After nearly 21 years of togetherness, it is really amazing how much I still discovers a lot about my lovely wife. These things, amongst others, reinforces the widely-accepted and age-old adage that marriage should be a lifetime of discovery and re-discovery between two people committed to love each other.
MissGyver is in the Kitchen
I don’t exactly know how she does it but I hardly find any left-over food being thrown into our garbage bin. She brought the idea of Pinoy idiom “pangat” to a whole new different level. It starts with the main dish in day one and a “modified” dish into another until the main dish becomes a side ingredient of another main viand. Let me give you an example – think about a Hainanese chicken (China steamed-style dish), which can become a fried-chicken the next day and a “mix-sahog” to a palatable minced veggie for its final destiny. She can fix up my sandwich with just about anything (ok, maybe not with a bitter gourd) and I will honestly find it tasteful. I swear, if there is such a thing as "sprinkled with love" ingredients, then my wife definitely has a kitchen-full of those.
Teacher Par Excellence
Our eldest son is a home-schooled kid the past three years and I can say with utmost sincerity and certainty that my wife has done an excellent task of that. Despite her overwhelmed and difficult moments of taking care of the kids and house-hold chores at the same time, I can testify that seeing our son learning to read and understand English, tackling math problems, taking interest in science projects and partaking in lots of artworks and extra-curricular activities, not to mention, his oh-uninterruptible queries and stories. Nobody can take credit for all these achievements but my wife and son altogether.
Coffee-Mates Forever
She never liked coffee until she started working for the bank and she has undoubtedly influenced a few years ago. She’d surprised me with a sweet cake or brownie to go with it and we would spend the next minutes talking about anything under the moon (yes, we have our coffee time as a recap night-time activity). She will tell me how her day went with the kids. She will ask about my work and I will just smile ( because I made a long-time self-promise that all work-related problems stay outside the front door, so she does not need to worry more about me) and just give her an overview of my day. As we sip our last, she will sometimes complain about how her back-aches (imagine three general anesthesia in three CS operation in a span of 7 years) is torturing her. This will eventually lead us to….
Mom Masseuse
She loves it when I give her a gentle massage to relieve her aching back. But never to be outdone, she will reciprocate my actions by massaging my face and head which I must admit relaxes me so much that I could sleep then and there :D. Her gentle hands can also calm down our two kids after a hyper-activity and after they have taken their baths.
So to my ever-loving and caring wife, Menchie, you know that the three men (well, actually it is a man and two smaller men) in your life loves you deeply in our most endearing (and maybe sometimes crazy) ways. And we thank you for your patience, perseverance and all those little big things that you do to look after us and take care of us.
We love you.
We want nothing less than happiness and fulfillment in your life.
Happy Valentines Day!
2012/02/12
2012/02/10
The Purpose of Salt
My over-a-year old phone (brand withheld) does not belong yet to the new genre of smart-phones proliferating the tech-lode shops of today but I can say that all my personal needs for a handy phone are still met.
Phone Calls
SMS
WAP ready
Games
Phonebook
Music in 2G card memory
Built-In Camera / Video / Sound recording
Calendar
Alarm / Timer
Calculator
Blue-tooth
Call logs
Long-life battery
Personalized settings
One day, I accidentally drop it on a rocky surface and so it suffered an “amnesia”. All call logs and history were gone and the phone book addresses are totally erased so I have to reload them, which happens unfortunately at least three times a day. I dismissed these as just shock glitches due to its fall.
On the third day after its fall, the personalized settings were changed back to default but some call logs were now appearing. The phone book is still forgetful though. But since the most important function of all – making calls and sending SMS were still intact, I told mys elf that it is still usable.
The axe came down on the fifth day – there is no more network connection, no SMS function or no incoming and outgoing calls is possible. My colleague sent me an important SMS and I never received it. Another colleague was calling me and just receive a voice prompt that my mobile is allegedly “off”. Our company boss was also calling me from overseas to no avail.
So now it is as simple as that - because my mobile phone has turned into nothing else but a handy alarm/calculator/camera gadget - it should now go. And to make things worst, even its own original-brand battery pack was not recognized anymore by its charger. It is just a matter of minutes when my mobile phone will totally go “kaputt” on me.
Matthew 5:13 reminded us that“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot."
The more we deviate from our heavenly design, the more meaningless and purpose-less our lives will become. We can brag about how much wealth we have accumulated, how many cars we are driving, how tranquil and beautiful our place of residency is and how many investments we are earning money from. We can claim all of life's successes in terms of educational excellence, peer accolades and honor and plaques of recognition. Like in today's smart-phones, these are all but features and additional functions of our life-design.
So what is our main purpose then, our ultimate rationale for living?
When one scholar of the Jewish law asked Jesus what is the greatest commandment, he was actually asking about the main foundation of our existence.
And so Jesus answered him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:37-39)
Have we gone astray from these two powerful and life-fulfilling tenets of living?
Then we have become like salt that have lost its taste.
Dear Friends, this coming Lenten season is yet another opportune time to make good self-examination of conscience and realignment of our priorities in life. And by the grace of God, we should all come again to this realization and renewed commitment - Loving God is foremost and loving humanity is top-most. Everything else will just follow.
God bless.
Phone Calls
SMS
WAP ready
Games
Phonebook
Music in 2G card memory
Built-In Camera / Video / Sound recording
Calendar
Alarm / Timer
Calculator
Blue-tooth
Call logs
Long-life battery
Personalized settings
One day, I accidentally drop it on a rocky surface and so it suffered an “amnesia”. All call logs and history were gone and the phone book addresses are totally erased so I have to reload them, which happens unfortunately at least three times a day. I dismissed these as just shock glitches due to its fall.
On the third day after its fall, the personalized settings were changed back to default but some call logs were now appearing. The phone book is still forgetful though. But since the most important function of all – making calls and sending SMS were still intact, I told mys elf that it is still usable.
The axe came down on the fifth day – there is no more network connection, no SMS function or no incoming and outgoing calls is possible. My colleague sent me an important SMS and I never received it. Another colleague was calling me and just receive a voice prompt that my mobile is allegedly “off”. Our company boss was also calling me from overseas to no avail.
So now it is as simple as that - because my mobile phone has turned into nothing else but a handy alarm/calculator/camera gadget - it should now go. And to make things worst, even its own original-brand battery pack was not recognized anymore by its charger. It is just a matter of minutes when my mobile phone will totally go “kaputt” on me.
Matthew 5:13 reminded us that“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot."
The more we deviate from our heavenly design, the more meaningless and purpose-less our lives will become. We can brag about how much wealth we have accumulated, how many cars we are driving, how tranquil and beautiful our place of residency is and how many investments we are earning money from. We can claim all of life's successes in terms of educational excellence, peer accolades and honor and plaques of recognition. Like in today's smart-phones, these are all but features and additional functions of our life-design.
So what is our main purpose then, our ultimate rationale for living?
When one scholar of the Jewish law asked Jesus what is the greatest commandment, he was actually asking about the main foundation of our existence.
And so Jesus answered him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:37-39)
Have we gone astray from these two powerful and life-fulfilling tenets of living?
Then we have become like salt that have lost its taste.
Dear Friends, this coming Lenten season is yet another opportune time to make good self-examination of conscience and realignment of our priorities in life. And by the grace of God, we should all come again to this realization and renewed commitment - Loving God is foremost and loving humanity is top-most. Everything else will just follow.
God bless.
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