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.

A new blog template

At last I was able to change this blog's template to a 3-column one, thanks to "BloggerStyles". I did this for three reasons.

First, I want to give equal importance to my advertisers' widgets and my blog's contents represented by the labels. Since I've started to monetize this blog, I'd like to be serious about it. That will mean displaying advertisers' widgets in an auspicious area, without sacrificing the best way for my blog's contents to be noticed. Content is King, and will still be the best source of information, whether intended for buyers or people from all walks of life who might benefit from what is relayed by a post's content.

Second, to make my blog's layout more organized. One of the best ways for me to be organized in my thoughts is to have an organized surrounding and the layout of my blog is not an exception.

Last but not least, to give my blog a more professional look. I believe that is one way a blog can attract traffic. Taking myself as an example, I stay longer on blogs that look professional, looking for posts that might interest me. That doesn't mean I ignore blogs that don't look professional enough, it simply depends on the time I have the moment I happen to land on blogs. Professional looking blogs would usually steal my time from doing my intended tasks.

Blog advertising

I'm so glad that through blog advertising, both advertisers and bloggers like me will have more opportunities to earn. They can sign up for free in a site like “Paying Post” where bloggers and advertisers meet in the marketplace, the latter making his offer and the former selecting an offered opportunity.

There were times in the past when my only objective in looking for social network sites for bloggers and advertisers was to earn, but later, blogging about products which I would have wanted to write about in the first place became my objective. I enjoy writing about those products, and the readers enjoy reading my posts. That, I feel, is the main reason why blog advertising will always work more than any other mode. The passion and sincerity of the blogger can be felt by the readers. Rapport is established, and that can be the most important link that can hold the readers. Of course a link to the blog is first established through the search engines where keywords are entered by readers looking for products. These keywords are required by the advertiser for a blogger to include, or sometimes, creating the effective keyword is left by the advertiser to the blogger.

The new layout of the "Paying Post" site is so friendly to both bloggers and advertisers because articles about the most frequently asked questions is the first thing they see so their interest to know more about the site's features is triggered. It also gives them the assurance and comfort that they are on the right site.

I was inspired by advertisers to create a new blog, titled "Amusing Tips", because I simply find most opportunities offered by these advertisers amusing. I've enjoyed talking about their products because I was always reminded of past experiences I wouldn't thought of if not for those products, and I was also challenged to be more creative and persuasive. I've said that in the past, and I can't help but say that again, so that the advertisers and other bloggers, especially the new ones, will also be inspired like me! In other words, the advertisers and bloggers should sign up as early as possible to sites like “Paying Post”. Do that now, and let’s talk about your wonderful learning experience!

25 things about me

I was tagged by my daughter to do this "25 random things" about me in Facebook. At first I said 25 is too many, but when I reached the 25th no., I felt there are still a lot I'd like to include, but I have to stick to 25 since I'm also supposed to tag 25 people to publish his or her 25 random things. Since I don't have many friends in Facebook yet, I'd like to include some bloggers because I also would like to know what can be the 25 random things about them. Here are the 25 random things about me:

1. I want to be all I can be but time is just not enough.

2. I want to continue my Interior Design course but I also want to have enough time for Lyca, my special needs child.

3. I also want to continue learning about Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). So far, it is the most enlightening field of study that interests me.

4. I also want to study web designing and SEO.

5. I’ve removed some of my wrinkles in my profile’s photo using Adobe Photoshop. My goal is to remove them through TCM so I won’t have to edit my photo next time. I’ve already seen an improvement.

6. I joined a singing contest when I was 6 years old. I was supposed to sing a song titled “Maybe this year”, but many contestants ahead of me sang that song so I changed my song to “Sampaguitang Mahal”, a 30-second Tagalog song.

7. My talent in drawing was discovered by my aunt when I did my “Birds” project when I was in Grade school. My aunt was so glad with the drawings that she volunteered to paint them with watercolor.

8. In my very first school card, my name was “Marilu”, which was really my nickname. The people in our house gave me another nickname, Lulu, which became Lulubelle, because of the yellowbell flowers we had beside our door.

9. My given name is really Maria Luisa but my birth certificate was burned together with the municipal hall in my birth place, Kidapawan City, (Philippines' "City of Fruits"), so registration of my birth was repeated before I was enrolled in college.

10. In college, I introduced another nickname, “Malu”, which I’ve used until I was employed in San Miguel Corp. (SMC), my last employer.

11. My interest in Feng Shui increased when two mechanical engineers of San Miguel Corp. conducted a Feng Shui seminar in SMC and told stories how Feng Shui improved their lives from the time they were students in Mapua Institute of Technology. They decided to develop expertise in Feng Shui even while working as plant engineers.

12. Based on the number formula for names of the two Engineer-Feng Shui experts, they recommended that I change my nickname since “Malu” or “Malou” is not so favorable with my marital surname.

13. My airplane board pass always reflected the name “Malui”, obviously the first 5 characters of Ma Luisa, the name the airline always type every time I book a flight. Because of that, an officemate called me “Malui” which I thought sounded good, so I introduced this as my new nickname.

14. It was my grandmother who taught me how to sing, maybe when I was 3 or 4. We were in the garden one evening and there was a firefly so she taught me the “Firefly” song.

15. I learned to play the ukelele when I was 6 and I think it was my aunt who taught me.

16. I also learned to play the guitar, when I was in high school.

17. I was forced to join a singing contest during my first year in college and I played the guitar while singing. I won the “Most Promising Singer” award.

18. While in college, I joined our neighborhood’s choir, “The Samaritans”, together with my first boyfriend, who became my husband (Lauren’s father).

19. While a member of “The Samaritans Choir”, I began to sing the songs of the Carpenters and since then, I became a copycat of Karen Carpenter. The Samaritans Choir also sang songs of the Carpenters, with me as soloist.

20. After sending my children to arts classes, I felt that maybe I should also enhance my talent in this area, so I also attended art classes later. My real talent is in sketching portraits.

21. I’ve encountered a lot of miracles in this lifetime. The first was when I passed the competitive scholarship exams at Centro Escolar University. Nationwide, less than 20 students passed and were given four years full scholarship by this school.

22. The second miracle was when I passéd the Medical Technology Board exams and got high grades in the exams. I can remember some items in the exam that should be answered in essay form but I had no idea about the answers. I tried anyway and was surprised that what I had answered were correct and can be found in the book

23. The third miracle was after taking the Board exams, I passed another scholarship test for computer courses at the National Computer Institute, a government funded institution located in Camp Aguinaldo at that time.

24. The fourth miracle was when I was experiencing a midlife crisis. I conversed with God and He proved it was He who was conversing with me by answering my question “what is His message to mankind?” through the number of stones I was cleaning. His answer was 143.

25. The fifth and perhaps greatest miracle I experienced so far was when God proved how much He loves me when I asked for a child when I conversed with Him in item 24, because after a year, Lyca was born inside our house.

If you feel you'll also enjoy doing this 25 random things about you, consider yourself tagged and then please include your link to your 25 random things through the comments portion of this post. I'll be very eager to know about them!

Be all you can be!

When I was younger, I tried to be everything I can. I wanted to follow the footsteps of my mother who called herself "a jack of all trades, master of none". Like her, I tried to be a good cook, baker, dancer, singer, actress, painter, artist, writer and more, though her achievements in some of those areas mentioned were on a professional level. On the other hand, my profession was focused in Information Technology until I handled the computerization of my employer's medical department meaning I had to focus on two entirely different fields of study. Because of that, I failed to gain enough expertise in a specialized area in IT, which I believe is the main reason, aside from my age, why it is hard for me to land in another IT job. I then realized that there is a disadvantage in being a jack of all trades and master of none.

From a different perspective however, I and the rest of "jacks-of-all-trades" should be very thankful for their God-given talents. God must have a purpose but at this very moment I'm wondering if I need those talents just to relay His message to mankind, the main reason why this blog was created. I have a small book by John Maxwell titled "Be All You Can Be!", but there were just a few pages that I've read so far. It tells about a much deeper meaning of being all what you can be, and that is the challenge to stretch to your God-given potentials. I am now again wondering if I will need all those potentials to take care of a special child, which came after His message. Maybe a bigger challenge will come and maybe God has given me gifts that are more important than those talents that I can show off. Maybe I can be more patient, more generous and more compassionate. Believe me or not, I've thought about that only while typing the last two sentences before that.

Now I get the point. "Be All You Can Be!" includes everything you can be, and you have to stretch yourself every time until it becomes easy and you are able to stretch again. With a special child beside me, maybe I am more patient now and more persevering, but those qualities can still be stretched far. I believe that is what the trials and unexpected undesirable events that we encounter, are for.

Start of the year thoughts

I can say that this is a good start of the year because I can tell that most of my worries will be over before the first quarter ends. Maybe this will be a good year for me but this time I have to be smarter and be prepared for the coming years. I'm no longer worried about being jobless since that is already given. Companies will prefer the fresh graduates who are more worried than me about getting a job.

I just wish that more opportunities to earn will come my way this year. That will include my blogging, my membership in Tiens, and maybe more computer tasks involving writing or designing. I'm not sure however, if studying web designing will be a right move, if an extra income will come.

A lot of people hate credit cards but ours had saved us from extreme financial problems last year, through these cards' installment schemes. The result was of course debts to pay for the next 12 or 18 months, but what I've appreciated about that is I can plan ahead to pay for them as long as they are kept to the minimum (not bigger than Php10,000 per month). What made that planning possible was the assurance that we will be able to sell our townhouse unit. A month from now, we're expecting to get the proceeds from the sale of this townhouse unit which I will use for the payables for the next 24 months. I cannot invest on anything from that sale, except for the Tiens health mattress that will surely help me and my husband avoid the hospital.

The best development that made me feel good is we will now be able to get the finality of the court's decision for our adoption of Lyca, our special needs child. No more cash needed to get that finality, thank God!

Amusing Tips

I have created my new blog as scheduled last January 16. Before that, I've been testing appropriate names for this new blog but they were already used. I've thought of "Amazing Tips" but it was already used. From that title, I've thought of an alternative which is "Amusing Tips". I then realized that this title is most appropriate for my blog because I hope to "amuse" my readers, either in belief or disbelief. The other titles I've thought of, including "Amazing Tips", assume that all my readers will believe all the tips I will publish.

If my readers will enjoy reading this blog, they will remember those "amusing tips" and maybe subconsciously believe in them even if they didn't at first.

I was not able to announce this new blog upon creation because I'd like to look for a better template. Luckily, I found one from another blog offering free Blogger templates. It also offers 3-column templates, so I guess one day I'll be changing the template of this blog, "I Don't Want To Retire!", which will also function as an "administrator" to my other two blogs".