Morning Prayer

EVERY MORNING, I give thanks for all God has given me — for my bed, my breakfast, my cup of tea from my leaf-shaped teapot. But as I pray, I know that beyond my home, beyond my country where freedom and peace are taken for granted, beyond all the blessings of my life lie poverty, slavery, and corruption.

So every day, I close my eyes and pray, not only out of gratitude but also from a burden that’s too big for me. I pray that God’s righteousness will come like a flood, that the hopeless will know hope. … I pray, knowing that I have not begun to touch the world’s need, that I am privileged and sheltered from suffering. I also know that Christ was neither privileged nor immune from suffering but died bearing the world’s burden.

When I finish my prayers and enter the business of the day, I do so trusting that his arms are spread wide over us, that he still carries the burden, and that he hears our prayers.

My Prayer

LORD, I NEED a big dose of hope today.
None of the pie-in-the-sky kind.
Not even a pretty-sure guess.
I need the real kind of hope that brings lightness to a heavy day.
I am tired of gritting my teeth,
trying to swallow the pain that is my reality.
When I look back on my life,
I see how you proved faithful time after time.
There were moments I thought you had forgotten me
only to discover you were holding me so close I couldn’t see.
So if the stubborn pain refuses to subside for a while,
I will still whisper your name in praise.
Refocus my mind on you, Lord. Only on you.
It is there I find hope.

Magical Firefly show

What's more magical than a firefly light show on a warm summer night?

I happened to visit a firefly viewing area near Yonekawa base in Tome city this evening. And all I can say is that, it's the most fantastic show of light I ever seen.

Am always amazed by fireflies, I remember catching them and putting them in a jar when I was a kid. It's just amazing to see them flashing their lights. As a kid. I always look forward to catch one every night. Not until I realize fireflies comes with the seasons. That is why when the sisters informed me that the fireflies are already there, I did not hesitate to go.

And I tell you, I become a kid again. Seeing the firefly light show was being taken from a magical world. Being taken many years back, am still amazed by fireflies. And I could actually spend more time just watching them. It's the most amazing thing I saw when I was a kid and it still amazed me even now.

"Seeing fireflies for the first time is like being magically taken transported into your childhood days, into a world of fairies and dreams and of everything that's beautiful. I remember the night I say them, it was such a dark night.
All of the sunnier, there they were, guiding my path like a floating stars, stars within my reach, stars I could take home with my in the palm of my hands.

Seeing fireflies, real stars so close to heaven."
taken from

Seeing fireflies for the first time - by Joyce