Another Really Nice Day

Today was a really nice day.

I woke up early because a family friend was coming over. She was asking help on her speech for the AVP presentation during her daughter's debut. I just corrected her grammatical errors and added humor to her speech. I also tried to shorten it because it was too long. Together we made finishing touches.

We ordered breakfast from McDo and she paid for it. I had Big Breakfast with garlic rice and orange juice. I ordered hot chocolate and hash browns for my son. My mom had egg mcmuffin and our friend had pancakes with sausage and coffee. Great breakfast!

After she left, I went back to a deep sleep.

After lunch, I slept again. When I woke up it was already past 4!

Then, my friend called me saying that her driver and car are available. I can be picked up so I can go to church.

At long last, I was able to go to Confession, hear part of the mass,
and receive Communion.

I was brought home.

For dinner, I had tocino, rice and gelatin with nata de coco.

What a day!

Burgoo with a Friend

Today, my friend Rexy fetched me at the condo. We exchanged gifts. She gave me ham, grapes, pineapple juice and Coke Zero.

We went to Burgoo in Podium. We ordered their special offer for five people. We had two appetizers - cheesy fries and onion rings - and two entrees - linguini with clams and mexican pizza. We didn't finish the onion rings and pizza so I asked RR to give them to his staff.
We talked about work and common friends and ourselves.

We then went to Edsa Shrine. I lined up for confession. The others took long. But when my turn came, it didn't even take five minutes! Nevertheless, it feels soooh good to get the forgiveness of God through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Rexy brought me back to the condo because she helped me carry the stuff she gave me. We drank some juice before she left.

I just read a beautiful email entitled "Live a Life that Matters". It read like this:

Ready or not, someday it will come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours, or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear.
So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed important will fade away.
It won't matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived, at the end.
It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender or skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter?
How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought but what you built;
not what you got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered, or encouraged others to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.
What will matter is not your memories but the memories that live in those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.
It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

Choose to live a life that matters.

- Author: Michael Josephson

Beautiful, isn't it? So inspiring!

My Passport to Heaven

A Chinese priest from Beijing who is here said to my best friend: "Your best friend's sickness is her ticket to heaven. When she focuses on Jesus, when she treats her sickness as her passport to Jesus, when people see Jesus in her, she is sure to get to heaven." What wonderful words!

Yesterday, I was finally able to go to confession - to a bishop pa! I was with friends and we had fun eating pizza, spaghetti, salad. I refused to eat the cake although boy was I tempted! I just ate a piece of mango.

Wait, my son needs me to check his yearbook. Let me be a mother first.

The Cleansing

Yesterday, I talked about taking a bath. Today, I did something infinitely better!

Nope, I didn't go to the sauna nor the spa. (My experience with the former is limited and believe it or not, I've never gone to a spa. That's how "simple" my life has been and will continue to be.)

Given up on guessing?

I availed of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In terms more understood by many, I went to Confession. It has been exactly a month since my last Confession and my sins have accumulated. I'm back to my holiness trip or shall we call it my trip towards heaven.

Well, in this day and age, temptations about. I'm single (again). Pretty. (Oops, sorry, Lord for my lack of humility.) There are still vultures hovering around at my age. You get my point. And there are so many sins - of thought, word, and deed. I fall easily in the area of ______.

That is why lately, I've been reading up on the saints again. My favorites are Padre Pio, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa. I get inspiration from their lives, their works and prayers. I may not - and need not - be canonized someday but I do want to be as holy as I can possibly be. If it means bearing all my sicknesses and offering all my pains and hardships for the souls most in danger of not making it to heaven, so be it.

Thank God for the Sacrament of Reconciliation! It's much more cleansing than a cool, refreshing bath!