What love is….
A group of professional people posed this question to a group of
4 to 8 year-olds, "What does love mean?"
The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think :
_____
"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore.
So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love."
Rebecca- age 8
_____
"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."
Billy - age 4 (I love this one)
____
"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."
Chrissy - age 6
___
"Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired."
Terri - age 4
____
"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."
Danny - age 7
_____
"Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."
Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)
_____
"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,"
Nikka - age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka’s on this planet)
_____
"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."
Noelle - age 7
____
"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."
Tommy - age 6
_____
"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."
Elaine-age 5
_____
"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford."
Chris - age 7
_____
"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."
Mary Ann - age 4
_____
"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones."
Lauren - age 4
_____
"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (what an image)
Karen - age 7
_____
"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn’t think it’s gross."
Mark - age 6
_____
"You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."
Jessica - age 8
____
And the final one — Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge.
The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.
The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.
Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.
When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,
"Nothing, I just helped him cry"
____
When there is nothing left but God, that is when you find out that
God is all you need.
Reasons for marriage
Eduardo Calasanz was a student at the Ateneo de Manila where
he had Father Ferriols as a professior. Father Ferriols, at that time,
was the Philosophy department head. Currently he still teaches
Philosophy for graduating college students in Ateneo. Father Ferriols
has been very popular for his mind-opening and enriching classes but is
also notorious for the grades he gives. Still people took his classes
for the learning and deep insight they take home with them every day
(if only they could do something about the grades…)
Come
grade-giving time, Father Ferriols had a long discussion with the
registrar people because he wanted to give Calasanz an A+, which the
student eventually received.
Read the article below to find out why.
"Partners and Marriage"
by Eduardo Jose E. Calasanz
I
have never met a man who didn’t want to be loved. But I have seldom met
a man who didn’t fear marriage. Something about the closure seems
constricting, not enabling. Marriage seems easier to understand for
what it cuts out of our lives than for what it makes possible within
our lives.
When I was younger
this fear immobilized me. I did not want to make a mistake. I saw my
friends get married for reasons of social acceptability, or sexual
fever, or just because they thought it was the logical thing to do.
Then I watched, as they and their partners became embittered and petty
in their dealings with each others. I looked at older couples and saw,
at best, mutual tolerance of each other. I imagined a lifetime of
loveless nights and bickering and could not imagine subjecting myself
or someone else to such a fate.
And yet, on rare occasions, I
would see old couples who somehow seemed to glow in each other’s
presence. They seemed really in love, not just dependent upon each
other and tolerant of each others’ foibles. It was an astounding sight,
and it seemed impossible.
How, I asked myself, can they have survived so many years of sameness, so much irritation at the other’s habits? What keeps love
alive in them, when most of us seem unable to even stay together, much less love each other?
The
central secret seems to be in choosing well. There is something to the
claim of fundamental compatibility. Good people can create a bad
relationship, even though they both dearly want the relationship to
succeed. It is important to find someone with whom you can create a
good relationship from the outset. Unfortunately, it is hard to see
clearly in the early stages.
Sexual hunger draws you to each
other and colors the way you see yourselves together. It blinds you to
the thousands of little things by which relationships eventually
survive or fail. You need to find a way to see beyond this initial
overwhelming sexual fascination. Some people choose to involve
themselves sexually and ride out the most heated period of sexual
attraction in order to see what is on the other side. This can work,
but it can also leave a trail of wounded hearts. Others deny the sexual
side altogether in an attempt to get to know each other apart from
their sexuality. But they cannot see clearly, because the presence of
unfulfilled sexual desire looms so large that it keeps them from having
any normal perception of what life would be like together.
The
truly lucky people are the ones who manage to become long-time friends
before they realize they are attracted to each other. They get to know
each other’s laughs, passions, sadness, and fears. They see each other
at their worst and at their best. They share time together before they
get swept into the entangling intimacy of their sexuality.
This
is the ideal, but not often possible. If you fall under the spell of
your sexual attraction immediately, you need to look beyond it for
other keys to compatibility.
One of these is laughter. Laughter
tells you how much you will enjoy each other’s company over the long
term. If your laughter together is good and healthy, and not at the
expense of others, then you have a healthy relationship to the world.
Laughter is the child of surprise. If you can make each other laugh,
you can always surprise each other. And if you can always surprise each
other, you can always keep the world around you new. Beware of a
relationship in which there is no laughter. Even the most intimate
relationships based only on seriousness have a tendency to turn sour.
Over time, sharing a common serious viewpoint on the world tends to
turn you against those who do not share the same viewpoint, and your
relationship can become on being critical together.
After
laughter, look for a partner who deals with the world in a way you
respect. When two people first get together, they tend to see the
relationship as existing only in the space between the two of them.
They find each other endlessly fascinating, and the overwhelming power
of the emotions they are sharing obscures the outside world. As the
relationship ages and grows, the outside world becomes important again.
If your partner treats people or circumstances in a way you can’t
accept, you will inevitably come to grief. Look at the way she cares
for others and deals with the daily affairs of life. If that makes you
love her more, your love will grow. If it does not, be careful. If you
do not respect the way you each deal with the world around you,
eventually the two of you will not respect each other.
Look
also at how your partner confronts the mysteries of life. We live on
the cusp of poetry and practicality, and the real life of the heart
resides in the poetic. If one of you is deeply affected by the mystery
of the unseen in life and relationships, while the other is drawn only
to the literal and the practical, you must take care that the distance
doesn’t become an unbridgeable gap that leaves you each feeling
isolated and misunderstood.
There are many other keys, but you
must find them by yourself. We all have unchangeable parts of our
hearts that we will not betray and private commitments to a vision of
life that we will not deny. If you fall in love with someone who cannot
nourish those inviolable parts of you, or if you cannot nourish them in
her, you will find where you share the business of life, but never
touch each other where the heart lives and dreams. From there it is
only a small leap to the cataloging of petty hurts and daily failures
that leaves so many couples bitter and unsatisfied with their mates.
So
choose carefully and well. If you do, you will have chosen a partner
with whom you can grow, and then the real miracle of marriage can take
place in your hearts. I pick my words carefully when I speak of a
miracle. But I think it is not too strong a word. There is a miracle in
marriage. It is called transformation. Transformation is one of the
most common events of nature. The seed becomes the flower. The cocoon
becomes the butterfly. Winter becomes spring and love becomes a child.
We never question these, because we see them around us everyday. To us,
they are not miracles, though if we did not know them they would be
impossible to believe. Marriage is a transformation we choose to make.
Our
love is planted like a seed, and in time it begins to flower. We cannot
know the flower that will blossom, but we can be sure that a bloom will
come. If you have chosen carefully and wisely, the bloom will be good.
If you have chosen poorly or for the wrong reason, the bloom will be
flawed. We are quite willing to accept the reality of negative
transformation in a marriage. It was negative transformation that
always had me terrified of the bitter marriages that I feared when I
was younger.
It never occurred to me to question the dark
miracle that transformed love into harshness and bitterness. Yet I was
unable to accept the possibility that the first heat of love could be
transformed into something positive that was actually deeper and more
meaningful than the heat of fresh passion. All I could believe in was
the power of this passion and the fear that when it cooled I would be
left with something lesser and bitter. But there is positive
transformation as well. Like negative transformation, it results from a
slow accretion of little things. But instead of death by a thousand
blows, it is growth by a thousand touches of love. Two histories
intermingle. Two separate beings, two separate presence, two separate
consciousness come together and share a view of life that passes before
them. They remain separate, but they also become one.
There
is an expansion of awareness, not a closure and a constriction, as I
had once feared. This is not to say that there is not tension and there
are not traps. Tension and traps are part of every choice of life, from
celibate to monogamous to having multiple lovers. Each choice contains
within it the lingering doubt that the road not taken somehow more
fruitful and exciting, and each becomes dulled to the richness that it
alone contains.
But
only marriage allows life to deepen and expand and be leavened by the
knowledge that two have chosen, against all odds, to become one. Those
who live together without marriage can know the pleasure of shared
company, but there is a specific gravity in the marriage commitment
that deepens that experience into something richer and more complex. So
do not fear marriage, just as you should not rush into it for the wrong
reasons. It is an act of faith and it contains within it the power of
transformation.
If you believe in your heart that you have
found someone with whom you are able to grow, if you have sufficient
faith that you can resist the endless attraction of the road not taken
and the partner not chosen, if you have the strength of heart to
embrace the cycles and seasons that your love will experience, then you
may be ready to seek the miracle that marriage offers. If not, then
wait. The easy grace of marriage well made is worth your patience. When
the time comes, a thousand flowers will bloom… endlessly
- excerpt from email
NAIL IN THE FENCE
There once was a little boy who had a bad temper.
His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.
The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down.
He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.
The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one.
You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there. "
A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.
Friends are very rare jewels, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed.
They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us."
YOU ARE MY FRIEND AND I AM HONORED!
Please forgive me if I have ever left a hole.
- excerpt from an email.
Di ta guae yong khee
Nag-aaral ako sa La Salle.
Ang dami kong kaklaseng Intsik. Apelyidong Uy, Lim, Tan, Co, Go, Chua,
Chi, Sy, Wy, at kung anu-ano pa. Pero sa kanilang lahat kay Gilbert Go
ako naging malapit. Mayaman si Gilbert kaya mangyari pa, madalas siya
ang taya sa tuwing gigimik ang barkada.
Isang araw na-ospital ang kanyang ama. Sinamahan ko siya sa pagdalaw.
Nasa ICU na noon ang kanyang ama dahil sa stroke. Naron din ang ilan sa
kanyang malalapit na kamag-anak.
Nag-usap sila. Intsik ang kanilang usapan…. hindi ko maintindihan.
Pagkatapos ng ilang minutong usap-usap, nagkayayaan nang umuwi. Maiwan
daw muna ako at pakibantayan ang kanyang ama habang inihahatid nya ang
kanyang mga kamag-anak palabas ng ospital. Lumipat ako sa gawing kaliwa
ng kama ng kanyang ama para ilapag ang mga iniwan nilang mga gamit na
kakailanganin ng magbabantay sa ospital. Nang akmang ilalapag ko na ay
biglang nangisay ang matanda.
Hinahabol nya ang kanyang hininga… Kinuyom nya ang kanyang palad at
paulit-ulit siyang nagsalita ng wikang intsik na hindi ko maintindihan.
"Di ta guae yong khee"….. "Di ta guae yong khee"… "Di ta guae yong
khee".. paulit-ulit nya itong binigkas bago siya malagutan ng hininga.
Pagbalik ni Gilbert ay patay na ang kanyang ama. Ikinagulat nya ang
pangyayari ngunit marahil ay tanggap na rin nya na papanaw na ang
kanyang ama. Walang tinig na namutawi sa kanyang bibig. Ngunit iyon na
yata ang pinakamasidhing pagluha na nasaksihan ko.
Nagpa-alam muna ako, dahil siguradong magdadatingin uli ang kanyang mga
kamag-anak.
Sumakay ako ng taksi pauwi. Habang nasa taksi.. tinawagan ko ang iba pa
naming kabarkada. Una kong tinawagan si Noel Chua. Dahil marunong si
Noel mag-intsik, tinanong ko muna kung ano ang ibig sabihin ng "Di ta
guae yong khee".
"Ina-apakan mo oxygen ko. "… "Bakit saan mo ba narinig ‘yan?".
A peny for your thoughts
To handle yourself, use your head;
To handle others, use your heart.
Anger is only one letter short of danger
If someone betrays you once, it is his fault;
If he betrays you twice, it is your fault.
Great minds discuss ideas;
Average minds discuss events;
Small minds discuss people.
He, who loses money, loses much;
He, who loses a friend, loses much more;
He, who loses faith, loses all.
Beautiful young people are accidents of nature,
But beautiful old people are works of art.
Learn from the mistakes of others
You can’t live long enough to make them all
yourself.
Friends, you and me…
You brought another friend…
And then there were 3…
We started our group…
Our circle of friends…
And like that circle…
There is no beginning or end…
Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is mystery.
Today is a gift.
That is why it is called the present.
- excerpts from emails
Judge Gently
Pray, don’t find fault with the man that limps
Or stumbles along the road.
Unless you have worn the shoes he wears
Or struggled beneath his load.
There may be tacks in his shoes that hurt
Though hidden away from view.
Or the burden he bears placed on your back
Might cause you to stumble too.
Don’t sneer at the man who’s down today
Unless you have felt the blow
That caused his fall or felt the shame
That only the fallen know.
You may be strong but still the blows
That was his if dealt to you
In the selfsame way, at the selfsame time
Might cause you to stagger too.
Don’t be too harsh with the man that sins
Or pelt him with word or stone
Unless you are sure - yea, doubly sure -
That you have no sins of your own.
For you know, perhaps,
If the tempter’s voice should whisper as soft to you
As
it did to him when he went astray
It might cause you to falter too.
– Author Unknown
from a email.
Start Over
> When you’ve trusted God and walked his way
> When you’ve felt his hand lead you day by day
> But your steps now take you another way …
> Start over.
>
> When you’ve made your plans and they’ve gone awry
> When you’ve tried your best and there’s no more try
> When you’ve failed yourself and you don’t know why
> …
> Start over.
>
> When you’ve told your friends what you plan to do
> When you’ve trusted them and they didn’t come
> through
> And you’re all alone and it’s up to you …
> Start over.
>
> When you’ve failed your kids and they’re grown and
> gone
> When you’ve done your best but it’s turned out wrong
> And now your grandchildren come along …
> Start over.
>
> When you’ve prayed to God so you’ll know his will
> When you’ve prayed and prayed and you don’t know
> still …
> When you want to stop cause you’ve had your fill …
> Start over.
>
> When you think you’re finished and want to quit
> When you’ve bottomed out in life’s deepest pit
> When you’ve tried and tried to get out of it …
> Start over.
>
> When the year has been long and successes few
> When December comes and you’re feeling blue
> God gives a January just for you …
> Start over.
>
> Starting over means "Victories Won"
> Starting over means "A Race Well Run"
> Starting over means "God’s Will Done"
> Don’t just sit there ………… ..
>
> START OVER
>
> by Woodrow Kroll of "Back to the Bible"
excerpt from an email.
PECANS IN THE CEMENTERY
December 21, 2006, 8:17 pm
Filed under:
Poems
On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big, old pecan tree just
inside the cemetery fence.
One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the
tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts. "One for you, one for
me. One for you, one for me," said one boy. Several dropped and rolled
down toward the fence.
Another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle. As he passed, he
thought he heard voices from inside the cemetery. He slowed down to
investigate. Sure enough, he heard, "One for you, one for me. One for
you, one for me."
He just knew what it was. He jumped back on his bike and rode off.
Just around the bend he met an old man with a cane, hobbling along.
"Come here quick," said the boy, "you won’t believe what I heard! Satan
and the Lord are down at the cemetery dividing up the souls." The man
said, "Beat it kid, can’t you see it’s hard for me to walk."
When the boy insisted though, the man hobbled slowly to the cemetery.
Standing by the fence they heard, "One for you, one for me. One for you,
one for me…"
The old man whispered, "Boy, you’ve been tellin’ me the truth. Let’s see
if we can see the Lord."
Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence, yet were still unable
to see anything. The old man and the boy gripped the wrought iron bars
of the fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of the
Lord.
At last they heard, "One for you, one for me. That’s all. Now let’s go
get those nuts by the fence and we’ll be done."
They say the old man made it back to town a full 5 minutes ahead of the
kid on the bike.
-excerpt from AngelScot mailing list
Highway 109
October 3, 2006, 8:42 pm
Filed under:
Poems
> A Poem That Gives You Goosebumps…
> A drunk man in an Oldsmobile
> They said had run the light
> That caused the six-car pileup
> On 109 that night.
>
When broken bodies lay about
> "And blood was everywhere,"
> "The sirens screamed out eulogies,"
> For death was in the air.
> "A mother, trapped inside her car,"
> Was heard above the noise;
> Her plaintive plea near split the air:
> "Oh, God, please spare my boys!"
> She fought to loose her pinned hands;
> "She struggled to get free,"
> But mangled metal held her fast
> In grim captivity.
> Her frightened eyes then focused
> "On where the back seat once had been,"
> But all she saw was broken glass and
> Two children’s seats crushed in.
> Her twins were nowhere to be seen;
> "She did not hear them cry, "
> "And then she prayed they’d been thrown free, "
> "Oh, God, don’t let them die! "
> Then firemen came and cut her loose, "
> "But when they searched the back, "
> "They found therein no little boys, "
> But the seat belts were intact.
> They thought the woman had gone mad
> "And was traveling alone, "
> "But when they turned to question her, "
> They discovered she was gone.
> Policemen saw her running wild
> And screaming above the noise
> "In beseeching supplication, "
> Please help me find my boys!
> They’re four years old and wear blue shirts;
> "Their jeans are blue to match.""
> "One cop spoke up, ""They’re in my car, "
> And they don’t have a scratch.
> They said their daddy put them there
> "And gave them each a cone, "
> Then told them both to wait for Mom
> To come and take them home.
> "I’ve searched the area high and low, "
> But I can’t find their dad.
> "He must have fled the scene, "
> "I guess, and that is very bad."
> "The mother hugged the twins and said, "
> "While wiping at a tear, "
> "He could not flee the scene, you see, "
> "For he’s been dead a year."
> "The cop just looked confused and asked, "
> "Now, how can that be true? "
> "The boys said, ""Mommy, Daddy came "
> "And left a kiss for you."" "
> He told us not to worry
> "And that you would be all right, "
> And then he put us in this car with
> "The pretty, flashing light. "
> "We wanted him to stay with us, "
> "Because we miss him so, "
> "But Mommy, he just hugged us tight "
> And said he had to go.
> He said someday we’d understand
> "And told us not to fuss, "
> "And he said to tell you, Mommy, "
> "He’s watching over us."
> The mother knew without a doubt
> "That what they spoke was true, "
> "For she recalled their dad’s last words, "
> " I will watch over you."
> The firemen’s notes could not explain
> "The twisted, mangled car, "
> And how the three of them escaped
> Without a single scar.
> "But on the cop’s report was scribed, "
> "In print so very fine, "
> An angel walked the beat tonight on Highway 109.
-anonymous(from email)
Moving my blog
Found a better site to blog, so I’ll be posting my stuff from there. =]
Blog
