Quotes

"It hurts to fall in love with someone who sees you as a friend. But what hurts most is knowing that person loves you too, but denies it because of friendship."

"Harmonizing heart and brain through love is what can establish a complete intelligence, a complete self, where a child can look at life and realize there are no dead ends, there are always possibilities."

"Our true identity is to love without fear and insecurity. Our higher potential finds us when we set our course in that direction. The power of love and compassion transforms insecurity."

"Love is not automatic. It takes conscious practice and awareness, just like playing the piano or golf. However, you have ample opportunities to practice. Everyone you meet can be your practice session."

"The most wonderful of all things in life, I believe, is the discovery of another human being with whom one's relationship has a glowing depth, beauty, and joy as the years increase. This inner progressiveness of love between two human beings is a most marvelous thing, it cannot be found by looking for it or by passionately wishing for it. It is a sort of Divine accident."

"To fall in love is easy, even to remain in it is not difficult; our human loneliness is cause enough. But it is a hard quest worth making to find a comrade through whose steady presence one becomes steadily the person one desires to be."

89-year-old Luneta Hotel Now Being Restored

Amidst movements to demolish the aged builbing, left giving vibes of nostalgia to metropolis-dwellers,the Luneta Hotel

5 Steps on How to Expand Your Territories

Here’s The Truth: You’re Only Limited By Your Love & Imagination!

By Bo Sanchez

Many people ask me how I’m able to do all that I do.

Let me give you an idea of my responsibilities… (Warning: Some people actually feel tired just reading this list, so take a deep breath…)

I lead 4 ministry organizations. I speak in a daily Radio show, a weekly TV program, and a daily video show at www.preacherinbluejeans.com Each year, I churn out 3 books, produce 4 audio/video teaching series, and write more than 200+ articles. I publish 7 magazines, maintain 4 websites, send out my online newsletter and write my blog at this website. I lead a “virtual” community called the Kerygma Family and oversee an incredible “sales force” called the Kerygma Ambassadors. I also travel extensively, preaching 300+ times a year all over the Philippines and around the world—leading retreats, seminars, and prayer rallies. I also am proud to say that I read all my email and respond to most of them.

As if these aren’t enough, there are a “few” personal things that I do…

I run a homeschool center to help parents learn how to homeschool their kids (If you’re interested, log onto www.catholicfilipinoacademy.com) I lead a financial consultancy organization to teach Filipinos how to save for their future. I operate a tiny organic farm, a real estate business, and manage a few more small businesses. (Plus, my 7-year old boy still has his Bangus business, and he’s hired me to be his marketing consultant.)

Of course, I’m fanatical about spending time with my family. I play with my sons everyday and still bring my beautiful wife once a week in a romantic date. We also have 4 family vacations every year, and 2 of those vacations are long 2-week trips!

And each year, I read 3 books a week, listen to the same number of audio books, and each year read thousands of magazine and internet articles.

Oh, before I forget, let me mention that I hop on a stationary bike one hour a day.

How do I do all these things?

Let me share with you five principles…

Key #1:

Believe You’re Bigger

It’s common fact that we only use 10% of our brain’s capacity.

Can you believe that? We’re wasting 90% of what God has given to us!

I believe God has given us more capacities than we think we have.

The ultimate crime is that we belittle ourselves.

We think we’re insects, so we live an insect life, but actually—we’re giants!

Because of this, I believe you can earn a ten times more than whatever you’re earning right now. You can help ten times the number of people you’re helping now. You can serve ten times more than whatever service you’re doing now.

Don’t limit yourself.You’re bigger than you think you are.

Key #2:

Be Consistent With The Fundamentals

Every morning, I enjoy time with God.

Every morning, I chew on His Word—the Bible.

Every morning, I pray, “Lord, let me love every person I meet today.”

Every morning, I read my life mission, my list of dreams, and my annual goals.

And throughout the day, instead of exposing myself to bad news, I digest good news available around me: I voraciously read inspiring books and listen to inspiring audio talks.

Every night, like a little boy, I kneel beside my bed and thank God for His blessings of that day.

In other words, the reason why I live such an exciting life is because I’m boring.

I’m monotonous.

I’m repetitive.

I do the same basic things again and again and again and again…

I now realize that the reason I can do all those thrilling, exciting, exhilarating stuff is because I do the boring basics every single day of my life. Everyday, I’m grateful. Everyday, I think positive. Everyday, I love. Everyday, I select what I watch, what I read, what I listen to—and stick to what can make me grow. Every single day.

The more I live on planet earth, the more I agree with Jim Rohn when he said that “There’s really nothing mysterious or magical about success. Success is simply the consistent application of fundamentals.

”Be boringly consistent when it comes to the basics.

And in time, you’ll find exciting success knocking at your door.

Key #3:

Focus On Your Core Gift

I have very few talents. Honest!

I don’t know how to cook, how to dance, how to write a computer program, and how to solve the Rubix cube. I don’t know how to do geometry, trigonometry, and calculus. I’m totally lost in chemistry, physics, and biology. I also can’t fix a leaking faucet or do carpentry or repair my car.

But this is what I can do very well: Communicate.

So I focus my entire life on that one thing.

I write well and I speak well. Period.

And I delegate everything to people who are better than I am.

Ask yourself now: What is my core gift?

I have a general rule I follow in my life: I don’t like complicating things just to impress you. So instead of giving you 329 psychological questions filled with scientific babble to discover your core gift (so I could impress you on how intelligent I am), let me just boil it down to 2 very simple questions. Stop reading this book until you answered both of these questions.

· What do you enjoy doing?·

· What are you good at?

For some of you, it’s technology.

For some of you, it’s teaching.

For some of you, it’s selling stuff.

For some of you, it’s cooking.

For some of you, it’s music.

For some of you, it’s advanced trigonometry. (Yes, I’ve heard there are such strange creatures walking on the face of the earth.)

Key #4:

Build Your Network

My wealth isn’t my money.

My real wealth is my network of friends.

Personally, I don’t think anything great is accomplished without a team.

Even Jesus had a team around him.

A few months ago, I was reading about the interesting world of horse-pulling competitions.

That’s where huge horses the size of elephants pull massive concrete blocks behind them.

Did you know that the grand champion horse could pull the incredible weight of 4,500 pounds? If the average weight of a Filipino is 140 pounds (which happens to be my weight before I eat my breakfast), that means this super horse could carry 32 Filipinos—without wheels! That monster could pull me, my wife, my kids, my parents, my siblings, their spouses, their kids, and all my in-laws combined.

And the second placer horse can pull only slightly lower than the first placer: 4,400 pounds.

That was when the organizers got curious. If these two horses pulled together, how many pounds could they carry? Could they pull 8,900 pounds?

They harnessed both horses and were shocked with the results.

Both horses, when pulling together, carried the mind-blowing weight of 12,000 pounds. That’s 85 Filipinos.

My message? Teams are powerful.

Alone, I can do a lot of things. But with my team, I don’t add but multiply what I can do.

I keep networking. I circulate. I meet people. I build bridges.

So I surround myself with a bunch of people who have impeccable character and fantastic skills. I network with Mentors, Preachers, Administrators, Accountants, Programmers, Lawyers, Financial Wizards, Multi-millionaires, Media Experts, Businessmen, Architects, Engineers, etc…

And everyday, I constantly expand my team.

Key #5:

Create An Autopilot System

Every time I enter into a project, I always do it with a team around me. Never alone. And I choose my team well.

I have a very simple criteria: I choose men and women who are humble (teamplayers) and who are experts in their field. In other words, I search for impeccable character and fantastic skills.

And together, we create a system for the project that’s replicable and duplicable.

In other words, it’s got to run on autopilot without my direct supervision.

Here’s my ideal leader: If I appoint someone to be project head (or organization director or business manager), and after six months, I don’t want him to bother me anymore except for major directional issues. If he still bothers me for tiny matters, I’ve chosen the wrong leader—or I trained him wrongly.

If You Love, The Universe Opens Up To You.

Here’s what I’ve learned: Love is limitless! It has no boundaries.

I do what I do because I want to love people.

Each morning, I wake up and ask myself, “How can I bless people today?

”And so I stretch. I go just a teensy bit beyond what I think is my limit—and my capacities expand—because I want to bless the world.

Asmundson One of 100 Most Influential Pinays in U.S.

By Claire St. John | Enterprise staff writer | December 01, 2007 23:00

Davis Mayor Pro Tem Ruth Uy Asmundson, who grew up in a rural Philippines village, has been honored by natives of her home country once again.

Asmundson, who has met Filipino millionaires as well as Philippines President GloriaArroyo, has this time been honored as one of the 100 more influential Filipina women, or Pinays, in the United States.

Asmundson received notification of the award several months ago, and in October, she traveled to Washington, D.C., to accept it, along with a challenge to mentor, or 'womentor' other Pinays interested in government.

'We talk about encouraging more of the young people to get involved into politics, because there aren't too many of us,' Asmundson said. 'There are several in Hawaii because of course there are lots of Filipinos there.'

Asmundson was part of a panel of Filipina politicians at the Filipina Women's Network summit, speaking on politics and how to get involved.

But Asmundson told her audience she didn't think of herself as a Filipina or even as a woman when she is up on the dais most Tuesday nights with the City Council.

'I'm there to be part of the process and to represent my constituents and the constituents are part of the whole community,' she said. 'When you have a problem to solve or an issue to take care of, you talk to everyone you have to take care of to get their input and formulate your decision-making process.'

The summit also feature Pinays in business and the military, among other fields, and Asmundson said she was inspired by all of them.

Each of the 100 more influential Filipina women is asked to mentor a young Filipina woman, and return to Washington D.C. in 2012 for another summit.

Asmundson, who said she attends several Filipino groups and organizations in Sacramento, said she looks forward to the challenge and would like to mentor up to five young women.

'What we all think is if we talk about our stories, anybody can do this, to pave the way for all these young Filipinas, also to make it better than we have done,' Asmundson said. 'If we can guide them, mentor them, we can get more of them involved. It's not just politics for me. I just want (the young women) to be in a leadership position. There are so few of us in politics.'

- Reach Claire St. John at cstjohn@davisenterprise.net or 747-8057. To comment on
this story, visit www.davisenterprise.com

Parangal Hagbong To Be Given To Bautista, Abangan

As they authored in a lot of pervasive and excellent opus in fiction, non-fiction, poetry and the like, Cirilo Bautista and Bella Abangan are to receive the Parangal Hagbong, given by the UST Varsitarian, one of the country's active and respected Catholic campus papers.

Previous recipients of Parangal Hagbong include Rogelio Sicat(1997)Rolando Tinio (1997), Bienvenido Lumbera (2002), Nick Joaquin (2004), and F. Sionil Jose (2005).

Parangal Hagbong is one of the featured parts of the Ustetika Literary Awards. Head to UST Quadricentennial Park on Dec. 15 for this event.

A Promise to Keep

I became a permanent teacher this year. Yes, I am an educator. This has not been planned; I once dreamed of becoming a lawyer or a journalist. But things just ended I guess in the right place. I never saw myself being in front of students in a formal classroom setup.

I remember teaching kids in our neighborhood basic Math and English. We sang rhymes together. I saw smiles on their faces and noted their eagerness to learn. When we got tired, we ate and played. And that experience, I guess, led me to where I am now.

I did not dream of becoming a teacher, aware as I was of the experiences of the teachers we had. They had a hard time enforcing discipline on us while at the same time trying to impart to us the kind of knowledge we needed to survive.

I remember the poem taught by our English teacher when we were in high school. It was “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost, and the last lines said: “But I have promises to keep/and miles to go before I sleep/ and miles to go before I sleep.” Now I realize that I have duties to perform. This job is more than an obligation. It is not just knowing how to prepare examination questions, learning to do a lesson plan or passing the requirements on time. All of that is just one side of being a teacher. It requires a heart to stay in the profession.

This is just my fifth year of teaching. But I still wonder whether I am really mature enough to know what the profession entails.

In my journey to where I am now, I have always gone out to the field. For me, teaching is not confined to the four walls of a classroom. It is more than that. Aside from imparting knowledge to my students, I have to touch their hearts and make them know their worth as human beings and citizens of our country.

When I know that my students are learning from me, I feel fulfilled. It gives me great satisfaction to see them transformed into better individuals. I am not saying I have done much, but I believe that all the little things I have done add up to a greater whole. I never hesitate to help my students, to reach out to them and let them know I care.

School work is already challenging. But I often find myself staying in school beyond class hours to prepare for the next day’s lesson, to research and study the things I will be teaching and to entertain students who drop by for a little chat or to discuss a problem.

Teachers do not get paid for overtime work. I do it because I want to. I know 24 hours is not enough for me to do everything I need to do in one day. I have learned to budget my time and to discipline myself.

I have managed to involve myself in organizations outside the school. One is the Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines-Alumni Community. It is an extension of my work as an educator to be with brilliant people with humble hearts who strive to direct the youth to help in nation-building.

My school knows my shortcomings and I thank the administrators for their understanding. I find pleasure in what I do. My co-teachers often ask me where am I going when they see me all dressed up to go to another leadership training or other outreach activities. I usually just smile at them, leaving them to find out where I have been after I file my absence of leave. I will always find time for our activities. I believe that this simple way of reaching out to the youth will eventually make a difference. I do not want to waste any time. There are many things to be done and I want to do what I can right now.

My outside activities seldom interfere with my work; I see one complementing the other. The lessons I get from these training cannot be learned from classroom experience. I believe no time is wasted if we work together for the benefit of our youth.

I am grateful that I got a scholarship to study for my master’s. It spared me from worry about where I would be getting money for my tuition. I have opted to take post-graduate studies because I believe that this would help me help my students better.

I am an educator, and I am proud to be one. I have never regretted going into this field. My dream of becoming a lawyer has not gone away, but I love what I am doing now. And no matter what I turn out to be in the future, I will still teach whenever I still can. I have always followed the advice of Professor Onofre Pagsanjan, who said, “Love your calling with passion; it is the meaning of your life.” And I cannot forget a quote from Henry Adams printed on the shirt of a lady I saw in church: “A teacher affects eternity; he never knows when his influence stops.”

When I teach, I try to give it my best shot. Teaching entails a lot of sacrifice, but I think I have settled into my comfort zone. I find so much happiness in seeing a child smile and noting his eyes light up in understanding. To prepare each of my students to be a leader and a community builder for tomorrow will be my greatest contribution to my country for I am convinced that the youth have the power to make a difference and to change the world. This is a promise that I intend to keep.

Bernadette P. Nolasco, 24, is an English teacher at Lourdes School Quezon City. She is taking her master’s in Language and Literature at De La Salle University-Manila.

(Bernadette P. Nolasco, Young Blood, Inquirer, August 14, 2007)
(Berna is alanis of weallexist)