Category: Married Life

Love & Relationships (and all the Feels)

On God’s Grand Scheme of Things

Rhiza5 Comments

It’s my husband’s birthday today/yesterday (today in New York, yesterday in Manila). I intend to post a longer blog with lots of photos as soon as I find time, but for now, a quick post before I retreat to bed.

As his birthday was about to end, my husband and I reflected upon the past year and how much has happened in such a short period of time. It wasn’t long ago when we would celebrate birthdays and monthsaries in front of Skype, opening our Fedex-ed gifts and finding creative ways to bridge the distance. Don’t get me wrong, we treasure those good ol’ days, we learned so much from them. But we cannot deny the fact that deep within our hearts we incessantly prayed for the day we would get to spend these special occasions together.

And now we’re here.

We had quite a lengthy prayer to cap the night, thanking God for blessing my husband 28 awesome years, most especially for the past year which was exceptionally beautiful. You bet there were tears of joy all over the place.

Chuck Swindoll wrote something that pretty much describes how it feels like, being in the center of God’s grand scheme of things:

Life is not based on blind fate or random chance. Everything that happens, including the things you cannot explain or justify, is being woven together like an enormous, beautiful piece of tapestry. From this earthly side it seems blurred and knotted, strange and twisted. But from heaven’s perspective it forms an incredible picture. Best of all, it is for His greater glory. Right now, it seems so confusing, but someday the details will come together and make good sense.

There it is—part of God’s perfect plan unfolding.

Those years spent apart were difficult, and there were a gazillion things we couldn’t understand (even until now). But as we witness God’s master plan unfold, it becomes clearer each day why God allows things to happen the way they do.

It’s not my birthday today, but it’s like I’m the one who was given such a beautiful gift.

Meanwhile I’m Putting Up More Twinkly Lights

Rhiza4 Comments

I like quoting from movies, even if no one gets it. And sometimes I like explaining them too, when no one gets it. :p

In You’ve Got Mail, when Kathleen Kelly’s book shop was starting to lose sales after Fox Books opened within the block, she confidently shrugged off the concerns of her worried employees and simply said, “They’re new, it’s a novelty. It’ll all shake out. Meanwhile, I’m putting up more twinkle lights.”

I love that scene. I love how Kathleen said that line as if putting up those lights was more important than worrying about her business. We all could use some of that attitude, don’t you think? (:

Last week, I woke up from a quick nap to the sight of this beauty *points to the picture*. We were supposed to do this together, but the husband thought he’d surprise me so he went ahead putting the Christmas lights up while I was sleeping. A word to husbands out there: big or small gestures like this are very much appreciated. Never get tired surprising your wives with kindness, rest assured, your act of love will be returned tenfolds. ♥

x o x o

Here’s some linkworthy stuff to start the week:

+ Interesting thoughts on making disciples by Laura Hamilton. I agree with her, Christianity does involve a bold, unashamed declaration of faith, rather than a quiet commitment you keep to yourself.

+ I cried like a loser, watching this Coca-Cola OFW Project. Good job, Coca-Cola! You make me want to buy boxes of Coke and give them away for Christmas.

+ Alie Edward’s December Daily hybrid journal project makes me wish I have time and skills to do one of my own. Paislee Press and Paper Relics are doing it too. I started scrapbooking (again) lately, I just don’t think I can do it with the same passion and commitment as these ladies here. At least not yet. Maybe someday. (;

+ Pentatonix won the Sing Off last week. I love this video I found in Youtube, a montage of all their performances this season. We still watch them at home until now.

+ I love how Seth Godin’s blogs transcend both business and life. He may be using marketing terms like “products” and “customers” and “services” or may be directly referring to entrepreneurial principles in his posts, but for all we know, he’s actually imparting to us important life lessons on achieving real-life breakthrough one step at a time. Oh, and he’s got some interesting thoughts about Christmas lights, too! This guy thinks about everything! LOL.

+ I’ve been thinking about this SEO and Online Marketing industry I happened to have been exposed to for the past 6-7 years, and I thought, even though I don’t really see myself doing this forever, perhaps I shouldn’t give up on it just yet.

+ Lastly, you might want to help Wikipedia, since, you know, we’ve all somehow benefited from it at one point or another.

Here’s to starting, and ending, the week right! (:

Another Day Closer to You

Rhiza7 Comments

It’s a month too late to have a 2010 recap, but February, for all sentimental reasons, is what I consider to be the first month of the year 2010 for both David and me. Not only is it the month of love, but it’s also around this time last year that we *blushes* got back together. In this regard I can say that year 2010 is somehow just about to come to a close for us.

And what a year it has been! :)

Underneath the promise ring I gave him last November, these words were engraved: “Another day closer to you” —a line from a song he wrote for me in 2007:

Sure it was a long day today
Sure we both have ups and downs to say
It’s okay, my love, it’s through
Another day closer to you
So as we end the day I want to say to you
I love you, and I’ll always be true
I love you, in spite of all that we’ve been through
So rest and close your eyes
Everything will be okay
I’ll stay, with you.

It was just a silly goodnight song he made up while we were saying goodbye on Skype one night. But as nights turned to months, and months turned to years, the song has become more like a commitment, a promise that keeps us sane whenever the time difference, the distance, and everything that comes with this long-distance affair, starts to drain us out.

It’s not a walk in the park, keeping a long-distance relationship, being oceans apart, but in all these months I’ve learned to dwell in the truth that it was God–undeniably–who brought us back together. And He’s the One who will keep us together too.

When I look back into my life and think about defining moments, I think of my salvation, the day I chose to follow Him and declare Him to be my Savior and Lord, and how everything was never the same since.

And then I think of my other salvation, how God saved me from my wrong choices and bad relationships. David is, and will always be, one of my most favorite plot twists. It’s a story I’ve been trying to preserve in a little space in the web for the past 8 months, albeit my inability to give it justice, and oh how I love looking back at how God pulled it off! You can call it a “love story” but ultimately it was a story of God’s grace–God giving us another chance to make things right, undeserving of a love like this as we are. <3

What a year, indeed! Happy New Year to us, D!

Blogging with my Heart at the Tip of my Fingers

Rhiza10 Comments

I always thought there was wisdom in what my former boss would often advise me about my blog. Remove the “icky stuff”, try not to be too personal, be more informative, less heart. Believe me, I tried.

The problem was, I wasn’t quite sure I could blog if not driven by an overwhelming emotional force, i.e. unexplainable loneliness I often blame on hormones or quarter-life, uncontainable excitement over a new gadget or an online shop I accidentally found, or strong feelings for something or someone I was momentarily crazy about. Hence, I continued blogging with my heart on my sleeve (or in this case, at the tip of my fingers).

And I like it. I like clicking the publish button after pouring my heart out on a post. I like that this blog has become my stage quiet corner in the internet where everyone is welcome to drop by. I like that through it I get to share trinkets of my life to, not only my mother and a bunch of loyal friends, but also unknown readers, strangers, and kindred spirits who landed on these pages in search of some form of comfort, or inspiration, or maybe company.

Point is, there was just no way I could blog without giving away a tiny portion huge serving of my heart. Otherwise, it wouldn’t at all be.. me.

And it served me well, this heart-blog, my therapy of sorts. Being a blogger for about a decade two decades now, it just doesn’t feel right anymore to not have a little space on the web to fill with the big and small things happening in my life, albeit the sporadity of my posts, if sporadity is even a word.

On the downside, I’ve come to acknowledge the fact that publishing your thoughts on a public venue such as this makes them somehow irrevocable. I happened to have blogged about things I now wish I could delete, thoughts I’m not anymore proud of, stories I don’t want to remember.

This is the part where I confess to editing old blog posts, deleting unwanted names, sometimes even deleting entire posts altogether just because they make me cringe, as if the act would really take those parts off my past completely. I know it won’t, and Marian said it best when she said that maybe we’re not supposed to erase old scars. Still, it’s a guilty pleasure I couldn’t quite explain, and an awesome way to (uh) kill time, LOL. Please tell me I’m not the only one who’s doing this.

More than a year ago, when I spent a weekend in Cebu with Joni and Mae, while lounging in the infinity pool at Shangrila Mactan, I told my girlfriends that I grew tired keeping tabs of names and monthsary dates and stories of guys I date. (Not that there were a lot.) I told them I was ready to keep just one name in my heart, to make kwento about that one guy, once and for all, for the rest of my life. I don’t know if J & M remember, but I like relieving moments like that, especially now that the time has finally come.

If you’ve been following my blog/s for the past couple of years and have read some boys’ names here and there, or maybe even seen a photograph or two, well, forget all the other names except this one:

David John.

From here on, he’s the only boy I’m ever going to write about.

And from this point forward, I’m not going to be afraid of blogging with my heart.