Sharing Thoughts, Inspiring People

Look upward when life hits you low - Pastor Jun Vencer ♥ ♥ ♥ The bad days make the good ones better ♥ ♥ ♥ In year 2020, we really have nothing to complain about because we have so much to acknowledge and appreciate. ♥ ♥ ♥ Gratitude is when  memory is stored in the heart, not in the mind - Lionel Hampton ♥ ♥ ♥ The more grateful I am, the more beauty I see - Mary Davis ♥ ♥ ♥ Gratitude turns what we have into enough - Anon ♥ ♥ ♥ Today I choose to live with gratitude for the love that fills my heart, the peace that rests within my spirit, and the voice of hope that says all things are possible - Anon ♥ ♥ ♥ I am thankful for the essentials in my life. What are my essentials? My family, faith (God), time - these are the things that kept me sane, whole and joyful all through the pandemic. These things give me joy in a way that other extra things cannot sustain me.  ♥ ♥ ♥ I thank God for my mom today, for what she had done for me. I will never be here, will never be who I am now if wi...

Sharing shared post. How to learn to be happier. Thankfulness is one of them! Did you know that at Harvard, one of the most prestigious universities in the world, the most popular and successful course teaches you how to learn to be happier? The Positive Psychology class taught by Ben Shahar attracts 1400 students per semester and 20% of Harvard graduates take this elective course. According to Ben Shahar, the class - which focuses on happiness, self-esteem and motivation - gives students the tools to succeed and face life with more joy._This 45-year-old teacher, considered by some to be "the happiness guru", highlights in his class 14 key tips for improving the quality of our personal status and contributing to a positive life: 🚩Tip 1. *Thank God for everything you have:* Write down 10 things you have in your life that give you happiness. Focus on the good things! 🚩Tip 2. *Practice physical activity*: Experts say exercising helps improve mood. 30 minutes of exercise is the...

A  skill we need to learn and manage is to be able to see the positive things in each day even when on certain days we just have to look harder  - Francis Kong I know that the goodness  of God is coming after me and He’s showing it not just one time but over and over and over and over again. He is showing it me when He gave me another morning to live, to breath, to enjoy life. It is hard to be always thankful when you are going with the mundane tasks of everyday, we tend to ignore small things and so we need to look harder. The challenge in me is to find time to do journal. So in between tasks, while cooking or washing the dishes or driving, I think about the things I need to be grateful for the day then I typed it out in the Notes app in my phone. So for this week, I’ve got this list so far. Yes so far, because I know  should have written more. Fitness break with co-workers Resumed my exercise, able to do it everyday so far and I noticed the back pain is gone. This ...

Appreciating  the little things  in life means that you focus your attention on what nurtures and sustains you in life. On everything that brings you even the smallest amount of pleasure. It also means practicing  gratitude  by noticing these everyday  things  that you take for granted so easily. - Anon The reason why I've been posting 365 Days of Thankfulness couple of times a week because I am exercising this routine of 'keeping a gratitude journal'. I find it a challenge to do it everyday especially as I don't find much time blogging. But whenever I can, I take a look at my how my day went, pull on Notes in my phone and jotted down small things that are significantly magnified when I asked myself this question: what are things that I am thankful today? So for the last couple of days, here are the things that I have taken note of: - Thursday night, I was already in bed. Hubby still working. And I heard him singing. Well, he's got a good voice, he is music...

“ No matter where God has placed us, we’re called to daily surrender our lives to Christ, obeying His gentle call to follow Him and serve Him with our talents and resources—whether in the home, office, community, or far from home. As we do, He’ll inspire us to love others, putting their needs above our own.” Sometimes we feel like no one is appreciating the things that we do. Or that there’s nothing significant in the mundane tasks we perform everyday. Or that no matter what or how we do things, we can’t please everyone. But if we set our eyes to satisfy the One above And offer our services as a worship to Him, then the rest follows - appreciation of others and your inner fulfilment. The phrase above is from Our Daily Bread I get in my email everyday. It reminded me today that I am called to do best in  whatever I do, that I am called to do things in service to Him. Grateful for this reminder.

I was doing a demo of a minor development change that could have a significant impact to the rate calculation in the system. The person I'm demoing to is from the Accounting that review the mathematical equation behind the accounting calculation. Five minutes to the demo, I was thrown a question I wasn't prepared to. At that moment, as far as I know, the answer needs digging history of change to which I only know a portion of . We came to agree on re-scheduling the demo after digging some more details. But you know, at that moment I went blank. But after I got off the phone, I sent an email to some people for clarification. It was already end of the day, but at times when I really need an answer, I don't stop until I get one. But for this one, after I sent out an email, I got up and walked away from my keyboard and called it a day. I closed my mind over it, never thought about it overnight. Following morning, my mind is fresh. I looked into it again, read the problem over a...

We might think that our kid is too young but they are more capable than what we think. -------------------- Talking more about teaching my kid responsibility. For a long time now, I have been focused on getting my kid to do proper self care: personal hygiene.  Then it was followed by kid appropriate chores such as cleaning up her mess, sorting out clean socks, setting up the table, organizing her stuff. I still have to nag her sometimes to brush her teeth or put her dirty clothes in the hamper so I thought the tasks she have right now are plenty that adding up more chores will be a recipe for more yelling and my kid getting overwhelmed. But there are values of chores for children!  So yesterday, we started leveling up my kid's contributions with taking care of the household. After dinner, she was asked to wipe the table clean. When she was done, I asked her to sweep the floor. Fetching the broom and the dust pan, her whiny response was "I am like Cinderella now!" Though i...

"It takes a village to raise a child" -------------- I've been reading articles about how to raise a kid. Mine is an energetic and soft hearted six year old so I'm looking for specifics : development expectations around this age, behavioral changes, and how to do parenting and teaching them things she should start doing such as small responsibilities of tidying up her room, doing her homework on time and finishing up what she started! There are lots of good articles out there. While I'm on it and reading it, you can imagine how many imaginary light bulbs are lighting up around my head screaming for ideas, ideas, ideas! But when reality strikes - all those parenting ideas flying out the windows. There's really no right handbook when it comes to parenting. It is really a trial and error, tough hands-on experience to teach your kid manners, responsibility and all virtues that comes with patience, perseverance and diligence. While you are teaching patience, it is ...

Some days I felt like purpose is a big responsibility to fill in and I wondered if I ever did fulfill any of it. There were days that I strongly feel that I did. Today is one of those days. It is hard to ponder the cosmic question of what is your life's greater purpose. We all are in search of it but no definite answer was handed down to any one.  But here's the simple truth: our existence on Earth will last for some undetermined period of time. During the entire time of living our life, we do lots of things categorized into two: important, unimportant. It is in the important things that we find happiness, contentment, joy, fulfillment. The unimportant is basically just killing our time. With the time afforded to us, our question is what is the important thing that we can do with it. The answer will boil down to our definition of 'important'. Whatever our definition of important is, it will affect the course of our life. For me, important is something that brings mean...

We had an extreme warning for a freezing fog overnight. When I woke up this morning and looked outside, I wasn’t surprise to see a gloomy day. The fog had not cleared yet, no sign of Mr. Sun. We went about our Saturday morning routine. After breakfast, we did our house chores. Hubby went outside to dump the garbage. When he came back, he told me it was beautiful outside we have to go out and enjoy the day. I took a look, and yes indeed, fog have been cleared out. No sun yet but the trees were covered with frost that our parking area had looked like a magical winter wonderland. Mid-day I have to go outside for an errand. While driving down Pembina Hway, I couldn’t helped it but cast a few lingering looks on the trees lining up the road, all covered with frost, it felt like sleighing down Christmas town. I was supposed to take down our Christmas tree today. But that will have to be done some other time.  My kid and I went for a little stroll in the park. My little girl, playful as sh...

My alarm went off 5:30AM today but I hit the snooze button and gave myself a 15-minute extension before I finally able to forced myself to get up. Today was the first working day of the year. Back to work. I wanted to prepare myself physically and mentally for the catching up I need to do with work and the back to juggle moments of working from home and managing the household. First order of business was to cook our breakfast and meal prepped our lunch. While I was doing this, I was sipping my coffee. The entire house was still and quiet. Our Christmas Tree is still up so I turned on the light and basked in the mood of sweet, blissful me time. My mornings are very important. This is when I tuned in myself for the day, my time to plan out my priorities. If I mess up my morning, I feel like the rest of my day is out of synched. I’m also on the move from sun up to sun down that is why I love mornings because it is the slowest and the most peaceful time of my day. Without the bustle and no...

With the ever changing world around us, we have to hold on to something constant. These are the intangibles: family, friends, yourself, and God. As the last year had ended and a new year had began, I am thankful for the constant in my life: my family and God.