I just want to share that two years ago I went to
see St Therese's remains
when it was put on display in the Carmelite Church
in QC. I went there because I was curious what was this euphoria about
the world's youngest saint whose job is to grant people's wishes?
So I went with friend Lyn and I must admit the life of the little child,
Therese intrigued me. It turned out she was a child
who wanted to serve her God more than anything else was in the w! world.
Thus, in every chore that she did -- watering the plants, even -- she
performed it like it was for her master. Since all her siblings were
Carmelite nuns, she became a nun herself. I think (12)? To be
allowed inside the convent. So we're like talking here of a purely
"uncorrupted soul." And then she died.
But she left a journal (suggested reading)! which contained all her
thoughts about God, love and life (as written below). Since then she
became the saint who grants all wishes. I couldn't recall where I stored
the souvenir petal that I took out of the many roses that adorned her glass
urn. But believe it or not, my wish was granted! Not because I said a
novena but knowing about her life and reading her works inspired me and
made me more patient and persevering.
According to religious beliefs, St. Theresa was known as "The Little Flower" - whenever you pray to her for a miracle, she will send you! a rose in one form or another when the miracle has been
granted. Yo u may smell roses, receive a rose by visual means, etc.
REMEMBER to make a wish before you read the poem.
That's all you have to do. There is nothing attached. This is a powerful
novena. Just send this to at least seven people and let me know what
happens on the fourth day....
Do not break this, please. Prayer is one of the best free gifts we receive.
There is no cost but a lot of reward. Let's continue
praying for one another.
Make a wish before you read this poem....(Did you make a wish?)
If you don't make a wish, it won't come true.
May today there be peace within
May you trust your highest power that you are
Exactly where you are meant to be...
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that
are born of faith
May you use those gifts that you have received
And pass on the love that has been given to you....
May you be content knowing you are a child of God
Let this presence settle into our bones, and
Allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, and to
bask in the sun...
It is there for each and every one of you....
Send this to 7 People within the next 5 min. and
your wish will come true.
When the door of happiness closes, another opens.
But oftentimes we look
so long at the closed door that we don't see the
one, which has been opened
for us.
Sunday, March 14, 2004
Passion
I want to live.
No more halfhearted efforts
No more half-baked ideas
No more half-full glasses
Just wholehearted, fresh-baked,
overflowing life.
I want to live on purpose.
No more aimless wandering
No more squandered existence
No more squelched ambition
Just on-target, death-defying,
carpe diem courage.
I want to live in connection.
No more superficial engagement
No more destructive pleasures
No more cold rationality
Just bone-deep, life-affirming,
stream-fed intuition.
I want to live with joy.
No more sour grapes
No more jaded cynicism
No more inflated self-importance
Just awe-filled, enthusiastic,
openhearted passion.
I want to live on purpose,
in connection, with joy.
I want to live filled with courage,
guided by intuition, centered in passion.
I want to live!
These are excuse notes from parents (including original spelling) collected by schools from all over the country.
My son is under a doctor's care and should not take P.E. today. Please execute him.
- hala! Sige. Silya elektrika at bitay. Sabay pa! O kaya niyo yun?
Please excuse Lisa for being absent. She was sick and I had her shot.
-pag nag-absent pala papatayin ka! Baka may rabies...
Dear School: Please ekscuse John being absent on Jan. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, and also 33.
- A grabe to. Nasa kalendaryo pa ang birthday ko kung ganon. Hahaha!
Please excuse Gloria from Jim today. She is administrating.
- ano daw????
Please excuse Roland from P.E. for a few days. Yesterday he fell out of a tree and misplaced his hip.
- hanapin natin!
John has been absent because he had two teeth taken out of his face.
- bwehehehe... la ako masabi... Bwahahaha! Ganito kasi yan. Kinagat siya ni Lola sa noo sa gigil. Tapos nabali yung ngipin ng pustiso niya. Hahaha!!!
Megan could not come to school today because she has been bothered by very close veins.
-Buti pa veins niya. Close sila. Hahahaha!!!
Chris will not be in school cus he has an acre in his side. Please excuse Ray Friday from school. He has very loose vowels.
- ah.....eh....i.....ow....u....
Please excuse Pedro from being absent yesterday. He had (diahre) (dyrea) (direathe) the shits. [words in ()'s were crossed out.]
- Sinabi na kasi "LBM" na lang e. Pasosyal pakasi.
Irving was absent yesterday because he missed his bust.
- So transexual pala si Irving?
I kept Billie home because she had to go Christmas shopping because I don't know what size she wear.
Sally won't be in school a week from Friday. We have to attend her funeral.
- Ala e! "Mabuhay ang Patay!!" "Mayroong Himala!!!"
Please excuse Jason for being absent yesterday. He had a cold and could not breed well.
- stud service ba yung school nya? baka gremlins siya.
Gloria was absent yesterday as she was having a gangover.
- Ay grabe! Iba na talaga ang mga kabataan ngayon. Hahaha!
Maryann was absent December 11-16, because she had a fever, sore throat, headache and upset stomach. Her sister was also sick, fever and sore throat, her brother had a low grade fever and ached all over. I wasn't the best either, sore throat and fever. There must be something going around, her father even got hot last night.
- hahaha, telenovela... bow. Makuwento siya ha... Kulang lang sa pansin...
and the winner is....
Please excuse Jennifer for missing school yesterday. We forgot to > get the Sunday paper off the porch, and when we found it Monday, we > thought it was Sunday.
- hehehehe!winner!!!!!!!!!! Ang galing!!!! Puwede rin kaya sa office ito?
> > > Pag dating ni Munir sa bahay, sabi ni Ei, ang
asawa nya,
"Sweetheart,
> > > delayed ako ng isang buwan. Kagagaling ko lang
sa doktor. Pero
huwag
> > > mong
> > > sabihin kahit kanino, baka mapahiya lang ako
kapag di
nagkatotoo."
> > >
> > > Kinaumagahan, merong dumating na taga-Meralco.
Pagbukas ng pinto,
sabi
> > > niya, "Ale, delayed ho kayo ng isang buwan."
> > > "Kanino mo nalaman ito?" tanong ni Ei.
> > > "Nandito ho nakasulat sa records namin," sagot
ng
taga-Meralco.
> > > "Talaga? Nakasulat sa records ninyo?"
> > >
> > > Sa sumunod na araw, si Munir ay dumating galit
na galit sa
counter ng
> > > Meralco.
> > > "Paano niyo nalaman na delayed ng isang buwan
ang misis ko?
> > > "Konting pasensya lang. Kung gusto niyong mawala
sa records
namin ito,
> > > magbayad na lang kayo," sagot ng isang
empleyado.
> > > "Eh, kung ayaw kong magbayad?" tanong ni Munir.
> > > "Puputulan ho kayo," sagot ng empleyado.
> > > "Kung puputulan ako, anong gagamitin ng misis
ko?"
> > > "Pwede naman siyang gumamit ng kandila, di ba?"
> > >
Beware of this medication (yellowish in colour round pills) normally prescribed by doctors for flu. Already confirmed by friend's sister who works in the ministry to be true. I've called up a friend working in Unity Healthcare (or commonly known as NTUC Pharmacy) and confirmed the following.
Decolgen (a common flu tablet) and the long list of drugs used to be easily available on the shelves of pharmacies. Though they've been removed from the local pharmacies months ago, in case you still have them in your first aid box at home, please discard them immediately.
I heard from my co's doctor that Decolgen, flu tablets is banned. You couldn't find them in all pharmacies. It's due to the same problem, ie. bleeding in the brain for women. Confirmed that this is true and Singapore government is taking action.
Please read and copy this notice to the people you love. This is not a matter to be taken lightly. Stop taking anything containing the ingredient Phenylpropanolamine.
It has been linked to increased hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in brain)among women ages 18-49 in the three days after starting use of medication. Problems were not found in men, but the FDA has recommended that everyone (even children) seek alternative medicines.
This message is for the designated recipient only and may contain privileged, proprietary, or otherwise private information. If you have received it in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the original. Any other use of the email by you is prohibited.
People are often unreasonable and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway
What you spend building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough,
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway
You see in the final analysis, it is between you and God,
It was never between you and them anyway
Only those who dare to fail greatly,
Can ever achieve greatly.
We all want to fall in love. Why? Because that experience makes us feel completely alive. Where every sense is heightened, every emotion is magnified, our everyday reality is shattered and we are flying into the heavens. It may only last a moment, an hour, an afternoon. But that doesn't diminish its value. Because we are left with memories that we treasure for the rest of our lives.
1) Don't turn your back on love when it's already in front of you, Don't drive it away from you, because if you do, someday, you'll think again, why you let love flew when it was there next to you.
2) In Love, think things first over if you're sure about how you
feel, Don't fall too hard not knowing where you will stand, 'coz it will hurt real bad if things don't go the way you want them to be.
3) It's an irony to know that it takes hours for someone to have
guts to say "hi" to the one he likes, days to admire, weeks to miss the person, months to love, but just a blink of an eye to say goodbye...
4) Go for the person who loves you. It is not wrong to love someone who belongs to someone else, but it is much better to love someone who could also love you in return.
5) Love isn't something we hold, it is something we set free, It's not something we just do, but it's something we don't imagine to be. Lastly, it's not something we choose, it chooses us...
6) The scariest thing about falling in love is getting hurt. The scariest thing about getting hurt is not being able to love again. The scariest thing about not loving again is being alone forever.
7) When you follow your heart, worry not where it will lead you, for your heart knows the way. And if you do get lost or reach a dead end, use your head to lead you back home.
8) When you truly care for someone, you don't look for faults, you don't look for answers, you don't look for mistakes. Instead, you fight for the mistakes, you accept the faults, and you overlook excuses.
9) It's better to lose your pride to the one you love, than lose your loved one to your useless pride.
10) Love is not "it's your fault", but "i'm sorry", not
"where are you?", but "i'm here", not "how could you?", but "i understand", not "i wish you were here", but "i'm thankful you are ".
11) The beginning of love is to let those we love be just themselves, and not twist with our own image. Otherwise, we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.
12) If a relationship is truly meant for you, your love will find a way to make it happen, and God will be there to make sure it will stay.
time can never destroy what affection has built
This is a very disturbing open E-mail letter to all Filipinos around the world; specially here in North America!, from a man who has the power to reach million of people. (he's a radio talk host) Please read on..............
This is an open letter email by Art Bell, a radio talk show host in Nevada more info in the email itself). Here is yet another person who has taken advantage of his power and privilege to use hateful words and racial stereotypes that breed further ignorance and intolerance in our society.
Art Bell is a talk radio host who has two shows that he broadcasts from his home in Nevada, that is rebroadcast by 400 stations across the country. He's written 2 books. He lived in Okinawa, Japan for some years and had a radio program on the English station here. And, though it's hard to believe after reading the following letter from him, he actually has been to the Philippines (he's traveled fairly extensively around the world).
Check out his website to listed at the end to get a glimpse at this fool who's spreading this hateful ignorance. And check his wife as well.
This letter is so degrading, I think it's really important that everybody read this and not attack him, but respond to him in a civilized manner because otherwise his thoughts will be reaffirmed. Understand that not everyone has a viewpoint like we do, and that this is an opinion of someone who hopefully can be changed only by civil actions.
THE E-MAIL...
Subject: Filipinos.....*make me puke* (Art Bell)
As we've all come to notice, in the past few decades, Filipinos have begun to infest the United States like some sort of disease. Their extensive involvement in the U.S. Armed Forces is proof of the trashy kind of qualities all Filipinos tend to exhibit on a regular basis.
You can see this clearly by studying the attitudes and cultural Icons of most Filipino Americans. Origins of Pinoys/Pinays: Are they really Asian? Well we've come to accept the fact the Filipinos come from a part of the world known as South East Asia. But the term "Asia" is used in the wrong way. You may notice that contemporary Filipino Americans try very hard to associate themselves with groups that we know as Asian.
I cannot count the number of times I have seen a 'Third World' Filipino try to connect themselves to the Chinese or Japanese people. There is no connection and here's why. The Philippines is a Third World country.
Nothing respectable has EVER been created by Filipino people during our entire human history. Young Filipino men in America have become obsessed with "import racing". They have an enormously perverted affection for Japanese cars. It's a common phenomenon. In their minds, these Filipinos somehow believe that they are Asian and that it somehow connects them to Japanese people and Japanese cars. They often take credit for the
ingenuity of Japanese people and say how it's an "Asian thing". This term..."Asian thing" derived directly from African American slang "black thang". "It's a black thang." "It's an Asian thang." You can see the connection. It's even funnier that, in Japan, Filipinos are heavily discriminated against. The only Filipinos that can live successfully in Japan are the Filipino prostitutes. But that's the case for most Filipino people no matter where they live in the world.
Now we've come down to this fact...and it is a fact. Nothing in Filipino Culture can be seen as Asian. They have no architectural, artistic, or cultural influence which is in ANY way, asian. Thinking of the great countries in Asia such as Japan, Korea, and China there is no way you can possibly connect the Philippine Islands.
This assault by Filipino Americans to connect themselves with the great peoples of North East Asia is foul and disgusting.
Try visiting a young Filipino’s web site too. You'll see something called the "Asian IRC Ring". It has to do with the chat rooms. The most horrible thing about this is that these TRASHY people are trying to associate themselves with Asia again!! People in Asia don't act like, this at all.
What we are seeing here is the natural Filipino in it's element with full access to technology and this is how they act! You will consistently see this behavior over and over again. Another interesting thing is that these "third world" people also frequent IRC chat rooms such as #Chinese #Japan and #Asian. They must believe that they are some how related racially or culturally to North Asians.
But it's completely WRONG! There might have been some distant contact With China and even less with Japan during World War II, but these people are actually more closely related to African Americans and Mexican Americans.
Do the parents of these young Filipinos know what's going on? Would they accept this? I believe that they would and do. This is the natural "Trash" element in Filipinos manifesting itself.
Nothing good has ever come from Philippines and I don't believe anything good ever will.
Recognizing your Roots (A Message to Filipinos).
To all Filipino people:
Please recognize your ROOTS!
You come from the Third World! You country is a disgusting and filthy place. Most people there live in poverty! Your culture has MUCH MORE SPANISH influence than Chinese, and absolutely no JAPANESE influence whatsoever. People in Japan and China, do not act like you. They do not constantly talk about sex and they have a MUCH HIGHER level of RESPECT for each other.
There is NO WAY that you can connect yourself to Asia other than location. Your culture and technological advancement does not even come CLOSE to What Chinese, people have done in the past and what Japanese and Korean people are doing now!
Everything you do is distinctly Filipino. You cannot take credit for Japanese cars, video games, or Hentai! It's not an "Asian thing" it's, an "American thing".
You have no concept of culture..no concept of Asian ideas or Asian philosophy!
Can you demonstrate how you use Confucianism or Taoism in you everyday life?? You can't. And you will NEVER be able to. I understand that you are trying to create an identity for yourselves as young people... but it is NOT related to Asia. Your Identity is Filipino. That's all you are.
Just Filipino. Think about what that means....
Sincerely,
Art
10. "They told me at the blood bank this might happen."
9. "This is just a 15 minute power-nap like they raved about in that time management course you sent me to."
8. "Whew! Guess I left the top off the White-Out. You probably got here just in time!"
7. "I wasn't sleeping! I was meditating on the mission statement and envisioning a new paradigm."
6. "I was testing my keyboard for drool resistance."
5. "I was doing a highly specific Yoga exercise to relieve work-related stress. Are you discriminatory toward people who practice Yoga?"
4. "Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out a solution to our biggest problem."
3. "The coffee machine is broken..."
2. "Someone must've put decaf in the wrong pot..."
And the best thing to say if you get caught sleeping at your desk...
1. Raise your head from the desk and say " ... in Jesus' name. Amen."
HERE'S THE SCORE By Teodoro C. Benigno
The Philippine Star 03/10/2004
Lee Kuan Yew wasn't kidding at all when more than a decade ago, he more or less stated the Philippines wasn't going anywhere. Why? Firstly, he said, Filipinos "have no discipline." Secondly, he added, we possessed an "exuberant democracy", meaning a frolic and fiesta democracy. Like James Fallows before him who said Filipinos have a "damaged culture", Lee Kuan Yew set off an angry caterwaul. We Filipinos, both educated and not educated, pounced on him with might and main, lashed him with insult and invective, told him never to set foot on our shores again.
President Fidel Ramos was particularly furious.
To Lee's claim that a nation's leaders had the ultimate duty and responsibility to instill discipline among its citizenry, FVR riposted discipline had to come from below, from the common people. That was folly. Discipline – and I didn't need a Lee Kuan Yew to tell me that – comes from the top. It comes from leaders who have a vision, who often have to crack the whip on a fun-and-frolic citizenry, who have to ruthlessly impose law and order, and punish those who defy and disobey the government.
Without law, without order, without discipline, without the values that lead to that great, pulsing and pounding national throb of a fulfilled nation, the Philippines has nowhere to go. Now we're at it again, electing our 15th president with pomp and regalia, a nation foolishly and stupidly in denial, bestowing on the May 10 elections the wisdom and wonder of the philosopher's stone.
Whenever I write this way, even close friends reproach me. "Teddy, can't you be more hopeful?" is the most frequent comment. "Can't you see anything good in our country? Are we really as bad as you write in your column? Certainly, things can get better if we elect the right leaders." There, in a nutshell, is what is dreadfully wrong with the Filipino ethos. We prefer not to look at the facts, figures and statistics, all depicting the national disaster, which I never invented in the first place.
Well, let me tell you. Hope? Tell that to the 3,500 Filipinos who flee the nation every day for jobs and security abroad. Tell that to Peter Wallace, and heads of multinational corporations who have lost hope and many of whom are transferring their businesses to China, Thailand, Malaysia and elsewhere. Tell that to our doctors, yes doctors of medicine. They prefer life abroad as lowly nurses and caregivers, humiliating as this might be, to staying here where the pay is ridiculously low and they cannot provide decently for their families.
Tell that to the millions of Filipinos abroad known as OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) who disdain the very idea of coming back home. Home to what? To poverty and disease? To the now even more excruciating life of squatters, beggars, wanderers and nomads, living in the slums, two even three families to a room, where the smells of refuse, silt and sex are overpowering, where open incest often occurs, and there is no privacy? Tell that to the kids of even affluent and rich families who want out, who want to spend the rest of their lives abroad.
Know what? I could write differently.
I could write to amuse and entertain, serve up dollops of lilt and laughter, get into the entertainment business, write about celebrities, about theater, art and cinema, hustle back to the footpaths of memory, dwell nostalgically on the past when life was simple, when family morality was still at hand, when we had yet to be crassly invaded by Hollywood, when the use of itay and inay, or tatay and nanay was still common even among many of my friends, when we dearly loved the Philippines, when during the Second World War, we were not afraid to die. In fact, many of us died, fighting that war.
But I saw my own vision on my own road to Damascus.
I sustained the "divine wound" that afflicts some young journalists. And I was never the same after that. Literature had to give way to philosophy and history, the yearning for art in its purest forms to the political and social sciences. And yet, as André Malraux said, "All art is a revolt against man's fate," and as Albert Camus said "To understand life, every now and then you have to recoil from life," I learned those lessons well. I eventually also learned to extricate my mind from the poisoned tentacles of ideology, from Adam Smith's "hidden hand" of capitalism to the "dialectical materialism" of Karl Marx and Ferderick Engels.
Nothing was pure gospel anymore.
I find out that until today, until this very minute, many educated Filipinos, yes confirmed Christians all, cannot accept the fact that the nation has reached the end of the road. That the neo-liberal, free-trade, free enterprise system that has sustained us since the end of the Second World War is now in tatters. That the democracy we continue to extol while sitting on the laps of a capricious Uncle Sam is a huge fraud because its institutions have already withered and died.
What economy? What sound fundamentals? Almost 50 out of 83 million Filipinos are hungry, on the verge of starvation. Our national debt now amounts to P4.5 trillion, every Filipino in yoke by about P50,000. Argentina, here we come? A third of the national budget goes to paying just the interest of our foreign debt. To keep our heads above the water, the government has to borrow about P500 billion a year, and more each succeeding year. Virtually nothing is left to improve our lives. On top of all that, we lose P230 billion each year or more to government graft and corruption. We are the eleventh most corrupt nation in the world, the fourth most corrupt nation in Asia, according to Transparency International and PERC. The Asian Development Bank declares our culture is about the worst in Asia for foreign investments. We are the kidnap capital of Asia.
Hope? You kidding?
For many decades, we Filipinos have blinded ourselves to this mounting heap of irrefutable evidence. And now that almost the worst is upon us, we still look the other way.
We continue to be what we have always been – patient, forbearing, forgiving, submissive, dumb, deaf and blind. We suffer, we bleed, we walk with bare feet on broken glass. We do what we do best. We sing and we pray. We have fun when we can. Toma. Many of our neighbor nations in Asia have long waken up, long taken the road to emancipation, progress and prosperity. The per capita income of these countries has soared from anywhere to $14,000 to $20,000. Our per capital income is at the level of the fast multiplying amoeba – $900 to just a little over $1,000. Hopeful?
But no, we are not angry when we should be. We are not outraged, not insulted at all, not offended, not chastened, not a bit mortified. Oh yes, thee are a few of us who are, the exceptions that make the rule. And so I have write the way I write today. Keep telling the truth, calling the shots as I see them. Always, I remember what the great Indian poet Rabindanath Tagore said, "If you like to make a difference, walk alone. Walk alone." India, yes India, Jawaharlal Nehru, the Pandit, scion of one of the richest families in India, wept unashamedly when for the first time after his studies in England, he roamed all over his country, and discovered how hundreds of millions of Indians were living in utmost poverty and penury, in indescribable squalor, sometimes better, sometimes worse than animals.
Nehru vowed he would spend the rest of his life in service to the poor. That he did. He fought the Raj fiercely and relentlessly, every vestige of British colonial exploitation. He was the political bayonet to Mahatma Gandhi's radiant spiritual spear. Both were imprisoned. Millions of Indians died. But they were willing to pay the price for freedom, for liberty, for emancipation from colonial rule. Now India, with Bangalore and Hyderabad leading the way, is following China's path to modernity, using science and technology to extricate the albatross forever from its neck.
We Filipinos are not willing to pay this price.
And we are not willing to pay this price because we cannot get angry. Our culture of submission and forbearance gets in the way. Our leadership is utterly and abominably corrupt, and as a people we also are to some extent. Our business potentates in Makati and elsewhere are the Hapsburgs and Hohenzollerns of the Philippines. Our politicians in Congress are their executive committee.
Ex-president Joseph Estrada never had it so good.
He should be in jail with bars, wearing a prisoner's uniform, alongside prison inmates. But no, even as a felon, he is treated extravagantly like a VIP, allowed access to his luxury villa in Tanay, Rizal, some 100 meters from Camp Capinpin where he is in detention. I have absolutely no doubt President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is behind this display of "political compassion" at a time she still believes she can wangle many of the masa votes of Erap. She should be ashamed. She should bolt herself in the cellar and throw away the key. But she won't. She has to win by hook and by crook.
But that is what we are as a nation. Are we doomed?