The gift

Over forty decades ago, he was born. Little did anyone know that he was born specifically to be God's gift to me.

To the man in my life, Mr. T, who has always been patient and kind and tender and loving to me, without fail, and who always does his best to make me happy and cater to all my needs, and who always picks me up each time I fall, and treats my wounds and heals my ailments, please know that everyday I thank God for giving you to me, despite all the odds, despite all the many missed chances. Sometimes, when we think something is not meant to be but it still happens, it only means that greater powers are in force, and we can only surrender.

Happy birthday, my love.

The ground I walk on

is literally strewn with rose petals in pink, white, and red today, in honor of my birthday. This is the loving and thoughtful project of the man in my life, Mr. T, who had successfully surprised me with this.

He did surprise me on the "salubong" of my birthday by presenting me with a bouquet of red roses, and I thought that was that, but when he walked me to my office, this is what I saw.

And I had another bouquet of red roses on top of my office printer. I felt like a beloved princess.

Thank you so much to Mr. T for pulling off this wonderful, magical surprise, one that no one has ever done for me before. My admiration goes out to him, too, for being able to stick with me for as long as he has. I know I'm not an easy person to live with, and our union is not all perfect, but it's real, and we have patterned our life around it, and we treat our union as important, and there is sincere love in it. And for now, that's okay.

I am looking forward to the rest of my life with him, come what may, whatever storms or glitches or darkness or interruptions may come. The ground I walk on shall always be strewn with rose petals and the love that he has laid down for me.

Working with planners (or, My YouTube channel)

Some of you might not know it yet, but I have a YouTube channel. It's called My Favorite Things. And even if not all of my favorite things are featured in that channel, what is actually in that channel are planner- and planner-related topics.

I make videos to share setups of my planners and some ideas on how they work for me. I also feature what ever new designs and items are up for sale on My Etsy store. It might seem banal -- and a tad obsessive -- to talk about planners and planning so much, but my OCD is actually relieved when I work with these things.

Because of the system that I have designed for myself, things actually get done. And on days when the Depressive Monster (the other extreme of my Bipolar continuum) rears its ugly head, my planner is an amazing tool to just plow through my day and my tasks with resolve and courage.

Why not blog about it instead? Because I want this blog to be about other things. It helps to compartmentalize my channels for expression and sharing: YouTube for planner things, Blogger for everything else.

So if you have some time, please drop by my YouTube channel. I hope you like my videos, and please feel free to subscribe.