Thank You for Death

Thank You for Death. Knowing that all things end enables us to try and live meaningful lives. I have learned many important lessons when my cousin died. If anything, I became more encouraged to live healthy and with minimal regrets. Her death at such a young age made me accept the fact that I am temporary and so are the things around me. Knowing that death is near made me look back at my life to see if I am fully aware of the things that really matter. I realized that I can't dwell too much on the negative side of being alive. Loneliness goes hand in hand with happiness as madness does with insanity. All I need to do is choose.

Every single thing I do is a choice. A chance to drive my life forward to where I really want to be. I can't be afraid. I can't be a coward. Fears would simply reverse your life back and snatch you away from the things you dream. I told You the other day that I was mad--in every definition of the word. I was mad at people and myself. I have gone mad for quite a while too. And I thank You for letting me experience the extreme emotions but all the while holding my hand to keep me on my feet.

I thank You for Death but I thank You more for my Life.

P. S. Please take care of my cousin. I know she will be well taken care of in Your hands than in ours.

Thank You for Assuring Us that We Can Always Pray

Thank You, Lord, for assuring us that we can always pray to You. Thank You for letting us know that You're just a prayer away. Our prayers may not always be answered the way we expect them to be just as how this day had gone by. We had prayed hard and asked others too but the answer we wanted didn't come as we expected them to.

None of our prayers were answered today but I thank You for reminding me that praying must be accompanied with waiting and understanding. I will try hard to remind myself that whatever comes our way should be dealt with understanding if we really want to know why certain things, either bad or good, happen to us. Lord, it is hard for me to understand a great deal of things but I know I can do it by staying positive and by believing in You.

Thank You for letting me speak with You. Thank You for our parents and our teachers who have taught us how to pray.

Thank You for my Talented Siblings

When I was a kid, I have always wanted to learn many things. I wanted to learn how to sing really good, play the piano, act on stage, and learn some martial arts. However, being in a financially restricted family during my childhood days, I had to learn them by myself if I really want to. I did learn how to sing fairly 'cause I joined the Glee Club in high school. I did act for several presentations as a declaimer and main lead in the classroom and on stage during my Teatro Tilaok days. I begged to be bought a cheap musical keyboard when I was 14 and did learn one classical piece (Pachelbel's Canon) that I could play in the piano when practiced over and over again. Yes, I can't read music notes. They're too much of a calculation for me and I sincerely hate equations. And no, I never learned any martial art.

This is just why my younger brother and sister makes me feel the proudest. My brother learned three musical instruments all by himself; the guitar, the keyboard, and the drums. He could compose simple songs and play confidently in band competitions. He is a big influence to my little sister's developing interest in music. He's currently teaching her keyboard pieces and encouraging her to enhance her guitar fingering.

Apparently, it's my little sister whom I'm most proud of. I have enrolled her last summer in a swimming class and as always she never fails to make us, her family, proud. She earned a gold medal for championing the butterly stroke competition and as a reward, Mama allowed her to take advanced swimming classes every Saturday going forward. Today, she also broke to me the news that she auditioned as a pianist for our school choir. She is accepted by the very music teacher who trained us in Glee Club. She will be trained as the school and church pianist every Saturday and soon enough, we would be hearing her play in our church regularly.

There is an indefinite amount of blessings that I am thankful for when it comes to my siblings and my relationship with them and a "thank you" is really not enough to condense the gratitude of having them in my life.

Ara's thank yous for June 23, 2010

Thank you for the driving feeling to go to work again.

Thank you because the sun wasn't too harsh today. How I loathe the mid-morning and afternoon heat..

Thank you for including me to the FX's last trip this morning.

Thank you for yesterday's date. It was the 32nd month.

Thank you for the brisk, long walk. I needed it. I might not like it most of the time but I know my body is thanking me.

Thank you for my iPod. It keeps me company wherever I go.

Thank you Usher. You rock hip hop.

-Ranran