A Blessed Christmas to all my readers

Thank you.

Thank you for dropping by my blog and taking part in the discussions.

Thank you for taking the time to point out my typo errors and my mental lapses.

It’s been a wonderful, sometimes painful and gruelling adventure with you all.

I’m here for the long haul, don’t worry. And I know you’ll be joining me, too, every step of the way.

To celebrate Christmas and as a way of thanking you, I’d like to share two photos I took some years back and one of my favorite poems.

The first photo is a wall fresco showing Christ in the manger. It was painted around the 1400s, long before that Portuguese adventurer landed on our shores and planted the cross.

The picture isn’t that sharp since it was very dim inside the Church and camera flash was forbidden. Amazing how the fresco has endured time.

In contrast, we have so little left of our history from that era.

The second is a very intimate moment in the life of Christ and his mother Mary.

As for the poem, it is one that has given me much strength to go beyond personal and national tragedies and keep on living as a human being and writing as a journalist, never losing hope. It was written by a Spanish mystic nun who was born a few years before that Portuguese adventruer stumbled on our shores.

Here is Santa Teresa de Avila’s little poem that reaches out from across several centuries:

Nada te turbe;
nada te espante;
todo se pasa;
Dios no se muda,
la paciencia
todo lo alcanza.
Quien a Dios tiene,
nada le falta.
Solo Dios basta.

Let nothing upset you,
let nothing startle you.
All things pass;
God does not change.
Patience wins
all it seeks.
Whoever has God
lacks nothing:
God alone is enough

Maligayang Pasko!
Raissa