THE POTTER'S LOVE

He spoke every other creation into being
The universe and the galaxies
The oceans and seas in their greatness and expanse
The sun, the moon and the stars,
The mountains- tall and grand....;
Yet He stopped and took time
Time to form me in His mighty hands
Using clay and not stones,
He glued every piece of me together, Occasionally stopping to wet His fingers
So He could fill in the crevices on the clay pieces that would be my nose, eyes or lips
Every detail of me- from the smallest cell to the largest organ
The way I talk, my gait, my smile, my inner most being
Body, soul and spirit, a triune just as He is
In His image He formed me to perfection!
He placed each hair on my head, one by one to the millionth of it
And when I was complete, He stood back and looked at the work of His hands
And declared out loud “YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!”
He smiled, and could not wait to see His creation come to life
Hear her voice for the first time, and melt with love as she fell into His embrace
So He came even closer to my form of clay and He breathe into me
I came to life! He gave me LIFE. Beautifully and wonderfully so
His desire for me: To be fruitful, to enjoy the life He had given me
To remain in His presence and commune forever……
But then I left Eden,
And walked away from His presence, His desires
He watched me slip away hoping that I would find my way back...
I walked out into the world outside, into the unknown
Taking a breath of the outside oxygen for the first time…
It was toxic! So I made my first cry.
It’s a girl! They said as they lifted me up.
Then I was given a name
But, He already knew my name…!
In fact, He had engraved it into the palm of His hands
As I curled up into the blanket wrapped around me
I could feel the warmth of His love through His voice
As I could hear Him calling me; softly, tenderly and incessantly...
And I knew that He wanted me to find my way back,
Back into His presence.

LIFE RULES THAT WOULD MAKE YOU SMILE AND WORRY LESS

Today as I was chatting with a friend, we started talking about acting. She thinks that I am headed to Hollywood (Go figure!) This joke started when she saw this small skit that I did once in which I was Miss Do-it-All-Diva. Anyway, she was telling me that she should have brought her camera to a lunch ‘date’ we had, that way when I become big and among the Who is Who of Hollywood, she would have evidence that we knew each other. Better still, she could then sell my photos and make a fortune. I laughed and graciously thanked her for thinking of me in a positive light. We then joked about how it would be interesting if when I completed my doctorate studies, I went to acting school, then make it big…Most likely, to be fair on my graduate school education in Chemistry, I would focus a few years of acting on Sci Fi movies( in memory of SciFinder) or maybe, act as a science teacher or something within the margins of science -:) We proceeded to talking about different wishful things, including wishing that life was indeed a play ground as we hear all around us but seemingly nonexisting in graduate school…Then we paused for a jiffy and ended up coming to a not-so-conclusive conclusion; that life probably is a play ground, but out of fear and the shear element of our being poor players , we are not quite using the home ground advantage( from what I hear this sounds a lot like the Colts minus Payton Manning??). Or maybe we really haven’t taken time to learn the rules of this game called LIVING on the play field called LIFE…
Come on, wake up and smell the coffee…life has no rules… I mean LIFE HAPPENS!! YOU JUST NEED TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO KEEP UP! Yeah I know…but let’s imagine for a moment that life rules really did exist. I fully understand that rules are pretty difficult to follow, probably harder than playing the LIVING life game. However if life rules did exist, I think they would probably look somewhat like an interview between one ‘good’ doctor and a worried player in the LIVING game…

Q: Doctor, I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?
A: Your heart only good for so many beats, and that it...don't waste on exercise. Everything wear out eventually. Speeding up heart not make you live longer; it like saying you extend life of car by driving faster. Want to live longer? Take nap.(I'am loving the rules already!)

Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiency. What does cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So steak is nothing more than efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef also good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And pork chop can give you 100% of recommended daily allowance of vegetable product.( home ground advantage indeed!)

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: Well, if you have body and you have fat, your ratio one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio two to one, etc.( the Math they never taught us in school..smh)

Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?
A: Can't think of single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No pain...good!( Ditto!)

Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you?
A: YOU NOT LISTENING! Food are fried these day in vegetable oil. In fact, they permeated by it. How could getting more vegetable be bad for you?!? ( Surely!)

Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
A: Definitely not! When you exercise muscle, it get bigger. You should only be doing sit-up if you want bigger stomach.(..and I don't!)

Q: Is chocolate bad for me?
A: Are you crazy?!? HEL-LO-O!! Cocoa bean! Another vegetable! It best feel-good food around! ( Yap, take me back to Belgium, now!)

Q: Is swimming good for your figure?
A: If swimming good for your figure, explain whale to me… ( Yeah me too...smh)

Q: Is getting in shape important for my lifestyle?
A: Hey! 'Round' is a shape!( a beautiful shape)

So basically all they have told us before about life is twisted (wink wink)…these are the rules and you bet they have been entered into that wishful list my friend and I were chatting about… I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets. Don’t look at me; those are the doctor’s orders-:)

And remember:
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Eggnog in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO-HOO, what a ride!!"

OH WAIT WAIT WAIT, I am not quite finished yet (big smile)…Here are the final words on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies out there (those scientists…*sigh*).

1. The Japanese eat very little fat
and suffer fewer heart attacks.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat
and suffer fewer heart attacks.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine
and suffer fewer heart attacks.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine
and suffer fewer heart attacks.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats
and suffer fewer heart attacks.

CONCLUSION:
Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

So , when I speak grammatically incorrect English or if you hear me speaking in a language that you may not understand, I am not talking about you. I am simply playing a winning LIVING home game in the LIFE play ground. You should probably try it sometime-:)

As they say, life happens we just need to catch up with it, but better still(in my opinion), learn its rules, as prescribed by the doctor!:)

Have a worry free 2012, won’t you!

Disclaimer: Parts of this note including the doctor’s interview were adapted from an unknown writer.

UBIQUITY

I think of you even when I am not thinking
You are the space in between the empty spaces
The crevices that willingly become a part of the manifold
Which my mind involuntarily designs and implements
Each time, any time, every time,
Whenever the sounds in my head become unmusically low
Eventually ending in the silence of no thought
But only the thought of the sound that’d be you

I see you even when my eyes are tightly shut
Admittedly going against the laws of the propagation of light
Onto the centrally placed cones in my rather sensitive retina
Seemingly, the tighter my eyes are shut from light
The more centrally positioned the cones in the retina of my eyes are
And the more pronounced the colors of your rainbow become
The red, the blue, the yellow, the green, the purple
You dazzle behind the blank curtains on the windows of my closed eyes

I hear you through the intangible vacuum space around me
The undying vibrations from the whispers of your voice
Defile all laws of particulate Physics
That though all molecules of air from my heart I removed
The unseen waves of your voice manageably transits
Into the periphery of my internal ear lobes,
Somehow finding their way to the fringes of my cardiac muscles
Where in sync they vibrate with the whispers from you

But even though so, the nature of your existence in my world is,
I would prefer a million times better than this,
To see you and hear from you in the density of your mass occupancy
Being here, in the full pathway of the incident rays from the sun
And in the path of the random collisions of air particles in the ambient space
To perceive your true colors through my widely opened eyes
Terminating the propagating force of this wave of seeming non existence
With the superimposed linking of my hand to yours,
And the resulting dazzle of your smile, which signifies your very existence.

Red and White

Your dark skin couldn’t have held it better
The red color so brightly enhanced
And as I walk right beside you
In the embrace of this windy city
With the white, over my brown skin
I think only that, we,
A better spectrum could not be
Of color that brightly flows from within us
Exuding the joys, the laughter that we share
From the inside, out…to the Navy Pier

As you hold my hand beside these quiet Chicago waters
Which gracefully flow by, despite the partying cargo
With its calming breeze filling our hearts
Hearts that beat in sync to the steps of our feet
One by one, two by two, side by side….
My heart is filled with warmth and cheer
And my mind is filled with spectra of colors
Only, they are different shades, of red and white

Each red shade joins the next and the next, of white
All circumventing and uniting to become
One interminable strand of dreams and hopes
Hopes of what the future for us hold
That though I lay down tonight to sleep
Those strands lead me to a place,
Where in beautiful colors I dream…
Of different shades of red and white;
Of You and I.

Healing in Time

In that period of time
You would have woken up
From the punishment of no sleep
And wondered silently
If the night and Mare would magically disappear
And when they did
The sun would be nowhere to be found
Although its warmth burned your skin deeper than deep
And the glare of its rays blinded your eyes
Eyes already blinded by the punishment of no sleep
And while you knew for certain the necessity of food and water
Feeding felt like yet another punishment
Which the universe conspired to descend upon you
So your clothes dropped sizes farther beyond zero
While you rolled from one end of the couch to the other
Counting the tiny bumps on the ceiling board above, since
You could not allow your mind to think
For thinking was a worse punishment than food
Or no sleep
As thoughts kept telling you endless stories
And coming up with zillions of reasons as to why
And how
You should never have embarked on that journey in the first place
That stupidity, weakness and foolishness were found in you
Even when you would never ever concede to such a notion
Because you are weak, foolish,stupid, NOT
Things like these happened all the time
So every day, every night, you convinced yourself
That you would get up, you would dress yourself up
And step outside, and then move on
On to the blinding and terribly scorching sun outside
On to resistibility, invincibility, metamorphosis
Because you could, you should, you would
You would try to look your best
When they, those that you should be strong for
Came around, needed food, or needed you
So you smiled
Because you were known for it
You laughed,
Because, they were used to it
You were ok, you needed to be ok
But when the night came
And you thought about the punishment of no sleep
You recoiled inside yourself and
Smiled no more
Then, it felt like the day would never break
And that minutes and seconds dragged on and on...
It may have took many days or years, but
One of those very fine minutes of your seemingly stagnated life
The color of the painting on the wall started to matter no more
The bumps on the ceiling above
Formed imaginary patterns no longer
For you became sleep’s inseparable mate
Whenever sleep needed a friend, you were there
And food was no longer a source of punishment
You could eat the entire world, anytime
And you started to smile, because that’s how you felt
You laughed, because you couldn’t resist the urge
And sunny days became your favorite days...
Then, you paused and wondered
At how it had all happened again
And slowly, you began to realize that
Somewhere, somehow,sometime, in the unexpected minutes of time
You began to rise above and beyond the fear of the unknown
Or the regret of the unknowable, which stood behind you
That a change in attitude and out look of the life that remained
No matter how many years or days it may have took
Stood between your higher notched life now, and your forlorn world then
As you now stand facing the blank wall before you
Holding a can of yellow paint in your hand
You smile again, then nod in affirmation
As you acknowledge that
Time, time, time
Time heals in its own time.

The Unspoken

While it is implacably inexplicable
How I feel inside today
Or yesterday or sometime before
When we first met,
It is evidently so, that I find a reason to smile
At every mention of your name, or even so,
A thought that may lead to the idea of you…
That the unseen string that reinforces the
Seemingly strong connection between us
Perceive to me the necessity of your presence
Such that when I look into those beautiful eyes,
Watching as the white of your teeth flash to me
Your impeccably glistening smile
Which spreads your smooth and shiny black skin
With lines of warm twinkles
Twinkles that reflect my eyes to yours
And yours to mine,
The world inside my mind is holstered upon cloud eleven
Where, as I lay down upon its cushiony surface,
Flashes of images;
Beautiful images of you,
Span through my mind, my conscious
And sub-conscious,
Turning into dreams of the reality which I,
Upon the unspoken existence of unmistakable liking,
Wish I would have with you.

You Can't Back Up into the Future

When the grays of life hit you hard
And you choose to sit under the apple tree
From the dawn of the morn to the dusk of the night
Waiting for the apple to fall
Saying: “Gravity, doctored gravity, choose one for me today!”
Your wait will certainly be endless
And your future put on hold.

When you linger on the insurgent pain
Or the regret of a mistake made
When you tell yourself: “Shame on me! Shame on me!”
In lieu of: “Don’t do it again!”
When you are stuck at the endless sharp corner
While you could hitch-hike a joyful ride
You are losing control of your life
Holding your future at goodbye.

The future begins at foresight,
It makes more sense that way
No hindsight camping will give you
A place in a promising tomorrow
And no happiness left behind you
Compares to the one ahead.

So change your perception of circumstances
Focus on what can be changed
For you cannot back up into the future
And hit not a wall instead
Get up from under the apple tree
And start picking up apples for yourself
For gravity can give you apples,
But gravity wouldn’t let you choose!

Washing Ripe Plantains

Have you ever found yourself
doing stupid things in a day
like walking into a glass wall
or falling off a low chair?

Have you ever found yourself
at loss for words or speech
that yes becomes a weak nod
and no an inaudible snort?

Have you ever fluttered eye lashes
a million times in a second
or stuttered through a sentence
you knew so well in your head?

Have you ever lost order
picked up clumsy as your new tune
walking into pots and pans
off the car with your seat-belt on?

Have you ever had a silly smile
as big as east from west
a giant and endless silly grin
till your eyes were almost closed?

Have you taken on a new route
that's abnormally long and windy
hoping for an accidental meeting
oh hello what a surprise?!

Then let's meet at the corner fountain
where the water is fresh and free
and wash clean these ripe plantains
of butterflies and sweaty palms-:)

MISS-PERFECTION

Though she may wholesomely appear, the byword of perfection
Though she may walk with impeccable, and apparent sure footed steps
Though she may appear to have, a clear sense of vogue and style
Though she may exude an aura, of confidence and self certainty
She is a bagful of imperfections, no demi-goddess whatsoever
For she is as afraid of spiders, as any other you may have seen

While she may articulate herself, with grandiose Shakespeare vocabulary
While she may be well versed, in current and past affairs
While she may be as sophisticated, in culture, art and life
While her sense of humor could be, beyond the ceiling above
She may also drool in her sleep, and sometimes talk as well
And her stomach may rumble, for the missed breakfast or lunch

In a social sense she may present,the socialite queen enthroned
She may fit into the jig-saw, with the young and old alike
In philanthropy and in good will, the community she may unite
In leadership and in good cheer, a utopia around she creates
But a hot dog to cook will burn, too much salt or little butter
And the cake in the oven she forgets, till brown is too black to see

If you may perceive her too ordered, for your apparent disorderly life
If you may consider her too advanced, for the steps behind you may be
If you may think of her too straight, for the zig-zaggy life you may lead
You may think again then take time, to see her through the mirage
For you may experience how down to earth, easy to please she may be
That a wild flower by the road side, would charm her heart to sleep.

HONESTY: A FACET OF MORAL CHARACTER

“Every act of dishonesty has at least two victims: the one we think of as the victim, and the perpetrator as well. Each little dishonesty makes another little rotten spot somewhere in the perpetrator's psyche.”
-Leslie Conger-

In the past couple of days, I have either encountered situations or been engaged in different conversations that have led me to a place of deep thought on the idea of honesty.While I consider myself a terrible lier and by default a staunch believer in truthful speaking, I have found myself questioning the degree of my participation in the message of truth. I then decided to look up the meaning of the word, honesty. According to Wikipedia (my ultimate favorite e-resource), honesty is a facet of moral character which denotes positive, virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness, and straightforwardness along with the absence of lying, cheating, or theft. Now, I had never actually looked up the word since I first learned of it as a child. Reading its definition from Wikipedia made me realize the expanse of its territory where moral character and human relations are concerned. It is no wonder then, that those sagacious grey haired missiles of wisdom, who lived way before our time, have been quoted to have said that the shortest story is always the truth, or most famously, honesty is the best policy. While growing up, I measured up these two statements to the fact that I should never ever cheat in my exams( absence of cheat), I should tell mum when I used the remaining shilling to buy candy other than reporting of an apparent hiked price of milk( absence of theft), and that I should not lie to the teacher just so I could escape the abhorred stroke of the cane(absence of lying)...For the most part, I followed this path, thanks to Sunday school, but once in a while my mother was lied to, and the neighbor's fruits went missing; in my tummy-;)

As I traveled in my mind meditating upon this virtue, I ended up deeply engrossed in a debate with myself on one aspect of honesty that I had previously not considered: Honesty to oneself. I have discovered that it is one thing to tell somebody to be honest with themselves, and it is another to actually apply it in my own life. Notwithstanding, I have come to learn in my young life that being honest with myself is the fuel that runs my level of sanity; the key to my personal progress in whatever capacity.Each time when I have skewed away from this fundamental element of straightforwardness and integrity,each time when I have rebelled against the true nature of a circumstance I was caught up in,each time that I have attempted to be somebody that I am not, I have ended up either in regret or having learned a painful lesson. What I know for certain, is that, if I can not be straightforward with myself, if I can not accept the person that I am, If I can not sincerely speak to the person in the mirror about my feelings towards my work, my family, my friends, my life, then I will never know which attributes of my life need pruning and which ones need to be accentuated. How then can I hope to move forward? How can I attempt to know myself, if I do not truly want to know what there is to know about me?

While my train of thoughts led me into thinking that personal dishonesty could be in the form of the depiction of fictitious reputation,it also took me into the conveyor belt of second or third party deception. To spread a string of lies to another person( presence of lying) and to not stand by my own words ( absence of integrity), is dishonesty to my self;in reverse. Leslie Conger, as quoted above, concedes that when I am not honest to my colleagues, friend or a stranger, I am most certainly lying to myself; creating rotten spots in my psyche. It is no wonder then, that whenever I have derailed from the truth or perceived to have done so,I would go through a period of guilt and shame until the situation at hand has been squared out and a coherent understanding established (the rotten spot having been washed away). Now most of us have been lied to once, twice or many times, and we know the feeling when we eventually find out the truth: cheated, betrayed, mistreated, disrespected, you name it. The way you feel when you are lied to, is the same way your inner self feels when you lie to somebody else. I have heard it said many many times in movies, and it real life that, "I lied to protect you".In my opinion, no reasoning in the deceptive facet could protect the eruption of the volcano that would, once the other party discovers that you spoke in deception.This usually is the inception of distrust. Let's think auspiciously for a second, and imagine that the lie was truly told to protect the subject from a lifelong headache or heartache.Then it would only work out if the subject never finds out the truth. However, this is never the case. Somehow, truth finds a micro channel that it uses to seep out of the innermost core of the secret cavern where deception lies. When this happens, it is never a pretty site. Nobody I know has ever said: "How sweet of you to have lied for my protection!" None. When the truth comes out, it is always a hurtful experience and has consequently led to massive destruction of human relationships; be it in marriage,friendships, families, businesses etc. Now, wouldn't it just be simple to speak with honesty when there is still time to heal or resolve the mitigating circumstances?

According to the book of Proverbs in the Bible, of the 7 things that God detests, coming top of the list is "a lying tongue." If this is not a reason good enough to maintain honesty as a vital virtue, then look at it as one of the fundamental and indispensable pillars for the reinforcement of institutions that are based on human relationships. Think about it:If there is no honesty, there would be no trust, and if there is no trust, there is absolutely no relationship. The most agonizing thing that could happen to anyone is to ardently trust and believe in a life that they are leading, only to wake up one day and discover that it is all a facade.Therefore, in doing unto others what I would have then do unto me, I can only strive to inject honesty into my system each waking day of my life. Furthermore, the most demanding life lived should be one that requires the maintenance of a fictitious reputation, a constant scheming of the next cover up plan for the person that you truly are. With that in mind, the sooner I can admit to my imperfections, the better and more rewarding my interaction with myself and others will be.

As my train of thoughts arrives at its terminal, I must admit that I cherish honesty deeply. Therefore, just as charity begins at home, so must my practice of honesty begin with myself. While I would appreciate greatly, that the people I encounter would be truthful and with a high sense of integrity, I would like to see that I too remain the same person that I present myself to be...That I can stand by my words and promises, and that there would be no wine where there should be water... That I can freely express my inner fears and weaknesses without trying to appear too strong for failure... That if I fail in my faith, I can be able to acknowledge the fall and willingly ask God to raise me up again...and that I can exercise my feelings with a straightforward attitude. If I could create a halo of honesty on everyone, I wouldn't hesitate.Unfortunately, being honest is a virtue we must individually choose to actively pursue.So as you disembark from my train this morning,I can only hope that you have taken the shortest route to your next destination via the honesty terminal.