The Prayer Box

WOW!

If there is a rating more than five stars, I’ll give this book a six. It’s one of the best books I’ve read to date, my 70th out of the 100 books I challenged myself to finish for  Goodread’s 2016 Reading Challenge. I am afraid my review would not be enough to describe the beauty of this book, how well-written it is so I won’t even attempt to write one. Suffice to say, this book is beautiful, inspiring, awesome…..beautiful, inspiring, awesome. Truly a masterpiece. Lisa Wingate is a gifted writer.

I didn’t know I was on the last page when I read these lines.

“None can contain the magnificence of a wave kissing sand or the perfect spiral of a shell drying translucent in the sun or the fire of morning over endless water.

Or the beauty of a hummingbird as it hovers just an arm’s length away, mysteriously out of season on the day before Thanksgiving, it’s wings stroking air,rapid, invisible, powerful. Frozen in time for only an instant.

And then it flies away, growing smaller and smaller against the blue of an endless sky. Until finally it disappears into heaven.”

There are so many lovely quotes that I found in this book that  I copied  to my journal.  The prayer box reminds me of another blog post I wrote exactly a year ago. My  thought box is a discarded chocolate tin which contains  square  scratch papers of different size and color (filled with words, quotes, single lines, messages and reminders) which I have to sort out again  whereas the prayer box is a treasure trove of  inspiring words and letters religiously documented over the years.

When a book touches  you where it matters the most, it is certainly a winner.

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Tales From Home

He asked, “are ghouls baby ghosts Nonna?” I answered “they’re not.” So he went back to his mommy and ninong and shouted, “ghouls are mother ghosts”. I think they didn’t hear him because they were busy talking.

I asked him how many stars he received in school. He pointed to his wrist and counted….eight, nine, ten. Then he laughed, a typical Nate laugh, what a joy to hear it 🙂

He saw our candy jar in a corner and asked if he could have one so I told him that’s a cherry menthol candy. He looked at me probably thinking about that “menthol” taste then he said, “I’ll give it to Mommy”. Wise kid.

It was another lovely day spent with Nate.

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Candle Light

I’ve always been in awe of candle light photography. I remember those photos I took of lighted candles at the St. Padre Pio Chapel near our place.

Watching the flickering flames somehow brings that inner peace in one’s soul, the quiet of the moment, fervent prayers uttered, the beauty of the Now.

A niece who is vacationing in France sent me some photos of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Paris and these is one of them. She knows that I love subjects like this and she told me, “I took those photos for you auntie”.  She hasn’t shared it on other social media sites, she said I could use them any way I want, be it on my blog or as personal collection.  Thank you Annabelle.

I am imagining myself right there at this moment, reflecting about life, its beauty and its angst while watching the flames sway and dance.

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Mimi….Finally!

Do you remember my blog post  a month ago about  our dog Noki and a newly adopted kitten we now call Mimi? I’ve long wanted to take her photo but every time I make an attempt, she moves and try to grab my tab.  Well, here she is finally 🙂  I caught her napping near our dining area a while ago. She  has grown chubby. Do you   think she needs to diet?  She always meow for food even if she’s done eating and Noki would allow her to take his bowl and eat again.  They are friends now. One of these days, I would take a photo of them together.

Our adopted kitty Mimi!

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Oh, They Call It Selfie

Please don’t crucify me.

I am not a selfie addict and I have never been one.

Long before Facebook has become popular and Instagram a favorite venue for posting those shots, selfie has been in vogue although ten years ago you won’t call a self-portrait a selfie. It gained a wider popularity among the youth overtime.  Blame it on the proliferation of cheap cellphones or digital camera. You are not in if you don’t have at least a 5mp mobile phone. Never mind that it takes grainy photos as long as one can post  them on social media.  The lure of having a new mobile device with a more tempting  12 megapixel camera on the side  is enough. You won’t need a high-end camera to take selfies. They take clear photos along with apps that you can choose to make them nicer than they actually look.

Selfie.

Why did I even think of blogging about it? It reminds me of that time I rode a bus going to UST, the long ride would make you notice every one just to pass the time. I blogged about it here somewhere. You know that kind of thing where the bedroom is as wide as the bus you were riding.   Yes, some girls or gals would not think twice doing their “personal  thing” to improve their looks, never mind that they are in a very public place like a moving bus.

I was eating an early lunch at Jollibee today when someone took the seat opposite mine on the next table. I was surprised when she started combing her hair, applying on face powder and lipstick, I can’t help but stare. What? In a public place, an eatery at that? Oh well  😦  As if that is not enough, she took out her cellphone, pointed it in front of her and made those facial expressions that look so funny to me but I was thinking, “oh, selfie”. There’s the pouting lips, a demure smile, a smile showing her teeth, an expression like she is kissing someone in front of her, a formal expression on her face. I told myself, “candid  selfie shots, so that’s how its done.”  🙂  then her companion, probably a friend arrived with a tray of sandwiches and drinks.  I was about to finish my meal and took out a small notebook to write  another blog post, when I looked up though,  I was surprised that she was doing the same thing that her friend did earlier, even changing seats so she could have the angle she wanted.

Selfie generation.

You might say, I am an old soul, an old generation.  I’d rather take photos of something about nature  or take photos of Nate when he is around than taking a selfie shot of this old face and smiling in front of a camera. There is one thing more I do notice nowadays, even Facebook has that new app called filters where you could make your face so flawless, even finer than a baby’s face.  It’s not natural,  it destroys the true image of a subject.  I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. What do you think?

Oh, they call it selfie.

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More Surprises

The blogging world is truly amazing.

I can’t believe I’ve just reached 414,012 blog stats.

This made my Sunday complete 🙂

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50 And Counting

Got this message from WordPress today. Thank you for this WordPress.

Congratulations on writing 50 posts on Dreams Never End!

I updated my gardening blog too. If you have time, please swing by the site. I’ve just finished my project in one corner of the garden.  It’s nice that I can afford to post photos there in their original format without worrying about allowed limits 🙂

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My Seventh Anniversary

The day would have been incomplete without this.

Today, I am celebrating my 7th year in remission. THANK YOU LORD for the gift of life. Thank you for all the blessings.Thank you for the gifts of family and friends who were with me throughout this journey.

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Blogging And Such (Where Did I Make Mistakes?)

Whoa!

In all my seven years in the blogging world, this is the first time that it happened to me. Yesterday I was so disappointed that I lost a 500-letter blog post because I forgot to save it before copying to another site. It was supposed to be a guest post for a friend here who welcomes other bloggers to share their posts on his site. Just click this link to see his wonderful blog. Hi there Pete, maybe some other time, I’ll share a post  on your wall. Much as I want to reorganize my thoughts and rewrite the whole thing, it’s a futile exercise. Maybe the WordPress app read it as “delete the whole thing” when I shaded off the post, ready to copy it but forgot to save it first.

I have always been careful when it comes to publishing new posts. You have to take everything into consideration, the grammar error mostly because when you’re the one who edits your post, there may be spelling mistakes, tenses that do not go well with what you have in mind, words that are not appropriate to use and such. The downside of using the proofread writing app here is that as long as the words are correctly spelled, it would tell you ” no errors were found”.

But there is  good news.

Last July 7, I received a message from WordPress that says;

On Thursday, July 7, 2016 you surpassed your previous record of most follows in one day for your blog DREAMS AND ESCAPES. Nice!
Most Follows in One Day
Current Record: 7
Old Record: 6

What a nice surprise! Since the beginning of the month of July, I noticed a trickle of new followers, one or two max within the day but that was okay with me because it is not every day that you get to meet new bloggers who take time to comment and visit your blog. That’s actually a bonus.  Based on my stats, I earned a following of 30 bloggers since the start of July 2016.  Thank you so much, I would love to return the favor one of these days by visiting your blogs too.

I’ve always been conscious of the remaining 29% free space that I could still use here.  Perhaps you have noticed that I don’t post so many photos like I used to  because they eat up the available space when you are using a free theme. I have another blog for photography which I lately updated, a different blog for the grandson, a new blog called Dreams Never End which I would love to use fully once this is filled up. My  gardening posts are quite erratic since they depend on what I find in my small garden that I would love to share.  Although it does not matter much because I would still share my thoughts here even if only a few read it, I am proud to have 1,667 blog followers, 1,819 posts including this one and a total of 413,032 stats at the moment.

Kudos to blogging. We make mistakes sometimes but they are learning curves too.

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When Morning Comes

Poised to spread her wings

ready for flight

wanting to explore and discover

what life is all about,

But she is shivering in the cold

and wet morning.

Maybe,

Time would be kind enough

And let the sun show its face

so she could fly.

 

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