There's More To This Life

I went to Universal Studios Singapore. It was such an exhilarating experience. Even from the entrance gate you can feel the happiness and the excitement of the people coming in and out.  You can hear the children's laughter as they run around the bigger than life figures of their favorite cartoon character like Buzz Light Year and the animals from Madagascar. The adults were like children also as they pose and take pictures in the different movies that was made famous by this great company. Laughter, fun, joy, love, happy faces are all a familiar thing and feeling here.


Then it hit me.


For many people, this place could be one of the happiest places on earth. But after the lights were turned off, the fireworks have subsided, people went back to their respective places it will be again an empty place, dark, quiet and lonely.


Sadly, many people think that they can find true happiness in places like that, or in the material things that they have. They exhaust all their strength in pursuing their dreams but neglecting to pursue a much higher purpose of living- and it is living a life according to what God wants for them. 


This may sound absurd or corny to many people but I believe that this is the truth. If we want to be happy in this earth, we must see that there is more to life than our everyday routine.


We must strive to do good so that we may be able to enter the happiest place which is Heaven. A place where there will be no sadness, loneliness, fear, and negative feelings but all joy, happiness and faith. 


And the best thing about it is it will never end.


 It will be forever. 

Ideas Worth Spreading

Sometimes, it only takes one great idea to make one's life better. One idea to make a significant to the lives of people.

Tragedy of Love

They say that only time can heal the wounds of a broken heart. Time makes it easier to accept the loss of people we love. It is a chain that all of us go through – falling in love and getting hurt. Getting hurt and vowing not to love again. Promising not to love again and becoming miserable all our lives.

It isn’t easy getting up on our feet after a crippling fall, but there is just no other way but to stand up and move on. Nobody wants to become unhappy all his life. All of us know how love can bring magic into our lives. Have you ever realized how good it felt waking up in the morning knowing that somewhere out there, there’s a person who’s also thinking of you and feels exactly the way you do? Doesn’t it feel good looking forward to being with that person and spending memorable moments with him?

Love brings joy beyond compare and that warm and sparkling glow in each of us. Love brings us to the top of the world where we can conquer just about any obstacle that may come along our way. It is a great feeling love is. There is probably nothing else in this world that can compare to this. There may be many of us who feel that love has passed us by and finding someone we can share our lives with seems to be such a remote possibility. We watch our trains go by as time swiftly drifts away from us. We may be in control of our lives but we feel somewhat helpless in our relationships. There is nothing permanent in this world and not even those we cherish would be with us forever. There is no guarantee that comes with loving. It is always a risk getting involved with someone. But it is a risk that we have to take if we want to find real happiness. For there is no gain without pain, there is no permanence without commitment, and there is no lasting love without constant sacrifice. 

The tragedy of love is in getting hurt. The tragedy of getting hurt is in not wanting to love again. And the tragedy of not wanting to love again is in being alone all our lives. If it is what we want to be, then we could just stay in our shell and be miserably forgotten. But, if it is love we choose, then there is the promise of a new life, the joy of being able to share that life with someone and hope of finding something beautiful and keeping it forever.

- Author JDM

Echoes of Our Hearts

Sometimes we close our eyes and just listen to the echoes of our hearts. We all fall in love and there are times when we love so much that we lose ourselves in our emotions. More often than not, we wonder why there are love that grows, and love that grows cold. We would start to search for answers and try to find where love has gone wrong. But in the end, we find ourselves where we started for we cannot question love when it has its own reasons. Love will always be as it always has been....silent, mysterious and deeply profound.

Many of us believe that love is forever, that love never dies, only to be disillusioned in the end when we find our hands empty and our hearts longing. We mistakenly have looked at love as a need to be fulfilled. But love is a gift given to us. We should not hold it in our hands for we may never find the strength to let it go when it decides to leave. We should only embrace its warmth and glow while it last and then freely open our arms when its time to say good-bye.

When we fall in love, we don't want that feeling to end for it is everything we are, everything we wanted to be. We pray that love will stay and grow in our hearts. But if it doesn't then we should never let our lives be taken by it, for life should not end where heartaches begin.

There is always a reason why we have to move on. When we have to say good-bye to the feeling we wanted to stay forever, let us not wave our hands with a heavy heart. For love will have to set its wings free and find the place where it belongs. We may have lost it but then again, when we close our eyes and listen to the echoes of our hearts, we will hear that feeling resounding silently forever.

Then we'll know that love never left us, for the good that we have become because of love will always stay. Love will always be there, reminding us that we should be thankful and happy not because we have lost love, but because, for once in our lives, that feeling called love lived in our hearts and made us happy.

- Author Unknown

Awaken The Hero In Every Heart of Filipinos

I write this article with a troubled heart for what happened in my beloved country- Philippines. 8 innocent Chinese were killed together with the hostage taker- Rolando Mendoza in the recent incident. 

First, I want to address this letter to my beloved Chinese People.  I would like to apologize with a sincere heart in what happened to your people while they are in Manila. I know that this apologize is insignificant, inconsequential and irrelevant but still I want to say sorry for the deep wound in the hearts of many Chinese people that was caused by the wrong deed of one Filipino- Rolando Mendoza and  also by the mishandling of our authorities that led to this horrific ending. Please know that we also as a nation, grieve for what happened to your people.

Second, For the Filipino people. I truly believe deep in my soul that there is goodness in every heart of the Filipino. I hope that what happened will be a wake-up call to every Filipino that we should and must take action to help one another and be sensitive to each others need.  Let us show to the world that we are a people that cares for one another, loving, generous and honest. Let us put our faith into action by helping the helpless and the oppress. Let us use the "Bayanihan Spirit" that is a great gift which was handed- down by our ancestors. 

We can do this Filipino, we can rise up from all these hardships that we are facing. Let us love our county will all of our heart because if we do not love the Philippines, no one else will. Let our hearts be full of passion to help our nation and our hands be a tool to build and not to destroy. Change is waiting for us, it has been there all along but let us not put all the responsibility to one leader or to a few people, we must take part. We must take action. We must act now. 

Let us awaken the hero in every hearts of the Filipinos!

How To Know Where Your Heart Is

It was April 29, while at the office I saw my co-worker living near my place and I asked him if I can ride with him going home so that I can save money from commuting. He that said yes and told me that he would just do some errands and will meet me somewhere in Pasig. I said "no problem!" Six-o'clock came, and it was raining. I crossed the street and was supposed to ride the jeepney in front of me but it was already full so I decided to ride the bus. While in the bus, I was seated on the 3rd row from the front when an old lady went up the bus so I generously gave my seat to her. I was standing when more people went up the bus until it was full. 

The bus just got off the terminal just a few seconds while two men boarded the bus. One was carrying a plastic bag with a food inside but I don't know what exactly it is. The two men were restless as they look sharply left and right on the bags of the passengers including mine. I instantly knew that they were robbers because of their action so I placed my cellphone to my bag and embraced it tightly. The next minutes was unbelievable. I put in mind to take care of my bag and my belongings then the two went out the bus a few minutes before my stop and when I got off the bus I brought a smile with me but it was not on my lips but on my bag! The robber slit the pocket on my bag, got my phone and I did not even noticed it. Talk about skills! 

Fast forward to May 29, exactly after one month of losing my cellphone. I went to a get- together party of my elementary classmates and when I got back on our house around 2 am, I entered my room and when I opened the lights, my laptop was not in the table and I saw that there was again a smile but not on my lips but on the screen of my window  it dawned on me that my laptop was stolen!

When things like this happened to us, we always have to reaction. One is we can choose to be bitter and blame the world and God for this kind of misfortune. On the other side, we can react positively. Accept the things that we have no control over with and believe that God has a plan why bad things happens to us. Things like these are opportunity for us to know where our heart is. We can trace where our heart's foundation according to the reaction that we will have. If you going to bitter or strive to be better, it's all up to you.

Here are three areas of our life where we can know where our heart is:

Time- What keeps you busy? What are the things that occupies your day? Assess yourself if the thing that you are spending your time is all worth it. Time is precious and you cannot have it back once you give it and it is a great area for us to be able to check where our heart is.

Talent- Are you good at something? Where do you spend that gift that you have? To bless people or be a curse to them? Do you use your talents to give glory to God, the one who gave that to you? Knowing where we spend our talent on is another great area for us to check if our heart is still in the right place. I hope that we use our talents to make this world a better place.

Treasure- This is the last but definitely not the least of all indicators for us to know where our heart is. If you have a credit card, try to assess each month what things do you usually swipe that shiny plastic card on. Are those things meant to share to other people or is it just for your own wants. Do you splurge on eating out, shopping or buying expensive gadgets but do not give your tithes or offering in the Holy Mass. This is a critical part in the lives of human beings, we must learn to give and be generous by sharing what we have to other people. Like the comparison of the Jordan River, This river is historical and have nourished and gave life to the lives of millions of people for thousands of years. This river is very alive flowing through different countries and sharing the life from one place to another, meanwhile at the end of it you can see the Dead Sea, from the name itself you can see that it produce no life and not bless the living things around it because it do not share the water that it receives. For us, we can decide if we will be a Jordan River or a Dead Sea in terms of sharing our treasures.

"Your heart will be where your treasure is."

- Matthew 6:21 

Be blessed and be a blessing!

Do Not Settle For Second Best

I spend great time talking with friends here in Singapore while having a very delicious meal. I was here also March this year and that was the first time I tasted Kway Teow (stir-fried ricecake strips) after that March 2010 trip, I always crave to eat Kway Teow when I am in Manila. Unfortunately,  the taste of the Kway Teow wannabe is not as delicious as the authentic and original Kway Teows here in this country. 

That's why this evening when I was asked what's my order, I joyfully said "one Kway Teow please!". When it was serve I took a moment and try to absorb the feeling I have on that point when my dream food is right in front of me. Call me sentimental or what but I really did take time before I ate. And when I was finally eating Kway Teow, I cannot remember how many times I said "umm, sarap!" (delicious).

With that, a realization came to my mind. Never ever settle for a second best and wait for the perfect time for God to grant what you desire. 

As a friend of mine recently told me that "Everything of value takes time". I believe this short yet powerful sentence should be applied in all aspects of our life for us to find great joy. So if you are waiting for something or asking God for a specific blessing it is good for us to wait for His perfect T.I.M.E. while having this attitudes:

T- reasure every moment of the waiting period.

            God don't just want to bless us with the things that we are praying for, but he also wants us to be molded on the person He intended us to be. That's why we should treasure every moment while we wait because God wants us to be a better person so that when He finally gave His blessing to us we can be a better steward and bless also other people because we have been blessed by God.

I- mmense yourself in prayer

          When we want God's best in our life, it is easy to get distracted along the way while waiting. That is why, it is very vital for us to be keen in the leading of the Holy Spirit through Scriptures, Sacraments and Prayers. The Evil One would like to rob us from the complete joy of knowing and having God's best in our life, that is why we should immense in the Holy Presence of God through these acts.

M-ake an effort to serve others while waiting

               While waiting for God's best, we are expecting to be blessed. If that's the case then we should also strive to bless other people be an answer to their prayers because we know deep in our hearts that God is preparing the way to bless us abundantly. We must share that blessing to others.

E-ndure the process

                We can learn so many things while waiting for God's best. Sometimes His answer may not be the answer that we want or we expect it to be thats why it is also important to endure the process because after all the heartaches and pains that may come along the way while we are waiting, it will surely be worth the wait when finally God give the answer to us and that answer is far better that we have ever imagine.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others!