Malou's Christmas Wish List ^^

i want to believe that to some, my existence matters. thus, they can't just let the year pass without concretely expressing it by giving me li'l something this yuletide season.haha

whether what i have written above is true or not, i still feel the need to come up with this list.
at least, this will guide me of what i should prioritize when i go mall shopping sometime soon.

i have to admit that most of my wishes are those that money cannot afford to buy. i still wish and pray for it though. now here's the list of the "material" things that money can surely buy.

1.Any of Paulo Coelho's books (fyi, i already have The Alchemist)

2.Any of Og Mandino's books

3.Any law book

4. Planner

5. Maybelline collagen lipstick (pinkish) or its eyeliner

6. Blush on, any brand will do.. not too dark.

7. Adaptor or battery for my laptop.

8. Pens: G-tech (.4) or Dong-a (.3)

9. Magic Pencils

10. Scented Highlighters

11. Cream or Serum for eyebags/dark circles

12. Skirts; loose shirts

13. xenical, fitrum or any slimming tea there is...haha (do i sound desperate?)

14. dumbbell

15. movie pass for any interesting movie

16. free coupon for a good massage

17. donations : books or slippers for the street kids near usls.
now, if you cannot give me any from numbers 1 to 16, please help me with this last number... you'd surely make me doubly happy!

love2x!

i wish you well everyone!

malou^^

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BLT scribbles, encoded

Hello everyone!
How have you all been?
Sana ok ang lahat. By the way, during the workshops we had, i was able to scribble some notes and expressions that popped up during your sharing!
I hope you will enjoy reading it! ^^
God Bless!

-malou

Quotable quotes

“Kayo ang tumaya, kami ang gagawa.”

“Walang pilitan, pero hindi makakhindi.”

The following are from the guidelines of the Open Space Technology but i wanted to highlight it because these are also applicable in the aspect of Love:
“Whoever comes is the right person”
“When it is over, it is over”

Wag ka munang tumingin sa malayo, tumingin ka muna sa malapit – pang love din diba but this is most likely true when we want to establish strategic partnerships with others in the community

“This is not about his political interest but this is about the children who will vote for his apo!” –Butch of Iligan

WORK WITH US, JOIN US – eto pwedeng tag line natin when we ask help from LGUs and NGOs

If I have more than what i need and i won’t give what is much, it won’t bring me on top rather it will drag me down.

What are the words that God did not say which I know? – hmmm.. meron ba?

“O Kristong walang bisig,
O Kristong walang kamay...
Gamitin mo ang aking bisig,
Gamitin mo ang aking kamay.”

“You are doing something concrete that is why you are very important”

“He who has a WHY to live for can survive any HOW.”

“Sa 58 years kong pagtuturo, wala pang yumamang teacher kahit yung mga nagbebenta nung pagkaing at bra.” – This is just so true, diba?

“Two of the girls were very pretty, the other two? NEVERMIND! – i like this!

“I’d rather forget”

“Love your calling with passion, it is the meaning of your life!”

“Kung walang saysay ang buhay, bakit ka pa mabubuhay?

“There is such a hunger to find the meaning in life”

“You measure love by how much you are willing to give”

“If you do not want to get hurt, do not fall in love. If you do not want to fall in love, do not live.”
“You are always window shopping but never stopping to buy.” Walang taya!

“It’s not a flirtation, it’s a commitment” – Sir Pagsi on marriage

“Jollibee serves the hamburger but you serve the smile!”

“The bread (food) comes from Jollibee, the smile comes from me.”

“The could have beens, the might have beens but never was!”

“Why are you doing what you are doing?”

“Puro salita, puro salita, puro dada, pero wala naming gawa.”

“Tumawag ang Panginoon, ang buhay ko ang aking tugon.”

“BLT virus” – Norman

“Defend your existence”

“Dare to be true” – Ka Merced

“BLT ang rumarampa sa aking report” – Chabeng

“God called you to life. He has a job for me to do which only I could do!”

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Why Resign?

“How come you left your work when that is the kind of work you’ve hoped for?” I was struck by such a question posed to me by a friend. I paused for a while and instead of answering his question, I pretended not to have heard it and true enough, I was able to divert our attention to something.

As I went home, I still pondered on it. I want to believe that I made the right decision. And I want to just affirm what I emailed my friends; I felt relief upon finally coming up with a decision of not having to extend anymore and eventually quit my full time work.

As I examine the kind of responses I have for a number of questions concerning this matter, I have learned that I have kept so many fears with the decision I have made recently. I have acknowledged that my desire to help transcends beyond my job. More so, I firmly believe that if one has the desire to help, one can just deliver regardless of time, place and nature of job he is in.

True, it would take me sometime to land a job like what I had. The resources are there and we just need to come up with a scheme to carry it out efficiently to the people. The system is already in place and is just open to some modifications. Who wouldn’t want to engage to a job that has noble cause, touches many lives, allows much learning and returns a thousand or more bliss!?

But then again, I console myself with the mental note that I made a sound decision. No doubt I love my work but my love for it is never enough to convince me to drop law school. At some point I questioned myself which was wrong, is it the nature of my job or the nature of law school? But I ended up pointing my finger to none of the two but to myself. I guess it is a big issue that I lack the skill of time management. Both of which demand so much of me, again I want to believe that to some extent each exhausts everything of me. And there is no way but to accept, even how ego-bruising it might be, that I am no wonder woman, i am not good at multitasking and I can only do so much! Finally, I have gathered enough humility to accept that fact and come up with a decision to drop something from the two of what I value.

This is actually by far the most difficult decision-making I went through. There are episodes of slight regrets but I feel those are just but normal especially when you have not yet reaped the rewards of the choice that prevailed. It will take time for me to finally let go of what I had and it will take time too for me to eventually let go of the “what ifs” had I chosen to pursue my career.

There is a bunch of volunteer works I could engage into. Again, helping others is more fulfilling especially when you do it without an institution or company having to pay for your time and effort in doing such. To gain peace of mind, I thought that, there is no perfect or flawless decision. It is basically in us to put justice to what we have chosen. I do not pray that the decision I made will be right but I pray for the right attitude to make my choice the best one.

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Sprained an Ankle and a Broken Heart

I went home with a sprained ankle and a broken heart. Today, I visited the 13 elementary schools that are a part of the daily feeding program of our partner foundation. After I visited the three schools in the municipality of Murcia, I heeded to the next city in the list. A principal who is going to the same route with us asked if she could hitch and seeing no problem with it, we allowed her to.

The principal is assigned to the most remote school of District I of Murcia. She shared with me the lot of the children studying in her school. The children live in far-flung areas and some of them need to walk for about five to seven kilometers just to reach the school. At first she is annoyed by the attitude of children in class. Some lift their feet on the desk, some are sleeping and some seem to be just present in flesh but mentally absent. There are also instances when she is taking a nap during lunch breaks and some of the children wake her up and ask her for rice. “That is so insensitive of them!” she thought. Similar scenarios recurred over the past weeks until she took initiative to find out the root cause of all those observations she had.

She and a group of her teachers visited the area where most of the problematic children reside and there they found out what could be the best answer to what they have been asking all along. Their hearts were crushed upon witnessing the pitiful situation the children and their whole families are in. Parents shared that they can hardly feed their family. They have many children and they do not have work or fixed income to meet their communal needs. Some children were honest enough to share with their teachers that most of the time when they do not have food to eat at home, their parents gather them around the table and they just stare at each other, pretending that they are having a buffet, trying hard to imagine they are fed with delicious food just to counteract hunger; at the very least, even if their stomachs weren’t filled, their minds were.

The principal cannot contain her overflowing tears as she relates the story. And I am not naïve not to feel anything. Despite the sadness I felt over the story, I cannot help but ask: “whose fault is this then?” For some, it might be untimely to raise such question but I feel that it’s a mortal sin to delay the answer/s for it. We have to at least be aware of who are the people behind this so that we can come up with measure to genuinely help the real people concerned. It is futile to deal with rotten fruits or weakly branches when in reality the part that needs most of our attention and care is the dying roots.

We all go back to the parents who have full knowledge of their situation and have an idea on their capacity to rear a family. It could have been best if they have considered their lot before heeding the call to “go and multiply!” My heart bleeds for the young ones who could have been a lot better had they been given equal opportunity with other children born of well-off families. I believe they are way too young to experience hardcore difficulties and they are way too innocent to bear bitterness to this world because they felt it has been unfair to them.

I am aware of the poverty and distressing situations our fellow Filipinos go through but it’s truly different when you hear it from someone who directly experienced it and all the more if you have experienced witnessing such yourself. I used to give alms if I have extra but with my recent encounter, I have learned that we need more than money to put a stop on this. We need the change of our hearts, our values, and our very system.

I could only hope that I can do more. I have wished at some point that I would be a billionaire and address their needs but even then, I know deep in my heart, the problem would still persists. To reiterate, money could help but it isn’t the perfect solution. The perfect solution should not be a directive from helping agencies or suggestions from persons in authority rather the perfect solution must come from those people concerned because they know better themselves than anyone else. They know what works for them and those that do not.

As to my sprained ankle, it is basically due to carelessness and no one left to be blamed except myself. The beauty of the accident is that, it taught me not to go too far like going abroad to involve myself in NGOs that deal with problems like what the principal shared; I should stay because we have so many problems such as this more than we could imagine. And if I really want to live my life to its fullest, then I should find a way to be of help to others, not tolerating them of their wrongs but extending genuine help even if it means making them accountable to where and what they are right now.

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