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| I owe my existence to my parents' decision to give up their selves completely, for the dream of an ideal. The greatest thing I can return to my parents is to give my all in working towards that dream... Little by little, generation by generation, that dream is coming true; A culture, a tradition of true love. This is who I am.
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A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood
street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for
kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down
when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children
appeared . Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He
slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the
brick had been thrown. The angry driver
then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against
a parked car shouting, "What was that all about and who are you? Just
what the heck are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw
is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?" The young boy was
apologetic. "Please, mister...please, I'm sorry but I didn't know what
else to do," He pleaded. "I threw the brick because no one else would
stop..." With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth
pointed to a spot just around a parked car. "It's my brother, "he said.
"He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift
him u p."
Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please
help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy
for me."
Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling
lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into
the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the
fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to
be okay. "Thank you and may God bless you," the grateful child told the
stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy! push
his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.
It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very
noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side
door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: "Don't go
through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get
your attention!" God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts.
Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at
us. It's our choice to listen or not.
If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.
If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it.
He sends you flowers every spring.
He sends you a sunrise every morning Face it, friend - He is crazy about you!
God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow,sun
without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the
tears, and light for the way.
Read this line very slowly and let it sink in...
If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it
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This came to me in an email.
It took something much more than a dent in a car for me to stop and pay attention.
The details of life have been so much more beautiful since... =)
Thank You Heavenly Father
Some photos of this past year...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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| I came across this on a friend's site, and thought it was a good read. Enjoy... =)
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People don’t seem to get what the big deal about sex is. In this culture, sex, in many homes, is held at not much higher a standard than a good meal or a ride on a roller coaster (in other words, in the same flat neighborhood that immediate gratification and cheap thrills reside). These days, it seems almost perfectly normal for most any given family with teen-to-adult-aged children to attend a movie like The Wedding Crashers together and shamelessly laugh their heads off at the part where Vince Vaughn gets rubbed down by an eighteen-year-old girl underneath the dining room table. Many would even consider such growing degradation in entertainment actually as a sign for the better. As in, “Alright, people are finally loosening up a bit about sex.” It’s like the sheets are slowly slipping further and further off the bed, thus making it more and more acceptable to hold a cheapened perspective of sex.
I think to express, show, or have sex casually is to cheapen it. I think it was meant to be a much more sacred thing.
I think there are three main perspectives one might have of sex.
1. It is taboo. It should remain behind closed doors.
2. It is a part of human nature. It should be completely free and open.
3. It is sacred. It should not be taboo. But it should not be free. It should be kept precious.
I think the number 2 and the number 3 people have one main thing in common with each other. They both recognize the problem of sex being kept too taboo. The number 2 people’s strategy to bring sex out of the taboo is to expose it and set it free. The number 3 people, however, are the balance between sex as taboo and free sex. They know that sex is a beautiful thing and should not be frowned upon. But at the same time, they recognize sex as something precious that should not be wasted or perverted. They know that the more sacred something is, the greater a tragedy it is and the more "evil" it becomes when corrupted.
Here are examples of how sex is both the most beautiful and the most heinous of things in today’s society and throughout history.
Sex is the most sacred thing.
1. It creates life.
2. Its symbolic significance of male/female unity.
3. Externally, it feels wonderful.
4. Internally, it feels wonderful. (When done in love.)
5. The tangible manifestation of the intangible love.
6. Physically healthy.
Sex is the most corrupted thing.
1. AIDS and other STDs
2. Rape
3. Molestation
4. Beastiality, incest, and other perversions
5. Prostitution, Stripping, and other forms of sexual degradation
6. Unwanted pregnancies
I could have written a hundred more things in each of those columns. Sex is infinitely beautiful. Sex is infinitely evil. Is there anything else in existence that is more extreme in scope; that has the potential to be so beautiful at the same time so awfully vile? God or no God, not even the greatest of cynics could doubt its significance in human life.
And so both sides (free sex vs. sacred sex), in my opinion, are valid. They both want to bring sex out of exile. One group wants do this recklessly, while the other with extreme delicacy. To generalize for the sake of making a point, perhaps the liberals are too reckless and perhaps the conservative are too prude. Maybe, like with most things, the answer is not black or white but exists along a middle ground; from the slanted perspective that truth often takes.
I’m a Unificationist. We believe that sex is such a wonderful thing that it even takes place between a couple after death in the spiritual realm. Only there it is not a shameful activity. It is done both naturally and free, but it is only used as a vehicle for love, as a selfless activity for each lover to give joy to the other as opposed to merely gratify themselves. My definition of lust is: a sexual desire without love, thus rendering it a selfish desire. I believe that true love is selfless and feels infinitely greater to both give and receive.
I think love is the one key element missing from the equation in most people’s perspectives today. They look at sex as a natural conduit for pleasure, and hardly as a conduit for love. This is why sex was become looked down upon as a shameful thing in the first place by people of morals. Can you blame them? Perhaps it is a shame that these “prudes” have kept sex locked up behind closed doors, but this is far less shameful than what happens when you let it free outside amongst predators, perverts, and other immature or corrupted members of society.
As casual as you treat life, is as casual as it becomes. As sacred as you are, is how sacred is what you do.
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| Should I be supprized?Over the weekend I found out that my Gop sister Miwa, whom I went to school with in Korea in 1995, and my highschool buddy from Hong Kong, Adley, knew eachother and are doing the Occupational Therapy program together at USC... what a small world... small, small world... | | |
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