Life’s like it! A Mural

Every detail in your life has a reason and purpose, and the story of your life doesn’t end yesterday nor today. Don’t live a boring and unproductive life. Don’t just exist. Live! Paint a good life.

Mural is a large piece of artwork, usually painted on a wall or ceiling, in which the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously applied into the master piece.

When you stand close to a Mural, you can see the details—the beauty of the skillfully painted intricate details or the imperfections of the strokes and the hues. When look at it a few distance away, you can see the entire picture—the work of art formed by the combination of the plain and elaborate details and of the dark and light colors and the combination of the imperfections.

Life’s like it! A Mural.

When we examine our lives daily, sometimes we don’t see the reason, or we can’t see the purpose, why some things arrive in our lives or certain events happen to us. But whenever we try to step out of and detach ourselves from the situation, we gradually realize the reason why such things or events happen to us.

The mural is the beauty and meaning conceived by the skill, imperfections, dark, and light elements of our lives.

Living our lives daily is like painting the smallest details of our own murals. We have failures, successes, heartbreaks, breakthroughs, disappointments, victories to tell.

Some parts are dark colored, others bright. Some portions are complex, others simple. Some painted on the corners, others on the center. These elements have their own right places and own roles in your life.

Because the mural is so big, some dark parts could mean non-sense when you look at it closely, or some strokes seem out of place. But when you take steps back, you will see how the dark parts harmoniously blend with the light and bright colors and the beauty it adds to the entire piece, or how the senseless strokes magically form the elegant images of the mural.

So whatever the previous years painted in your vast mural, don’t  sneer, they are just part and parcel of the master piece that is not yet complete. Don’t stay content either. For as you live each day, the meaning and beauty of the mural is revealed in half concealing.

You are in control. You hold the brush and the palette. You can always make the entire master piece become the image you envision it to be. Or, if in the middle of the course you have a change of heart, you can always continue and paint your story the way you want it to be.

You always have a story to paint, a life to live.

So jump off your couch. Don’t just analyze and plan. Move and progress, so once your mural is complete, it will tell a beautiful story of your life—just the way you intended to live it.

You are the painter, you are in control. But God gives you the skill and the imagination. So pray for His guidance and wisdom in order for you to interpret well the things that you have just painted (past) and so you will have the skill and genius to continue incorporating in it the right elements (now) to achieve the vision that you want to achieve (future).

You don't have to go far or do grand things in order to make meaning out of your daily lives. Just live—wherever you may be. Be productive. Improve. Keep on learning. Interact with people, including those you see everyday. Make the most of the moment...seize it. Don't hover regretting. Move over growing.

Every detail in your life has a reason and purpose, and the story of your life doesn’t end yesterday nor today.

Do you want a colorful life, a simple life, or an elegant life? Don’t just sit there. Make it!

Life becomes more meaningful when it is lived actively, not passively and safely. When we let ourselves experience and explore the various emotions out there we learn more and appreciate life from a different perspective.

Don’t be restricted by your disappointments yesterday. Break-free and breakthrough!

Don’t be content of your success of the past. Move forward!

Don’t live a boring and unproductive life. Don’t just exist. Live!

Paint a good life.

Happy new year! May you have a colorful year ahead filled with love, joy, good health, prosperity, and victories! Be grateful for every thing that will happen… God has prepared the beautiful story of your life already. You just have to live it!

Thinking Out Loud in My Boudoir: Escaping Reality

This will always be the reality and you can never escape it: you are in charge of your choices (mind) and your happiness (heart). Freedom is a gift. Reality is a guide. Do not escape freedom and reality.

When we were kids we wanted to grow old and assume responsibility, we were curious about a lot of things and wanted to try them.

Now that we are adults, we want to be like children—consciously or unconsciously. We want to be stress-free, problem-free. We want to be free from responsibility.

I remember just a little over the death of my father, my perspective of a lot of things changed and I started to become aware of many things, perhaps necessity dictated and demanded. I believe that was the first turning point of my life, and my “official growing up” was way too early, or so I believe.

Part of my new perspective then was that I should be grateful and excited when I recognize I have a trial. When I feel uncomfortable—pain, difficulty, negative emotion—I thought I had new things to be thankful for and to look forward to. I have new things to learn.

When I was a kid, trials or challenges or problems meant new experiences, new lessons, and wisdom.

As I (we) grow older, we think we have had learned more than enough about life, that we are better equipped after all the various experiences we have gone through in life. So we stop being interested about life and we start avoiding pains and stress brought by problems thinking we've had more than enough.

Little do we know that our knowledge of things, our mind map of our lives and our future, needs constant revision, and sometimes major revisions.

We all know that growth—in any area or aspect of our lives—requires pains and taking responsibility as we face our problems. Yet, most of us we ignore this obvious fact. As a result, we avoid responsibility and suffering.

What we don't realize is by avoiding responsibility and suffering, we either let our problems grow as we hide them and deny them, thinking they naturally go away; or we let others handle them for us.

By doing so, we either unconsciously pet our problem like growing a monster we're too scared of or we give away our liberty and control to decide for ourselves. Consequently, either way, we keep our problem and we hamper our own growth.

As adults faced with problems, we tell ourselves now:
1. It's all my fault, but I'm tired of this. I will let it be, anyway all this shall come to pass. (Blaming oneself)
2. It's his/her/their/this world's fault. I have no control over them. Why should I bother myself with his/her/its mess. The heck I care. (Blaming the world)

If we will not take the time to look at things or situations, we will not be able to identify the source of the problem and the significant problem we need to solve.

With our era, where everything is fast paced and new information is available everyday, we must be willing and deliberate in equipping ourselves with skills and knowledge to be able to keep up with time and grow with it.

Let us engage ourselves with our peers. Observe and learn from others.

Most importantly, nurture our relationship with our very own selves. Let us take the time to know ourselves better—skills, weaknesses, strengths, potentials.

Let's live in the now. Face reality. Take accountability. Embrace and accept ourselves. Know, feel, and believe that we are valuable whether people around us perceive us as such or not.

One day we will be surprised, solving life's trials and managing our time for pain and pleasure becomes natural and easy for us. What will be more surprising is, we will naturally become more grateful, blessing expert, and happy persons.

When we know in our deepest fiber that we are valuable, then we start realizing our need for constant growth and the importance of taking hold of our freedom to choose and decide for ourselves are both indispensable parts of having a good life.

And the result?

We become more willing to experience pain and we become more open to new things because we know that through them we become capable of understanding and helping ourselves, and it's ripple effect is we become resilient, understanding of others, generous, and happier than ever... All because we grow and refresh our perspective.

There will always be people and situations that will make our lives difficult, and that's the reality. Our pains or discomfort will always be part of our lives as long as we breathe. Hence, we need to constantly recognize those which are necessary problems and unnecessary ones.

To do that, we must take time to spot the source of the problem; make ourselves comfortable with it; take reasonable time to study the necessary problem; focus; solve it; and learn from it.

Know you are no longer a child totally dependent, helpless, and problem-free.

Live and act your age. Enjoy your independence in deciding for yourself and utilize your control over whatever consequence your decision may breed—painful or joyful. Take responsibility.

Nonetheless, balance your life by acting your age yet enjoying that childlike gratitude, zeal about life, and courage.

This will always be the reality and you can never escape it: you are in charge of your choices (mind) and your happiness (heart).

Freedom is a gift. Reality is a guide. Do not escape reality and freedom.

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Thinking Out Loud in my Boudoir is a column for some of my random thoughts that, perhaps, other ladies my age are also experiencing or thinking of—whether from same vantage point or another. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s just my own voice reverberating in my own world. I will do my best to discriminate my reason in this column, and just write spontaneously the first things and thoughts that a normal lady could think of. Just writing as I think...