Regardless of how religious you are, the following is inspiring. Here's a great interview with Rick Warren. He wrote the Purpose Driven Life, A highly recommended book.

You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having 'wealth' from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren, 'Purpose Driven Life ' author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California. In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren,

Rick said: People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal.. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness. This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for...

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems: If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, which is my problem, my issues, my pain.' But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others. We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her- It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people. You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease...

So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72. First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit.. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free. We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)? When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're called human beings, not human doings...

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An old country preacher had a teenage son, and it was getting time the boy should give some thought to choosing a profession. Like many young men, the boy didn't really know what he wanted to do, and he didn't seem too concerned about it .

One day, while the boy was away to school, his father decided to try an experiment. He went into the boy's room and placed on his study table four objects:

A Bible
A Silver Dollar
A bottle of Whisky
And a Playboy magazine.

'I'll just hide behind the door, the old preacher said to himself, 'and when he comes home from school this afternoon, I'll see which object he picks up.'

'If it's the Bible, he's going to be a preacher like me, and what a blessing that would be!

'If he picks up the dollar, he's going to be a business man, and that would be okay, too.

'But, if he picks up the bottle, he's going to be a no-good drunkard, and Lord, what a shame that would be.

'And worst of all, if he picks up that magazine, he's going to be a skirt-chasing bum.'

The old man waited anxiously, and soon heard his son's footsteps as he entered the house whistling and headed for his room. The boy tossed his books on the bed, and as he turned to leave the room, he spotted the objects on the table. With curiosity in his eye, he walked over to inspect them.

Finally, he picked up the Bible and placed it under his arm. He picked up the Silver Dollar and dropped into his pocket. He uncorked the bottle and took a big drink while he admired this month's centerfold.

'Lord have mercy,' the old preacher disgustedly whispered,
'He's gonna run for Congress!'

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It's been a few months now since I had my eyes checked up and I was required to wear eyeglasses by the eye doctor. He gave me the eyeglasses prescription and I went to order from one of the opticals here in our city. I ordered two eyeglasses of the cheapest style they sell but it's still expensive to me. When I got it, I was not satisfied. The eyeglasses make me look old and I didn't even want to wear it. A few weeks after that, I came across Zenni optical which sells very cheap eyeglasses. Zenni is very popular now. It was featured in a tv program and lately in a popular magazine. Zenni Optical in the New York Times?! You heard it right. New York Times mentioned that Zenni offers low cost frames and eyeglasses. In fact they have lots of customers and that includes me because they sell quality but very cheap prescription eyeglasses for only $8! It's a good thing that I made a copy of my eyeglasses prescription so I was able to order my eyeglasses from Zenni. After a couple of weeks, my eyeglasses arrived in the mail and I was so pleased. The frame looks good and I really like it. See the photo below.
I also ordered a clip on sunglasses and I just used it during sunny days. Seeing Straight Without Breaking Bank is really possible with the help of Zenni Optical. I'm a happy customer of them. So, why not order your prescription eyeglasses from Zenni?

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A study has linked high blood levels of vitamin C with lower blood pressure in young women.

The study involved almost 250 women. They entered the trial when they were 8 to 11 years old, and over a 10-year period, their plasma levels of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and blood pressure were monitored. Both their systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings, were found to be inversely associated with ascorbic acid levels.

Previous research had already linked high plasma levels of vitamin C with lower blood pressure among middle-age and older adults.

Uncontrolled high blood pressure (hypertension) is a serious health concern that can cause heart disease and increase your risk of having a stroke. It is especially danger­ous because hypertension often has no warning signs or symptoms. Amazingly, the risk of becoming hypertensive is greater than 90 percent for indi­viduals in developed countries, according to research published in the Lancet two years ago.

But the really great news is that over 85 percent of those who have hypertension can normalize their blood pressure through lifestyle modifications, whereas statistics show over half of people taking multiple medications for high blood pressure are still not able to manage their condition.

So if you have hypertension, or hope to avoid it, know that there are simple steps you can take to balance your blood pressure without harmful and/or ineffective medications!

Vitamin C and Your Blood Pressure

Several studies have examined the impact of vitamin C on blood pressure. Vitamin C is an antioxidant, which helps neutralize cell-damaging free radicals. Research has shown that antioxidants can help to reduce high blood pressure, possibly by protecting your body's supply of nitric oxide, a molecule that relaxes blood vessels.

The current study, published in the Nutrition Journal, found that both the systolic and diastolic (top and bottom) readings were inversely associated with ascorbic acid levels.

Specifically, women with the highest levels of ascorbic acid had a decline of about 4.6 mm Hg in systolic and just over 6 mm Hg in diastolic blood pressure, compared with women with the lowest ascorbic acid levels.

Previous research has also confirmed that adding vitamin C to your diet can help to reverse the degenerative process caused by free radicals, resulting in lower blood pressure levels.

Interestingly, vitamin C can also give extra oomph to other antioxidants, such as catechins, which are naturally occurring antioxidants found in green tea.

Green tea has been linked to heart- and cardiovascular health as it improves both blood flow and the ability of your arteries to relax. One 2007 study discovered that complementing green tea with either citrus juices or vitamin C increases the amount of catechins available for your body to absorb.

The possibility of a natural agent being able to lower blood pressure and help prevent heart disease is certainly worth noting, especially when you consider the damage that many, if not most, drugs can do.

For example, beta-blockers -- a class of drugs frequently prescribed to manage high blood pressure and as cardioprotection after a heart attack -- have been found to cause type 2 diabetes by decreasing your insulin sensitivity. This, as you will see in the next section, is actually promoting the very problem you’re trying to solve.

Your best bet is to focus on getting plenty of fruits and vegetables in your diet; the types and amounts being adjusted based on your nutritional type.

But if you decide to supplement with vitamin C, it is important to remember that it is a water-soluble vitamin and ideally should be taken at least three times a day. It is also best taken with bioflavanoids, which further enhance its benefits.

Please note that if you are highly sensitive to vitamin C, you may experience diarrhea. This is an indication that you need to lower your dosage.

That said, something else may have a far greater impact on your blood pressure than vitamin C and antioxidants, although they may help alleviate high blood pressure to a certain degree. It should be perfectly clear to everyone that these nutrients are not the cure for high blood pressure, but they can provide some protection while you address the main causes of your problem.

Insulin – A MAJOR Player in Regulating Blood Pressure

Groundbreaking research published in 1998 in the journal Diabetes reported that nearly two-thirds of the test subjects who were insulin resistant also had high blood pressure. This crucial connection between insulin resistance and hypertension is yet another example of how wide-ranging the debilitating effects of high insulin, leptin and blood glucose levels can have on your body.

Additionally, previous research has revealed that if your blood pressure doesn’t drop notably overnight, you run an increased risk of having cardiovascular problems. Here, the connection is also elevated blood sugar (glucose) levels as elevated blood sugars can result in diabetes and other diseases which increase cardiovascular problems.

Hence, if you have hypertension, chances are good that you also have poorly controlled blood sugar levels. The two problems often go hand in hand.

And if your hypertension is the direct result of an out-of-control blood sugar level, then normalizing your blood sugar levels will also bring your blood pressure readings into the healthy range.

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Our trip to the Philippines is getting closer. My hubby and I have been busy packing up our things. I didn't realize how hard it was to pack until I started it. We've been doing it for a few days already but it seems like the packing is unending. We already have given away a lot of stuffs that we can't take with us but still there are lots of things remaining. My step-kids came last week and got some of the furniture and appliances and a lot more. We also had given some to my friends and also to our neighbor. We had thrown a bunch in the dumpster and my hubby had given some to Salvation army. I didn't realize how much we got until I packed. Hopefully, we will be done tomorrow and leave this house on Monday. We will go to my step-daughter's house and spend Christmas and New Year there before we fly to the Philippines. I'm already excited to see my family but at the same time sad because I'll be leaving my friends and family here in Texas. I'm pretty sure I gonna miss them when my hubby and I will leave.

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I just created another blog folks. I hope you will visit it too by clicking here. I didn't want to make another blog but since this blog of mine has been flagged down by PPP, I decided to create another one. I even bought a domain because it's on sale right now at 1and1. I only paid $3.99 for my domain for 1 year and it's really a good deal. See you in my other blog entitled Memory Lane.

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