Positive Essence of the Self

Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes).

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) American poet.

It seems contradictory, that I write about wanting to take a break from blogging and here I am maintaining not one but several blogs.

I seek balance and peace.  Sometimes, I find it in the midst of frenetic creative activity.  Contradictory?

Tonight, in the process of editing a 365 self-portrait, two different version came out.

Ultimately, I chose the sepia version as the 365 self-portrait of the day, and shaed it as Being Beautifully 40's post of the day, my page counting the days to my 40th birthday.  I feel it was more self-empowering image, compared to te orangy version, asking for more juice.

I acknowledge both, and feel I am learning more and more to internalize the more positive side of me.

How do you highlight your positive side in daily life?

Thoughts As Mother's Day Approaches

My Mommy, , when she was 17 y.o.

These thoughts were written on the 5th of May...*

I will take the next few days as an occasion to sort out some old family pics, which I took with me when I left the Philippines for my first trip abroad, January 1993.

It is still difficult for me to look back because it seems since I left my birth country, life simply fast forwarded, and the years flew by so quickly with so many huge transitions, that I would have loved to have experienced with my family near by and not oceans away.

My Dad † passed away 1999, the year I conceived eldest daughter; my grandmother Nanay I † passed away before my Mommy finally visited us in Germany.  By then my own small family has grown with the second child in our second home in Hamburg.

There were so many milestones and painful experiences, which happened all at the same time, that I could enumerate but I have learned to focus on the great memories & treasured moments I did share with my family in the Philippines, and feel enriched by the great memories & treasured moments my family and I experienced in Germany.

There should be no place for regret in decisions made, which changed how life might have been. NOW is great BECAUSE of those decisions; the compromises and sacrifices one had to take along with those decisions are part of living.

Change is the only constant in life, which we have to accept for us to be able to truly BE in the simple moments we share, with the people we cherish.

Living in the now is what life is all about.

My thoughts as the days approaches  Mother's Day (Sunday, 8th of May)

*BlogNote:

With this post, I am taking Michelle V. Rafter's advice in 25 Ways to Blog Everyday, posted at WordCount, of pre-writing, and pre-scheduling the publishing of posts. Later on, I will be checking out  Editorial Calendar Plug-in, mentioned in the post, which is meant to assist with this endevour.

 It is a part of my baby steps to make blogging regularly a simple part of my life. ☺