About my Blog

Stories of a thirty something girl. She travels.She reads.She writes.She dreams.She prays.She lives.

Sep 28, 2006

obladi, oblada life goes on

as september nearly ends in a few days, i'd like to share some serious thoughts. it's my birthmonth and i always feel sentimental whenever another year adds to my age. oh, i don't really mind getting older, i look young anyway (hahaha!)...this year i've celebrated my birthday in probably the most simple way ever. my birthday week was spent alone in our new apartment. i was so sick for a week due to fever & colds, maybe God just wanted me to rest because i was too busy with work & sfc community lately. the night before my birthday since i was feeling better, i still attended our weekly household meeting. we had it at sister jo-anne's place in greenland. our topic was about simple guidelines, we had to choose one out of the 10 listed and reflect on it. when it was my turn to share, i said, since it's gonna be my birthday the next day, instead of making 3 wishes, just let me choose 3 guidelines to share my insights on. these were the 3 guidelines i chose:

a) BE PATIENT...I managed to fix it so in just one lifetime you could have so many diverse experiences.you grow from a child to an adult, have children, change jobs many times, learn many trades, travel so many places, meet thousands of people and experience so much. how can you be so impatient then when it takes Me a little longer than you expect to handle something on My to-do-list? trust in My timing, for My timing is perfect. Just because I created the entire universe in only six days, everyone thinks I should always rush,rush,rush.

b) LOVE YOURSELF...As much as I love you, how can you not love yourself? You were created by me for one reason only - - - to be loved, and to love in return.I am a God of Love. Love Me. love your neighbors but also love yourself. it makes my heart ache when i see you angry with yourself when things go wrong. you are very precious to me. don't ever forget.

c) TALK TO ME...I want you to forget a lot of things. forget what was making you crazy. forget the worry and the fretting because you know I'm in control. but there's one thing I pray you never forget. please, don't forget to talk to Me- OFTEN! I love YOU! i want to hear your voice. i want you to include Me in on the things going on in your life. i want to hear you talk about your friends and family. prayer is simply you having a conversation with Me. i want to be your dearest friend.

right after the sharing, they gave me a birthday cake (the one that i was really wishing to have, Red Ribbon's latest addition to their cakes!), as i blew the candles,of course i wished for B....BETTER HEALTH (hehe, akala nyo boyfriend noh?). when my real birthday came the next day, my siblings and i just had a simple lunch at home right after my SAGIP session in the morning.well, this year as i said was the simplest but i was very happy that i was able to spend the day serving the community and hangin' around with family.

btw, jm and i moved to a new apartment...i love it better here, it's more spacious and got a separate laundry area. during the time when we were preparing to move, i was able to flip through pages of an old notebook...i totally forgot about it until when i was packing my old stuff and saw it. i stopped writing journal entries in college and threw my old high school diary ages ago...i didn't know that i was still keepin' compilation of hate letters in this old notebook.they were my hate letters to life ..yes, i was hating life then and writing about how i felt about my life was the meanest thing i could do then...i once again read about my aches, my hurts, my rants,grudges and everything that seems to be so uncontrollable back then. i even saw a letter to papa telling him how i hate living life without him.it was late 2000 until 2002 and learning that i stopped writing hate letters in 2003, i reflected...2003 was the year i started to get deeply involved in my service in Gawad Kalinga and started having a more personal relationship with God. since i found new hope from the people surrounding me, i started to see life anew...no space for hate...and definitely, no time to write hate letters! i didn't throw the notebook...it will be my constant reminder of how i've journeyed this colorful life...i dare to stay and continue to travel.with a different attitude towards life this time, when the road seems dark and rough, i now know where to look...NOT BACK BUT UP!

Sep 15, 2006

updates...hopefully not so late

i haven't posted for over two months already. the fact that i was stuck on a week of sick leave doesn't give me any excuse not to update. i honestly don't know where to start, i've been so busy just being everywhere.here's an attempt to remember them all.let's try monthly...

JUNE

nepcon exhibit- penang, malaysia

south asia marketing team helped Malaysia team during their exhibition at Penang. It was an industrial part of Malaysia and yeah, this wasn't exactly a shopping haven so there was really no time for that. one afternoon though, my boss and i sneaked some time out for one, surprisingly a nearby mall from the hotel had some good clothes for only RM 10.after every exhibition day, the host country would always give us a sumptuous dinner. i couldn't forget being in Genting, it looks like Tagaytay without Taal Volcano...that's it, our version is still more beautiful :) here are some pix during the trip:

>>> during the set-up









>>> at a competitor's booth






>>> at genting with esther, boonhock & genna
















global leader's forum

it was indeed a very empowering forum. we were once again reminded that we ought to be servant leaders. the world doesn't spare us from temptations around and as God's army we have to be armed and always be ready with the battle ahead of us. this truly scared me knowing that real world equals sinful world...and it's the world where i live. i have my weaknesses and i don't know how far can the evil go, all i know is that i can always hold on to my faith.

>>> gala night

>>> sfc east a 1-c

JULY

just to list events in this month

08 - mom's bday. we just had a simple dinner

12 - tri-ann's bday. ate jhett and i went to pangasinan to celebrate it with her. i love the cake we bought for her, it's themed after walt disney's princesses.worked both ways eh...she was able to celebrate and we were able to choose the cake...hehehe

29 - papa's death anniversary. this time, we had the novena at ate jhett's place for a change. it was very private, just immediate family members.hmmm, i terribly miss the man :(

AUGUST

marketing forum

we held our marketing forum at bangkok, thailand.initial reaction was... finally, a shopping haven for a change! BUT naaaaaaaaaahhhhh i only got to visit the night market during our last night. it was, as usual, a meeting-filled forum.but hey this forum wasn't so bad after all because:

a) i love asoke residences-- the hotel where we stayed at

b) boonhock thought of unique teambuilding by teamin up the non-cooks to one cook and let the cooks coached and the non-cooks cooked. i coached and i teamed up with singaporeans who could not event slice veggies...hahaha!see below pictures:

>>>dinner during our teambuilding planning

>>>the finished products
























>>> myself, tiong & julia


c) we went to a massage parlor after the teambuilding...hmm, authentic thai massage..truly relaxing!

d) shopping (kahit bitin!)

mmlc,arts center,laguna

who would have thought that God will be on my side? i almost wasn't able to make it in this year's mmlc. hmmmm, it was all worth the risks that i took...the talks were great, the sharings were great...the hell with all the defaults.i don't know if it's just me or maybe some other sfcs could also share with some sentiments that i have with regards to how mmlcs were being done lately. i remember not so long ago, mmlcs had more fruitful talks, more great sharings, more learnings gained and there were less competitions, less production numbers, just plain, simple conferences that we all enjoyed, well there were just the same old classic complains about the food then but it's comparatively nothing to the impacts in our lives that those plain conferences had given.what i'm tryin to say is, sourgraping aside (really!)... can we just go back to our plain conferences? simple, we sfcs tend to be too competitive at times and it's not giving us any good.just an opinion, you may or may not agree...maybe i'm just one of those sfcs who just tend to appreciate talks more rather than physical activities in conferences.