Positive words go a long way, especially for kids. Have you caught your child, nephew, niece or your student doing something good? Acknowledge it! Kids perform better when somebody older than them, their parents, teachers and mentors, praise them even in the little improvement they show. My Mom would always say encouraging things to me and my siblings when we were still young (even until now). She believes that the growing up stage is important, and encouraging a child early in life gives him something positive to look forward to and emulate when he/she grows up.
(more…)
This post is dedicated to a dear friend Fe Valderama who successfully rose above the pains of surgery and chemotherapy sessions, emotional discouragement, and all the aches and discomforts she went through in her bout with breast cancer. Her courage and triumph over the disease is just so inspiring.
———————————-
Somebody used to ask me, “Why is happiness so fleeting?” I couldn’t answer him, so I just let him explain further, “because when it comes, we do all we can to savor the moment, to feel it, and time is never enough.” He added, “Suffering on the other hand seem to dwell longer than our patience and strength can take it. Because we don’t want pain, we don’t welcome the thought of it, we do everything we can to avoid it, and when we do suffer, we want it to end soon.” And he concluded, “That is why, when suffering comes to our lives, hold on to it, feel it, and life won’t be as bad as you think it is.”
I didn’t really understand what he meant that time but, as the years passed, now I do. And whenever I feel unavoidable physical pain, what he told me would always echo in my mind, and I try to hold on to the pain, to feel it within. Just like yesterday. I didn’t pray for the pain to leave me, I just prayed that God would give me the strength to be able to bear it. I felt it was something I can offer to Him, so I embraced it, let go of the feeling of being helpless and just gave in to it… and strangely enough, after some time, it lessened and few hours later, I felt better. Sometimes, we just need to face our suffering head on, and understand it, going against it would just result to bitterness. When we welcome it, it becomes our friend, and we become stronger persons because of it.
Ideas are powerful. A train of thought can make or break, build or destroy. The choice is ours. Our ideas become our future. I believe that life’s meaningful lessons are best learned when shared with others.
