Writing About"Writing" As The Craft..."

Writing as your craft is our given topic today by Jeff Goins. It can go from why, how and when you write and everything else in between.
I'm the 4th child of 9 siblings, of the same parents. If I have a chance to do over some things in my life--this is not one of them that I wish it could be reconstructed or revised. Growing up in a big, closely-knitted family with a good patriarch and a good matriarch that taught us golden nuggets to live by and a legacy of a strong foundation of responsibilities, accountabilities as well as boundaries is noteworthy--priceless. I can tell you with so much joy in my heart that I treasure the teachings I got from my mom & dad. And nothing or nobody, not even our ever-changing global views; how distorted and appealing they are can't touch my moral integrity without repentance. 
But anyways, when I was about 7 or 8 years old, I stumbled on my dad's diary on all of us, his 9 children. He compiled his writings in a book. My dad was very creative, more like a very resourceful man as he had proven that quality as a good father and a sole breadwinner till his last breath. I didn't think it was wrong for me to read because it wasn't locked. As if it was meant for me to read it. I didn't have any qualms doing it. By the way, I just read what was mine. His narrative about me started when I was born up to 3 years old. I didn't bother peeking on what he wrote about the rest of my siblings. I just wanted to read mine. From there on, I knew why I felt closer to him than my mom. But that mutual bond and affection changed when I became a mother myself. For I love my mother more now than ever.
I believe that reading my dad's manuscript about me was the crux of the fabric of my writing gift.
I just never told him that I read his diary of me and that he was my first "muse" in my

writing, the inspiration that lights up even when he's no longer here. I've written here and there; mostly in letters, greeting cards, journals, commentaries, and short editorials. What sealed my longing to write was when one afternoon outside the Arts & Sciences building, one of my English professors entreated me to the side and told me that he sees great potential in me in the field of Creative Arts. And he was even willing to help me be an apprentice in a nearby radio station. I did comply for the sake of curiosity, just once. I did a piece of 3-minute public service information. 

It was an incredible feeling to read on the air. However, it wasn't for me. I wasn't going to do something that would alter my parents' expectations of me to become an educator, a teacher like my aunt and my grandpa which I am now... I never pondered on suppositions like what could have been if I had taken that route? People have told me that I made them cry or shed a tear when I wrote to them.
I kind of believe that or had an inkling that I love words. I read them, I listen to them, I sing them, I dream of them and I still continue to chase them...

Writing words that declare who I am is the great love I never found in the earthly relationships.
It continues to elude me but nevertheless, words do come by necessity, and there's no telling how 
your words metamorph you by God's design.
Thank You for Reading...
God Bless

Teach Something To Others--" Honor Your Body..."

You can't teach life lessons that you haven't experienced deeply. What you've read in books by bestseller authors/writers is an advantage/benefit to self-improvement. What you've listened to from people as admonitions and guidelines may affect your decision making to go forward, stay where you are or just let the course of life beat you is not teaching you any lesson but rather giving you theories, book-smart adages.

More than a decade of existing and living in this world we live in and with all the melodrama,
disappointments, griefs, deceptions, poverty, brokenness, and chasing wrong dreams encrypted 
in my brain, I have to say the best teaching I can give is one that has detoured me, rerouted me 
back to the outstretched arms of our Heavenly Father...

With so much conviction and love in my heart, I entreat you to Honor your Body. The Apostle Paul said, "I beseech you...that you present your bodies a living sacrifice...(Romans 12:1) Your body is the "temple of the Holy Spirit." Had I known what this teaching really means, I would have had preserved myself, and all that is within me for the greater purpose. You and I need not follow what culture or what society says. Because what dictates their behavior and their way of life is according to their thoughts and desires of their flesh. To women that still think that giving yourself away doesn't make men stay or marry you. Real men, Godly men actually respect you for your integrity.
As women of faith, we encourage men to respect us by not subjecting ourselves to their carnal desires. I know many women that still adhere to taking care of themselves, being responsible and accountable for the things that please God. It is hard but it can be done. Anything that
is not worldly is very hard to do but the reward is greater than your sacrifice later.
If you have the uncompromising love and support of your Heavenly Father and the only One
who will take you for who you are should be enough to trust Him your life.

To those who are still under the bondage of nicotine & alcohol and pornography,
take these afflictions to God. You can't fight it alone. It's not your fight anymore.
It's the Lord's...I have my son who struggles every day with nicotine, alcohol and unwise spending.
He tried the patch, the electronic cigarette, nasal spray, nicotine lozenges, and gum and almost
to Chantix. However, the adverse effects of Chantix are more than anyone can bear. It defeats its purpose to help you quit. It's a mother's heart that is grieving to see your son losing his
life slowly to vicious vices. This is a typical way of dishonoring your body. Cigarettes and alcohol combined are expensive. Both lead you to acquire cancer for real. God forbid. But I know God will deliver him from nicotine, alcohol & will be a good steward of the value of spending money wisely.
Thank God we have this assurance from the Lord.

"Make A List..."

This topic is very inclusive. Just wish that it could have been more specific for me to inundate but  I'll make it easy on me and my dear readers to do this list. No pressure. These are random thoughts...
When I purchase or buy something, I write what time and date that item or items that were bought. I don't usually buy when I'm mad, disappointed, depressed, hurt, or any emotions or feelings that would
be under the category of impulsive buying. I'm getting better at not buying things to appease myself from being a victim of my own perception towards pleasing people. The reason why I make a list of what I buy daily is that the date and time I bought them plays significance. Every number according to the Word of God has meanings. For example, the very popular number seven means perfection; the number eight is completion; the number nineteen is moving forward. It's not a superstitious belief when you have a preference for doing things. Just like I love going to the first church morning service on Sundays. To me, every "first " that is offered and done will receive first fruit offering. Every payday, I pay my tithes first before I pay my bills. When you do that, you're showing God that you are a faithful and cheerful giver. Everything that we have anyway belongs to Him. So if we can't even give him 10% of our net pay (what you take home after taxes) there's an issue in your heart. I give because I'm grateful and thankful that the Lord has continued to provide for me and my family in all areas of my life. And I faithfully believe that tithing is Biblical and I honor that. I may not have everything I want but I have everything I need in Him.
I also make a list of what to do each week. It helps me to not to forget and leave things undone.
If that happens, you spend more time trying to remember retracing your steps and that repulses me.
Having a list when you go grocery shopping is wise. You don't triplicate what you already have at home. You stay in your budget. You have a clear conscience. Your activity in the grocery has actually shortened and you can go home with more time to yourself especially if you do it after church on Sundays. I also make a list of what bills to pay according to their due dates. There are bills I pay right away as soon as I get them in the mailbox and the rest is paid with my automatic deduction bank account. I monitor religiously all my transactions whether cash or debit cards or checks. So many creepy outlandish fools out there. Somehow no matter how cautious and responsible you are, these suckers sabotage your identity. And I say, "The Lord rebuke you..."

After Wednesday service tonight, I was planning to go to Petsmart and buy Science Diet Food for my
two Labradors, ages 12 & 13 respectively. What changed my mind was the thought that I won't have enough time to do that. The store closes at 9pm. Thirty minutes would not allow me to do just that. It can be done but I have to drive really fast and that's nonsense. Why would I put myself in a predicament that can be done the next day? Sometimes we want to accomplish things and they're just things. Also, when you're in doubt of something, don't do it. God wants you to take Him in all of your journeys. Take time to feel His presence and all of your steps be directed where they should be...

"Pay It Forward..."

When you have a great lesson learned in your life that you had experienced in the area of building relationships, take heart to pay it forward by sharing it through your writing. You'll never know who you are going to impact. Someone in a toxic relationship may just be waiting for a silver lining and you are that tinge of hope that paves the way to a greater conviction of the truth to be said...
"
What would be that something to write you wish someone would have told you sooner?"

I grew up Roman Catholic as my religion. I graduated in a Catholic High School where we had to wear school uniforms. Our skirts are worn way below the kneecap. I actually liked it. I also loved going to the confessing room to our priest every Wednesday afternoon after school is over. It was a ritual for me to attend Sunday morning mass where there was a couple of times where I had to go in front of a lectern before the altar to read a specific Scripture in the Bible. I just feel Blessed to be a part of what you call a religion.
 As a young teenager, I was pretty much obedient and respectful to all kinds of authority. Even back then, I knew in the very core of my heart that there is the God that loves us through the infinity. I went along with the rituals of religion in high school until I went to college. That was the beginning of my endearing Quest for encountering the Truth.
A guy in my Freshman English Class had invited me to a Bible Study. I went with a girlfriend named Noreen. I wasn't gonna go by myself. I forgot to bring my Bible, unfortunately. We stayed for an hour or so. I believe that God sees your heart. You may not know Scriptures but He will bring you Godly people and resources if you're willing to be transformed to His ways, not your secular fleshly ways. Three years prior to that night, I was already water baptized in a river with the rest of my siblings. And my eldest sister Araceli had the first encounter with the Lord. She used to go to Luneta in Manila just to distribute leaflets/tracts about Jesus. She also got to share the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ to people from all walks of life. And she told me that, that was the most fulfilling event of her life whenever she helped ushers one soul to heaven's door.
  But for me, that spiritual path turned out to be a passing/ momentary experience. 

There are people that you meet in your life that will serve as agents and vessels of what God is trying to call you in--your Purpose. So, to me, it's not just one person. It's a collaboration of 
Godly and lukewarm people that I wished I could have known better. It was my journey to find out through a lot of self-denials, disobedience to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and most likely, my flesh is in the way to God's will for my life. I learned that the very hardest way.
But here I am having this opportunity to tell the world that all of my experiences transcends Romans 8:38-39
"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

"Tell Someone Else Story..."

"Tell Someone Else Story"

Her name was Susan, my college best friend and continued to be my best friend till we each got married and reconnected here in the U.S. I married a Puerto Rican and the marriage lasted for 15 years and she married a white guy and their marriage lasted a year. I got two wonderful sons; Susan had none. She lived more than twenty-five years in New York till she passed away in 2012.
We saw each other three times while we were living in New Jersey. We went to see her in Queens, New York a few times and she and a friend came down to see us in New Jersey.
Whenever we're together, we didn't reminisce the good times in our college years. We just talked
like old buddies and just that. I guessed the duration of time that we were apart has changed us.
She can't relate to me as a mother of two boys and I can't connect with her lifestyle which is the single life. And that was foreign to me...
We were inseparable when we were in college. We loved the outdoors. We used to go to Burnham Park together and sometimes with a few of my dormmates and just had picnics. We walked so many miles in those years that I still have my callouses in my feet as of that remembrance. Her family had a small store that sells fruits and vegetables and we got to help sell them and at the same time hit our books
to study. We were both competitive academically but not to each other. It was ridiculously fun to be in the University G-Clef singing choir where we got to perform in big hotels in the area and to other
venues. We were also a part of the University Women's Bowling Tournament, the Debate and Drama Teams. You guys may be wondering how we were able to excel in most areas
of our college life.
Susan was a woman of so many special giftings. She was very intuitive, a very good listener,
kind, beautiful, genuine, confident and with a mighty sense of humor. She stood her ground.
She was very articulate in explaining things. Unlike me, I try "to go around the bush"
as much as I can just to avoid being called blunt and adamant. I do "sugar coat" a lot of my
verbal expressions jus not to hurt somebody else's feelings. But in doing so, I ended up hurting myself
because not being truthful or honest with how you really feel, you become the victim of your own losses. Susan perceived that as naivete on my part. She actually admires that in me for not being exposed to the hard realities of life.
I still miss her so much. Not being there with her when she was terminally ill had put a dent
in my heart. She never told me. Didn't want me to worry. Or perhaps, she wanted me to always have a strong, healthy, brilliant, beautiful and sweet image of her to stay in my heart...
I have never thought that she will be gone before me. She was a picture of good health,
inside and out. She was and still is my best friend to date... Our memories as best friends filled up my reservoir. I do think and reminisce how she touched my life incredibly.  

"Write What You Know..."

Today's topic for our 500-word challenge is to write something we know. It could be a day in your life that is unforgettable to you that is easy to describe. I have many unforgettable memories but
for some reasons, I can't articulate them. I can remember bits of events but there are gaps.
When I graduated from college, that was a good time to remember. When my first child
was born, that was heavenly. My first year of teaching in high school was very introspective.
When I owned a home and a car, that was celebratory. But nothing compared to that day
when I went to my church retreat and was spiritually slain by the Holy Spirit when the reverend/pastor invited people to come to the altar and be filled. I was one of the first ones to
respond to the invitation.
But before that happened, I was already fasting for 3 days with just liquids. Water, milk, & juice.
This happened summer of 2009. That evening was full of challenges. But my faith was
unwavering. It was raining so hard coupled with lightning and thunderstorms and heavy traffic. It was rough going to my mom's house. I invited her to come with me.
If my heart wasn't right back then, I would have easily turned around and gone home.
On my way to my mom's house, while all of these are happening, I thought I was going
crazy to have seen which looked like a burning log, maybe a 20-inch long and it slammed in my windshield. It was audible and I thought why was I the only one who witnessed it? I looked around while driving in the pouring rain to see whether other drivers saw what happened in my car.
And it seemed like it was just a dream but it wasn't. I knew then that was one of the manifestations of God's presence. I was scared to share it at first for their wrong notion
about that experience. I knew then that God was calling me for a purpose.
So that night when the reverend put his hand on me and started praying and prophesying for
 God's great plans for my life; nothing specific but I fell down on the floor. I didn't know how long I was basking in the presence of the Holy Spirit and when I woke up, I felt Peace from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. There was that exceeding joy unexplainable, and Peace that passes all human understanding. I wasn't baffled; I was beyond happy. I hugged everyone my arms can reach and embrace. If that was heavenly-like, how much more when we get to be with the presence of our Heavenly Father-- just worshipping Him. There will be a day when there are no more tears, no more goodbyes and no more bills to pay and sicknesses or illnesses to invade our bodies.
What a day forever that would be?

"Learning The Art Of Free-Writing..."

According to Jeff Goins, who started the 'My 500 Words Challenge,' Free-writing
is writing without worrying about editing or punctuation or anything else that would keep
you from writing. Master the art of silencing the inner critic, letting go of perfectionism, and embracing your art." I highly approve the phrase that he used especially embracing your art.

I perceive Art having aesthetic value; creative imagination, a gallery, and landscapes of natural
scenic views of people and their works. If one can incorporate all of that in one topic, that
is ingenious Art.

Today is the first Saturday of the year 2019. I just started going to a prayer fellowship at our church
 This is an hour of praying for the needs of those that filled out their prayer requests on a card.
Last week, I was privileged to pray for five people in my heart, even during my prayer time at
home. This morning, people that came had tripled in number. My heart was rejoicing for that
good turnout. I love that I witness people's devotion to praying. We still believe that praying is
our lifeline to God. Today I got to pray for ten people. It gave me an insight that we all have
emotional, physical, financial, and spiritual needs. And we should not be ashamed to ask
people to pray for us. We are here to lift each other up and edify one another. 
To me, praying for someone to be healed from an illness, restoration of broken relationships intervened by God, and unsaved family members to be saved had done
me good.

 It quiets my mind reassuring me that I am not alone. And through corporate prayer these petitions get stronger and bolder in the eyes of God.
Leaving the church this morning put me to ease... leading me to do my grocery shopping.
I don't know if it was just coincidence or what. All the people I came to contact with whether in passing or having an intentional conversation with the clerk or grocer or the parking lot attendant,
the florist, the baker, and the banker; they all seemed so nice in their dealings with me. I couldn't believe my eyes that at the grocery store, no one has tried to intimidate me or rude to me. 
There were countless times that whenever I go to any grocery store, people are just rude, very oblivious of what they're doing. Gone are those days when the mantra is respect and using
"Excuse me, I'm sorry and Thank You is a given. But Today is very Special. I got to see and 
experience the extension of prayer. I have my faith that because I immersed myself in praying    
others' needs that the Lord wanted me to see that we can cultivate goodness in people
no matter what their cultural background and social strata in life. For this, I am thankful 
that His grace is sufficient, His mercies are new in the morning and that His love
is unfailing.
Thus, I am admonished to share 2 Chronicles 7;14 (NIV) which says, " If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways,
then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Thank You for your time and Good Night!