Unconditional Love

A man and his girlfriend were married. It was a large celebration. All of their friends and family came to see the lovely ceremony and to partake of the festivities and celebrations.

A wonderful time was had by all. The bride was gorgeous in her white wedding gown and the groom was very dashing in his black tuxedo. Everyone could tell that the love they had for each other was true.

A few months later, the wife comes to the husband with a proposal: "I read in a magazine, a while ago, about how we can strengthen our marriage." She offered.

"Each of us will write a list of the things that we find a bit annoying with the other person. Then, we can talk about how we can fix them together and make our lives happier together."
The husband agreed. So each of them went to a separate room in the house and thought of the things that annoyed them about the other. They thought about this question for the rest of the day and wrote down what they came up with.

The next morning, at the breakfast table, they decided that they would go over their lists.

"I'll start," offered the wife. She took out her list. It had many items on it, enough to fill 3 pages, in fact. As she started reading the list of the little annoyances, she noticed that tears were starting to appear in her husbands eyes.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing," the husband replied, "keep reading your list."

The wife continued to read until she had read all three pages to her husband. She neatly placed her list on the table and folded her hands over top of it.

"Now, you read your list and then we'll talk about the things on both of our lists." She said happily.

Quietly the husband stated, "I don't have anything on my list. I think that you are perfect the way that you are. I don't want you to change anything for me. You are lovely and wonderful and I wouldn't want to try and change anything about you."

The wife, touched by his honesty and the depth of his love for her and his acceptance of her, turned her head and wept.

The moral lesson:
In life, there are enough times when we are disappointed, depressed and annoyed. We don't really have to go looking for them. We have a wonderful world that is full of beauty, light and promise.

Why waste time in this world looking for the bad, disappointing or annoying when we can look around us, and see the wondrous things before us?

I believe that we are happiest when we see and praise the good and try our best to forget the bad.

Nobody's perfect but we can find perfection in them to change the way we see them.

Anonymous

POETRY

Rey Arnel Agudana
tubao@philippinestoday.net

KAILANGAN BANG PIGAIN?

Gustong sumulat at kumatha
ngayon, subalit walang
dumadating na kung ano man
maliban sa mga kaisipang
parang paru-paro na
dadapo't lilipad sa kamalayan.

Naiinip, kinakailangang makabuo
ng mga hinabing salita
at mamangha sa nagawa
subalit kahit anong pilit
na piga ay walang lumalabas
na katas sa aking kabituoran.

May mga panahon na ang paglikha
ay kung anong bilis at husay ng
daloy, parang mga gintong butil
ng palay na inaaani at ginagapas
tinatali at dinidildil, sinasaing na
parang masustansyang kanin ng sining.

DEATH 14

Walls collapsing
enclosing
suffocating
blanketing
me
as I stare
out the
window
unto the
overcast sky
of gray
as the first
of rain
drops to
the ground ...

Guidance

When I meditated on the word guidance, I kept seeing "dance" at the end of the word. I remember reading that doing God's will is a lot like dancing. When two people try to lead, nothing feels right. The movement doesn't flow with the music, and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky.

When one person relaxes and lets the other lead, both bodies begin to flow with the music. One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back or by pressing lightly in one direction or another. It's as if two become one body, moving beautifully. The dance takes surrender, willingness, and attentiveness from one person and gentle guidance and skill from the other.

My eyes drew back to the word guidance. When I saw "G," I thought of God, followed by "u" and "i." God, "u" and "I" dance. God, you, and I dance. This statement is what guidance means to me.

As I lowered my head, I became willing to trust that I would get guidance about my life.

Once again, I became willing to let God lead.

A man's steps are directed by the Lord"
Proverbs 20:24

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