It has been awhile

It was in April 2020 when I last blogged and a long year and a half have passed since then. A whole lot of things have happened and a whole lot of things I have learnt.

I must say that just like my blog here, my life has been in a series of starts and stops, and again just like my blog here, it is going to continue to start and stop. 

Of course, until it all stop and Life starts. 

So here am I again...starting again. 

The reason I am back is because I would like to think and write again. Life has been tough for the last one and a half years making it tough to think and to write. But now I'm back and it's good to be back and I hope this session of a start will last a longer time.

While I restart this, I also thought about the purpose and the direction of my writing. When I started this blog in 2006--oh my, that is like aeons ago--I wanted a space to reflect and express myself, and I think I will fall back to the same purpose. 

And hopefully through my thinking and my figuring out this world, I am am able to provide some hope.

Pearlie

Reading vs. Watching TV

I spent the last two years watching too much television. So I have decided to cut it down and get back to reading. 

But I am asking the question, is reading really better than watching television?

Compare reading and watching The Game of Thrones or Sherlock Holmes. What's the difference? Disclaimer: I've never read the books and I've just watched a little of both.

I read a lot of non-fiction. I do read fiction but I find it a challenge to find a good story to read. Compared to non-fiction, I don't know what I am getting into when I read fiction. 

But fiction is good. Alan Alda says it gives us "the chance to enter into another person’s life, to feel what they feel, to see life through their eyes, to enter their inner world." 

We can experience life vicariously in areas we have no chance whatsoever to live in. 

We can make decisions in decisions we will never get to make. We can see how life will unravel in lives we will never get to live. 

So does it matter if it's in a book or in a movie or television?

I think this picture says a lot.

Ok, let's look at the similarities and differences. 

Reading

- vicarious experiences

- heightened imagination

- need more discipline

- improves language and vocabulary

Watching TV

- vicarious experiences

- heightened senses

Anything else?

Since cutting down on TV, I have read more books but so far all non-fiction. And I'm watching a little TV.

Best of both worlds. Hence, I am happy.

pearlie

The elusive writing bug

I have not been writing for a long while now and I must say I miss doing it.

So let me just try to kickstart it again and see where it goes. I do hope I get back into the bug of writing.

For reasons unknown, at least to me, some photos in my blog have disappeared. It was frustrating and it did hamper my motivation to write but finally I got to it and managed to replace one, just one.

But then one entire post disappeared on me! I must have accidentally clicked something by mistake.

So that post about gamifying your daily life is gone forever. I can't even remember what I wrote in order to recreate it. I can probably write a fresh new piece from a new perspective after about a year gamifying my daily life.

Surprisingly a few people I met did ask me why am I no longer writing and blogging. I was encouraged (thanks guys!) and even though it is taking me awhile but let's hope this work.

Let's hope my writing bug is back and here to stay.

pearlie

Keep blogging Pearlie. Don’t give up

I have not caught up with my blog for one whole week, from last Monday till today Monday. 

And I almost gave it up. 

I thought I’d take a week off and not write anything but knowing myself, it would then spell the end of my blog. 

I will never come back. 

So I without another thought, I just started writing and writing and writing. I just kept writing. 

And now I am all caught up. 

It’s a good thing I keep short notes for each of the days, so that I have an idea what to write about and what’s so special about the day that I want to remember. 

So the thing is to just write even if you don’t feel like writing. 

One decision I am going to make however, is to keep away from Facebook for awhile, if not for ever. 

I find Facebook isn’t good for me, in many counts and in many ways. 

I do get updates about people I don’t meet anymore and even updates on news and deals, but it comes far and between. I think I will lay it off for a month and see if my life will improve as a result. 

I don’t use that much time on Facebook but it’s still quite substantial by my standards. I’d find better things to fill that time with. 

And I’d like to reiterate why I blog—it’s so I can mull and think things through, about life’s lessons for the day and stuff that God would want me to take note. It’s so I can remember important stuff that happens to me. It’s also so that I can see when I am really dry and need watering. 

Keep blogging Pearlie. Don’t give up. 

pearlie

Shall I stop blogging?

I know I have thought about this many, many times over and blogged about it many times as well but I was seriously contemplating to stop blogging today.   

This is because I recently felt that writing a blogpost every day has become a very difficult thing to do. I find that I am struggling to find things to talk and blog about.  But why am I feeling that way?   

This one thing I know: I am spending less and less time thinking these days and I am not as introspective as before, and it is not a good thing.   

Therefore, it is good that I came across this article: Why You Should Blogging (Again)  

The writer of the article holds the opinion that: 

1. blogging facilitate powerful introspection 

2. blogging crystallizes thoughts and thought processes 

3. blogging improves your ability to express yourself 

4. people will enjoy your creation  

I fully agree with the first three points and with that I am more encouraged to persist to continue to blog daily. I also know that I will regret it if I stop, because I know it will be even more difficult for me to start blogging again. I have stopped before and it took me 5 years to get back to daily blogging! If I stop again this time, I can almost guarantee I will never get back to blogging.  

I am not too sure about the fourth point though, since I tend to ramble a lot these days.  

So there - I will still stick to it...for now.  

pearlie

I've reached the 10th year mark today

I started blogging on 1 Mar 2006 and so it is 10 years today. Number of posts 2525. Number of page views 288,062. I've enjoyed writing it though it is hard sometimes to find what to write about when the day is just the norm: wake up, go to work, work, go home, go to bed. But I found that as long as I start thinking and reflecting about the day, however normal it was, I will find something worthy of a post. And when I don't, a picture will convey the mood for the day. I thank my Father in heaven for his providence and his grace all these years. 

pearlie

A Simple and Clean New Look

I can't remember when I last changed the look of my blog. I thought maybe 5 years ago, and I was right. I last changed it on 3 Feb 2010, which is quite a long time ago. I was looking for something clean and simple, minimalist, and found this template I thought quite attractive, though I had to fix it a bit here and there. 

I am very happy with the new look, though it still needs some tweaking.

pearlie

Prayer in Time of Trouble

I have started to blog in the Daily Prayer blog by invitation by KC Bob, and I posted this today which I found so close to my heart that I decided to put it here in my own blog too. In any time at all, seek the Lord - he is indeed good all the time.

Prayer in Time of Trouble
Anonymous
Lord, in every need let me come to You with humble trust saying, "Jesus, help me."
In all my doubts, perplexities, and temptations, Jesus, help me.
In hours of loneliness, weariness, and trials, Jesus, help me.
In the failure of my plans and hopes; in disappointments, troubles, and sorrows, Jesus, help me.
When others fail me and Your grace alone can assist me, help me.
When I throw myself on Your tender love as a father and savior, Jesus, help me.
When my heart is cast down by failure at seeing no good come from my efforts, Jesus, help me.
When I feel impatient and my cross irritates me, Jesus, help me.
When I am ill and my head and hands cannot work and I am lonely, Jesus, help me.
Always, always, in spite of weakness, falls, and shortcomings of every kind, Jesus, help me and never forsake me.

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."
~ Deuteronomy 31:6

Amen.

pearlie

Ten Years!

I've been blogging since 1 Mar 2006 and it will soon be a whole ten years since I've started blogging.

Ten years!

For those who have been following me from the beginning, you would have noticed that I've changed my blog name, again. The first change was on 27 Jan 2007 and the second was done several days ago on 5 Mar 2016.

The interesting about blogging the way I do is that I could read way back through the ten years of blogging and see how I've changed over the years.

For the new year though, I thought it would be timely that I got my blog into Facebook and Google+ where I guess all the action is now.

And I think I should be more active in Facebook, shouldn't I? Who blogs anymore? The thing is, I do.

pearlie

Is anyone still blogging anymore?

I found it hard to keep blogging lately but I kept at it desiring to have a complete year of blogging this year. I blog to keep a public journal, which I believe nobody reads other than my current sole blogger friend Kansas Bob (thanks Bob!), who drops in once in a while. I know I do need to connect with other bloggers but I lack the time and energy.

I wrote about blogging before:
Why do I blog? and Why do I blog? 2

I still like to write. I don't have any other places where I can get my thoughts out, not that many come by but no matter. I still like what I do here.

pearlie

Saving my blog in PDF

I have been blogging since 2006 with daily blogging till 2009, after which it was intermittent till I was back to a daily from 2014 till now.

I have a total of 2,256 published posts including this one and I thought it would be good to save an offline copy of my blog.

I tried it here in BlogBooker and whilst the results may not be perfect, it can still generate a reasonably good one and it's free.

pearlie

Five Things About Pearlie

KC Bob tagged me for a creative blogger award. And I thank him for his kind words to me as "a long time friend, thoughtful blogger and devoted follower of Christ."

I decide not to tag anyone since I don't have many who are actively commenting here anymore. Only Bob and Susan and a couple of others who come by once in awhile.

So here are my five facts:
1. I like to think and write and have been doing that with this blog since 2006.
2. I like to read...a lot.
3. I collect a lot of things, and facts, and articles, anything I find might be useful.
4. I sing everyday. In the car. In the shower. I sing to myself sometimes, like in taking to myself.
5. I am a night person, delaying sleep not wanting the day to end so soon.

pearlie

Retire to think

I have recently found it so difficult to blog daily. I have so much to do at work that leaves me no time to think and to mull. And I don't like it at all.

I need time to think, and not having the time to think is making me restless. And I keep having serious back to back meetings at work that I really wish I can just retire to think.

pearlie
Source: www.phdcomics.com

Tribute to my blogger friends

I realise it has been too long since I've spoken about my fellow blogger friends and it's time I do.

I'm amazed myself that I've been blogging for almost 10 years. I started in March 2006. I've made several friends but blogs have been slowing down for awhile now and so I would like to pay tribute to these few of my stalwart bloggers and friends:

Bob of Kansas City Bob
Bob has become a very good friend. He has helped me so much from helping me fix my blog to giving me advice about life. I'm not sure if I'll ever go to the States but if I do I must make my way to the middle of the continent to meet him.

Susan of Penless Writer
Susan is so dear to me as a blogger friend. She's wonderfully sweet and she finds joy in the simplest of things, that which is a hard thing to do for stressed up people like me.

Julia of Kingdom Jewels
I must make mention again that Julia is my first blogger friend and even though we have not really been connecting very much lately, it really have been 9 years since we known each other. I literally watched her kids grow up from kids to adulthood.

And it's wonderful that I've just made a new blogger friend:

Retha of retha's rambles
She sent a birthday surprise to Susan and husband Mickey in the form of a meal in a restaurant. I found that to be so special that I went to her blog to leave a note. She on the other hand saw my comment in Susan's blog and wanted to visit my blog and then saw my comment on hers. As I don't really want to believe in coincidences, I hope this marks a start to a great new blogger friendship.

Long live blogging!

pearlie

My day in connectedness

I had wanted to blog about my #1 Gallup theme Connectedness but I couldn't quite put it in place until now.

People with the Connectedness theme do not really take coincidences as given. We can almost believe that coincidences does not exist. Everything happens for a reason and almost everything and everyone is connected in one way or another.

Something quite significant happened with my #1 and #2 themes today - Connectedness and Intellection.

I was blogging yesterday about my exceptionally busy start to the new year at work and these two words came to mind as I wrote. I do experience cases where words I seldom or may have never used just come and I would wonder where it came from.

Two simple words - let up - not used so frequently to me and when it came to me yesterday, I did check the dictionary to ensure I was using it accurately. I was. I had described the fact that my busy days would not let up and with that, I'm almost drowning.

That was yesterday.

This morning, as I was doing my devotion, the same two words was used in the materials I was reading.

I was reading on Isaiah 33 where the prophet was lamenting on the stubbornness of the Israelites who would not obey or trust in God.

The Assyrians were coming against them but they disobeyed God and looked to the Egyptians to save them. It was like going back to their slave masters for freedom. What irony.

When the Egyptians were of no help, they thought the could buy the Assyrians off. They withdrew money from the treasury, stripped bare the temple doors of gold to be given to the Assyrians to leave them alone. The author rightly stated that it was humiliating to Judah and doubly dishonoring to God. The people treated God as their worthless ally and then make God pay for their disloyalty!

Then the author said, "But they don’t see it that way. Not yet. What they see is hope: “Finally those Assyrians will let up on us! This will all be over soon.” So there goes God’s money, God’s honor, and their integrity in the form of payment to the Assyrian mafia." (emphasis mine)

When I read that sentence, it stopped me short. I felt that this was no simple coincidence, there must be something to it and I immediately asked the Lord what the lesson here for me would be.

It was a simple connection.

My busy days were not letting up. The Assyrians were not letting up. The Israelites had not trusted God. Have I trusted God? I was complaining. I was frustrated.

I reassessed my situation and realised that my busyness may never let up, however much I complain. What I need to do instead is to trust in God. That it is not by might, nor by power but by His Spirit.

As a result, when I committed it all to Him, I had more fun at work today in spite of my busyness. So much so that I was contented to stay back late into the evening in order to clear my inbox before I call it a day, before I call it a week.

I thank God for his promptings. I thank God for his everlasting Word that will never fail us.

He is faithful and good.

pearlie
Source: 'Isaiah: God Saves Sinners' by Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr., R.Kent Hughes, General Editor

My 2015 Goal: A Year of Fervent Prayer

Ok, I'm at the moment quite gung-ho in my wanting to be serious about prayer. I only hope it can be sustained throughout the year and throughout my life.

From yesterday's post, I've actually finished reading Brother Lawrence's The Practice of the Presence of God, it's not long, and I loved it! It will be useful to refer frequently to what I have highlighted to remind me to always live from the center of Christ.


A Call to Spiritual Reformation, Priorities from Paul and His Prayers
by D.A. Carson

I've also just started reading D.A. Carson's A Call to Spiritual Reformation, albeit from a print copy, which will be a challenge. And since I've named my 2015 goal as A Year of Fervent Prayer, I would like to post my learning on prayer as much as I can here.

My first lesson comes from a section in Chapter 1 Lessons from the School of Prayer: much praying is not done because we do not plan to pray.

This is an important as well as a difficult lesson for me because I'm not a good planner and worse than that I'm weakest as far as discipline is concerned (#34 in my Gallup Strength theme sequence). However, since I have used my Maximizer (a strong #7) successfully in making me go to the gym every workday in most of 2014, I will also use it to help me to plan my prayer and to keep the schedule, which I suspect will still not be so fixed or scheduled.

Carson said, "We do not drift into spiritual life; we do not drift into disciplined prayer. We will not grow in prayer unless we plan to pray. That means we must self-consciously set aside time to do nothing but pray...Wise planning will ensure that we devote ourselves to prayer often, even if for brief periods: it is better to pray often with brevity than rarely but at length. But the worst option is simply not to pray--and that will be the controlling pattern unless we plan to pray. If we intend to change our habits, we must start here."

With that, I want to start small and this is what I plan:
1. Say a brief prayer the moment I wake up before I get out of bed
2. Pray when I'm commuting alone
3. Begin every workday with 15 minutes of prayer (need to find a place though since I'll surely be disturbed in my cubicle)
4. Spend 15 minutes in prayer before I retire in bed at the day's end

Ooh...that sounds like a lot! I'll see how I will fare and will give a report in a week's time.

It will however be a good thing to be reminded of what Brother Lawrence said in his Ninth Letter of The Practice of the Presence of God: "One does not become holy all at once."

And Carson says this, "If God is the one 'who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose' (Phil 2:3), then of course he is the God who by his Spirit helps us in our praying."

Amen to that!

pearlie

Roger E Olson's Blog

I can't remember whether or was a Calvinist who inadvertently introduced me to Roger E. Olson's blog or I have found it myself, but found it I did and it is an excellent find.

It comes highly recommended and so far here are a few of my favourite posts:

What’s Wrong with Calvinism?

Reading Is Fundamental (And Not Reading Is a Recipe for Failure)

Arminian Theology: Prevenient Grace and Total Depravity (Including a Review of a New Book about Prevenient Grace)

What Is a “Spirit-filled” and “Spirit-led” Church?
Part 1 and Part 2

(The only complaint I have are the many unnecessary and unbecoming advertisements and sponsored articles that accompany the blog.)

pearlie

My Journaling Attempts

I found quite an interesting app that I am beginning to use: Highs & Lows.

I started writing in a diary back in my school days but my sense of discipline is pretty low and it didn't last very long.

I picked it up again when I got my first PDA, the Palm V. I have started work by then. And even though I did not journal everyday, I kept at it every other day or week and since then I have moved those digital pages of journal from device to device and app to app until they are all now stored in my iPhone Momento app.

In the midst of all this, I picked up blogging in 2006 as part of my journaling and I am thankful I am now back to keeping a daily blog, at least for now.

So this Highs & Lows app intrigued me. I have only a few days of entry but so far it does help show the colour and feel of the last few days I have spent.

I will try to be disciplined and keep it a daily for as long as possible and see if say in a month's time or if it does last longer, in a year's time, I could still feel nostalgic about the days.

pearlie

Thinking, thinking, thinking

Intellection is one of the 34 strengths in the Gallup StrengthsFinder and it is my Number Two strength.

With this strength, I like to think. I like mental activity. And I need time to think and then to write, which is why blogging works for me and Twitter don't; neither does Facebook.

However, in keeping a daily blog, I need time to think and when I have a busy day like today, I don't have much to write about.

It is hard to find time to think recently. Coming back to an operational HR function, I find that my time is filled with tasks after tasks to fulfil, thus less time to think. But with the intellection strength as my Number Two, it is a need to find time to think and I must always remind myself of that need.

The only time that can happen is late into the night, though at times I am so tired I will simply doze off before I can think a thought.

The other interesting thing about this intellection is that this mental activity can lack focus - it does not dictate what to think about; it is simply the fact that I like to think.

This then brings me to the times when I sit myself down and start to think of what to blog about, I think back to the hours before to pick up one significant event or idea or anything at all. But if that day consists of routine work, I'll have absolutely nothing.

How about this, I have thought and wrote about having nothing to think and write about.

It is still thinking.

pearlie

Why do I blog? 2

I was struggling today on what to post here today so as to keep up with my daily blogging. I have had a long break from daily blogging since 2009 and resuming it now in 2014, it is taking me a whole lot of discipline to keep to a daily knowing full well that the moment I miss a day, I will never come back to a daily.

I feel that I am not thinking or mulling as much as before. What does it signify? It could mean that I have resolved most of the outstanding matters in my mind, which means it is time now to expand and look for other areas to learn and think about, except that there are fewer things that concerns me now, and much of what comes to mind are trivial and petty - not worth thinking and blogging, and yet these are the things that somewhat mark my days and they end up in my blog.

I am revisiting the reason I blog and realized it has not changed from when I noted it down on April 8, 2008. Here were my reasons and they remain the same to this day.

One additional reason is that it will certainly become a snapshot of my life over the years. And I plan to continue to keep it a daily until there are no more days in my life, God willing.

So, sometimes there will be interesting and relevant things and sometimes there will be unimportant and frivolous stuff. But that is who I am, bits and parts of what makes me me, whilst I strive to imitate Christ in this life he has given me.

pearlie