Forgiveness.I never realized how heavy this word is – until now.

Wikipedia defines this word as the process of concluding resentment, indignation or anger as a result of a perceived offense, difference or mistake, and/or ceasing to demand punishment or restitution.

But what is forgiveness?

As Christians, we are expected to be more forgiving, just what in Colossians say:Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one other. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

I just now realized that forgiveness is a personal choice, an act of faith to God’s words. It’s not an easy path to go through. It’s a battle within and without God’s help, you will trudging along this path instead of walking. For the past months, lots of things happened; awful words had been spoken apart from constant judgments and mistrusts. Yes, I have been trudging, not walking. I carry all those awful things in my mind and I let them grew in my heart. Instead of looking forward with calmness and optimism, I cling to sadness and resentments.

Past is past. It can never come back no matter how you regret and cry over them. The only uses of the past for us now are the lessons learned. We can bring these lessons in the present and try our best not to do the same mistakes again.

Every time I pray for the blessing of forgiveness, God would let me see the good things and from these, I harness strength to hold on to the promises of tomorrow. Sometimes, my pride would still take over but it only leaves me in a state of anger that would eventually drain my life force and its not doing any good to me. Its keeping me away from the real purpose and goal of where I am now. Each day, I have to overcome a battle within and every time I chose to be on God’s side, I get stronger and wiser. “Whatever that won’t kill me will only make me stronger” – that’s not a cliché for me anymore, because I do experience it.

Carrying grudges from the past is really tiresome. Most of the time, it causes us to overlook the most important thing we have now, our present life. So no matter how difficult it is to let go and forgive, try harder. If gets too difficult, pray harder and ask God’s grace, ask Him to give you more strength to carry on, more understanding to make allowances and most especially beg Him to fill your heart with love, the kind of heart you once had when you were just a kid, a forgiving, loving and trusting heart.

You will say that this is easier said than done. I do agree with you but there’s no other way to life than to move forward. But before you can really move forward, you have to let the hands of the past go and reach out for the hands of the present. In order for you to let it go, grab the present with both of your hands and hold on to it.

I heard this song in a cab on my way to work yesterday morning. I suddenly remembered all of my closest, real friends whom I’ve been with through ups and downs. Its funny how one song can get you back in the past. All of my fond memories, and also the saddest and hurtful ones came in like a movie trailer in my mind. The people whom I’ve never been spoken to for the longest time had occupied my mind even for just a moment. Actually, the driver saw me smiling through his front mirror while reminiscing. I never thought I miss my friends this much …. miss you guys! I hope you’re all doing great, having the best time of your lives as I am … co’z that’s all I am wishing for, to see you all happy, really, really happy!

           ********************
I always thought you were the best
I guess I always will.
I always felt that we were blessed,
And I feel that way, still.
Sometimes we took the hard road,
But we always saw it through.
If I had only one friend left,
I’d want it to be you.
Sometimes the world was on our side;
Sometimes it wasn’t fair.
Sometimes it gave a helping hand;
Sometimes we didn’t care.
‘Cause when we were together,
It made the dream come true.
If I had only one friend left,
I’d want it to be you.
Someone who understands me,
And knows me inside out.
And helps keep me together,
And believes without a doubt,
That I could move a mountain:
Someone to tell it to.
If I had only one friend left,
I’d want it to be you.
Instrumental Break.
‘Cause when we were together,
It made the dream come true.
If I had only one friend left,
I’d want it to be you.
Someone who understands me,
And knows me inside out.
And helps keep me together,
And believes without a doubt,
That I could move a mountain:
Someone to tell it to.
If I had only one friend left,
I’d want it to be you.

I was planning to write this particular blog yesterday because of my overwhelming happiness but duty calls first as a mom and wife, so in short, I forgot all about it ’till the rest of the night. Anyhu, my blog tonite is about my son, Nathan .. again. He is currently in Kindergarten 2 … preparatory to Primary 1 / Grade 1. He is 5 years old and can already read on his own. Yesterday, Monday, I totally forgot that they were going to have their first batch of spelling words for this year. The teachers would normally give us the spelling words prior, then us, as parents have the responsibility to teach him those words so he will be ready when the spelling day comes. Apparently, I was too busy studying these past weekend that it totally slipped my mind. I just realized it when I saw his notebook while I was emptying his bag. I asked him, "Nate, did you had your spelling today?" He said, "Yes Mama." I asked him how did he do. He said, "I’ve got 3 ticks and 2 exes." I said, "What?! You’re kidding!" He said, "No. I’ve got ticks on "pretty", "longest" & "snug" while exes on "best" and "fancy". You noticed that he got ticks on harder and longer words… yeah i know, I noticed it too. And what the hell is snug anyway?! I really have to look it up on dictionary.com to confirm what Nathan told me, he was right. Anyway, eventhough he’s really heavy for me already, I pick him up and throw him in the air, just like what we do on 1 - 2 yr old kids. Mind you, after that, my back really hurt!  The point is, he did those scores on his own! I was really ecstatic that I called his kindergarten teacher and beg her to tell the whole story. The teacher was quite concerned because its not likely for Nathan to not get perfect scores on his spelling because she knew that we always back him up here at home. I just told her that Nathan wasn’t ready for the spelling yet he got 3 ticks! For me that is an achievement. Nevertheless, I was really proud of him!

This is one of those articles that you cannot resist saving in your PC after reading  them online. Like most of the "evening people", me, as well as my husband love having bedtime snacks before finally going to bed. We usually watch movies or if not, our favorite TV series in our bedroom so snacks are really a big hit for us.

Read the next article … so yummy licking good for everyone!   — Karlyn 

Bedtime Snacks that Help You Sleep

One of the best natural sedatives is tryptophan, an amino acid component of many plant and animal proteins.

Tryptophan
is one of the ingredients necessary for the body to make serotonin, the
neurotransmitter best known for creating feelings of calm, and for
making you sleepy.

However,
the trick is to combine foods that have some tryptophan with ample
carbohydrate. That’s because in order for insomnia-busting tryptophan
to work, it has to make its way to the brain.

Unfortunately,
all amino acids compete for transport to the brain. When you add carbs,
they cause the release of insulin, which takes the competing amino
acids and incorporates them into muscle…but leaves tryptophan alone, so
it can make its way to the brain, be converted to serotonin, and cause
sleepiness.  

Serotonin-producing bedtime snacks should be no more than 200 calories and should be eaten at least 30 minutes prior to bed.

Here are a few great ideas: 

Bedtime Snacks for Adults

–6-8 oz container of non-fat, flavored yogurt topped with 2 tablespoons low-fat granola cereal
–Sliced apple with 1-2 teaspoons natural peanut butter
–3 cups low-fat popcorn – sprinkled with optional 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese  

Bedtime Snacks for Teens

–One cup healthy cereal with skim milk
–Low-fat granola bar
–Scoop of vanilla or strawberry low-fat ice cream

Bedtime Snacks for Children

–1/2 cup low-fat vanilla pudding
–1/2 banana with 1-2 teaspoons peanut butter
–One cup skim milk with a bunch of grapes (or other fruit)

************

Article Source:  Yahoo Website
Article Owner:  Joy Bauer

****************
One Cardinal Rule I always follow when Reposting Articles:
Always give credit to the original creator so we don’t have to face copyright infringement cases. 

T’was
The Night Before Christmas
Not a Sign of Baby Jesus

Author Unknown 

T’was the night before Christmas
and all through the town
Not a sign of Baby Jesus
was anywhere to be found.

The people were all busy
with Christmas time chores
Like decorating, and baking,
and shopping in stores.

No one sang "Away in a manger,
no crib for a bed".
Instead, they sang of Santa
dressed-up in bright red.

Mama watched Martha Stewart,
Papa drank beer from a tap.
As hour upon hour
the presents they’d wrap

When what from the TV
did they suddenly hear?
‘Cept an ad.. which told
of a big sale at Sears.

So away to the mall
they all flew like a flash
Buying things on credit
and others with cash!

And, as they made their way home
From their trip to the mall,
Did they think about Jesus?
Oh, no… not at all.

Their lives were so busy
with their Christmas time things
No time to remember
Christ Jesus, the King.

There were presents to wrap
and cookies to bake.
How could they stop and remember
who died for their sake?

To pray to the Savior
they had no time to stop.
Because they needed more time
to "Shop til they dropped!"

On Wal-mart! On K-mart!
On Target! On Penney’s!
On Hallmark! On Zales!
A quick lunch at Denny’s

From the big stores downtown
to the stores at the mall
They would dash away, dash away,
and visit them all!

And up on the roof,
there arose such a clatter
As grandpa hung icicle lights
up on his brand new step ladder.

He hung lights that would flash.
He hung lights that would twirl.
Yet, he never once prayed to Jesus…
Light of the World.

Christ’s eyes… how they twinkle!
Christ’s Spirit… how merry!
Christ’s love… how enormous!
All our burdens… He’ll carry!

So instead of being busy,
overworked, and uptight
Let’s put Christ back in
Christmas and enjoy
some good nights!

Merry Christmas, my friends!

I don’t really understand why do some people like to smoke. When I was a little girl we used to have this mini grocery store, locally, we call it as "Sari-sari store", (sari-sari means different kinds of everything) anyhow, we used to sell different brands of cigarettes, I think in several occasion, I’ve asked one of our frequent buyers why do they like it so much… then they would just say "Because it helps them feel good and release stress out of their bodies", well of course, because I was a  well-informed little girl, I told them  "Do you know that its bad for your health?" They would just say, "Everyone will die some day, ‘ika nga una-una lang yan!" In the midst of my discussion with them, my father happened to walked-in and asked me in an irritated voice,"Why do you have to ask so many questions?" (Of course you will understand why my father gets a little bit agitated because its totally a conflict of interest, isn’t it) My father is a disciplinarian, raised in a traditional way of disciplining so reasoning to him is not an option, not a privilege, so I would just shut-up and look at him with a pounding heart. But then, I was thankful enough because he managed to quit smoking a long time ago so I was not really exposed to smokers my whole childhood life.

Now, that I have my own little one, who happens to have a really sensitive nose and upper respiratory system, I am really disgusted to these smokers. They are polluting the air that my son is taking-in, not just my son, but their generation. These insensitive people doesn’t have any clue what this children are going through every time these smoke gets into their lungs. They have to stop having fun like going to school and play with their friends because they have to go to the hospital to get some medications to help open-up their airways again, because the moment they took in large amount of this smoke, the air passageways would close up, mucus will be generated, the body temperature will rise up to 40 degrees Celsius and they would have trouble breathing, sleeping, eating etc. etc .etc. And these things will just happen over and over again every time they are exposed to these chemicals.

Now, wherever we go and whenever there is someone smoking nearby, I would really say this out loud, loud enough for them to hear, "Nathan, cover your nose and mouth, somebody is smoking!" And whenever we ride a cab which smells like the driver just finished smoking, I would really say, "No, you go ahead, we’ll find another cab!" Some drivers will get irritated, some will have a puzzled look but none of them will ask why…  Why cant they find a place secluded enough that they are the only ones who can inhale the smoke they too are exhaling, (that will make things a whole lot easier for them if they wanted to die at an early stage since they cant quit anyways) in that way, maybe everybody will be happy.  To these smokers that they thought I am being mean, I don’t care if they get irritated, they can say whatever they want, or feel whatever they have to feel, but I am not putting through my son under that difficulty. If they think they have all the rights in this world to do whatever they want such as smoking, then I have all the rights as a mother to express my feelings towards them. They can go to hell for all I care.

"No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow."

(- - - Maya Angelou’s Oprah interview)

No more talk of darkness,
Forget these wide-eyed fears
I’m here, nothing can harm you
my words will warm and calm you
Let me be your freedom,
let daylight dry your tears.
I’m here with you, beside you,
to guard you and to guide you…

Love me - that’s all I ask of you
Anywhere you go let me go too
Love me - that’s all I ask of you…

You’re my peace of mind in this crazy
world.

You’re everything I’ve tried to find, your love is a pearl.
You’re my Mona Lisa, you’re my rainbow skies,
and my only prayer is that you realize
you’ll always be beautiful in my eyes.

The world will turn and the seasons will change,
and all the lessons we will learn will be beautiful and strange.
We’ll have our fill of tears, our share of sighs.
My only prayer is that you realize
you’ll always be beautiful in my eyes.

When there are lines upon my face form a lifetime of smiles,
and when the time comes to embrace for one long last while,
we can laugh about how time really flies.
We won’t say goodbye ’cause true love never dies.
You’ll always be beautiful in my eyes.

And the passing years will show
that you will always grow more beautiful in my eyes.

Petals

Selections from the  poetry of Rumi

" Even when you tear its petals off one after another,

  the rose keeps laughing and doesn’t bend in pain.

  "Why should I be afflicted because of a thorn?

  It is the thorn which taught me how to laugh."

  Whatever you lost through fate,

  be certain that it saved you from pain. "

********************************************************************