A curious spirit with undying thirst to thrust unto the deepest realm of humans senses. A continual journey to challenge an intellectual pursuit. And a sensitive soul pursuing to the meaning of each bumps and bruises on each corner of this journey we call Life.
June 29 marks the birthday of my son, Vincent. Sure I bought him gifts. I thought I should make this a special day for my best friend. I thought I should treat him. However, he does not want to make a big fuss out of it. Added to the fact that I have deadlines today. So, it turned out that this is going to be just another ordinary day, or so I thought.
Afternoon when my father arrives. With him are loads of food for my sons' birthday. 2 buckets of rice and 6 mouth watering viands. One whole chicken, a bucket of liempo, pansit, Maya maya, lumpiang shanghai, siomai and toufu from Aroma Restaurant. My goodness, it tastes so good. As every one greeted Vincent "Happy Birthday", we all shared a festive meal.
I know its way past fathers' day. Forgive me for being so late. This post is for my father. The man who took care of me since childhood. The man who sustained me and my siblings until we can make it on our own.
No words would be enough to thank him for his generous heart. He taught me a lot of things about life. Do you believe that parents have the verbal and non verbal way of teaching their children? I learned a lot from the non verbal lessons he taught me. It is not simply by telling it to me verbally but by showing it to me.
My father showed me that responsibility always comes first. Responsibility is not depended on emotions, swings of moods, hindrances, challenges, or even personal welfare. As long as my feet is standing on the ground, obligation comes first. There is no room for an excuse.
My father showed me not to give up. He reached his position because of his own efforts. He was a self supporting student. He wanted to be a lawyer. Ten years of study was quite a challenge for him. To support his studies, he worked at night and studied in the morning. When he reached his law proper, every one said he should stop.
He was too thin. Just by looking at him, every one around him said he will never make it. This is especially when everybody knows that law is a difficult course. Determined and perhaps stubborn as he was, we pursued his law proper. He still worked graveyard shift. He slept two to three hours for four straight years.
In the midst of discouragement, he persists. Finally, he graduated and passed the bar in 1972. Such accomplishment surprised every one around him. No body believed he can make it. Well, he did.
He taught me to never give up. If things seemed to be hopeless, continue standing still. If I am to lose, rather lose fighting than giving up. It is better to accept defeat that way than to lose doing nothing.
That is my father. Who ever I am now, it is because of him.
I love you, papa :) Sorry this post is quite late. You may not be able to read this post. However, this is going to be a permanent link of my undying respect and love for you.
Your daughter, Shirley
Note: I had been trying to upload his picture but I am getting errors. I will again try scanning some of his pictures. Thank you for reading my writings, my articles and my posts.
We did talk about stress. We also talked on how it could be detrimental to our health. Stress could lead to various serious health issues that could be fatal when not properly addressed.
But then, I also did say that stress could be a good thing, too. I said stress could make us swift and alert. However, when it reaches a certain level of extent, it could be fatal. It could bring serious health issues. So, how do we determine the boiling point? When is "too much" really too much? You and only you could determine that. Are you on that thin line between your breaking point and your sanity? Do you still have some space to breathe-in ? Even your love one can not tell you when enough is really enough.
I would prefer that we do not reach the boiling point. Kill the stress on the early stage of it. We need to sit down and determine what is causing this harmful stress. In troubleshooting, we do a "trial and error" experiment. The purpose of which is to isolate the real problem. We must know what the real cause of our stress is. Once we are able to isolate and determine the root cause of the issue, then we can already address it from there. Makes sense, right?
Also, let us breathe. I have a slipped disk. About a year ago, I had recurring attacks. Thinking that it is because of the slipped disk, I went to my therapist. She said it has nothing to do with my slipped disk. She advised me to slow down. Breathe the air of life, so to speak. She further advised me to go out of my nutshell and learn to experience life. I left her clinic pissed. What kind of prescription was that?
I tried reflexology. I tried to slow down, a bit. It has good effects, actually. Bottom line, when the situation is getting too tight and you could not breathe anymore, learn to relax. Be kind to yourself. Talk to your trusted friends. [Unfortunately, i did not have the advantage because i did not have the time]. Focus on the positive side of things. The situation will not change for us. Most often than not, the situation that may be causing your stress will not change. However, your perspective could adjust. Look at the things on a different perspective and you would be able to align yourself to the situation.
The reality is, the world will not change for us. We are the one who should adjust in order to survive the situation. We must learn how to cope because the world will not fit itself according to how we want it to be. We can not have perfect husbands, perfect children, perfect job. There is no such thing. There is, however, the capability to make the most out of the positive in order to overcome the negative. Always look at the positive side of the situation. Embrace the never ending world of the word "change". In the call center industry, the sentence "The only permanent thing in life is change" is very prominent.
It is difficult to see the positive side? It happens. It happened to me. If that is the case, how about this. There are certain occasion in my past when I felt like I faced a blank wall. No matter what I decide to do, I know I would be damned. Or was. It is like damn if I do. Damn if I don't. I said to myself then, I may not win this one, but I will not go down without a fight. Fight like hell. Fight for your life. Fight for the people depending on you. Fight for your love one. Think of them. I could very well say that it is always better to lose fighting than lose doing nothing.
The question is, are you going to simply allow stress destroy the best in you...and beat you?
Do you live in a fast paced life? I do. The only difference between then and now is that lately I had not been feeling the stress although I know that it is lurking somewhere. Sometimes I feel it is patiently waiting for me to weaken. If I weaken, stress will be there to take its pleasure to devour me.
In a dynamic and demanding life, hassles are everywhere. I was always on the emergency mode. In a way, it had become a part of life. One way or the other, I must fit in or be kicked out. Are you on the same predicament? I think almost every one is.
Stress kicks in when our life style is not anymore on a balanced state. Stress reactivates when you wrestle to meet the countless demands around you. Do you know the feeling when everything around you seems to be falling and your hand are not enough to catch each of them? Chronic stress kicks in when you fight to keep every thing in order at the expense of your health.
Do not get me wrong. Stress can be helpful. It keeps us swift and sharp. However, when it boils to a certain extent it could be destructive. If not able to handle properly, the effect could be fatal.
Stress can have destructive effect on our health. The problem with stress is that once it starts, it can not easily subside. It works its way up to your systems before it goes down. Prolong stress can ignite stroke or heart attack. Would you believe it even affects our immune system? Oh yes, it does. It triggers high blood pressure. It leads to depression and anxiety. It can affect the quality of our life.
The bad news is that stress is here to stay. It will not adjust for you. You will have to adjust so you could cope. Stress is part of life. I mention this on one of my articles. The good news is that it can be addressed. Therefore, you need not face a blank wall. There is a window and a door on that wall. However, you have to open it on your end. The flash news is that once you learn to deal with stress, it could sharpen you so you could face the challenges in this journey we call life.
So, let us talk about the ways to face this predicament named stress, shall we? And this talk will be waiting for you on your next visit.
You should have a great day, you deserve it. Always take care :)
And oh yes, if i may say so, the picture above came from creaphrama.ch. It is not mine :)
Just a number of days ago, I was clamoring to create a new article. Considering this is a sample article, I am the one who will choose the topic. The dilemma when you are writing is that you are not always in the mood to come up with an idea. There are days when things are so dry that I can not come up with something...or anything. As I was mumbling with my keyboard, I came up with my article. This was already read by some client. This caused me an interview that up until now is not yet realized.
Anyways, since this is a thought of mine, let me share it with you. Here it is. I hope you like it.
Do you believe that our state of mind influences our physical health? This means that what we think influences our physical wellness as a whole. How exactly does this work?
One good example on how our state of mind affects our physical wellness is our attitude. A perfectionist can easily catch up with stress. Once you see flaws it easily gets into your nerve. Usually, stress follows afterward. The bad news is that stress shrinks some areas in our brain. This area is called hippocampus. In lay mans term, hippocampus is the key keeper of your memory. I do not mean memory as in how well you remember your name or your address. I mean memory as in your capacity to retain information. Stress can affect our brain, our heart and our blood pressure.
The bad news is that stress is part of life. The good news is that we can control stress by positive thoughts. Have you notice? We go back to state of mind. Hence, our state of mind influences our well being. Another contributory factor for a good health is our lifestyle. When you say healthy lifestyle, it means enough sleep, good diet and exercise. A person who observes a healthy lifestyle could most likely avoid illness. Whereas a person who goes for fatty foods and do not exercise could most likely get himself into some serious health issues.
The concept that wellness is influenced by our state of mind and good lifestyle started way back 19th century. However, studies shows that this concept could only work to its fullest for those people who belong to the upper level of society. This is because those who belong to the lowest class of our society do not have the proper sustenance for human beings’ basic needs. The basic needs referred to is food, shelter and medical care.
This said, can we conclude that wellness is reserved for the privileged few? If we will really be thinking about it, the studies show logic in the concept presented. However, regardless of our economic status, we should always believe. We should always believe in that fighting spirit in us. If wellness is also a state of mind, then wellness is also measure by how strong and determined we are to survive. After all, state of mind can also be our persistent pursuit to live our lives to its fullest potential. And this pursuit is applicable in health and in opportunities in life.
If it is fine with you, i did not add any pictures on this one.
There are times when we make important decisions in our life. Decisions that could be risky. Decisions that could change our life.
No matter how the corners of our life changes. No matter how many chapters had been closed. No matter how many were opened. Those that passed will not be forgotten. In fact, they will remain with us.
The people we met became part of those chapters in our lives. The emotions became part of our being. The experiences became part of the lessons learned.
Lessons we will keep as we go forward and face new beginnings, thrills as we anticipate the boundless possibilities of tomorrow, and new chapter in our life.
June 29 marks the birthday of my son, Vincent. Sure I bought him gifts. I thought I should make this a special day for my best friend. I thought I should treat him. However, he does not want to make a big fuss out of it. Added to the fact that I have deadlines today. So, it turned out that this is going to be just another ordinary day, or so I thought.
