beautifulandhappy.com

I am writing this post while watching the Wimbledon Men’s Final match between Andy Roddick and Roger Federer.  Heck, of course as expected Federer won the game and broke the record for Grandslam titles ever! He has now 15 and is now back to No.1! Congratulations, Roger!  It was a good game and a long one - more than 4 hours!!!  Roddick was also good but obviously his resiliency was not enough to beat Federer, who finally won on the fifth set, 16-14.

Anyways, what caught my attention on this Wimbledon match is not just the momentous win for Federer but also the quote engraved above the entrance of the Wimbledon Centre Court.  The quote says:

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;

This quote is part of Rupyard Kipling’s poem entitled “IF“, which he wrote in 1895. Kipling was a British poet and also the author of Jungle Book.  Triumph and Disaster? How can we treat these two ironies the same?

Life has many ironies in itself. One minute, our life is running smoothly, but all of a sudden our path’s heading nowhere and it seems bumps are everywhere.  And most of the times there are no warnings of the instant change or disaster coming ahead.  Just like in a tennis game.  A player might win the first set, but on the next one, he could lead to disaster by having so many errors.  So again, how should we treat triumph and disaster just the same?

COURAGE!!! In our lives there would be so many turns, so many crossroads and so many mountains to climb.  And in going through these numerous paths, we would encounter countless failures, frustrations, disappointments - which we could say as disasters.  However, if we could just keep our courage and keep on going through life despite all the problems we encounter, we will finally see where we are heading - success and triumph!  Isn’t victory sweeter if we fought hard for it?

It may be hard to be courageous at this time of uncertainties - unemployment on the rise, global financial crisis, increasing petrol prices, etc., etc.  There are so many woes in our lives now that sometimes it’s so hard to stay positive, right? No!  Inspite of the problems we encounter, the uncertainties we feel and the disasters we face, we should keep our feet steadily on the ground and have a stronger grip on that racket and keep on believing in ourselves until we overcome these challenges!!! I know it is easier said than done.  It’s also hard for me sometimes to keep my feet on the ground and keep that grip.   But I just always try to remind myself whenever I feel overwhelmed with many problems and uncertaintaties that life will become easier if we will just have courage, faith, patience and optimism.  Right? Problems and challenges humble us all, but sometimes we cannot understand why we ‘re given these problems, these disasters.  Later on, we come to realize that these humbling disasters are the same ones strengthening us to go through life.

Likewise, if we treat disaster with courage and humility, we should apply the same if we are having success in life - or triumph.  We should not just sit on our laurels and be drowned by all our achievements and money coming our way.  We don’t know what life brings and we don’t know when we are going to stumble.  So during triumphant times, when we’re “up” there, it’s better to keep humble and keep our feet standing steadily on the ground.

The whole “IF” poem of Kipling is not just very inspiring but it may also become our adage or motto in life.  IF embodies the virtues we need at all times - determination, integrity, humility and self-trust.  Since I started this post about Federer’s win at the Wimbledon, I am happy to share with you this Youtube video of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal reciting “If” by Rudyard Kipling.

Isn’t this video so overwhelming?  A great poem being read by two great players.  To end this post, I am leaving you with this:

BE BEAUTIFUL AND HAPPY!!!

Forsaken and abandoned. That’s what happened to beautifulandhappy. Many things happened to me in the past year, and I wasn’t able to post regularly here. But I will catch up, I promise! And for those who visited this blog even if i was not updating since August 2008, THANK YOU (also to the spammer whose selling Amoxycillin )!

I titled this post as ‘Rebirth’ because I believe this is the rebirth of this blog.  A new beginning.  And it also took me almost 9 months to have this new post since the last one in August last year.  It’s like giving birth again! Hence, to coincide with the “rebirth”, I decided to change the layout, too. I want to have a new BEAUTIFULANDHAPPY!  So for the next few days, please bear with me as I do some changes in the blog layout.  I am still getting the grasp of tweaking the site, and it’s like starting to learn wordpress again after so many months of not blogging.

Why it took me 9 months? Well, too many reasons.  I even thought of quitting this blog, but I realized I cannot just let go of this site.  And I really wanted to make even a small difference in my own little way and inspire people - one blog at a time.   I hope to provide ya all better no-nonsense musings, which hopefully inspire more people. There will be lots of catching up for me in blogging, and I believe everyone can always have a fresh start, right?  A second chance. 

So to start with, I leave you this to ponder:

 REBIRTH

I feel like a butterfly

emerging from her cocoon

drying her wings in the warm sun

before flyinf off to explore

this wonderful new world that awaits her.

What does life hold in store for her? 

 ~Susan Ashleigh Thatcher~ 

Last Wednesday, I attended the monthly Augustinian formation for all the personnel in our University. I came in late that afternoon because I was busy fixing some errands for the intramural last week. There were no classes the whole week, but there are lots of activities in the campus, so all personnel are all busy just the same. Plus, I was appointed as one of the coordinators for the Ginoo at Binibining Kalikasan (Mr. & Ms. Environment) that Thursday and happy of the result because our department’s male rep won the Ginoo and our female contestant won a special award (photos and stories will be posted later).

Anyways, the Wednesday event coincided with the Feast Day of St. Monica on 27 August. She is the mother of St. Augustine. St. Monica is the patron saint of wives and mothers. Since I am now currently teaching in a Catholic university being ran by Augustinian Sisters, attendance to the Augustinian formations is a must. This monthly assembly may sound boring, but I appreciated the talk about St. Monica and I know many mothers and wives could relate to her life story and will be inspired by her faith.

St. Monica is a wife to an adulterous pagan husband known for his temper and she had a difficult mother-in-law living with them. Hmmm, sounds very common even nowadays, right? St. Monica could have been a nagger and a bitter daughter-in-law, however, she refused to be but rather prayed hard for her husband and monster, este, mother-in-law. According to her life story, although his husband Patricius had a violent temper, he respected St. Monica because of her devoutness. Over time, because of her meekness, humility and incessant prayers, Patricius and her mother-in-law were converted to Christianity and the relationship of the couple developed into a warm, spiritual one.

St. Augustine was her first born, whom she learned was living an immoral life. She chose to stay close to her son and prayed and fasted for him for 17 years! Eventually, because of her persistence and not giving up on him, St. Augustine and some of his friends were baptized to Catholicism. Soon after St. Augustine converted, St. Monica become ill and she knew her life was near the end. She told Augustine, “Son, nothing in this world now affords me delight. I do not know what there is now left for me to do or why I am still here, all my hopes in this world being now fulfilled.” St. Monica died that same year St. Augustine was baptized.

When I heard of her life story, I remembered my nanay. Nope, my father is not abusive, actually I never heard them fight and they never shouted at each other (or at least I never saw even one incident when I was growing up). I think, their relationship is perfect and I hope Albert and me can emulate that. But like St. Monica, my nanay was not liked much by my tatay’s sisters and my lolo because she never even finished her elementary while my tatay was already a math teacher when they eloped. Though my father said my lola was always good to her from the very start. Eventually, my aunts and lolo were able to accept my mom because she’s really good-natured and she never fought back against them.

Similarly, being a mother myself now, I could feel her hardships in raising us. I know it’s hard to raise 3 kids and surely, there were many problems along the way. Whenever we had family problems specially financial, I never saw my mother become bitter and I never heard her complain. Even in many difficult situations, she could even manage to smile and see the good in everything that’s happening.

Growing up, my problem was my nanay’s problem, too. And she always prayed for me and all my other 2 siblings, specially when we were all going through many difficult times. She may not always hear the Sunday mass regularly, but she often went to church to pray and had her novena. My nanay passed away in 2004, aged 53, but I know she’s fulfilled like St. Monica when she died.

I think all of us, not just mothers and wives, should be like St. Monica. Of course, we all are in different circumstances, but whatever is the status of our lives right now — whether we are in a difficult relationship, we have a wayward child, or any problem/difficult person bothering us — St. Monica showed us that non-stop faith will transform anyone to a better person and there’s no impossible endeavor to persistence and faith!

GOD BLESS EVERYONE!