'Life it ain't easy, it's so tough, it ain't easy, watcha gonna do: Put a SMILE on your face' - quoted from the song of Vitamin C entitled Smile.

It really is a reality that life is not easy at all. It is not all about happiness and joy. Definitely not all about success and triumphs. It's tough. It's hard. And it bites.

You need to shed some tears to learn how to smile. You need to feel hurt to learn what happiness really is. You need to experience pain to know what true love is. You even have to stumble at times, as in many times, to learn how to stand up again, to move forward and keep going.

Life is complicated and it sucks most of the time but when you start learning to love it and just enjoy every single moment of it, it feels great, wonderful and worthwhile.

I finally had the chance to watch the most talked about movie '2012'. Special effects aside, it was the gist of the movie that really caught my heart. The possibility that by that time, the world could end in just a blink of an eye. It wasn't a hypothetical and fictional movie. It wasn't unreal at all. That could really happen in two to three years time if people would continue to ignore the reality of global warming. This was not the first time that I felt that the world could really turn into a whole damn mess in the near future. When I was in college, I watched the documentary film of former US Vice President Al Gore. There, he showed what was really happening in many places in the world at present. Rivers have dried up and in the north pole, heat is already felt. Trees dried up so fast and animals are slowly losing their habitat. Just now, I saw in the yahoo news about the giant jellyfishes swarm into the Western part of the Japan Ocean. It was considered to be the worst jellyfish swarm in the region since it occurs every 40 years. (to know more about this news log on to http://new.yahoo.com/s/ap/climate_09_jellyfish_menace)

It's frightening if you would think about it. It makes me think and ponder if I am ready. 2012 is fast approaching, am I prepared? Actually it may happen sooner or later than we expect. Even here in the Philippines, floods are unstoppable. Aren't those signs that we have to act NOW and not when it's TOO LATE? I just hope that people would no longer be as selfish as in the movie when the world do come to an end. It was so sad to see in the movie that even in the most challenging time of humanity, money still talks. They still ask for green cards and even sold tickets to people in order to save their lives. What do you expect? Of course, only those who ate in golden spoons can be accommodated. Duh? Who can possibly pay 1 billion euros for just one seat??? I hope that when that time really comes, selflessness and love for humanity will rule and not money nor power.

I pray that it's never too late to save the world.

How about you? Are you ready? Share your views.

Another day to see the beauty of life. Another chance to make other people happy. Another opportunity to make the best out of everything. Another reality to face. Another moment to seize the day and release the stress. Every single day is brand new day to make things straight, to ease all the hardships, to make ugly circumstances turn into a beautiful situation, to make angry heart go soft and calmed, to turn messed up mind into a peaceful one and most of all, another brand new day to thank the Above for giving us another chance to live and to enjoy life’s gifts. Another day is given to us in order to realize that each day there are surprises, good or bad, sad or happy, frustrating or uplifting but what matters most is that every day we learn to appreciate life and everything around us. Let’s make some extra effort to see the positive side of things and let’s give some time to think of things that we should do in order to keep us alive and high spirited rather than thinking of things that would only make our day lousy! CHEER UP! CARPE DIEM!

In life, we expect too much hardships and challenges. We expect to see darkness instead of lightness. We expect to see badness in every person instead of goodness in their hearts. We expect to be poor and to get deprived instead of being rich and accepted. We expect to be hated rather than be loved. We expect to be criticized rather than being respected. We expect that things will not be in favor of us. We don’t expect life to be bright and colorful. And we definitely not expect life to be filled with absolute happiness and tranquility.

We all know these are all part of our life. Without such unpleasant experiences, we will not learn, we will not grow. Every person of every continent of every country of every nationality has their own stories of struggle and sufferings to tell. It is nowhere to be found in this world that ‘somebody’ who will say that he had not experienced any sad or horrific things in his life. Sometimes, or rather most of the time, we tend to get ourselves so preoccupied with our life problems. We usually pity ourselves and think that we’re the biggest loser of all. We oftentimes see ourselves burdened with too many problems and challenges. But that’s not how we should deal with life. We shouldn’t let our difficulties overcome us nor suffocate us. We shouldn’t allow our setbacks to pull us down but rather, we should dare to move against it. It is your life and nobody else could run that for you. We are the drivers of our own lives.

If we continue to permit our hurdles to rule over us, we would surely not expect to feel happy and peaceful. Fight back and never allow yourself to be dragged into the world of gloominess. The book entitled The Secret would strongly advise to think and feel positive in dealing with our everyday lives. What we think and what we say can greatly affect the outcomes of whatever we are doing. So if you think and really believe that you can do it! Then you will surely will!

1. Nobody else can help you but you yourself
2. When everything goes wrong and helpless, God is up above to listen to you
3. Never miss a day to smile, it makes you and even other people happy
4. Don’t let your fear overcome you
5. When you love, love as if you have never loved before
6. When you are in doubt, pray
7. See the good sides of every person. Learn to love and not to hate.
8. Try to see the positive things of life
9. If you know that what you do makes you happy, go for it! Happiness matters.
10. Never think of what others will say, that’s your life anyway
11. Never waste your life talking behind other people’s back, mind your own business
12. Life is too serious to be taken seriously, Enjoy while you still can!
13. Always try to share positive and happy thoughts to the people around you
14. Let the problem, problem you and if the problem doesn’t have any solution, why problem?
15. Believe in yourself! Every person has their own unique personalities and abilities. Explore yours!
16. Don’t complicate things!
17. Appreciate the beauty of nature and you will see yourself at peace. Try to meditate once in awhile
18. Value even the smallest thing you have in your life
19. A friend will tell you what you want to hear but your family will tell you what you don’t want to hear
20. Be contented. Don’t be greedy
21. When you are feeling blue, think of the colorful things you experienced in your life. You will surely feel better
22. When in abundance, share.
23. As long as you have faith in yourself and to the Above, life isn’t a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived and enjoyed!

(This piece was emailed to me by a close friend in college and I couldn't agree less; just wanna share it to everybody especially to those who loves to love!)

The FIRST secret - the power of THOUGHT Love begins with our thoughts. We become what we think about. Loving thoughts create loving experiences and loving relationships. Affirmations can change our beliefs and thoughts about others and ourselves. If we want to love someone, we need to consider his or her needs and desires.Thinking about your ideal partner will help you recognize her/him when you meet her/him.

The SECOND secret - the power of RESPECT You cannot love anyone or anything unless you first respect them. The first person you need to respect is yourself. To begin to gain self-respect, ask yourself, what do I respect about myself? To gain respect for others, even those you may dislike, ask yourself, what do I respect about them?

The THIRD secret - the power of GIVING If you want to receive love, all you have to do is give it! The more love you give, the more you will receive. To love is to give of your-self, freely and unconditionally. Practice random acts of kindness. Before committing to arelationship, ask not what the other person will be able to give to you, but rather what will you be able to give them. The secret formula of a happy, lifelong, loving relationshipis to always focus on what you can give instead of what you can take.

The FOURTH secret - the power of FRIENDSHIPTo find a true love, you must first find a true friend. Love does not consist of gazing into each other's eyes, but rather looking outward together in the same direction.To love someone completely you must love him or her for who they are and not for what they look like. Friendship is the soil through which love seeds grow. If you want to bring love into a relationship, you must first bring friendship.

The FIFTH secret - the power of TOUCHTouch is one of the most powerful expressions of love, breaking down barriers and bonding relationships. Touch changes our physical and emotional states and makes us more receptive to love.

The SIXTH secret - the power of LETTING GO If you love something, let it free. If it comes back to you, it's yours, if it doesn't, it never was. Even in a loving relationship, people need their own space. If wewant to learn to love, we must first learn to forgive and let go of past hurts and grievances. Love means letting go of our fears, prejudices, egos and conditions. Today I let go of all my fears, the past has no power over me - today isthe beginning of a new life.

The SEVENTH secret - the power of COMMUNICATION When we learn to communicate openly and honestly, life changes. To love someone is to communicate with them. Let the people you love know that you love them and appreciate them. Never be afraid to say those three magic words: "I Love You". Never let an opportunity pass to praise someone. Always leave someone you love with a loving word -it could be the last time you see him or her. If you were about to die but could make telephone calls to the people you loved, who would you call, what would you say and why are you waiting?

The EIGHTH secret - the power of COMMITMENT If you want to have love in abundance, you must be committed to it, and that commitment will be reflected in your thoughts and actions. Commitment is the TRUE test of love. If you want to have loving relationships, you must be committed to loving relationships. When you are committed to someone or something, quitting is never an option.Commitment distinguishes a fragile relationship from a strong one.

The NINTH secret - the power of PASSION Passion ignites love and keeps it alive. Lasting passion does not come through physical attraction alone; it comes from deep commitment, enthusiasm, interest and excitement. Passion can be re-created by re-creating past experiences. When you felt passionate spontaneity and surprises producepassion. The essence of love and happiness are the same; all we need to do is to live each day with passion.

The TENTH secret - the power of TRUST Trust is essential in all loving relationships. Without it one person becomes suspicious, anxious and fearful and the other person feels trapped and emotionally suffocated. You cannot love someone completely unless you can trust him or her completely. Act as if your relationship with the person you love will never end. One of the ways you can tell whether a person is right for you is to ask yourself, Do I trust them completely and unreservedly? If the answer is no, think carefully before making a commitment.

I spent the day with my mind thirsty for thoughts and ideas. There could be millions of topics I could write about but I just cannot focus on one specific thing. When I catch a significant insight and start to write its introduction, another idea pops up and more ideas keeps popping up! And so I decided to write nothing and just let the thoughts overflow. Now, the night has come and I have finally been able to spotlight a topic that I believe is worthy to write about.

Freedom. They say that all of us are free to do what we want to do, free to express our feelings, free to decide, and free to choose. I may have to disagree about such belief. Until now I haven’t really found the freedom that I want. Why? Primarily because of the pre-judgmental nature of the people. Since I was elementary I have always been conscious of what other people thinks which refrained me from what I really want to do or what I want to choose to do. It was more like; the people decide for me or let us say I have allowed them to run my life. Many individuals nowadays are afraid to pursue their desires and even happiness just because of what other people are saying and may say.

Most of the time, people prejudge other people just to cover for their own mistakes and flaws or simply to appear better than the others or to appear righteous and all that. Many individuals are being halted to pursue what they want just because of being too imprisoned by the criticisms and judgments of other people who are not even directly part of their lives.

Happiness can only be felt when one is free. I am not actually that happy because I am not that free. It makes me wonder why people are trying to pull me down or why they take so much of their time to say things against me and even make up stories about me. I am not a superstar but I feel like I am being followed by too many paparazzi. Hehe Shall I conduct a press conference? Just kidding.

I have slowly reflected on things that have happened to me the past months and now I have this rush not to care at all! I mean this is my life. Maybe it’s time for me to pursue my happiness by freeing myself from all the people who doesn’t contribute any good to my life. I feel sorry for those people who doesn’t want to see me or other people happy. I can’t believe I allowed them to make me feel caged. From this moment on, I will live MY life. I will run MY life. I will have MY free and happy life. I live only once and I cannot let myself die without having lived a life of my own!

Writing has always been my passion. I write whatever is on my mind, may it be expressed as an essay or a poem. I have had my writing pieces based on my personal thoughts, insights and experiences which makes it more interesting for me. It's what I feel, what I hear, what I see, and what I think. Now, I wonder why I have made a blog of my own? It's not necessarily because it's the trend among the youth and teenagers or even professionals but simply beacuse it frees my mind. Having my own choice of template, theme, layout and all that, makes it so much fun to write and post all my stuffs.

It has been four years now when I last wrote a heartfelt article which has been fortunately published in the Youngblood of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. It wasn't that easy for me to get my article published in such a newspaper and so having this blog site makes it much much easier for me to get my pieces published. Cool huh?

I don't really pay much attention on the credits I will be getting from my blogs but it's really more of the freedom and fun I am feeling from doing it. It's just a matter of spontaneity and just to write and post and publish til I drop. It's really fun! My blog. My thoughts. My pieces. My Self. So blog it on! \m/

It has been a long time that I see grey in everything. I felt the tortures of fear and anxiety and has been living in a whirlwind life. But that’s over now. So over.

I now see the calmness of the green trees. I now see the peaceful look of the bluish white sky. I now slowly see the colors of the things around me. I finally feel the strength that the mad sun is giving. I finally feel the subtle embrace of the comforting breeze of the wind. I now feel I am back at myself again and ready to celebrate the colorful journey of my life! LEAVE the past behind. FACE the beauty of tomorrow!