I Dont Want To Retire!

Probably the real essence of not retiring is not to stop thinking about beautiful ideas and experiences and sharing them.
I aspire to inspire with God's Good News to mankind, health and wellness, and many more.

1.09.2010

What is Tiens?

Yesterday I read a message in Facebook asking me about the company Tiens. There is a lot to be said about this company aside from the recent update that its President, Li Jin Yuan, has expressed to the Phil. Government the plan to build a Tiens factory in the Philippines.

I learned about Tiens in 2007. Late that year, I became curious about a comb gadget a doctor was using on her hair so she told me her story about saving an old man with that gadget while inside a plane. The old man had a severe headache so the flight stewardess called for a doctor on board. She volunteered, and using the comb gadget, combed the scalp of the man for 5 minutes. The man was comforted and his headache disappeared. The doctor learned that the man had a mild stroke in the past. After maybe six months, I had the opportunity to visit the office of Tiens in the Philippines, Tianshi Phils., where the comb massage gadget can be bought. I learned that it is technically called Hypotension Apparatus, though it doesn't only regulate blood pressure whether it is high or low, but also relieves arthritic pain or any pain in any part of the body.

I started to attend the trainings in Tianshi Phils., one of the branches of Tiens which has offices in 110 countries. It has 9 factories worldwide which include one in Spain, one in Russia, one in U.S. and another one in Indonesia. More factories are to be built, like in Japan, Hungary, and the Philippines. The biggest factories are found in China, which will be part of the Tiens International Health Industrial Park, a 500 hectares area to be launched in August 2010. Tiens received several awards for its modern biotechnology, from different organizations like United Nations, and has all the certifications for high quality, food safety and pharmaceutical safety like HACCP in 2007, ISO 2000-2005, Halal, Kosher,etc. It has acquired leading manufacturing equipments from Germany, U.S., France and Japan.

So much can be said about the company, but people who have used their products have much, much more to say, and that includes me, my family and relatives. For instance, the walking carpet removed the varicose veins of my mother-in-law who patiently walks on it for 30 minutes everyday. I no longer use analgesics because any kind of pain can be relieved by our comb gadget or the "Tong Bao" which is a modern green acupuncture gadget. "Green" because it is safe and needleless.

I had a lot of wonderful experiences to share about the supplements of Tiens. Chitosan reversed my bad and good cholesterol within two weeks (good became higher, and the bad lower), and Cordyceps Mycelium restored the strength I had before I underwent hysterectomy in the year 2000. Tiens Zinc always acted as a "turbo" whenever any of us is sick, so that colds wouldn't take longer than one week. We give Tiens Spirulina to our special child Lyca, which is now the source of her vitamins and other required nutrients. Unlike the other Spirulina in the market, we are sure that the Tiens brand is from an unpolluted source and that can be proven by the liver profile we regularly have, because the results even show improvement.

When you get the comb massage gadget, you better read the accompanying brochure well because it was only lately when we read that it can improve the condition of cerebral paralysis. Our special child has cerebral palsy and though we are still planning to ask her doctor if cerebral paralysis is the same as cerebral palsy, we can't wait but to try it on her. She usually have seizures while sleeping which can be manifested by the hardening of her legs. Just recently, whenever there were a number of times during the day I let her hold the comb like a cellphone (there are many acupoints on the ear), and I also would place it on top of her head, I noticed her legs were easy to bend while sleeping at night, and that will be a good news to her doctor when we see her two months from now.

The best things about Tiens are all these good news about health and wellness that can be shared to you people, and I am more than glad that I have that opportunity through this blog, and of course the opportunity to invite you to join me or my network which I intend to train and monitor full time starting this February. The last but not least good news is Tiens doesn't want any member to be stressed so there is no quota, membership is lifetime, points are cumulative, rebates are high, a 550 pesos minimum purchase per month starts only for a leader who already has a big network, and most of all, membership is only 1,000 pesos, with a free product and catalog.

It was in the early 1990s when I was introduced to network marketing or MLM and learned how it can fulfill the dreams of a Filipino. Years after that, I was disappointed because the original goals of MLM became diluted and seemed to have changed. But when I joined TIENS in 2007, I could see the truth in the real objectives of network marketing and how several people from other countries realized their dreams through TIENS. The true Filipino dream is no longer far from reality, with the help of TIENS!

12.26.2009

Freedom at Christmas

On Christmas Day this year, I felt a great amount of freedom. I was free from worries about my backlogs at work, I was free from the workaholic side of me. I emailed my resignation letter during the first week of this month and right after I pressed “Send”, I immediately planned to start decorating the house for Christmas. It was hard to schedule that activity because I knew I had a lot of pending tasks for my current job. I realized that my job was starting to control my life because everything in my mind was how to get things done at work, never mind the house. But as much as I wanted to extend my time to finish those pending tasks, I couldn't because my special child, Lyca, was demanding for my attention also.

A week after I submitted my resignation letter, I also realized that my job has affected my health too. Just a call from a client caused my blood pressure to rise, maybe because about the same time, I also received two SMS messages from other clients. The client who called me up said she wouldn't call me up if there is no problem. That is the sad part of my current job. Calls would never bring good news, only bad ones. So I turned to Facebook although rarely, to find some good news from friends.

Though I still have a month to try to complete those pending tasks, at least for this very important month, I've set myself free. I just hope and pray that my team mates who are my subordinates will cooperate to make my remaining days worthwhile. I also hope they will understand why I had to leave. This was not the first time I thought of resigning from this job because I already felt that I had to make a lot of adjustment since I was used to working in a corporate environment for the 30 years that I've worked. Decision making was dynamic and fast because we always did that as a team, which included the division head who is always an officer in the corporate. In my current job, there were several times I felt all alone making tough decisions. Tough because resources required were not enough and beyond my control.

I had second thoughts about resigning because I wanted to share to my team mates my experiences in the corporate world. But I realize now that could take so much time if a company is not really a corporation in the first place. I also don't have enough time to hasten the process because my team mates were scattered around the country and I need to be always near my special child. I tried to share some of my experiences through the documents and sites I've created in our official domain, but I don't know if my team mates could appreciate them. I wish they could, so that my 6-month stint in working with them would serve its purpose. I will surely miss them when I'm finally out of the scene.

12.11.2009

My Little Mermaid

This post is dedicated to my mother who is celebrating her birthday today. She was an example that inspired me to take good care of a special child like Lyca, who was a Little Mermaid during the Christmas party of the rehab center of Quirino Memorial Medical Center, where she undergoes regular physical therapy.


Happy Birthday M O M !!

11.27.2009

Weekend in Bacolod

I can't believe that it has been almost two months since I last posted in this blog! I should have at least posted about my weekend in Tanza, a barrio near Bacolod City. I'm doing that now, and the only reason for the not-so-precise title of this post is to get attention since Bacolod is a well known city internationally, because of its Masskara festival held every 2nd week of October.

I had been requested to go to Cebu last month, so passing by a client in Iloilo who has written requests to visit them months ago was finally practical. A team mate with me who would be assigned in Iloilo for some time lives near Bacolod City so I requested to stay at their house for the weekend in between my Iloilo and Cebu trips. We rode a ferry boat from Iloilo to Bacolod, but since Bacolod was not in my official itinerary, I had to shoulder all my expenses in that trip.

My weekend in the house of my team mate was not an ordinary weekend because I had a personal objective unknown even to her. I wanted to know her condition in her own hometown because she will be 60 years old next year and may retire. I wanted to discourage her to retire but I would like to be sure if that will be the best advice I can give her. She has a nice house, but she expressed her desire to renovate her kitchen when she retires. Their barrio looks like a subdivision in Metro Manila. Her siblings and grandchildren by them live next to or near her house so she won't be lonely in case she decides to retire.

Though her hometown is an ideal place for retirement, I hope I can still work with her longer because so many clients expressed their need for her expertise.

I can't end this post without mentioning the sugarcane plantations all around their barrio because I was overwhelmed with the vast area of the plantations. The winds coming from the plantation was very refreshing!.


10.03.2009

Musings of a "Batang San Miguel"

Today is my eldest daughter's birthday, I wonder how else can I make her day happy aside from cooking her favorite pasta. Oh yes, I made her use my laptop practically the whole day until the desktop computer was vacated by her brother.

I thought maybe I can search youtube for a song I can dedicate to her so I'm now searching. But my search brought me to an article she wrote for my former employer's newsletter, "Kaunlaran". Here it is:

MUSINGS OF A ‘BATANG SAN MIGUEL’

‘Ang Batang San Miguel’- 1. The epitome of the humble Filipino patriarch, who works day in, day out, to provide for his family. At the end of each grueling day, he finds himself weary, nevertheless still inspired by the blessing that his family is as he reflects and relaxes over a bottle of his favored Gold Eagle beer; 2. The hardworking Filipino laborer, who, in the hard slog of manual drudges, finds time to loosen up with fellow laborers, over warming shots of Ginebra San Miguel Gin; 3. The much-idolized San Miguel cagers, who, in their ‘game-less’ nights, take on the flippancy of your ordinary ‘barkada’ in your ‘inuman sa bahay’ thing, guzzling none other than the ‘barkada’s’ favorite pick-me-up, San Miguel beer.

Much of the familiar personas of a ‘Batang San Miguel’ are owed to the ideal images indicated in San Miguel beverages advertisements. The lesser known of all these personas, is the ‘Batang San Miguel’ that I claim I am. I hardly fit into the embodiment of a modest patriarch, or of an industrious laborer, and especially not of a vigorous San Miguel cager, though I enjoy the liberty of drinking the famed beer in moderation. But I am a ‘Batang San Miguel’ in the most literal sense I could think of. How? Let me walk you through the prospects of an unassuming San Miguel ex-dependent: Myself, a ‘Batang San Miguel’.

My mom became a San Miguel employee in 1987. I was seven years old then, and all I knew was that mommy holds office in a big building of slanted glass poised in a big space of greenery and ponds of orange fish. I did not know that her employment would have repercussions on us, as I did not understand why we should drink Coke (not Pepsi), or consume Magnolia Ice Cream (not Selecta), or even why we should root for San Miguel Team (and not any other when San Miguel is on the court). We just had to because her company endorsed the products. I got used to being a loyal consumer anyway, and that was not so difficult especially when we got product freebies, discounts, and free tickets to San Miguel games. Through all those years I grew up in amusement of San Miguel celebrity endorsers, and my teenage years were consumed in admiration of the hunks that San Miguel cagers were.

I basically grew up reaping most of the benefits of the common dependent. Of course, your usual San Miguel dependent enjoys a whole lot more benefits than product freebies. I, for one, at fourth grade, had my first pair of spectacles prescribed by and loaned from San Miguel. I was entitled to subsequent visits to the San Miguel clinic in Makati for free check-ups and consultations, taking on the San Miguel route through my mumps, chicken pox, measles, typhoid and other childhood ailments I do not even remember having. For the more pleasurable benefit of it, I always tagged along in company outings, which took our family to different scenic summer places such as Cavite, Antipolo and Batangas. I also had the opportunity to suit myself as a spectator in San Miguel events and programs (singing contests, photography exhibits and the like), but the ones having the most impact on me were the performances of the recently founded San Miguel Orchestra and Chorale, which I beheld with much amusement and pride, as they, I believe, are the best in the country.

Though I personally think that all these opportunities and benefits were a great deal to earn, our family’s ‘involvement’ with San Miguel was not limited to mere advocacy of the products, nor to the ‘event-crashing’ we constantly did. Not long after my mom’s employment, San Miguel Corporation organized summer workshops for the employees’ children, which ended with a culminating activity at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. My brother and I were made to join the workshops, myself in the beginner ballet class held at the gym, and my brother in the singing workshop they had for little kids. It was a fascinating experience for me, a shy seven year old, to socialize within the San Miguel complex, then energized and animated with more than enough kids my eyes feasted on (and WOW they were all potential playmates!). The workshops were fun-filled with much dancing, singing and acting, as we prepared for our production entitled ‘The Wiz’, directed no less by the Bernardo Bernardo. It was my first taste of ‘stardom’ as I tottered on stage, as one of the flowers in the play. From then on, I was no stranger to public performance, and my brother, as a Batman action figure, had his debut in the theater at four years old.

Now, at almost twenty-three years old, it gets a little different, I guess. No more perks for me because I AM an ex-dependent. But come to think of it, I got more than what was given to me, that in this adult juncture in my life, I regard myself someone who has a far better title than “The Ex-Dependent”. I am a ‘Batang San Miguel’, because it would be hypocritical of me to say that I was made nothing by all of my ‘dependent’ years. After all those years of product endorsements, event spectacles and glitzy productions, I found myself in a “destined deja-vu”. Interestingly (for me, at least), I turned out to be a public performer, because I took up a course, the love for which, was instilled in me by my San Miguel workshop days ---- MUSIC. I came to love music and I found myself in proximity to the stage, and all the love for that started when I was designated a flower in a glittering powder blue tutu. It was also all those years spent as a spectator to San Miguel’s creative programs that I was unknowingly honing my own creativity and imagination, as I sat through each singing contest, choral competition, dance intermission, photography ehibit, and most of all, the breathtaking performances rendered by the San Miguel Chorale and Orchestra. Not only was I given the privilege to witness all these happenings, but to a greater extent, I was given the honor to become inspired by it all.

I guess for the most part, the benefits enjoyed by San Miguel’s dependents do greatly to ease the everyday lives of the employees, that they are assured of aid to come especially in times of need. Little do they realize that they are in store for more significant advantages, like what being a San Miguel dependent did to me: it gave me the inspiration to find out who I was, and to seek where I belong to. I now deem myself a part of the San Miguel family, as I deem it a valuable part of me. With all of these musings in mind, I am full of pride in claiming myself a ‘Batang San Miguel’.


Lauren Lois Venida
11 Sept 2003

9.24.2009

"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

9.06.2009

ILLAC DIAZ is my cousin!!



After watching that video, you would understand why I was very proud to shout to the world that "Illac Diaz is my cousin!", although he doesn't even know me. His grandfather and my grandmother are second cousins.

How stupid of me because i was already at the same place where he was last Friday, at the venue of the seminar of Francis Kong where he was one of the guests and I was an attendee. During his portion in the seminar, every time he would present one of his projects, the audience would applaud while I would be very touched and controlling my tears. During the break, there was a long line of people who'd like to talk to him that seem to have more important agenda to tell him, but I still fell in line until there was no more time and the seminar has to resume. Well, maybe there will be a more appropriate time for me to meet him, perhaps when I already have the time for My Shelter Foundation where he is now an AVP.

Illac's purpose in life and his missions are very clear, may God bless him always!

8.30.2009

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)

8.15.2009

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.

8.08.2009

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.