All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him. - Buddha

Just something to think about before turning in for the night.  We become what we focus on.

May everyone think happy thoughts

The picture was from 2008 at Sagada, when I was still in the process of getting back up and regaining my slice of success.

It’s not about the past, it’s not about the journey; it’s about NOW. It’s about what you do with what you have, about being at peace with yourself, about giving everything you’ve got to get where you want to be. That’s what I call success. - Leonard Frincu

Just wanted to post this motivator quote to jump start everyone’s week

This photo of my friends I took the afternoon after at Sagada, when after conquering the Cave Connection I started to figure out my (new) place on this earth

Tomorrow we hit the ground running.  Have a great week ahead everyone!!!

I ask not for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders.  -Jewish Proverb

The road that does not have obstacles never leads anywhere.  Heck, such a road may not even exist because not facing up to challenges is a non-moving process.

I realized that there will always be challenges in my path.  It’s one of the most constant things in life.  The secret is not in the avoidance of these challenges, but applying alchemy to them.  Using the setbacks to propel you to the next level.

We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.  -Kenji Miyazawa

The propulsion may lie in the realization that some things in our lives aren’t essential.  Some of the problems help shake off the unessential things that become the root of our discomforts.  Some problems are so big that it leaves us with nothing but ourselves, no baggage.  It’s that lightweight feeling that clears our heads and puts us on our original track to betterment.

Adversity is like a strong wind.  It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are.  -Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha

If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you got a problem.  Everything else is inconvenience.  - Robert Fulghum

I’m having quite a stressful day, mainly due to my own doing.  You see, staying in another building of our firm, I left my organizer at my cube.  It never occured to me to get it and check if I have things to do in the datebook - for a week and a half.  Now I find my life thrown in a bit of a chaos.  The OC that I am, I am predisposed to succumb to the bad feelings.  But I read the quote above and started to feel better.

A few of life’s problems are problems.  Others are just inconveniences - things you can drop when the real ones occur.  That’s the thing about being a person who’s been through a lot of loss.  You can bring yourself back to that dire time in your life and realize that the “big problem” that you have now is nothing to be crazy about.

Sometimes things don’t really look up - situations at work, home or in our relationships.  But even in the most grim of situations, something good can be derived… albeit oftentimes realized in hindsight, but still…

I call it the consolation to a bad day

Sorry.  I’m just thinking out loud before going to bed…

Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being “in love” which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two.
-St. Augustine

Being in love is a fleeting euphoria. The real beauty lies thereafter.  When all the fireworks are gone, you can look into each other’s eyes and feel the love welling up again

People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that’s bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they’re afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they’re wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It’s all in how you carry it. That’s what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain. - Jim Morrison

The word half-life was mentioned during lunch, and I just remembered this concept.

I remembered that during my mum’s wake, I saw how many people she touched.  I also saw how many people were sad.  Under my breath I muttered that I didn’t want to have a family if it would eventually cause me to hurt people like this.  Yes, it was despair talking.  In effect those words did not just pertain to family, but also to other levels of relationships.  For some time, I shunned myself from the possibility of having meaningful relationships.

Of course, that’s not the way to live.

The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all.

To live your life, you have to learn to love your life, and all the people that become part of it.

We are the true architects of our lives. Only we as individuals and individuals alone, carry within us, the inner ability to make any changes to its blueprints. - Robert M. Hensel

Mediocrity sets in when a person surrenders his right to navigate his fate to another entity.  Let’s say to lay the blame of non-progress to your firm, government or even poverty, that’s surrendering your individual mastery over your own destiny to them.

This is how I think about it: although He has given all these guidelines and laws, and He put the universal karmaic law in the universe, even God granted men free will.  I take that as a hint.  We are ultimately the masters of our fate.

Last Sunday, I woke up with a hunger - a hunger for something better in an aspect of my life.  The feeling has not left me since.  I think this is a pain that I will continue to bear until I have settled into a new path

Time to face this challenge again, with hunger and passion this time.

With hunger and passion

A generous prayer is never presented in vain; the petition may be refused, but the petitioner is always, I believe, rewarded by some gracious visitation. - R.L. Stevenson (Motivate Us)

Prayers are very seldom answered immediately.  Sometimes, what we ask isn’t even answered at all.  But it is not up to us to question if God has abandoned us in our present endeavor, because he never does that.  Maybe the question is if we are ready to receive what we ask.  Even if we think we are ready, maybe in God’s infinite wisdom, He sees that we are not; if we will ever be, well that is another possible answer.

You see, maybe right now you feel  that what you want is what you need, but maybe God has other plans for you; plans that are likely bigger than what you have for yourself

Maybe the non-answer by God is an answer in itself - the divine intent of our very own prayers.

Have a great week ahead everyone!!!

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.  - Anatole France

There is never any profound change without pain.  It’s the pain that serves as the flame that cauterizes the wounds where the part of us is severed from.

Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength. - August Wilson

I was inspired by this quote today because doing self-reflection these recent days, I have discerned that I still sometimes cringe at the thought of some bad memories.  Sometimes the feeling of embarrassment is still there even though it has been such a long time since these things have happened.  A case of temporal embarrassment, you might say.

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Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion. - Hebbel

This is true, but passion isn’t always a good thing.  I’ve always been passionate about things.  Yes, even the petty things and arguments.  I would defend my case, however minute, with passion.  The typical Arian - we may not always be right, but we’re never wrong

That was the case before.

Today I caught myself yielding during an argument.  It felt interesting.  It’s true what my life’s mentors said (sisters and brothers, by blood or otherwise), that you learn more about yourself when you don’t answer back

Pick your battles.  Life is too short to make it all about waging war against the world.

Have a great week ahead everyone!!!

I read this somewhere and I relate to this big time

Stability is an illusion; everything is fleeting, there is no sense in grasping, and no time for labeling! So therefore, don’t just live the present, savor it! - Migs

I always say that uncertainty is my most hated feeling, but on the other hand, not being certain means there’s more possibilities in something than I can think of - a way for the universe to surprise me, to surprise us beyond our imagination

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

I love you; not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. - Roy Croft

This is one of those wala-lang-posts because I’m just feeling it.  The funny thing about love is that great distance never diminishes its meaning.  Sometimes it lies in silence, but it’s there.  If it’s with the right person, that is.

Throughout our lives we deal with heartaches, and we ask the universe in all our defeated voice one question - Why?  When love finds you, when you’re ready to receive it, there you’ll find the reason why.  Or it finds you

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. - Buddha 

I found that the times when I feel true contentment and peace is when I just stop and sit still, and try to exist in the moment.  Those have always been my moments of clarity.

You see, the past always brings with it regrets, and the future, uncertainty.  I’m not saying that we should not plan for the future or learn from the past.  No.  What is essential for us not to do is dwell on it, or be crazy paranoid about it.  I am always guilty of feeling this way, but I have learned to press that “STOP!!!” button in me and not be entangled in my own temporal distortion.  People can’t exist in the past or the future, much less try to exist in all three tenses.  But sometimes (metaphorically) we try to.  We get  stressed and confused, and ultimately end up moving in circles.

Speaking of time, I had a realization this morning.  This career took me away from my parents and family - the people that matter.  Now some of them are gone, and those years (early 2000 to 2005)  are time that I can’t get back.  This leads me to wonder - At best I will be waiting for another year for my career to go somewhere.  If so, then is this going to be another year wasted?  If that’s the case, then am I doing a disservice to the people that mattered in my life who are not with me anymore?

For one split second, she almost turned around
But that would be like pouring rain drops back into a cloud
So she took another step and said
“I see the way out and I’m gonna’ take it”

I don’t wanna spend my life jaded, waiting
To wake up one day and find
That I’ve let all these years go by wasted

Excerpt from the song Wasted by Carrie Underwood

Time is precious, but it definitely holds more meaning to people who have experienced loss.  Unfathomably more precious.