Love is much like a tattoo. You take the risk, face the pain and place it on a special part of you. And when the time comes when you need to erase it, you have to endure the pain again and realize that it will forever leave a scar, a scar that will always remind you that you had a tattoo that once symbolized something so special.

I’ve known this song ever since, and I’ve always liked it. But when I heard it again sung in a bar last week, I grew even fonder of it. There’s something oddly different when you hear a beautiful song played in a public place, as opposed to just listening to it in your iPod or mp3 player. The minute I heard the song sung by the female member of the acoustic band on the bar that night, I’ve been playing the song repeatedly in my iPod for about a week now. It’s so beautiful and nostalgic… love it!

A million times or more I thought about you
The years, the tears, the laughter, things we used to do
Are memories that warm me like a sunny day
You touched my life in such a special way

I miss the way you’d run your fingers through my hair
Those cozy nights we cuddled in your easy chair
Oh no, I won’t let foolish pride turn you away
I’ll take you back whatever price I pay

Old friend
It’s so nice to feel you hold me again
No, it doesn’t matter where you have been
My heart welcomes you back home again

Remember those romantic walks we used to take
You held my hand in such a way my knees would shake
You can’t imagine just how much I’ve needed you
I’ve never loved someone as I love you

Old friend
This is where our happy ending begins
Yes, I’m sure this time that we’re gonna win
Welcome back into my life again

Yes, I’ve tried to live my life without you
Knowing I had lost my closest friend
And though I’m feeling low from time to time
Knowing I will never find the kind of love
I had when you were mine

Welcome back into my life again

Do you guys like bean bag chairs? I don’t know about you but for me, I love them. I was out and about yesterday looking for a cute, comfy chair that I could add to my apartment, and I immediately thought of bean bags. I prefer them because they’re fun, comfortable, decorative, and everybody loves them! I can just crash on it after a long day and be relaxed and comfortable. What do you think? Are bean bags better than sofa chairs?

We went to Manila this weekend and I saw these amazing netbooks in Greenbelt Mall. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with my laptop, but seeing those notebooks displayed, they were so eye catching and beautiful. I love looking at new models of laptops and gadgets, and even though they’re not really within my budget, at least I get to appreciate them. They’re so gorgeous!

Moving on from a heartbreak is bittersweet. It’s a mixture of pain, sadness, longing, relief, exhaustion, hopefulness and a sense of freedom. There are a lot of things that we could learn from a heartbreak, if only we allow ourselves to really look deep down and uncover these lessons. For one thing, I’ve learned to NEVER EVER take myself for granted. No matter how much we love someone, we should never lose ourselves in the relationship. We should always retain our sense of self, so that no matter what happens, we we are still intact. Love is beautiful, love is also complicated. But we should never ever give up on it!

Love is a “message”. And it is brought to us by “messengers”, or the people who come into our lives that love us and we feel love for. When the message of love comes to us, we should receive it with open hearts. But when it decides to leave, we should also set it free. Don’t mistake the “messenger” with the “message”. Because messengers are only humans; they make mistakes, they leave, they even die. But the MESSAGE remains. It was brought to us, and it will always be THERE, resounding in our hearts for the rest of our lives. We just have to open our hearts and hear the message.

When love decides to leave, it has nothing to do with you and me as a person. We are no less than who we are just because love decides to leave. Yes, we cry over it and grieve its departure, but after the grieving process, we should celebrate. Let’s celebrate because the message CAME to us, we felt the love, the happiness, the joy. We have learned what we have to learn. It has done it’s purpose and now we have to set it free. This is what MOVING ON means.

Excerpts from the book Boy Meets Girl by Joshua Harris:

The evil in our desire typically does not lie in what we want, but in that we want it too much. God mercifully uses the difficult experience of having this desire denied to show us that we want it too much. We should just trust in God for our ultimate satisfaction.

Letting go of relationships is not easy, especially if the emotional attachments are strong. Can we change our feelings and emotions? Yes, we can. But first we need to change the way we think about the person. Then our emotions and feelings will follow.

Clair says, “For two years I’d been thinking of him as my potential husband rather than a brother in the Lord. I had to renew my thinking and release my ‘claim’ on him. When feelings for him would resurface, I could usually pinpoint the cause as wrong thinking.”

Things didn’t change overnight, but slowly Claire’s feelings for him subsided. “God used that time to teach me to trust Him with my heart - to believe that if the relationship with this person wan’t his plan, He would help take it away and change my heart. And He did. He took the feelings away.”

(Philippians 4:6-7) Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

“God, I don’t want to be anxious about this area of my life. I present my requests to you. But I’m trusting Your Word, which says that Your peace, which transcends understanding, will guard my heart. I want Your peace, not the peace I attempt to create.”

If we just allow God, He will change us. Even though we’re not aware of it, even though we feel sometimes that our life is on hold, God is steadily doing an important work in our hearts. We should grow to trust God more than our own meticulous planning. We should bring our requests to God with joy and thankfulness instead of desperation or complaining.

I found this passage in the Internet and I think it’s really beautiful. It is an affirmation that we could all use, especially at times when we need to boost our self esteem a bit. It reminds us that we are special. And no matter what problems we encounter in life, as long as we love ourselves, we can survive.

“I am Me. In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me. Everything that comes out of me is authentically mine, because I alone chose it — I own everything about me: my body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice, all my actions, whether they be to others or myself. I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears. I own my triumphs and successes, all my failures and mistakes.

Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. By so doing, I can love me and be friendly with all my parts. I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know — but as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles and ways to find out more about me.

However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is authentically me. If later some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought, and felt turn out to be unfitting, I can discard that which is unfitting, keep the rest, and invent something new for that which I discarded. I can see, hear, feel, think, say, and do. I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, and to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me.

I own me, and therefore, I can engineer me. I am me, and I am Okay.”

- Denis2005 Virginia Satir quotes (American Phychologist and Educator, 1916-1988)