Priceless unduplicated beauty

I am still learning how to use my digital camera up to this time. It's been with me for some time now. Technology sometimes gets too complicated for me. But anyway I learn little by little. One of the things I am thankful having a digital camera is the quality of pictures it produces. It allows a view of things in very detailed and vivid manner. I love nature and right now I have gained more appreciation by the pictures I take of it. I have here a one of the pictures I have taken. Not a perfect picture. I did not do any editing here. I don't like it when photographer edit their pictures. I want pictures as they are with the basic settings done.


CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO SEE IT BETTER!
(this picture lost its quality because of uploading it to this site)

Looking at this picture (and all other pictures I have recently taken) gives me the sense of a design from someone with greater power than we are. The beauty, the intricacy, the detail and the design of the flowers in this picture is priceless and cannot be duplicated even with our advanced technology. Well, artificial pictures can be generated, but there is nothing like what we see in nature that happens without anybody doing something. Creation in all its natural beauty points to a fact of a supreme being with the highest and mysterious power beyond our imagination.
===============================================

Loving Someone

Loving Someone

I am single and I don't think I am going to ever have a family of my own. The reasons are not important to mention and they are best kept unspoken. As single and past the marrying age, people are always asking me why I still am not married, or would recommend someone they think might be compatible for me. I usually just smile. There are times I find it annoying because even if I have told them that it is not in my mind and heart to get married,they just keep on teasing.

I think I will never get married, but I have someone I love. I think this is a basic need and also a built in part of humans, to love someone and be loved by someone. Marriage to me is something that is not forever. When one dies the marriage becomes null and void. The commitment it has is "'til death do us part". But loving someone is forever. I am not against marriage. It is God ordained. But I guess it is not for me.

I have this person whom I love for years and this person, I believe, loves me as well. This person has always been there for me, has always unconditionally accepted me with all my inadequacies, failures and shortcomings. This is enough for me. We are apart at the moment, but we have been loving each other for almost 5 years. I continue to long to meet this person again. We are in constant communication through a lot of means. I love this person. I really would love to grow old witht this person.

Loving someone I think does not require marriage. To love someone is a decision one makes regardless of anything. It should be done willingly and undconditionally. To the person I wrote this posting for, I would like to say thank you for loving me. It is such a joy for me to have someone like you. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmwah!

Dream dreams

I am one more year older. I never thought that I am going to reach this age. I am 39 now. When I was young I thought that I only would live 20 years. One more year and I double that number. I was just thinking what has changed in me personally. Nothing much I guess. Nothing really major. Like I still enjoy drinking coke. I still like spaghetti and Ice cream. I still love to play. I still read and so on. One thing special that I am thankful all through these years is the ability to imagine and dream dreams.

Funny, but at times I still dream to be a superhero. I guess in the adult version of it. But still the flying is there. I am thankful because dreaming keeps me alive. It keeps me working and going after something. Dreaming keeps sparkles in my eyes, maybe. hehehehhee It takes away the boredom of routinary life. It gives me opportunity to check my heart as well. There are dreams that root out from envy and plain lust for things and pleasures. I am thankful that I still can dream. Even now I dream to have a car which I still can't afford, believe it or not. I dream of travel which I have done a few times already. I dream of having like 40 million dollars and what to do with it.

To some it may be childish, but I know deep inside of each of us we all still dream dreams. It is something I believe given to us to search for hope in this imperfect world. And hope indeed can be a strong motivation and a strong source of stability when it is grounded on beliefs.

My dreams are just dreams. They make me alive. They make me be and do things that may never happen in my life. I am thankful for the ability to imagine and dream dreams. They keep me young.


* I actually made this because I got nothing else to post here. I don't if this even is saying something. but anyway...........

Wonderful place

Just want to share some pictures of the wonderful general place where I live. It's been great to be given the chance to live here, but it is much too lonely here compared to the original place I call home. I believe God made us in such a way that we have strong feelings of belongingness which makes us even attached to places and of course to the general race we belong and identify with. But still it is my privilege to be here by God's grace. Where I am now is such a wonderful place. I am still looking for the better pictures I have. Misplaced them somewhere.

Love your Enemies

I've read many things about the different Religions in the world and I have found one very distinctive principle of the Christian Religion that makes it very influential. This principle is similar to other religions and yet it has found somewhat a real place in the Christian religion. This is the principle of "Love your enemies".

History makes it clear that the Christian religion also has its share of mistakes, blunders, errors against humanity as a whole. Despite of these it is one of the major religions with the most influence in the world throughout History.

Maybe this is a bias opinion, but I have seen and experienced this principle at work. I was born in a place where there is a religious armed conflict up to this point in time. I grew up knowing that I am part of the Christian community and the enemy is of another religion. Civil wars come and go and in fact even at this very moment one is being waged and what I have observed is that the Christians were and are always accuse of being anti God, abusive, corrupt and so on by the enemies.

But what I always see is that Christians are always the ones who donate food, clothing, shelter, medicines and protection for those considered enemies. I can say this because my parents were there doing all the help they can to the families, children and elderly of the so called "enemies " even now. In our schools where majority are Christians we were asked to give a bag of rice and a can of sardines for the "enemies".

I always have asked myself when I was younger what do the enemies do? I haven't seen them lift a finger to help Christians but instead they condemn continuously and in some cases kill innocent Christians and display what they do to the public to instill fear.

Love your enemies is a mark of Christianity and a mark of the true Christian.

Personal Assurance

I've been going through a lot of thinking about many things that concerns my life. It took a long time for me to be where I am now. It took many experiences and choices, both good and bad. There were times I was ready to give up because there seemed to be nothing ahead. There were times that I quit and then changed my mind because I can't just drop things down really. There were times things got too fast for me and I was confused, but nevertheless enjoyed the ride. There were times my patience was at the edge of the cliff, because things weren't moving, moving too slow or just plain boredom. There were times I wanted to just be in my room and times when I wanted to be the center of attention. There were times I was a learner and then in other times I was the teacher. There were times I have received and there were times I have given, and surprisingly a few time I have given more that I thought I could give. There were times I was the victim and there were times I was the criminal.
personal assurance, Hope, meaning in life, purpose in life
Things change. I have changed. Circumstances change. Everything and everyone for that matter change. But one thing I am certain that does not change is the Love of God for me and for the rest of humanity. I might sound like saying something trite. It might be true, but to me that means assurance. Assurance that I will always have someone apart from people around like family and friends, whom I can rely on and depend on. It might be something that means nothing to some, because what I am pointing at is someone no one have seen and still being questioned by human intelligence and science.
personal assurance, Hope, meaning in life, purpose in life
These things does not matter to me. What is true to me is that my belief in God makes me assured of meaning in life or even a future hope. Hope is not something that can be seen at the moment, but later on. This makes me expectant of something better or even the best. With the meaning of life, it is simply that I am or trying hard to to live with a purpose. If you look at my life and know me I am a person who has many personal struggles character and morality wise, like all other human beings. But still to me those things don't count and don't negate the truth I believe in that there is God who does not change in His love for me. This is my assurance, meaning, purpose and hope in life.

================================================

Reason for giving and helping

I was at a certain place yesterday walking towards a Filipino store. There was this lady who approached me. She was very worried. She said she needed gas to go back home to a city about an hour drive away. She said she is new in the area and from Oregon and recently moved. She said she is a single mom. She said she lost her bag with all her money. She tried to look for her bag in the places she went but can't find it. I helped her and gave the money she needed. I gave her my address card and said bye. There was no hesitation in me at all to help. I helped because she needed help and I did it in good faith.

Just today she called and told me that she needed more money to get IDs. She told me that when she got home she looked for her bag and she couldn't find it. I told her I have nothing more to give and there is about 112 dollars left in my account. So what I did was to refer her to our Senior Pastor. So she called our Senior Pastor and our Pastor offered to help and accompany her to get her IDs so she can have access to her bank account. She said she is going to call back in two minutes. But then she never called back.

I just feel bad because maybe I helped someone who is not deserving help and someone maybe who was trying to take advantage of me. I gave because there were times in my life that I needed help. There were times that I had to endure embarrassment just to ask for help. I am thankful there were people who willingly without hesitation gave. I have received much help in my life and that is the reason why I easily give to people in need. I feel bad because maybe she was taking advantage of me. But then I looked back in my life and yes I remember times when I took advantage of people too, their goodness and their generosity for my own selfish reasons.

With this I am grateful because once again I've learned something. There were people who had given and helped me in the past even when I was selfish and taking advantage of them. Looking back I can say that the goodness they have shown regardless of what was in my heart then helped me change, though it was slow but then their goodness and kindness changed me. I believe this is the real reason why we help and give to the needy whatever their intentions are. We give and help because it changes life somehow in maybe miraculous ways.

==========================================================