Please Remind Me To / 01

In this modern world of one-liner pseudo-wisdom and exchange of ideas, when you can't see who you're talking to in person, and it just feels so good to fight back with angst-ridden remarks – that's when the enemy strikes and you forget that your God will be sad and that there are words that you can't take back anymore. It happened to me last night. And while I basically know what I am doing and I think I did a pretty good job in not "making a scene" virtually, I still regret that I allowed it to happen. I thought that I have the choice to pursue what is lovely and make it blissful (yes, I just hafta use it). It's not too late to do it, though. Maybe for some, it's satisfying [to fight back] but having to do it online is a lose-lose situation; especially if you are doing it against someone who somehow makes it as her bread and butter.

So my dear friends, who care for me and love me, please remind me to:

- always choose my battles wisely. I am no longer fifteen who craves for attention and wants validation from complete strangers. At 31, I should know my worth, my value and best if it comes from me and no one else. Also, a status or tweet is not a guarantee of anyone's maturity. 

- ignore and shun away bad thoughts when I see an annoying post. What may be annoying for me may be cool for others and I may be annoying for some, too. Instead of mentally raising my middle finger to that person, why not use the index finger by sliding the page up. Let it go, really. 

- live my life outside my online sanctuary. While being active on social media plays a vital role in a millennial mom's online experience, still, the best kind of life happens beyond the likes and comments from people who don't smell your fart. Don't cook food just for #bebengcooks hashtag on Instagram, do it for the girl and R. Don't go to places just so I can check-in, just go. Don't prettify for selfie but for yourself. 

- blog about the bad things that happened only if I have already got through it. Blogging may be a personal thing and that it stands as an extension of your real life but it will be memories that will be unfolded in the future. I don't want to be reminded of the silly things I said online when I'm already old and gray and so much wiser. Or when the girl starts to have access to the internet. The horror. 

- never forget that I am a Christian. Enough said.

What else do you think should I be reminded of?

Checking In

The hiatus was intentional. I was not missing at all, I'm still in the circulation. I may have taken a rest from this space but I was all over the messy, happy place that is the cosmic universe. I've been throwing photos taken from this city all the way to my one thousand plus Instagram followers. I've been cooking simple meals at home and sharing its recipes with my followers on Facebook. I pin for sanity or for the girl's upcoming party. Lastly, Twitter has absorbed all the unnecessary one-liner randomness I can think at the moment. Mostly showbiz stuff, not biggie controversies. I know I bid goodbye to the blue bird some months ago but you know, I kinda miss it. Yes, the bird. So I tweet my stupidities when I'm bored. It's not an avenue to showcase intellect, after all. 

I'm not sure how many of my past Bebengisms readers are still here. Just want to say hi and that I miss you. I miss this. I miss us. Whoa, it's like we got into a long romantic relationship that didn't end well! Ugh, too much teleserye. Pangako *coughs* Sa'yo. LOL. Seriously, whenever I'm here, although I know I won't see your reactions, I feel like I have thrown my thoughts in a big box of party where there are people waiting for me; for whatever I have to say. Or so I hope. 

I was daydreaming one day and decided that this blog will be full of stories. No whys, no reasons. 

If there's one thing that makes me crave for this blog more is that I have the freedom to write what I want to write. I can still go and have sponsored posts here (like that of Lysol) but the brands and collaborators are fully aware that my readers will hear my voice and not someone else.

I'd like everyone to know that I am happier now because I am blogging in my terms. 

Indeed, when you stay true to your purpose, whatever it is that you do (in this argument, this blog), blessings, the kind that is rightfully yours, will naturally come your way. It can be gifts from sponsors that you timingly need or a partnership that can put food on the table. But the best blessing I have received because of sticking to my guts was love. 

I felt more love when I promised to be genuine in every thing I say or do -- more love for myself that was forgotten at some point years back, married kind of love from my husband, sweet love from my baby girl, and understanding love from the people who accept me for who I am.

It is love that makes this ordinary blog extraordinary.

Selective Sharenting, Please

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I was already a mom when R opened our joint Facebook account. He did it for Farmville. Well, games and our big boys; it's inevitable. Eventually, he opened his own account and I took over the old one. Over the past six years of using it, I regretfully committed cyber sins — I ranted as if I didn't have a friend, spilled out a lot of controversial family issues and shared around a thousand photos of randomness of my little girl. The latter, in all honesty, can cause a dose of eyes rolling from some single humans in my friends' list. In fact, in 2013, The Wall Street Journal coined a term, called sharenting, to emphasize exactly what most parents do in their social media accounts nowadays.

Sharenting is used to describe the overuse of social media by parents who share content based on their children. It is related to the concept of "too much information".

Poetry and Instagram

To commence this post, I'll share this Nickelback's Photograph parody first that left me and R in craziness overload.

Two months ago, when I signed up for Instagram, my first few photos were lame, nonsense and wrong in every angle. If there's like an academy for aspiring Instagrammers, I will definitely enroll. But no, few weeks after, I'm learning the art of it. Yes, there is art in Instagram.