All Things Bright and Beautiful

~Cecil Frances Alexander

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings.

The purple-headed mountain,
The river running by,
The sunset, and the morning,
That brightens up the sky;

The cold wind in the winter,
The pleasant summer sun,
The ripe fruits in the garden,
He made them every one.

He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell,
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.

This is the very first poem that i learned from grade school. My dear teacher, Mrs. Neri Acosta taught me these very inspiring verses. Every time i create something like the topiaries below, i can't help but remember this.
Bring the glory back to God in the Highest...He is the creator of ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL!

Rose and Sunflower

Sunflowers in yellow pot

Sunflowers in blue pot

the mustard seed

last sunday's gospel was about the parable of the mustard seed. as the mass was going on, the memory of this book by Fr. Joseph A. Galdon, S.J. flashed before me. i love this book so much. it never failed to help me whenever i am in any sort of problem or life's challenges as i would fondly call them.

my good friend and former office mate, Ome Bailey introduced me "The Mustard Seed" 14 years ago. Ome is one friend of mine who is very close to God. he takes extra effort to share anything about God to us. i still have the picture of "the laughing Christ" that he gave and copies of Kerygma magazines that he generously shared with me. he lend me the mustard seed book and after reading it, i did not stop until i have a copy of my own. the time for me to chew on the book was limited because, queencie, and jeng are already in the waiting list.

we can surely relate to each and every story narrated in the book. the author has a unique way of integrating literary classics like the sonnets of shakespeare, works of T. S. Eliot, with christian jesuit teachings, the bible and contemporary stories that could really touch our lives. a daily reflection guide and a true page turner in one.

here are two of my favorite reflections in the book,

1. love in the open hand..."look what i have and all these are for you" just like what the image of our blessed mother, her hands stretched and wide open for each of us, no hesitations, no limitations. "Go for broke! Take a chance on love. Put it all there in the open hand."

2. the green eyed monster..."jealousy - the fear of losing something or someone through the rivalry of another." this reflection taught me how to handle a relationship and be able to secure myself and not be defeated by the green eyed monster.

there are a lot of reflections in the book that struck me and guided me for the past 14 years.
thank you Ome for introducing this book. thank you Fr. Joseph for this great work.

scrapbook

i used to do scrapbooks for my son. i have one which covers his precious moments from birth to 1 year old and another one that contains all his toddler years (two to three). but i stopped doing it because of my work load. it's really hard to squeeze in scrapbooking into my fully loaded schedule. but to my surprise, thanks to jenn tabios my beloved officemate who introduced to the world of digital scrapbook making. i loaded in some of the first pictures that i did and intend to be part of my new digital scrap book. now with my new found blog spot i would be able to continue my son's scrap book...now in cyber space.....i really love it!

my son

joseph van louis is my only son. he just turned 10 last june 4. now in the fourth grade, joseph started the school year right by being one of the classroom officers of IV-Savio and making it in the editorial team of "the sparks" - the school paper of Don Bosco School Manila.
joseph loves to read. he craves for knowledge and general interests. he reads the guiness book of world records, time for kids almanac, achie's and jughead's double digest and finished the whole diary of a whimpy kid series.
joseph is also into wrestling. some of his favorite wrestlers are john cena, edge, randy orton, and rey mysterio.
joseph and i love to eat, we both have sweet tooth and craves for anything sweet. our favorites include, chocolate chips cookies, bannofee pie, coke float, and french apple pie.
i love my son so much!

my first time

this is my first time to create a blog. i am having some birth pains, but i am determined to understand how this thing works. i would love to see my myself posting creative expressions of my thoughts on my blog spot. i would love to learn and be able to have something creative in "my_own_little_country_space..."