I is an Island

My hopeful self hopes

*Dream Weaver* tries to take one day at a time, 

but sometimes several days attack her at once - egad!

~*~*~*~ 

Am tired today. I don't understand why I need to do work for two organisations with only one salary. But I reckon that this isn't anything out of the ordinary as organisations generally tend to milk their staff - though I think this arrangement and method sucks to the max.

It is also at times like this that I entertain the idea of leaving. Of going somewhere entirely new... but somehow, I don't feel like its time to go just yet though that could be my hopeful self hoping for the bonus at the end of the year.

Whatever the case is though, I still hold strong to the knowledge that God has created a reason for everything that happens. He knows our needs and provides them to us and He alone knows what's best for us. 

So tonight, I will put my trust in Him and be thankful that I at least have a job that although uber tiring, is a job that I enjoy. I also  pray and lift up my young niece, Tiff. She is unwell though the results come out tomorrow on how serious the matter is. Let us pray for a very positive result and hope and peace for her and her family.

Quite Happy

How can I be anything but quite happy 

if I believed always that all the past is forgiven, 

and all the present furnished with possibilities 

and all the future bright with hope.

Be glad of life

Be glad of life, because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars; to be satisfied with your possessions.. to think seldom of your enemies often of your friends, and every day of Christ. And to spend as much time as you can, with body and with spirit in God’s out-of-doors these are little guideposts on the footpath of peace.

- Henry Van Dyke -

The Bed Wins

It's a very lazy Sunday and I don't have enough sleep due to last nights trailer marathon *grin grin* Belly is sleeping curled up on the sofa, and my folks are asleep upstairs too. I should take a short nap but the series and the inter web beckon.

The past couple of weekends have been uber busy but the past weekend and this weekend has definitely seen a cut back in activities *phews* I have a couple of projects planned but things have not been moving as fast as I hope they will. 

But I will try my utmost best to get things started but for now, the bed wins.

I heart this bedrooms.

I am off to sleep. See you soon.

The Start of Something New

Grand plans to “relaunch” my blog were playing prairie dog and meerkat in my head. After all, I reasoned to myself, this blog has been around for several years, weathered many a tear, many a smile and much drama, heartache, laughter, grumblings, mumblings and the like… it should have a new coat of paint (or in this case, a new blog design) and some a sorta sparkly makeup.


So, I looked for templates and tried to understand them. Tinkered around. Stopped. Looked around. Stopped. Started a few blogs and posted up some randomness and realized that there was just something ‘not right’ about my blog. Perhaps it was the colour scheme. Or it could have been the randomness of the post that I couldn’t quite connect with… it just didn’t create a spark in me or a desire to pour my heart out like I did in Little Pieces of Heaven.

And gradually I began to realize that it was not really about the esthetics of my blog that mattered but the feeling of being at utter ease in this little piece of my Heaven. After travelling to many many sites and seeing the different ways in which individuals presented their thoughts (and envying the really simple yet lovely, informative, giggly blogs) I realized that bits of my heart and soul was already embedded right here in this blog.


I didn’t need a “relaunch” or a drastic makeover. What I need was an enhancement to reflect the change in style (or lack of according to some) and interests and more importantly an acceptance of who I was and what my blog represented. I may never have that grand 20,000 hits a day or even 20 for that matter. No one would want to advertise on my blog and neither will I have 251 comments to my post. I may not be linked to anyone’s page and people might not even know my blog exists… but I have to come to realize that it’s okay. This is MY Piece of Heaven. All mine. No one else’s. This site has so much history, I don’t think I could walk away from it just yet.

That said, minor uplifts to my blog will commence in stages or more like once I figure out how and what to do *grins*


In the meantime, I hope dear reader that life is treating you well and that you continue to enjoy journeying with me on Pieces of Heaven.

Contentment

This forwarded mail is a good wake up call for all of us:

Have you ever, at any one time, had the feeling that life is bad, real bad, and you wish you were in another situation? You find life make things difficult for you, work sucks, life sucks, everything seems to go wrong.... 

Read the following story... it may change your views about life:

After a conversation with one of my friends, he told me despite taking 2 jobs, he brings back barely above 1K per month, he is happy as he is. I wonder how he can be as happy as he is considering he has to skimp his life with the low pay to support a pair of old parents, in-laws, a wife, 2 daughters and the many bills of a household. He explained that it was through one incident that he saw in India that happened a few years ago when he was really feeling low and touring India after a major setback.

He said that right in front of his very eyes he saw an Indian mother chop off her child's right hand with a chopper. The helplessness in the mother's eyes, the scream of pain from the innocent 4-year-old child haunted him

until today.

You may ask why did the mother do so; had the child been naughty, had the child's hand been infected?? No, it was done for two simple words- - -TO BEG! The desperate mother deliberately caused the child to be handicapped so that the child could go out to the streets to beg.

Taken aback by the scene, he dropped a piece of bread he was eating half-way. And almost instantly, a flock 5 or 6 children swamped towards this small piece of bread which was covered with sand, robbing bits from one another. The natural reaction of hunger.

Stricken by the happenings, he instructed his guide to drive him to the nearest bakery. He arrived at two bakeries and bought every single loaf of bread he found in the bakeries. The owner was dumbfounded but willingly sold everything. He spent less than $100 to obtain about 400 loaves of bread (this is less than $0.25 per loaf) and spent another $100 to get

daily necessities. Off he went in the truck full of bread into the streets. 

As he distributed the bread and necessities to the children (mostly handicapped) and a few adults, he received cheers and bows from these unfortunate. For the first time in his life he wondered how people can give up their dignity for a loaf of bread which cost less than $0.25.

He began to tell himself how fortunate he is. How fortunate he is to be able to have a complete body, have a job! , have a family, have the chance to complain what food is nice and what isn't nice, have the chance to be clothed, have the many things that these people in front of him are deprived of...

Now I begin to think and feel it, too! Was my life really that bad? Perhaps... no, I should not feel bad at all... What about you? Maybe the next time you think you are, think about the child who lost one hand to beg on the streets.

"Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, it is the realization of how much you already have."

When the door of happiness closes, another opens, but often times we look so long at the closed door that we don't see the one which has been opened for us.

The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

 The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past, you can't go on well in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.  

Night Song

'Just Around the Corner' by Leland Jacobs (illustration by John E. Johnson) is a children’s book about the changing seasons.I read about this book on Molly’s blog (I heart her blog) and enjoyed this simple excerpt.

It reminded me about my own childhood books with lovely illustrations and hard covers. I remember the way the words would absorb into me and fill me with such delight. I would read them over and over again and scenes of the story would unfold in my mind.

I miss the simplicity of those days.
I miss the innocence, carefree joy and the seemingly long days of playing with toys, reading books, park adventures and riding bikes.

I can only pray that my future children will enjoy these simple joys that I had once upon a time.

Night Song
When the sun has set and night has come,
The insect chorus starts to hum.
And nothing else is there to hear,
but the insect voices soft and clear.
The insects hum in sweet delight,
singing their praises of the night.

Excerpt by Leland Jacobs

Girlfriends, Desert & Paper

I look forward to the day when my girlfriends and I share some delightful, comforting and engaging conversation over a scrumptious lunch in a relaxing comfortable environment.

This will be followed by a couple of hours just browsing (and maybe buying) paper shops and book stores, “oooo-ing” and “ahhhh-ing” over clear rubber stamps, stickers, patterned paper and all things craft and book related.
The day out with the girls will end with coffee, cake/desert and gossip and loads of gushing on the things seen and bought.
What joy *grin grin*

*sighs happily* and crosses several fingers at a go (for extra hope)

One day soon.

One day soon.

P.S: If you know of such a girlfriend, do drop me a line. This will hopefully put an end to one of my ‘one days’.