life is a race

Life is a race we all have to run. It is competition that we enter into, not for primary reason o winning, but for the very purpose of giving our best. After all, winning is not everything there is in competition. The medals, prizes and accolades of winning do not necessarily make one a real winner. Rather, it is on how we have competed that we truly find the meaning of success in any contest.

In the course of the race, you put to the test the type of training you have and the quality of preparation you have made. In your struggle to survive and be the leader of the pack, there are temptations to go beyond the rules. Often you are tempted to take the shorter route to the finish line. During the race, you cannot avoid bumping into others who are in front, or hitting with your elbows those at your sides. Sometimes there is the possibility of stepping on the feet of those who are ahead of you to slow them down.

These are realities not just in sport competition but also in the race of life. For in life as in sport, it is not how fast you start that matters most, but how you have persevered to reach and cross the finish line. For speed without endurance will give you only a brief moment of joy of running in front.
Running a long race requires the ability to plan, prepare and persevere to achieve your goal. In the race of life, the route is long, winding, steep, narrow and rugged. There is no definite finish line in this type of race you are running. You determine for yourself where you want to end. You should not be tempted to join the fray in your scramble for the best position and in order to take the lead.

Many will falter along the way. The heat of the sun and the stiff competition will burn you out. You may run out of wind at some point or slow down in an effort to catch your breath and regain your balance. Some will drop out of the race. Most will just coast along until they finally reach the finish line no matter how long it will take. Only those with the ability to focus and stick to their plans will succeed to win the race of their lives. Individuals, who believe that in a race as in life, success comes with sacrifice.

How are you doing in the race of your life? Where are you now in the kind of contest you have entered?

hello and goodbye

Life is a cycle of hellos and goodbyes. We exchange hi's and hello's when we meet. We bid goodbye when it's time to break up or leave. With brightened faces, we smile and embrace in joy and thanksgiving for the encounter. But with sullen look and heavy hearts we shake hands and kiss each other goodbye when it's time to depart.

While hellos are exchanged at the beginning, goodbyes are necessary to enable us to say hello again. We should not be afraid to say goodbye. For it will allow us to hope and dream of meeting again in another place, another time and another circumstance.

But oftentimes we ask ourselves, why do we have to end when we have only just begun? Why do we have to part when we have just met? Should the sun have to set when it had only risen from the horizon? Should the moon overshadow the brightness of the sun?

Life is constant hellos and goodbyes that make the word go round. Life is like that. We come; we go. We live; we die. We win; we lose. We laugh; we cry. We fail; we succeed. We rise; we fall. Hello; Goodbye. Goodbye; Hello.

How do you welcome each new day in your life?
Is it difficult for you to say Goodbye to your past?

Coping With Loneliness

We are born alone. We die alone. And except for very rare cases, we periodically experience loneliness in our lives, no matter how successful our career or personal lives are. Parents die, best friends move away or disappear; husbands and lovers die or move on.

So, how do you cope?

Dress up and go out and roam the streets – to connect with other people's lives. Soon the depression would leave you become intent on observing someone else – the vendor on the street corner, the couple quarreling in the restaurant, the beggar on the block. When you focus your full attention on someone else, you are no longer conscious of your own grief, or loneliness.

Another way to conquer loneliness is work. You forget about your own personal pain, or something. Even physical exercise helps. An hour of exercise stimulates the body and the emotions.

Get busy. Get involved with other people and problems. If you don't have a job, get involved in a hobby. Volunteer your services – here are always NGO's that need another hand. Give yourself a treat. If you have money for a chocolate, buy a box. You can work it off later. If you like wine, have a glass. If you yearn for the comfort food of your childhood – chicken soup, mashed potatoes, and cotton candy – get some.

Indulge and coddle yourself. Do whatever it takes that will make you feel better. Travel is always an option, since fresh scenery and fresh faces revitalize the observer.

Have a quiet time with the Lord. If you feel that you are overburdened with problems, try to unload them to the Lord. He is ready to listen, guide, help, and give solution to our problems.

good head, lovely morning!

yes, love would always be the most beautiful thing in this world it would always be the end of the beginning. share love with your loved ones without limiting it. it would be a precious gift considering it was given from you. share share share!

~I will love you till they take my heart away!

Fave Hobby

Gardening, people say, is a form of exercise and investment – exercise because the body uses up energy; thousands of unwanted calories are drawn out to keep the body healthy and well. Investment, too, because it gives us food, free, and being fresh, gives more vitamin content. Extra harvest could be sold in the market for some other things needed for the family. In the countryside, it is a livelihood of our folks. Plants and vegetables grow in their backyard or an area used for the purpose. At this time of the year, eggplants, okra, beans, tomatoes, root crops, and vines abound and much of the harvest is transported urban ward like to Manila.

However, gardening is not as plainly easy as one would think. Showering care, the grower like me, needs to water the plants twice everyday (especially in a summer of long drought), early morning and late afternoon. I need to fertilize the soil around the plants, organic or inorganic, to grow robust plants which will yield better and live longer. When these plants show flowers and fruits begin to appear, harmful insects like bees and bugs from nowhere, attack them, and I must find a way to drive these insects away or exterminate them by spraying obnoxious substances. This process goes on until or before harvest comes.

I am a student specifically a ursing student w/ other responsibilities and obligations but have time for gardening on weekends and holidays, in my spare time, and after school when days are long. My "Sariling Sikap" keeps me busy and alive. From my standpoint, gardening is not just a hobby but a sign of concern for others, an example of culture that must be preserved among us. The value of labor must be cultivated, not indolence, or you become an outcast. And when one takes up gardening as a hobby, no single person would starve, for we would not need to import food. Food shortage in the country would be given a solution.

In congested cities like in Manila, "window gardening" is most ideal. Vegetables could be planted in pots or in cans, in array. Combined or separated from ornamental plants in row, they produce beauty and investment. I recall that this was introduced by the system many years back but it died a natural death. How I wish our government would focus on the program now, give serious attention to it through its concerned agencies. And if properly implemented, I believe it could alleviate poverty in the land.

a confused night

have you ever experienced one night that you were crying so hard without no apparent reason at all? asking me, yes! i would curl myself up to cuddle myself. thoughts in my head makes me feel so alone, unworthless. i feel not with myself; im out with my sane. worried what future might bring to me.