I Blessed Two Little Girls and a Baby

Last night I was able to wean myself of the computer at 11:30 but in bed I had to read myself to sleep. I stashed some Reader's Digest, and old issue of National Geographic, and the three books books I was currently reading under my abrasador. I read until 12:30 before I decided I'm sleepy already. So the next morning I woke up late at 9 am. I drank a glass of cold water, ate two bananas and one Mandarin orange, read some verses from the book of Habakkuk...

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails and the fields poduce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour.

The sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

... and started the sewing work I did not finish the other day.

In the afternoon I saw my former neighbor who had two lovely daughters and was surpised to see she has three daughters now. The youngest is just four months old. I like blessing babies and little children. I believe in the good that blessing can do. So I blessed the baby and the two older girls kissed my hand then I blessed them too. I feel good inside.

Tone Deaf and Jazz Ignorant

It's nine in the morning here and I'm blogging again. I've been to wikipedia and back and discovered I'm jazz ignorant. So jazz was brought to America by the African slaves and these were blues notes by black people. Can this be that after so much jazz they will end up black and blue?

This is one of the realities of being deaf. Most deaf can't sing or dance as most of us are tone-deaf also. During my early teen years I really loved to sing. But whenever I get carried away with my singing, mum would complain and would tell me to just keep my singing to myself as I'm very disintonado, she would say. I didn't know I was tone deaf then. It was only lately that I came to realize why I can't sing any of the notes my music teacher would blow on her pitch pipe. All the tones sounded the same to me.

All the music I knew during my lifetime had to do with the lyrics and not the tune or sound. If the song had good lyrics, it's a good song to me. If it has lousy lyrics like Torn Between Two Lovers or Release Me, these songs I consider junk. I think most of our songs today are the expression of our dysfuntional humanity. Umm... what?

Anyways, at least I was able to sing lullabyes to my kids when they were babies. And not just the standard nursery rhymes, ok. I know the poem Flow Gently Sweet Afton set to music and I used to sing this song to my kids. Softly, as I always remember mum's stern words that I better keep mys singing to myself.

Flow gently sweet Afton among thy green braes
flow gently I'll sing thee a song in thy praise
My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream
Flow gently sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.

Another song I specially liked was Steal Away to Jesus, a song sung by (again) the Negro slaves during the time they were stealing away from their white masters. Made me think the blacks were really musical people.

Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus
Steal away, steal away home
I ain't got long to stay here

My Lord He calls me, He calls me by the thunder
The trumpet sounds within a- my soul
I ain't got long to stay here

Green trees are bending
Po' sinners stand a-trembling
The trumpet sounds within- a my soul
I ain't got long to stay here.

Hmmm

I think DeafRead is snobbing my request that they pick a blogpost of me to feature in their site. Perhaps they think my blog is not about about deafness at all. It's more about the Lord, really.

A few days ago my eldest sis shared with me half of the half kilo bag of Starbucks coffee a nice friend gave her. My sis knew I love Starbucks very much. And to think that a few years ago we nearly gave up on coffee after reading what the Diamonds had to say about it in Fit for Life. They attacked coffe as if it was arsenic. I think I stopped drinking coffee for a good two years. But lately it's a bit cold out here so it's good to have coffee in the morning or in the afternoon to get rid of the headache or drowsiness I always feel.

This week I'm trying to read Derek Prince's God's Will for Your Life, re-reading Carson McCullers The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and A Christmas Carol all at the same time. The Christmas I'm re-reading so that I can comment on adaptation for a play my friend is writing. I'm very excited about it as I believe he can be a good writer also aside from being a good actor already. A Christmas Carol has a universal message but I think we should be very specific about it, that Christmas is somebody's birthday really and that birthday boy was Jesus in reality.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is a book I read during my early twenty's and the characters most memorable to me were the deaf mutes- one was an obese Greek who had nephrosis and the other a silverware engraver. I also remember the character Mick a pre-teen girl who loved Mozart. I have read a biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart but I have not heard any of his music as I am deaf, ok, and I choose to listen only to the basic sounds for my survival. Music would be a luxury to me. My friend loved jazz but I have no idea what jazz is really. I hope I can know as I think it's some kind of cultural class I should have knowledge of.

Derek Prince's booklet titled God's will for Your Life is a very clear presentation of God's direction for the Christian's life based on what the bible says about it. Derek said that there is nothing more tragic in a human life than aimlessness. He said we may have talent, intelligence and special abilities but without an objective our life will end in frustration because we will have accomplished very little of permanent value. Then he gave the bible reference to explain his point.

Therefore, since we are sorrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perserverance the race marked for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:1-2

And speaking of running a race, I remembered Forrest Gump as aside from the three books I'm reading I'm also watching a collection of Tom Hanks movies! That's what the Americans call multitasking I think. Even when I saw my friend's photos as a young man I thought his hair was like Tom's curly and nice.

Anyways, the real reason for my blogging tonight was I kind of want to find an outlet for the many pent up feelings I've been having the past weeks. But I'm hesitant to expose myself here as I kind of believe I should be a mature, responsible, and strong person. And I also think I should not burden anybody with my own burdens as anybody is just as human as myself. And besides people especially those not in the counselling business have no patience listening to angsts and anguish whatever. It really unwise to expect from another human being the compassion only God can give. I might as well go directly to God then. And I hope I can have an honest, down to earth speaking to God about the concerns of my heart and soul. If after our conversation I will come up with something nice to post again they post I will. Meanwhile I think I have to quit now as its's late already.

Yeeees!

I've been trying hard the past months to submit my blog to anywhere it can have more readers. Then I acidentally found DeafRead. I hope the human editors will see my post about my ALD.

From tonight onwards, I will try to post more about my experiences, thoughts and feelings about my deafness. As some sites have advised- Don't be shy.

Amnesia

flowers at church last Sunday

we were at table no. 5 during our church's post valentine party

I woke up this morning with a vague pain around my neck and left shoulder. The beginnings of a stiff neck perhaps which I promptly asked the Lord to heal. There was also a little headache when I opened my eyes around 7am so I decided to sleep more and I woke up at 8:30 am. Then I saw on tv that it's a non working holiday today as it is Edsa I anniversary. I decided today is my holiday, too. I deserve a break. So since this morning, I have not done anything praiseworthy or industrious in nature. I just watched a little of SIS, a little of Takeshi's then the high noon news. I am following Lozada, ok?
Youngest son left to work and eldest son came to visit as there's no work he said. There's still the stiff neck and the tiny headache so I tried to drink the left over blue pepsi only to change my mind when I read from the label that there's aspartame in them innocent looking pepsi. I even suspected the aspartame in the pepsi I drank last night caused these fair maladies I'm experiencing today. I decided to have a cup of coffee instead and from the feel of things, coffee seemed to have cleared the headache, lessened the neck pain and perked me up so now I'm blogging.
I have been studying in my mind some of the things I learned from our bible study lessons at precepts and from the blog posts of my sis MTDTee. I think another problem area in the Christian personality is forgetfulness or in some cases full blown amnesia. You see, Sunday in and Sunday out we hear from the pulpit when the pastor speaks or when the deacon prays about Christ's finished work on the cross. It was a complete and perfect work when Christ did the will of the Father, died on the cross for our sakes so we will not suffer anymore. But by the way most of us, including me, behave it seems we're always trying to finish what Christ had already finished on the cross for us. Christ's work on the cross is complete, nothing has to be added to it. We just have to believe, continue believing and not forget. In that way we can relax and not be fidgety. We can serve the Lord with gladness, worship Him in awe, and richly bless others from the abundance of His love.

Align Our Hearts

God is calling His church to align our hearts with Him once again. It's about grace not our efforts and religious activity. The Lord is calling us to depend on the totality of His work on the cross. It is complete and sufficient. He wants us to depend on His love, be filled with it and then minister it. - Pastor Terry Somerville

This is an excerpt from an article written by Pastor Terry Somerville. It is a very profound statement, a call to the Christian churches and an appeal to every professing Christian's heart.Perhaps the reason why church activities, even praying become routine is because we forget why we became Christians in the first place. It's good to be reminded of God's complete love and abounding grace and the finished work of Christ on the cross. I think our only part is to be dependent on God's love and share this love to others. Love ya all.

Our living room, also called sala. The furniture is made from narra, Philippine hardwood and fifty years old already. This was sold to us by two Chinese wood carpenters named Iking and Peping for a few hundred pesos.

This is the curtain crocheted and finished by mum in record time - two months.