All will be well

It's a Sunday and I'm just glad that I found time to send messages to introduce myself to some friends in Facebook and also follow some people I idolize in Twitter, like Barrack Obama, Ophrah Winfrey, Josh Groban and many more. Of course I have a lot of work to do, and I work any time of the day and week, but I can feel that I've already adjusted to the pressures of my new work, thanks to our staff. I should have adjusted by this time, since by next week, it will be four months since the time I was hired.

How I wish it will be like this once in a while, not always because to always have time for non-work related activities is not a good sign for me, and its still work I enjoy doing most. Tomorrow is another holiday, to celebrate "National Heroes Day" in the Philippines, but most probably I will be working in one of our clients, unless something comes up that will require me to stay at home.

Maybe I was just given some time to rest, because the week ahead will be full of challenges at work, with the scheduled demos and one presentation I myself have to conduct in front of an Executive Committee. I just hope that all will be well.

"Ama Namen" (The Lord's Prayer)

Mission Impossible Part 2

One of my favorite posts in this blog last year was "Pearl Farm in Davao and Mission Impossible", probably because it tells about the most unforgettable chapter in my life, so far. My trip to Davao was sudden, of course also the stay at the beautiful Pearl Farm resort in Davao. I was not on vacation, I was on a mission, and that was to take back a special child to Manila.

My task in Davao was just to wait if the mother, who asked me to adopt her child who was born inside our house in Manila, will bring back her child to me before I go back to Manila. I brought them to Davao because the parents of the mother wanted to see their grandchild who just turned a year old, and whom our whole household, including that of my in-laws, learned to love so much in spite of the child's disabilities. She is blind and has cerebral palsy, two reasons why we and the mother would like to take her back. So she could be taken cared of, which would be hard in a remote town in Davao four hours away from a hospital.

While the mother's parents were enjoying their biological grandchild, my daughter and I stayed for 2 days and 1 or 2 nights at Pearl Farm resort. My objective was to forget the real reason why I was in Davao, and to take away all my worries. Afterwards, a couple in Davao City very close to our family brought us to the Santo Nino Shrine to pray. My prayer was to grant to the child “whatever is best for her welfare”.

On our fourth day in Davao, it was time for the mother and child with a child's relative to meet us in a mall in the morning. While waiting, my daughter and I shopped for some items, but ended up buying only for the child (a stuffed toy and a pair of cute sunglasses). I asked my daughter, "will she be able to wear this?". We were both sad, but decided to think positively. Unfortunately, they did not appear.

There was a garden resort owned by my husband's good friend, Mr. Puentespina, where we were invited to stay even for just a day, so my daughter and I proceeded to go there. But on our way, the child's relative sent me a message through my cellphone saying that they rented a van and that they wanted to follow us. She did not mention if the child was with them.

It was past noon I think, when I was waiting outside the resort for the van. As they went out of the van, I can't describe how happy I was to see the child. I learned that at 2 in the morning, they kidnapped the child using the rented van with driver. The mother kidnapped her own child.

I think that was August 26, six years ago. The adoption process is now over, only this month, and that was the reason why I haven't told a more detailed story like this one in my first post. Her new birth certificate is now filed in the National Statistics Office. It took years to complete that, because we wanted to be sure about the mother's decision, and some red tapes happened during the process.

Both the biological mother and grandparents of the child are now happy that she is in good hands and is loved so much. The adoption process is over, so she is no longer an adopted child.

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.

Love Thy Neighbor Part 2

It was maybe two months before I was employed when I published my post titled "Love Thy Neighbor". That was more than 4 months ago if I'm not mistaken.

Just this morning, I was in the same situation but with an entirely different outcome. I entered the LRT-2 train, it was full and all I can see was the ceiling and tall guys all around me, most of them students because they were wearing white uniforms. There was no bar to hold on to. One of those tall students looked at me, I said "I hope there is a bar I can hold on to".

He said "just hold me, ma'am". I held the side of his bag in front of him, but he offered his arm. So I held his arm, until I was able to get a bar before he stepped out at Central Terminal Station.

To that very kind student, I'd like to say "thank you", but I'd like to tnank his parents more for raising a child that turned out to be like him.

Still no time

I can't believe this, I still don't have the time to write for this blog. This Sunday for example, I am torn between studying the module we will be discussing with the client tomorrow and telling a story about a memory that lingered since the day I arrived in Davao two weeks ago.

Since the discussion with the client is tomorrow, I have no choice because I want to write a nice story in case I'll choose to do that instead.

Regards to my readers and fellow bloggers, I'm missing all of you!

My Roots

One of the original objectives of this blog was to talk about my hobbies, which was fulfilled in a few posts. I've talked about painting as a hobby, but it was painting the house I wrote about, not painting on canvas, which I decided to defer.

With the new job that I have, I found a deeper objective to publish my first portrait oil painting. It is not my self portrait but the portrait of my late famous aunt, Rio Diaz, who died of cancer. It was Rio Diaz who inspired me to write, and to continue her legacy of inspiring people through writing.

I believe that it was from the genes of my grandmother where I got my talent in arts. I was referring to my grandmother who belong to the Diaz and Abellera clans of La Union, a province in the Ilocos region of the Luzon island in the Philippines. The company where I now belong is based in San Fernando, La Union. Most of my work mates came from this province (not officemates since we are usually scattered in the offices of clients nationwide), so it is not surprising if some of them could be my relatives.

I also belong to the Catriz clan of Ilocos Sur, Vigan. If there is a province I would like to spend my vacation once in a while, it is this province of beautiful antique houses. Unfortunately, I heard that most members of the Catriz clan are now in the United States, but there is one left in Vigan, one of the parish priests there, Rev. Reyes, whose mother is a Catriz.

Probably my technical abilities came from the genes of the Taa clan which originated from the Gandeza clan of Abra, another province in the Ilocos region. Most of my relatives in the Taa clan have professions either in Information Technology or in the electronics industry.

Last but not least, I belong to the Balolong clan of Pangasinan. One characteristic of this clan, I noticed, is the principle that the father should be a good provider, and the head of a family of well disciplined members.

My only hope for these clans where I belong is for the good values and the talents of each clan be sustained and even enhanced, while the bad practices or habits be eliminated. My given name was taken from my father's name who belongs to the "Taa" clan. It fitted me because I turned out to be an IT professional, but I also want to remember that the love for arts is in my blood. Thus I am now using the nickname only my mother and siblings and the people who took care of me used to call me, the name "Lubel". The "bel" part reminds me of two Isabels, one is my mother who is an artist herself, while the other one is a famous painter, Isabel Diaz, the sister of Rio and Gloria Diaz, two famous beauty queens.

Little did my mother know that her story about an aunt who owns an art gallery in New York, who turned out to be Isabel Diaz, plus her charcoal drawing of me when I was a child, will inspire me to recognize that I also have the same talent and love for arts.

Hope for Type 2 diabetics

I was finally hired and I'll probably talk about some details in my employment some other time. That is the reason why I wasn't able to post in this blog for the past ten days, and most probably, my weekly posting might now be a bimonthly posting.

Anyway, for this post, I'm somewhat glad that it came later because I'll still be in line with my "Bloggers Unite" entry, "Hunger and Hope", where I talked about the source of hope for hunger, which is Spirulina, the blue-green algae, and the United Nations organization, the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina against Malnutrition (IIMSAM). This organization hopes that Spirulina would save the lives of almost 900 million people worldwide that are affected by malnutrition.

The good news is that Spirulina can save not only the lives of malnourished people, but the lives of Type 2 diabetics as well. It is ironic that most Type 2 diabetics for sure, are not malnourished, since they most probably acquired their diabetis from the food they eat. Their diabetes can be reversed, by eating nothing but spirulina, like the astronauts do. But they have to look for the purest and unpolluted Spirulina they can find, and if they can afford to buy any food, then they can also afford the purest uncultured brand.

A doctor who was a diabetic himself, have tried several brands of spirulina and assures that the Tiens or Tianshi brand is the purest brand that can cure a Type 2 diabetic by taking 5 capsules during breakfast, lunch and supper. Change of lifestyle is a must, meaning eat only low GI foods and exercise even by just walking for at least 30 minutes everyday. Those with alarming levels or complications should eat only spirulina for breakfast and lunch and just eat low GI foods during supper. Self-discipline is very important for an afflicted diabetic to be healed.

United Nations and World Health Organization recommends spirulina as safe and nutritious (even for children). I have special hopes for my special child, Lyca, so I give her one gram of Tianshi spirulina everyday.

Swine flu and Pacquiao

For the past two weeks, we were scared by the swine flu virus. I did my homework for several days by researching all I need to know about this virus and how to prevent and treat it in case it hits the Philippines. Perhaps I was overloaded with information that I didn't know which of those information would be most valuable to share.

Until yesterday. I and maybe the rest of the world who have watched the Paquiao-Hatton fight were glad how the fight turned out. It was over in a flash but it was an amazing fight that I know will be hard to forget.

How I wish there is a Pacman like Pacquiao who can extinguish in a flash the likes of swine flu virus. But there's more to reality, and Manny Paquiao should be our model. He has prepared himself extensively for the fight, and for any fight. We should do the same for our fight with the swine flu virus or for any virus still to come.

Hunger and Hope

At first I didn’t want to write about the topic of hunger because it is an issue that is very hard to resolve, but my researches are now telling me that there is hope to resolve hunger.

Here in the Philippines, the less fortunate Filipinos have been very creative in fighting hunger. One extreme example is hanging a dried fish or “tuyo” at the middle of the table so that each member of the family can smell it right under the nose while eating only rice. Another example is to add any sauce on top of the rice, or others would add the oil from cooked pork. Even the middle class Filipinos would do that to suppress hunger in between meals, if they are not health conscious. Others would lengthen the availability of rice in their homes by cooking rice congee, instead of the usual cooked rice.

The more unbelievable ways to fight hunger are countless, but people practicing them are exposed to a lot of health risks which include food poisoning and of course, malnutrition.

The past week, I’ve been researching about "Spirulina", a blue-green algae that can help me and others prevent cancer, the main reason why I became interested about it, in the first place. It is now called the "21st century food", because of its potential to solve malnutrition. A lot of studies have been conducted, involving preschool children, to analyze the potency of its vitamins. It can be produced easily therefore there is hope that not only hunger but more importantly, malnutrition, can be resolved.

I’m glad that United Nations has set up an institution to fight malnutrition , and this is the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina against Malnutrition (IIMSAM). This organization hopes that Spirulina would save the lives of almost 900 million people worldwide that are affected by malnutrition.

"In the year 2009, IIMSAM along with the Republic of Honduras and an increasing number of Member States of the United Nations that support the mandate of the organization such as Argentina, United Kingdom, China, India, Russian Federation, Qatar, Italy, Jamaica, and all the Central and South American countries and many more including IIMSAM Official Member and Supporting States, would initiate a Draft-Resolution in the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly to promote the use of Spirulina against severe malnutrition and make it a key-driver to achieve global food security and bridge the health divide." - www.iimsam.org

Traditional Chinese Medicine

At last I can now really talk about Traditional Chinese Medicine or TCM. With the current global economic crisis and the discovery of more bad effects of prescription drugs everyday, I feel that it is about time we people in the East go back to the traditional ways of our ancestors to treat diseases which is really mostly TCM but fully understanding its principles, while the rest of the world should try to be enlightened with the principles of TCM, which was a product of 5,000 years of study by the Chinese.

Or maybe I am late to say that because TCM is already practiced in every part of the world. Of course there are still a lot of people who are not aware of TCM and these are the people I’d like to reach this time. Don’t worry because I am just a layman like you and I became interested in TCM because I’ve seen that there is so much logic in its principles. Information Technology deals with logic so it will be easy even for IT professionals like me to understand and appreciate TCM.

TCM views the body as a unified organic whole. It

• believes in balancing the body as a whole rather than treating separate parts
• focuses on prevention rather than crisis management of a disease

TCM is all about balancing and harmony, and balancing refers to YIN and YANG. Disturbing the balance between the YIN and YANG will cause illnesses.

YIN and YANG represents all of opposite principles found in the universe and cannot exist without the other.


Examples of YIN-YANG:

NIGHT - DAY
DARK - LIGHT
COLD - WARM
NEGATIVE - POSITIVE
PASSIVE - ACTIVE
FEMALE - MALE
SOLID - HOLLOW

(The hollow organs are the gall bladder, small intestine, stomach, large intestine and urinary bladder. Solid organs are the liver, heart, spleen, lungs and kidney.

“YIN and YANG” is a very basic logical concept. My next topic about TCM will be the 5 Elements, which deals with more interesting logic and in relation again to YIN and YANG.