A Friend Forever

I saw a poem this morning posted by one of my friends on her Facebook wall. It's all about a mother expressing her thoughts and feelings toward her child, as a mom I definitely feel the same way...

I’ll always need my son no matter what age I am...

My son has made me laugh,

made me cry, stressed me out,

wiped my tears,

hugged me tight, seen me fall,

cheered me on, 

kept me strong

and drove me a little crazy at times!

But my son is a promise from God that I will have a Friend  

forever!

He is a gift from heaven!

He gives me joy...

  lots of hugs.

and lots of love.

 gives me company in an ordinary day...

He makes me proud.

When I was sick, he cheered me up with the best ice cream in town...

and most of all he is my best friend!

I am blessed with one and only child. Although sometimes I wish I had more children... a brood of two or three would be great. But I know I have no right to grumble... God has given me the best, a son that any mother could ever wish to have for a child!

Taking Care of Blogger’s Block

I desperately need to write a new post for my blog but my mind won’t cooperate. I am feeling exhausted and lacking inspiration.

Maybe I just haven’t gotten my groove back yet, a long busy holiday season and some trivial problems encountered along the way made my concentration go off to the wayside.

It drained my creative juices dry. Though I consider this as a minor setback and every blogger has to go through it once in a while. A writer’s block or blogger’s block as they call it, can be frustrating but nothing to worry for this too shall come to pass.

Meanwhile, I have to do something to get my focus back onto my blog. As bloggers we can’t afford to wait for inspiration to come to us, we have to look for it. I noticed when I am trying too hard to come up of something to write, ideas seem elusive. So maybe taking a break from my normal routine would clear the cobwebs out of my brain and help me free from blogger’s block.

What’s the use of wasting my precious time staring at the blank screen of my computer monitor when I can use it to enjoy the quietness of my atmosphere? Taking a nap sounds pretty good right now, or maybe listening to a relaxing music while perched on my comfy recliner. For a change, I will enjoy life for the moment being lazy and worry free.

Tonight I will let hubby cook dinner, while I will be sitting in the porch enjoying the evening breeze and let my mind wander. Who knows my Chihuahua may even join me. Sometimes we devote all of our time to our family’s needs that we neglect our own soul's desires. For this very reason I may be in the hiatus for a while or I may be back quickly. It depends on how long I will have to persuade my creative soul back.

I’ll be back for sure!

Would you Accept a Peace Offering?

It was a Saturday night and the doorbell rang. I opened the gate and I was surprised to see a young man and woman smiling at me. The man was holding two containers of food. “Good evening” they said, “we have a birthday party next door we thought of bringing you some food to share.”


I was taken aback by their friendliness and didn’t know how to react to the situation. Besides, I don’t even know these people and they don’t know me either. Although I recognized their faces, for I saw them all the time when I peeked through my bedroom window late at night at the neighbor’s yard next to ours.


They had awakened me many times at night with their excessive talking and laughing that would get louder and louder as the night progressed, a clue that they had too much to drink. Most of the time they pollute our living room with their cigarette smoke. It made me upset because the smell does not only gives me a headache but it could possibly irritates my airways and aggravate my asthma. There were more or less ten people in the group, one of them is the neighbor’s daughter and the rest are her friends.

At first, I thought they were just celebrating for she just came back home after a year of stay in America. My clue was the streamer that says “ Welcome Home” well-displayed in their front yard. However she’s been here for almost two months now but the late night parties had not stopped, instead it turned into a regular event. They seem like night owls and the neighbor’s yard became their favorite place to hang out.

 this place seems so quiet and peaceful... but wait until the sun goes down and the scene will drastically change

These men and women look well-educated and came from well-off families. They are around mid to late twenties. But I don’t understand why they’re acting like bunch of immature teenagers and seemingly lack of concern for other people’s feelings. I’d lost my patience a few times, I banged the window really loud when they were laughing repeatedly on top of their lungs at twelve o’clock midnight. They were startled and got quiet for a while but once they get intoxicated they seemed not to care anymore.
 

Anyway, that Saturday night two members of the clique were standing in front of me who appeared to be in different personas. They acted respectful, meek and friendly, persuading me to accept the food they brought as a kind of a peace offering…
 

All of a sudden I was facing a dilemma. I wasn’t prepared from this unexpected twist of event. But I needed to make a quick decision, to accept the peace offering or not. If I won’t accept, I may be perceived as rude and hard to please. However if I accept, it would mean truce and everything is forgiven. At that time, I wasn’t ready for a truce in fact I was preparing for war. I had been video recording some of their late night uproars as evidence to show when I’ll go file a complaint at the home owners association.

 

But then again the thoughts and humble gestures they showed me that night made me change my stance. They didn’t say sorry for disturbing me and my family for so many nights but their actions say it all. I could not help not to smile back and thanked them for the food. After I accepted it they were so appreciative and thanked me a few times, which still made me wonder what that “thank you meant”. Was it mean thanks for accepting the apology?
 

When my husband found out about it, he could not believed what I did.  “Why did you accept it? You should have thrown it in their faces”, he said. Well, easy to say but hard to do.
 

That night the party went on up to 2 a.m. and as usual it was loud. But we had to be tolerant for it’s a birthday party nonetheless.
 
The great thing about it though that they seemed to disappear after that night. It’s been more than two weeks since then. I have not seen any of the neighbor’s daughter’s friends yet. I was even expecting for a big hurrah on Christmas and New Years Day but it didn’t happen. None of them showed up not even a soul. YAY… It seemed that peace offering means " thank you and goodbye!"

It’s so peaceful and quiet again. I’ve been enjoying it. Mostly I love the quality sleeps I’ve been having nightly now. Finally, I can start writing again. How long this serenity would last? I don’t know, only the future will tell, but as of now I am enjoying the moments!

A Butterfly Encounter

Recently, I had an amazing experience with a butterfly that left me wondering what that encounter could have meant. I've lived most of my life in the tropics where the sight of a butterfly is a common occurrence but that day my experience with it was quite unique. I wish I had a camera nearby to capture the captivating moment.

One sunny afternoon as I was doing my laundry in our laundry area outside the house, I saw from out of nowhere a light brown/orange butterfly flying towards me. When it got nearer it flew around me a few times, so close that it almost touched my face. Though a bit surprised, I tried to remain still and watched what it will do next. Then the unexpected happened, the tiny beautiful creature landed on my left hand. At first I was not sure what it was doing. I looked at it closely and realized that it seemed drinking water from my wet hand. I could not believe what I saw, I never thought a butterfly could that be friendly and so trusting.

My fascination grew while witnessing the butterfly using it’s proboscis, a long straw-like structure it uses to suck the nectar of a flower, only this time it was sipping the moisture out of my wet hand, I felt a little tickle every time it touches my hand. After three to four sips it moved to my right palm and did the same thing but this time after each sip it turns until it completed a full circle turn then it flew around me again a few times before it fluttered away and disappeared.

Since then, I've been wondering what does that experience signifies. I had to check the web and found out that it’s not unusual for a butterfly to land on people. In fact I saw on YouTube a video of a butterfly drinking sugar water in a person's hand. What's unique with my experience though was I didn't woo it, for it came to me. The movement  it did to create a circle seemed unusual. Also if the butterfly was thirsty there was plenty of water on the ground for it rained the night before. The area where I was is not a common place for butterflies to hang around for there are no plants nearby. That really made me wonder if the butterfly was sent to convey a message.

Nonetheless the lucky chosen ones have their own special stories to tell with varied interpretations of their experiences. Some believes it to be mystical such as a spirit of a loved one visiting or conveying a message, a sign of good luck or a bad omen and so on, while others say it is just a chance encounter with nature nothing more nothing less.

For me, I considered it a magical moment, my first close encounter with this amazing creature of God had occurred in a moment that I needed something to lift my spirit up. For days I was feeling so down and had never felt so alone in my life. The butterfly came in time to cheer me up and reminds me that there are beautiful days ahead. The butterfly visit gave me a feeling of calmness and joy. I feel blessed!