Category: Dear Diary

My Best Friends’ Weddings

Tina 5 Comments

Two of my closest friends got married in the past two weeks.

No, they didn’t get married to each other. They were two separate wedding ceremonies that we attended, the first two weddings in our little group and we were all excited to witness them get married to the loves of their lives. It was the perfect way to end 2013 and start 2014. ♥

I really like weddings. I can’t not like them, I guess, especially since my brother is a wedding videographer, and I’m always around wedding stuff when I’m with him. I like weddings not just because I’m a romantic sap, but because I think weddings are a solid proof of God’s faithfulness to His people.

All wedding stories I’ve heard from friends, and from people my brother worked with always had a story behind it, one that involved a lot of struggles and tears and heart break. It all seems lovely on the day itself, but can you imagine how the two of them got there? What did they go through, not just in preparing for the day itself, but you know, before the proposal, before they got together and all that?

Take one of my friends who got married, for example. I’ve known her since elementary, and she’s one of the nicest persons I know. She’s pretty and popular in school, and from the outside, I always thought she seemed so lucky with love, because boys always noticed her first and went for her. But I was also privy to some of her greatest heartaches, especially before she met her now husband. I can still remember those days when we’d all sit together and talk and keep her company, because the one relationship that we all thought would be forever ended like that. And then she met the next guy, and I can still remember that long discussion we had about commitment and what she wanted and what he wanted, and I saw how it was such a big decision for her and for him. It wasn’t easy, and I know I just saw a fraction of her struggles. But I saw how faithful God was to her and how He took care of her heart, and when we watched her walk down the aisle, all I could think of was: This is what we have been praying for for her. This long journey really battered her heart at some point, but it made her a different person. It made her even more beautiful, and now she’s with someone who will take care of her heart the way she deserves it, and we’re all just very happy for her.

Then our other friend, who I had the privilege of talking to about love and life for a long time as we ruminated over our own struggles. It’s funny how I was a witness to how God transformed this guy through some of these love struggles, and sometimes I still laugh when I remember how he was before to how he is now. His story with his now-wife took years in the making, and he tripped so many times in the journey, but the road led back to her again. This amazes me so much, because it almost seemed like a dead end story when he first told me about it. After a rejection, and some pizza time (because I can’t forget about that, haha), my friend started building his relationship with God, and then found his way back to his girl. I don’t mean to make it sound so simple because there was a lot of work in the background of their story, but the point is — and I’d like to borrow my friend’s term for this — it’s all God’s favor. And His faithfulness to the the people faithful to Him.

It’s not an if-else thing (because if it is, then I should have been married by now, too :P). The thing I realized over these two weddings is that God really is writing our love stories, and it’s almost always not in the way we thought they would go. If anything, the story God writes for us is way, way better for us, and something we never really thought would be possible until we get to a certain point and look back. It takes action on our part, of course, but most of it is a trust thing — trusting that wherever we are now, God is always working on us, and He always sees, and He always loves us even in our most difficult times.

It gives me hope, you know. Not just in the romantic aspect, but in all other aspects of my life. I really believe that God makes all things good and He gives what is good, and He works for the good of all the people who love Him. My idea of what is good may be different now to what He has in mind, of course, and I’m learning that bit by bit. That’s why I’m also learning take delight in Him, be it in good times or success or failures or heartache, because I trust that He knows and sees more than I do.

And He is faithful, always and forever. My closest friends are proof of this. :)

♥

Delight

Tina 7 Comments

Happy 2014!

When the year turned from 2013 to 2014, I was having dinner with my mom while we watched the countdown on TV. We had too much food, as always, and I was starting to reply to the New Year greetings I received earlier. Before that, I was in my parents’ room, watching Pitch Perfect, because it was on TV, and I smiled when I remembered that last year, I was also watching the same movie with my best friends while we waited for 2013 to come.

And before that, I was in my room, planners from the past two years open beside my 2014 planner, crumpled pieces of paper surrounding me as I read and reviewed and updated my 5-year and 2-year plan, and my 2014 plans. I was sort of freaking out with all the planning, but two hours later, I was done — and it was still a couple of hours before midnight.

So how did you spend you celebrate the turn of the year?

* * *

I think my word for 2014 found me even before I found it. Unlike last year, though, this one didn’t dare me at all. Courage crept up on me and then tapped me on the shoulder and almost demanded for it to be my word for 2013. My word for 2014 didn’t, but it followed courage shortly after I owned that word, and just sat there, sometimes almost unnoticed.

During the hard days, it tried to make its presence known. I can see it, but I can’t look at it for a long time because it was easier to just sit and wallow on the harder things. I can’t bear to be that word, even if some people I knew said I was that kind of person. It was hard to notice it, because it felt like there was no reason to feel that, to be that.

But by the end of 2013, the word was becoming bolder, and through the other experiences and the people that surrounded me, it tried to make me see it more. And eventually, I did. It felt like a friend who I haven’t seen in a while — especially if we refer to the context of the last few weeks of 2013 — and it was kind of nice just sitting with it and thinking of how it will make my 2014…well, joyful.

So the truth was, I knew that it was going to be my word for 2014 even before 2013 ended. And when I acknowledged it, I was actually excited. And it was nice to be excited.

So, my word for 2014 is DELIGHT.

delight2014

Originally, it was supposed to be joy, but when I did some research, I thought delight sounded better. I liked how it meant the same thing — joy — but it also had the word light in it, like the word is about lighting someone up with joy. Doesn’t that sound nice?

But just because I chose this word for 2014 doesn’t mean it will be completely happy all the time. If anything, I know that owning a word for a year meant that I will be faced with opportunities to be joyful, to take delight. Of course my heart will probably break again at some point in this year — but that’s a given, anyway. I don’t think I’ll be surprised with that anymore, and if anything, my Year of the Brave taught me that it’s a fact of life and I just have to be ready for them. I can’t control what could happen, but I can control how I react to it.

So I choose to take delight.

One of my favorite bloggers wrote about joy and delight way better than I can ever write about it now, so I will just quote her:

Delighted, overjoyed – we so often mistake those words for happy, or, more honestly, for naively cheerful or optimistic. We think that if we name those adjectives, we’re making it sound like we (or God or both) aren’t taking hurt seriously. That we have missed suffering. That we have lost sight of the ache of the world and are applying a pink band-aid to the gaping wounds.

But it is the work of delight and joy to come close to suffering, even closer than the so-called serious realism. It is through joy, not cynicism, that we approach the unspeakably difficult.

Because joy and delight are not happy feelings: they are the choices to let love win. They are the choice to trust love triumphant. Joy is a choice to believe God when He calls what He has made very good, and a choice to draw near to that very good world in its ache and terror and sadness.

They are the choices to let love win, to trust love triumphant. I want that kind of joy, I want to learn to delight. No matter what happens in my life. I want to learn to always take delight. I want to choose and believe that love always wins.

Funnily enough, the second part of Neil Gaiman’s New Year’s Wish in 2013 was also about joy, and it sort of feels like I’m just picking up on this after the Year of the Brave: And whatever happens to us, whatever we make, whatever we learn, let us take joy in it. We can find joy in the world if it’s joy we’re looking for, we can take joy in the act of creation.

2014 is the year to take delight. :) And this is not just for me, but also for you, who is reading this blog post right now. I don’t want to wish the pain away, but I wish that you find joy even in the midst of it. I wish that you the strength to take delight even in the direst of situations. I wish you the kind of joy that lasts, that sits inside your heart to warm you through the cold nights, and that bursts and celebrates life for all its beauty. I wish you all the kind of joy that you will share with others, so we can delight in one another’s presence the way God is overjoyed with us.

This 2014, I wish you delight. Happy new year, everyone. :)

13 Things About 2013

Tina Leave a comment

I almost skipped this post because if I can be totally honest, yesterday’s post kinda took a lot out of me. But I wanted to keep with tradition, and I wanted to end the year with a joyful and grateful note, and there’s always something a little joyful in looking back, right?

So, 2013. The Year of the Brave. I can’t believe it’s ending, and at the same time, I am really ready to say goodbye to 2013. 2013 wasn’t as difficult as 2009, or really completely as happy as 2010 or 2011 or 2012. If I can use a word to describe this year other than it being courageous, it’s…well, equal parts heart-filling and heartbreaking. That’s the best I can describe it, and truth was, I actually expected that. You can’t be courageous without it somehow breaking your heart, right?

But despite that, I still think that 2013 is good. It’s good. I remember telling my friend, when she asked me how I was, that I was good. I figured it was a more appropriate way than saying “okay” because okay is just…okay. Not really good, just…okay. Did that make sense? But good is another thing, and being in that place is enough for me now. :)

  1. With every year that I have gone to places, that is always the first thing I like to recap. :) 2013 saw me traveling again. The only new place in my list is Jakarta, my first out of the country trip this year. And then there were other places that I’ve been to before but took me a while to go back: Singapore and Guam. On the domestic front, I went to Tagaytay (for the nth time, twice), Subic and La Union. These trips, especially the international ones, kind of wiped my bank account…but what the hey. Money is just money, and I can always earn it back. The experiences in all those places are priceless, anyway.
  2. The first time I traveled alone. I think I don’t have to say why this is noteworthy, right? That Singapore trip was really a therapy of sorts (or as my friend Jam said when we saw each other, “rehab” :P), and it was a lovely, lovely time. I can’t wait to go out on my own again.
  3.  I think another reason why I was so broke this year was because I bought myself two big gifts: the much-awaited MacBook Air and my Kindle Paperwhite. I don’t regret them, of course, because I really wanted them, and they have made my reading and writing life a lot easier. :)
  4. My dog Batman passed away. On my birthday. :( I love that dog so much and it still makes me sad to remember him sometimes. He’s such a brave and lovely dog, the first one I really loved. I especially missed him on my saddest days in 2013. We had other dogs, sure, but I felt like Batman really knew me, and he really tried to comfort me when I’m sad. I’m sure other dog owners understand this, right?
  5. Grace.
    As I mentioned in my previous post, I ended 2012 with a note about graciousness, and that was definitely applied by 2013. There were so many exercises in grace this year, and I realized how grace is really hard work. This year saw me wrestling with un-gracious thoughts, trying my best to give grace and then realizing in the end that I need it just as much as I need to give it. I learned to lay my weapons down, to pick my battles (somewhat), cut people slack, and to ask for forgiveness. Grace is one of the many things that made this year brave and beautiful, and I am so, so grateful that it is free. :)
  6. Intentionality, again. I wanted to write a post on intentionality this year, and I read the post draft I had but it didn’t fit, and I didn’t feel like I am fit to write about it even after the whirlwind that is 2013. But I tried to be intentional this year, I really did. I prayed and tried to act with good intentions…but I think the biggest lesson I had about it this year is what a friend told me yesterday: sometimes good intentions aren’t enough. It’s a hard lesson to learn, because it required me to look even more outside of myself. Or I guess it’s really more in the context of expectations, really — how our expectations can sometimes kill our good intentions, something like that. I do believe that we can all benefit from being intentional with one another, but perhaps there’s more to this — I bet there really is. Perhaps there’s more to this in the next year.
  7. I finally finished a novel. This item was supposed to be I wrote a novel! but then I realized I’ve been doing that every year for NaNoWriMo. I joined Mina V. Esguerra’s #romanceclass this year, and I finally, finally finished a manuscript after how many years of leaving unfinished works in my hard drive. I even had it sent to beta readers, which is a great, great help, and I even got to revision stage. I pushed the release later and later because of some reasons (personal, among other things), but I am working hard to get it out really, really soon. And I even have an outline for the next ones. So let’s all cross our fingers for 2014 for this. :D
  8. I started tutoring kids.
    I will have a separate post for this eventually, but this is the short version: I became a Cornerstone tutor. In a nutshell, Cornerstone is our community‘s education program where tutors teach basic reading and comprehension and values formation to kids. I’ve heard of this for so long, but I didn’t exactly volunteer for it because I had busy weekends — or so I thought. Then things happened in my life and my SFC household head told our friend who heads the Cornerstone program in our area that I want to help. So I found myself waking up way too early on Saturday mornings just to go to our school and teach kids. I have more to write about this next time, but let me say that Cornerstone has definitely made my Saturday mornings brighter. :)
  9. Heartbreak. I know, I know. This sounds like the juiciest item, but let me elaborate. I guess we can start with my dog passing away, and then there were many more instances of it after that. Then there was also Haiyan/Yolanda, and that absolutely broke my heart in so many ways for my country. And yes, there was some that came from the romantic front. Okay, a lot of it came from there, and in some ways, I know it came from my own doing, too. And that is all the elaborating I would do, because the other details don’t need to be written down (at least, not now). Suffice to say that I learned the most from this, and it taught me to let go of so many things, and hold on to God’s goodness. Donald Miller hit the nail right on the head with this tweet: “Sometimes the most self-respecting decision you can make is to choose heartbreak over instant gratification. You’re worth the pain.” Yes, it is, and yes, I am. (You are, too.) I know I have done my share in breaking other people’s hearts too, and for that, I am really, really sorry.
  10. Vulnerability, being seen and loved. I learned about Brené Brown this year, and her TEDx talks on vulnerability and shame were some of my most favorite discoveries. Then who knew that I would be able to apply them this year? But I guess it follows because I wrote about having a brave heart last year, and having that means I have to learn to be vulnerable. It means trusting people, and allowing myself to be seen and loved and to be in the now. It means allowing myself to hope, to keep on walking, even if it was the last thing I feel like doing. It was this year that I really believed that while vulnerability reminds us of our humanity, it doesn’t make us fragile, not one bit. (And I am definitely reading Brene Brown’s book in 2014. :D)
  11. I found my core people this year. I’ve always known that I have a great set of friends, but this year they really, really shone in my life. I lost count of the times I slept at four to five in the morning to hang out, just talking and enjoying each other’s company. I lost sleep for so many nights but I don’t regret any of it because those were some of my favorite moments this year. More than those fun times, I also saw how my friends loved me and took care of me and were patient with me. Like what I told them last Christmas, their love and time and patience were some of the most precious gifts I received this year, and I am grateful. It is my hope that I can extend the same care and love that they showed me, too. :)
  12. Time is a friend. It took me a while to really, really feel this. If last year, I learned that space is good, this year, I learned that time is a friend. I didn’t understand it at first, and I resisted it even — because I am an impatient little girl who doesn’t know what’s good for her. :P I have made so many mistakes because I hurried things or wanted to hurry things, and I apologize for that. But I have learned, and am learning, that we really can’t hurry some things. That things really take time for it to work. And most importantly, healing takes time.
  13. Forgiveness. And just like last year, I got some last minute lessons this year, too. Before this year ended, I learned about forgiveness. Oh, it’s not that I don’t know about it. It’s really more about learning it all over again, and really, really feeling it this time. I remember during one of the times I went to Confession this year, the priest told me about how Jesus never said “love” in the Lord’s Prayer, but mentioned “forgive” twice, and perhaps it was because Jesus meant that forgiveness is a kind of loving. This year — especially in the last few weeks — I faced forgiveness, both in giving and receiving it. I learned how hard it was to forgive the people you love who have wronged you, and how it was even harder to ask for forgiveness from them. And even way harder is to forgive yourself from all the mistakes you made. Like courage, forgiveness is a conscious decision, a constant choice and sometimes even a battle because you need to work hard in forgiving all the time. I really liked what the priest told me then: Pray for a big heart. A small heart gets irritated by the smallest things and refuses to think about others. A big heart absorbs the pain and knows how to forgive. Jesus had a big heart that He was able to bear the pain on the cross and forgive. You need to pray for a big heart. That has been my constant prayer ever since I heard it, and I’d like to believe that God is answering that, one day at a time. This year, I prayed so hard for redemption…and I’d like to believe that it was an answered prayer. So thank you, thank You for this gift. Because she has been forgiven, she can love. Because she is loved, she can forgive. 

I’ve always liked the New Year because it always meant that everything seems new and fresh and there are always infinite possibilities. I am so done with 2013, not because it was a bad year (despite it being heartbreaking for most parts) but because I am ready for the next year. I am ready to welcome the coming year with all I am. I am still messy and imperfect and awkward, and the new year will not really take that away in a snap (if it will ever be taken away, that is). I will carry all that and the lessons I learned in 2013 to the new year, and I trust that God, in His infinite mercy, will use all of that and bring new things from this. Or perhaps He will make some of the old things seem new because He will give me new eyes to see it. I don’t know exactly, but I’m not really scared. :) God is good and faithful and He delights in me (delights in us!), so what’s to be scared about?

Image from we heart it
Image from we heart it

If I haven’t said thank you to you (family, friend, acquaintance, someone I argued with, someone I hurt, someone I asked forgiveness from, someone who hurt me and yes, I forgive you) yet for being a part of my 2013 then here it is: THANK YOU. Thank you for being a part of my year of courage. Thank you for being a part of the brave stories that roar. Thank you from the bottom of my sunflower-loving, solar-powered stargirl heart. ♥

Have a joyful 2014, everyone. :)