Haiti: In the Face of Tragedy, Heroes Emerge

Search and rescue teams from Florida and New York save 2 under supermarket rubble after 126 hours.

We can be so detached and just feel compassion via TV and the internet. Watching this video, isn't enough. Caring is not only compassion nor is it just mouthing out how tragic this incident was. What we have to have in mind is how to help those affected. How are we to help them get up and resume life?

These people need food, clothes, protection from the elements, clean water and facilities to stand on their own feet again after the earthquake.

Help empower your neighbor to stand up and lend a hand, one good deed daily can make the place a better world.

Trust & Respect (and the fine line in between)

The word trust has given me a bad weekend and right now frustrating week ahead. 

You Versus the Sea

Going out to sea against strong and forceful waves is not done by choice of one with a sane mind. In terms of analogy, we've all been there battling rough currents and strong wind that threaten lives and limb. Life has its moments when you face a situation bigger than the Biblical Goliath.

Between you and I (whoever comes across this blog), if there was a blueprint of my life I could request some less Tsunami-like challenges. Alas, life's blueprint is only available after one bites the dust. 

I don't know what today brings, it's been half a day already and I find myself going farther from the shore and struck down by wave after wave...No much that I can do...yet. Finding solace in Daphne Loves Derby.

"Was it hope that kept you alive through the years and should I even call it living?"

You Versus the Sea, Daphne Love Derby 

How to use the Rainbow Pass

Someone once told me if everything was moving so fast and out of control, I should STOP! Today while updating our company MeMe for Yahoo the graphic art from Isabella Simms put the breaks on the all too busy days I've had since January 14, 2009. Her yellow road sign diamond read:
                                UNIVERSE CLOSED (...) USE RAINBOW
All of us have a case of "What would happen to the world if I just left?" a sense of self-importance so misplaced since we just lose ourselves in the Universe. For those who come across my Rainbow, get a Rainbow Pass. Here's how you can spend it and enjoy the colors of life.
                                   How to use the Rainbow Pass

• Think of the times when you knew you were in trouble and got lucky to escape narrowly. Be doubly happy and thankful because there IS someone watching over you. 

• Walk where there is less concrete and more greenery or buy a plant for your home.

• Relish doing the unexpected for your loved ones, friends and strangers- in a positive light, okay.

• Invest in the talent you've had since you were young. Dance, sing, draw, whittle or shoot some hoops...Nothing can replace the smile of relief and blush of good memories they bring back.

• Take an imaginary broom and sweep your mind for unwanted clutter. Anger, sadness, regret, suspicion, worry, hatred, vengeance and combat need to be thrown out. Some think they are driven to the top because of these negative energies. People just don't realize how much a negative is made up these negatives.

• Redefine your vision and wear your rose-colored glasses again. Keep in mind there is as much good in others as there is in you (no matter how hidden).

• Endeavor to instruct and reprimand with assurance that the experience is a process for growth.

A Rainbow Pass keeps your feet on the ground and reminds you of who you are and your purpose for being here.
“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” - Charles R. Swindoll






*links are books I recommend

The Measure of a Man

We were throwing around an idea the other day about wrong doings- nobody seems to get enough of talking about human imperfections or incompetence. Pointing out the wrong and maliciously expect the worse out of people is getting to be a hobby.

Browsing through print and on line newspapers, we get updated on the hottest news and those who have made the headlines. One way or the other, being the news can only mean 2 things. One, you’ve either done something wrong, like getting involved in a scandal or a eww moment (Paris H. and starlets) uploaded on YouTube OR you’ve done something great that is so humanly impossible- how about being the 1st African-American President (President-Elect Barack Obama)? How about losing billions and still have your business running (Bill Gates lost billions yet Microsoft is the leading OS standard to any desktop, lap top and iPod)?

The discussion concluded with the idea that success can be measured by numbers is way off the mark from the truth. Success is what those who strive to be better people get. Like, c’mon if you had a good heart and concern for your fellow men would you ever think of selling something that is free (Blagojavich)?

Lose Yourself...

Factual if not on point... someone, somewhere and somehow a reminder about opportunity knocking once in a lifetime reverberates your mind as a new year creeps up on us all.

The bittersweet internal struggle is what happens when a totally insane opportunity presents itself and often find myself taking the step. Younger years, I recall losing myself in the steam, full throttle, pedal to the metal ...sometimes foolishly ending up more like Jimmy Dean's Porsche Spyder-a tangle of mangled mass.

Now aged and smarting from the arrogance of youth, every opportunity welcomed and decisively taken yet with less steam on the get go. The holidays puncuated my aging and I see time now like that eerie Indiglo on a dashboard that shows you all the measurements of the distance traveled, speed expended, direction...all screaming that your tank will be running on empty soon.

The first few hours on New Year's Eve gave me a preview of how alone one could get, which got me to think of what I'd ideally do when that time comes (kids all grown up and having families)...The time I spent mulling over the inevitable and feeling heartbreak in advance, one still voice in my head says I'd be doing what I do love most-writing. I guess that book that I've been putting off will be in a series by the time my kids have branched out. Wistful thinking never was harmful...

Just like most events in my life that most would react to right away, I do so belatedly. Call it denial or just a default setting before I am brave enough to come to terms with it. I guess this 2009, marks the last year I'd be in my 30's...My sister just turned 40 last year...so far no side effects haha-she's prettier than ever! Shall I get my move on or spend the eve of my 40th year in static????

So much to do and 360 days to lose yourself !!!

*Garfield and all characters included in the cartoon is created by Jim Davis*

A Toast To The Future...with clicks of time-lapse photography

Like every blog owner, posting for the first time for 2009 is faced with a gaggle of ideas and topics. For most choosing what to post ain't that difficult yet for little old me, it's like a multiple choice question with more than 7 possible answers. Reminds me of an e-mail I'd sent my sister before she came over for a Christmas vacay, I typed the words "lots of kwento (small talk in Tagalog)". They came and I barely filled in 2 hours of her time with small talk. I guess it's just me so used to clacking away on the keyboard and also the only one of 3 siblings who is fascinated with Internet marketing and SEO (line of work).

Anyway, I digress... The video posted just above is the best I can come up with to sum up 99% of everyone's year. Seasons of the year come year after year, yet the effects of these are felt a hundred different ways from any day. In the Philippines for example, not having a beau on Valentines Day or Christmas is synonymous to your heart being frozen. Happy days are when you can just raise your face towards the sky and enjoy how the sun's rays shine down on you. Losing a part of yourself, pitfalls and heart break is the season when your life turns upside down and when you wish the ground will swallow you whole. While weathering life's storms and surviving by the teeth...when you look back you amaze yourself that you've 'been there, done that' surviving with barely the skin off your back .

In both good times and bad, time is fleeting...Life happens and everything passes, I guess we just have to appreciate the life's little surprises-despite the nicks and bumps .

Bottoms up, shrug -off the hang-over and pick up where we've left off...Life awaits...

Fantabulous New Year to You all !!!