Zinedil's World

The year is almost over so I should have a farewell entry for the year that was, just because I can.    This is the year when I started this bittersweet dance with mortality. A year when I celebrated every small victory as I go through every phase of this fight against breast cancer. Waking up every single day is a triumph in itself, for which, I thank God all the time. When you're constantly staring at your mortality in the face with every skip & turn, you tend to appreciate that you get to live yet another day.    It's a tough battle but amidst all that, I'm still very much grateful as I am still faring better compared to others who are going through the same struggles. I manage to pull myself out of bed every morning and I hardly give in to the pain, the weakness. I'm glad for my high pain tolerance so I am able to maintain composure despite the agony & discomfort. I thank our Lord for allowing me to somewhat maintain a level of independence and not be such a

Nine Years. That's how long it took me to find my way out of the rat race.  I’d been meaning to at least get back to blogging even while maintaining a regular job, but I just got too consumed with work that I couldn’t find the time and energy. I forgot that my default is to dive into work with everything I’ve got. I so loved what I was doing that I practically lost myself in it.     Finally, the opportunity to get out of the rat race presented itself just when I needed it and I grabbed it without any hesitation. It was a long time coming; like I had only been waiting for the other shoe to drop especially in the absence of the spark that used to keep me going. As if on cue, I was given a chance to get out of Dodge. It was, indeed, time to move on. It meant stepping out of my comfort zone, but what’s the point in staying if you’ve lost your faith on the direction the train was going?  It wasn’t an easy journey, mind you. We celebrated great milestones, but we also weathered some nast

Originally posted on my Friendster Blog, 'Just a Thought…' February 20th, 2009 Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net Yeah, I guess birthdays can really do that to you. One moment you’re taking things one step at a time, thinking you probably know what you’re doing or where you’re going; then suddenly, you stop and look around you as doubt started creeping in again, rearing its ugly head… making you wonder if you really are heading somewhere as you would like to believe. But try as you might, that lingering doubt makes you sigh…envious of all those people who seem to know exactly what they want in their lives and just surge ahead and never looked back.  

Originally posted on my Friendster Blog, 'Just a Thought…' June 15th, 2006 Image: Marcus74id / FreeDigitalPhotos.net Do you have that special place to go to when you feel the need to collect yourself? That place your soul yearns for when you feel like you just have to get away from it all? It doesn’t matter where as long as it serves its purpose—to help you get yourself together, ponder on things and move on.

…stumbled upon a very old poem converted into a song that had been buried & forgotten, til now… Image by Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.” - Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist Image: goldsaint / FreeDigitalPhotos.net   Posting this on my Facebook status once resulted in more “likes” than I expected plus a few comments. Perhaps this is because virtually everybody can testify to its verity every now & then, where you get that urge to ask someone to just shut up and let you be. We generally give more leeway with people who are closest to us like family and friends but they also happen to be the ones who tend to cross the line between giving advice and meddling. Sometimes we seek their counsel but more often than not, they give their opinion freely with regard to how you should deal with a certain situation or with almost anything in your life. The thing is, we do practically the same thing when it comes to

I’m finally blogging. After all those planning and even more planning, I’m here at last. I did have my reasons and for a while they seemed enough to justify my apparent neglect of the opportunity to reach a wider audience. For one, I felt like I was doing a lot of writing already that to add blogging to my already hectic schedule seemed too much already. But I already started posting a few articles online anyway so blogging would have to be the next step. As a non-fiction writer, you don’t only write about the things you like or stuff you’re interested in because you don’t always call the shots—the clients do (or in some cases, the boss). And when you exhaust yourself only with what others tell you to write about and writing becomes just a chore, it will gradually kill the buzz you get out of writing and you will reach that point where you feel like you’re starting to lose your own voice. Suffice to say, I see blogging as an ideal exercise to keep the