soulful remembering...

Once upon a time, there was an island where all the feelings lived: Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge, and all of the others, including Love. One day it was announced to the feelings that the island would sink, so all constructed boats and left. Except for Love. Love was the only one who stayed. Love wanted to hold out until the last possible moment. When the island had almost sunk, Love decided to ask for help. Richness was passing by Love in a grand boat. Love said, "Richness, can you take me with you?" Richness answered, "No, I can't. There is a lot of gold and silver in my boat. There is no place here for you." Love decided to ask Vanity who was also passing by in a beautiful vessel. "Vanity, please help me!" "I can't help you, Love. You are all wet and might damage my boat," Vanity answered. Sadness was close by so Love asked, "Sadness, let me go with you." "Oh . . . Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!&qu

Giving is at the heart of human relationships. It enriches our human experiences and makes our life worth living. But sometimes it’s hard for us to understand or to accept this fact, that when we do not give we become less human, and when we become selfish we become unhappy because we make ourselves less of what we. Human beings are the only one among God’s creatures who consciously share. All other creatures fight for themselves or more through instinct. And it’s sad that sometimes we forget what giving really means. Why do we give gifts, anyway? For me giving gifts means giving yourself. We give a gift, and the gift stands for our self. Gift could be extensions of ourselves. That’s what is behind birthday gifts and Christmas gifts and all the other things that we give to each other. They are all symbols of ourselves. We often give gifts, but we forget that our self has to be given along with the gifts, and this is now the tragedy in giving gifts. It is the self that goes along with

I would like to share with you one of my favorite short story about our mothers. This story entitled: “Mother’s Letter Trick” and it goes like this: there are two sisters who live in the same part of town but they hardly ever see each other. Whenever their mother writes to her daughters, she would always ask, “When did you last see your sister?” The daughters would answer three months ago, so the mother decided she was going to do something about it. And so, shortly afterwards, each daughter received a strange kind of letter. Their mother wrote a letter to both of them but sends to one of them pages one and three while the other received pages two and four. Ever since then they each get a half a letter a month. And now they are glad about it because it makes them take time out and spend evening together. Only a mother could do that! This short story struck me because even though the mother was far from her daughters and the daughters are far from ea

The story goes that some time ago, a man punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree. Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy." The man was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found out the box was empty. He yelled at her, stating, "Don't you know, when you give someone a present, there is supposed to be something inside? The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and cried, "Oh, Daddy, it's not empty at all. I blew kisses into the box. They're all for you, Daddy." The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness. Only a short time later, an accident took the life of the child. It is also told that her father kept t

God moves in mysterious ways… They say that to follow God’s call is difficult. We need to give up everything we possess and positions in life we have. We make sacrifices and sometimes feel the pain in following God’s will for us. Every one of us called by God in a very special way. He gives us signs to see his plan for us but most of the times; we remain blind to the signs given to us. Maybe because we are busy in our works, studies, friends, etc. or we really don’t mind these signs because we are afraid to accept His will for us. I grew up in a family which somehow I can say a “religious” family. We regularly attended the mass every Sunday. I remember when we have a simple gathering or taking our lunch outside, we together attend the mass first before we proceed to our activity. When I was elementary, I think in my fifth grade then, I and my brother became a KOA (Knights of the Altar) member. We were very active to serve in the mass. Time passes by and I