Arlene Manocot's Blog, page 13

Yes, God, Yes But No, Please...

Stop. Don't read this blog entry if you aren't mentally, emotionally, and most importantly spiritually prepared. You have been warned. 
I saw the trailer and I was warned that the movie was never what I thought it would be. I was hesitant to blog about it. It is not as wholesome as I expected it to be. And right now, I am not even sure if I should publish this one on my website. But one thing is for sure, I don't recommend watching this movie if you ain't ready mentally, emotionally, and most importantly spiritually. If you aren't, then this movie isn't for you.
It is a coming of age movie, about a teenage girl who discovers masturbating. Again, don't watch this if you aren't prepared mentally, emotionally, and most importantly spiritually. The movie is under the genre of comedy, it's cute, and sure we all have some laughs with this one, yet I can't help but be drawn with the subtle and emphatic message of the story. 
We live in a world where we are often judge by what people heard from others and sometimes, if not always, we are surrounded by self-righteous humans who think they know exactly how life works and they put on a facade like they have it all together. Being wrongly judged is something that we all don't want to happen, but sometimes people believe whatever they hear or if not they tend to talk about it endlessly. Such an unhealthy way of fellowship. This reality in life is something that is evident from this movie.  It is sad and hard, yet we have to be fully armed with the right weapon to counter this kind of attack. It is a spiritual battle and you should be prepared. So pray. It is important that we respect and love each other, and help one another to live a life leading to the right path. We are all trying to figure out life. 
Yes, God, Yes is a movie that I will never recommend to young souls out there, so please NO.

Sweet Home is not your typical Home Sweet Home

Sweet Home may sound blissful and romantic, but don't be fooled by its sweet title. I have watched this Korean TV series a month ago, and I was supposed to blog a review about it and things just happened again and days passed by and I neglected this space. I intended to keep me (and you) posted on my blog, but I failed again. However, I am back with another post about this Korean TV series, Sweet Home.
It is a show with an apocalyptic horror action-packed plot. A group of people are trapped in an apartment building and one of them is the main protagonist Cha Hyun-Soo who is a suicidal high school student. The residents of the building are confused and fear ensues within them. They are desperate to get out of the building, but it does not take them longer to realize that it is not safe to outside. Their surrounding is pestered by monsters who eats humans.
Hyun-Soo gets infected with the virus which turns humans into monsters that later on enable him to gain power and use it to save the good and some twistedly wicked human beings who are trapped with him. The horror of seeing monsters in the human form is frightening and brings a realization of how far we can go just to entertain our own interest and human desire.  
When it comes to the graphics, they are undeniably horrifyingly beautiful. I mean the production team behind this series did an excellent job in giving the audience a realistic cinematography, and the actors effectively engaged the audience by how they played the characters. They just get through me. I am still looking forward to season two, but there is no news about it until now. Let's all hope that a sequel is already under planning. 
If you haven't watched this, I suggest you give a try and maybe you can tell me whether you like it as much as I did, or maybe not. Either way, let's engage. :)

Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith

Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith is a young adult novel about Al with her two other friends Leo and Teddy. It is a story about luck and how it brought change into their lives. 
It is a book about first love and first major luck, which brings us to Al and Leo's funny gift for Teddy's birthday. Leo gave him a pack of cigarettes, and Al gifted him with a lottery ticket. The most unexpected thing happened when the lottery ticket gift won a whopping one hundred forty-three million dollars. 
Teddy hit the jackpot and had his life turned a hundred eighty degrees, all thanks to Al's gift on his eighteenth birthday. But it is not always a bed of roses when you've got yourself a lot of moneybags, the fortune he received also has its backlash which he finally realized later in the story. 
Al, on the other hand, tried to keep it all together expecting that the huge fortune they won had the potential to turn her normal life upside down and it was something uncalled for. She didn't want any of it. What she wanted was a normal life with her family and friends. Everything seemed to slip away within her grip and she didn't like the changes that were happening before her eyes, Teddy was getting further and further away to someplace she didn't want to be in.   
Alice Chapman a.k.a Al was a girl who brought luck to the person she loved when she thought nothing better could ever happen to her life as she was blinded and paralyzed by the sad past she held dearly in her heart. She never thought that luck could find her or any of her closest family and friends. 
Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith reminds us that maybe, just maybe, luck will find us one day, and probably win a huge fortune like Teddy or in Al's case, find where she truly belongs.     

P. S. In a world where luck is nowhere to be found, let God find you.

Attack On Titan Sinks the Ship

Last month, I watched the final season of Attack On Titan or Shingenki No Kyojin in its anime version. It's good, but sad. 
I am more inclined to its manga version. I get the feeling that I might miss some details if I plunged into the anime series right away. But I stopped reading manga for almost or over a year and deleted the manga reader app on my phone, so I lose track of what chapters I last read from all the bookmarked manga titles I had before the hiatus.
I read more than I should. I had to stop. ~Circa 2019 to 2020
Praise God for stepping on the break!
Now here in 2021, the end and the final season of Attack On Titan was always the one I got to see on my feeds. At first, I declined the offer of the media to indulge myself to another heartbreaking, action-packed, tragic, and breathtaking story from Hajime Isayama.
I find the graphics of the last season more attractive. Mappa studio made the series this time around.
The manga already ended and it broke me to tears, seriously. Good thing, I recover faster nowadays. Praise God! But the anime version isn't over yet. The fandom still awaits for its final installment. Some changes might happen in the anime version, maybe a lighter ending for Eren and Mikasa, 'cause I really ship them. And I also don't want to get my hopes up so I do prepare my heart if anything worse happens in the story. I want to see Levi Ackerman again, and maybe ask him to marry me, just kidding. 
A lot of ships did not sail in Attack On Titan, and for some reasons I could not hate the author like I usually do, sorry. I know he has his reason why the story ended up that way. I kind of accepted it and at the same time still remained hopeful.

He Caused All Things Work Together for Good

He owns everything. Not a single thing is our own. We are merely stewards of God's creation. We are to serve Him. Even the life we have is His, and He wants us to make the most out of it. Our beloved family here on earth is also from Him. He owns them.
My father had shown his support to my mother during those moments of weakness. I knew so well that he was not like that in the past. He did change and it was a very long process. He cooked for us because my mother couldn't, using our tricycle he was the runner, and sometimes he was the dishwasher when it was not my turn. We were able to keep it together all by God's grace. And what he is now is only possible through God's power. I could not help but share this with you and praise Him with all my heart. We are very far from being a perfect family, and I doubt there is such a thing as a perfect family since a family is composed of imperfect human beings, but I grew to appreciate the kind of family I have. God gave them to me and they are exactly who I need in living a purposeful life here on earth.
Before I forgot to mention, my sister also helped in doing some laundry, and overcoming those seemingly unending weeks of struggle was a challenge for all of us.
I realized a lot of things in life during those times of trouble and I resolved to be a better daughter to my parents, to enjoy my time with them and serve, care, and love them the best I can through Him who strengthens me. I am still not the perfect daughter, but I am glad that God put a desire in my heart to honor and respect my parents in His perfect ways. I am also reminded that in times of trouble we can still remain hopeful, the true hope that is only found in Jesus Christ.
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Previous: HE SAID YES

He Said Yes

I wondered why God does not yet answer my prayers. I was questioning His silence. A conviction to ask the fellow believers with me weighed on me. I was hesitant to share my struggles with my sisters in Christ I thought I would be a burden to them and I did want that. It was my pride and hate that was holding me back and God does not want a proud and hateful child. He want us to be loving, humble and always be dependent on Him. He knows how far we can endure.
When she could not take it any longer, my mother asked and insisted we bring her to a doctor for a check-up since over-the-counter medicines were not helping her to ease her suffering. We went to different doctors, but it was already late in the afternoon, and it seemed like no one was willing to take in a patient who have symptoms similar my mother suffered with. We were frustrated and filled with uncertainties. A hospital has only the capacity to entertain patients with CoVid symptoms. 
My mother was swabbed test and we waited a few minutes for the result outside the hospital. We were not allowed to enter and we also did not want to. We were feeling agitated and my hate towards my sister grew bigger. I was browsing my social media account just to have a little diversion from the predicament we were all facing when I came across one of my sister's shared posts on her one of her social media accounts about something that was funny. I was furious that she did not even care that's why I reacted an angry emoticon on her posts. I knew it was childish but I had to vent out my disappointment towards her. But I retracted the angry emoticon later on when I surrendered the anger and disappointment. 
The result was negative. Praise God! I thanked and prayed to Him. She was also advised to be x-rayed and the film showed that she had phlegms in her lungs which was still alarming. The doctor prescribed her some medicines for her fever and dry cough. 
On the second day of taking her medicine, my mother was dissatisfied with the effect of the medicines. She still had difficulty with her coughing and felt like she could not breathe properly. She borrowed a nebulizer from her sister who was also my aunt and thank God, my very own sister assissted our mother in operating the nebulizer.
But my mother was far from being okay after the check-up and taking all those medicines. She did not feel any better. I was sad and hope seemed to be loosing my grip. I held on to the promises of God.
During one of our DGroup meeting and of the days of the online True Life Retreat 2021, I had the opportunity to tell my predicament in a conversation/Bible study with the fellow believers. They were compassionate and very willing to pray with me as my family went through health problems in the time of pandemic. I was humbled and grateful for God's answer when He said 'yes' to all of our prayers.
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Previous: HE STAYED SILENT



To be continued...

He Stayed Silent

A sad news is never a good news. It is heartbreaking and tear-jerking news to receive early in the morning, and processing it entails wisdom, prayer, and surrendering to the LORD. 
It is a truth that everyone will die. Each of us has a time destined to meet with our Creator, and also when and how He planned it to happen. But no matter how much truths are there in death, we as humans are not exempted from the fear and anxiety that comes with it. 
These past few weeks have been filled with anxiety at home. We were all sick and have similar symptoms of CoVid. We had colds, coughs, lack of appetite, and everything we ate was tasteless. My mother had it the worst. She was weak and could no longer do the things she used to do at home during those moments. It was very hard for me to see her eating so little and being so weak that she ended up laying on the bed. My father and I tried our best to function at home and did the household chores my mother used to do for us. The whole situation took a toll on me that there were times that I just cried while looking at my mother,  during webinars, or while doing paperwork. I even got angry at my sister because she acted like she did not care at all about the whole situation we were in as if we were not part of her life. 
We tried taking over-the-counter medicines like paracetamol and expectorant, and multivitamins. They worked for me and my father, but not for my mother. Her fever and the persistent cough kept on pestering her for days. She could not even eat properly to nourish her body and give her strength.
My father was hesitant to bring my mother to the hospital due to the pandemic. We have this notion that if someone has symptoms similar to the CoVid there is a big chance to be admitted to the hospital and stay quarantined away from us. Hospital expenses are one thing to be concerned about, but I was more afraid that my mother had to stay in a hospital where nothing was certain and she was not with us. I was praying to God to heal my mother and never to go to a hospital, but He stayed silent and I never ceased praying and crying out to Him. 
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To be continued...

Hooked by Ernie Hollands with Doug Brendel

I don't know where to start, all I can say is that I was hooked. 

Hooked by Ernie Hollands with Doug Brendel is a book testimony about transformation. The kind of transformation that is only possible through Jesus Christ.
A man's life that once was lived and rejoiced in the evil and darkness transformed drastically when he met Christ. His life journey was never easy just like how most of us made it through before knowing Jesus, 
Reading Ernie Holland's story will remind us of Romans 8:28: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
That is hopelessness there is hope in Jesus Christ, and we have an assurance that all things will fall into their rightful places in God's perfect timing. He is sovereign, in control. He can make all things new in our lives just like how many of us were transformed through Jesus Christ. 
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
All in Jesus' name!

Calamansi Tree: It is Not Yet Its Season

It is harvest time! At last, the time has finally come that I get to reap some fruits of our humble Calamansi Tree. I have been eyeing those little round green fruits for quite some time, maybe months. I thought I would never see our Calamansi tree bearing fruits again. Thoughts like it were just a one-time fruit-bearing tree flooded my mind, and that discouraged me from hoping I would ever see a single fruit in that little tree. 
We bought the Calamansi tree from my mother's churchmate. Though I planned to gain a tree by planting seeds and that did not push through. Instead, we decided to grab the opportunity of buying a grown-up tree. 
I was fascinated with the fruits it already had upon getting the plant and hopeful for a fruitful future for the Calamansi tree. There were only a few fruits when we acquired the tree, not more than 7 fruits I guess. After harvesting the initial fruits of the newly bought plant, months passed yet it did not show any sign of bearing fruits. I didn't see flowers. I kept on telling my concerns to my mother and father from time to time and the usual response I got was that it was not yet its season. I understood it but that didn't stop me from asking them when it was going to be its season. I was getting impatient which was not a good sign. 
Days, weeks, and months passed by and I completely discarded my issue with the Calamansi tree, I got busy with other important things. 
One time at school, I heard my colleagues discussing plants since it has been a trend during this time of the pandemic. Plantita and Plantito have been all over the places and the trend also gave opportunities for some to start a small business by selling plants. 
I acquired some useful tips from their discussion about fertilizers. I am for organic fertilizers. One of my colleagues mentioned that she used tea as fertilizer. I thought that was perfect since we have and usually drink tea at home. 
At home, I gathered all the used tea in a mesh I kept in the refrigerator and went upstairs where our plants are located. I was so oblivious as I confidently sowed the teabag on the soil. That was an easy job I thought. 
But I did wrong. I realized that one time when my colleagues were having a small talk again about plants. Well, it had been a consistent topic among them for quite some time. I was supposed to remove the mesh and let the ground leaves dry. I should have not just throw them on the soil. I learned my lesson and removed the mesh when I got the chance to do it at home. 
If my schedule permitted me, I watered the plants every morning, trimmed dried leaves or stems, and whispered some encouraging words to them, especially the Calamansi tree since I was looking forward to getting the fruits. 
Before March ended, I did not miss the opportunity to harvest the fruits of the Calamansi tree with joy and excitement. I only picked the ones that I thought were ready for this season.  
I also learned another lesson from my father, he was happy when he saw the harvested fruits, yet he noticed that I cut some fresh sprout leaves which could have been another set of fruits for the next season. There are still some fruits left to ripe and grow a little bigger and rounder, so next time that it's their season to be harvested I'll be careful not to pluck any potential fruit-bearing leaves and stems. In total, we got almost a quarter of 1 kilogram. Not bad. 

What I realized from this experience is that waiting isn't such a bad idea if done properly. Waiting isn't doing nothing. Waiting requires patient. And patient is long-suffering while you wait expectantly with joy, hope, and faith that everything will work together for good for those who love Him. Your waiting season is never wasted, so keep on moving towards Him.

Monkeys Above the River

Look! There is a monkey suspended in the air holding on the bridge. Was I looking at myself? Of course, I was not. I am a human being and I am sure of that. More so, I beg to disagree with the theory of Charles Darwin. 
I also questioned the meaning behind the name of one of the activities we did when we hiked Mt. Manalmon and Mt. Gola. I was curious. I thought maybe there were a lot of monkeys in the area before because we did not see a single monkey in the mountains. But not until we arrived at the jump-off of the Monkey Bridge. We saw a monkey on mental chains. I guess it was a pet and displayed there to justify the name of the suspended bridge made out of two paralleled thick metal wire rope. 
For safety, a harness supported each brave soul to cross the Monkey Bridge. As I began crossing the bridge, everything felt shaky. I could not control my strength as I held on to the thick metal wire rope. I kept on making the same mistake of lifting up my feet one at a time and landing them on the wire rope beneath my feet at the beginning of my journey towards the other end of the Monkey Bridge. 
It was shaky, I felt it and also attested by my friend who was next to me. I tended to look at the river below us, but it was not helping me achieve my goal so I decided to focus my eyes on the finish line. I was rushing to get on to the other end, yet our tour guide shouted at me and reminded me that I should not rush and stop what I had been doing wrong with my feet. I was taught to slide on the thick metal wire rope, instead of taking a step. It was easier when I slid, and I got to look at the river from time to time and the hanging bridge opposite of the Monkey Bridge.

I was flooded by a breath of relief after reaching the end of the bridge. Inwardly, I congratulated myself and gave her a pat on the back for braving the bridge. I was happy for all of us for reaching the other end of the Monkey Bridge. We also did not miss the chance to get into the river this time. The water was quite decent and clear. We dipped our bodies and cautiously enjoyed the little time we had with the river.

We all face different struggles and challenges in life. I pray that we all get through them and come out victorious through Christ who strengthens us. Sometimes, we are crippled by fear and that is normal, what is not is that we are forever stuck in that same filthy pit we choose to be in because of fear. We are more than conquerors, we are already victorious because God has already gone before us on the battlefield. Conquer your fear! You are not a monkey, you are a human being created in the image of the Most High God! Live a victorious life all for His glory.


Previous: MORE ASSAULTS TOWARDS MT. GOLA


Photos credit to Arra A.