Encouragement From A Best Friend

An encouraging letter from a best friend and close confidant is worth a million pearls from the deepest oceans.

Thanks Rich, you brightened up a gloomy week of empty dialogues with God into a reminder of the awesome sweet taste of His messages that can come from brothers and sisters in Christ. There's still much to improve on my side, and I cannot, in any way, see myself as better than the others as I come to have a greater comprehension of His holiness. You too, don't give up the fight on your side. I am also very encouraged to see how Eveleen is growing daily through your words and behavior, and I have great faith in the picture of the future to come. Let the poem below show you a direction that you can work on to bring your friends in Archi to a better exposure of Christ's love.



If you've never felt the sorrow of another person's grief,
If you've never felt an inner urge to want to bring relief,
To someone who's in trouble, with a kindly word or smile,
If you've never loved your neighbor as yourself, with all your might,
If you've never shed a tear drop at a pure and holy sight,
If others have not been blessed by something you have said,
You need have no fear of dying, Brother, you're already dead.


Thanks for the letter again, it's a clear sign to me that my best friend is alive. I've indeed been blessed. +)






Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints. -Paul (Philemon 1:7)

Rescuers

“We are only asked to love, to offer hope to the many hopeless. We don’t get to choose all the endings, but we are asked to play the rescuers. We won’t solve all mysteries and our hearts will certainly break in such a vulnerable life, but it is the best way. We were made to be lovers bold in broken places, pouring ourselves out again and again until we’re called home.”

—To Write Love On Her Arms

Kisses By The Moonlight

The night heaves in anticipation
At the heartbeat of two lover's passion
As if telepathy really existed
Were foreheads pressed against one another

Eyes half-closed, vision blurred
The mind focused on lips semi-opened
With a raging desire to ravage and be ravaged
Curbed by etiquette to be delicate

Palm cupping crown and nape
Elbow cradling chin and jaw
Smelling the sweetness of breath
Wafting from trembling ruby red gates

Whisper my name, then sigh it loud
Tell me that you want me now
Tell me that it hurts so bad
To have me so near, yet having to beg

Are you cold my love?
Why art thou shivering in my arms?
Why did a tear roll down your eye,
As if translating our messages' silent cries?

No answer is required, nothing affirmed
In the darkness two souls burned
As the moonlight streams in waves
No illumination for the melding faces

No playful teasing for tonight
No appreciative peppering or sip
No exploration, none spoilt for taste
No slow, romantic lushes deep

Just an obsession to consume and hurt
A single-minded drive to crush and melt
When hard meets soft and contact spark
A drop of iron on the tongue

By the moonlight the lovers continue
Kisses hard, enough to draw blood
Passion strong, to sting desire into climax
Love like a signature, to brand and consummate

I can forget my very existence in a deep kiss of you. -Byron Caldwell Smith

It is the passion that is in a kiss that gives to it its sweetness; it is the affection in a kiss that sanctifies it. -Christian Nevell Bovee

-

It has been almost 6 months since I last saw you in person.

There's so much I want to talk to you about.

You look... breathtakingly beautiful. Just like in the occasional dreams that I still have of you.

I couldn't stop looking at you during lunchtime, seeing you laugh, smiling away.

It's comforting to know you're happy. You look oh so adorable when you're happy.

It's just God's way of surprising me today. By showing me that I can and should be trusting Him to take care of your needs.



I'm glad I said hi. Just so I could hear your voice and look into those big black eyes. It's alright, I guess it was best that you walked away.

I'm glad I didn't say I missed you. Because I probably won't be able to stop the emotions that would have came with it.



You have the most beautiful smile in the world.



And I'll go around the world spreading the message of love, in the hope that no one else will ever have to go through what you have again. Every encouragement of love I write on someone's arms, I'll imagine I was writing on yours.


I'm still right here for you, should you ever need me.



Take care.


Yours,

The Gazing Game

Sometimes, I enjoy the occasional (but unintentional, really!) gazing into a girl's eyes. No, these ladies are usually on another table or somewhere else slightly further away, and we'll just happen to catch one another staring into the other party's eyes.

I'm sure you must get some of that too.


Some girls, especially the more shy ones, will tend to look somewhere else, before secretly looking back at the corner of her eye, only to find that I'm still looking back. Then she'll pretend that I didn't see her secret glance by continuing to focus on that somewhere else.

My habit is to, by her 2nd glance back at me, avert my gaze to the other members on the table and smile, as if to myself, when it's intentionally done for her. The usual effect is that she'll get really smiley, as if she can't stop herself from smiling, and those with the fairer skin make it even obvious by blushing. Things get a little messy for her if her friends notice the smile and the blush, and turn back to see who it was, with the teasing and gossip mongering ensuring.


Some girls, however, are a lot more bold, and will tend to gaze for a long time, as if spellbound or something. Anything more than 3 seconds, and my mind automatically goes into another change of strategy. I'll avert my gaze, pretend to look embarrass, turn back to "glance" a few more times. If she's still looking back frequently, I'll intentionally spill a bit of my drink, or "wake up" from the "spell" and back to the original conversation, or force a blush (which is easier if she's really pretty). This usually prompts a reaction in her to touch her face, cross her legs, run her fingers through her hair, or play with a few strands etc.


No, I don't wink at them, give some hand gesture, start tossing my hair confidently, or go up to collect their numbers. That's the Player's job.

The Casanova simply makes the lady looking at him feel beautiful, attractive. Given that he takes no overt action, and assuming none of these women come up to him and purposefully tempts him, he should make a pretty loyal lover I suppose, at least on the outside.


But sometimes, a Casanova has to ask himself: How ethical is that? Is it evil to intentionally make a lady feel beautiful when you might not actually believe in it yourself? Hmmm... but, isn't the impression that she's beautiful something that she came up with herself, without you explicitly saying anything? Can I get away by assuming that she "misread" my signals? Then again, if it's not ethical, does it do any harm to make a woman feel beautiful when the whole world is telling women that they aren't, and that they have to reach for certain standards by buying certain products and acting in certain ways?



I don't have the answer to that question really. I just do what makes me happy, and that is to make people feel better about themselves, unless it requires me to tell a blatant lie.






What's stranger is that, given such an ability, a Casanova can still succumb to inner thoughts that he is not desirable to women.






Truth is always strange, stranger than fiction. -Lord Byron

We ought to see far enough into a hypocrite to see even his sincerity. -Gilbert K. Chesterton

Notte Sento

Sometimes, we have to continually remind ourselves that love is not dependent on any of the love languages, and yet, is incomplete should one be taken away.

Valentino knows he is equipped with the gifts of language and touch, but must be constantly humbled by the knowledge that love can still blossom without them.








Abby: You’re in love with me? Why?
Mike: Beats the hell out of me.
-The Ugly Truth (2009)

To reason about love is to lose reason. -Boufflers

TWLOHA - A Beautiful Vision

MISSION STATEMENT:

To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.

VISION:

The vision is that we actually believe these things…

You were created to love and be loved. You were meant to live life in relationship with other people, to know and be known. You need to know that your story is important and that you're part of a bigger story. You need to know that your life matters.

We live in a difficult world, a broken world. My friend Byron is very smart - he says that life is hard for most people most of the time. We believe that everyone can relate to pain, that all of us live with questions, and all of us get stuck in moments. You need to know that you're not alone in the places you feel stuck.

We all wake to the human condition. We wake to mystery and beauty but also to tragedy and loss. Millions of people live with problems of pain. Millions of homes are filled with questions – moments and seasons and cycles that come as thieves and aim to stay. We know that pain is very real. It is our privilege to suggest that hope is real, and that help is real.

You need to know that rescue is possible, that freedom is possible, that God is still in the business of redemption. We're seeing it happen. We're seeing lives change as people get the help they need. People sitting across from a counselor for the first time. People stepping into treatment. In desperate moments, people calling a suicide hotline. We know that the first step to recovery is the hardest to take. We want to say here that it's worth it, that your life is worth fighting for, that it's possible to change.

Beyond treatment, we believe that community is essential, that people need other people, that we were never meant to do life alone.

The vision is that community and hope and help would replace secrets and silence.

The vision is people putting down guns and blades and bottles.

The vision is that we can reduce the suicide rate around the world.

The vision is that we would learn what it means to love our friends, and that we would love ourselves enough to get the help we need.

The vision is better endings. The vision is the restoration of broken families and broken relationships. The vision is people finding life, finding freedom, finding love. The vision is graduation, a Super Bowl, a wedding, a child, a sunrise. The vision is people becoming incredible parents, people breaking cycles, making change.

The vision is the possibility that your best days are ahead.

The vision is the possibility that we're more loved than we'll ever know.

The vision is hope, and hope is real.

You are not alone, and this is not the end of your story.

To live is to fight for a cause. To fight for a cause is to put the cause before oneself. To put a cause before oneself is to love your neighbor as yourself. -Valentino Casanova

I would rather fail in a cause that would ultimately succeed, than succeed in a cause that will ultimately fail. -Woodrow T. Wilson