"Maybe God wants you to stay put."
This was the message I got through my friend Mitch at the time I was stressing myself with the series of unfortunate events that happened the past couple of weeks at home.
When she told me this, it made me stop and reflect. She does have a point. I have been running like a headless chicken the past couple of months, being pre-occupied with work, my accreditation requirements and of course, my duties and responsibilities at home. I know that I can multi-task, but yes, I was pushing myself to my limits.
Baka ako rin naman, sinasabihan na ni Lord, "Time first muna, Jeana."
Well, this message was affirmed when I attended a staff prayer session early Wednesday morning. The reading chosen was taken from Mark 6:30-34. The passage that really struck me was: "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."
I had goosebumps that morning and became misty-eyed.
Just three years of casual work and yet so much have changed. Before, if I get ONE call in two weeks or once a week, I already feel like it's a miracle. When more opportunities came, I was happy with 3 calls, making sure that my Mondays and Tuesdays remained sacred for Liam and Sam. Now, I feel like I'm not working as a casual anymore because there are weeks when I am working for five days straight! It's like already working full-time!
My time with the kids did get affected, especially Sam. And since I tried to catch up with every opportunity I had, it became physically exhausting for me. If before I found my work as my "relaxing time" well, not anymore, especially if the class I handled for that day is just physically and mentally draining.
Tired from work and tired at home.
I was asking myself what made me accept and accept when before I could easily turn down a call without second thoughts? It's my accreditation. I was trying to meet the 180 days of work requirement so I can already start writing my reports and hopefully submit all the requirements by the end of the school year.
Right now I feel, naagapan. I remember back in college, during my last sem, I was in the same state -- pushing myself too hard until my body gave up. I just collapsed one day and got sick for four days. Right now, I'm feeling a bit under the weather as I strained my voice too much yesterday and the cold (very) weather here is not helping as well. So even if I have a million and one pending house chores over the weekend, I'm stopping and just taking it easy. One day at a time. One chore at a time...because if I don't baka maulit or baka mas malala na ang mangyari and with two kids depending on me, bawal ako magkasakit.
I think God used my kids and my eye as my wake-up call because He knows it will definitely get my attention. Well, it did :)
I'm still worried about my 180 days requirement because I want my accreditation done and over with. But come to think of it, God started to roll the ball and He was the one who made me realize: start fixing you accreditation. So WHY worry now? He is in control. He will take care of everything. Wag daw ako apurado.
Back to basics. Back to my real priorities.
Thanks Mitch for that friendly reminder, you have been an angel in disguise :)
P.S. Mitch is the wife of hubby's fraternity brod. I can't exactly remember the first time we met...binyag ba ni Zach? hehehe We didn't get a lot of opportunities to nurture a "normal" friendship as we only get to see one another on special occasions like weddings and baptisms. It didn't help that my family already migrated here. But despite the distance we kept each other in the loop through FB, blogs, pms and now Instagram. Readings her blogs and through our exchange of emails allowed me to get to know her better. I feel, if we met each other early on, we will definitely the best of friends by now! No kidding! We share a lot of common interests -- reading, blogging, travelling.... I feel we share the same qualities -- organized, OC-OC, among others. Baka kung nasa Manila ako, nagkakape na kami every week! hehe :) I'm not sure if we are of the same age, but if we are, then she is one of the very few friends that I have whose maturity and wisdom I admire a lot :) And I can only wish for our friendship to blossom and be blessed over the next couple of years despite the distance!
Showing posts with label angels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label angels. Show all posts
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Friday, May 18, 2012
Getting There
We are just thankful that God has sent us people with wisdom that can help us arrive at a decision.
We were at crossroads the past few days but thanks to these people, we are getting there.
Of course, we believe that they are God sent as we continue to ask for the gift of discernment for this present concern.
We'll get there. Getting there.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels
I believe that angels exist.
Yesterday up until tomorrow, the Ateneo Grade School will be celebrating its annual fair, which coincides with the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels (although, officially, it is celebrated every October 2). And I can't help but join them with the celebrations :-)
Being a SAHM, I am left with the huge task of taking care of the kids and doing majority of the chores at home. As I try to balance the two, it is impossible for e to be beside my children every time, all the time, especially with Sam.
When I try to do some errands at home, I sometimes leave her inside their room with her Kuya or sometimes alone, with the security gate closed. Sometimes, when I need to do something urgent upstairs, I leave them downstairs. Sometimes, when I need to do other chores at home, I leave Sam alone on the bed, as she takes her morning nap or afternoon nap, of course with the baby monitor on. Sometimes, when I take a bath in the morning, I leave the two of them on the bed, while they are still asleep. Before I leave them and while I am not beside them, I entrust them to their guardian angels. I even ask my own guardian angel to help watch over my kids.
So far, no major accident has happened to my two bulilits (knock on wood), and I will boldly credit their guardian angels for this. This week alone, I caught Sam almost at the edge of the bed just at the right time! As in one more movement, she will fall off the bed already! But thanks to my guardian angel who reminds me to check on her the moment I hear something from the baby monitor, I was at the right place at right time. This is aside from the instances where I found her chewing a small toy of his Kuya and me catching her up on our stairs. Guardian angels are truly life savers!
Who says guardian angels are only for kids? This is one part of my faith that I wil gladly share, teach and instill in the mind of my kids.
Happy Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels!
Yesterday up until tomorrow, the Ateneo Grade School will be celebrating its annual fair, which coincides with the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels (although, officially, it is celebrated every October 2). And I can't help but join them with the celebrations :-)
Being a SAHM, I am left with the huge task of taking care of the kids and doing majority of the chores at home. As I try to balance the two, it is impossible for e to be beside my children every time, all the time, especially with Sam.
When I try to do some errands at home, I sometimes leave her inside their room with her Kuya or sometimes alone, with the security gate closed. Sometimes, when I need to do something urgent upstairs, I leave them downstairs. Sometimes, when I need to do other chores at home, I leave Sam alone on the bed, as she takes her morning nap or afternoon nap, of course with the baby monitor on. Sometimes, when I take a bath in the morning, I leave the two of them on the bed, while they are still asleep. Before I leave them and while I am not beside them, I entrust them to their guardian angels. I even ask my own guardian angel to help watch over my kids.
So far, no major accident has happened to my two bulilits (knock on wood), and I will boldly credit their guardian angels for this. This week alone, I caught Sam almost at the edge of the bed just at the right time! As in one more movement, she will fall off the bed already! But thanks to my guardian angel who reminds me to check on her the moment I hear something from the baby monitor, I was at the right place at right time. This is aside from the instances where I found her chewing a small toy of his Kuya and me catching her up on our stairs. Guardian angels are truly life savers!
Who says guardian angels are only for kids? This is one part of my faith that I wil gladly share, teach and instill in the mind of my kids.
Happy Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Angels Part 2
I just had my class this afternoon and after hearning some more insights I edited my work and here was the final output.
The Holy Spirit is indeed God working within us through different ways. As Donal Dorr puts it in writing “the Holy Spirit is the God who works secretly in the human heart and who inspires and touches the deepest parts of the human spirit (p.62).” Five channels were briefly discussed in the reading materials among which are the web of life and angels. I chose to reflect on how an angel has touched my life.
I am a big fan of angels, not only when I was a kid but even up to now that I am a grown-up. It also helped that back in Ateneo, we used to celebrate our annual school fair during the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. It is an annual event that was looked forward to not only by students, but by parents and teachers as well. I am a fan because I believe that in my everyday journey, I get to experience being touched by an angel or angels for that matter, be it in small or big ways.
My son who constantly inspires me especially in difficult times will be my angel forever. My husband, who is afraid of doctors and hospitals, for some weird reason, convinced me to go to the hospital that night, 3 weeks after giving birth, was my saving angel. If not for his persistence, I may not be writing this presentation. I had hemorrhagic fever and I was already bleeding inside. My platelet was down to 50 when the normal range should be between 170 to 240. My students, who affirmed my decision to change my course back in college from Dentistry to Education, will be my angels forever. My brother who welcomed my family into their home, provided for our needs, free of any charge, for the first nine months of stay here in Australia, is another angel. People who continue to pray for us even if we don’t ask, are of course angels in our lives!
Who are the newest angels in my life? A new acquaintance telling me tips on how to be a better casual teacher; the teacher who gave me the bookstore where I can purchase books or materials that I can use when I do my casual work; the partner teacher who made sure that I was on the right track right after she learned that I was new in school and in Australia; a new acquaintance helping me get more casual teaching jobs; and the childcare who accepts casual childcare when I have a casual work are the newest angels in my life. Of course, there are a lot of angels in my life sometimes I don’t get to realize it until after my encounter with them.
When I was much younger I thought I needed to have an extraordinary experience for me to say that I have been touched by an angel. That I needed to see an image of a winged creature all dressed in white just like what we see in the movies or in the cartoons. But it all changed when I realized, through a poem by Cindy Turner in a card that was given to me by one of my best buddies in college that we can see angels in each person that I meet. Let me share it with you.
There have been angels in my life.
While they haven't arrived with a blast of trumpets
or a rustle of wings,
I've known them just the same.
They performed their acts in human guise,
sometimes borrowing the faces of family and friends,
sometimes posing as well-meaning strangers.
You have known them, too,
when just the right word was needed,
when a tiny act of kindness made a great difference...
Or perhaps you heard a voice
whispering in the night of sorrow,
the words not quite clear
but the meaning unmistakable..."There is hope... There is hope."
Donal Dorr points out that these “angelic presences represent a channel for inspiration from the Holy Spirit (p.67)” I cannot help but agree that when people around us, family or even strangers, makes an unexpected act of kindness, the Holy Spirit is at work. And yes, I agree that “we have to pay more attention to guardian angels and other spiritual powers (p.67)”
I am actually challenged at this point because many people have been used by God to serve as an angel to me. I don’t know if one way or another, I have been an angel to them as well --to my family or even strangers, to people who needed to hear the right word or needed the right inspiration. I don’t know but I can tell you that I am trying.
I hope that this one is a better version than the first one. I was actually inspired because I got the results of my first assessment and it yielded good results. Hope I'm on a lucky streak.
The Holy Spirit is indeed God working within us through different ways. As Donal Dorr puts it in writing “the Holy Spirit is the God who works secretly in the human heart and who inspires and touches the deepest parts of the human spirit (p.62).” Five channels were briefly discussed in the reading materials among which are the web of life and angels. I chose to reflect on how an angel has touched my life.
I am a big fan of angels, not only when I was a kid but even up to now that I am a grown-up. It also helped that back in Ateneo, we used to celebrate our annual school fair during the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. It is an annual event that was looked forward to not only by students, but by parents and teachers as well. I am a fan because I believe that in my everyday journey, I get to experience being touched by an angel or angels for that matter, be it in small or big ways.
My son who constantly inspires me especially in difficult times will be my angel forever. My husband, who is afraid of doctors and hospitals, for some weird reason, convinced me to go to the hospital that night, 3 weeks after giving birth, was my saving angel. If not for his persistence, I may not be writing this presentation. I had hemorrhagic fever and I was already bleeding inside. My platelet was down to 50 when the normal range should be between 170 to 240. My students, who affirmed my decision to change my course back in college from Dentistry to Education, will be my angels forever. My brother who welcomed my family into their home, provided for our needs, free of any charge, for the first nine months of stay here in Australia, is another angel. People who continue to pray for us even if we don’t ask, are of course angels in our lives!
Who are the newest angels in my life? A new acquaintance telling me tips on how to be a better casual teacher; the teacher who gave me the bookstore where I can purchase books or materials that I can use when I do my casual work; the partner teacher who made sure that I was on the right track right after she learned that I was new in school and in Australia; a new acquaintance helping me get more casual teaching jobs; and the childcare who accepts casual childcare when I have a casual work are the newest angels in my life. Of course, there are a lot of angels in my life sometimes I don’t get to realize it until after my encounter with them.
When I was much younger I thought I needed to have an extraordinary experience for me to say that I have been touched by an angel. That I needed to see an image of a winged creature all dressed in white just like what we see in the movies or in the cartoons. But it all changed when I realized, through a poem by Cindy Turner in a card that was given to me by one of my best buddies in college that we can see angels in each person that I meet. Let me share it with you.
There have been angels in my life.
While they haven't arrived with a blast of trumpets
or a rustle of wings,
I've known them just the same.
They performed their acts in human guise,
sometimes borrowing the faces of family and friends,
sometimes posing as well-meaning strangers.
You have known them, too,
when just the right word was needed,
when a tiny act of kindness made a great difference...
Or perhaps you heard a voice
whispering in the night of sorrow,
the words not quite clear
but the meaning unmistakable..."There is hope... There is hope."
Donal Dorr points out that these “angelic presences represent a channel for inspiration from the Holy Spirit (p.67)” I cannot help but agree that when people around us, family or even strangers, makes an unexpected act of kindness, the Holy Spirit is at work. And yes, I agree that “we have to pay more attention to guardian angels and other spiritual powers (p.67)”
I am actually challenged at this point because many people have been used by God to serve as an angel to me. I don’t know if one way or another, I have been an angel to them as well --to my family or even strangers, to people who needed to hear the right word or needed the right inspiration. I don’t know but I can tell you that I am trying.
I hope that this one is a better version than the first one. I was actually inspired because I got the results of my first assessment and it yielded good results. Hope I'm on a lucky streak.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Angels
I am presently doing my Certficate of Religious Education here in Sydney. It is a two year course and hopefully, after I am done with it, I will get to have a permanent full-time job as a Primary School Teacher.
For this week's session, we were asked to read three readings and of course reflect on some of the topics listed. I was actually inspired to write that I decided to share my reflection. This is basically what I'll be presenting but my final report will still be based on our meeting next week.
So, here it is:
The Holy Spirit is indeed God working within us. As Donal Dorr puts it in writing “the Holy Spirit is the God who works secretly in the human heart and who inspires and touches the deepest parts of the human spirit.” Five channels were briefly discussed in the reading materials among which are the web of life and angels.
I am a big fan of angels, not only when I was a kid but even up to now that I am a grown-up. It also helped that back in Ateneo, we used to celebrate our annual fair during the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. It is an annual event that was looked forward to not only by students, but by parents and teachers as well. It dates back to that tragic event when the kids were believed to have been saved by their guardian angels from a big fire in the old school site. I am a fan because I believe that in my everyday journey, I get to experience being touched by an angel or angels for that matter, be it in small or big ways.
A new acquaintance telling me tips on how to be a better casual teacher on my very first casual teaching job here in Australia was an angel. The teacher who gave me the bookstore where I can purchase books or materials that I can use when I do my casual teaching was another angel. The partner teacher who made sure I was on the right track right after she learned that I was new in school and in Australia. A new acquaintance helping me get more casual teaching jobs is another. The childcare who accepts casual childcare when I have a casual teaching call is another. They are the newest angels in my life. Of course, there are a lot of angels in my life sometimes I don’t get to realize it until after my encounter with them.
My son who constantly inspires me especially in difficult times will be my angel forever. My husband, who is afraid of doctors and hospitals, for some weird reason, convinced me to go to the hospital that night, 3 weeks after giving birth, was my saving angel. If not for his persistence, I may not be writing this presentation. I had hemorrhagic fever and I was already bleeding inside. My platelet was down to 50 when the normal range should be between 170 to 240. My students, who affirmed my decision to change my course back in college, will be my angels forever. My brother who welcomed my family into their home, provided for our needs, free of any charge, for the first nine months of stay here in Australia, is another angel. People who continue to pray for us even if we don’t ask, are of course angels in our lives!
When I was much younger I thought I needed to have an extraordinary experience for me to say that I have been touched by an angel. That I needed to see an image of a winged creature all dressed in white just like what we see in the movies or in the cartoons. I did once, when I was younger, and it convinced me that they do exist and they really guard you and protect you. There are a lot of guardian angel encounters but to see an angel in each person that I meet was brought about by a poem in a card that was given to me by one of my best buddies in college. Let me share it with you.
There have been angels in my life.
While they haven't arrived with a blast of trumpets
or a rustle of wings,
I've known them just the same.
They performed their acts in human guise,
sometimes borrowing the faces of family and friends,
sometimes posing as well-meaning strangers.
You have known them, too,
when just the right word was needed,
when a tiny act of kindness made a great difference...
Or perhaps you heard a voice
whispering in the night of sorrow,
the words not quite clear
but the meaning unmistakable..."There is hope... There is hope."
For this week's session, we were asked to read three readings and of course reflect on some of the topics listed. I was actually inspired to write that I decided to share my reflection. This is basically what I'll be presenting but my final report will still be based on our meeting next week.
So, here it is:
The Holy Spirit is indeed God working within us. As Donal Dorr puts it in writing “the Holy Spirit is the God who works secretly in the human heart and who inspires and touches the deepest parts of the human spirit.” Five channels were briefly discussed in the reading materials among which are the web of life and angels.
I am a big fan of angels, not only when I was a kid but even up to now that I am a grown-up. It also helped that back in Ateneo, we used to celebrate our annual fair during the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. It is an annual event that was looked forward to not only by students, but by parents and teachers as well. It dates back to that tragic event when the kids were believed to have been saved by their guardian angels from a big fire in the old school site. I am a fan because I believe that in my everyday journey, I get to experience being touched by an angel or angels for that matter, be it in small or big ways.
A new acquaintance telling me tips on how to be a better casual teacher on my very first casual teaching job here in Australia was an angel. The teacher who gave me the bookstore where I can purchase books or materials that I can use when I do my casual teaching was another angel. The partner teacher who made sure I was on the right track right after she learned that I was new in school and in Australia. A new acquaintance helping me get more casual teaching jobs is another. The childcare who accepts casual childcare when I have a casual teaching call is another. They are the newest angels in my life. Of course, there are a lot of angels in my life sometimes I don’t get to realize it until after my encounter with them.
My son who constantly inspires me especially in difficult times will be my angel forever. My husband, who is afraid of doctors and hospitals, for some weird reason, convinced me to go to the hospital that night, 3 weeks after giving birth, was my saving angel. If not for his persistence, I may not be writing this presentation. I had hemorrhagic fever and I was already bleeding inside. My platelet was down to 50 when the normal range should be between 170 to 240. My students, who affirmed my decision to change my course back in college, will be my angels forever. My brother who welcomed my family into their home, provided for our needs, free of any charge, for the first nine months of stay here in Australia, is another angel. People who continue to pray for us even if we don’t ask, are of course angels in our lives!
When I was much younger I thought I needed to have an extraordinary experience for me to say that I have been touched by an angel. That I needed to see an image of a winged creature all dressed in white just like what we see in the movies or in the cartoons. I did once, when I was younger, and it convinced me that they do exist and they really guard you and protect you. There are a lot of guardian angel encounters but to see an angel in each person that I meet was brought about by a poem in a card that was given to me by one of my best buddies in college. Let me share it with you.
There have been angels in my life.
While they haven't arrived with a blast of trumpets
or a rustle of wings,
I've known them just the same.
They performed their acts in human guise,
sometimes borrowing the faces of family and friends,
sometimes posing as well-meaning strangers.
You have known them, too,
when just the right word was needed,
when a tiny act of kindness made a great difference...
Or perhaps you heard a voice
whispering in the night of sorrow,
the words not quite clear
but the meaning unmistakable..."There is hope... There is hope."
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