Michelle R. Taway

My mom is the best mom in the whole world. (I’m sure you’ll say the same thing about your mom.) If there’s one thing that I can describe her is she is supportive. When I was a kid, I remember joining camps like Girl Scouts and Children’s Camp and she was the one who would tell me to go. She’s supportive not just to me but also to my siblings and also to Pop. When I flew to Cebu alone, she was there to support me not just emotionally but also financially. Mom is a little bit stingy but when it comes to things like that, she’s generous. When I went to Singapore, she gave me so much money and I did not expect it. She is not so vocal with what she is really feeling but I am sure of her love for us. I can sense her concern and her care.

On Sundays, Mom teaches some kids in Sunday School. When I saw her one Sunday morning, it made me smile. I saw her patience. I saw her dedication that on Saturday nights she would prepare all the materials and ask Tenten to print the needed stuff. I saw her dedication and commitment.

My Mom loves cleanliness. Every Saturday ( I actually used to hate this day) we have a general cleaning at home. When we were still kids, she would always tell (force) us to clean the house, the surroundings and our wardrobe. Now I realized the value of cleanliness. I really do.

She is also prayerful. One of the reasons why I am what I am today ( specially in my spiritual life) is because of her prayer. I always see her praying in her room every morning and evening. On special occassions, she would call us all to gather as a family and pray.

As what my poem says, Mom is imperfect but she is perfect to me. She’s someone to look up to as a woman, as a daughter, as an officemate, as a church friend as a wife and as a mother. Happy Mother’s Day Mom. You’re awesome!

We went to Goldilocks after church and it was packed with people. We were supposed to buy Chocolate Cake but it was sold out so we settled for Fruit Mocha.

Poem that I gave her which I wrote earlier while we were in church listening to pastor as he speak. (If it’s possible to listen and do something at the same time. Haha!)

In the afternoon at 2pm, we went back to church because there was a Couples’ Fellowship. My church friends and I went also and we played Monopoly. Then we moved to Sarah’s place because Ivan would copy some movies. It was so much fun playing Monopoly with a bunch of crazy kids!

Pop, Wengweng, my cousin Kate and I played an old trading game called Monopoly. Mom, Tenten and Teban were in church so they missed it. If only those play money were real, I’m a millionaire by now.

We started playing at 18:30 then we said we’re gonna finish it until we find out who the loser is. But at 19:40 pop stopped playing to cook. So I was the one who played for him. Then at 20:10 Kate went back to their house to have dinner and Wengweng was playing for her. We got confused cos we were both playing for two players. Then at 20:20, a Vietnamese whose name is May came to clean Wengweng’s nails. She married a Filipino living in our community that’s why she stays here also. She’s so good in putting nail arts and Wengweng is one of her frequent customers. I don’t really ask May to clean and put nail art on my nails cos it takes almost two hours for it to be done and I cannot sit and stay in one position that long. I am very impatient. It’s gonna bore me to death.

BORACAY! I will be seeing you soon. Gotta prepare my beach body for you. Haha!

We are complete now. Everybody’s home and it makes me happy. Mother’s Day tomorrow. I was planning to compose a poem again for mom but my brain ain’t working. Words are nowhere to be found.

I did something stupid earlier. I was about to call my manager who is in Cavite to ask something but my phone doesn’t have signal. So I turned it off and on. Right after turning it on (didn’t even dial her number), I put my phone on my ear waiting for it to ring. Then after a few seconds, I got into my senses and said to myself: “What in the world are you doing?” Waaahh! What’s happening to me?! I know I am old but I am not that old for situations like this. Oh man. And this is not the first time that this kind of disease happened to me. I remember one time when my co worker Jeannie and I went to the market to buy some veggies for dinner. We passed through some vendors selling pilipit (I love pilipit) and I bought some. So I was holding the plastic of pilipit on my right hand and I was eating one using my left hand. Then we walked and stopped at the veggies stall. Jeannie was talking to the vendor while I was eating and holding the pilipit when I thought, “I bought something earlier but where is it?” I was looking around finding for what I bought when I realized I was just holding it. It’s sick and it’s not even funny.

MY POEM
Now this is a poem I wrote last Friday, fourth of May. This doesn’t have a title yet.

Where are the words?
Been searching
I couldn’t find
I lost them.

Where am I?
Been wandering
Don’t know who I am
I lost myself.

In the quiet
Speak to me
Give me Your Word
That I may sing.

In losing myself
I hope to lose it for good
And hope to find
A new self in You.

Haven’t written a poem in a long while so I am just posting an old one that I wrote two years ago. Don’t know what’s wrong with me cos it was always easy to write a poem but lately I am having a hard time finding the words. Hope to find them soon or maybe it’s the other way around. Hope they will find me.

MY POEM

There’s a girl standing in front of me
The appearance looks very familiar
Her smile looks like a frown
And she’s staring straight to me.

She asked me, “Where am I?”
I looked at her and couldn’t answer
How can I answer such question?
When I don’t even know where I am.

There was silence for a while
Till she started to weep
How can I wipe her tears?
When mine is also streaming down my face.

Teary eyed she said, ”Help me.”
I felt so low in spirit
How can I help her?
When I myself is in misery.

We stood there for a long time
I looked at her and she looked at me
It was only then that I realized
That the girl before me… is me.

I know this picture doesn’t suit the poem cos the picture should show me being sad or something that the poem is telling. But you see this picture is from two years ago also and I am still skinny. I took the measuring tape earlier and measured my waist. My goodness! It’s scary! Don’t even want to mention it. I need to do something about it and it starts with eating slow.

Once a week, we go to this particular place in Lipa to feed some kids. This is actually one thing that I look forward to every week. It’s a time when we don’t just feed the kids but talk to them, play with them and listen to their cute stories. Kids do have stories too and listening to them makes me feel very light. Like last Monday, a kid came up to me and told the story of his outing in San Juan. I sensed his happiness while he was telling the story of when he was at the beach with his family.

Here are few of their faces. I wasn’t able to take pictures of the actual feeding because I visited a partner who is celebrating her birthday that time. When I came back, there was only one kid left eating and I caught him.

These kids’ smile is priceless.

Today, we went to Laguna in a place called I forgot. Haha! It’s a Lakeside Farm but nothing so special about the place. It was so hot but we still managed to have some picture taking. 

God’s Word, The Bible is our guide in this life. It helps us know our purpose and God’s plan in our lives. Not only that. God’s Word also speaks. He is talking to us through His Word.

True enough this morning when I read Our Daily Bread, His Word spoke and I would like to share it with you. I pray that it will have an impact in your life too. It says:

What matters is not how long you live, but how well you live.
Some people live for 85 years and do very little. Others live only a relatively few years, but they fill that time with service to God and others, and their influence lives on.
Many people are concerned only with prolonging their stay here on this earth and so they strive to add years to their lives. Every year we spend billions of dollars for medicines, vitamins, and special diets to stay alive. And yet we forget that it is not the quantity of life but the quality of life and what we accomplish for the Lord that makes life meaningful. Only when we devote our lives to our Creator do our days on earth count for eternity.
Today, let’s seek to fill the hours with service, worship and work for the Master. If this is our last day (and who knows, it may be), rather than wasting it in dreaming of a long life, let it be occupied with producing abundant fruit and being a blessing. Instead of just drifting aimlessly through our allotted hours and days, let us truly live.
Yes, the only life that’s worthwhile (be it long or short) is the one spent in the service for the Lord and bringing blessing to others.
It is better to add life to your years than to add years to your life.

You can read Ecclesiastes Chapter 12 now and ponder on what it says. Let’s pray and ask God for help that we may be able to live it out. Enjoy reading His Word. God bless you.

I filed a four-day sick leave because my doctor advised me to. Last Wednesday I woke up feeling so dizzy like everything was turning around and circling very fast. I was also vomiting and I couldn’t just turn my head. Thursday, I decided to meet my doctor and after explaining to her what I was going through, she said I have Benign Positional Vertigo. She said I needed rest in a cool, dark and quiet place.

Yesterday, instead of being a slave to my sickness, I decided to get up and attended a wedding in Manila. It was a very simple wedding.

Here are just very few pictures.

The groom.

The bride.

How can I ever get a nice shot with these peeps?

Okay. Haha! It’s late but I felt like I needed to post something so deal with this for a moment. I’ll edit this post on Saturday and add more photos. Today is Ivan’s birthday and we have lots of photos that I will post this weekend. Back to work tomorrow. Let’s roll!