It's been a while since I watched TV, probably since the domination of the world wide web and easy access to internet connection among the citizens of the Philippines. I remember during my childhood and adolescence days, TV is the number source of news, gossips, trends, and entertainment. At home, our TV always gave out and reached its capacity, since we always bought surplus goods which fitted within our budget. But nowadays that's no longer the case, we now have Netflix and other free streaming sites, and with just one search and click we can immediately find the show we want to watch. Everything seems so instant.
Just like in life, everything seems to be fleeting and in an instant, something or someone important is no more with us. Head Full of Honey is a movie that I watched on TV first time in a while from start to finish with all the commercials in between. There is no denying that the film captured my interest. I was hesitant to watch it because of all the TV advertisements coming our way and felt like it is a waste of time to see those commercials, but I was glad I took the chance of watching it with my mother.
It is a 2018 American remake of a 2014 German film of the same name. Head Full of Honey is about Amadeus, a widowed grandfather who has Alzheimer's disease. A heartwarming story intended for the whole family, this film served as a tear-jerker that left me and my mother filled with sadness and hope at the same time. Though adventure might not be an initial genre for this movie, I could not help but sense and embraced the hearts of the characters, they felt raw and genuine, even devoid of any counterfeit and forgery. The colorful life of the Nolte's family shows us perfectly the imperfection of life, and how fleeting it can be.
Teacher: Life is fleeting, like a passing mist.
It is like trying to catch hold of a breath;
All vanishes like a vapor; everything is a great vanity.
Ecclesiastes 1:2
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16
Hot SOS by Solenn Heussaff is a self-help book about fitness and health and beauty. This was a short read book but it took me three days to finish it. Well, I wanted to absorb and imbibe whatever I could learn and unlearn from this little guidebook of Solenn.
The author Solenn Heussaff is also an actress, make-up artist, painter, and businesswoman. She has a knack for creativity like she exists to create. I admire women like her. Free-spirited and unapologetic for who she is. I see her as a strong woman.
The book contains tips and advice, easy-to-follow exercise routines and healthy food recipes. What I enjoyed the most from the book is the Q & A part where it revealed the I am a Sneaky Exerciser which means I work out high with an activity that doesn't seem like a workout at all like a bike ride or weekend with friends. It seems the test is legit because that's so me. You can find the test on pages 132 to 133 if ever you get a copy of the book, or I can take a picture of it for you, and maybe we can DM each other. haha
The 10 Rules to Live By by Solenn Heussaff is also something that I appreciate from this read. Let me list them down here:
- Enough with the "I'll do it tomorrow!" Start today!
- Be active as much as you can.
- But take a break when you need it.
- Don't drink your calories.
- Never, ever compare yourself to anyone.
- Drink 3 liters of water a day.
- Always eat breakfast.
- Surround yourself with only positivity and progress. No room for nega.
- Eat a rainbow.
- Sleep like a baby.
It is all good to be concerned with our health and how we look, just like how I am right now. hehe. I have never been concerned with myself and how I appear to others more than I do now. I even tried plucking my brows and dying my hair out of my own volition. How's that! Another step towards adulting if I may say. But I must say that we should also take care of the beauty inside all of us that will never fade away, right? And there is where you can find the true you, so be.you.tiful always.
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Proverbs 31:30
From Twinkle, with Love is a young adult book by Sandhya Menon. It is really a thick one and it took me three weeks maybe before I finished it, since I tend to be a polygamist reader sometimes. I bought this one from the nationwide National Book Store Sale last year. It is a hardbound book and got it for only 195 pesos.
Sandhya Menon generously offers us a sweet love story and an inspiring journey of pursuing your dreams and finding your voice in a world where you feel like the invisible ones. It has multiracial characters which make it relevant and revolting all at the same time. The main characters Twinkle and Sahil are a dynamic couple with all their insecurities in life who took a chance of showing their true self to the ones who matter to them the most.
There is no single character in this story whom I didn't like. They are just all so lovable and likable, even the bad ones at the beginning of the book. They make the story so welcoming and relevant. They are not just minor characters, they are pieces of a puzzle that perfectly fit the picture. I like how Menon intended to put these individuals together to create a diverse culture in a single plot.
It is told from such a personal point of view which makes it more heartfelt and sincere. Even though I think I am a little too old to read young adult books, I still enjoy this book, maybe it's just my age that is getting old. haha.
That's it, From Twinkle, with Love
And here's another reminder to boost that courage and confidence you always have in and through Him.
So always trust the Lord
because he is forever
our mighty rock.
~Isaiah 26:4
I wonder if you still remember what I mentioned from my previous blog about my NBS 99 Sale. I thought that would be the last set of books I would buy this year, but 8.8 Shopee Sale came and Pandayan Bookshop joined. The discounted prices of the books are such a steal and I was also eyeing the books since the other month, but they were out of stock. So Pandayan Bookshop refilled their stocks and I couldn't resist the offer. haha.
I would like to try the books written by Marcelo Santos III, so there I got two books by him for 50 pesos each. My interest to try Santos' books brought out the "marupok" in me, and here I thought it is only in love that people can be "marupok" so I was wrong, so, so wrong. And just to justify my purchase, since August is the month of Pambansang Wika in the Philippines, it can be a gesture of my support to the works of the Filipino authors, since all my purchases are written in our national language and again written by Filipinos. Salute!
I am excited to read them especially Mahal mo siya, Mahal ka ba? and Para sa Hopeless Romantic, but I still have a book to finish the ones from the other book sale events I willingly got myself into. I don't want to leave them unread, please, for the love of books.
So, this time I will not say that this will be my last haul for this year. I'm a little embarrassed that I wasn't able to keep it. Let's just enjoy our books and read them haha
Ramona forever and ever!
This is my second book from Beverly Cleary and I got this one from the NBS 99 Sale recently. I first encountered Ramona from the movie adaptation "Ramona and Beezus" and it was a good feel movie. Selena Gomez was there so I kinda like to watch the movie, but looking back it is a film worthy of a rewatch just by seeing the trailer it takes me to that blissful and refreshing happy childhood I had.
Ramona Forever is one of the eight books in the Ramona Quimby Series and as I read some information from Wikipedia about the children's book novel series, it amazes me that Cleary takes me back to the year 1955, which was a long long time ago and it shows me a glimpse of what it was like way, way back then. I intend to read the whole series and am frugal as I am, I look for 2nd handbook shops or during book sales for the other installments of the novel.
The Family Quimby just brings a lot of fun in the world. I like how Cleary shows the reality of life in this series in the lives of ordinary people like the Quimby's. Her simple, clear, and straight-to-the-point narratives engage readers like me into Ramona's thoughts and feelings. It is a heartwarming story even for the not-so-children anymore. In my early 30s, it still wells my heart and it has taught and reminded me with life lessons about the importance of family with good and proper communication. Roberto and Dorothy as parents are portraying such a good job in dealing with the antics of their daughters. It appears to me that they and the rest of the Quimby family along with their friends and neighborhoods live a modest life while living it to the fullest and making the most of it.
This is such a good feel book I would never regret getting my hands on and a legacy left behind by Beverly Cleary. And as always, I was reminded of this verse by the upbringing of the Quimby sisters by their Quimby parents. Quimby, Quimby!
Train up a child in the way he should go,
[a]And when he is old he will not depart from it.
~Proverbs 22:6 New King James Version
A Walk in the Clouds, according to Wikipedia, is a 1995 American movie remake of the 1945 Italian film Four Steps in the Clouds. I was unaware of its existence not until a friend recommended watching it. I got interested since Keannu Reeves is the male lead, who doesn't like Reeves. I mean if there are some, I know that most people know him and like him a bit if not much. I am more familiar with the Constantine movie series since I am inclined with plots about angels and demons, but romance movies starring him, not one bit interested before.
I took a chance on this movie which deals with a lot of chances in life as well as wrong choices and decisions. It was a roller coaster ride love story of Sgt. Paul Sutton (who was then tied with Betty) and Victoria Aragon (a graduate student who got pregnant by her professor) at the end of World War II.
The story filled me with mixed feelings. I wanted to root for the male and female leads, sincerely and in full force, but I was quite concerned by their circumstances. They both had committed and uncommitted relationships with different persons and naturally they should end up with the person they fell in love with the first time. I was being inflexible while I watched the movie. I thought their relationship was wrong. Sutton should stay with his cheating wife and Aragon should find that bastard professor and let him marry her, only if I was the writer of that story, but I was not.
I learned a lot from the film like how everything could all go wrong with one single lie and only a few things that could go right, and one thing that I regretted the most was the farm of grapes got burned. Sayang! At the end of the movie, I was more concerned with the grapes and how they would rebuild the vineyard, which would take them a lot of time, effort, and hard work.
A Walk in the Clouds reminded me of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV). There is a season for everything under the heavens and there is the one and the only divine being who is in control of everything He allows to happen. Be joyful and hopeful in every season. Rejoice and hope in the season where you at right now.
A Time for Everything1 There is a time for everything,and a season for every activity under the heavens:2 a time to be born and a time to die,a time to plant and a time to uproot,3 a time to kill and a time to heal,a time to tear down and a time to build,4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,a time to mourn and a time to dance,5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,6 a time to search and a time to give up,a time to keep and a time to throw away,7 a time to tear and a time to mend,a time to be silent and a time to speak,8 a time to love and a time to hate,a time for war and a time for peace.
What is true love?
It would be difficult to answer this question. Maybe in my early years as a human being, it would be a simple question to answer. But this kind of query had evolved and became a complex one as life gives its best to the feeble time I have here on earth.
In this book by Jenny King, true love is that one person who will spend his or her life with you, for better or for worse, until death do you part. I must say that I had the same interpretation and perspective of true love. That must be the reason, why I had always been looking but not really intentionally getting or entering into a relationship with the opposite sex. I thought I could find true love in boys or in men. Though I was not specifically fond of interacting with them, I did have that longing or yearning to be crush back or love back by a boy or a man whom I was interested in. I was always waiting on the receiving end without even giving, ironic wasn't it.
The book Discover & Keep True Love shared a lot of practical tips on how to find a partner with whom you intended to be married with. I am already talking about marriage here where in fact I haven't had a boyfriend, well it's never wrong to be prepared just in case. haha. Spare me with your teasing, I know, I know, but I just want to take a chance on this book. I remember my co-teacher saying that by reading the books I bought from her I may increase my chance of getting a boyfriend and be married. I laughed at her jokes, or maybe she was serious. I don't know. This book just interests me and the other two books are Boy Meets Girl by Joshua Harris and To Know Him Completely by Jenny King. So in total, there are three books to read to have a bigger chance in the sea of fish.
I was looking at the wrong places and the wrong persons. True love was never found, only fleeting feelings. There was pain and struggles because of unrequited love or crushes and those made me feel antagonistic towards couples who were head over heels with each other. I was bitter at some point in my life, but I am glad that I found Him, or more like He found me before it's too late, or maybe He found me at the right time because his timing is always perfect.
It is never wrong to desire or to want someone with whom you can build a family of your own or exchange the undying oath of "Till Death Do Us Part". I still do, I desire to be with someone. I surrendered it to Him, and I think it is a moment-by-moment thing. I just pray that He prepares my heart for the will He has in my life. I believe I am in my waiting season, so by faith and strength that are from Him, I patiently wait. But until when? God only knows.
Who is true love?
Let me rephrase the question, who is true love? Let me leave the answer below, and may you seek Him because He wants you to receive the truest true love:
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ~Romans 5:8
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