Beach Clean up Day

A quick video of the Chaotic Group Picture:

We had a recent beach cleanup project for the youth.  It was quite an experience.  There were over 300 people cleaning up the beach.  You know, the boys complained a lot.  I thought it was quite humorous to think that these boys would take much coaxing to go and clean up their room, yet they involuntarily volunteered to come out on a Saturday and comb the sand for debris and garbage.  When you throw in a trip to Wild Rivers, a water theme park, they would at least reluctantly perform the task.   I personally enjoy laying on the beach afterwards and relax.  

Great Stories with Great Lessons.

I have two stories to share with you.  While you read this story, enjoy this music clip.  (Just in case you're confused, click on the underlined orange words)

A rabbi once asked a prominent member of his congregation, "Whenever I see you, you're always in a hurry. Tell me, where are you running all the time?" The man answered, "I'm running after success, I'm running after fulfillment, I'm running after the reward for all my hard work." The rabbi responded, "That's a good answer if you assume that all those blessings are somewhere ahead of you, trying to elude you and if you run fast enough, you may catch up with them. But isn't it possible that those blessings are behind you, that they're looking for you, and the more you run, the harder you make it for them to find you? Isn't it possible indeed that God has all sorts of wonderful presents for us--good food and beautiful sunsets and flowers budding in the spring and leaves turning in the fall and quiet moments of sharing--but we in our pursuits of happiness are so constantly on the go that He can't find us at home to deliver them?"

Here is the other story.

Harold Kushner, the rabbi with such a profound outlook on life, shares a lesson he learned one day at the beach. He was watching two children, a boy and a girl, build an elaborate sandcastle with everything a good castle needs--moats and turrets and passages. Just when it looked as if the castle might be finished, a big wave came unexpectedly and knocked it down. Kushner says he fully expected tears from the children. He was surprised when they laughed, grabbed hands, and moved off to more stable ground to build another castle. Here is the lesson he learned: "All the things in our lives, all the complicated structures we spend so much time and energy creating, are built on sand. Only our relationships to other people endure. Sooner or later, the wave will come along and knock down what we have worked so hard to build up. When that happens, only the person who has somebody's hand to hold will be able to laugh."

The Making of Heaven On Earth.

This is something I put together in 2005.  I believe it has some intrinsic value to it.  Like all books or any literature even the scriptures, it will only benefit those that truly apply the principles they learned into their lives.  You may see for yourself and download the file "The Making of Heaven on Earth".  Nothing in life comes free because someone has paid the price to offer you a free product.  If only we know the true value of what we have received, then we may greatly appreciate what we have in our hands, but sometimes we neglect to even open the free gift until it is too late.  May this document benefit your lives as well as it has benefited mine. God bless.  

Click on this link: 

The Making of Heaven On Earth

So what really happened...

A couple months ago I visited my friend's home past Rosarito or Ensenada thereabouts.  I ran a fever and became extremely week for a day or so.  This is a start to a series of unfortunate debilitating ailments.  I am reviewing the facts with you, and thereby perhaps help you understand how to avoid getting sick.  

Well, at first I thought I had the swine flu because this was at the same time when there was a 

big scare on this spreading across the nation.  The fever I had was caused by a variety of things.  If you ever interested, I can tell you more in person.   The weakened immune system gave way to a particular infection that showed up on my leg.  I believe now that this primary infection lead to a secondary infection or the staph infection.  The initial sign of this was just an appearance of a  spider bite.  The area become inflamed in a few days and it was hot to the touch.  Ignorance is dangerous!  I thought I should wrap the infected area with a bandaide.  This is a NO, NO.  Since bacteria breeds in an anaerobic environment, the infection grew faster than it would have otherwise.  Meanwhile, the doctor gave me antibiotics, but that did me no good.   These penicillin based antibiotics were the cause of my serious dermatitis that I would later get.  

Anyhow, after much research, I have found the following info on this that is extremely useful to those that may be suffering from MRSA, the superbug.  I just realized that the worst thing that could happen is to be in the dark.  I can now better understand what it is like for people with cancer or other hard to cure disease.  What is more worst than to contract such a disease is the fact that you have no knowledge what to do or how to slow down its attack on your body.  You feel so helpless and frustrated with the world and yourself.  The thoughts of whether you are going to die crosses your mind, and if that happens, you think of the people that you leave behind and how they will be affected by your loss.  

Click on this link: What is MRSA and how to prevent it?

It was to my relief that though my symptoms were serious, I was curable with the right medications.  The doctors said that if my airways would have closed up because of the inflamation, my life would have been in jeopardy.   He didn't think I was serious enough to really be in the hospital.  I said that I wanted to be under the hospital's supervision just in case something might have happened.  Mortality doesn't appear so close until I was faced with the reality of it when my conditions progressively gotten worst.  

Anyhow, I am so grateful that everything turned back to normal.  I was up on my feet after  couple of days.   Although I would rather not have gone through this experience, I felt I needed to have gone through this because I needed to slow down and rethink everything.  I needed to clear up a few issues and began seriously spending time working on them.   

While sitting and thinking about this whole experience at church the other day, I heard the speaker shared this scripture which brought home this message and beautiful illustrate my feelings.  "Fear not to do good, my sons [and daughters], for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward.  Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail."  

Priorities

I love reading from books that inspire and uplifts, taking a person from where he is to where he needs to go.  So, I would like to share this particular excerpt on putting first things first or priorities:

Ask the average person which is more important to him, making money or being devoted to his family, and virtually everyone will answer family without hesitation.  But watch how the average person actually lives out his life.  See where he really invests his time and energy, and he will give away the fact that he does not really live by what he believes.  He has let himself be persuaded that if he leaves for work earlier in the morning and comes home more tired at night, he is proving how devoted he is to his family by expending himself to provide them with all the things they have seen advertised.

Ask the average person which means more to her, the approval of strangers or the affection of people closest to her, and she won't be able to understand why you would even ask such a question.  Obviously nothing means more to her than her family and her closest friends.  Yet how many of us have embarrassed our children or squelched their spontaneity, for fear of what neighbors or strangers might think?  How often have we poured out our anger on those closest to us because we had a hard day at work or someone else did something to upset us?  And how many of us have let ourselves become irritable with our families because we were dieting to make ourselves look more attractive to people who do not know us well enough to see beyond appearances?