Love thy neighbor

Whenever I'm free on a Wednesday, I go to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Baclaran. I just take the Light Railway Transit going there. I really would like to talk about that activity here in my blog but I'd like to prepare for that, to even include a photo of the church whose structure is one of the historical architectures in the Philippines.

But last Wednesday, there was an incident forcing me to talk about it. I was on my way to the church, and as I stepped inside the LRT-2 train, there were no more seats as usual since on weekdays, both LRT-1 and LRT-2 are full of students especially in the morning and late afternoon. I tried to grab the first vertical bar next to the door but I noticed that it was swamped with several hands and there was no more space for another hand. I looked at the vertical bar near the opposite door and what I saw was a young lady with the full stretch of her body leaning on the bar as if she was measuring her height with the bar. There was a perpendicular bar attached to to it but it was blocked by arms holding the bar. I had no choice but to squeeze my body and stretch my arm to that bar because the train started to move.

I was thinking if I should scold that irresponsible young lady on the bar but I thought that maybe her parents should be more responsible for her insensitivity to other people. I am a very imperfect parent and there were several instances I felt sorry for not being a more responsible parent, but I'm sure I did not fail to show my offspring how they should show compassion to other people.

Being compassionate or loving thy neighbor doesn't necessarily mean giving alms to the beggars since you might even destroy some of them by doing that. I feel that the smallest things matter, like offering your seat to an elderly, or just by being sensitive to the people around you who might need a space on the same bar you are clinging to.

God's time

At this point in time, I can say that I will have a bright future as far as my career is concerned. I can feel that I will soon be able to put to use the expertise that I have developed when I was working in the corporate. That cannot be immediate, because I still have a lot to learn that concerns wellness, the natural or TCM way. I can feel that will happen in God’s time so there’s really no need to hurry.

Why wait for God’s time? If you wait for God’s time, the reasons for waiting will become clearer when it arrives. I’d like to use as an example that “message of God to mankind” again, which I believed I was tasked to spread. The message was relayed in 2001 and it was strengthened by a proof for me to fully believe it in 2002. Obviously, the time was not right for my task in 2001. The succeeding years, a lot of changes happened in my life, which resulted to my being more confident with my decisions. I was optionally retired from work in 2005 but I became busy right after, studying and becoming an entrepreneur at the same time. Business was not good by late 2007 so we had to stop by early 2008. For the first time in my life, I had time for lighter activities like writing. God’s time has arrived for me that 2008, to finally spread God’s message, because everything seemed ready. That was seven years after the message was relayed. It was that year, 2008, when blogging became the best medium to spread a message, because it was a year the population of blog readers and bloggers all over the world increased tremendously.

The term "kairos" is used to refer to God’s time. In the New Testament, kairos means "the appointed time in the purpose of God", the time when God acts (e.g. Mark 1.15, the kairos is fulfilled). It differs from the more usual word for time which is chronos (reference was Wikipedia).

Reinvent yourself!

The lecture of Pete Avila on reinventing oneself was very inspiring. He is the Marketing Manager of the Philippine branch of Tiens Biotech Group, or Tianshi Phils. We can reinvent ourselves by learning new things which is not hard because learning is an everyday activity.

A number of reasons why we should start reinventing ourselves:

1. The world's economy is changing
2. Demographics keep changing
3. Competitive players are changing
4. Playing fields and market scenarios are not constant.

Reinventing should start within ourselves. How?

1. Always maintain a positive attitude and avoid negative people.
2. Maintain good integrity and character.
3. Work on your strengths, not on your weaknesses.
4. Be passionate, persistent, ethical, and a hard and smart worker.
5. Give up something.
6. Sharpen your skills.
7. Invest in your knowledge, health, relationship, comforts, etc.

That lecture inspired me to seriously study Traditional Chinese Medicine or TCM which includes Acupuncture. I can be passionate about it but I have to give up something. That can be my desire to completely learn about web design programming though just the design of the background can be easy. Maybe when I start the formal TCM training next month, whatever won't fit my time, should be given up, of course with the exception of caring for Lyca, our special needs child. I can be sure it won't be blogging because I can share whatever I learn through my blogs. That can even help me retain everything I learn and at the same time help people.

TCM definitely has a place in a world undergoing economic crisis since to be admitted in a hospital can be very costly. The world has changed so that TCM is now well accepted everywhere. My challenge is to introduce the modern acupuncture without the needles, either the electronic acupuncture or the green acupuncture with the magnetic tip. I'll share all these in my next posts.

Learning TCM

As far as education is concerned, the best thing that ever happened to me was to learn about TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). This study focuses more on the causes and prevention of diseases than the cures. Although it of course includes the supplements that were studied and proven thousands of years ago, it also includes very natural remedies that has nothing to do with the supplements.

TCM is holistic, so it covers the relationship of each organ to the rest, also the effect of the emotions to each organ. Prevention of an illness involving one organ will usually involve another organ or several organs. A cyst on any part of the body for example, is usually caused by an imbalance of energy in the liver, so if you want to prevent its growth or make it disappear eventually, take care of your liver by avoiding anything that will make the liver work hard. For example, softdrinks will make the stomach acidic, so the liver will work hard to make it alkaline. Anger will affect the liver, so avoid it!

I will surely share more about TCM in my blogs, but it will take time for people not used to its principles to absorb everything. To learn about TCM faster, keep an open mind because your health is at stake! TCM is in because of the economic crisis. Yesterday in Dr. Dela Cruz' training about thyroid in TCM, it was a good thing it was the end of his lecture when there was an emergency because a patient was rushed to a very popular hospital nearby, while the closest relative rushed to him to consult him about the TCM side.