Life's a Happy Song

I hope everybody had a great Easter. 

Before we get back into the thick of things, I want to share with you a song that reflects - in a unique way - the message of the Easter season. 

In the Risen Lord, faith confirms our hope in the triumph of life. Now, this might not be a religious song but to me it confirms nonetheless, that same hope for life.

Enjoy!

---<--@

Lolo Kiko, the Smiling Pope

Let me tell what I love most dear about our Holy Father Francis... it is his joy!

I think all the world has noticed how Lolo Kiko's smile warms the heart. I myself love that smile.

When our Holy Father visited our Country, I was watching live on TV as the Sri Lanka jet taxied to a stop in Villamor, waiting for that smile to touch my soul and for his feet to touch our soil.

How brilliant is that smile! 

The joy in his heart must be heroic. There must dwell a holy love in his soul, there must our blessed Savior be... 



There must our God dwell... in the kind of heart that enlightens other hearts. 

In the smile that penetrates into the soul, in the joy that even for a moment lifts up the sadness and gives hope to the witnessing of our faith, we might be seeing glimpses of Christ Jesus' own smile.

My life ain't problem free. I used to think my lot is better or worse than the next bloke. But hey, the truth out there is everybody in the world faces challenges daily. And I can not face mine eyes sideways. 

Or live my life with an absent heart; one that looks back to what bitterness there was instead of shining into what hopes there could be.

I think the heart that listens is a heart that is steady and sure. It stirs not with the stirring of the world. But hearkens to the silence that calls to the soul from within... in the stillness, in that stillness..., a heart that hears is a heart that sees...

Lolo Kiko when he smiles is in his moment. 

Consider when you laugh, how we feel - when the many constraints that hold us a prisoner to our own fears momentarily lifts... dispelled by the joy in the now - how good it is to be in that moment!

I'm talking here about the effects of a good and wholesome humor. 

I am not referring to the garbage jokes that sell your soul bad, bitter, and contemptuous spirits. Hey, love the comedian or comedianne, but maybe sometimes, discreetly discard some of their jokes.

Indeed, laughter - born of good spirits - seem to make the darkness disappear: Fear of an imagined future time laughter dissipates, excessive concerns over present troubles it likewise dispels, even the pain of past things yet unreconciled to the heart laughter momentarily relieves from our feelings...

Truly, good laughter is good medicine.

These things are also in a smile... in our smile and in the smile others is the abiding sense of the joy of those moments... in every smile is the gentle reminder that life will not always incline our feelings toward sorrow, and our thinking toward fear - especially fear of a future yet unwritten...

This is how I feel when Lolo Kiko smiles or even when I think about him smiling... because through the joy in his heart, reflected in that shining moment... I regain sight of my own hopes.

How good it is to be in that moment!

Thank you Holy Father Francis, I may not always be that good of a follower of our Savior and Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ, but you are in my heart and shall be in my prayers always! 

Please pray for us also, this nation who loves you, whom you have sent. Pray for us so that peace may fully reign in the soul of our Country and justice and good will may dwell in the hearts of all Filipinos...

We love you, Lolo Kiko, mabuhay po kayo!
---<--@

Silver Lining

"Every cloud has a silver lining", we've often heard it said.

People who believe in heaven and the goodness of the God of heaven understand through cloud and rain the truth of perennial blue skies and golden sunshine...

Such are situations we at times find ourselves in.

One either sulks in the shadow of bad things and under overcast skies despair the will and the goodness of God and heaven or in seeing the silver lining behind every cloud say,

"yes, so be it... this too shall pass".

Because it will, it always does.
---<--@

Here I try in vain...

To those whose lives have been directly altered by the loss we suffered in Mamasapano, the SAF 44 families, the families of civilians and innocents involved...

Words uttered in deepest sympathy of your sorrow and grief will ultimately fall short... I'm so sorry for your loss. We can not bring them back.

What we can do as a Country is to make sure their sacrifices were not in vain.

Two pictures that make me smile...

With everything that is going on... it pays to have moments that remind one of life's simple joys.

I am simply grateful for this moment...

Colors over my Anne's Amsterdam...

Just a little share...

Just a little share...

2012, I had both Christmas and New Year's eve dinner at the steps of Puregold Molito having a sandwich and a soda by myself...

At the time, I thought I was kind of a tough s.o.b., roughing it for the sake of the job.

Now, when I look back, I still think it is awesome to be able to sacrifice for the sake of a good job but I no longer think I'm a tough s.o.b. for doing so.

Truth is, no one wants to be away from family on a Noche Buena or a Media Noche...

No one... including yours truly.

Even if I were to be throwing it down with the best team in the universe... no team beats the team you were born into... especially on Christmas or New Year's eves.

Thems the breaks though, as they say... Such is such, my darling dear, until such a time that it is no longer such... or until the last pence is paid.

In short, ganun talaga ang buhay, parang life lang... paikot-ikot... ang mahilo taya! Lol.

Life isn't giving anybody lemons because life totally sucks. Actually, when life gives one lemons, many a time life is only teaching one how to make good lemonade.

So here I am again this year it looks like... 

I'm going to make me some good lemonade.
---<--@

My mom and I did some Christmas shopping yesterday. We were on a meager budget but we managed to stretch it. We had a nice lunch after.

In the afternoon, my mom did all the wrapping for me as I was so tired. I came back from my Friday shift in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, you see. Anyway, I didn't know my mom was really fast at wrapping gifts... she was like a gift wrapping machine! Lol.

Right now, when I think about it, I'm really glad I got most of my Christmas presents wrapped and ready. It makes me smile inside when I recall how my mom and I made it all happen in a day.

The gifts themselves are not that much but all my thought went into them with the simple hope of making my loved ones smile inside this Christmas.

I say they are "not that much" not because of what they cost but because I don't like giving gifts I myself do not like. When it comes to the principle of gift, my attitude is: If God decides that I should keep what I am giving, that I should be just as happy (i.e. in keeping them as I am in giving them away). For I would that I neither give nor like the act of giving rubbish gifts.

Because the giving is the gift. 

Therefore, if I were able to get what I really want to give to the all people I love this Christmas (and there are so many), I'd have gotten something different and incidentally, because the world is still the world, a tad bit more expensive. For now, however, such is such. 

Receiving gift is another matter, mind you, involving another aspect of liberality.

When the miracle of sharing is reversed and I am on the receiving end of gift, my focus when I meditate on those things is: That I should always be thankful as if the joy of the giver were added to my own.

(One can not fully "see into" the essence of these moments of sharing - in the exact moment - because these moments usually involve the welling up of many different emotions and therefore, are no so quiet... I guess that's why there's Boxing Day, December 26. To be thankful, save for pure miracles of grace, we often have to remember to remember).

In short, when on the receiving end, there is no such thing as an unworthy gift given in the true spirit of giving. There really are no rubbish gifts, both in giving and in receiving, only rubbish attitudes of sharing.

Because the giving is the gift. 

And this Christmas, the message shall be made known, once again, to all hearts of humanity that "The Giver is the gift", alleluia.

These things are a wonder to remember, are they not?

I guess this is the spirit of Gaudete Sunday which is the 3rd Sunday of the Advent Season. Joy in the midst of hope... Summer in the midst of winter...

Yes indeed, it's Gaudete Sunday today... it's going to be a great Christmas this year.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for precious memories like these!
---<--@