Showing posts with label thoughts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thoughts. Show all posts

Thursday, December 31, 2020

Why 2020 is an Intermission Year for All of Us

inspiration , quotes
Why 2020 is an Intermission Year for All of Us

It's the end of 2020! How excited are we to usher in a New Year filled with hope and better things to come? While the past months have been challenging and splattered with a lot of heartbreaks, those shouldn't prevent us from looking forward to the coming days! 

screencaptured, no copyright infringement intended

I'm currently watching a Korean drama series titled Thirty But Seventeen and a conversation between the two lead actors made me pause and contemplate. I had to rewind the clip to capture the words which I think would also resonate with many of you.

Woo Seo-ri: "You know what an intermission is, right?"

Gong Woo-jin: "A break time during a musical or a show?"

Seo-ri: "Yes. Whenever I went to concerts as a kid, I really loved intermissions. 'Thank goodness, it's not over yet. There's still more left. What kind of cool performances will they do now?' I feel like I'm in an intermission now. I'm taking a break for a moment while waiting for the next cool performance. The intermission of my life. That's why I'm okay. It's not over. I'm [just] taking a break. My heart's racing. I'm waiting for the cool stage to come. I'm just on pause right now."

The backstory is that Seo-ri, a violinist, was in a coma for more than 10 years and woke up as an adult instead of a teenager. She wasn't able to attend a prestigious music school abroad as planned and her hands can no longer play the violin like they used to.

Goodbye 2020!

I appreciate how writer Jo Sung-Hee was able to beautifully express this sentiment in words. I think many of us feel the same way about this year. We have been put on pause due to circumstances beyond our control. And yet, by merely surviving day to day, month after month, we're still here ready to face a new year with dreams of a brighter future.

So, as we leave 2020 behind, I hope you, too, can just consider this year as an intermission while waiting for the next cool performance of our lives. Happy New Year, everyone! :)


Read more »
By at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Saturday, August 29, 2020

JOMO over FOMO?

inspiration , personal
JOMO over FOMO?

"We should learn to savor some moments to let time feel worth existing." 
~ Munia Khan


I recently came across the acronym JOMO. It's supposed to mean "Joy Of Missing Out," the exact opposite of the more famous FOMO or Fear of Missing Out.


I was happy to be reminded that we shouldn't rush or be anxious about accomplishing so many things all at once like a lot of people believe we should.


Yes, I'm looking forward to doing more stuff in the coming days, weeks, and years but I try my best to be patient as I wait for things to fall into place. Meanwhile, I'm making an effort to enjoy the learnings along my journey.


This is me literally stopping to "smell the flowers" and savoring what life has to offer at this particular moment. Despite the heartaches that 2020 continues to bring, there are still silver linings on many corners. Let's make time to notice and appreciate them 💚


Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!


Read more »
By at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

4 Top Reasons I Fell in Love with Fall

California , family
4 Top Reasons I Fell in Love with Fall
My family arrived in the United States during fall so it holds a special place in my heart. After almost a year of living in California and experiencing fall for the second time, I can now list some of the things I love about this particular season! 😀 

enjoying our first autumn
1. The changing colors of the leaves is very fascinating especially from someone who has lived in a tropical country all her life before migrating to a country that has four seasons instead of just two. I take pleasure in seeing multi-colored leaves on the trees before they fall to the ground. Hopefully, my family and I could get to visit a place soon where there are a wider variety of trees sporting a profusion of colors.

colorful leaves!
2. The "sweater weather" is way more favorable for me than the bone-chilling cold of winter and early spring. It's nice to be able to feel the cool temperature without shaking uncontrollably and wishing I could put on more layers of clothing on top of the three I'm already wearing! 

afternoon walk with Daddy and James
Hands down, fall is a great time to go strolling around the neighborhood in the afternoons because the crisp and cozy weather won't make you sweat nor will it make you feel chilled. Also, you get to save on electricity because you just have to close the windows at night to feel warmer as there is no need yet to turn on the heater.  

brothers and cousins
3. The opportunity to visit a pumpkin patch, I believe, has become one of our favorite activities to do during fall. Our family went to one for the first time recently and we enjoyed taking a lot of photos while we marvel at the hundreds (maybe thousands?) of orange balls dotting the big field at Cal Poly in Pomona. Next year, I hope we can also have time to do some apple picking in one of the many orchards dotting California. 

our first Thanksgiving in the US
4. Having a reason to gather with extended family during Thanksgiving and express gratitude for all our blessings is one of fall's highlights that I deeply cherish. Last year, James and I arrived a week before this special day so it was a doubly joyous time for all of us because we became physically reunited again with our loved ones.   


I know my family and I still have to experience more things in the coming years to add to this list like Black Friday or Cyber Monday, perhaps? Give us time, I'm sure the day would come when this blog post would become longer. How about you? What do you love about the fall season? I'd appreciate it if you can share your answer/s in the comments section below 🍁


Read more »
By at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,

Wednesday, September 05, 2018

One Day at a Time -- Living with a Loved One Who Has Cerebral Palsy

family , home
One Day at a Time -- Living with a Loved One Who Has Cerebral Palsy
“He will die early,” said the seven-year-old boy solemnly before he walked away. I was left speechless, staring at his retreating figure. I am sharing this several years after the incident when I have finally found the inner peace to write about it.

16-year-old James
My family and I were at a party in my sister’s house and the kid was the son of one of their guests. The boy was talking about my then sixteen-year-old son, Gideon James, who looked like he was also only seven years old because he has cerebral palsy.

I don’t know exactly how the child arrived at such a conclusion after asking me questions when he saw me feeding my son blenderized food via a tube embedded in his stomach. But I guess, as many innocent children do, he made his statement based on what he thought was true.

one day old James 
I wasn’t really offended. Just a little bit shocked to hear that sentence spoken aloud. The last time someone had told me, “Your son will most likely die” was when my then barely one-month-old baby was fighting for his life inside an intensive care unit incubator. He proved his neonatologist wrong and continued to defy many other specialists’ prognoses in succeeding years.

My son is a warrior and a minister. He has been fighting obstacles and overcoming them since the day he was born. He may not be able to speak nor sit up by himself but from him, my husband, my three other children, and I acquired so many lessons that we would not otherwise have learned if he had grown up “normal” like his brothers.

1-year-old James (2nd from left) with brothers circa 1998
Over the years, our home has become a school of sorts for all the members of our family where we were taught much, over and over it seems, about patience, understanding, compassion, empathy, acceptance, faith, and prudence among many other things.

How different life could have been if my son doesn’t have cerebral palsy! And yet, I don’t think our family would have become the strong unit it is now without the trials we went through together because of our special child. 

8-year-old James (2nd from left) with his brothers circa 2005
People usually tell me they can’t imagine what they’ll do if something like this happened to them. And I assure them that they will find the strength they need if that time comes. When we got married, my husband and I never thought that we’d be given the kind of challenge we used to believe was only reserved for parents with unwavering faith and resourcefulness. Yet, we were chosen to be parents of a special child. And, so far, I believe we’ve been coping a lot better than we’d ever thought possible. 

Through James, we’ve met kindred souls who have little angels of their own. And through them all, we’ve been assured that we’re not taking this journey alone. We have a spiritual extended family with members who unselfishly share with us time, knowledge, advice, and even precious resources because they know how hard it is when you try to do it on your own. 

family pic 2014
I have long ago relinquished the question “Why me?” because a book, written by a mom who also has a child with special needs, gave me the push to instead ask, “Why not me?” I don’t remember the exact moment, or even if I did have one, when I had that imaginary bulb light up, and I realized that I am stronger emotionally and physically, more patient, and more resourceful than I’ve ever given myself credit for. 

Turning my thoughts away from “what if” to “what now” made me accept the positive possibilities that this kind of parenting continues to teach me and the rest of my family. I’ve come to wake up in the mornings with a big thought bubble that says, “Bring it on! I will overcome anything bad this day will throw at me!”

20-year-old James (March 2018) 
Still, there are times, when I am far too exhausted and vulnerable, when a niggling guilt would creep up on me and make me question if I had done something in the past that makes me responsible for my child’s condition. I am just thankful that those thoughts don’t come as often as before. In time, I’ve learned to forgive myself for those lapses of self-pity and anguish and instead pat myself on the back for doing my best and managing to survive the never-ending trials I deal with every day.

Special children don’t come with an instruction manual, but their families eventually discover what would work best for them. Ours did and my son gave us that rare chance to see the world through the eyes of someone who is not willing to be defeated by his disabilities. 

2016 family photo
The death of one’s child, I believe, is one of many parents’ greatest fears. For moms and dads of kids with special needs, that fear hovers constantly and is difficult to ignore. And yet, it is our very own special children who teach us to forget about being terrified because they are still here with us to provide light and joy in our lives.

As you read this book, whether you have a family member with special needs or not, may our story provide you with inspiration and hope that God is also looking out for you … always.

Embracing Disability This Ability
*Note: This article serves as the introduction section of my book "Embracing Disability This Ability: A Family's Journey with Cerebral Palsy" that will be launched on September 14, 2018 @ 5:30PM at the Manila International Book Fair (MIBF) by CSM Publishing. Thank you for reading! I pray that you will find encouragement and hope from our story :)  

*Edited 2019: Embracing Disability This Ability is now available in the Philippines at National Book Store, PCBS, and other bookstores nationwide as well as online from Lazada and Shopee. For those in the U.S. who are interested in getting a copy, please send me a private message via the Embracing This Ability Facebook page. By the way, you can now read Chapter 1, here.

*Edited 2021: Embracing Disability This Ability is now available as an eBook on Amazon! You can now purchase your copy, here: https://amzn.to/3v7SKGl. Thank you! 


Read more »
By at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,

Thursday, February 22, 2018

8 Beautiful Quotes from Anna Quindlen's "How Reading Changed My Life"

books , inspiration
8 Beautiful Quotes from Anna Quindlen's "How Reading Changed My Life"
I was in first grade when I started to get hooked on books and filled up several library cards every school year from constant borrowing. In high school, I once received an anonymous note (still tucked somewhere inside a box in my childhood home) that said, "You irritate me because you're always reading!" In my mind, I simply answered, "Whoever you are, I wouldn't expect ignorant people like you to understand why I love to read!"

Anna Quindlen fan
Honestly, I was surprised to find out that famous author, Anna Quindlen, had a similar experience during her childhood. Somehow, it feels nice to know that I wasn't alone in being "persecuted" for having that insatiable urge to read. 

Although I have been a fan of her work for years, I only recently got my hands on "How Reading Changed My Life," which my son kindly borrowed for me from his school's library. Thankfully, their online catalog makes it easy to check what titles are available. 

Unfortunately, I had to leave all my books in the Philippines when we moved to California a few months ago and I am still unable to build my personal library here due to space constraints. In the meantime, I have to be content reading borrowed titles and writing down passages that deeply resonated with me instead of highlighting them on the pages of tomes that I own.

my youngest son, who loved being read to by his dad at bedtime as a toddler,

is now in senior high, writes for the school paper, and is in the honor roll :)
Here's preserving in this blog post the quotes I liked most in the book so I would be able to come back to them more easily any time I'd want to. I hope that fellow bookworms and writers reading this would also appreciate the following lovely thoughts and messages ...

"Experience, emotion, landscape. The world is as layered as the earth, life cumulative with books. The eyewitnesses die, the written word lives forever."

"We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else's mind."

"All of reading is really only finding ways to name ourselves and, perhaps, to name the others around us so that they will no longer seem like strangers ... I am not alone. I am surrounded by words that tell me who I am, why I feel what I feel." 

my second son, who's now 22, already had numerous articles 
published 
in newspapers and magazines since he was 13
"We are writers. We danced with the words, as children, in what became familiar patterns. The words became our friends and our companions, and without saying it aloud, a thought danced with them. I can do this. This is who I am."

"Perhaps it is true at base we readers are dissatisfied people, yearning to be elsewhere, to live vicariously through words in a way we cannot live directly through life. Perhaps we are the world's greatest nomads, if only in our minds."

"This is what I like about traveling: the time on airplanes spent reading, solitary, happy. It turns out that when my younger self thought of taking wing, she wanted only to let her spirit soar. Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination and the journey. They are home."

"In books I have traveled, not only to other worlds, but into my own. I learned who I was and who I wanted to be, what I might aspire to, and what I might dare to dream about my world and myself."

books as exchange gifts with fellow writers during our 
2016 Christmas party
"There was waking, and there was sleeping. And then there were books, a kind of parallel universe in which anything might happen and frequently did, a universe in which I might be a newcomer but never really a stranger."

Deeply beautiful stuff, huh? What I love most about Anna Quindlen's writings is her ability to clearly express what she wants to say in finely crafted sentences that are a delight to read. If you like what you've read here, I suggest you look for "How Reading Changed My Life" and her other titles. Although I like her novels, I love her nonfiction works more -- "Loud and Clear," "Thinking Out Loud," "Living Out Loud," "A Short Guide to a Happy Life," and "Being Perfect" -- and miss my personal copies very much.

If you're also an Anna Quindlen fan, do share in the comments section which of her works touched your heart the most. I'd love to read your stories, too!


Read more »
By at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,