Thanks for the art of life!

Have you ever thought of the first sound, word, phrase, or sentence that you've made?

We can't really tell the things that we have been doing when we were still at the womb of our dearest mother..

They would probably tell us..we could create gurgling sounds, kicking sounds, so and so...

Well, those sounds weigh more than a thousand word, It's the sound of life!

imagesource

It signifies that we are ready to face the world...

Have you ever count the number of sounds that you've made from the moment you were born?

Try to imagine the sound of breathing, the sound of your heartbeat...

Have you thank God for that?

Life is a journey that we have to survive step by step...

Let me share some sounds in my life that you can reflect with my next blogs.

Let us all be grateful that God has given all these opportunities to live with and discover the purpose of LIFE...

I'm blessed to have a friend who invited me to express my journey on this page that he has made.

This is such a great opportunity to create a sound, shout, word, phrase, sentence and blog that is worthful; by spreading the word of God.

...And realize that everything starts with GOD.

So let's continue our journey with HIM...

by: Sweetumz16

A guest blogger

WE ARE ALL IN A JOURNEY

                              Video courtesy of: Profe Teia    

               

          JOURNEY- a travel.....that's exactly what this life is. We are all in a journey. And on this journey, we are all companions. Whatever our destinations and routes are, at the end we could still say, "It's so great to finish the journey with you. Thank you for being there all throughout my journey."

          Moreover, this journey called LIFE starts with a single step. There could be times wherein we need to stop and take a rest for a while. At a certain point, we might fall down but let us all be sure that we are strong enough to stand up. At times, we might feel that we are alone.......yet we need to open our eyes and appreciate the presence of others who are just there somewhere guiding us along the way.  And certainly, we will feel great to realize that we are in a company in this journey. 

          At the end, it is not a  matter on how we start the journey, rather what counts most is how we end it. 

                                                       

REMEMBERING in our HEARTS OUR LOVED ONES

          Significant people are ones who can give us comfort and strength when things are getting rough and tough...when everything seems so blurred, they come to our rescue and offer us a sense of perspective. Thus, it is but fitting to remember them always in our hearts including those who are away from us anymore-our faithful departed.

          Their memories and legacy will constantly remind us of their presence. They are merely physically absent from us yet their examples and good deeds guide us in choosing what is best for us. We always have 24 hours in a day and how great it is when we appropriate a part of these 24 hours to offer our prayers for these significant people for they would always be present in our life.

from:www.dreamstime.com

          Physically absent yet their love would always be our source of inspiration. I remember concretely  my mother who died many years ago. Ever since I  was  a kid, she was my mentor in my prayer life. She everyday initiated us into good deeds especially to prayer by reciting the holy rosary. Every Sunday is always a day of obligation. When everybody seemed to be enjoying their rest on Sundays, she constantly became the first person to wake us all up and prepared ourselves for mass.

          Hence, I offer my daily prayers for my beloved Mama and for other faithful departed and this allows me to continue my connections with them. Do you also keep in your hearts and prayers your own departed loved ones?...


 
                        

THANKS GOD FOR THIS NEW DAY

It's SATURDAY and almost at the end of the week. I wake up with so much energy thinking that this day is a complete manifestation of God's undying love  for me- another new day, another new gift, another new blessing from HIM above. I have so many reasons to be grateful to HIM since I am blessed with a family of wonderful and loving people- my wife Yanyan and my son Kurt. They are the main reasons why everyday is such a wonderful and a fresh beginning for me.

           They are my main motivations that give me strength to face squarely every day's challenges and trials. Like any ordinary human being, I come face to face as well with life's trivialities- at times, my conviction to life is tested, at times my goal in life which is to be a constant God fearing individual is put into test by plenty difficult situations YET with my own faith and the LOVE that I receive from these two significant persons in my life, everything seems to be so light.

          Thus, I am very thankful to God above for giving me these gifts in life- my family. How about you, have you learned to embrace deep in your heart the presence of the other people in your life?
THANKS GOD FOR THIS NEW DAY

LIFE'S HERE AND NOW REALITY

          Life as it is encompasses so many chapters. There were those which ended and there will be those that are still coming. Yet I personally believe that to be able to cherish life as it is, man should learn how to live life to its present reality- the here and now chapter of our life.

          I love to read quotations in life and oneof those which I treasure the most is this one from Buddha:" The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly."- Buddha

from:www.pixabay.com

           What I love in Buddha's words is its invitation for us all not to mourn whatever our past brought to us and not to worry as well to what will happen in our future. Rather we better invest our energy on living in the present for it is there that we can accomplish more in life. 

          Sad to say, there are several instances in a day that we lose our focus on the present moment rather we allow our minds to linger so much on the past and on the future. It is not bad after all to engage ourselves in those two realities yet if it then becomes too much that it greatly consumes our time in a day, then our here and now activities will surely be missed. 

          Just to emphasize my point, like when we are eating together with our family in a meal then instead of savoring the food and cherishing the presence of each one, our minds linger on the report that we will present the following day. Consequently, we deny ourselves the treasure of hearing the stories of those who are with us in the table aside from missing the delicious taste of the food. 

from:www.pixabay.com

          Aside from this situation, we can pinpoint several situations in a day wherein we stay out of focus on our here and now reality. We only need to accept what has been part of our history and we need to be open to what the  future will bring us. Being able to constantly be conscious to our present reality brings us into a deeper understanding of ourselves. We will then learn to embrace who we really are and at the same time, welcome both our positive and negative qualities. 

          After all, life is a constant journey and while we have others as our companions in this lifelong trip, the role of being the primary trekkers on this is left to ourselves.   

THE VALUE OF TIME (part 2)

          This is the second part of my post discussing about the importance of practicing and maintaining quality time with others especially with our loved ones. What is another striking element for me in what I quoted from my research, it is the part that says, "Usually time management is a necessity in any project development as it determines the project completion time and scope".

          Personally I consider each one's life journey as a personal endeavor and a project. We are the primary movers and doers in this personal project and whatever we attribute to this will make or break us.   The scope of this personal project (life journey) differs from one person to the other. What we therefore need individually is the self awareness that will enable us to plan and set directions to realize the project- our life. 

from:www.dreamstime.com

          At times, the road ahead us in life is seemingly daunting. Yet when we have a hold of ourselves including our dreams, the road ahead will become visible and reachable. If we assess our past days, we can easily recognize those passed times that were spent unproductively, void and wasted. We have 24 hours in a day yet we can always ask ourselves, " How then we divide those 24 hours in one day?", " How much do we spend out of this number (24) in a positive way?" "Where there instances that we failed to reach out to others in a span of a day?" These are but just some of the basic questions that we can ask ourselves everyday.

          The project completion of our life depends much on our personal investment. Thus, we are challenged each day to consciously align our actions to the objectives that we laid down as part of our way towards the realization of our dream- a life we can claim as a fulfilled one.

THE VALUE OF TIME

          Time is one of our treasures in life. Therefore it is always a daily routine for us to plan ahead what we have to do with our time. Thus, time management is very essential in our life journey. But how much do we really invest in time? How much time do we spend for our family, our loved ones or friends? What percentage of our daily time do we spend for our leisure? These are but some of the questions we can ask ourselves in relation to time. 

          One of the sources that I researched regarding time is shared below:

Time management is the act or process of planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity. Time management may be aided by a range of skills, tools, and techniques used to manage time when accomplishing specific tasks, projects and goals complying with a due date.

from:www.pixabay.com

 This set encompasses a wide scope of activities, and these include planning,allocating, setting goals, delegation, analysis of time spent, monitoring, organizing, scheduling, and prioritizing. Initially, time management referred to just business or work activities, but eventually the term broadened to include personal activities as well. A time management system is a designed combination of processes, tools, techniques, and methods. Usually time management is a necessity in any project development as it determines the project completion time and scope. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

          From this source, several components are being discussed and I would like to single out the element of "being able to consciously control our time" for whatever we want to do. We therefore  are the main protagonists each day on how we take control of our time from the time that we wake up then perform our different daily activities up to the time that we go to bed. No one could ever dictate us on what we are going to do with our time. However, it should always be a part of our consideration that our time should be shared and be spent in spreading love and concern for others.

          At times, relationships are being destroyed by the failure of each one to accord the other a quality time. Sometimes we think of any other excuses so as not to extend precious time with our loved ones. In some cases, we tend to enjoy and spend more time with officemates and friends rather than spending it with our family. What is being sacrificed is the guidance that our children specifically need from us. Consequently, there is this risk of soliciting this time and attention from other sources such as friends who can be bad influence, drugs, and vices. 

from:www.pixabay.com

          Hence, to rest assured our loved ones especially our children that they will experience quality time with us, we should always make it a conscious effort on our part to initiate interaction with them.  

                 

  (part 1)

THE VALUE OF SELF GIVING

          Just recently, I did watch a movie entitled " SEVEN POUNDS" with Will Smith on the lead role. Just to give you a gist of the story, it all revolves on Tim Thomas (Will Smith). As a flashback, two years earlier, he was involved in a fatal car accident in which seven people were dead including his fiancee and six strangers. 

          Being at fault, he was so remorseful of this tragedy. He was texting while driving his car thus resulting to his failure to control the steering wheel and eventually hits an approaching van. To make atonement for such mistake, he decided that he will select seven people to save their lives.

from:www.kozzi.com

         Hence he planned to donate his body parts to the following: lung lobe to his brother, a part of his liver to a child services worker named Holly, his kidney to George, a Junior hockey coach, his bone marrow to a young boy named Nicholas,  his beach house to Connie, who lives with an abusive boyfriend, his eyes to Ezra Turner, a blind meat salesman who plays the piano and lastly his heart to Emily Posa, who is suffering with a heart disease and has a rare blood type.

          There is a complication with the last one, Emily, since he falls in love with her. After spending some solitary moments with her, he goes back to his motel and fills the bathtub with ice to preserve his vital organs. He then releases his boxed jelly fish and commits suicide. (Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0814314/synopsis)

          With this as background, can we identify events in our life that we became like a "TIM THOMAS" to our neighbors? Have we asked ourselves such question, "How many times in our past life that we became self giving to others?" Or are we just solely focus on our own welfare and we tend to neglect our duty of care for others. Personally, this moral of the story is very relevant to my life. In fact, it is always an invitation for me and for others to share the very precious gift of life. 

     

from: www.kozzi.com

         Nevertheless, accepting this challenge doesn't necessarily be in such a huge thing and manner. Being self giving can be expressed in so many ways like giving full attention and care to others most especially to those who belong to our household. Being busy with multiple things most notably with those trivial ones is never an excuse to deprive others of our attention and care.

          Basically as human beings, those two are stand out among our primary needs. If we value receiving them from others then we might as well be generous in extending them. Becoming deprived in any stage of life is such a lonely fate hence may we all become agents of joy for our neighbors, near and far, so as to avoid this tragedy.