Welcoming a New Day

Welcoming a New Day

By Dr. Robert Schuller

"This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." - Psalm 118:24

How do you welcome a new day? I invite you to join me in this positive meditation:

What surprises do You have planned for me today, Lord?

I am excited about the abilities that I have at my disposal.

I am able to see, think, and hear!

I am able to read.

I have the ability to plan.

I am excited about the hours and minutes this day holds.

I am suddenly conscious, heavenly Father, that You give to all human beings the same number of minutes and hours in every day.

And I am aware of the fact that the most important resource I possess is not money but time!

For time is life.

With the gift of time I have the opportunity to laugh! ... to love! ... to talk! ... to think! ... to pray! ... to give of myself to people whose paths will cross mine. Surely, my dreams will come true because I am blessed! I am alive! I am being given the priceless gift of another day to live! I take the time to carry out my dreams. Today I can move them forward!

My problems can be solved for I am walking the walk of faith! For I am filled with genuine thanksgiving. I will use the gift of this day wisely. I will do something about my life's opportunities and obstacles, its dreams and disappointments.

O God, thank You for treating me fairly!

You have given me a fresh day with freedom to do something constructive!

This faith gives me hope.

Thank You, Father. Amen.

You Can Do It!

Tito Lits says you can!

"If you can dream it, you can do it"

 

C'mon Let's Ride the Winter Away

What's up with the weather, still cold up to now. Snow last night and some more this morning; what's up with that??

Well Kiddies, let's put on our cycling gear and ride the cold weather away; just make sure you suit up for the temperature. Reminder to those whose feet get cold fast, you know who you are (Tito Lits) - wear your booties.

Yes, shake, shake, shake......shake your booty!! Happy and safe riding!!

 

Father and Son

A collage of photos of Dad and Tito Lits - also features my younger brother Freddie aka Pidong (lovingly)

Father And Son (Cat Stevens)

1. It's not time to make a change,
Just relax, take it easy
You're still young, that's your fault,
There's so much you have to know
Find a girl, settle down, if you want you can marry
Look at me, I am old but I'm happy

2. I was once like you are now
And I know that it's not easy
To be calm when you've found
Something going on
But take your time, think a lot, why think of everything you've got
For you will still be here tomorrow but you dreams may not

Ref.: How can I try to explain, 'cos when I do he turns away again
It's always been the same, same old story
From the moment I could talk, I was ordered to listen
Now there's a way and I know that I have to go away
I know, I have to go

Ref.: (Instrumental)

1. It's not time to make ...

Ref.: All the times that I've cried keeping all the things I knew inside
It's hard, but it's harder to ignore it
If they were right I'd agree, but it's them they know, not me
Now there's a way and I know that I have to go away 

Moon over North Pole

Photo emailed to me, forwarded email to be precise, with the following caption:
" This is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point. And, you can also see the sun below the moon. An amazing photo. "

Not sure about the authenticity of the photo and the corresponding description / caption; if true indeed, I'm truly happy for the person who was blessed to have visited the place, to be in that particular vantage point, to snap the beautiful landscape and much more, the unfolding miracle of God's creation. 

Lunch Date with Dad

Thursday is Trish's off day from school. Unlike last week when we went out for breakfast at Eggspectation, we decided to go for lunch and we set our sights on Mexacali Rosa but upon getting there we found the place was close and the restaurant has probably changed ownership because it had a new name, Sombreros.

Trish quickly suggested one of our favorite restaurant in St. Anne de Bellevue, Peter's Cape Cod. I was quick to agree :). We both had a scallops platter. Yummy!!

Cheers!!

 

Pics from Tito Pilo's Nokia PhoneCam

Tito Lits at the Old Port of Montreal - taking a call at the moment.
Layer of ice can still be seen over the water at the Old Port.
Further back you can see the St. Lawrence River, ice cover gone.

Pics from Tito Pilo's Nokia PhoneCam

Tito Pilo wearing his trademark 'yellow' jacket;
behind him is the Imax and Science Museum building at the Old Port of Montreal

 

Pics from Tito Pilo's Nokia PhoneCam

Old Port of Montreal, Saturday, March 25,2006.
Layer of ice on water remains - see background.

 

First Ride This Season, 2006 - Old Port of Montreal

Beautiful spring day for a bike ride for Tito Pilo and I, our first ride this 2006 season, particularly the route from Lachine to the Old Port of Montreal and back.

Ice and snow have not completely melted along the Lachine Canal bike path; but I'd say that the 85% of the bike path is free and clear of ice and water (from melted ice). Give it a few more days of mild temperature, the rest of the bike path will be clear of ice and water from melted ice.

We stopped for coffee at the McDonald's on St. Lawrence Blvd., by the Palais Du Justice, Old Montreal. The manager was nice enough to allow us to bring our bikes inside. This gave us a chance to warm our feet as well; I had decided not to put on my over booties, and so my feet were chilled :)

The Boat Cruise company located at the corner of St. Patrick and Lasalle blvd have a new addition to their fleet - a recommisioned Catamaran. Our gang's been talking about taking a dinner cruise along the St. Lawrence river. This could be the one for this season.

Have you ridden your bike lately?

Tito Lits

Blast from Past Collage

Starring Tita Nil, Paul, and Pam. Where's Trish? Still in the planning stages :-)

 

Blast from the Past

Blast from the Past

Thank you Pam for scanning these photos.

Tita Nil with Paul and Pam - camping in South Hero, Lake Champlain Isle, Vermont

Pam and Paul playing 'let's wash the dishes' at the KOA campground we used to visit almost every weekend during the summer months.

Paul and Pam organizing my office desktop.

Pauly celebrating a birthday, surrounded by cousins; there's Tita Nene too.

Paul, Pam, and Mom aka Tita Nil posing by the Christmas tree.

Nil's Bday

Nil's birthday fell on a Thursday, the day when we have the 'Walk Away the Pounds' workout at the church.

We decided to treat our birthday celebrant to a delicious authentic Chinese food dinner at the Noveau Maison Kam near our place. After dinner we followed up with coffee and dessert at our place.

With Trish and I, to celebrate this occassion, were Karen and Agnes, our consistent 'walker' buddies.

 

Breakfast at Tita Nil's

As your children get older and each one gets busy with their own lives, it is such a blessing to have them all together on a Saturday morning and share a breakfast together.

Paul, Trish and Pam prepared breakfast this fine Saturday morning.

PTL!!

Jeremiah 17:7-8 (New International Version)


7 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.

8 He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit."

Our Daily Bread: A Daily Devotional

Our Daily Bread: A Daily Devotional

Today's devotional from "Our Daily Bread"

Divine Interruptions

Read: Luke 10:29-37

A certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. —Luke 10:33

A Samaritan made his way down to Jericho and encountered a wounded Jew lying alongside the road. Others had hurried by, too busy with their own affairs to be interrupted.

But the Samaritan, who was hated by the Jews and would be expected to pass by, "had compassion." He "bandaged his wounds, . . . set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him" (Luke 10:33-34).

God's will comes to us in strange ways, often in the form of interruptions. Just when we think our duties are done for the day and we've settled in for a quiet evening at home, someone calls on the telephone or shows up on our doorstep asking for our time. "Are you busy?" they ask.

The best thing to do is to stop looking at these intrusions as interruptions. Instead, we should take them as opportunities that God is sending us to serve those in need—to listen well, to show love, to help them on their journey toward intimacy with God.

One early Christian writer, Jean-Pierre de Caussade, said, "Love is the duty of the present moment." No matter what else we may have planned, love is our duty.

"Who is my neighbor?" I ask. Jesus answers, "The person in need I'm sending your way." —David Roper

Lord, if I'm feeling rushed today,
I need your eyes to help me see
That when an interruption comes
It is an opportunity. —Sper

Spanky & Our Gang - Sunday We'll Never Be The Same

Spanky & Our Gang - Sunday We'll Never Be The Same - spanky__our_gang_-_sunday_well_never_be_the_same.wmv @ ZippyVideos.com - Free Video Webhosting

Oo nga, Sunday will never be the same :)

Tolits

Edsa / Fort Bonifacio

lead, below is an email I received with a parallel message as the one from "middle class pinoy", but written in English and directed specifically at the "bleeding hearts" et al. It is a bit shrill, but I think it is worth reading.


Dear Tita Cory, Senators, Congressmen, Businessmen, Media people, Leftists, and all Bleeding Hearts Out There:

I am angry. And I know that there are many out there who are angrier than I am for the same reason. And that reason is simple. I am sick and tired of all you guys claiming to speak for me and many Filipinos.

I feel like screaming every time you mouth words about fighting for my freedom and my rights, when you obviously are just thinking about yours. You tell me that the essence of democracy is providing every citizen the right to speak his or her mind and make his or her own informed judgments, but you yourselves do not respect my silence and the choices I and many others have made. In other words, your concept of democracy is limited to having your rights and your freedoms respected, at the expense of ours.

I am utterly flabbergasted that you still do not get it: we already responded to your calls, and our response has been very clear - we chose not to heed your calls to go to EDSA or to Fort Bonifacio not because we do not love our country or our freedoms or our rights, but precisely because we love our country even more.

Because quite frankly, we are prepared to lose our freedoms and our rights just to move this country forward. You may think that is not correct, you can tell me all the dire warnings about the evils of authoritarian rule, but quite frankly all we see is your pathetic efforts to prop up your cause. You tell me that you are simply protecting my freedoms and my rights, but who told you to do that? I assure you that when I feel that my rights and my freedoms are at a
peril, I will stand up and fight for them myself.

You tell us that GMA is not the right person to lead this country because she has done immoral acts. As someone who sees immorality being committed wantonly in many ways every day and by everyone (yes, including the ones you do), I may have become jaded.

But you have not been able to offer me any viable alternative, while GMA has bent over backwards many times to accommodate you while continuing to work hard despite all the obstacles and the brickbats you have thrown her way. From where I sit, she is the one who has been working really hard to move this country forward while all of you have been so busy with one and only one thing: to make sure she does not succeed. So forgive me if I do not want to join you in your moral pissing contest.

Forgive me if I have chosen to see things from another perspective. You say she is the problem. I say, we are the problem, more to the point, I think you are a bigger problem than she is. Taking her out may solve part of the problem, but that leaves us with a bigger problem: you. That is right, YOU!

While I felt outraged that she called a Comelec official during the
elections and that she may have rigged the elections, I have since then taken the higher moral ground and forgiven her.

Yes my dear bishops, I have done what you have told me to do since I was a child, which you say is the Christian and moral thing to do: forgive.
Especially since she has asked for forgiveness and has tried to make amends for it. Erap certainly has not apologized and continues to be
defiant, continuing to insult us everyday with his protestations. Cory has not apologized for her incompetence but we have forgiven her just the same because like GMA, she has worked hard after all.

I know you do not think that GMA’s apology was not enough, or that she was insincere, or that that apology should not be the end of it, but please spare me the hypocrisy of telling me that you do so for the sake of protecting the moral fiber of society. The real reason is because you smell blood and wants to go for the kill.

Well, I have news for you. I do not like her too. I did not even vote for her. I voted for Raul Roco. But as much as I do not like her, I do not like you even more. I may not trust her, but guess what; I do not trust you even more.

You know why? Because all you do is whine and sabotage this country. You belittle every little progress we make; conveniently forgetting that it is not just GMA who has been working so hard to achieve them.

Every single day, we keep the faith burning in our hearts that this country will finally pull itself out of the mess and we work so hard to do that. Every little progress is the result of our collective effort, we who toil hard everyday in our jobs. Yet, you persist in one and only thing: making GMA look bad in the eyes of the world and making sure that this country continues to suffer to prove your sorry point. In the process, you continue to destroy what we painstakingly try to build. So please do not be surprised that I do not share your cause.

Do not be surprised that we have become contemptuous of your antics. You have moved heaven and earth to destroy her credibility, you have convened all kinds of fora and hearings and all you have done is test our patience to the core. For all your effort, you have only succeeded in dragging us further down. I say enough.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not asking that we take immorality lying down, or that we let the President get away with anything illegal. But you have tried to prove your accusations all these time and you have not succeeded, so it is time to let things be.

Besides, you are doing something immoral as well if not utterly unforgivable. The Magdalo soldiers are consorting with the communists - the same people who have been trying to kill democracy for years. Cory has been consorting with Erap and the Marcoses.

So please wake up and take a reality check. In the absence of true and genuine moral leadership, many of us have decided to cast our lot with the President, even if we do not like her. A flawed leader is better than scheming power hungry fools who can not even stand up for their convictions in the face of an impending arrest.

Your coup attempts and the denials that you have consequently made only underscore what we think is true: you are spineless and unreliable people whose only defense is to cry suppression when your ruse do not work. You
are like bullies who taunt and provoke, but cry oppression when taken to task for your cruelty.

I would have respected you if you took the consequences of your actions like real heroes: calmly and responsibly instead of kicking and screaming and making lame excuses. You say you are willing to die for us, that you do all these things for the country and the Filipino, but you are not even willing to go to jail for us.

Come on, you really think we believe that you did not want to bring down the government when that is the one and only thing you have been trying to do in the last many months?

We love this country and we want peace and progress. Many among us do not give a f*&k who sits at Malacanang because we will work hard and do our share to make things work. If you only do your jobs, the ones that we elected you to do, things would be a lot simpler and easier for every one.

The events during the weekend only proved one thing. You are more
dangerous and a serious threat to this country than GMA is. We have seen what you are capable of doing - you are ready to burn this country and reduce everything to ashes just to prove your point. If there is something that we need protection from, it is protection from you.

Knowing God Through John

Knowing God Through John

According to John, if you want to describe what God is like, you say "Jesus."

Christ came to be the visible, tangible, on-earth expression of the Father. In fact, Jesus said, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (14:9).

Christ came to express God, to be His "Word." Therefore, to see Him was to see God. To hear Him was to hear God. To walk with Him was to walk with God in the world. The gospel of John, then, is one man's record of the unveiling of God by His Son.

Be Blessed!!

Ups and Downs

Paul revealed the secret for making it through his “season” of life. “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:12-13).

More Nokia phone cam captures

Hanging out with my sister Grace's family - Uncle Phillip, Ging-Ging's (Grace's) husband is a very good cook. I love his 'tinolang manok' and a number of his other specialties. Whenever he cooks anyone of those I get invited for a free sampling :) God bless you guys!!

Coffee time, story telling time over at the dinner table, this was after a good dinner. There's Neil, Ging-Ging, Tita Nil, and myself - collage.