Annual end year reflection

In summary, this year 2020 is a roller coaster ride for me and my family. A bumpy ride at that. Filled with ups and down. Filled with challenges and wonderful surprises. Filled with trials and victories.

But accepting both with a grateful heart made me (and my family) realize a lot of things.

One, that there are really specific person or people that God uses to play essential roles in my life (or in our lives.)

I am truly grateful to them for they became "the rock in tough times."

As I journey through life, I discovered that these people is journeying with me in all sense. They are there when there's nothing special happening in my life (in normal ordinary days), when I am in the peak of my happiness or in the lowest bottom of a pit (through good times and bad times), and most specially when I am tested by life itself.

It is a relationship that is not based on what I have but of who I am.

Simply putting it, they are the "constant presence" in my life. Period. And I plan to keep them for good all through out. So I say, thank you for being a part of me, for being a part of my family.

Second, Year 2020 made me invest in what is essential. And encouraged me to throw out what is not. 

Moving out of our old place and into a new one made me realize that, through time we accumulated things that doesn't even have a value. Those things are just rubbish that are cluttering our spaces.  I sorted them out. And I felt lighter.

My family is the first essential of my life. 20 years here in France, I invested in myself. My studies and career. Working on week ends doesn't really bother me until I saw how my kids have grown without me noticing it. 

I am not saying that work is not essential. It is. But prioritizing it more than my family made me realize that time is really short. And that once you lose it, you can never get it back. 

Every week end, when I receive a photo or video of my kids having fun with my husband (bowling, carting, promenade)  made me ask myself, "Why I am here and not there with them?" 

2020 made me decide to change all of that.

2020 reminded me also, that I am investing most of  my time in non-essential things that I forgot how important is  my health.   2020 shook me up and awakened me, making me see that I am investing my time to something that doesn't invest in me. 

It made me invest in relationships that are for keeps. Relationship that gives me importance, giving me positive look about life and giving me peace and tranquility. And 2020 gave me the courage to throw out relationships or things that are not necessary. 

I've learned that in any relationship, (be it friendship, marriage, romantic relationship, or towards family) it is always a two way process. One cannot give and give alone nor one cannot receive and receive alone. Both person involved needs to experience the
two ends of receiving and giving. 

For those people who treat me (or my family wrong.) I pray that God blesses you more as much as He blessed me. I am grateful to you and I thank you, for you taught me "to start throwing out pebbles and start picking up diamonds."

(NB: Essential things for me may differ from yours)

Third, that more blessings will come to those with a grateful heart. (And not with an envious heart. I learned it the hard way. So to those with envious heart, tuck them all away, place them in a safe box, throw away the keys and throw out that safe box at the bottom of the deepest ocean.) 100% guarantee, your life will be filled with more blessings you can ever imagine. 

Lastly, I realize that no matter how you planned your life, it will never turn out the way you want it. Not unless that it is in God's plan for you.

And because I always believe in the power of words, I want to end my end year reflection with these: 

May we never forget that 2020, is the year that empowered the whole world to surpass trials and challenges that made us stronger 

Let us be reminded that 2020, restored the "humanness" in each and everyone. And despite it being different and somehow a difficult year for most us, it taught us valuable lessons of life.

I hope that 2020 helped us mend what is broken, form new ones, helped produce quality time and helped in the creation of wonderful memories with our loved ones. 

May we look forward to the year 2021, with a grateful heart, for us not to take for granted the assurance of God's presence.

May God forgives, restores, heal, revive and renew us in any aspect of our life that needs forgiveness, restoration, healing, reviving and renewal.

May we anticipate each day with excitement, in order to receive more blessings that are in store for us.

May we invest on things that are essentials because they are the ones that pays the best interest.

May we dwell in the beauty of life and nature, for through them we can discover hidden messages of God's love.

May we be grateful for all the changes that will come, for those dreams that will turn into reality,  for those friends that will turn into family for through changes we'll realize that life doesn't stop for anybody.

May God bless us with wonderful surprises, happiness, good health and amazing memories worth keeping. 

As I always remind my kids, at all times, "May we chose to be the better person."

And lastly, may we hold on to God's promise: 

    "For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you. Plans to give you hope and future." - Jeremiah 29:11

Have a wonderful and Prosperous New Year 2021 everyone!

The process of making French macarons teaches us some of life's beautiful lessons

A perfect French macaron should have these characteristics:

• The classic French feet or "Les pieds.

• Smooth top (as it's bottom).

• Crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

If one will look at the French macaron, because of its' simple ingredients, one might think that it is also simple to make. Just like how some people look at life. A simple thing.

But then, to achieve a perfect (or almost perfect) macaron, it goes through a lot of process from measuring the ingredients, aging the egg white, beating it, folding it, blending it together, mixing it and whipping it. 

On being crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Under whipping or over whipping the ingredients of the macaron will only result in its' "hollowness." Just like in life. We go through a process of being beaten, folded, or whipped (literally or not) that make us feel "hollow." Empty. Void. Blank. Desolate. And tired. 

We often experience things in life that we cannot avoid. Failed relationships, financial problems, career immobility, health issues, broken promises,  burn out, and so on and so forth. These are the things that are beating us, things that are folding us, or things that are whipping us. The list goes on which makes us feel, furthermore,  the hollowness that is eating us inside. 

It makes us feel worthless.

Just like biting a macaron that has nothing inside but air. 

I believe in life, transforming your feeling of being hollow into something chewy is always a choice.  

Either you let experiences beat you, letting yourself cry a little or a lot but then always ready to stand up and face the challenges that life's throwing at you, heads on.  

Or you let these experiences beat you, then you cry a little, then you cry more and you never stop crying. Never deciding to stand up and do something about it. Remaining where you are, beaten, and broken on the ground. Never giving yourself a chance to confront the unpleasant things that you are experiencing. 

Treating yourself like a macaron that is cracked, flat, and hollow. 

In order for us to transform into a tasty macaron, we should learn to accept that this beating, folding, or whipping is also a way of molding us or changing us. We can never experience the sense of being "crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside" if we don't undergo these experiences.

Again it is a choice.  It is our choice. Use it as a learning experience or use it to intimidate you as you go through life's challenges. 

On having the classic French macaron "feet" or "Les pieds."

The first sign of a good and almost-perfect macaron is having its feet. These feet were developed because the macaron was left for a few minutes to an hour outside, in-room temperature before putting them into the oven. 

By doing this, macaron will develop a skin that will help them to grow their feet out when they are put in the oven. 

That's why it takes time to bake macarons. Because you need to allow time to transform it before it is placed to the heat of the oven.

In my opinion, life is also like that, we should allow time to transform us first so that we can be better.

It is like learning to walk first before we could run.  

It's like taking a step back, observe life, learn from experiences, and then move forward once again.

Most of the time, we are in a hurry to develop our own "feet," not knowing that forcing it will only hurt us. 

Most of us will say that we cannot wait. Everything should be done now, immediately and no time to lose. 

That waiting is a waste of time. 

But if we never learn how to wait, how can we learn how to move forward?  

If we don't wait, we don't allow time to align the stars for us to see. 

If we don't sit back, we don't allow God to show his plan to us.

If we don't step back, we don't allow ourselves to reflect and choose the next best move for our life.

In this life, there are times that we need to haste, that's a fact. 

But there are times that we should grant ourselves an opportunity to take a moment, breathe the fresh air, see the clouds passing by and feel the beauty that can change our life. 

My husband always reminds me, "yes, we work to live but never allow yourself to live just to work."

On having a smooth top

Fortunate are those who made macarons for the first time and it came out perfectly as if they were doing it ever since. Those are the exception to the rules. The one that we call, beginner's luck. They don't need to go through the life that most of us went through.

Shifting the almond flour and sugar over and over again. Folding it into the beaten egg whites repetitively hoping that eventually, it will lead us to a smooth top.

Making macaron is always through trial and error.  Never have I met someone who baked macaron in just one shot. Others have created more than thousand pieces in order to perfect the delicate French macaron. The battle cry of people making macaron is: try and try until you succeed. 

Sometimes the macarons turn out hollow, with no feet, with cracks, or flat. And these do not limit the problems that one can encounter while baking "macarons."

Even the greatest chefs in the world went through this experience. But through making and re-making macaron, I know that they mastered the art of creating the authentic French macaron by now. 

You can say that making French macaron teaches us another "life's lesson." That achieving success is always through hard work. Through repetitive experimentations of the unknown. By taking the risks to fail or to succeed through a series of trials and errors. 

Only then we can be able to gain our "smooth top."

If we don't bet on anything in our lives, if we don't risk anything then we can never gain anything too.

On a last note, I just want to say that a "good-almost-perfect macaron," is not only dependent on the measurements and freshness of its ingredients (almond flour, sugar, egg whites, and vanilla), it is also dependent on the effort of the one who is making it.

The same goes for our lives. The reason that one is experiencing a good life (or a perfect life, if it exists) does not only depend on what we have, it is also dependent on the efforts that we give to make it a good life or an almost perfect one. 

  

Reflection in times of Corona

It's our 29th day of confinement and it's also the day that Christ has risen. Easter morn.

For almost a month now, we are inside our home. There are days that we enjoy it. Some days we're so occupied that we didn't even know that, that day passed by as quickly as it came. There are some days we're annoyed, some days we're bored, some days we are too lazy to do anything but most of the days  (or my days) are spent thinking about "Why, with all these modern technology, why can't we find a vaccine or a cure?" 

Covid-19 cases are still rising, people are still getting sick, people are dying. This virus took out our liberty to do whatever we want. 

Maybe because there lies the problem. People do whatever they want. 

We do whatever we want. 

We want to pollute the air, we  do it. We want to exploit nature, we do it. We want to contaminate the water, we do it. We want to impure the land, we do it. We want to abuse our life, we do it. 

We can do everything. 

We feel that we owe the world nothing and the world owe us everything. 

That God created this world, place it into the palm of our hands and then one day we just decided that we can do whatever we want with it. 

We felt powerful that we forgot that someone greater than us, greater than everything just lend us this world, just lend us this life. 

And the irony of everything is that God did not stopped us. 

Instead a virus stopped us. A virus, that in my opinion is an effect of what we did to this world. An effect of what we did with our lives. A virus that in our modern world today; filled with advanced technology to create and re-create, we can't even find any cure, any vaccine or  any solution. 

Look at what Coronavirus did.  

It brought us back to our source by stopping everything.  It stopped them. It stopped us. It stopped the whole humanity. 

Reflecting on it, this virus made us vulnerable. It made us feel fear once again. Reminded us that we are not invincible, that we are not powerful, that there are things that we cannot control. It made us dependent on one another.  Made us reach out to the bottom of our hearts for something to believe in. It spurts faith once again. And faith made us HUMAN once again. 

And it brought us to our senses.

That our life is not ours to keep. That we just borrowed it. From ash we came, from ash we shall return. Everything will one day return to its proper place. Everything should go back to its sources.

Today, while having dinner with my family. We thought about the changes this Covid-19 brought to our lives. And all our answers lead me to this realisation:

In our modern lives, we spend most of our time with our work, doing something else, spending more time with colleagues rather than our family. We communicate with one or two text messages a day with our love one (if time allows us). That most of us depends on our own, we created this mentality that this is my life, this is my opinion, this is my decision. And that the basic excuse that comes out of our mouth is this, "I DON'T HAVE TIME." 

Now with the widespread quarantine, WE ALL HAVE THE TIME.  

To eat home cooked meals with our family, instead of eating out. To communicate with them face to face, instead of facetime. To play with our kids, instead of just putting them to bed when you arrive from work. To create something (bake with them, paint with them...), instead of spending our time with mobile devices, gadgets etc... To dance with them, instead of them spending time doing "Tiktok".  To laugh with them, instead of laughing at them.  To learning with them, instead of only teaching them. To do things together, instead of doing it by yourself. Saying "I have time", instead of "If I have time" or worst the "I-don't-have-time" excuse.

It is going back to the basics once again. 

The irony (again)? The sense of "being a family" was restored by this virus. 

One of our children said that, this situation gave everyone a chance to show that each and everyone (still) can care and show love for another. That everyone can be a hero in disguise. That we can partake in making this world a better place. (I think, she got that from a song)

One of our children is amazed how we can pray for someone we don't even know. And how we can pray more often than before. 

The irony? A sense of humanity and of faith restored by this virus.

We are used to waking up early in the morning, but we are just too busy preparing ourselves to go to work and our kids to go to school. But right now what Coronavirus did is that, as soon as we get up, it let us hear the "beauty of silence."

 No cars, no motors (in rare cases plane), only the sound of  birds chirping (or sometimes dog barking). I personally have forgotten, for a long time, what silence sounds like.

On the news, In Venice, their canals are clearing up, people can see fishes swimming on it. In Manila, sky is clearing up, opening up to a fresher sunrise and a lovely sunset.  In India, people can see the 'Himalayas" once again in some part of their country. 

Nature is healing. 

I won't ask what's the irony, for I know you all get what I mean. 

I know that Coronavirus brought different effects to the lives of each and everyone of us.  Mostly it brought sadness, anguish and pain. It is like darkness that befell on us all but always remember that sometimes we need to go through this darkness to get to the light. For it is knowing the darkness that we can appreciate the goodness of the light of God. 

I pray that may we find positivity in this time of difficulty. 

Let us be witnesses to the risen Lord. Happy Easter everyone!!!