Rubbing Off Stress

The best way I combat stress is pouring most of my time re-arranging my living room. When I shift my energy on uncovering that little hidden creativity, my stress finds a detour away from me and, surprisingly I come up with a more relaxing setting for that tête-à-tête with people close to my heart.

Re-arranging doesn't mean buying additional furnishings. It simply means relocating existing pieces to create a more dramatic and intimate effect. Color harmony plays a very important factor in achieving such a goal.

You can always switch back to your old arrangement anytime you want to. In my case, I always inject a little modification to an old set-up so it won't look exactly the same.

Lighting Up My Life

Appropriate lighting conveys a very peculiar significance in every home. And since we spend most of our relaxing time in our homes, putting up that minimal touch of lights could spell a great difference.

One effective way to treat your eyes with pleasure while at home is the use of lamps. Lamps do not just loosen up our senses after a day of hectic job deadlines but offer a pleasurable way as well to treat our guests as we Filipinos are known to be fond of receiving guests very often. Ambient lighting plays a very pleasurable importance in doing up every living room where we usually spend more time with our guests and family. 

Lamps are everywhere. We just need a sense of ingenuity to find the right one for our place. One important consideration when buying a lamp is to harmonize it to your existing set-up. If your interior conveys an Asian touch, go for lamps made of indigenous materials.  

Because lamps displayed at some stores are quite costly, I decided to create pieces that would suit my need at a lesser spending. My friends who frequently drop by my place ended up buying them. So my passion started to become a little business. I might finally put up a lamp shop if sales would soar high (hehehehe) who knows...

If interested, feel free to contact me. My lamps come in  very affordable amounts.

Dear Solitude,

I wonder why every encounter with you 
sets off something unusual beyond explanation.
Your presence ignites the inner yearnings
that have always been so uncertain. 
You remind me once again that life itself 
is sometimes as void as the longings
that are kept in the dimness of secrets.
Do you really mean to stimulate my sanity?
Or do you just come to remind me 
that if happiness is founded in material realm
the pleasure is as fleeting as our life's journey?
That if I live for the One who created both of us
I can truly call my life worth-lived?
If so, then don't only come as often as i want
but stay as long as you will 
then consume my whole being 
and grant me that debt of gratitude
that will become my wings when i fly home
when i leave everything behind
and meet the very Force that sends you to me.

Up Until Now

I chased for the things I thought mattered,

And found people hurting me in the end.

I pursued feelings I deemed pleasing

But got hold of myself wounded with the memories left.

I fancied for a  life full of excesses,

And found myself somber over the affluence I claimed mine.

Up until now I thought life is all about those I chased for

But alas it is in fact about the things that matter less in the world

Yet matter more in God’s eyes!

I played life by the character I thought I was

And ended up disgruntled over the performance I gave

I followed the role I felt was mine

And incessantly found the discontent that haunted me all along

I presumed I have to run after life so I can face the battle strong

And ended weary ,upset to find I can never outrun it.

Up until now I thought life is a play prepared and done

But alas it is in fact an unfinished piece to take part on

A work in process in God’s hand!

My "Summum Bonum"

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you...

Today I have learned an important phrase through the homily of Father Mario Sobrejuanite (aired over Studio 23 every 9:00 A.M.).  Summum Bonum is a latin phrase which stands for highest good.

While many are already in their journey, some are still unable to understand what they should look for to attain happiness. In fact, many have gone to their rest not being able to grab a hint that for a life to be fully lived, one has to identify his “summum bonum” and has to pursue for it no matter what.

Ones “summum bonum” differs according to the status and the kind of perspective one keeps. To some, accumulating wealth and living a comfortable life might be a worthy goal to chase; to others, finding the right person to love and to some more others, getting out from a very unhealthy relationship. But in some parts of the world “summum bonum” has been reduced to a meal for a day, a room for shelter, and paradoxically death. This makes us luckier than those whose only option is to choose death as answer to their unending struggle.

The realm of spirituality urges us to seek for God as our “summum bonum”. I strongly agree that indeed if you have a God you can call your highest good, everything else follows. When your greatest pursuit in life is to be in communion with the God you believed in, you get the best of life along your journey.

When you have God in mind while building up your wealth, you don’t accumulate more and more for selfish reason. Your aim is to increase your riches so you can share to as many as possible. When you have God in your heart while going into a romantic relationship, your end goal is not to hurt but to create a happy family with that person.  When you have God in your daily dealings, your aim is to establish good human relationship with those you meet. And all through these, you not only traverse the best road life can offer on your way to your “summum bonum” but you also get the most out of life as if you have already reached your goal.

At times along the way, we divert our energy to the many enticements our material world offers.  And oftentimes we lose sight of our target and even become so attached with the fleeting things we mistakenly identify as equal or even of greater value than our “summum bonum”. The good news is, we can always “refresh” our lost goal and continue to pursue what really matters most. And to refresh means to forgive those who have wronged us; to reconcile with those we have hurt; to rekindle old friendships that have gone cold for quite some time; to be more generous for the needy; to live a healthy lifestyle; to shift focus everyday on the things, events, people that make us better person inside and out and etc...

Today I have not only learned two latin words. Today more than ever the phrase “summum bonum” reminds me that life must not only be beautiful. Life must be meaningful as well. Choose God to be your “summum bonum” and you will have a blessed life here and in the hereafter.

Having Faith Faithfully

Having faith is to walk in the dark and to continue walking despite the seeming absence and silence of God.

Faith is amazingly a big word. It is a special key to all of life’s padlocks. That is what I believe it is. One has to have faith to live a life. Otherwise, life becomes hard and meaningless.

After watching  Father Mario Sobrejuanite’s homily over Studio 23 (October 03, 2010), I can’t help but agree that faith is indeed of two aspects: BELIEF and TRUST. Belief, as he expounded, is something that is in the head while trust is what is in the heart. In other words, to believe is to recognize an idea, a person or a thing supported by a fact while to trust is to believe unconditionally.

With that in mind, faith therefore is accepting those that are visible and justifiable and recognizing those that are beyond explanations.

When I decided to quit working three years ago (for health reason), I was terrified where a jobless life would lead me. I have a monthly amortization to attend to and I have the usual expenses to incur every day. I was afraid I have to admit. But more than the fear was my faith that God will always find ways for me. And true enough He provided everything and is continually supplying my daily needs small and big alike until now.

Faith to me is trusting God’s will. Faith is believing that God has plans for us. When we start to trust God, everything falls into its proper place. We become awed with the things that we don’t realize we are capable doing of. We attract people who bring unforeseen opportunities. We start to open up ourselves to changes that surprisingly help us become better persons.

Having faith is really having control over all the energy in the universe. When we trust that our dreams will come true no matter what, we are ordering the universe to manifest the details on the fulfilment of what we think we can have or what we dream we can become.

Faith brings positivity too. When we have faith in our hearts, we see only the positive implications to all the incidents that unfold everyday. We automatically find good reasons why an event has to take place. We become less critical of our failures and that of others. We start to see the glass half full and not half empty. And this is good because as we become positive energy-driven, we attract only positive things and events to manifest in our lives.

Today I don’t anymore say to myself “ I am unemployed.” Because I don’t perceive my current state as a misfortune. Today, I am very self-assured to say I am on a new chapter of my life. And with faith, I am confident to realize the dreams I have in my heart.

The Journey to Letting Go

The most difficult consequence of breaking up is letting go.

Not being able to let go because you still feel for a person is the hardest of all. But when you start to sense you are trapped in the cobwebs of false hopes, letting go is not anymore an option - it is the only sensible thing to do.

In a “break-up” situation where your partner is completely fallen out of love, refusing to move on and to face chances of falling in love again under the thought of never finding another person better than a former lover is perhaps one of the most stupid things you can do. You see, when you feed your thoughts the idea that no one is better than your ex and that someday you can rekindle the broken relationship, any opportunity of falling in love to a new one is denied of you. In other words, you are putting your love life in a “freeze-loving” stage thereby piling up your lost opportunities of finding someone better and denying yourself of a happy life.  If this happens to you, sharpen your ears so you will hear the thumping of the spirit of letting go.

Letting go is not easy. That is given. The road is long and dreary. But there are shortcuts to it. Open-mindedness is one. When you open your mind to the reality that life has to continue after a blurry episode, you begin to shorten the journey. When you open your mind to the possibility that something better can take place, you start to narrow the gap between pain and healing. And sooner you will reach the cornerstone where new love stories are made.

But how do you know letting go is already at hand? When uttering the name of your ex doesn’t taste bitter to the tongue anymore, you know the journey is ending. When memories of the past become simply a page of a story written and read, you know the haunting is almost over. But be very careful with the way  you stride the last steps of the journey.  It is at this point where truth rears its ugly face - the truth that you have fooled yourself all through the way. Meaning you can always fool yourself while gliding the path to letting go. When you say you have moved on but vowed never to see that person again, you have fooled yourself along the way.

 Letting go has nothing to do with forgetting the person you intend to let go. Letting go is embracing the whole of that person and acknowledging the lessons you both learned together. In other words, it is only when you are able to say “thank you for coming into my life and for the lessons I have learned along with you” with all honesty and gratefulness that you have truly reached the end of the journey.

I am sharing to you the poem I made when I found out my former partner decided to shut all connections he has with me. I respect that decision. And I have no resentment whatsoever except to conclude he has never reached the journey to letting go.

A Blissful Deliverance

You really think you have ended all

The face, the voice, the memories, the call

I tell you unless you embrace the whole of me you’ll never walk tall

Even if you go pretending released, you are still bound to fall.

And how is it that you suddenly hate everything of me?

How could you have forgotten your torment I have aided to flee?

Is it because of the cut I created when I started to see?

 That life would be lovelier if, in the end, it is not you and me.

If you let go of me, let go with compassion and justice

Not with hate not with loathing but with goodness,

Let’s leave each other’s dream and grasp each other’s mess

Not with vengeance but with fondness, with peace none the less.

So forgive now and stop chasing this dreary run

And I promise to whisper to the wind when it crosses the sun

The words that will fill the song you have kept undone

And only then you will truly feel what it is to have blissfully forgone.