Sharing Thoughts, Inspiring People

“B eing grateful all the time isn’t easy. But it’s when you feel least thankful  that you are most in need of what gratitude can give you:  perspective .  Gratitude can transform any situation. It alters your vibration, moving you  from negative energy to positive. It’s the quickest, easiest, most powerful  way to effect change in your life—this I know for sure.” - Oprah Winfrey No one really knows what some people are going through. Even the ones that you think are tough and all smiles.  Three years ago, I found myself in a new place surrounded with new faces. It was tough. Settling in a country 7,495 miles away from home and leaving everyone I knew, siblings and family behind is difficult. Even though I countlessly told myself, home is where my family (husband and daughter) is, it was a futile effort of convincing myself. I have to instill it in my heart that my new home is here now with my new relatives-in-law. My mom had just died a year before we ...

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in  all circumstances ; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.  -  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Gratitude is a feeling of thankfulness and appreciation. When you search up gratitude using this keywords 'gratitude meaning', vocabulary.com will return the following Gratitude , which rhymes with "attitude," comes from the Latin word  gratus , which means "thankful, pleasing." When you feel gratitude, you're pleased by what someone did for you and also pleased by the results. Feeling. Emotion. Attitude. It is easy for you to feel grateful when life is going well, to celebrate the joys of life and magnify its goodness. But it doesn't come easy when disaster strikes. Losing a job, a loved one, failing at something, having disabilities or when life gets extremely challenging and painful that you wonder if it's possible to find anything to be thankful for. Gratitude is also not easy to cultivate in ou...

Two days for a weekend seems not enough. Before I knew it I was up again for my usual four am routine of boarding a jeep going to a bus terminal that will transport me back to city life and back to the reality. I was on board a jeep pondering thoughts of how quiet and laid back life is in the province - fresh air, green surroundings, less noise, less people, and most of all no rush hour! Such tranquility will drive people like me into deep thoughts.  While doing my silent 'wanderings', I saw onboard a physically well-built man. He was fighting back the to urge to sleep although he was drowsing. By the look on his face, he is probably close to forties but I suppose he is a bit younger than my estimates. His eyes mirror something like grimness, his face shows some wrinkles and I guess, it may be because of all the physical hardships he'd endure in life. In front of him were two large aluminum buckets full of taho. He is a 'magtataho'. That explains for ...

I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Our father was a below average wage-earner while our mother stayed home handling our finances. Growing up, I witnessed how she stretched out our father's hard earned money to maximize purchases while having side hustle just to make ends meet. She'd never lectured me on how to spend wisely but seeing how she did things and all the hardships that came with it, I knew back then that money doesn't grow on trees. This here was the truth that drove me to be frugal. When I was a kid, whenever I see a rich person, the usual thought was they were from a well off family. Now, the rich people I knew were actually not born rich, they were self made. They may not be millionaires (yet) but they are enjoying the financial freedom which is a goal for many of us. Financial freedom means having enough savings, investments, and cash on hand to afford the lifestyle we want for ourselves and our family - while having a passive, re-generating in...