Life Isn't A Race

The dawn begins its ritual but still the town is in no hurry to emerge out of the blanket of clouds of which it is enveloped. Life should be no different. Life is not a race. Every minute of it should be lived. What is a hurried life if in the end you wish you did not sprint through it and instead took sometime to experience the feel of the earth under your feet.

Hide If You Must

A whole town, nestled at the the foot of the mountain ranges, hides under the clouds at dusk. Life could prettily be handled in the same way. It is alright to hide from the world if only to seek communion with oneself away from the maddening crowd.

These photographs were taken from the vantage of our mountain cottage to where I hie away each time I want to stop the world and want to get off.

A Poem For You

                                Go Take It To The Limit

Why settle for ordinary enough is just not enough with only one life to live why not reach for the unreachable?

Dreams are for dreamers which are not in your future while others wish, you make true excuses just aren't your style

Take life and forge your future tomorrow will never come act and do instead of dream take it to the limit

-Poem by Dragon Blogger

You can read more of my poetry on http://www.wandererthoughts.com and play my random daily twitter poetry game by following @dragonblogger on twitter.

Blog Analysis

Jess, a freshman student from the University of Indiana, did an analysis of my main blog - Before the Sun Sets, for her English 201 class. I am republishing here the unedited analysis which first appeared on Jess' blog as a way of expressing my gratitude. Jess is very new in the blogging field. I hope this analysis would spark the readers' interest on her blog and pay it a visit.

Blog Analysis #1: Before the Sun Sets

The implied thesis as I saw it is that through believing in yourself and appreciating what you have, you can achieve great friendships and leave something very memorable in your wake as you age.

The blog "Before the Sun Sets" is a very well written one, and it is written mostly in the style of a story. The writer, known on the site as Julehya, is a ninety year old woman from the Philippines. Her blog is a chronicle of her life, spanning from her childhood to the present. Clearly, her writings tell of a time long past, but some truths she has to tell still ring true today. Julehya grew up in the Philippines where missionaries were frequent visitors. She moved to the city from the mountains, and had to adjust to a totally new lifestyle there. She attended a school funded by missionaries, and she worked in a convent for the nuns in the summertime (Juleyha). She does not write much concerning the political perspectives of that time, but she does reveal some things in the way of religion and social attitudes. Though she was in school around eighty years ago, it seems that the attitudes of grade school children were similar to when I was a child. Growing up, neither Julehya nor I had very much money. Therefore, we wore hand-me-down clothes and were picked on at school for it.

The main theme in Julehya's blog seems to be friendship. In the beginning, she was nervous about making friends. As time passed, she came to make friends and spent a great deal of time laughing with them. In this way, we are very similar. However, since we come from different times and different cultures, we have many differences as well. She speaks of different social classes in her childhood, and of how they were treated in different ways. Today in America this is true to an extent, but not to the extreme that it was in the Philippines in the early 20th century.
Julehya writes her posts like a storyteller, with the quality you would see in a novel. She describes people and places in great detail, including herself and her emotional responses to these people, places, and even events. The only reason there would be to doubt her truthfulness is that her writing is of such high quality and it is so interesting. I do not believe that she is not telling the truth. She just wants people to hear the story of her life.

The writer's stated purpose for the blog is telling her life story to anyone who wishes to hear it. I believe she wants people to remember her culture and the lessons she has learned throughout her life. She wants her grandchildren to have something to look back on and learn something about her and their heritage. She wishes to pass on the wisdom she has gained through experience from friends and family during her ninety years on Earth. The words of her father, "hate warps your being," (Julehya) stayed with her through her life, and allowed her to live a full life and make good friends.

The writer communicates her childhood so effectively and even uses pictures of her own to show the topics she is talking about and how they have changed. The way she describes her feelings on subjects are so detailed and well expressed that she gives a definite sense of honesty in her writing. The intended audience seems to be people interested in reading about the life of an ordinary girl 75 years ago, and also her descendants. I believe that this blog is very well written, and relates to young women and the friendships they make in their childhood. Friendship lasts a long time, and even people who are very different can be the best of friends. When you are gone, make sure you leave behind a legacy that can help people to learn and grow.Thank you for sharing and great job

Kind Soul, Thank You!

How many people would go out of their way to do favors for people they don't know? Gfxden, damn! I don't even know his real name, of http://gfxden.blogspot.com is one of those kind souls I have met in my blogging sojourn. He designed for me the above widgets for one of my blogs without expecting anything in return.

That was more than a year ago but Gfx, I did never forget the kind deed and never will. I wish you the best always.

A Stranger Offers Help

When she offered to redesign my blog to make it look better, I could not believe it. After all, she was a total stranger. Having worked with charities for years of my life, I am no stranger to strangers offering help to strangers. But seldom am I at the receiving end of a stranger's kind deeds and when I am, it gets me really floored.

When Sasha of http://sasha-says.com offered help to give the looks of my main blog, Before The Sunsets, some makeover, I accepted it immediately like I was afraid she would change her mind. I have been wanting to do something about the anemic look of my generic blog template for a long time but I did not have the needed skills to do it. Now, thanks to Sasha, my blog sports a nicer look.

Again, Sasha, thank you so much. May there be more of your kind.

Jumpstarted By A Comment

When I first got into the doors of the blogosphere, I felt like I have crashed into someone else’s party. There were many people in attendance but no one seemed to give a damn that I was there. The shy person in me wanted to get out as fast as I could to the confines of an enclave I was more familiar with and where I felt comfortable. The other side of me who seldom leaves a challenge go untried wanted to stay and just make the most out of the situation. I did not need to toss a coin to see which side would win. I did what I believe was the more logical thing to do. I decided to stay and if it did not work I could always head towards the door.

I knew that the the first thing I had to do was seek out the acquaintance of everyone I could manage to rub my elbows with. I believed people would only be strangers if you would let them. It did not take long before I found myself into the thick of a blog hopping adventure. My agenda was not only to get to know as many as I could "shake hands" with but also to learn from them. There was always something to learn from each blog I visited and always when a blog post hooked my attention, I wouldn’t go back to my hopping without leaving a comment.

My idea of making comments was prompted by several reasons. It could be that I just wanted the blogger to know how much I appreciate his/her work. It may also be that I wanted to share what I thought on the subject he/she had written on based upon my own experience. Sometimes, I raised questions on issues the blogger discussed for clarification on some points I was not very clear about. Whatever the reason or reasons behind comments I made, I always made sure that I did it in a way that was polite, with respect and devoid of arrogance. It was the least I could do as I consider it a great privilege to be allowed to share in the blogger’s personal thoughts

Then it happened! I left a comment on a physical fitness blog, Inspiration Life. Terilynn, the blog’s author, writes her physical fitness post in a manner which made me really want to give the exercises she suggested a try if only I wasn’t too old to go for it. LOL. She must have liked the comment. She added my blog into her blogroll. Inspiration Life was soon to be chosen as a Blog of Note by Blogger. As a result of the honor, Terilynn’s blog was an instant hit. My blog rode on the fame of her blog. Her blog was getting several thousand hits a day as a result. Visitors to her blog clicked on my link. Imagine my surprise when I was getting several hundreds of hits a day from people visiting her blog. For a blog, that was only three weeks old, that was simply awesome.

The visitors soon dwindled when a new set of blogs were named Blog of Notes. My blog, however, continued to receive visitors from Terilynn’s blog and surely would continue to do so. Thanks to Terilynn, I had met lots of nice people and made friends who had made my blogging saga, a wonderful experience given the fact that I did not fit into the mold of what some people believe an ideal blogger should be.