Share your blessings if you are really grateful to the Lord!
Since January 2013, I made it a habit to count my daily blessings and misfortunes. Life is a balance of yin and yang so counting my misfortunes will help me to be realistic about what I want for tomorrow.
Food, money, good health, good relationship, my family and love are among the daily blessings that make me feel good. Blessings are meant to be shared, not hoarded. One may feel so blessed for attaining good things in life but he/she will feel more ecstatic once the blessing is shared with those who are in need.
Annoying personalities, sickness and unplanned expenses are the usual misfortunes that I encounter. Misfortunes remind me to be cool about the things that are beyond my control. Misfortunes somehow tell me that no matter how great a person is, he/she still needs God for guidance.
Proverbs 27:1 reminds me to be humble and to surrender myself to the will of the Lord because nobody knows what tomorrow will bring to us. It’s like, who am I to boast about my royal life today when I’ll be a pauper tomorrow? Or, why will I be in despair today for being a nobody when tomorrow, I will be a somebody?
Now that Andre and Kobe Paras are more visible on the limelight, dragging old family issues that concern their parents Jackie Forster and Benjie Paras has become inevitable.The kids’ resentment towards their mom is strong and at times, uncomfortable. Maybe it’s because as audience, we are used to hearing sugar-coated statements, thus, the straightforward reply of the Paras kids against their mother draws criticism. Their frankness reminds me of the young and feisty Jackie Forster, so goes the saying that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
What I find amusing in this family drama is the reversed plot wherein the kids have the upper hand over their parent. These kids must have experienced great emotional pain and asking them about their mother will not do both parties any good. Between them and Jackie, it’s obviously the latter who’s very much affected by their family drama. Flying home from Malaysia where her new family resides, Jackie granted an interview to Boy Abunda on The Buzz. A different Jackie was there asking for her sons’ forgiveness and a second chance to become a mother to them. In her heart, she claimed that she knew her sons watched the “Remember Me” video that she made for them.
TIME is a precious element in HEALING. We can’t force anybody to forgive and forget if the pain is too deep to heal. By now and after all her futile efforts to reach out either personally or through the social media, Jackie must know that her kids are NOT yet ready and loving them from a distance is the only thing that she can do to help them heal.
In the first place, their family affair should never be asked by the press and the kids’ handler, manager and even father should set the rule about this. It’s not helping the kids to be famous in a positive way. At this point, they should create an identity for themselves minus their dramatic family life before.
I wrote about the possibility of child snatching when the two young boys in Taguig went missing in April 2, 2013. It broke my heart to know that James Naraga and Dayne Buenaflor were finally found yesterday but were in advanced stage of decomposition. An autopsy would be performed to determine the cause of death of the two young boys.
The parking lot for flood-damaged vehicle is situated near the barangay hall. I don’t think that any sane organ-for-sale syndicate will return to where they got their victims to dump their dead bodies. They would have dumped them somewhere else.
These kids went missing after playing hide and seek with the neighborhood kids. They should ask how many of them were playing at that time because nobody seemed to bring out the idea that their playmates were probably trapped in the area. Well, it will also depend upon the age of the playmates. Five year olds can provide comprehensive answers than four year olds and below. I am thinking of the possibility that Dayne and James were probably in the company of a five-year old kid when they played hide and seek. The five-year old opened the car and the three of them hid inside. The five-year old left James and Dayne and since they were young kids and probably unaware of how to open the car to exit, they were trapped.
The frantic parents were occupied with the abduction theory so they did not pay close attention to find them on the near-by areas. What a way to die of hunger and dehydration!
This news makes me more paranoid about the safety of my kids. Sometimes, we are forced by circumstances to be carefree about child care. For instance, a child falls from the stairs when the mother prepares his food, a child drowns in the tub when the father gets the shampoo, a child got lost in the market when the mother gets the wallet in her bag—these unintentional actions can cause a tragedy and therefore, must be prevented.
As a parent, do not trust the environment, do not entrust your kids to the care of other people if they are not competent of trustworthy, do not leave your kids alone, do not leave your young kids with other kids, open your eyes and mind to the possible dangers so that you can prevent it and probably react well should the worst thing happens.
My three-year and a half year-old son is enjoying school but his homeworks are setting him off the mood every weekend. Last Friday, Adi’s assignments were for the subjects Mathematics, Language and Writing. Adi loves to color but hates to hold a pencil so writing is a torture for him. His tiny fingers cannot hold a pencil well.
As usual, Adi had a load of reasons on why he should not make his homework. He pointed at the air-conditioner and complained that the room was too cold so I turned it off. I asked him to proceed with his homework. After a few strokes, he complained that the room was too hot so I turned on the air-conditioner.
He asked me to take a look at his right eye and asked me if it was red. I did not give in so he thought of another tactic like complaining that he was sleepy. I told him that he could sleep once he’s done with his homeworks. He raised his right arm and blurted out that his armpit was itchy!
Then, I remembered that he was very excited every time he gets stars from his teacher. So I told him that teacher would be very happy to give him stars on Monday if he would finish his homeworks. Like a magic word, Adi finished his homeworks enthusiastically. That was the trick, positive reinforcement. Adi was motivated to do the job because of his strong desire to take home a star or two.
When I was still working in Olongapo, I rented a room in one of the buildings in Magsaysay Avenue. The room had its own restroom and a wooden bed (with Uratex foam) that was good for two people. The jalousie window was my only concern because of limited privacy. I stayed on the second floor and the occupants of the next building could see my whole area if I would open the windows. Anyway, I put on some green plastic sheet on the jalousies for the purpose of blocking off some light.
It was not the perfect place because we were not allowed to cook but since I took out food either from the company canteen or from the fastfood, it was a non-issue. The water supply was good except for some repairs and maintenance once in a while that left us with no water for five hours.
In all my years of stay in that room from 2001 to 2006, I was always sick and emotionally-drained. There was this sort of negative energy all over my room but I just could not pinpoint what exactly it was. Ghost? No, I would feel one if there was one. Maybe I could even see one, but there was none. The list of illness went from bronchitis to edema to clinical depression and so on. There were times when I felt like I was afraid of something but I could not determine what and why.
Before the place was temporarily closed for renovation in January 2006, I got the chance to have a small talk with the flower shop assistant at the ground floor of the building. I asked her about the history of the building and who the original owners were. She told me that their flower shop used to be a bar at the height of the “American era” in Olongapo and the upper part of the building used to be an inn.
Back in my room, I recalled my first impression of the room and I remembered the great sadness that I felt when I entered the room five years ago. The room was full of negative energies of perhaps lust, greed, dishonesty and anger. The negative energies haunted the room for years and the occupants felt it one way or another.
I don’t need the negative emotional baggage of the past so I am trying to create happy and meaningful memories in my current place to replace all the negative energies that the previous occupants left on us. Prayer is a powerful tool to drive away any negative energies of the past. My children’s laughter replaced whatever tears (from the former occupants) fell on our current place. More than a physically clean house, we need a house that’s full of positive energy of love and optimism. We can do that by getting rid of heated arguments, gossips, feelings of hopelessness, jealousy and dishonesty.
I never failed to visit Charles Vath in all my years of stay in Baguio. There was something in Charles that kept me coming back day after day. Charles intimidated me on our first meeting. How could somebody so famous and big accommodate a simple college girl like me? Walking around Charles’ place was like understanding his rich past and the honors that came with it.
“Impressed?” he asked when I stood beside his antique collection.
Oh, the artistic treasures of Baguio was just within my reach!
“You could see my own printing press at the ground floor,” he said.
I wondered how did he know my penchant for books and reading materials. Were my actions and gazes too predictable or enough of a give-away to show how I was feeling inside?
Charles led me to the upper floors to read more books. He showed me an old copy of Shakespeare’s book and started to read the sonnets. I blushed and turned myself away.
The daily meet ups at Charles’ place became a routine. I would go there to make my assignments, to review for the exams and to kill time when bored. My romance with Charles Vath had a timeline and I knew that this special relationship would only last for five years; unless circumstances would force me to go beyond that.
I have yet to see another Charles Vath who would be a source of reference and hard work for students of this generation when the easier way is to click one’s mouse to google.
I have yet to see another Charles Vath who would home a region’s artistic relics and be a shelter to thousands of books.
I have yet to see another Charles Vath so big and tall; mighty and majestic.
My romance with Charles Vath ended in March 2000. If there is one place in my alma mater that I miss so much other than the Otto Hahn Building, it would definitely be the Charles Vath Library Building.
The World of Second Chances 