December 2021 Articles Summary As a new month begin, I want to share the summary of all the articles we have published on this account last month. December is probably the time where we published the least amount of articles due to many reasons. We were busy most times so as much as we wanted to publish an article, we cannot do so. Anyway, we still did our best to share some articles with you. **Draining Days** https://read.cash/@ZehraSky/draining-days-ba10c5f2 This is an…
@ZehraSky in January 2022
One color at a time If there is anything that really stuck with me last year, it is the lesson of not chewing more than I can bite. Year 2021 was a year where I pushed the boundaries I know and I had been as productive as my body would allow me. While this was manageable at first, after a few months of stretching myself thin the toll it took on me finally started showing. I had a bit of a relapse of my anxiety and depression (although thankfully, I did not need to seek…
Shame comes knocking In life, shame is probably one of the things that is similar for everyone. Most of us treat shame as something to be kept for ourselves, something to be hidden from everyone else. It is not meant to be shared, or so we thought. Recently, I started reading a book written by Brené Brown called "The Gifts of Imperfection: Embrace Who You Are". The book started with Dr. Brown sharing about her years studying shame and what she found about it. I am not going…
To Whom I Will Become We just closed our chapter 2021. How was your celebration for new year? Did you celebrate it with your family or you're at work during this time? How ever we welcome the new year, 2022, I want you guys to know that I am praying for a year full of abundance and healing for you and your family. For this year, I set up an individual and family goals to focus on. I want to share with you my priorities this 2022. I included prayer while setting these goals.…
Things to remember this 2022 The start of the year is usually filled with more motivation than any other time of the year. This is usually the time where we hype ourselves up into changing for the better as well as starting better habits than last year. As the new year rolls around, I want to share some things that I believe are important to remember this 2022. **Everything will not get magically better** **It is normal to feel down** **Be gentle with yourself** **A small…
The Holidays I know it is a little too late to share this but I still want to post something as a documentation of how our family celebrated the holidays. We don't usually post on social media pictures about it, our parents are a very private/lazy persons in terms of using social media. So I chose this platform to at least have a memory of this important happenings in out lives. **CHRISTMAS** We don't usually put extravagant food on our tables, only if we are celebrating…
Patience has never been my strong suit Growing up, I have always been aware how short-tempered and impatient I am. It has not always been something that bothered me before. I thought it was normal to be like that as most of the people around me are like that. As I get more experiences, I realize that not everyone has a short temper nor patience. Some even seems like they can never run out of patience for people who kept repeating their mistakes. Unlike me who has grown up…
A Beautiful Smile To Hide The Pain ***January 07, 2021*** As I have mentioned before, the reason why I have been inactive last December is not only because of work shedule but also because of my toothache. This day I have reached the extreme pain I can handle. I got to the point that I don't pay attention on the time I should take my medicine. When I feel the pain, I just take one pill regardles if it's just been an hour from the time I first took my medicine. There's this…
The aftermath In life, it is expected to encounter failures in our path. There are many ways to overcome these challenges. One can bulldoze their way through and hope that with enough will power, they manage to take down whatever is stopping them from moving forward. They can sidestep the problem and hope that it will not shadow them in the future. They can face it and plan how to overcome the obstacles in from. Or one can ignore it and pretend it does not exist. Personally,…
The Real Magic As a child, I grew up thinking of a world where magic exists. A world where one could control the earth, or the water. A place where one could be magical. Tonight I encountered a magical world just like that. Well, to be more precise, I met a magical family along with my partner. The place where they lived is so beautiful and one can clearly see the magic that surrounds their home. If you do not know the family I am talking about here, they are the Madrigals…
Memories Down The Lane This February, we will be celebrating Moshi's first birthday. Our very first dog that stayed with us for so long and counting. She had been our lucky charm from the day she arrived. She made our family became closer and she saved me from sadness. As her furmom, I would like to share the joy we get not only by her presence but also by looking at her photos. This is worth it of your time. ***Presenting her baby pictures***: This is the time where my…
Finally present As an overthinker, I usually change my mind a few minutes after I made a decision. Sometimes, I would say the change of decision outloud but most times, I stay quiet and suck it up. My mindset is that I already agreed to something so backing out at the last second is rude. This logic gave way to some uncomfortable situations where I think to myself that I really should have just told no. Rarely did I experience something great by forcing myself to push…
Missing The Waves Due to the increasing cases of the new Covid variant, a strict implementation of travelling were activated to some provinces. I was planning to welcome the year with another travel but for safety purposes, I chose to stay at home. I just can't help to miss nature from time to time. When everything gets better, the first place I want to visit this year is Vigan. It has always been my dream to be at the places that holds a big part in our history. I am also…
A true friend Friendship is definitely a powerful bond to have. Many seek this amazing companionship even to the point of changing themselves just to fit in. This is especially true for young adults where friendship circles are made based on your hierarchy in the social ladder at your respective schools. Or well, that is how the social circles formed at our school. Anyway, sometimes friendships made in highschool are for a lifetime. These friends will be with you through…
Love it when you hate me *If you don't, I won't be able to walk away on our paradise full of lies. If you keep on loving me, I will be blinded and ignore all the warnings. I will stay and endure it all. I will believe and trust you again.* "Sana pinatay mo nalang ako" (You should have killed me). I showered you with love, true with no pretention. I gave it all because I don't want us to break but all you did was ruin it. Was I never enough? I've been with you through ups and…
The promises we made *Promises are made to be broken.* This is a sentence that I am infinitely familiar with. As a child I remember that I used to believe the promises said to me. That is until, I experienced many broken promises to finally believe that a promise carries no weight. After graduating high school, a batchmate shared a post about what a priest said during his sermon. It was stated that the priest started the sermon by asking the churchgoers to complete the…
The things I miss 2019 seems like ages ago. I have almost forgotten what was normal before the pandemic. I remember being so optimistic that I will get to see my friends after a few months at most but now it has been 2 years. The effects of the pandemic still limit our movements. I know that some countries started easing their restrictions. Some have already conducted face to face classes. Some are even allowed to go without a face mask. However, in our country, the same can…
A Small Drop of Change Time moves too fast and we are already halfway through the first month of 2022. At the start of it, I made some personal decisions on the things that I would like to slowly change. Almost 3 weeks in and I can say that I have been mostly successful because I keep trying. No matter how hard it felt like to keep choosing the change that I wanted, I resisted the temptation to fall back to bad habits. I do not always win against the temptation, but I still…
Dear Friend, ***3:00AM MNL*** I was on my shift when out of the blue I scrolled through my gallery and saw our last trip in Batangas. I can clearly see how bright we smile as if our problems are nonexistential. We care less about the life we left in Manila and lived our very lives at the moment. I wish we can go back there, when we can still escape our problems for a while. It's been 6 months since we last heard from you. I know you are not okay but all I can do is to…
Another (and hopefully last) Shot Yesterday was our scheduled date to get the booster shot against COVID-19. My sisters and I had our second dose last July 13 so it has taken us six months to get the booster shot. We did not do anything to have our schedule, we just received a text out of blue telling us of our schedule and the site where we can get it. Thankfully, the site for our vaccination is at SM Megamall so it was easy to travel there plus there is airconditioner so…
A Sad Day ***January 21, 2022*** I was supposed to write a different article today when I heard the news that my auntie died. She was the wife of my uncle who we visited last December. *It was a really sad news*. Last time we saw her, she was still healthy and jolly as her usual self, regardless of her sleepless nights taking care of my uncle who just got out of the hospital. She even told me that she was on a diet and I should too. Haha! Until one day, we received a news…
The Inevitable There are two things in this world that are inevitable. Change and death. Change happens all the time whether we want it or not. It happens whether we notice it or not. Change is also the easier inevitable to deal with. With change, at least there is hope for something better. But what happens after death? No one knows for sure. Many religions tried to explain what happens after death but usually their explanations are full of fear-mongering that many people…
I am still not ready There are certain times when I thought I was prepared for something until it is the day before it happens. There are perhaps no amount of preparation that could ever get me ready for all things that need to happen. A week ago, I was confident that I could handle the new semester without faltering. It is perhaps from my good mood when I saw my name in the Dean's List. Or perhaps I just really want to get it over with. Yesterday morning, I distracted…
Responsibilities of being the Eldest ***If moms are the light of our home, what do you call the eldest daughter?*** I come across a post that asked that question. As I read the comment section, I found it funny that most of us call ourselves as the flashlight of our home. It may sound funny, but in a serious note, if the light runs out on our homes, we have our backup to the rescue-- a flashlight. As we celebrated the end of 2021, I was hoping for abundant things to happen…
A Reasonable Doubt Sometimes, there are moments in our lives where we felt so sure about something. We would not even see the point of discussing something because we think everything points into this narrative that we are told. I never thought about this much before. I never wonder if I might have some things that I unquestionably believe just because things seem to paint that right picture in my mind. That is until this evening. This night, I watched a movie with my…
Good morning, everyone. Some of you might have noticed that we removed the part in our article where we usually add a small gift for the first reader. The dip in the market right now is part of the reason for this decision. Another thing is that we are trying to save for a bit since the future is a bit unclear. Of course, once the situation stabilizes we will start to put the small gift back into our articles. As alway, thank you for the support you have given me and my…
The Other Side When we were young, my youngest sister had a project in her school-- this is during her elementary days. The topic was to create a fictional story that has a valuable meaning. I don't know if Zehra can still remember this, but we helped it each other to make that project. *The story goes like this:* In the world we are living, Jane came from a poor family. With no capacity to go to school, she grew up working alongside with her mother, selling vegetables on…
Habits that you might want to let go Life is a series of events that lead to multiple habits that build up who we are. These habits became a part of our lives due to their repeated reoccurrence. Most times, habits are good for us since it gives us a solid foundation of what to expect. It makes life a bit predictable at least in our mind. Habits give us a routine which we follow again and again. However, sometimes habits are not beneficial to us. Instead of helping us be…
Patience, Patience Since we will be entering a new peak season in my account's work, us agents got reshuffled by team and were distributed to new leaders that will handle us. It is an agents worst nightmare to be on a leaders bucket that she's not familiar with. Which basically what's happening to me right now. I have been an employee on my work for a year and never have I ever had any complaints with the leaders who handled me, but this instance is an excuse. I was included…
Boundaries in Relationship Modern dating is such a tricky path to navigate. With many confusing stuff that people do during dating, what should have been a fairly straight forward thing becomes complicated. There are so many terms that popped up trying to capture the types of people you can and will encounter in dating during this period. Social media also played a huge part in this. Cultivating unhealthy expectations and relationship narratives is a recipe for disaster. One…
The trap in self-help books One of the things that I kept seeing when I started my self-lobe journey was to read self-help books. It makes sense after all, if you want to learn where to start then read about other people's journey to self-love. Reading self-help books was immensely satisfying. It felt like I was becoming wiser day by day. Each page I pass felt like I was closer to the finish line. The finish line being when I finally love myself. Reading these books help me…
The Hardest Goodbye ***The hardest goodbye is when you know you will never get to say "Hello" again.*** **January 29, 2022** This day was my aunt's last day of wake. I invited my friend who is close to my aunt's family to go there since I was not able to visit yet because of my work's schedule-- she agreed. We arrived at the wake 49 minutes past 8 in the evening. Since it is the last day, there were a lot of people who were there. All of them were fully vaccinated and we…
January 2022 Articles Summary It is the end of the month so it is time to share the links to all of the articles we managed to publish in this account. I am pretty proud of ourselves this month because we actually managed to publish 30 articles. Manju missed one article when she had a toothache and a fever. Well, I guess if you count this articles summary we technically managed to publish 31 articles this January. It is amazing considering that we are both busy most of the…