Riding the Waves of Grief...Beautifully!

I can't help but be amazed at how Joannie Rochette ( the skater ) poured every bit of her heavy heart at the Pacific Coliseum and in the end made the performance of a lifetime!

Joannie's mother died of heart attack 48 hours before her daughter's performance. Yes, people here and then experiences losses in their lives, but losing a love one 48 hours before performing at the olympics is a different story. Despite of the grief and the loneliness of losing a great mother, Joannie did not just performed, she delivered...she did'nt just attempted--she soared!

Joannie is a perfect picture of the resilience of the heart! She showed to the world that despite of the pain---we can do more! we can still deliver perfection in totally painful situations.

Joannie's story reminded me not to lose hope--that if we are hurting right now--a new beginning is coming all at the same time. We may never understand the mysteries of life--but trusting God and yourself--we can still live life to the fullest!

I salute Joannie!

The Beautiful Swan

Last weekend, I saw my niece reading her favorite book--Christian Andersen's Ugly Duckling. With the desire to rekindle my child within, I borrowed the book and took time to re-read it again (although thanks to cartoon network and disney channel, I probably watched different animated version of this fairy tale!).

After revisiting the theme of the story, I can't help but look at how the story strikes a chord with us, with our life stories--many of us think we are ugly duckling! Many of us believe that we are as ugly as the little duck in the story until we find, discover and awaken to the fact that we are beautiful swans! Beautiful swans who have great potentials, lovable and can soar beyond our limits. Swans who are magnificient beings capable of flight! Isn't that something to be proud of?

It's nice to remember and read beyond the lines of each fairy tale--somewhere, somehow--it reminds us of who we really are! Like the ugly duckling story---the SWAN IS OUR TRUE SELVES---we just need to believe!

Believing the lie of our ugliness can just bury our innate beauty and happiness. The sooner we change our perspective and belief--that we are beautiful, like the swan--the sooner we will experience genuine pride and happiness.

I hope it will not take a tragedy just for us to discover our great beauty!