GIVE TO OTHERS. GOD WILL GIVE YOU MORE

It's quite easy to turn your back to the misery of others. But not so when misery hits you. Then you wish that friends wouldn't turn their backs on you. 

-"Love one another as much as i love you." - God

 Love will turn the tide. Believe this because it's been done for ages, by many, in different circumstances, with the smallest or greatest of hearts and hands. Love breaks down all barriers -- real, perceived, or  imagined. 

Be that person you were designed to be. Maybe it will be tough for some as they hurt from life's pricks and thorns. But, truth is, there's no ifs and but's there;  the Divine plan is to be kind. (And just a bit of info  - Let God deal with that 'unpleasant' part of your life. He's better at it than we could ever be on our own.)

You see, I have learned that in the early stages of our lives as we grow or mature and develop... we would be engrossed in the I-Me-My-Mine of its living. Then it comes to this point when we are charged with a new direction:  to turn to others. In unselfish care, compassion, understanding, empathy, sympathy, and service. That includes all of creation. Give to others,  God will give you more.

How do we know? The Divine plan takes its course. In bits and pieces or sometimes in grander scale. You're part of it, like it or not.

But if course the free will is still there;  the choice is still up to you. But you still have to conquer it. 

God is a respecter of men and women. He always is. But He expects you to know the Divine plan, too.

Lifted from a Tagalog song:

Pananagutan 

Lyrics by Fr. E. P. Hontiveros

"Walang sinuman ang nabubuhay

Para sa sarili lamang

Walang sinuman and namamatay

Para sa sarili lamang

Tayong lahat ay may pananagutan sa isa't isa

Tayong lahat ay tinipon ng Diyos

Na kapiling nya

....."

Translation:

Nobody lives just for himself 

Nobody dies just for himself 

All of us are responsible for one another 

God has gathered everyone to be with Him 

.....

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LOVING YOUR JOB IS THE PREREQUISITE FOR A JOB WELL DONE

Many years ago when I was in my first job, I would often sit by myself wracking my brains dry trying to figure out the what-and-how of doing a great job. One day Mom, having noticed my bewilderment and anxiety, came to me, sat down, and said............. 'The only way to do a great job is to love it and give it your best shot. Even the geniuses of men with all their brilliance won't make it if what they do is simply out of the exercise of competition and rivalry. That would simply be a display of lame motivation. Because the truly motivated person knows that only by genuinely loving your work..... being passionate about it..... by learning something everyday..... and sincerely caring enough to put out the very best can performance be said to be truly outstanding. So whether you are a simple janitor, street-cleaner, salesperson, the office clerk or the president of your company, loving your job is the prerequisite for a job well done. The rest will follow.'
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I still miss her today as I did that year she left me and my brother. Life would have been so much lighter and grand with her by my side and with her bottomless stack of wisdom and care. She always had the right words, encouragement, strength, hope, faith, and positivity when my own failed. I remember best what she would always say to me............ 'Press on, Honey, got you covered with prayers.'   That made a great deal of difference in my life back then. But I have with me all those wonderful memories she left behind. I can say that with those golden memories inside my backpack, my life journey would be a breeze.
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"Older and wiser voices can always help you find the right path, if you are only willing to listen." -- Jimmy Buffett

WE MAKE A LIVING BY WHAT WE GET -- WE MAKE A LIFE BY WHAT WE GIVE

 

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I'm not done yet with the sorting of books since yesterday. It's a modest collection of books I found interesting through the years, not necessarily best sellers, but stuff which lent me wisdom or insights into life and living. Some of its authors are unknowns and as a good number are famous writers. The books have turned brown on the edges but I don't mind it. They have stayed good friends who have stood the test of time and have stood as silent witness to my dreams.. one of which is to have a book out in my name. Ahh but what is life without dreams!!

Here's a tiny book I found by author Maya Angelou " Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now"..  a pocketbook with just about 139 pages. I would like to share with you these lines (my favorite) lifted from page 15.......  to quote

'............ giving liberates the soul of the giver. The size and substance of the gift should be important to the recipient, and more important, that intangible but very real psychic force of good in the world is increased.

     When we cast our bread upon the waters, we can presume that someone downstream whose face we will never know will benefit from our action, as we who are downstream from another will profit from that grantor's gift.'

--Unquote.

Giving need not necessarily be on a grand or grander scale. It can even mean a tiny act of kindness, the happy thought you cause in another person's life, the comfort you add to another person's painful existence, the encouragement or strength or inspiration you cause to spark in a weary soul... and so much more. Neither does it require applause or need the spotlight on you standing on center-stage. Giving does not require thank you's either.

Giving, one which Maya prefers, is that which comes naturally. It gives without thinking, as a familiar phrase goes. It's giving from where it matters most.... the heart.

A heart that cares can do wonders not just to the people around him but farther down the line and beyond. Its good flows like a happy stream running merrily  through its winding course nourishing every living thing it passes as it continues onwards and out to the sea. It doesn't stop for a hug, appreciation, or someone's thank you. It's happy with its own thought that it's doing someone-something-somewhere some good. And the universe is made even happier with that one unselfish act. How much more happier with many more!! This can create a happier world.

A giving person is content with the idea that it is doing what it is supposed to do. By God's design. And the prayer is to be transformed into that divine design by God's guiding grace.

Wishing you all a pleasant and blessed day.
Keep looking for blessings;  expect it.
God bless you, lovely people.

EVEN THE SMALLEST ACT OF CARING CAN TURN A LIFE AROUND

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Somebody said this....  'The opposite of love is not hate;  it's indifference.'

Let's not fool ourselves with the thought that we know much about that word... indifference. Well, maybe or maybe not. Because in truth we don't or else we won't be doing these freaking habits of uncaring. Somewhere there in our day to day lives we do teeny weeny habits of having our noses up in the air or looking the other way or telling ourselves to simply just 'ignore'.

You know what, that isn't achieving anything at all except perhaps keep us safe or more entrenched in our perceived respective comfort zones. A friend asked me.... 'why bother with other stuff, it's our lives we should be worrying about..'  Why bother?  Oh my, that's the stuff wars, misunderstandings, cruelty, misery, division, isolation are made of.... and that too is a very good reason why civilizations stagnate or may disintegrate one day soon.

You know what else, life is such that we work at it yes BUT it doesn't stop there. Life also includes that obnoxious human being standing next to you, or an old man walking out on the streets in tattered clothes, or emaciated children looking up to your eyes with outstretched hands, or that woman on TV sobbing as she heartrendingly pleads for justice for her child raped and murdered, or recurring holdups - bag snatchings - senseless killings, or the death of a poor puppy in the hands of bad bad VERY bad humans, and even so much more. Include too our Mother Nature who cries every time we irresponsibly cut down her trees, dirty her rivers and streams with garbage, kill her animals for profit, or bulldoze down her majestic mountains to build buildings in the name of progress. We see them all and then look the other way. That's a lot of indifference going around, don't you think?

What can we do? Somebody said that evil thrives in a society when, to quote -- 'good people do nothing about it.'  Unquote. We're good people, right? So whoever wrote those lines must be referring to us.

So what can we do?? Simple. BEGIN TO CARE. Act on saving people, the community, the children and the elderly, the poor, the four-legged creatures in our midst. Act against injustice, thieves and murderers, crooked men and women in government and even those in our small day-to-day lives, act against the senseless destruction of our dear Mother Earth, act to protect our environment, and more. Act to save our world and its people ........  and in the process we are saving ourselves too.

Another friend asked ... 'I'd like to do something but WHAT?'  Here's a few I know.....  concertedly and vigorously talk about it, write about it, sing about it, work on it, network with it ...... be seen, be heard, be read. Be passionate about caring for all of creation, living and non-living.

If I may boldly say, I believe that God didn't create us just to stay in our respective comfortable tiny corners of the world separate from the rest. I think His intent was to create a humanity of men and women with big hearts of gold reaching out to one another with the power and love of God. We are created in His image, right?  Sadly, it got derailed somewhere there, not His fault but mainly ours. BUT we can get ourselves back on track again. And how? If we once again learn to put back CARING into our lives.

Indifference is an ugly word. Don't you think that it's time to cut it down to pieces, strike it off our vocabulary, end its rule over our lives??  That sure is going to put a tremendous smile on our Heavenly Father's face! We are His children.... therefore, like Father - like children.

Blessings, everyone.