Hey Helen,
So it's your 17th birthday. I just wanted to let you know that you are so important to me. We have known each other since we were little, back in the day when I would go to the little girl's room without going to the little girl's room.. If you know what I mean, jellybean.

You are my best mega tween friend and my lil_ice_champ47. But more importantly, you are my sister in Christ. We've endured Maths and English tutor together, recited our memory verses on Sundays, hung out at crazy Asian parties and have worn matching flower girl dresses at crazy Asian weddings.

You are like a breath of fresh air when the world seems to suffocate me with its worldliness. You are always looking to the brighter side of things and rarely anything gets you down. You never seem to have anything let you down because you won't let it.

You're a no-fuss, stick-to-the-basics kind of girl. You're laid back and down to earth. Your simplicity reminds me of a child. Though you are mature like a 17 year old, you stay optimistic like a 5 year old. You have not been tainted by cynicism with age.

You resemble hope.

It has been a blessing to have been your friend for so long. We've never had a single fight in the past 13 years and it won't seem likely for many more years to come. You are patient and understanding. You make me feel like I'm the most hilarious person in the world. I feel appreciated when you laugh until you can't breathe at the silly things I do.

I thank God that He has brought us together in His name. What better way to bond than to bond over our love for Christ? You have been encouraging me every week at church and still continue to do so. Thank you for that. Thank you for being so.. you.

I hope and pray that you will continue to serve with a humble heart. God bless you, Helen.

Labels: Birthdays, Lovely truths, Thanks

"...But Affection has its own criteria. Its objects have to be familiar. We can sometimes point to the very day and hour when we fell in love or began a new friendship. I doubt if we ever catch Affection beginning. To become aware of it is to become aware that it has already been going on for some time. The use of "old" or vieux as a term of Affection is significant. The dog barks at strangers who have never done it any harm and wags it tail for old acquaintances even if they never did it a good turn. The child will love a crusty old gardener who has hardly ever taken any notice of it and shrink from the visitor who is making every attempt to win its regard. But it must be an old gardener, one who has "always" been there--the short but seemingly immemorial "always" of childhood.

Affection as I have said, is the humblest love, It gives itself no airs. People can be proud of being "in love," or of friendship. Affection is modest--even furtive and shame-faced. Once when I had remarked on the affection quite often found between cat and dog, my friend replied, "Yes. But I bet no dog would ever confess it to the other dogs." That is at least a good caricature of much human Affection. "Let homely faces stay at home," says Comus. Now Affection has a very homely face. So have many of those for whom we feel it. It is no proof of our refinement or perceptiveness that we love them; nor that they love us. What I have called Appreciative love is no basic element in Affection. It usually needs absence or bereavement to set us praising those to whom only Affection binds us. We take them for granted: and this taking for granted, which is an outrage in erotic love, is here right and proper up to a point. It fits the comfortable, quiet nature of the feeling. Affection would not be affection if it was loudly and frequently expressed; to produce it in public is like getting your household furniture out for a move. It did very well in its place, but it looks shabby or tawdry or grotesque in sunshine. Affection almost slinks or seeps through our lives. It lives with humble un-dress, private things; soft slippers, old clothes, old jokes, the thump of a sleepy dog's tail on the kitchen floor, the sound of a sewing-machine, a gollywog left on the lawn."

As told by C. S. Lewis in the "Four Loves" pp. 33-34.

Labels: Quotes

1. You will receive a body.
You may love it or hate it, but it will be yours for the duration of your life on Earth.

2. You will be presented with lessons.
You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called "life". Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or hate them, but you have designed them as part of your curriculum.

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons.
Growth is a process of experimentation, a series of trials, errors and occasional victories. The failed experiments are as much as a part of the process as the experiments that work.

4. The lesson is repeated until learned.
Lessons will be repeated to you in various forms until you have learned them. When you have learned them, you can go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning does not end.
There is no part of life that does not contain lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

6. "There" is no better than "here".
When your "there" has become "here" you will simply obtain another "there" that will look better to you than your present "here".

7. Others are only mirrors of you.
You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.

8. What you make of your life is up to you.
You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you.

9. Your answers lie inside of you.
All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

10. You will forget all this.

Chérie Carter-Scott

Labels: Chicken Soup For The Soul

From: Jenny Dao
Subject: Jenny Dao wants to keep up with you on Twitter

To find out more about Twitter, visit the link below:
http://twitter.com/i/deafe017142140db7044566433da2c1d176ca9b9

Thanks,
-The Twitter Team

Labels: Sign up exclamation mark, Too lazy to invite people on Twitter thingy