Lesson from my Maxee

This is the 70th entry to Project 365 written 19th of July 2010.

Lesson from my Maxee

We all know the saying, “A Dog is a Man’s Best friend”; but, are you aware of the line “A Cat is a Man’s Best friend too, it's just too proud to admit it”.

My cat always wants to be near me. Believe me, it does! When I am in front of my computer it will stay on the computer table in front of me. I’d have to move my mouse to the rightmost side of the table so I can use it freely. When I stand up, it will stand up too and follow me. When I go back, it will go back too. When I’m asleep I know it wants to stay and sleep beside me but I did not let her get used to it so it will just stay on the nearest chair to my bed and sometimes stares at me until it falls asleep. When my table is full and it can’t get on it, it will stay on my footstep and look at me as if waiting for a glance. If I move my feet away from it, it will move closer and it seems like as long as a part of its body touches a part of mine, it already feels contentment. When I am a bit far from it especially when I am busy doing something, I’d just sing and it falls asleep with my voice. I don’t even have a good singing voice. Sometimes I can just hum and it instantly closes  its eyes in peace knowing that even if I am a bit far and it can’t touch me, it can hear my voice.

This reminds me of a character in the Bible - the woman who believed she will be healed just by the touch of Christ’s cloak. ‘If I just touch His clothes, I will be healed.’ – (Mark 5:28)

I learned a very importance lesson from my cat. I should be like Maxee with my relationship with God. We should all be. We should always long to be in the presence of our Lord. We should constantly be making sure we never lose touch of Him. In times that we feel far away from Him we should try to remember His voice (through His words from the Bible) in our ears and believe that He is always faithful to His promises.

On Being Tongue-tied

This is the 22nd entry to Project 365 written 2nd of June 2010.



Photo with Jem and Jhunnie at the man-made forest in Bohol.

It’s funny how we sometimes get tongue-tied in front of others. It could be any reason – we are too embarrassed, or intimidated, or just plain shy.

I remember how Jem, a co-trainer, got tongue-tied for quite a while. One day, when he was still with another department before being part of my team as a Trainer, he borrowed a pair of scissors from me. He promised that he will return it right after he uses it. Days passed and he hasn’t. Weeks passed too and he still hasn’t.Am not counting the days, I will never do that. I have three extra pairs in my toolbox. 

How do I get to track the number of days? I was counting the days that I see him or bump into him outside or inside the office and witness how he moves his eyes away from me, or cut our short conversations even shorter or how he moves to a different direction from mine. Why? Only because he remembers that he has not returned the pair of scissors he borrowed from me.

I appreciate him having felt responsible for his actions but things would have been easier, for him especially, if he had just come up to me and apologized. It would have saved him a lot of the effort of staying away. I wanted to confront him many times to give him peace of mind but I never had a chance to. Good thing he got promoted as a trainer, we had a chance to actually talk about it and now when we remember this instance we just laugh our hearts out.

Sometimes our guilt hinders us from loving someone, or worse, from receiving the love they have for us. We feel that what we have done is so unforgivable that we do not even try to approach and make peace – we get tongue-tied not because of pride but because of guilt. Guilt is good. It tells us we want to do the right thing but not acting on it is a different story. Many times during those instances that Jem stayed away from me I know I just wanted to smile at him or hug him and tell him “it’s ok, I have a lot of those”.

Not to put myself on a pedestal but I am typically a generous person, in almost every way – material, words, love, care – that sometimes people already feel they don’t deserve it. No one does not deserve love and care, we all do. So let’s not allow guilt or miscommunication, hinder what we can give and receive. Let ourselves free!

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend...” (Proverbs 27:6a)

What happens in Corn Island, Cannot stay in Corn Island

The Corn Islands (Spanish: Las Islas del Maíz) are two islands about 70 km east off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, constituting one of 12 municipalities of the Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur department. The official name of the municipality is Corn Island (the English name is officially used in Spanish-speaking Nicaragua). (wikipedia)

Corn Island has always intrigued me and I just couldn't go back home without taking a trip to this interesting island in Nicaragua. I'm glad I did. I experienced a few of the best things in life in this place.

I experienced the best air travel I have ever had in my life getting on a YN-CGI aircraft that everyone warned I should pray about; it was an awesome dangerous ride! (or maybe i just love air travel a lot).

For the first time I danced and sang like no one was looking standing on a moving sunroof car in a place where no one knows me.

I danced Samba with Yasi and the famous Corn Island slow dance with Harry on a dancefloor with black lights when I have decided to wear white pants prior to going to sort of not catch too much attention; I guess it was a wrong move. Wohooo!

I saw the amazing Bluefields during the layover.

I saw and took pictures of the historical small pyramid at the top of Quinn Hill. It is one of 8 sites around the world. Others include: Cocos Islands (Australia), and their antipode, Kalahari Desert (Botswana) and the Hawaiian Islands (USA) Tierra del Fuego (Argentina or Chile) and Lake Baikal (Buryat Republic) Galicia (Spain or Portugal) and the South Island of New Zealand.

I went to the Little Corn Island on water taxi.
 

I had my hair dreadlocked for the first time (and was not able to come to work the next day with it during a client visit,hehe!).

I had to pass through a window (being the one with the smallest physique) to open the door from the inside for staying out too late going around the city.

  

I played with Angeline a little girl who calls me "little girl".

I took the very first sunset picture that I was proud of using my newly learned manual settings. It was the first picture I felt good about after what seemed like thousands of trial-and-error in my attempt to prove I got something from what a friend of mine was teaching me.

I had dinner at an awesome secluded restaurant overlooking the island.

I enjoyed the beach with Jhunnie until late night where we shouted our sentiments at the top of our lungs because no one else was there.

On my way home, I sat at the back seat of the pilot (a super handsome one, if I may add) and witnessed all their plane operations (which I bragged so much about to my brother who's into plane ops). Although I can only understand a few of what they were saying in Spanish). 

And most of all, I celebrated my friendship with Yasi, Jhunnie and my newly found friend Harry (who loves Manny Pacquiao a lot);

fell in love with Nicaragua even more;

gained so much respect for the people of Corn Island who preserved their simple, amazing culture;

and praised God for His awesome, awesome creations.

- April 16-19, 2010