Simply Belle

When I was little, I’ve experienced so many typhoons, earthquakes, and floods, and what not in the province of Catanduanes. And at some point in time, we were experiencing earthquakes, one after another,  on a daily basis. We would go out of the house and stay on the ground for as long as the quakes lasted. It created a phobia and trauma in me.  In order for me to deal with the earthquakes, I would shake my body as hard as I could when I knew it was coming so I wouldn’t feel the tremor as much until it was over. My parents would say, “mahukom na” or “the judgement is here.” Hukom was such a scary word for me because I thought it meant the end of the world. And I said to myself, “why would God ruin the earth He created?” It didn’t make sense to me.

Will earth remain forever? Will it be brought to ruin? The creator of the universe gives us books to reveal the answer to these questions. All we have to do is  open our Bible. Do you have one? If not, let me know and I will give you one.

James 1:17 – “Every good gift and every perfect present is from above, for it comes down from the father of the celestial lights, and with him there is not a variation of the turning of the shadow.” James’ account gives a picture of the beautiful earth and where it originates.

Psalm 115:16 – “As regards the heavens, to God (Jehovah) the heavens belongs, but the earth He has given to the sons of men.”

Isaiah 45:18 – “For this is what Jehovah has said, the Creator of the heavens, He the true God, the Former of the earth and the Maker of it, He the One who firmly established it, who did not create it simply for nothing, who formed it even to the inhabited. “I am Jehovah, and there is no one else.” So God created earth not  to tear it apart or bring to destruction but for people to live in it.

Ecclesiastes 1:4 – “A generation is going, and a generation is coming, but the earth is standing even to time indefinite.”

Of all the planets known to men, earth is obviously the prettiest. When an astronaut went to space, the only colors that he saw were emanating from the earth like the royal blue of the sea, the tans and browns of the earth, the luscious greens of the forest, etc. God created it perfectly for us to inhabit and so we should do anything in our power to take care of the earth.

Nowadays, humans because of greed and selfishness mismanaged the earth. Will the earth’s damage beyond repair as a result? No! God (Jehovah) produced an ecosystem to help the earth recover. He has a way of fixing things. Like a polluted water can be filtered by passing it through rocks or gravels. Even though humans have caused so much destruction on this earth, God, will restore our earth like it used to be because earth is meant to be inhabited. Ecclesiastes 7:29 says “See! This only I have found, that the true God made mankind upright, but they themselves have sought out many plans.”

But Psalm 37:29 says, “The righteous themselves will possess the earth, and they will reside forever upon it.” It shows that the earth will be here forever for the righteous ones, the meek ones, and teachable ones to dwell on it. 2 Peter 3:5-7 says “For, according to their wish, this fact escapes their notice, that there were heavens from of old and an earth standing compactly out of water and in the midst of water by the word of God. and by those means the world of that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water. But by the same word the heavens and the earth that are now are stored up for fire and are being reserved to the day of judgment and of the destruction of the ungodly men.” Proverbs 2:21-22 – “For the upright are the ones that will reside in the earth, and the blameless are the ones that will be left over in it. And as regards the wicked, they will be cut off from the very earth, and as for the treacherous, they will be torn away from it.”

Revelation 21: 3-5 says “With that I heard a loud voice from the throne say “Look! The tent of god is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. and God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.” And the One seated on the throne said: “Look! I am making all things new.” Also he says “Write, because these words are faithful and true.”"

Isaiah 60:13 says “To you the very glory of Lebanon will come, the juniper tree, the ash tree, and the cypress at the same time, in order to beautify the place of my sanctuary and I shall glorify the very place of my feet.” The very place of God’s feet is the earth itself.

God’s name means he causes to be or to become. And He will make sure that our beautiful planet earth is here to stay.

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The trip to San Diego the second time was not something I looked forward to. In the hotel room, I kept waking up the night prior to the day of my appointment. A lot of things were popping in my mind. Of course, I am terrified at the thought of losing some key teeth that are responsible for chewing my food. But what matters most to me now is my health and had I known that keeping my tooth would have ill effects in my body, I would have chosen other option. You see dentists don’t warn you about the dangers of root canals or they are not aware of it. Or they choose to believe that the procedure is safe and we take their word for it.

I am also worried about the pain associated with root canal removal. A month ago, my lower mouth didn’t respond to Novocaine that well and so I felt a deep sharp pain when my tooth was being extracted. That terrified me! Also, since my 2 year-old bridge had to be taken out, the thought of it scared me as last time I had it removed, there was so much hammering involved and if my brain could just talk, it would have yelled at the dentist, STOP! I have been through so much with dentist and with the removal of my infected root canals, I am hoping that I will require lesser dental work in the future. That is my ultimate goal and to incorporate a 99% sugar-free and refined-food-free to my current diet.

Fortunately, the removal of my 2 other root canals in my upper left mouth went pretty easy. Thank goodness! Despite the heavy Novocaine I was under, I could feel when a tooth was about ready to come loose. With the previous three root canal extractions though, my teeth gave a pretty good fight as if they didn’t want to come off, and some deep discomfort – reason why I was terrified and anxious with my second trip to the dentist.

Then to my surprise, they didn’t bleed as much as the other three which made my dentist a little concerned. He said the tooth towards the back of my mouth was infected and created a hole through my sinus and with inadequate bleeding, it could possibly create a dry socket and he didn’t want it to happen. He wanted it to bleed to promote the formation of a blood clot to fill up the hole that the root canal had created due to an infection. And I didn’t have a slightest clue that this was happening inside of me except that I had recurring lumps and tumor in my breast in spite of a healthy stellar diet I am on. I also had experienced other ailments like excruciating pain in my left abdomen once that required a trip to Urgent Care, floaters in eyes, severe forgetfulness, etc. All the while, I thought my new root canals that were done by a dentist in Payson, probably just about 2 years old, were fine. Tsk tsk!

So, he put me under observation for an hour in his office while he attended to my husband’s mouth. He had 3 amalgam fillings removed. He also discovered that one of his tooth that came off on its own a year ago left a bone in the jaw and was not detected by a regular dentist through x-ray here in Payson. So, the dentist needs to get it out on our next appointment, probably early next year or whenever we find time.

An hour later, while my Novocaine was starting to wear off, he saw me again in his office, and this time, he spent time bleeding the extraction site on one tooth by applying some pressure on it and thank God, he successfully bled it – a must for healing.

Right now, I have to be really extra careful with my extraction sites. I can’t sneeze or cough or drink through a straw to avoid creating a dry socket from extraction sites while everything is raw. Thank goodness, I opted to stay home and so I avoid the allergens at work that seem to get people sneeze quite easily.

Also, I am keeping a careful watch of my lingering pain in my left waistline that travels below my shoulder blade that has kept me from doing several activities like weeding and sitting for a long period of time. The longest time I can weed in my yard is half an hour and after that, I will be in so much pain. When I deliver mail in my truck, I have to prop a pillow in my lower back to alleviate the discomfort. The last time it hurt profusely, it left me almost immobile and thankfully, it only lasted for a short while. If my pain disappears, I’d definitely attribute it to the removal of root canals. Let’s see.

I saved my 5 root canaled teeth in case I decide to write a journal to show to people who are interested.

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