Herein is the secret to the fullness of life – that one be born again, and again, and again… 🙂 – www.itakeoffthemask.com
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Tag: moving on
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It’s such a hard work to rest!
It used to be so easy to rest, back in those days when “recess” was our favorite subject in school, or when Friday was our favorite day of the week because we’d finally have a hard-earned weekend to indulge in a lazy Saturday afternoon.
Yet have you noticed how many people today find no more satisfaction in the simplest activity of all? We get anxious with our vacant hours and we try to fill our days with as much activity as we can just so we can avoid that time when we have nothing to do but be with ourselves.
I recently had colds and it necessitated a leave from work as well as a leave from the many activities I enjoy, including writing. How I prayed that it be over, how I desired to get back to my normal routine. But the body it seems, knows when to go on and when to take a pause, when to wake up, and when to get some time to sleep. It’s the rhythm of life, the ebb and flow, the natural course of nature that keeps everything in balance, and that makes everything fresh and renewed.
But why the unnatural response from many of us? Why the difficulty in surrendering to rest?
1. We’ve lost our ability to wait.
The modern times have provided us with so many tools and gadgets we need that make our life easier. It has enabled us to do things in an INSTANT, in a single click of a button. We do things real FAST!
Rest is waiting. It is downtime, a healing time both for the body and the spirit. We just couldn’t accept the fact that we are not after all as perfect and as powerful as we thought we could be, that we can be on the go 24/7 much as we wanted to.
2. We’ve lost our ability to trust.
Rest and healing is doing nothing necessarily active on our part, but trusting that our body knows what it is doing to repair itself, to grow, maybe even to be better than before. We believe that only our conscious efforts can accomplish something, and if we’re not doing anything therefore, we’re already doomed! We don’t trust anybody, not even our own body when we know we are not consciously in control.
3. We’ve lost our ability to receive.
Our culture has impressed upon us the necessity to give; giving is a concrete sign of being alive, of being of value. When we are not able to give or to do anything productive, we quickly lose our self esteem. Our self worth is so connected in doing what we do, that when we’re unable to do anything, we feel empty and worthless inside.
We do not realize that receiving is also an integral part of being. Receiving is actively cooperating to the one healing us, actively acknowledging that we are worthy of help, of being assisted in times when we couldn’t help ourselves. Receiving is honoring ourselves as being worthy of notice and honoring others as being able to endow upon us something that is an important part of themselves. Receiving, like giving, is being able to share and be a channel of the flow of life.
I’ve learned that even times of sickness and unproductiveness can teach us something. I’ve learned that in times like that, it’s quite okey to wait, to trust the way of life, and to receive healing from the God who never abandons us whether we’re living our lives energetically, or whether we’re merely trying to while away our time sneezing and teary eyed in the comfort of our cozy beds.
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MOST TOUCHING POEM
I would like to share with you the most touching poem I have ever received. No, it did not come from my boyfriend. And No, it was not even an original composition. Yet the way it was able to come to me was no ordinary thing in my life, certainly nothing I’ve ever expected to give me such a joy.
I got in touch with Vicky in the internet, she became one of my on-line friends though she is only able to send me the same old phrases each time she wants to write me a letter. She says:
Dear Joyce
How are you doing?
I am fine
Vicky
Your friend
If you are wondering why, it is because my friend has some physical limitations that limits her ability to express herself the way we do. As you might have noted, she cannot write. She is only able to write the above phrases from memory. Obviously, she can’t read either. But she enjoys it everytime somebody sends her mail. She has friends that read to her the messages she receives.
One day I sent her a forwarded message, something I thought was cute that I felt I wanted to send her, which I did.
I never thought she’d take so much delight in that message! Her friend who read it to her wrote to me how she LOVED the message I just sent to her. She said that Vicky liked it so much that she went to the library and asked the librarian to help her pick a nice poem for me!
Her friend was amazed by that, that Vicky went out of her way to find me something, a written piece of a poem she cannot even read, to express her gratitude for a piece I never even exerted any effort in composing nor in researching and carefully picking out. A few clicks of a button was all that it took for me to send her that piece. But for me, she went out of her way to give of something out of her love. I felt ashamed and undeserving of all that. Yet I felt the sincerity of her gesture, and the wisdom that does not need the abilities we so often worship and give importance to. It is in simple things like that that we feel the most touching memories we shall always recall. It is in the most unexpected of people and events that we find appreciation, gratitude and love.
Following is the poem she was able to pick out for me, which I am going to quote in the exact words she wrote:
A STITCH OF BLUE
when there is rain, my neighbor comes
to while away the day
and as we chat and mend we find
skes are no longer gray
we share a cup of tea deside
an understanding fire
that knows to glow in emberred tones
or rcach its arms up higher
and when the rain stepped aside
our mending’s finished too
we’ve patched our lives together
a little stitch of blue
sometimes I wish that more of aside
were built of rainy days
so I could take the gray away
In little, friendly ways.
Are you having a grey day? I hope you find some comfort in the most touching poem I have ever received. Great day! J And thank you, my friend.
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Who are blessed?
I’ve often heard people saying “I’m truly blessed”, or “God blessed me.”
Does that mean other people weren’t blessed?
If God causes the sun to shine both on the good and the bad, will He withhold His blessings to some and give it only to a few?
Who are we to say that some people are less fortunate than us?
I believe that God pours His blessings upon us all… always.
And maybe, when we say that we are blessed, it is only like saying we have finally found the faith to receive what God is giving us. Finally, we have recognized God’s goodness, and for that, we say that we are blessed!
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The Power of Surrender
Surrender is a mighty powerful word.
Sometimes we wonder why God had to wait until we’re tired and worn out, until we’ve finally given up before He gives us what we want.
And the answer is that we have made Him wait that long before we allowed Him to carry on His work and give us what it is we’ve been praying for.
Let us repent therefore.
Repent as in the word “metanoia” which means “a change of mind”.
From doing things our own way, let us trust and cooperate with the Spirit
so we may live the full life Jesus has promised us all!