Our Mother of Perpetual Help, Thank you :)

thank you for YOU ARE ALWAYS NEAR AND ALWAYS THERE. thanks for the much needed help of yesterday, of today and of the future. you are my light, my eyes, my strength. you always showed me the truth and the way to the right path. you gave me wisdom, you gave me your much needed intercessions when I am lost and needed them most. you gave me that much needed consolation in times of sadness, hopelessness, anger, despair and disappointments. you, with the father above and Jesus...i am forever grateful...

the image of our mother of perpetual help in our parish that i took not too long ago. this image was transferred from another church when our parish was renamed "our mother of perpetual help parish" from "our lady of fatima" 2 years ago due to consolidation of parishes made by the catholic archdiocese in our area...the rose was from my garden one nice summer. a beautiful bloom rightly meant for our mother...my faith is the wind behind my back. i won't be here living in the U.S. without the grace of God...miracles do happen, that's for sure...so i thank God everyday from the bottom of my heart :)...

whispered memories that you couldn't catch before they fade away"...a remarkable line from an old turner classic movie called "random harvest" 1942...i watch old movies for they constantly remind us of our mortality. old movies and its characters are eaten by time. it is just a stroke of luck that these actors and actresses are forever recorded, unlike most of humanity then. but now you can record your own video-movie with the brilliant inventions of the present time :)

“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.”  anonymous? from the www...we can't do anything about the past except it is a silent teacher. we can't do anything about tomorrow because it is not yet for us to swallow. today is what we have granted that the sun will smile at us. to be what we want to be, to do what we want to do before the clutches of time catches on us and eat us. before there are no more sunrises, before we don't have enough strength to enjoy this gift of a limited time on earth. sad in a way but God designed it that way. we are just humble creations of our powerful creator, God :) who has the final say with regards to what will eventually happen to us in our short timed lives...so... let's aid a life before life passes us by :>

Michael & Me in Canada 6-28-2017

In the Philippines & in Canada, then and now...

Autism, a robber in broad daylight...

How do you feel when it's dark all day
How do you see if nothing lights your way
How do you do your chores
How do you cook and clean
Tell me, how, in the absence of the sun

Will you see at night when the moon is gone
Will the stars above have that enough shine
Will the owl, the fox, or the dog can dance
Will the cat, the cow or the rat can run
Tell me, if you can see shadows in the dark

Why does a child can't read or write
Why does a boy can't play with a ball
Why does a girl can't play with a doll
Why do some kids can't ride a two wheel bike
Tell me, why, some children can't understand

Do you sing and dance with them
Do you smile and laugh with them
Do you do their jobs for them
Do you, can you, tell them what to do
Tell me how to open up a tight igloo

Autism, with that mind altering bug
Robbing a child's intelligence once
Permanently erasing memory lane
No sun, no moon, no light, no dreams
Tell me when can they act like a normal human being...

Special children are special people...

LIFE IS TANGO

LIFE IS A TANGO
As you dance in each passing day
Feeling your way in every move
Not so sure how your steps will be
Dance is a movement
It's very gracious, at times it's fancy free
Blunders and errors are at your feet
As you glide with your partner as you sway
Life is like that in some moments
As mistakes are made along the way...

Special thanks to you anonymous artist who created this wonderful piece of art...

LIFE WILL ONLY HAPPEN ONCE

WHAT LIFE IS ALL ABOUT

The road is winding down
the best rays of the sun are gone
The moon will soon arise 
with its slow shimmering light

We travel in this life's journey

however the streets are crowned
With stars or fireworks, with thorns or crosses
or with laughter, cheers or sighs

Nevertheless time moves on
with the tick of the clock
Tick tock, high low, faint loud
until you see that road which all of us will pass

To reach that glorious end
where harmony and peace, where God stands
As our Lord above awaits for us
with His divine embrace and hug

Asking all of us, "How did my paradise worked for you?
the earth with all its wonderful sights
The sea, the mountains, the forest and the waterfalls
and of course your unique co humans?"

"Did you enjoy my gift, until it lasted
until it ended, until the sun went down
Until your last breath, until your last moments
and here you are with me now"

Our departed loved ones would have said to God...
"in spite of the pains, in spite of the heartaches,
in spite of life's challenges and travails"
"Life is the most beautiful gift
that any of us could ever received,could ever experienced
even how short or long that journey will"

To all of our departed loved ones
and to ALL of us alive, beware...
This life's journey is short and quick
Lost, gone forever before we knew it

So let's catch a glimpse of happiness
while there is still a chance
While we have the strength and the time
to enjoy life for it is real grand

Young and old the playing field is fair
Life is priceless though sad for it will certainly end
Let's pray that our life's journey
is long to our heart's content

And let's hope in God's divine grace
and hold on to His divine love
and keep them forever
in our dearest heart of hearts

As we take our steps to welcome a new day for the sun to roll
For we do not even know what is next for us
as life is full of surprises
that we humans can only mull, like, or enjoy...

YES definitely life is beautiful in spite of it all
YES we love life, the gift of God even how hard life is sometimes and its toil...

Let's start with the Rose...

Vividly I remember your rose
Ruby red the crown jewel of July
Red is the color of the heart
Love meant in each petals?

My very own red roses
Once in full bloom
A canopy of beautiful reds
For the eyes to adore

Never to return again
For time carried them all
As each of us will go too
Shelved in time's eternal vault

For eternity's turning pages
For the memories it holds
For the bright smiles it brought
In this lovely earth we call home...

For the blessed Virgin Mary whose flower is the lovely and exquisite rose :)...my roses in front of our home, one beautiful summer...

life's reflections...

we all have stories to tell, earth shaking, extra ordinary or just plain and simple. our lives, ordinary or exemplary, our life story should be told to those who are willing to listen ;)

well mine is in between. born poor because of the deceitfulness of bad humans. my grandparents own a sizable land but my grandparents were victims of a scam who persuaded them to sell their property for the land of promise in mindanao then which turned out to be an illusion. this made my dad and his siblings to scramble for life and make it on their own...

but God is good, i was sent by my kind hearted, rich, spanish virgin mary look alike benefactor to UST for my nursing degree. i was able to navigate the hardships of college working as a maid because my aunt was their cook. i helped mop the floor, wash the dishes, prepare the things that my aunt needed to cook and also clean our masters' quarters at the same time going to nursing school. up to this day i wonder why i wasn't kicked out... pre-nursing we started with 21 sections with 50 students each but in our internship 9 sections were just left to continue. UST is pretty hard i tell you, maybe bec. of my being a valedictorian and i graduated top in that honor roll in HS with 200 students, maybe i was well equipped to weather the storm of nursing school... brain wise ;)

i worked as an operating room nurse for about a year and a half and luckily when maxine gurgold, the director of nursing at mt. carmel mercy hospital here in the U.S. went to the philippines and stayed at the manila hotel and interviewed hundreds of nurses applicants there, i was one of the only 6 who were given the job to come here in the U.S.to work in this hospital. several years later the sisters of mercy sold this facility to my current employer. i was very lucky that i'd never forgotten this enormous blessing in my life. i was only 26 years old then and i was U.S. bound to work for the richest and the most powerful country on earth which president Obama said during his very last state of the union address and that no other country could even come close in comparison. plus the only super power to boot. my life made a dramatic shift for the better after that. God is always good. if you work hard you can do it with God's grace. no help from wealthy parents for i don't have one. only from the mercy of our most powerful and loving God above :)

as life rolls it makes changes. my family's life was profoundly changed last year when my husband of almost 3 decades passed away but we are determined to move on in spite of the sadness and the grief. we will continue to live our lives showing more of our sunny disposition and our brighter outlook of life. things happen and only God knows the reason why but that's life. one by one we will all bid our goodbyes to this earth sooner or later. tomorrow the sun will shine again and at night the moon will come out and so of the billions of stars twinkling up in the sky. we look up and make a wish and dream of a better life ahead of not only for us but of other families as well with husbands or without. life only happens but once. we will ride its wagon until the end. until God decides to take us back like mother angelica. EWTN is here to stay, her creation. a remarkable nun that for the love of Jesus she was inspired to dream big, to give big and to have lived bigger than life. farewell dear mother. you were an extra ordinary human being who deserves to be a saint someday... like mother theresa...

above's remarkable art is by john singer sargent...thank you :)

AID A LIFE IS NOW ON THE WEB :)

Please visit us at http://www.aidalife.org/

WE GIVE LOVE

THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE

You can't buy true love
it comes as in a fancy free
You won't buy courage
it is the fuel of dreams
You can't buy faith
our divine link to God
You can't buy friends
for they are heaven's gift...

Resurrection Art

Dima's art of Easter Celebration, San Miguel, Mexico...thanks for your divine work of art :)

Life is a celebration...

A sun's journey without a cloud is hot 
but the moon rises at night to cool it down

A river's ride above the water that is so calm
the waves are mute without the ocean

Oh life how truly beautiful you are
adorned by miracles of the divine

All things are planned, all things are run
quietly and efficiently by the hands of God

Guiding us all in our life's path...

LOVE IS JESUS, the lenten season meant quiet reflections

it is short
life is too short...

life is fun
it can be fun
if there is no hate
roving around

you would think
that we are smart...

but we always forget
that life is timed
it won't forever last
no matter what

there is that road
the road of no return...

where live flesh
will turn into ashes
merely being blown away
by the passing wind

just like that...

ASH WEDNESDAY is the start of the Holy Week, and the cross is the most visible symbol of our religion. the love of our Father in heaven for us is forever manifested in His Son dying on the cross to redeem our sins...

Jesus and the Cross, my version of the "Old Rugged Cross" classic