Gaudete Sunday!

Sometimes I have these moments when I just sit still and have the urge to burst into tears, tears of joy that is.  Today is Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent and in today's Eucharist, we were reminded of the many reasons to be JOYFUL - joy in the life of holiness and joy in reaching out to others.  In my mind though, was a different source of joy....I was channeling something more like, joyful thanksgiving.  Yes, very MIC.

But, really, I've always preached to the kids that there is nothing that can make one feel happiest than to count one's blessings.  Counting my blessings always gives me a bazillion reasons to be joyful.  Like, I have this wala-akong-karapatan-umangal feeling after I remember the many things I have been blessed with.  Most especially this year 2011.  This year has been just life-changing, in so many different ways.  Let me count...

1) I resigned from my 4-year teaching stint.  I said goodbye to my favorite place in the world - the classroom, and...

2) Hello to a whole new world: The corporate set-up! I had to shop for clothes, shoes and a bag good enough for the office.  I met really cool people and great friends in them, too (I still keep in touch with a few of them - Wel, Ja, Bianca and Macky).  

3) I said goodbye to my short corporate stint so I could go back to being a teacher! :)) God really does have His ways.

4) I got married! :) July 9, 2011.  Best day EVER.  It has been 5 months and I still have those moments when I just stare at my husband and think to myself, "How could I have been so blessed?"

5) To add to this, I got pregnant! :) Just when things couldn't have been better, God decides to bless us even more.

...and everything in between.  Talking to my superiors in ICA and explaining my resignation, job hunting, learning to survive in a new environment and practicing my social skills, wedding preparations, that feeling I had right before I entered St. James the Great Parish on that very special day, coming to terms with the reality of my pregnancy plus the horrible first trimester, shopping for maternity clothes, husband and I just lying in bed, feeling Liam's gentle kicks and movements.

Life is, indeed, made up of tiny moments.  Every moment is a gift.  From the movie 300, "They envy us because we're mortal, because any moment might be our last.  Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed." Looking forward to making the last 20 days of 2011 count, and even more excited for a blessed and beautiful 2012! :)