What’s January 1st to You?

Happy New Year all! Eerr I know it’s a bit late to wish a happy new year, but oh well been busy with work and never had the chance to write (this is going to be my “template” excuse for not blogging). Thank you tho for lovely Nadia Prayoga for encouraging me to write again.

New Year. For some it is simply changing the calendar. For others, new year represents a new opportunity for a better tomorrow. New year’s eve particularly has always been a time for us to look back to the past, and more importantly (that fright people the most), forward to the coming year.It is the time to stop and reflect on the year that has gone by, remember about the chances taken, the chances lost, triumphs built, failures occurred, and decisions made.

Whatever it is, new year is highly associated with a resolution. When the new year approaches, people immediately start thinking “Whats gonna be my new year’s resolution this year? “Gosh, I haven’t accomplished last year’s resolution?” then people start making mental list of all the things they are unable to do or accomplish and the things they wish to overcome and achieve.

Things like: Quit smoking. Maybe less gossiping. Stop drinking. Be a better person. Get a graduate degree. Listen more to parents.Excercise more. Spend time with friends and families. And here’s the latest one I heard.. Reduce eating fritters :p (this one belongs to my dear friend Bobby).

So if we want to connect the dots, what do these resolutions tell us? It is plain simple. We want to do more of the good and less the bad.Then it makes me wonder why often times our new year’s resolution is not realized? Maybe it is because we also often only make new year’s resolution and not daily resolution.

When the clock hits 12 and we finally stepped on the beginning of the year, yes most people feel festive, joyful, and grateful but after a while we often take for granted the ‘gift’ that is carried and given by a new year which is ‘chance’. All year-long we must hold dear the notion that new year means ‘another chance to get it right’, ‘another chance to make mistake and learn from it’, ‘another chance to live life’, ‘another chance to feel we are worth it’, ‘another chance to love us and others more’,'another chance to give and not take’.

Most importantly, it simply means ‘taking a chance’ and with fate believe that it is the right decision Think of it this way, it feels like opening up a book titled ‘Chances’ and having ‘New Year’ as one of its chapters.

So knowing this, i hope throughout the year all of us can celebrate both our right and unwise decisions, embrace both our laughter and tears, remember both our triumphs and our missteps, our promises made and broken, the times we opened our hearts to receive love or closed our hearts for fear of getting hurt, the times when we prioritize at the wrong things and neglect the others,  and stop worrying about ‘what if’ and start embracing what would be.

For those of you who are reading, i hope you can give faith a fighting chance, living might mean taking chances but it is worth making. I pray that you will not take one single breath for granted and will not be the person that looks back and say “where those years have gone?”

So what’s january 1st to you? ……. mine would be taking another chance on life

Phillipians 3:13-14 “I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us”

 Be blessed. xoxo

Fate – Is It All There Is To Life?

All the things that had been happening this week made me feel so blessed, so I feel called to write something. So here we go, hope it is enjoyable and feel blessed

People often associate occurrences in life with fate. When an occurrence  particularly special ones in one’s life appeared, we often say “it is fated”. Those who believe in fate directly or indirectly believe that their occurrences and circumstances in life are pre destined. We believe that God has a divine plan for us and He has control over the outcome of our lives, beginning to end. ”For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” Jeremiah 29:11.  So it seems logical (critically speaking) to say that we have limited control over the outcome of our lives.  What differentiate the outcome of my life to the others’ is it only fate? – Is this really the case?

Here’s my take on it.

Fate is things that are assigned to each one of us that has become a part of us even before stepping into this earth. Consider it as  your baggage assigned to you before embarking on a journey called life. Our life journey is about experiencing a life with unique opportunities, challenges, and blessings – fate only plays a small role in this. What important is the attitude we posses and choices we make related to the fated elements that make up our lives. The circumstances that you are in at the moment, be it in the context of relationship, workplace, education, marriage, and many others are resulted from a collection of decisions you made.

“Your fate is not something that is coincidental or destined, it is a result of wise decisions”

Your fate does not determine the outcome of your life, what determines is how you work with things that has been assigned as part of your ‘fate’ and how you live your life based on your full potential. Fate is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice, it is not a thing to be waited for, but it is a thing to be achieved. You are the navigator of your fate and no one else but you can do it.

It is said that God is in charge of our fate, but at the same time He has given us the freedom to make a decision to obey or disobey Him, thus to me life should be about making wise decisions everyday that are align with His will, taking you one step closer to fulfilling your purpose in life. You can choose to be helpful to a friend or be selfish, you can choose to argue with your parents or be submissive, you can choose to listen to a friend’s complaint or be ignorant, the examples are endless.

Life is not about making one choice that matters, it is about making all the baby choices that will lead you to the ultimate moment when you feel the strongest commitment to the life’s that is calling you. You cant change your fate, but you can change your attitude towards it. Also always remember not to be afraid of making mistakes, because you will always find God’s grace in every mistake

I absolutely agree with this saying: “when fate hands us a lemon, lets try to make a lemonade”. Fate can only take you to one point in life, but the rest of your chapters in life is determined by your choices. Therefore, do it like Rascall Flat’s song “If you are faced with a choice and you have to choose, choose the ones that means the most to you”

Basically what i want to say through this post is that there is much more to life than just your predetermined fate, everything does happen for a reason,but the large portion of it comes from the choices you make everyday.Live life to the fullest and remember Big Daddy’s promise:  ”I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you” (Psalm 32:8)

“Sow a thought and you reap an act; 
Sow an act and you reap a habit; 
Sow a habit and you reap a character; 
Sow a character and you reap a destiny”

This particular post is the toughest one for me, but hopefully you are not somehow ‘lost’ and of course enjoy this post like the previous ones.

xoxo

A Tribute to Girlfriends

This post is dedicated to my lovely girlfriends. Apologize in advance if you will get somewhat ‘lost’ while reading :p

Most of us came across with this question often “What friends are for?” and most of us can give a straight and obvious answer. Girlfriends (girlfriend here refers to friendship between girls) are there to share our happiness and sadness. They are those who we call for advice, hang out with, share food and drinks with, ask opinion about our clothes, and all other stuff.

Those who we can run to when we feel upset, heartbroken, irritated, excited, basically anything related to our emotions. Someone who can forget about your past, accepts your present, and supports your future.

I’ve learned that you can do something or nothing with a best friend and still have the best time. I’ve learned that in many cases, a hug and a kind word from a best friend is the only thing that helps get you through the day. I’ve learned that best friends stay up all night and on the phone for hours talking without even realizing.

One considers the significance of girlfriends differently from one another. For me my girlfriends are simply my joy maker. They never fail to make my day feels complete and I achieve my ‘wholeness’ through them. When trying to describe myself, Im also describing them as a whole. To put it short, they define me. The friendship that we have is distinct since it  lies in honoring our differences, not simply in the enjoyment of our similarities.

So.. what does this strong bond actually signify? what is the ‘lesson learned’? what is the ‘greater’ part of this circumstance? Thus, I dig deep. Here it goes.

As im having the usual non-sense talk with my girlfriends on our ‘rather exciting’ group chat, we realized that each one of us has a distinct story (especially related to guys :p) that can stand alone as lessons to be learned by one another. Especially, the fact that each one of them has unique traits and values that cant be taken into comparison. I consider each of their stories surrounding their circumstances as a reference for one of my ‘life lessons’.

We will be presented with lessons in every circumstance that surface in our life. When we experience pain, you learn a lesson. When we experience joy, you learn a different lesson. For every circumstance, there is an accompanying lesson that must be learned.

Some say there are friends for a reason, friends for a season, but to me they are literally friends for life.

Each of them has an attached story label carrying a significant message for us to learn and here’s my take on each stories – not gonna associate each label with names to avoid chaos :p

1. “Falling Deep for My High School Sweetheart” – true love does exist, despite a pessimistic view of people who considers that your high school sweetheart will only remain temporarily.
2. “The Bliss of Having to Choose” – sometimes having to choose between two options is as hard as having no option at all. Be grateful for the options and live by your decision whole heartedly, even when you don’t know whether it is right or wrong.
3. “When Hormone Reigns Over Logic” – the former only brings temporary satisfaction, while the latter –although as girls it is hard to practice – proven to protect the heart and brings ‘peaceful’ satisfaction
4. “Love is all AROUND you” – sometimes we are too focused on finding what is better out ‘there’ while missing out the opportunity that has been right around you all along. All you need to do is  take the chance.
5. “It Takes Two to Tango” – The outcome of an action is always a result of two souls’ decision. Certain activities – such as quarrelling, fighting, and even adoring – cannot be performed alone. Two people are responsible for the outcome of a certain activity.
6. “A 23 year old Lady in Waiting” – do not compare your circumstances with others. God has His own timing for each one of us. For certain things, others’ timing might arrive earlier than yours. The best way is to ‘expectantly wait’ and be hopeful until you arrive at His’ ‘perfect timing’
7. “Believing in A Fairy Tale Ending” –  you will have many uncertainties in life and you will be tempted to feel discourage and conform to “the pattern of this world” (Romans 12:2). However, stick to your faith and what you believe in because that is what define you. Besides, wishes are always granted in fairy tales J
8.  “The Old Flame that Never Fades” – when things in life seem to move forward yet you cant seem to daringly let go one aspect of your past, do not be discouraged and pressured. Despite everything, appreciate and focus on other abundance blessings that you have been receiving.
9. “Discovering A True Self After Falling” – There is noteworthy lesson accompanying each failures, mistakes, heartbreaks, and other unfortunate incidents. The greatest lesson is that through these incidents, you achieve a better understanding of yourself. It is an unexpected self-discovery and improvement.
10. “She Said Yes Through 3D Masterview” – this part is our version of a happy ending. Sometimes when you least expect happiness to come your way, it comes wrapped up right in front of you. All you have to do is open your heart and blurt out one word ‘Yes’ and its all yours  – no need to strive to attain happiness, it is a gift for yours to keep. (you might get a diamond ring as a bonus :p)

  

Since this post is a tribute to my irreplaceable girlfriends, I would like to thank you for each of your stories – lets be each other life mentor

Therefore, let us all asses all the decisions, judgments, and projections we make onto our friends and to begin to view them as clues to how we can improve ourselves and become whole.

 “Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.”

Life – Collecting Pieces of Puzzle

Okay i keep saying this everytime i write a new post, but finally im writing again so bare with me on this particular one  A lot has happened in the past few months – an overwhelming event, an unexpected decision, and mind transforming choices – all of which still made me amazed how these are wrapped personally for me to have a better understanding about the journey of life.

So here it goes. We are all familiar with a puzzle and pretty much have a similar experience in solving a puzzle. Puzzle is designed to be solved through the solver’s effort and patience for its completion. An important part of completing a puzzle is not to see its ‘wholeness’but to understand ‘the journey and process through which the puzzle is solved’. 

I see puzzle and life having many similarities. In a puzzle each piece plays an important part in achieving the big picture, while life itself compromises of “puzzle pieces” –  family, friends, work, events, milestones, celebrations, happiness, sorrow, failures, success, heartbreaks,etc – that need to be put together to achieve the end result. When you look at the puzzle piece separately it seems that it does not serve any purpose, but when you put some of the pieces together then you suddenly realize that it was because of that one puzzle piece that other pieces were able to fall into place. For instance, you would not realize the purpose behind one event in your life until another events that can be related to that event begin to unfold.

Everything surrounding our lives happens for a specific reason, nothing in life is an accident. Each moment, circumstances, occurrence, and even things related to the past – whether it is good or bad- signifies a piece of the puzzle. When one piece of the puzzle is taken away, the ‘wholeness’ of the end result will not be achieved. For some some of the pieces in their lives involve failures, heartache, disappointment, pain or even loss, but no matter how heavy and difficult to understand those pieces are, they will bring you one step closer to wholeness. Sometimes we are too focused and wasting our time on trying to find the ‘missing pieces’ that we believe will  ’solve’ the puzzle, while leaving behind ‘other missing pieces’ that are equally important. Then what we fail to do is to be grateful and enjoy the journey and process in finding those missing pieces.

Another important to note is that each of us has a different ‘puzzle’ to solve that is uniquely designed and personalized according to the purpose given to each one of us so don’t try to fit other’s pieces into your puzzle. What’s important is that it is not about the completion of a puzzle but it is more about understanding the beauty that goes into each puzzle pieces and embracing the process prior to its completion. 

Therefore, let us live life with a firm faith that even when we cant see the whole picture of the puzzle box, God does and He will fit the puzzle pieces together in His own design and time. Be content and grateful for the puzzle pieces that have been given to you and believe that each puzzle pieces of your life, even the hard to understand ones, have a purpose

Let me close with this one ~ God gave you a gift box called life, filled with pieces of puzzle – but it is not tied with a bow, it comes with a Post It that says ‘This is a gift, solve it’ ~

“God never gives us more than we were designed to carry. Some of us were designed for more, some for less. Even if we were asked to carry a portion of the sky, it is beyond bearable. It is gift.” ~ Regina Brett

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow”

Hope you enjoy the short post. Gambling on this one

Besides Big Daddy up there, they are the glue to all my puzzle pieces. Extremely grateful

Can We All Say No Regrets to Life?

i know its been awhile. But here it goes.

Live life with no regrets, that saying has become one of the most important life lesson given by most older people we have encountered, but do we really understand the depth of it? do we fully understand? is it even possible or attainable? Most people focus on HOW to live life with no regrets instead of WHY, but i am more interested on the WHYs and here is my take on it.

After the accident that happened to my Dad (which was so unfortunate, but made us feel blessed more than ever), my 23 years of life appeared before me and it made me question myself. “Can i really say that i have been living life with no regrets?”, “What does living life with no regrets really mean?”

I believe most of us have a similar understanding about it. Most of us think it means making the most out of life, be the person who you want to be, take chances, and enjoy everything life has to offer. These are basically saying that we must avoid saying ” i could/should have done this and that”, but is that really it?

My personal take on living life with no regrets is that we should regard life as a gift from God that carries a purpose which needs to be made “complete” by each one of us. It also means we should take life day by day as a lesson to be completed. Each and every tiny details in life has been prepared and crafted specifically to serve as a lesson for each one of us. Your families, spouse, partner, friends, enemies, colleagues, talents, dreams, goals, ambitions, triumphs, and sorrows exist to serve a purpose yet to be discovered.

Every day, every moment we are faced with a choice to live life according to its purpose. To see life problems as possibilities and obstacles as opportunities to learn. The quality of your life is up to you. Every moment is an opportunity to let go of the old and breathe in new life; to exhale fear and inhale courage; to exhale disappointments and inhale hope; to exhale regrets and inhale contentment.

So, listen to your parents, argue and reconcile with  your friends, dont be discouraged if someone breaks your heart, laugh louder, take many pictures, forgive easily, love like you have never been hurt before, and most importantly live in the moment because every second is precious.

This is why we should live life with no regrets. Pursuit your happiness and live a satisfactory life by living life to the fullest.

Any moment filled with God’s purpose is a moment when we live life with  no regrets.

The one thing you can do to appreciate and treasure life that is God’s gift to us is by living it with no regrets.

“The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything, they just make the most of everything that come along their way.”

 ”Live your life so that when you die,you’re the one smiling and everyone around you is crying. “

xoxo

The Depth of Life

Hey you!

Finally i am writing again after sooo long i guess I am not confident enough to write anything unless im sure about it, but thanks to my loved ones who have been encouraging me now Im taking baby steps again

The unfortunate tragedy of tsunami and earth quake in Japan yesterday inspired me to write about what Im about to write. Seeing people’s lives taken away in a blink of an eye made me want to explore more in writing about the ‘depth of life’ and humans’ approach to it.

When i think deeply how to answer the question “How most humans are running their lives?” a straight forward answer which I reluctant to admit appear before me.. “they are taking life for granted”

When we “take things for granted” we often fail to value the things or activities that are  always available to us. The feeling of gratitude and recognition are no longer present since we are accustom to have those things or activities as our permanent possession

Hard to swallow but most humans have absolute and infinite capacity for taking life for granted. It is in our nature and flesh that we do not put high value on the things that happen to us on a daily basis. Things like waking up in the morning, the advice given by parents, the laughter of a friend, the attention of a partner, the solidarity in a work place, the warmth of a household, basically everything that wont be happening unless God is generous enough to us. We often wait until disastrous sent to us as a “wake up call” for us to value life.

We often live by the saying “same thing different day”, as if ourselves are conditioned to experience the same thing every day, not expecting anything to happen differently. We take daily routines such as waking up in the morning, going to work, meeting friends and families, studying, and even praying like just things that happen on an ordinary day when it is supposed to be seen as a blessing by itself.

We buy books on various topics related to life, but Why do we keep buying different ones? Because none of the books give a definite answer and full satisfaction to the readers who want to understand about life. We, as humans with limited capabilities, just have to live life like it is going to be taken away from us tomorrow and not take for granted every single thing that is happening to us even if it is sickness, death, and unfortunate accidents.

Look at it this way, as the 10m wave was about to hit the Miyagi shore i shiver thinking about how we take our families, friends, job, possession, people, basically life for granted and how shameful it would be if we would no longer have the chance to utter a simple word like “thank you”, “sorry”, or “i love you” to our loved ones before God took them away. The Bible says “What do you know about tomorrow? How can you be so sure about life? It is nothing more than mist that appears only for a little while before it disappears” (James 4:14)

Live life like there is no tomorrow because tomorrow has its own troubles “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34). Most of us are too focused about creating our “bucket lists” and thinking about what my or may not happen tomorrow, then we fail to remember that whatever is happening to us at this very second is a manifestation of God’s love to us. That by itself is powerful enough.

Life is what should be celebrated on a daily basis. Most of us think that we are in control of our lives and fate, but actually we are in control of our approach in life and  God is the commander. Anyone and everyone can change their current circumstances to be, do and have anything their heart desires. Its is about how you live your life, and it’s a choice and it starts from the mind. Life is definitely about choices and we can choose how to live on our terms.

Life is  a gift and it is not for us to keep, it is a medium for God to mold his creations.

Let us not wait for something extraordinary to feel “grateful” or “blessed”, but be in a constant state of gratefulness every second of the day.

Do not live life, but be alive by living life with the depth of your heart.

I hope that by reading this you can eliminate the word “next time” because it is not wise to wait for the next opportunity to come, the one that you have in hand is the opportunity

“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”-G.K. Chesterton

A Call to Love

Dedicated to my parents, brothers, lover, and friends..

Finally I am writing my third post! I know its been awhile but I just could not find the right time to productively write. When you see the title of this post, some of you may think that the topic of love is overly used. But i do not want to write about it in a different angle  so here it goes… *im just gonna gamble on this one-crossed fingers

I am not an experienced person in the ‘love’ industry and don’t intend to be one, but the reality is that people consider love as a ‘feeling‘,’affection or devotion for someone‘, ‘emotion‘, and ‘attraction‘. The simple sentence ‘I love you’ one says to her or his loved ones (lover,spouse,parents,siblings, relatives,friends) carries a great magnitude attached to it because love is not a feeling but a decision to willingly give up one’s selfishness. Love is an act of your will.

“Freely we serve because we freely love, as in our will to love or not; in this we stand or fall”~ John Milton

To me  each one of us has a definition and an ideal practice of love that is why there are many self-guide books on love written based on a writer’s personal experience and idea but universally love is not a spiritual gift, it is not something you are born with. Well i think we are born with the ‘ability to love‘ but the depth and width, the ups and downs of it depends on the circumstances that Big daddy up there has prepared for you in advance. Just like hardships and trials, your ‘ability to love’ is given according to its portion. Having this realization, now I know why there are conflicts, quarrels, and arguments even it is written ‘love your enemy’ because who ever said its going to be easy? He just promised it would be worth it.

So try to grasp this..love is our supreme and priority calling; it is the fruit of the spirit within us that surfaces and unveils itself when we are ready to cast ourselves to Him and throw away the delusion that love is a feeling. ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control”~Gal. 5:22-23. Because if love is a feeling, how can you stop loving your family even when the feeling is not there anymore? so love is not something that happens to you but it is something that you make happen to you and happen to others. Your ability to love grows deeper whenever something greater within you pushes you to make the right decision.

When the act of love itself seems to be painful and hard to understand, you are living love just like you are called to do. In fact, if we are presently not feeling the squeeze and sacrifice of loving, we are probably exercising a preferential, highly selective, self-centered human substitute of love. Love by faith, not by feeling- faith and love are inseparable housemates that offers hospitality for hope. Whenever difficulties come clouding your way, do not fret and lose your faith. When you lose your faith to love, you lose the ability to love. When you lose the ability to love, you lose your hope. “faith, hope, and love. but the greatest of these is love”~ 1 Cor 13:13 so let your faith express itself through love.

I urge you dear friends to see love as a decision and commitment not a feeling. Love is a decision made by your will. He planted a seed called ‘the will of love’ in each of us so that we can grow it into a plant when we consistently nurture and sustain it.

We live by faith. We love by faith

By faith keep living, keep risking, and keep loving. Work to love and will to love and when the intended recipient wont catch it, God will.

“Love looks not with the eyes , but with the mind” ~William Shakespeare

“Love is a thing to walk with, hand-in-hand through the everdayness of this workday world”~J.R Rowell

“Let those love now, who never loved before; let hose who always loved now love the more”~ Thomas Parnell

and my ultimate favorite , “But perfect love drives out fear,the one who fears is not made perfect in love”~ 1 John 4:18

Hope you enjoy reading the post *again crossing finger

xoxo

‘Hardship’~ A Test of Character

Kyaa! Finally writing my second post. I knows its been awhile, been trying to write but my laziness got the best of me =D also don’t want to write random stuff not worth reading =)

Its been about three weeks since my last post about integrity, somehow the word ‘hardship’ came to mind when i thought about what theme could people relate to. Plus, that word keeps on passing by my mind every time i face trouble these days.

‘Hardship‘.. when i think about it, the very word itself is associated with ‘difficulties‘, ‘trials‘, and ‘uncertainties’ in life that one has to embrace. I keep thinking why when one says ‘im going through hardship…” it’s almost seem as if it is regarded as ‘an excessive burden that is almost intolerable to the point of almost breaking’

Why? I keep asking Why? (well if we have answers for every Whys i guess life would be a lot easier huh =D ) So, feel like God whispered to me and this is what i interpret ‘It is human nature to have fear and worries of things that are still ‘unknown‘ , ‘unseen‘,  and ‘unpredictable‘, hardship is seen as a burden not because of the circumstances around it, but because of human’s inability to wait for a solution’

People commonly think that ‘hardship’ is the opposite of ‘happiness’, but i do encourage you to think of it as a ‘prelude to happiness’.

Why?

Because happiness is a personal effort, you fight for it,strive for it, and insist upon it.Once you achieve happiness you must never become relax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on it. Hardship is there for you to be able to make a personal effort in fighting it until you reach the ultimate satisfaction of finally gripping the blessing of happiness.

Every being has to carry a given amount of hardship, and every being is given a given amount of blessing in return according to the approach in handling the given hardship. When a tree is planted where the fiercest winds crush its branches..nearly to the point of breaking, that tree is more firmly rooted than any other trees grown in a secluded valley with no storm.

Well, the winds and storms are our hardships, but like the tree.. the strongest and greatest character in us is grown through hardship. 

Hardship is like a strong wind. it tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are - Memoirs of Geisha

Big daddy up there doesn’t give us ‘the blessing of happiness’ right in front of our door steps, instead he put it in a box and hide it for us to be like kids who excitedly play treasure hunting. The hunt will be tiring but whats being offered in that box surpasses all things imagined by human minds.

So dear friends, i hope by reading this you can change the way you view your hardships. Let it be your ‘fertilizer‘ and ‘secret ingredient‘ in life because we all know there is a greater rewards for those who silently wait.

‘Harship enhances this journey we call life’ …

A verse to be shared ‘Rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. (Romans 5:3-5)

“If you don’t like about something; change it, if you can’t change it, change how you think about it“~Mary Engelbreit



Hope second post is equally enjoyable

xoxo

To My Father

Yay! My very first post and i still can’t believe i am actually writing for my blog. Oh well there is always a first time in everything and since i am officially a PR practitioner now might as well have this blog to share my passion in writing.

I have decided to dedicate my very first post to my dear father who has never failed to impress me with his charms. For the past few months observing him, there is one word struck to my mind.. ‘integrity‘. It is a bit compelling to know when a person is described as having a strong ‘integrity’, the goosebumps that people get is different when the same person is described as having ‘power‘ or ‘wealth‘. That  makes me think deeply, how do people view integrity?

Integrity is collectively accepted as ‘the quality of possessing and steadfastly holding on to high moral principles or ethical standards’. If I may add, I think integrity is also ‘being in a complete, undistracted, and undivided state of mind despite surrounded by  jeopardizing circumstances and opportunities’. I have always seen my father as an inspiring leader carrying a heavy load of integrity along with him, always striving to put forth this virtue of his in everything that he involves in, be that in business and family (which explains why i still can’t find the ‘secret’ in winning an argument with him. that remains as an unsolved mystery =p) Having raised by this kind of person for 23 years, sometimes I take for granted this inspiring character of his. Don’t get me wrong, it is not that i am not grateful, but i think the saying ‘you will never realize what you have until it is gone’ should explain better what I meant.

I am extremely grateful that through the loss of my father in Kadin election, I don’t need to lose my father in order to be joyful and proud for having a father who has inspired so many people. It feels like God is reminding me and my family by saying ‘Hey take a look at your father and consider him as your great blessing and the reason to be grateful in life’. Yesterday was one of those moments when I realize that ‘when a result is seen as a loss in humans’ eyes, God picks it up and make it as a gain’ Yes, my father did lost a prestigious position but what God made him gain is a ‘FAMILY‘ that loves him unconditionally, overlooking his power, health, social status, and flaws.

I smiled inwardly when he teared up addressing his campaign team as his ‘family’ (finally he shows affection towards them and i never felt so proud). The way all of us ‘celebrate’ our loss instead of victory truly gave me goosebumps. If a company has what it’s called as ‘competitive advantage’ over the other, then for my father his integrity would be his ‘competitive advantage’ over other people out there.

Lastly, as my family puts everything in the past and moving forward with gratitude, what I have learnt from the experience that we as the Kanters family went through is that;

‘To everything there is a season, God  has made everything beautiful in its time. I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in lives’- taken from Ecclesiastes 3

‘Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight’ – Proverbs 3:5-6

I am not very good in expressing myself, but this i wrote merely as my dedication. So as Albert Einstein said ‘Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value’

Hope my first post is interesting enough =D

Love,

xoxo