The Religious Life

We are so lucky in our subdivision to be surrounded by dwelling places of priests and nuns. Whenever I wake up before 6:00 AM in the morning, I try to go to daily mass at the chapel inside the Santa Rafaela Maria House of Spirituality, just within walking distance from our house, run by nuns residing in that compound. For Sunday masses, we go to hear mass at the multi-purpose hall of our subdivision, with the mass being celebrated alternately by three priests residing inside our subdivision, the Spring Of Carmel. With them around, I am always reminded of the presence of Jesus.

Whenever I have the opportunity, I always lead my grand daughter Tiara to the Catholic Faith. We already succeeded in convincing her to go to Sunday Masses. Thankfully, my son share the same views with me regarding sending her to Catholic School.

Last Saturday was Tiara's ninth birthday. The party was very successful without a single drop of rain despite the fact that May is a month with the onset of rains and typhoons. And this is because we prayed for it. The Saturday before May 23, after fetching Tiara from their house (she spends her weekends with us, myself, my husband and Archie her father) we went to the monastery of Santa Clara, were we laid offerings for the nuns to pray to Santa Clara for a successful party for Tiara and that there would be no rain on that day. Each of us wrote separate petitions on a piece of paper, placed the offerings within the folded paper, and dropped it in the petition box. And true enough, our prayers were granted.

I have a fascination with the religious life and I passed the stage in my high school years when I wanted to become a nun. My father, being a Seventh Day Adventist vehemently contradicted when I told him about my desire. Well, it was not God's Will. I will definitely love it when one of my would-be grand children choose the religious life. I will realize my dream through them.

Not too Bad

It is Saturday and it's time for my grand daughter Tiara's visit. She came with my son and her nanny at 4:30 PM and would you believe, with glasses. My son is vehement about correcting her Lazy Eye and wanted her to be fitted with corrective glasses. What she has now still has to be graded. According to the pediatrician. Lazy Eye can be corrected through eye drops and eye glasses. Well, she has one now but still with colors and without grades. I must say it becomes her. It is not too bad after all.

Perfect Imperfection

My visiting grand daughter Tiara told us that her pediatrician wants to correct her "Lazy Eye" by her wearing glasses to which I openly disagreed. "Lazy Eye" means a little cross-eyed. Her dad and myself both have Lazy Eyes and it was never corrected. That is what makes us unique and (ahem) attractive. I told her that she should not cover her eyes by wearing glasses because she has such beautiful eyes. And she beamed one of her sweetest smiles.

Modern technology is now trying to erase imperfections some of which I call perfect because they give an appeal to the person who has it. Like buck teeth for example is now being corrected through dental braces. The movie star Sandy Dennis is very appealing because of her buck teeth. I hope I remembered her name correctly. She belongs to my generation. Former Miss Universe Gloria Diaz, a Filipina has buck teeth.

Another is flat chest. Women now wants to have implants to have bigger breasts. I think that is very selfish. They are not thinking of their would be babies whom they might have to breastfeed in the future. Models are flat-chested and they have perfect figure to parade.

Another object of "landscaping" is the nose. Paul Anka's nose used to be his appeal. I found him very attractive and my idol in my teens until he had his nose job. But at least, he still sings beautifully and composing brilliantly now.

"Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder". Some imperfections in our features could be our asset. I call them "perfect imperfections"