Every Day is a Gift

Note: " As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Amazon and Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com,INc. or its affiliates."            Yesterday marked another milestone for me and my son since he started his first day in High School on that day. Me and my wife were both excited and nervous as well since it was his first time to ride the public transport by himself. What made us a little bit relax though was by reminding our son to make sure that everything is prepared the night before. This included his school supplies, bag, and uniforms.            Knowing that it will be his first time to ride the bus by himself, we tried to orient him where then is the route of the bus and also its point of stop. Thus the day of reckoning came in yesterday as he had his first day in school. We were excited waiting for him in the afternoon. And when he came in, we eagerly asked him how then was the day for him.  Image...

          Australia is tested at this point in time through a major incident which is the ongoing bushfire especially in states like Victoria and New South Wales. Since last year, bushfires happened everywhere in those states plus that happened in Western Australia and South Australia.         It is painful to see the damages done by the tragedy- all lost lives, burned properties like houses, centres, playgrounds and millions of animals dead- they also left a burning pain on the hearts of the directly and indirectly affected.         On the other hand, the influx of assistance handed to the victims and to the affected states as well clearly shows the caring hearts Imagecredit: of others who have witnessed the said incident. How people sacrificed a part of their resources, time, presence and others to support all victims is a clear manifestation of the goodness in humanity.       ...

Disclosure: "As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Amazon and Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com,Inc. or its affiliates."           What drives us to wake up everyday to go to work and perform our daily activities? What motivates us to hang on to life in spite of all its challenges? How do we make our life more meaningful and worthy? The answer to these questions is our dreams- they are the ones that drive us to look up each day as a gift full of surprises .         Given that we have varied dreams from one person to the other- may this be a bright future for our family.... for our loved ones....or this is the dream of building and living in a house which you can call as your own someday......dream of achieving the best of our ability realising our potentials to its maximum capacity.        Yet later on, we then realise that achieving our dreams is not an easy thing to do--------nev...

Note: "As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com,Inc. or its affiliates."            Soon 2018 will be a part of our history and we welcome a new year 2019. For sure, 2018 has been a colourful year for all of us- yin and yang, white and black, light and dark etc- those are constantly the contrasting reality of all our events this year.           However whatever may be our moments for this year, we should learn how to move on from those negative memories that we had and be grateful for the positive things that we experienced. Photo by  mckenzie toyne  on  Unsplash           Moving forward could be challenging for some most notably if it involves a lot of pain but for us to grow physically, morally, psychologically and spiritually, we ought to embrace both positive and negative events.     ...

          Being a gift from Somebody, each one of us has the responsibility to proceed to self-development and never to self-destruction. Life is such a complicated yet much more of that a wonderful gift. Every single day, you trek a tougher road ahead of you. And you never know what the future holds for you. Yet  when you look back and reflect on your past events, you can be very proud to say that indeed, you made some tough decisions in life and somehow, what counts most especially for you is that you made the right decisions.           Life, for some people, is often associated with pain however, never stop there. Try to flip the coin and you will discover the other side of it- the other side of life. Always tell yourself, " I'm in charge of my whole life ." and refrain from allowing anybody to dictate you what to do with it. It doesn't stop there for the next essential thing for you to do is to accept  imagecredit ...

          While attending a service today, I was struck when the presider said that many among the young children of today grow as intellectually giants but emotionally pygmies. And while I was listening to him, I slowly nodded my head in affirmation. And to add to that, I think the only legacy that any parent can leave to his children is the examples of being a good and kindhearted individual.            Sometime last week, I remember reading it online that a son of a very well known intellectual family committed suicide since he did not find any consolation anymore in the family. What were normally brought during table conversations were topics on achievements, figures, big amount of money, etc. and he was feeling left out since at that very moment, he was already sensing like being choked in the neck. What he needed at that time was a breather and not all those accomplishments, greatness, incentives etc.. imagecredit:...

          A while ago, I was talking to my wife and she mentioned that when she was driving back home from work yesterday at the Freeway, there was an accident involving 4 vehicles. Those cars were in front of her and luckily she was spared from that accident and all its hassles. Then I tried to remind her to constantly maintain a proper and safe distance between her and the car in front of her so that if it suddenly applies brake, it would not put her into danger.             As I tried to reflect on that situation, I realised that life is like driving- that our actions are similarly affecting us and those people around us.  Anyway, here then are few similarities between the two of them: 1. Direction- in driving we always need a direction where to go and where to perform stops, turns and  slowing down. In life, we also need to have that directions (goals) for from them, we also set our strategies and steps o...

          My wife underwent thyroidectomy last Monday at Austin Hospital. Before her scheduled surgery, I was already trying to anticipate what will be the various scenarios on her big day. What I perceive was just a simple surgery then maybe after an hour or two, everything will be alright.            However, on the day itself, it was a long wait for me and I was filled with mixed emotions as I stayed in the hospital waiting for her to complete her procedure. What was perceived as an easy ordeal became a long and tedious waiting. We arrived earlier at Austin Hospital (actually she was expected to arrive at 11 am but due to our excitement, we decided to go to the hospital earlier). We went to the information booth and were  instructed to proceed to the 3rd floor for her initial steps prior to the surgery.           At the waiting room, she filled up paper works and got ready for her knife appo...

          In life, we have numerous occasions that we termed as milestones. What makes them deep-coloured is when we have the chance to celebrate them with good friends and special people in our life. We have gatherings such as work anniversary, golden wedding anniversary, retirement, birth of a new baby, birthdays etc..            As I celebrate one highlight of my life, my birthday, I am grateful to all people who have come and made it colourful. At the outset, I am thankful to God for the gift of life that He has entrusted to me. And although I know that it is but a borrowed one and that sooner or later, I am going to return it to its Creator, I am but extremely joyful that I embrace this life. Consequently, I recognise that I have a great responsibility to take care of it thus allowing it to grow into the kind of life that will make its owner happy. On the other hand, knowing that I have both yin and yang of this lif...

A Guest Post: Change is a part of life. Every day we face different scenarios. Sometimes, we have no control over them. While, sometimes we do. Thus. the graph of life's activities is never constant. One such challenging activity is moving interstate. When we put in such a position,  most shudder at the thought of all the work involved. But, we have to go through the process if it has a positive impact on our career, family, or education. Moving interstate is a task which could get very annoying and complex, even for those who are used to moving locally. But, getting all irritated and giving up is not the solution. One must learn how to deal with this hectic and time-consuming task efficiently.  imagecredit:  https://upload.wikimedia.org/ wikipedia/commons/0/02/Moving_ house.JPG Presented below are some techniques that will help you get through this frantic challenge.  1. Pre-Packing Plan It is very important that one must start their preparation o...

          Social networking sites nowadays have emerged like mushrooms and to name a few, sites such as Facebook, Linked, Pinterest, Brimble, Twitter, and many more have enjoyed much popularity as each day passes by. To cite a specific interest, we will take one particular site which is very popular nowadays and this is Facebook.             As of March this year, there are "  665 million users everyday and 751 million using Facebook from a mobile device each month."  (Reference: https://www.google.com.au/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=xdDXVYIBo-7zB-XZvfgL&gws_rd=ssl#q=statistical+data+of+facebook+users) . From this figure, one can find out how much relevance Facebook is having then at the present time.            But one may ask, how then could we find relevance in our time using any of these  social network sites? Answers may differ from one person to the other yet the most co...

            Recently, a friend confided with me that her boyfriend dumped her for no reason at all. Such a terrible thing to happened to her, she felt lost and abandoned. As those two years had passed with her boyfriend, she gave him everything so that he will feel happy and contented in their relationship yet a few days back, he decided to end up their relationship. imagecredit:           Until now, she could hardly bear the pain and the heartaches brought about this shocking episode to her life. Days had passed and she continued crying day in and day out. I hope that she will recover soon this bad chapter of her life journey.           In our life, bad times is a part and parcel of it and no matter who we are at the moment and how we stand in the community , there still are those trying moments in our life. And as each bad day falls on us, all we need to do is let it go and learn how to move o...

          Sharing with you today some thoughts to ponder for us as we continue with our various journeys in life. Along with the disparate chapters of our life, we come and encounter different situations and events that some will ask us to arrive at a crossroad then decide what to do next. While these thoughts below may have been carved by distinct individuals yet they all have one thing in common- that is to inspire us all in our daily endeavours. 1. "We rate ability in men by what they finish, not by what they attempt." Success driven individuals will always aim for the best results in all their endeavours. However at times this will boil down not just by finishing the race but by the quality of the work's outcome. All the successes that we will have in our life will determine how we will manage those life's chapters. 2. " Ability without ambition is like a car without a motor." Indeed this statement makes much relevance in our life. Hence it is v...

          In the blogosphere, there are many personalities and players who make contributions every now and then. A multitude of them just create a mere impact or none at all while some make it to the top. One among the leaders in the blogging world today is John Chow-  known to be a famous writer, blogger, author, speaker, father, and an entrepreneur.           As one of his followers, it is also my intention to extend with others the inspirations and enlightenment which I received from John. Here therefore are some highlights on his life.  imagecredit:           John was born in a small farming place in Mainland China. When he was 7 years old, his family decided to settle down in Canada. When he grew up, he started to try his luck in the world of blogging. Slowly, he became successful on this field and presently, he authored numerous best selling and popular books such as Blogging Secre...

          We all have our considered richness in life- health, family, wealth, achievements etc.. And I do believe that one among the stand out among them is the family. Yes we all value each of our families and in fact, that's the very main reason why majority, if not all of us, are working hard and exerting much of our time for the sake of our families.  imagecredit:          Indeed, we are unaware that at times, we gain strength and importance from all the significant persons inside our families. How about you, do you spend quality time with your family- with all your loved ones? Moreover we can learn bountiful things from our day to day interactions with our loved ones. All those which we have learned from school about love, understanding, openness, welcoming etc, we can concretised them all first and foremost through the members of our families.            How then can we teach LOV...

          When disasters strike a place, a community or a nation, I can't help myself but be filled with mixed emotions as I recall how the victims and their families suffer the consequences of such events. I could feel the relief and joy of my heart upon realising how generous hearts extend their resources to those helpless victims.           In such tragedies such as typhoon, storms, fire, bushfire etc, such huge losses to life and properties are ever extended and befall to the victims. Consequently, I could feel the pain, hunger, meaningless, hopelessness in the faces of these people.  imagecredit:           On the other hand, what then becomes consoling is when people of all races, status, denominations and colours join hands together to uplift the plight of the victims. And as the days go by, I am hoping that more people with kind and generous hearts will continue to aid the victims so as...

          As we start another year, it is one common practice that we prepare a list of new year's resolutions- list of what we want to achieve in our life during the year. Actually this has been an ongoing practice since the time of the Babylonians and even during the knighthood era of the Medieval times.  At certain junctures, such practice offers a positive output to a person for it becomes a guide for him to perform better during the year and surpass what then was achieved during the previous year. imagecredit:           We have personally set up our goals for this year. And somehow, this resolution comes out in so many styles and forms like setting a limit to one's exposure to the TV or even in front of one's laptop. Some will aim for a more moderated lifestyle such as avoiding too much alcohol or if one is willing, an alcohol free life during the year. On the other hand, there are those who want to refrain from going ou...

          As we have just recently celebrated the All Souls Day and offered prayers for the faithful departed, it is but fitting for us  to reflect on the significance of this element of resting in our life. Oftentimes, when death comes to a person, we usually say or write, RIP which means "Resquiescat in Pace" or "Rest In Peace". A little of history about this practice happened in the eight century when it became ubiquitous on the tombs of Christians as well as for the High Church Anglicans and the Roman Catholics in particular." - Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia            As such, we are therefore constantly reminded that everything on this earth is but temporal and that at a certain point in our life, we will come to terms with our own death. Thus there is that consistent invitation for us all to be always ready when death comes and in some cases, it does in an unexpected manner just like a thief in the night....

          Are you a person whose holding power in your hands?  Are you one of those who administer control over others especially people in your own capacity? What is power then? Too many defintions can correlate with this one yet allow me to just pick up 2 definitions for my input here.These 2 are: 1 . "the ability or capacity to do something or act in a particular way" 2. the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others or the course of events"  1           With these two, I would like to relate it with the famous catchphrase from the movie,   Spider-Man  that when somebody has power on his hands, there goes alongside of it a great responsibility. At times, the situation becomes difficult, if not complicated, when the person holding the power over others doesn't know how to handle it. What makes the situation worse is when he abuse it thus becoming detrimental to the growt...