"love your blog"

Though I also considered it an advertisement, the email below made me happy because of its message, which confirms my objective for this blog to help people from all walks of life.

I'd like to thank Mike Melen for sending me this email with "love your blog" as the subject, because it will serve as an inspiration for me to write more quality posts that can truly help people.

Our website TherapyCounseling.com is a Mental Health Care Database that is used by over 100,000 users monthly to connect to and seek Mental Health Care professionals. We have compiled a list of roughly 1000 professionals for our users to contact and receive the best possible advice. The professionals we have listed on the site are very active in the mental health world and are contacted by our team sporadically to update their information and most recently discuss their practices. We recently ran a poll asking the professionals listed what online informational resources they use to keep up to date or even to simply find great information. It seems many of our users have labeled your blog as an excellent source of information and would like your blog to be a part of our website. I have reviewed your blog and must say, I absolutely love the information you have made available to the public and would love to make your blog a part of our site. I would like to offer you our Featured Blogger badge that can be posted on your site, which recognizes you as a top blogger in the mental health field or simply a text link within your blog roll (Therapist). I would also like to post your blog in our resources page with a FULL banner to make your blog available to my thousands of users. Thanks again for the great information and I look forward to the great responses your blog will receive from my users!


James Whitfield
Sr. Marketing Director
1 International Blvd.
Mahwah, NJ 07430
1(201)252-8260
TherapyCounseling.com

Here is a List of some of our affiliates:
American Telemedicine Association
Prevention First
TeleHealth World
Latin American and Carribean Telemedicine Association
Telemedicine Information Exchange
TeleHealth World
TelePathology
UCSB

As long as you pray

My special child, Lyca, just turned 7 last July 24. I'd like to write a nice post about her birthday but I didn't have the time to compose a usual touching post about her.

Lyca has been helping her Dad and I to pray every night. She might not understand what we're praying about with her, but she pours out her emotions whenever we do, as if she's really asking for mercy.

My current job is not easy since it is something new, so I've been praying with Lyca about my work, not only for me but for the people working with me, especially those handling major projects.

There were many times in the past I was put in a dilemma about making important decisions, and they usually involved people. But I must make a decision anyway, and more often than not, those decisions were reached in the most unlikely manner of making decisions. Prior to that, I had prayed sincerely, and I had always believed they could be good decisions for whatever reasons, because I prayed. Sometimes many months would pass and nobody could tell yet whether it was a good decision or not. I just know in my heart that as long as we pray, God will always guide us to do what is best at the moment, or God Himself will work so that only the best thing should happen.

One difficult season

Why am I not inspired to write about anything these days? Maybe it’s because there are a lot of things or tasks mixed up in my mind. I was supposed to have just one goal, which is to earn money to alleviate the financial distress my family is experiencing now, but the ways and means are just too many, they are all mixed up. I cannot focus on one area yet because I cannot let go of the other opportunities I haven’t tried yet.

I guess what I can do at the moment is to organize and schedule my activities first. As of now there are no conflicts in my schedules, but time will come there will be conflicts so I have to prioritize. Whenever I think of prioritizing, another goal aside from my main goal usually becomes a necessary evil, but that other goal is usually always good because it has a bigger purpose.

For example, one direction I’m taking now to earn is to sell health gadgets. Another is to sell condominium units. I’d like to do both, but at the back of my mind, I’d like to help the sick, so I have to prioritize my selling of health gadgets, though it can be hard as selling condo units.

While I’m not yet organized, I am relieved whenever I suddenly come across inspiring materials like the one below whose author is unknown and which I’ve rearranged a bit:

Don’t let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest
Don’t judge life by one difficult season

If you give up when it’s winter, you will miss the promise of your spring,
The beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your fall

Persevere through the difficult patches
And better times are sure to come some time.

Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly
Leave the rest to God.

Happiness keep you sweet, trials keep you strong
Sorrows keep you human, failures keep you humble
Success keeps you glowing,
But only God keeps you going.

Aspire to inspire before you expire.

Recognition versus Income

This year’s Feng Shui prediction for Snakes like me is “recognition will surpass your income”. The problem is it is quite hard at my age to look for a job so I don’t have an income yet since the start of this year, though there are still 6 months left for this year in the Chinese calendar. I’m seriously thinking now about monetizing this blog to earn some income though of course I know earning big cannot be that soon. I'd like the readers, and even myself, to enjoy the contents of all my posts, including the sponsored ones.

At first I was happy enough about the prediction because recognition cannot be bought. Only very recently, while searching for my name in Yahoo! and Google just to see if this blog will come first, I was surprised to see “Hall of Fame” beside my name in one of the search results. That recognition was from Toastmasters Club and I think it’s about time I pay back this club the good things it has done for me, even through my blogs. It was not really me but the whole Makati Toastmasters Club that was included in Toastmasters Int’l Hall of Fame. The past officers of that club tried very hard for our club to always get the "President's Distinguished" award. Until I became President, and had to do my best for the club to be “President’s Distinguished” again because that was the fifth consecutive year it will get that highest award thus could be included in Toastmasters' Hall of Fame.

I won’t deny that this absence of income is starting to make me very depressed but I was still blessed with this timely discovery of a past recognition because somehow it alleviates this depression.

I almost forgot that I’ve also gained more than enough recognition from this blog, at least through the comments in some posts and I’m really very thankful to the people who are mostly bloggers themselves, who have openly shown their appreciation and support. This world of blogging and bloggers has proven to be another blessing not just for me but to all bloggers so I’m hoping that my mother and brothers who are all writers will join me in this very fulfilling endeavor.

Confusion

Is there something you have been praying about for a long time? You know that your request is in keeping with God's will. ....... However, your request seems to go unanswered.

Those lines as well as the title of this post were taken from the June 28 page of "Enter His Gates", a daily devotional book by Charles Stanley. This book used to be on my desk when I was still working at the office so I had the chance to read it daily. I haven't read it since the day I brought home all my personal things from the office. Last month, I finally unpacked it.

Very early this morning, June 28, I felt a need to browse this book to be consoled. I opened the book twice in random pages, hoping I will land in a page that will appease my confused feelings, until I thought of looking at the page intended for this day, and there it is, the very exact words that will console me.

I am hoping I'll pass the job interview yesterday but what if I don't? There were 3 of us who were interviewed and I was the oldest. Late in October last year,there were two companies who contacted me at the same time, one scheduled me for interview while the other one asked me to submit some documents ASAP. I was confused because the two companies have entirely different businesses and job offered, but not one of them is close to sure in hiring me. I prayed for a sign, and after 3 days, one of the two companies called me up to tell me they want me to attend a training in Singapore. It can be the sign I prayed for so I said yes. The training lasted for 3 days only but we were given a homework that we had to submit by end of November. I was able to submit my output and was expecting to be officially hired by January. Unfortunately, last December, the participants in the training , which included me, were notified that implementation of the project was put on hold, as well as the hiring.

People would tell me, "it was the wrong sign!", but I know it is the right sign because I prayed for it, though it can have a different meaning, like maybe I should not pursue the other offer. So I am now waiting, but I wonder how long?

This is what the book says: God may give you a promise and then allow you to go through a time of waiting for Him to bring it to completion. That is when you face the greatest temptation to doubt Him. You wonder what He is doing, and you question His reasoning. Thoughts such as "Has God forgotten His promise?" run through your head as you worry over doing the right thing. Doubt is the breeding ground for confusion and fear.

Faith is the atmosphere in which hope and joy flourish. If God has promised to do a certain thing, it will be done. Never give up; with God all things are possible.

Transitions In Life

The past days, I and my only son, OC, have been busy testing several features of the upgraded network system at home since we finally got a router that will enable my laptop’s WIFI or wireless connection to the internet. The whole month of March, I monopolized the access to the internet since we didn’t have a router yet, allowing me to create this blog and to post several entries, but members of my family didn’t have the chance to read my entries.

OC will be 25 this year. That reminds me of the seminar about transitions in life that I’ve attended about 10 years ago. In that seminar I’ve learned that transitions in life will be encountered by a person during adolescence, mid-20s, midlife or 45-50 and 65-70. It is during this transition when a person is in crisis, and when questions to God are asked the most, like what happened to me in June 2001 when I was almost 48. I was very lucky that God gave me a very beautiful “I love you" answer intended to mankind, leaving me that mission to remind everyone about that. He already has proven His love through the birth of His Son, Jesus Christ, and He keeps on proving His love like what He did to me (Blogging post of this blog).

I am very grateful that OC lets me know the questions plaguing him nowadays, and maybe it is God’s will for him not to have read my blog, otherwise my answers to his questions will be pre-empted because they all came from this blog. In other words, my answers were rehearsed through this blog. (Photo shown is a self-portrait shot by OC).

When the prize of the Lotto reached more than 200 million pesos, both OC and I got 3 digits right, so I won 100 pesos for those 3 digits, while my son won 200 pesos because he had 2 tickets. One question in his mind was what to do with the money if he wins in the Lotto, but he said what is clear was a large percentage will go to charities. He really hasn’t read my blog because in my Dreams List in this blog, I had shared very specific plans what to do if I was the one who’ll win, but obviously, he doesn’t know anything about that plan.

My plans involving charities if I win the Lotto were very specific and maybe ambitious, but I also didn’t fail to consider what can happen if those plans were pushed through and I’m gone? In my mind I knew my children will be willing to take over but I don’t want to oblige them, so come what may. Anyway, God will not allow me to win for sure, if there’s nobody to take over my charitable project when I’m gone.

Disappointments Linger

Oh yes, disappointments linger!

During my last quarter as an employee, I've tried to prepare for my retirement by starting a coffee kiosk business. I've realized later that my objectives in putting up this kind of business were not reconciled. I wanted a coffee kiosk that also serves sandwiches because I love to eat breakfast outside, and that should always come with coffee. I also longed for a kiosk inside a mall, so we started the coffee kiosk in a mall. My husband and I ended up still eating breakfast at other places because the mall opens at 10 o'clock in the morning. We were later convinced by our business partner to transfer the kiosk to a school and that happened after eight months of staying at the mall but lost. Business was much better at the school because there was a target market. The problem was that the target market existed only from almost midday till sunset, and only when there were classes.

I've entered the network marketing business in 1995. There are always good products in a networking company so it is not a problem for me to stay with just one networking company, even during the time network marketing almost died in our country because of the prevalence of scams in this type of business. I witnessed the launching of a networking company in 1995 as one of its pioneer members, and I was still a member when it closed its branch in our country in 2006.

I am trying the network marketing business again. This business is like a love story, once you get involved, you ask yourself, "How long will this last?".

God's Message

Why I learned to always count my blessings is a true story I owe to tell mankind. It was June 12, 2001, I was cleaning the stones of our mineral water pot. There were several stones, maybe more than 70, each stone the size of a thumb and I was using a toothbrush for cleaning.

It was such a boring task that only reminded me of my disappointments. I was dissatisfied with a lot of people around me. I expected too much from them and because of that, I also hated myself! Whenever I feel that way, I talk to God and that was what I did, asking Him why these should happen to me. There was one question for every dissatisfaction or disappointment which was immediately answered in my thoughts. Until I noticed that the answers were all beautiful so I wondered if they really came from me. I thought that God might be answering my questions but why was I asking Him silly questions? "Why don't I ask Him a question that only He can answer?" So I asked Him this question: "If you have a message to mankind through the number of these stones I am cleaning, what would that message be?" I was wondering though, "How will I interpret God's message through the number of stones? If there were 75 stones, will that mean a seven-letter word plus a five-letter word like "PROMOTE PEACE"? Who am I to know what words can come from God?

Nevertheless, I counted the stones. I was surprised I counted 143 stones. "That means "I love you!"". My conscience spoke to me and said "Oh, come'on, you made a mistake, for sure!", but what if there were really 143 stones? So I counted again. I couldn't believe there were really 143 stones! God said I love you! Not only to me, but to the whole of mankind!

Count Your Blessings

The year I was involuntarily retired due to the inevitable closing down of our department, I knew what to do with my retirement pay, thanks to the entrepreneur seminar given by my last employer. I learned that I shouldn’t use all my retirement pay for business. I used a large percentage of it to buy real estate properties. These properties are now blessings to my family though we’re selling some of them now. The best blessings, however, will always be those that cannot be bought. They usually come unexpectedly, like the special child who was prematurely born inside our house. The biological mother of this child had packed up all her things and was ready to go home to her province because her mother wanted her to be home on her debut. A week before her scheduled trip, she gave birth on her bed, shocking everyone at home since nobody knew she was pregnant, and the baby was really very small they thought it was dead (one pound only). She was also shocked, at first thought there was a stone expelled by her belly. To make the long story short, the duplex house of my mother-in-law where we live at the smaller house, became one big home for this special child we have now legally adopted.

For this year, 2008, be prepared for the unexpected. It can be the best blessing you’ll receive in your lifetime, though at first, it can be disguised as a big problem. Continue trusting God completely, because He will always prepare you for it.