Dandelions

Dear Wonderful Reader,

I present to you: dandelions. Some see a weed, others see a wish.

 

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“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” (1 Corinthians 13:11)

“The practice of kindness is the daily, friendly, homely caring form of love. It is both humble-a schoolboy bringing his teacher a bouquet of dandelions-and exalted-a fireman giving his life to save someone else’s. Kindness is love with hands and hearts and minds. It is both whimsical-causing our faces to crack into a smile-and deeply touching-causing our eyes to shimmer with tears. And its miraculous nature is such that the more acts of kindness we offer, the more of them we have to give, for acts of kindness are always drawn from the endless well of love.”

Dawna Markova

“To have an inner life, to think, to juggle and leap, to become a tightrope walker in the world of ideas. To attack, to riposte, to refute, what a contest, what acclaim. To understand. The most generous word of all. Memory. To retain, a geyser of felicity. Intelligence. The agonizing poverty of my mind. Words and ideas flitting in and out like butterflies. My brain a dandelion seed blown in the wind.”

Violette Leduc

“A man who took great pride in his lawn found himself with a large crop of dandelions. He tried every method he knew to get rid of them. Still they plagued him. Finally he wrote the department of agriculture. He enumerated all the things he had tried and closed his letter with the question: “What shall I do now?” In due course the reply came: “We suggest you learn to love them.”

Anthony de Mello

“I was as unburdened as a piece of dandelion fluff, and he was the wind that stirred me about the world.”

Sarah J. Mass

Memories

“Our lives are the sum of our memories. How much are willing to lose from our already short lives by … not paying attention?”

-Joshua Foer

What can I do when I can do nothing?

what can i do when i can do nothing?

is there actually an instance where i can only do nothing?

is doing nothing doing something?

is nothing neutral?

or is nothing a negative contribution?

my guilt, powerlessness, lack of creativity and drive are eating at me. i help my friend run his instagram account for a dog rescue overseas and I get tragic messages about animals being poisoned, tortured, and suffering in ways that are unimaginable and in every sense of the word heartbreaking and i can do nothing, being i am 74884957 miles away and have no saying on which cases the rescue can take and the rescue is always full and lacking resources anyways. i see it all happening then I hear about the tragedy that followed because no one moved and I can d nothing. i admit i am a fool. i must be doing something wrong. or going at this wrong. there must be a solution. things shouldn’t be this bleak. I hope i have more faith to be a vessel to the power I know is available to us through Christ and do something about this suffering.

Weight of the World

Minute: 18:30 to 20:20

“You’re pressure is trying to point to something. So many in my life the reason that I was under pressure is because I was full of pride. He said, “We have this power, this treasure in earthen vessels”, or vessels of clay. An ordinary vessel and it’s an extra ordinary power. And so I am an ordinary person with an extra ordinary promise of the presence of God. But sometimes I get confused and I forget that I am just the pot, I am not the power. And sometimes I get so burdened because I put  the weight of the world on my shoulders and carry a cross that I am not strong to carry, that has already been carried for me. So I am under pressure sometimes because I am full of pride. And sometimes not all the time, pressure comes into your life not because of what you’re handling but because of how you’re handling it: you forgot your source (Jesus) and you lose strength. Pressure, pressure sometimes points to pride in your life“.

• A similar sermon in Arabic shot in an Egyptian Coptic Church

keep things in perspective

“Dear Mother and Dad:

It has been three months since I left for college. I have been remiss in writing and I am very sorry for my thoughtlessness in not having written before. I will bring you up to date now, but before you read on, please sit down. You are not to read any further unless you are sitting down, okay.

Well then, I am getting along pretty well now. The skull fracture and the concussion I got when I jumped out of the window of my dormitory when it caught fire shortly after my arrival are pretty well healed by now. I only spent two weeks in the hospital and now I can see almost normally and only get those headaches once a day.

Fortunately, the fire in the dormitory and my jump was witnessed by an attendant at the gas station near the dorm, and he was the one who called the Fire Dept. and the ambulance. He also visited me at the hospital and since I had nowhere to live because of the burnt out dormitory, he was kind enough to invite me to share his apartment with him. It’s really a basement room, but it’s kind of cute. He is a very fine boy and we have fallen deeply in love and are planning to get married. We haven’t set the exact date yet, but it will be before my pregnancy begins to show.

Yes, mother and dad, I am pregnant. I know how very much you are looking forward to being grandparents and I know you will welcome the baby and give it the same love and devotion and tender care you gave me when I was a child. The reason for the delay in our marriage is that my boyfriend has some minor infection which prevents us from passing our premarital blood tests and I carelessly caught it from him. This will soon clear up with the penicillin injections I am now taking daily.

I know you will welcome him into the family with open arms. He is kind and although not well educated, he is ambitious. Although he is of a different race and religion than ours, I know that your oft-expressed tolerance will not permit you to be bothered by the fact that his skin color is somewhat darker than ours. I am sure you will love him as I do. His family background is good too, for I am told his father is an important gunbearer in the village in Africa from which he comes.

Now that I have brought you up to date, I want to tell you there was no dormitory fire; I did not have a concussion or a skull fracture; I was not in the hospital; I am not pregnant; I am not engaged. I do not have syphillis, and there is no man in my life. However, I am getting a D in sociology and an F in science; and I wanted you to see these marks in proper perspective.

Your loving daughter,”

Day 6: The Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Experienced

Dear Wonderful Reader,

That would be being hooked up on a guy for 6 years who was not worth it. I do regret that time spent. All the mental and physical energy that was spent on him. In fact I am so over this experience now that I can’t write about with the same passion. That in itself makes me happy because It shows how far I have come and how I was able to put the past behind me. This gives me hope that I could overcome anything, however big it seems at the time. And I did learn a lot from this experience and I am bitter about it anymore.

Whatever you’re going through, remember the power of time. So It’s okay to be sad, bored, or after the guy or people, but let that time be entirely spent on them. Feel the emotions you want to feel but please work to achieve your goals and dream at the same time.

 

Blog Challenge, Day 2: My 3 Biggest Fears

Dear Wonderful Reader,

As much as I want to make this blog a happy place, I want to connect with you by opening myself and sharing things that I find myself very uncomfortable to admit pondering about or materialize in writing or conversation. Its easy to talk about external things, but extremely difficult to be open and vulnerable. Though, I believe that with great risks, comes great results. I find writing very therapeutic and a great way to unknot our thoughts and emotions buried deep inside.

Based on the views, I know that I have a lot of silent readers (I am a silent reader to many blogs too) but I would love to hear from you on this. Yes, I’m talking to you! What are you biggest fears?

. Death

Not my own death but others’. I don’t know when exactly did this became a fear of mine, but I believe that this is an innate fear in everyone even those who claim that they could make sense of it. God is truly my only solace and confidant when it comes to this fear. This train of thought could make me feel panicky and disturb my peace easily but one thing I know is that God will never give more than I can handle and that He’ll always be there.

. Losing Love

I think love is the greatest pleasure on Earth and I spent many years suffering it’s absence. I think love is THE source for support and hope. We all know how losing (romantic) love can be tragic and could make one feel like there is nothing left to live for (Emo Alert). I have a lot of emotions to express but I can’t seem to find the words. It’s like there is an iceberg within my emotions and thoughts. The pressure is definitely building and soon they will burst into words……. But, yes the aforementioned is one of my greatest fears.

. Becoming contaminated by this world: losing sight of what truly matters.

“True devotion, the kind that is pure and faultless before God the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their difficulties and to keep the world from contaminating us.” (James 1: 27)

“This is my prayer: that your love might become even more and more rich with knowledge and all kinds of insight. I pray this so that you will be able to decide what really matters and so you will be sincere and blameless on the day of Christ. I pray that you will then be filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes from Jesus Christ, in order to give glory and praise to God.” (Philippians 1: 9-11)

The first scripture touches me deeply because being contaminated by this world and it’s standards is one of my fears. I always want to keep my mind on higher things and go against the current if need be, but quiet frankly this is easier said than done due to peer pressure, wanting approval and praise from others, instant gratification, satisfying my flesh, etc…

I love the second scripture and It has a special place in my heart. It’s truly the perfect prayer to pray for anyone (thanks Paul!). I love how Paul wishes that our love would “grow rich with knowledge… and insights” because it shows the intensity and complexity of love. In a way, It also explains that there is a correlation between love and wisdom. For example, you could be doing something good for someone that you love and It could look like a completely different thing to them or to onlookers. More over, it depicts love as a journey and the more we walk deeper in love, the more enjoyable and meaningful it becomes.

“….that you will be able to decide what really matters”. I LOVE this piece of scripture so much. I wish that God would give me this kind of wisdom. This links to James 1:27,  because If we are able to discern between what really matters and what doesn’t then we won’t be contaminated by this world.

(Let’s just say, I’d hate to wake up and find myself like a character in a reality show)

Sorry for the Wait!

Dear Wonderful Reader,

Sorry for my lack of posting recently. I have been really busy, and I have gone through many changes in my life. Stay Tuned for more posts.

God’s Not Dead

Dear Wonderful Reader,

God’s Not Dead.

Check out the movie and spread the message, you never who may be needing to hear those words.

Dearly beloved,

Dearly beloved,

If this love only exists in my dreams, don’t wake me up…