Tag: switchfoot

Honey Let Me Sing You a Song

Tina 1 Comment

Well, would you look at that. It’s the second half of 2014. Wasn’t it just yesterday that I was in Cagayan de Oro for SFC’s International Conference? ((I realized that I never had a recap post for this — must write this!))

I feel a little overwhelmed knowing that it’s the second half of 2014 already. May and June went by like that, mostly because my new role at work is keeping me busy every single day. To recuperate from all the stress, I do my best to start doing the things I like doing, otherwise known as the things I have time to do while I was still a semi-slacker. :P Of course, now that I don’t have all the time in the world to do all of that,  I have to choose and use my time wisely. Let me tell you: the temptation to do nothing right after a long day’s work is so strong, but now I try to battle that to do other things that I like. Like reading, or chatting with friends, or writing blog posts like this.

Of course, sometimes, the need to sleep and lie down and do nothing wins over, and well, that’s not so bad, either. Just not all the time.

I digress. This post is about songs, the songs that had somehow accompanied the first half of my 2014. I started doing this last year, and I thought it was fun, so now I am going to do it again. :D Because what is life without music, yes?

Seven songs, because 1/2 of 14 is 7. :)

(Post title is from Matt Hires’ Honey Let Me Sing You a Song. ♥)

1. I Will Be by Natalie Grant

[youtube MpkBCE57hyc]

Gracious, Gentle and Kind
Knowing that your love will shine
Through mine

I’ve had this song for so long, but I think I only really started appreciating this late last year to early this year. This song had so much positivity, and it gives me the fuel to try to be what the song says: I will be a candle in the darkness, I will be a hand from heaven above. :)

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You can’t silence our love

Tina Leave a comment

Look, it’s 11/12/13!

I’m a sucker for dates, which I have proven through some of the posts I made in the past years (except for 11/11/11 — totally wasn’t able to blog then; I wonder why), and today is no different when I got home past midnight and started seeing tweets saying, “Hey look, it’s 11/12/13!”

So look, it’s 11/12/13!

I was thinking of something to write today on my way home last night — you know, something personal and thought provoking and maybe a little dramatic, something normal for me — and then it hit me how selfish it seems to think of that now, in the light of the recent events that happened in my country.

So none of that now. Today is a good day to start doing something. If you haven’t started yet, that is.

Last weekend, Super Typhoon Yolanda (International Name: Haiyan) wrecked havoc in the Philippines. I’m pretty sure everyone knows about this already, and if you haven’t heard, then here’s a little infographic from UN-OCHA to give you the facts:

source - UN-OCHA Asia Pacific
source – UN-OCHA Asia Pacific

We were spared in Manila, and my friends and family are all safe, too. But the typhoon hit the area of the Philippines that doesn’t have enough capacity to bear with this kind of storm. WAIT, SCRATCH THAT. There is NO place here that can really take that kind of typhoon and not come face to face with devastation. Not to mention that’s also the part of the country devastated by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake a little less than a month ago. It’s just truly horrible and heartbreaking.

Today is a good day to start doing things, or to keep doing things. I’m a sucker for dates, and maybe you’re also amused with 11/12/13. If you want to do something different today, then I implore you: HELP. Every single help you can give is important and will go a long way. Donate your money, your time, your talent. This is not the time to be shy, or to think you can’t give something because everyone can give something.

It can be as easy as sending part of your salary/allowance for donation (and hey, it’s payday week, too). Or maybe even making personal sacrifices: bringing packed lunch to work so you won’t have to spend so much on food, or going for cheaper coffee instead of the overpriced ones for the rest of the month and giving what you saved to the groups organizing relief efforts. Or if you are going to eat out or get coffee, then dine at these places that promised to donate the proceeds for the typhoon victims.

Write about it, share information on your social media profiles.

Pray. And if you’re not the praying type, then just keep the people affected in mind for a few minutes in a day and let this be a factor in some of your decisions for the day.

Be kind, be patient, be gracious, be generous, be loving. Because we need to be this now more than ever.

We are never too poor not to give anything, or too powerless not to do anything.

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Playing for Keeps

Tina 2 Comments

Also known as: A quest for clarity

Last Saturday was another book discussion day for me with my awesome friends from my awesome book club. It was another awesome day (I use this adjective a lot, I know), and I’ll talk about it in the book blog. One of our activities in that discussion was to pick song verses that describe a specific moment in our past, be it good or bad. It was a hard thing to do, since I have so many songs that were really more like life anthems, but after a lot of thinking, I finally chose a song and submitted it before I chickened out. I remember thinking, It’s going to be a bit hard explaining this, and I thought of writing a blog entry about it before Saturday came, but I just didn’t have enough time.

Well, I didn’t really have a hard time explaining it after all, because as cheesy as it may sound, I took it all from the heart. I’ve always believed that for difficult situations and sharings, you just really have to be honest and say it all from the heart and people will see that effort and it will be okay. And I guess it pays when you pray about these things, too.

Anyway, my chosen song was one of Switchfoot‘s old songs: Playing for Keeps. Specifically, it’s these lines:

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