My mom's wondrous contribution to my gardenhouse

Today, God inspired me to show off my mama dearest wondrous contribution to my weekend gardenhouse.  If I planted the plants one by one and piled the stones piece by piece in my garden with my bare hands, my mother had crocheted each of the beautiful piece you could see in the house.  She is 85 years old and still crocheting. Her passion affects us positively and we do not know where her influence to us stops. 

In December 2010, she was confined unconsciously in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for 15days.  On the 16th day (God's miracle), she started again telling her never ending journey of her blessed, very colorful and joyful life in spite of so many adversities. Her happy stories (memories) are amusing, specially, if you heard them the first time but the other side of her colorful stories, it is either I would want to disapper or have a nervous breakdown. To the persons who never get tired of listening to her, our gratitude to them. She might be one ordinary person to others but to us, she is our world.

When she is asked-- “how many children do you have”, she will proudly reply with a big smile, 30.  Love you mama dearest.

Good days give you happiness; Bad days give you experience; Both are essential to life.  It  is how many times you rise every time you fall.  Keep going.  Life is beautiful, only if you know how to value it.

“Learn as if you were going to live forever.  Live as if you were going to die tomorrow. 

                                                                                                                                       – Mahatma Gandhi.”

  

Thank you (Part II)

Last week, I officially open my email to all my siblings, relatives, friends and friends’ friends.  I started my blog last March 2012 but only last July 2 that I had the confident to open it.  Much to my surprise, comments keep pouring my email and mobile phone. 

To all the people who are encouraging/supporting me with my blog, whether by sending comments thru email/text, verbal encouragement and by being my guest in my gardenhouse, I want them to know that they become of infinite value in my life.  I may not always see them, but I always know they are there.  Their words of encouragements are the quite voice at the end of the day telling me, “Write again tomorrow.”

Another person I would like to thank is my garden buddy, Ruth Tiotuyco.  A former Central Bank director and my sister in Couples for Christ.  She has a beautifull house and garden in Tagaytay which she invested 25 years ago.  She is very generous in giving away plants grown from her garden.  If she is free (which she tries to most of the time for me), I will pass-by her house at 9AM and send her back home at 5PM (my thanks to brother Charlie, her betterhalf, for being so considerate).  Being with her is the kind that we can do gardening the whole day and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation we have ever had.

Thanks too to Marie Iannotti of the gardening.about.com .  In spite of the opposite climate we have, I learn a lot from her post.  The gardening guide/tips from A to Z surely make my garden.

If we learn to give of ourselves, to forgive others, and to live with thanksgiving, we need not seek happiness—it will seek us.  Enjoy life while we still can.

Ruth and Tess Anderson

I hope the following photos from my garden might inspire you to get your gloves on too.

Thank you

So many persons to thank for and I do not know who to start with.  Each day when I wake up, I pray and thank God:  

           

            for the gift of family, friends and friends’ families and friends;

            for the continuous blessings;

            for keeping us free from all danger and illnesses; and        

            for peace, love, and unity.

Whenever I open my email, I first read Mr. Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life.  He is the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.  It is so easy to be connected, just email mailto:connect@newsletter.purposedrive.com. 

Like Mr. Warren, we have Mr. Bo Sanchez in the Philippines.  He can be reached through http://www.bosanchez.ph/ .  The daily readings touch me so dearly.  I pick up, write down and try my best to apply into my life (with God’s help) the insights and lessons that touch me.  I even pass it on to friends and specifically to my sisters/brothers who I love so much.  Sometimes, I am misinterpreted but most of them truly appreciate it.  I thank them both, Rick Warren and Bo Sanchez, for nourishing my soul.  May God continue to shine over their lives, as they become light to me (and to others).

My special thanks too to Rose Ferrer.  She is one of my daughter Dana’s closest High School friends.  Photography is one of her hobbies and she travels a lot.  In one of our conversations, I told her I wanted to have a journal of my gardenhouse.  Voila … she surprised me with this blog in collaboration with Dana.  My son, Dan, taught me how to go about it while Mariz becomes the advisor and my husband, loves to read it.

Below is Rose with Dana and friends.

The biggest blessings in our lives is simply the presence of people who care much, whose love is for real and see us much beyond our imperfections.

Rose, Dana wih Wylene and Elbert Cruz

Below are some photos taken by Rose in March 2012.