HOPEful girl

Whenever I do a jigsaw puzzles on my electronic device, I can’t help but think of my grandpa.     When he was with us, he loved doing jigsaw puzzles.  In fact, it would help keep his mind active in order to combat the advancing dementia in his later years.  As a lover of puzzles myself, I would often join him.   I remember when he would talk through it sometimes.  ‘You have to pay attention to the surrounding colors and match shades’.   ‘Sometimes you have to let go of a piece you're holding onto and move to another area’.   At times,  we’ll see how long we can go without looking at the picture on the cover of the box.   A lot of times,  life seems like a puzzle that we are not given a box with the picture.  When I reflect on the verse above, it seems a little puzzling to me.   Am I supposed to not care about anything in my life?   Often times, we’ll take verses out of the Bible like pieces of a puzzle ...

I mentioned in an earlier entry that my oldest son had some recent struggles with mental health.  Well with his permission, I’m going to share a little of his story and what he’s been going through.   A few months ago, he started to have what I can only describe as these  spontaneous involuntary movement episodes.   Out of the blue,  and for what seemed like no reason at all, his body would suddenly go into jerk like movements, almost seizure like for a few moments.   The first severe episode of this sort was witnessed by my parents while my husband and I were away on another island for  vacation.  They were walking around the mall, when they witnessed his body going into a sudden convulsion, falling back to the floor in a seizure like episode lasting a few seconds but may have seemed longer.  As you can imagine, this was very scary to his grandparents and his brothers who were there to witness it, let alone my husband and I who weren’t...

Falling in love again.  When was the last time you’ve been in awe or truly felt in love.  When you’re in love you want to shout to the world, right?  When my husband and I first met, we wanted to spend every minute of every day with one another.  I was still in medical school at UCLA when we were dating and he would drive from Norwalk on the weekends hours through LA traffic just to see me.  Moments together were so joyful, yet fleeting.  Moments apart were dull and seemed to last forever until the next time we met.   I remember a wise woman giving my some advice on marriage shortly after I eloped with my husband  some moons ago.     My sister said, marriage takes work, but it is SO rewarding.   I thought, ‘work?, whatever for?’   Well after seventeen years of marriage,  I do understand what she meant.  We may still have those passionate feelings but let’s face it,  life happens, kids , stress, ...

We are in the middle of whale season here in Hawaii and its always an exciting time.  It's time for the whales migrate north towards southern  warm waters to mate and breed.  My husband and I enjoyed one of the whale watching tours a couple of years ago and this year we decided to take along the boys.   As the boat reaches some ways off shore , we wait keeping our eyes peeled toward the ocean horizon for any sign of humpback whale life. We look for the spout and hope to see the the elusive breech when these marvelous creatures   jump with their bodies completely out of water.   Towards the end of our tour, we were able to see whales breaching in the far distance.   Nobody knows for sure why whales breech.  One theory is to dislodge barnacles or parasites that they pick up on their travels.  Some say, its a form of communication.  I’d like to think they’re just having fun.   These past three weeks, I participated w...

  With anticipation and excitement, I look across a sea of athletes as I walk out to the starting line of what will be my 3rd marathon.  I'm always  amazed to see so many participants come together for this massive event.   The Honolulu marathon is the 4th largest marathon in the country comprising about 30,000 participants. Some marathons have qualifying times which means you would already have to run a marathon before AND within a certain time before you can even sign up for that event.  Honolulu marathon happens to be an open event so there are no qualifying times.  Everyone and ANYone can participate.  I love to see runners from all levels and backgrounds.   This year, I have a friend from church who ran his first marathon, while another friend who's been running for years ran it enduring an injury.  As long as you have the desire and faith to believe, then you can run this marathon.   During Christmas we celebrate the grea...

Basketball season is in full swing!   and so are practices, away games, and unexpected injuries.  As I was dropping my son off at one of these away basketball games at a cross town Christian school, I noticed a bible verse posted on the gate entering the pathway leading up to the school gym.  It simply read Psalm 100:4.   Some christian schools like to do these strategically placed verses as reminders throughout the campus.   For example,  …’ whoever restrains his words has knowledge…Proverbs 17:27 ‘ sign in the library OR ‘man shall not live on bread alone, but every word of God’ -Luke 4:4 sign in the cafeteria. But something told me to take a second to actually look this verse up.  I guess I was searching for God’s voice in this hectic, errand filled Saturday.    So I did, on my bible app, read it and tucked it away in my heart.  Then this verse was revealed to me a couple more times this month.  Hmm so I think maybe...

I recently heard an expression that went something like,  ‘I wish we knew we were in the good old days when we are actually in the good old days’.   I tried to hold on to that sentiment  this month because I knew there would be some good old days to be celebrated.  For one, my birthday! :-). Also , I was blessed to have my parents come visit me from the mainland. While they were here spending quality time with grand kids, my husband and I escaped for a brief moment to the Big Island for a weekend get away to celebrate our 17th anniversary.   I got to share some quality time with my boys during fall break.   And finally got to go on a glider ride (see pic above). These were truly ‘authentic moments’ if I can quote my self from the testimony I gave at church last month.  By ‘authentic moments’, I’m talking about those joyful moments that only come from God as a gift from above  rather than a drug or bottle in my new life of sobriety.   ...