God, Happiness and Life

It had not been easy taking an unannounced blogging hiatus. Unexpectedly, I had to take a month long absence from the blogging world. But I am determined to be finally back. So what caused my sudden disappearance? We moved our home. Golly, we are now 1000 meters away from our former place. Difficult is an understatement. Six pleasant years at the 'old' place caused all of us countless sleepless nights prior to THE day. First, getting our new place was a definite stroke of luck and grace from God. I had barely a week to look around. We were praying that we get a place within the same subdivision, mainly because we have come to love the secured ambiance. Why did we move? That house was beginning to 'crumble'. There were leaks all over due to a damaged roofing system. Talk about the floor tiles which were breaking one after the other. And it looked like there was no letting up? Never mind the ghosts inhabiting the place. No kidding. They were definitely non-living...

My daughter's stuffed toys had to go as well. I don't think she'd have time to play with all these toys, unless she brings it to school for her students to enjoy. But that's a far off idea.

These are my sons' books we had to give up to save space for our new place. It includes their Nursery Rhymes book, my children used to love reading and blurting out from time to time. I hope it's new owners will take the time to read. Otherwise, the purpose would have been defeated.

Parenting can not be compressed into six years. Let the lying stop. Here. Now. Do what is needed to be done so a response could be attempted. Everything's become too much to bear. Stop the anguish. Let the bleeding stop. No more hurt. No more misery.Heal the pain.

The natural process of life is to be born, live and then die. In between these three processes and for most, lie the consequential aspects of living: and again by choice - - study, work, marry, and have children. Between living and dying, there's, continue to work, become a grandparent, retire, age and then the end game - die. As mentioned one of the most crucial aspects of a person's life is to become a parent. Parenting is a huge responsibility. It requires being tough, dedication and character that is built from sturdy moral fibers. Children, and not by their own making are born of parents. What they become is mostly the consequence of their experiences as a child. They are the products of what they see from their environment and what their parents teach or fail to teach them. Parenting is being responsible for another individual - his needs, his development. But how can a person achieve this if she fail at being responsible herself? To me as a mom, responsibility ...

Joy is a nurse. She has been based in the United States for the longest time. This photo was taken after she passed the Board and we went to Makati now a city to gallivant or hangout, as they say today :-) That's what we usually do when we were bored stiff with life. Oh those were so fun days, unfortunately (for me), cut off when Joy went abroad to seek and fulfill her dream to be rich. And fulfill she did. She married a rich Jew businessman and they lived where Michael Jordan used to have a house. We were writing each other then. But, time somehow forgot that we were still around, but far from where we started. There was a year she came back as a Balikbayan (return home citizen) and I am glad there was an effort to reach out. I was happy to see her and I think she was too. I would have loved to reminisce the good old days, but she seemed uninterested and instead, talked about all her travel vacations in different parts of the world, non-stop. It was good. And then she had to ...

I found this very, very old photograph of my grandfather. If I remember correctly this was taken in our house many, many years ago in 1970. (On the background is our stereo set which my father himself assembled with his own two hands). My grandad was a classic old schooled man. He was served, literally by everyone: my grandmother, his daughters, his sons, including us the grandchildren. His word was the law. No one dared disobey his wishes. That was his role in our patriarchal clan. The thing is all the men in this family acted like kings in a fiefdom, expecting everyone serving at their pleasure. I believe this mentality is now a thing of the past. Though, I am not really sure. Is it? I don't know if this is good or what. The system of change has changed. My grandfather's era was contrived. Nothing was spontaneous. Expectations were clear and expected to be fulfilled. You are told to do something? There is no way you will not acquiesce. My father's was that caught be...