Love is not.

This is a write up published in Cebu Daily News that I have saved and mounted on a blank sketch page of a sketch pad. It is written by Jason Baguia. I was unable to get the date it was printed but I got the author. The first time I read this, I was fascinated. As I read along it was worth more than a few nods in agreement with what it says. I am going to share this with you in the hope that this can also inspire you as it inspired me.

This is about what love is and is not.

It’s not love if it stands on some reason. “I love you because you’re good” will logically end with “I don’t love you anymore ‘cause you’re not good anymore”.

It’s not love if it seeks to be loved. Love seeks nothing but to love.

It’s not love if it craves comfort, for then it cannot withstand the adventurous twists and turns of a genuine loving relationship.

It’s not love if it thinks it already knows the other thoroughly. Love recognizes that people are forever becoming.

It’s not love if it clings. Distance destroys not love.

It’s not love if it seeks recognition and appreciation. It’s not attention deficit problem.

It’s not love if it expects anything in return. That’s what business ventures were created for: returns of investment. Love is not an investment. It is a freely given gift.

It’s not love if it has no gut certainty of being there forever. Love is not a feeling that comes and goes with the changes of mood, time and other circumstance. Love is the ever-fresh constant. Love that ends never was.

It’s not love if it grows stale with the passage of time.

It’s not love if it gets turned off by the imperfections of the other. Love loves what is likeable, and is powerful enough to transform for the better what is not likeable in the beloved.

It’s not love if it stops at the point of hatred.

It’s not love if it compromises its morals for the sake of “loving”. Love being good uses good means for its ends.

It’s not love if it seeks to preserve the moment. Love does not fixate. It is forward-looking because it is confident that things can only get better no matter how difficult or great they may appear.

It’s not love if it can’t depart from a depression. Love sees the value of striving to live and move on because there are so many waiting for love.

It’s not love if it chooses whom to love. That’s what is called discrimination.

It’s not love if it cannot forgive and forget. Love is the advocate par excellence of genuine reconciliation and is always excited with new beginnings.

It’s not love if it does not strike a balance between frankness and gentleness in correcting another.

It’s not love if it is driven by fear.

It’s not love if it suppresses itself.

It's not love if it can't take risks. a lover once said, " Love is having nothing you are unwilling to part with but everything given to the one loved."

It's not love if it cannot smile.

It's not love if it cannot die for the loved one when the need arises. At the same time, it's not love if it cannot live well for the sake of the loved one. The smart lover will figure out that she has to live well in order to love well.


Finally, it's not love if it does not pray. Love is purified and made stronger in prayer with God. No apologies to the atheists and agnostics.

Now go. Love.

Plans...

I have plans.

Lots of it.

But one thing that I was really confused about is when to change career. I passed the teacher's board three years ago. I am on my way to finishing my master's degree. Yet, I am still in the call center. What am I doing? That's one thing I keep on asking myself and others too. For a long time of being a customer care representative, I came to a point where I look for passion that is now long gone.

I know I can be a good teacher. And that's also I want to be. How do I start? Where? And when?

I am afraid I might have forgotten the rubrics in making a good lesson plan. Or my teaching strategies are out of date. Or my classroom management poor.

Whenever I submit a resume for a teaching position, I don't have a teaching experience that will strengthen my credentials as a teacher. I am a teacher on paper but not in experience. Surely, my resume will show a four year call center background.

There is a term for this, was it underemployment? Yes, that's the term. Working a job not in line with the course one graduated from.

So my plan this year is to save up for next year. I might go for it. Making my dream (becoming a teacher) come true. :) Pray for me.

Friend-ship

Hi, ,my name is Rodz. Friends from different areas of my life call me different names. And friends just come and go. They come without me asking them. And it was a treasure having them. And they go without me having to do with it.

But this time, a friend just told me that maybe we are not meant to be friends. Does it mean she doesn't like me to be her friend anymore?

Sometimes I feel nervous when a friend played a song on the stereo with these lyrics, "if i have only one friend left, I want it to be you". For me being a friend to someone is a responsibility. And I might not able to do the task. But, so far, I proved to be a friend somehow in some way.

I am truly affected that this one friend is not talking with me anymore.

I don't know what to do. :(