Thank you, God,
for the soft sand that welcomes my bare feet,
for the gentle waves that kiss my sons’ pretty face,
and for the blue sky that delights my weary eyes….
Weekly Photo Challenge: Elemental
photography
Seeing Hearts 10: The Many Facets of Love
I thought I was done posting heart-shaped objects. I thought heart-shaped objects are only part of the random things I see daily. I thought heart-shaped objects would no longer affect me.
Well, they do. This time. Today. They’re just too cute to ignore and the messages behind them are too loud to avoid. At least, that’s how I see them.
Heart-shaped stone
This one is a heart-shaped stone that lay along our path. Only a few number of stones have such shape, right? We could hardly ignore it.
It’s like the people we meet along our journey. At times, we are attracted to people who seem to have a heart of stone, adorable yet cold. But people are not made of stone. No matter how cold they appear, deep inside they have a soft spot, waiting for some connection. You might be the one they are waiting for.
Or, maybe, at one point or another, we acted as a heart of stone along somebody else’s journey. Perhaps, we can be a bit more loving.
Heart-shaped hole in a plastic bag.
In our household, we recycled plastic bags. The one we can use, we keep, the damaged ones get discarded. Seeing a hole in that one above made me decide to throw it. Surprisingly, the heart-shaped hole caught my attention.
Can showing love makes us damaged goods? When not in the right place, yes, like this plastic bag. But even damaged goods can delight us, especially when it shows love. Whatever form love shows, it always brings delight.
Sometimes one needs to get torn in order to realize the depth of love. But true love brings magic. True love heals and makes perfect even the most damaged of souls.
A heart in a bowl headed for the sink.
That one above is kind of dirty. It’s a bowl where we placed the fried bananas. I was about to put it in the sink when the heart-shaped image captivated me. Unusual, is it not?
It’s like when we are about to discard something in our life that it shows value.
It’s like when we value something, but keeping it wouldn’t make us any good.
It’s like a love that is there only for the moment, yet needs to go when the right time comes.
Love has many facets indeed. It’s part of the grand design of this universe. In whatever ways love touches us, one thing is sure – God is there for us and with us.
A Lesson From an Orchid
Weekly Photo Challenge: Evanescent
“Why are you cast down my soul, why groan within me?”
That is the question I ask myself when the turmoil within me is so strong I seem unable to cope up. But lately, I managed to count on my days and focus not on the troubles that prevent the things to happen the way I want them to be. I slowly learned to accept the truth that things don’t happen my way. And instead of fidgeting, I try to see the things that I can do to improve the situation. The thing that leads me to this realization is the fact that my days are but limited like the flowers in my garden.
As I contemplate on the latigo orchid that blooms, it dawns on me how this flower blooms its best. Its flowers are not only attractive but emit a perfumy fragrance as well. It feeds its honey to the birds, butterflies, and bees.
I come to wonder how this flower fulfilled its very purpose in my garden when it doesn’t even know how long will it live? Nor does it worry whether I’ll water it on the next day or not. It just lives. It just blooms. It just beautifies my garden for that is the only thing it knows.
Like this orchid, my life too is passing, my time limited. This orchid provides me the inspiration to be true to who I am and to strive to make an impact on which I was born for; to not be carried away by the little troubles that life brings.
How beautiful it is to make this world a much better place than it did before I came. I can only do that when I finally fulfill the very purpose that brought me here. And that purpose is to share what I know, to impart the God-presence within me, and to be all that I am.
I hope that you, too, have found your purpose and have shared your impact with the world.
Seeing Hearts 9: The Glory of Love
Stray paint on leg of chair
With each passing of the day, seeing these heart-shaped objects became normal. Sometimes, I see them as perfectly shaped, other times, imperfectly. This lead me to these impressions:
Love is a mission
We all define heart as love. To the deeply spiritual, the heart is our core. I define this daily manifestation based on those two assumptions: that I am reminded to love every day; and that love is my core.
Loving everybody is not as easy as one, two, three. It means I have to love both the lovable and the unlovable, my likers and my dislikers, and so on. It’s not easy, yes, but like the rain that does not choose where to fall, whether to the good or bad, I also have to do my part. I have to extend love to whoever comes my way.
But before I could extend that love, I need to have it in myself first. I need to love myself unconditionally, without judgment, with total acceptance of who I am, who I’m not, what I am, and what I’m not.
I also need others’ guidance in order to love fully. I don’t have everything there is to know about love. Aside from constant prayer to be guided in this love journey, I also read Og Mandino’s book, “The Greatest Secret in the World.” The Scroll Marked II in it is very timely. It speaks of the love which should be practiced for five consecutive weeks. I’ll be posting that love part soon. It’s a good way to train the subconscious the practice of love.
Morsel of cake
Love is what you are
I got this line from Deepak Chopra’s Youtube video, that love is what we are, it is our core, our being. I felt it to be true. We are born out lof love, out of God’s breathe of love. I felt so blessed to be reminded of this truth. And to this truth, I hold on.
Loving the unlovable
The slanted, deformed, or the ones that turned upside down heart-shaped objects represent the people who look unlovable by their ways and personalities. But digging deep, we would discover what makes them what they are. Love could do that much easily. The main point is, they too, deserve to be loved.
Conclusion
Our mission is to love because we are love, and that we have to love even the unlovable.
That’s all for now. May you have a great day!
Seeing Hearts 8
Love is everywhere and in everything.
Seeing Hearts 7
Today, I come to the point where I could no longer contain the unusual occurrence in my life. Seeing heart-shaped objects made me amazed about life. Yet today, intimidation grabbed me by the arm. I keep seeing this shape while doing the laundry to cooking to washing dishes. I see it in bubbles, on the food, at the leaves, in pebbles, everywhere.
I wondered whether my eyesight has just tricked me, or was it my imagination? Or, perhaps this shape had been there all along. And because I’ve given it importance, my focus was fixed only in there. I’m inclined to believe so. It seems I’ve seen a dozen of it today. Not only the perfect heart shapes but also the deformed ones. Only that others quickly dissolved while I was out to retrieve my camera. Like the bubbles, or the food residues that I throw away.
The one good thing I gain from this experience at the moment is, every time I see this heart shape, I’m reminded of love. Nothing can feel so good than associating my every breath with love.
Seeing Hearts 6
Grains of rice
Flower petals
Nature is beautiful indeed!
Seeing Hearts 5
Rotten part of papaya skin
Even rotten parts display hearts too.
Scissors’ handle
When we move this photo slightly, the shape of the heart would be the same as the first photo. Still feeling awesome!
P.S.
If you have your heart-shaped objects photo collection let me see it too. 🙂
Seeing Hearts 4
Torn piece of chocolate wrapper
The photo above is a treasure. You need to be observant enough to see it. It’s so tiny it only measures a third of an inch. It laid before my path and I almost stepped on it.
My idea notebook
It’s amazing how you see things differently when your awareness expands. I use this notebook every morning but never get to remember the hearts in its cover. Truly, the universe will open up things for us when we’re open to it.
Seeing Hearts 3
This photo was sent to me by Sheila with love. Happy Mother’s day to all mothers of any form, color, and sizes! 🙂
Let me challenge your keen eye! Look for the two sets of two leaves closed together forming heart-shaped. I bet you see it. 🙂
P.S.
Purposive Writer 