Woah. It’s been MONTHS since the last time I wrote here.
For everyone’s information I already migrated to shineyourlightph.wordpress.com
And this will be the last post this blog will be linked to twitter. Yeah, shineyourlight will be the one linked to my twitter from now on. 🙂
Thank you to all my twitter readers!! Hope you get to read shineyourlightph too!! Soon, I’ll write there.
I am still writing here tho!
Last summer, I have watched an old romantic comedy film entitled ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 days.’ It is about Andie Anderson (Kate Hudson), a writer who works for “Composure” magazine as a ‘how-to-girl’ and Benjamin Barry (Matthew McConaughey), an advertising executive and ladies’ man who, to win a big (diamond) campaign, risks that he can make a woman fall in love with him in 10 days.
Andie Anderson is bored and she wants to write about essential things such as politics, economics, life– things she actually cares about. By the way, Composure is a magazine for ladies, it talks about cosmetics, health, fitness and everything about women. Her boss will give her the license to write what she wants if she’s able to ace the ‘how-to-article’ assigned to her. Her column ‘how-to’ is not learned from book, Andie has to go over and experience it first hand. Yes, you may call it as an experiment. So her boss asked her to write “How to Lose a Guy in 10 days”. She needs to find a man and actually lose him in a span of 10 days. On the other hand is Benjamin Bary who needs to make a woman fall inlove with him in 10 days to win a big campaign. Obviously, their world crossed and Andie thought of having Benjamin as Agent X for her experiment and Benjamin thought of Andy as the perfect one who will fall in love with him in 10 days. And so their lovestory has begun.
I am not here to talk about the film. But, hey, I liked the film! It’s funny and touching. Anyway, I am here to launch my comeback project in this blog and that is the “How-to”.
(c) Pinterest
So for a year, I will experiment and experience things first hand and write it in a “how-to” format. It can be “How to lose weight in 30 days” or “How to make someone smile”, etc. I still don’t know the topics and how often I will be posting or how much time does it need for one “how-to”, but I am targeting to publish at least one per month. In a year, I’ll be having 12 “how-to”s.
Evidently, I got this concept from that movie. It looks exciting and fun, and I want to explore life and learn from it more. I think it will be a way to mature. Also, I have a heart for writing and I desire to develop my skills and I want to write based on my own experience. I may not be that good writer, but who knows, someday I may be one! I may not be a writer by profession, but hey, you don’t need to be employed and get paid to become one! This also applies to your dream! Pursue it in any way you have and can! You can be that ONE!
This blog just turned five this year, and I am hopeful that this blog my heart will continue to reach people and their hearts. Don’t worry, I won’t do horrible and unpleasant things in this “how-to” project! Hmm, maybe a little bit of crazy things! Hahaha!
Okay now, I am officially your How-To-Girl. 😀 Dare me? =))
It’s my first day today in my new office.
Obviously, I still have nothing to do since I am writing here. Hahaha. Well, I am waiting for my boss to finish his task so he could train me. Yes, I need to undergo a training. Anyway, I like the environment here, homey feels, morning schedule, 6:30 am to 3:00 pm. I need not to brave the heavy traffick with other people. My travel time to work (and on the way home) is peaceful and smooth. And I can do things I need and I want to do after work, since it is still early. I thank the Lord for this schedule.
But, I feel a little bit of sadness. It seems like I want to cry, a good cry. I don’t know. Hahaha. That’s why I’m writing, because if I stay doing nothing, I think tears will fall down from my eyes anytime now. And I don’t want them to see me like that. I just miss everything. It is so hard to be an adult– a matured adult! #Adulting #Adultthing
I realised that it’s both joyful and painful to be attached with ‘whichever’ and ‘whoever’. Joyful because you get to learn from it, or you get to share your life with. You know, there are things I never want to lose, I am sure you, too, have. But it’s too painful that the way to not lose it is to actually lose it– to not be attached, to surrender.
We surely lose the things/people we keep to ourselves, but if we share it or surrender it to God who reigns, we don’t have to lose them. And if it is truly yours, it is yours. You need not to fear to surrender it, because in the first place, it is yours. I don’t know if I am making sense here.
There are things we thought of having now, but God says wait, let me take over. For example, you really like this brand new phone, and you’re really praying for it, you save money, you took brochures to examine it and took time to learn it. You passed by the store everyday to check this phone if it’s still alright. It is as if you already have a communication and relationship with it. Until one day, you thought you are ready to take this phone but when you went to the store, the seller says it’s taken back to the factory for improvement so that it can function well and serve you well when it is ready and done. And then you also realised that you are still not yet ready to have this phone because it is high maintenance, and so you decided to ready yourself more and improve more until that day the phone and you are ready.
That waiting process and the circumstance you lose the chance of having the phone is God saying ‘let Me take over’. You lost the phone in that very moment, you surrendered your desire of having it, but someday when it is innovated and when you are ready and the feeling of having it is still the same, then you’ll have it– when everything is ready, in the fullness of time.
That waiting process is a learning process– exploring yourself and your world more, seeking God’s heart more. That waiting process is also a testing process. Because, for sure, there would be mobile phones which will be released sooner or later, would you wait for the phone you desire or would you take another one? Yes, it’s a test for you, of your loyalty, faithfulness and desire.
The journey will be hard, but fore sure it will be Grace-filled. There will be times you will think of that ‘phone’ or miss it when you get to pass by the store it once stood. I know it’s hard! But trust God in every situation you are facing. Trust God. Trust God. Stay calm, easy.
Hello everyone.
I missed this space!! Just want to say that I am coming back here.
I AM WRITING AGAIN!!!!!!! I AM SO EXCITED!! 🙂
Happy Independence Day, Pilipinas kong Mahal!
Yes, I am employed! And today is my first day in my first work! I am still amazed when the fact that I am a #working girl now crosses my mind. Hahaha. A loud-easy-going-messy-girl is trying to make a mark in this world! (Haha, mark agad? Assumera lang!)
Today I timed in at 1 pm and timed out at 10 pm. Basically this day was an orientation day. We met the heads of each department and they discussed their thing.
I also met new friends today. My first friend was PAT. It’s funny how the PATs of this world are befriending me. Well, I have many close best friends whose names are Pat and Pat and Pat. Hahaha! So when i met her (Pat) I smiled because I have an additional Pat in my life and I know we’ll be close because we come from the same team, you know we’re teammates. LOL.
So my first group of friends was them, (above photo)but I forgot their names. I just remember Pat because she offered me food. Haha. I’m never good at names!! Some new hires are sosi . They studied from Ateneo and Benilde and when they talk they seem to have so much fun because they understand each other. And they ate at expensive restaurant and me? I looked for a buy 1 take 1! Hahaha. I do hope they won’t read about this.
Well, today is a good day and it needs to be chronicled. I hope I’ll do great in my first work! Pray with me!
Yes, for God’s glory! 🙂
I am at Church listening to Midweek Service, it’s 8:01 pm and I just want to say that there are people who will always overthink everything— there will be people who will think beyond the reality to the point that one needs to defend him/herself. Nothing, I just want to say it. You know, there are comments better unsaid, remember that.
Dear Self, Be patient, be careful, understand more, love more.
Just updating this blog! Will write soon! Launching a march challenge anytime this week! 🙂
8:05pm
Earlier today, I preached in our Church. It was my first time to preach on a Sunday and in a service. Yes I was in panic but still I was in God’s presence and there I was safe, controlled and filtered. My prayer was may Jesus be glorified and may He increase. My prayer was may the youth will hear Jesus through me– that Jesus may be known.
My heart is happy because God used me. When God uses you, He will let you feel that saying yes to His calling is the best decision you have made! Indeed, there’s no greater joy than obeying God. Obedience to God is a blessing, for in the process of obeying He will teach you many things that are essential to your life and He will bless you in all aspects.
When a preacher preaches, whatever he/she has prepared, the Holy Spirit will always overrule— you will say things on the spot, you will cross out words and won’t say it at all on the moment the Holy Spirit tells you so. The thing here is God will speak and when He does, He truly speaks. He is not boxed with our script, words and outline when He wants you to say something to His people, He will give you the words and He will enable you and He will empower you. The God of this universe– our God– got everything covered– He covered everything by His grace.
I wanted to say no to this speaking assignment but thanks be to God who has let me speak. I am more than blessed and I realised that saying no to God would not help me grow as a person– it won’t help me at all. Saying yes to God is gaining everything and saying no to Him is losing everything.
C’mon, respond to your calling. The time is now. Say yes to Him. Enjoy God fully!
The Lord be praised and glorified.
Blessings! 🙂
Okay, before anything else, I just want to say—the trek was awesome!
Mt. Daraitan is located in Tanay, Rizal near the border of Quezon province, and it stands at 739 MASL. The mountain features forest trails, caves and rock formations and it is ideal for hiking and camping. It is also home to one of this country’s cleanest, free-flowing rivers, the Tinipak River, which is surrounded by large marble rocks that are great for bouldering. And SBCC Hikers conquered the breath-taking summit, the underground cave and the rushing river!
Now, let me introduce to you the team who conquered it. We’re starting from left, the one raising his hand is Pastor Clero– The #daddytype (haha!) in the group. He is our team leader and photographer and he is funny! The girl beside her is ate Zai, the artist and the singer. She’s the eldest among the girls so she’s the #atetype. (haha!) The boy standing next to her is Jondi, one of the rookies in this hike and he had a major slip! (Hahaha!) I am the person beside him. Next to me is Bea, the other rookie in the group. In front of her is Hazel and Hazel sleeps well. Haha! And the man in the farthest right is Kuya Jolo, he takes photographs. Oh by the way, the one who took our group picture was Toy, he’s the great deal and the real #daddytype! Hahahha. He’s our guide.
Daraitan is two to three hours away from Manila. Our group decided to have an overnight hike so we met at 7 a.m, on the 2nd day of November 2015 (haha sorry for writing so late!!!), at Santolan LRT station. Some of us slept in Trinidad’s Residence the night before so meeting up would be easier. From LRT, we took two jeepney rides going to Tanay and it cost us P58. From Tanay, we rode two tricycles that are worth 1000 pesos (we had 2 so P500 each tricycle). At 9:30 am, we set our foot on the jump-off, the barangay daraitan. For thirty minutes, we registered, set our things up, and were oriented. There, we met our super funny guide—kuya Toy—the energetic and restless guide.  We paid our guide P1200. We were seven so we divided all the expenses by seven.
The mountain is a forest trail and full of ascent. The 85 % of the trail is ascent. It rained while we were trekking and we enjoyed the rain! Hay, the view is such a beauty! From time to time, we see the river running around the mountain ranges of Sierra Madre, the big and strong tress, the rock formations that are scenic and spectacular! It was 12:30 nn when we reached the camp site. It was raining, still and we were blessed to have a bahay-silungan! We rested, ate our lunch, and pitched our tents. And we had the rest of the afternoon resting, enjoying the creation, and getting to know one another. The presence of my friends made the mountain more beautiful.
That’s my favorite spot. We often conversed there and the view was perfect. My friend said that when he looked at the view while we were sitting there, he felt hope– there’s still hope for this world.
We were in awe upon seeing the sunset in Daraitan. It’s always good to watch sunset or sunrise with good friends!
And that is the summit! I felt relieved when I reached the summit! Kuya kokoy, Jondi and I did not sleep because we can’t sleep due to coldness and we cooked breakfast for everyone. We had no big kawali and kaldero so we cooked everything by group! It really took time! So we were really tired when we advanced to summit.And it seemed like I’ve been renewed when I gazed on the summit and the 360 view!
After reaching the summit, we went back to the camp site and ate. We rested for a moment and then we traversed to Tinipak River. It is a rushing river, its water is cold and our journey to it was exhausting but still fun! We were laughing and counting our slips. Many things happened like the “leggings”, “major slip” and the “zipper” and only our group can understand that.
Also, we were able to see the beauty in darkness when we journeyed to the tinipak’s underground cave. There was a pool-like river inside of it and swam  play in there and we appreciated the limestone and the other kinds of stone present there!
Then, we washed our things. 🙂
We were in a hurry because we were late in our schedule. Atleast, we’re happy and we were able to do everything in out itinerary! As soon as we finished washing our things, we walked to barangay where we changed our clothes, settled all the payments, and departed. As we were walking, it was already dark and we just had flashlights, we saw a group of fireflies around a tree and they were so beautiful!!!!! They were flying around and their light was stunning! The night-sky was dazzling, too!
We thank the Lord for sustaining and protecting us throughout our trip! This is definitely for keeps! 🙂 God be glorified!
Photos from Jolo Siscar and Pstr Clero Matocinos
While others write their speech on social media such as facebook, here I am writing on the last page of my 2015 planner where only close people and I can read. (Yes, I first wrote this entry on my planner, now typing everything on this site). Last year– 2015– was beautiful and it was challenging and blissful. I remembered, I was excited writing my ‘faithgoals 2015’ the same day last year! Now, I read them again and I am surprised on how the Lord has granted these goals. My heart is overflowing of praises. The Lord is good!
If I’d write everything that the Lord has done last year, this page won’t be enough. Many things, there are many things He has done. There are some at first I cannot understand but He slowly revealed the reason behind it. The year wasn’t completely joyful, I think it was the year I cried a lot. I experienced pain and recently I read my tweet from February 2015 saying my story for that day that I cried under the bright sun, on one of the benches of UST walkway and a stranger offered me a tissue and a talk. I also remembered myself crying in Makati because I did not know how to go back to my school. Last year I lost people in my life, and I convinced myself it was just fine. It was also in 2015 that I encountered challenges I never thought I would. Yes, 2015 was a beautiful struggle. Moreover, it was in year 2015 that I grew, matured a little? Haha. It was in that year I became close to people who made me happy. It is true that you meet again some people when you need them the most. It was in that year when I saw more the beauty and majesty of God’s creation! I’ve been to wonderful places and He never failed to provide for me! It was in that year when our family got closer after a problem. It was also in that year that I enrolled the last two sems in my college life, it was a big deal because I thought I’d be delayed for a year. It was the year that I saw more of God, of His glory. It was in 2015 that I turned 20 years old. There are more, there are many breakthroughs. Indeed, it was a blessed one. I am more than blessed.
As I welcome 2016, one thing I realised: Wherever I am, whatever I am doing, no matter how cruel and sad life can be, I may feel alone but the thing is God is with me and I am not completely alone. The Lord sees me, He values me, He understands me, He keeps me, He loves me and He helps me and so He is to you. 2016 can be different from 2015, we can never know! This year can be a year or acceleration or a year of sadness. But whatever it is that we have in our hearts, we can celebrate life this year knowing that God himself has come to be with us. God is with us. He is always with us and He will never leave us. We are never without His love, we are never without His Grace, we are never without His strength– He sustains us! We are never without His care. We are never without His mercy, we are never without His provision, and we are never without His presence. God is always with us. He is even nearer than our very souls.
Now I thank the Lord for 2015 and my heart is rejoicing as I welcome 2016! I am hopeful! I know that this year will be an exciting one and I turn my eyes on Jesus the perfecter and finisher of my faith as I journey with Him in this year! Don’t be afraid to leave the year that was, always remember that the things ahead are far far better than the things behind! And God will surely finish the good work He began in us! Yay! Exciting times! God bless! 🙂
Our Church will be having a camp next year. The Camp Comm decided to hold a contest for logo making and the whole Church was encouraged to join. In a way, this contest has served as a promotion. The logo should be based on the camp theme and camp verse which are AddLove and Colossians 3:14-15. Yesterday, the contest ended, the judges have chosen the best among the entries and the winners were declared. Lo and behold, we won the contest! Jondi and I teamed up for this. He thought of the concept, executed and I cheered. Hahahahahahaha! I don’t know what kind of help I gave him but I’d always say I helped because I want the privileges and prizes and yes #braggingrights, ooops, joking! To let you know, the victors (maka-victor e noh? Hahaha) will be receiving 50 per cent discount, shirt and starbucks gift certificates! NOT BAD! I just want to say that I am happy. I am happy that Jondi and I tried and won and the thrill while waiting for the result was surreal! We would check every now and then how many likes our logo was getting, and we’d talk about it over and over and over again, encouraging each other that we would win. Days passed since we submitted our entries (we made 3) and night before the announcement of the winner, Jondi thought we’d lose. He explained his side and I thought of “That pixilated heart can’t win.” Hahaha! Actually, I also thought of losing but I thought more of winning. Morning came and ate Xaris said that the other entry has nailed it so I believed her. I became sad for a moment, it’s not a big deal! But it was my surprise to see our logo on the screen of our Church, and the texts were telling me that we won! Praise God!
The process of making the logo was fun and unforgettable.We didn’t have any editing app but paint. Hahaha, yes, the-not-so-ancient-paint and we were limited by the special powers and tools paint offers. I remembered we were looking for a magic wand tool in paint. Hahahaha! We made our entries for four hours or less and the in-between of it were judgements and pang-aasar. As I’ve said, Jondi thought of the concept and I helped a little in cheering and in execution. While making this logo, I saw in his eyes (hi, ganun) the excitement to finish and be declared as winner. I learned that he loves doing such art. Haha, he became serious while I remained being me loud. He told me I was noisy while he was contemplating and he also said that he was happy and he likes to join again in the future. And I thank God for his life.
I know that this contest is a small thing compared to many things that can be achieved in life but it is something that makes our hearts jump for joy and it is definitely for keeps. So i realised that the small things in life are the ones we often fail to notice, we often look and seek the big things, events, and we forget that what makes those big things are these little things. A little thing can be coming in class on time, finishing a book, making someone smile. It may be the joy of learning something new. It may be listening to the laughter of your family or someone special. It may be the sweet feeling when you do kindness to your friends and loved ones or when you see the bloom in the nature and many more. If we neglect to notice these, what do we notice? Things that make us sad– stress, disappointment, failure. Life is made up of little moments, appreciate those. As someone said, “enjoy the little things for someday when we look back, we’ll realise they were the big things.”
Well, anyway, the experience I got in this contest was already enough– there was a joy– and winning was just a bonus. It was a win-win situation. Indeed, the triumph is more delightful when you share it to someone close and essential to you. 🙂
Thank You, Lord. 🙂
