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Are you happy with the new Zodiac signs?

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I caught on the horoscope just once in my life. I was around 14 years old when I had this huge crush on a guy I met in a class party that I hosted at my home. He had whispered sweetly to me that he’d give me a ring. I waited eagerly for his call the next day. While browsing through the news paper, my eye caught on the Horoscope section. I can’t remember the exact words but it said something about a “phone call”. Right after I read the horoscope, the phone rang indeed and it was my huge crush. Perhaps it was just my luck that day. My crush didn’t call me back after three calls and with it , the horoscope stopped working for me.

Maybe I was looking at the wrong Zodiac sign.

All these years I thought I was a Gemini. When astrologers said that the sun is in Pisces, it’s really not in Pisces. I always thought our astrological sign was determined by the position of the sun on the day I was born. Everything I thought I knew about my horoscope is wrong.

New is astrology has had issues from its inception. (Aside from the fact that it tries to link personality traits with positions of the stars.) Ancient Babylonians had 13 constellations, but wanted only 12, so threw out Ophuchicus, the snake holder. Libra didn’t even enter the picture until the era of Julius Caesar.

According to the Minnesota Planetarium Society, here is where the real signs of the Zodiac should fall. Get ready for your world to change forever.

Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16.
Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11.
Pisces: March 11-April 18.
Aries: April 18-May 13.
Taurus: May 13-June 21.
Gemini: June 21-July 20.
Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10.
Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16.
Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30.
Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23.
Scorpio: Nov. 23-29.
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29-Dec. 17. (Yep, this one is new — read all about the Ophiuchus way of life here)
Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20.

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The once homeless and recovering alcoholic Ted Williams on a second chance in life

God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it’s me. ~Author Unknown

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(Before (as homeless alcoholic) and after
Photo credit: NY daily news)

I am so touched with Ted Williams’ story. Williams’ story is “the epitome of how dreams can come true in the internet age”. And yes, practically overnight. What makes it even more touching is he left a life of alcoholism and drugs two and a half years ago.

I am such a sucker for stories that deal with the theme of “second chances”. Two days ago, the web got introduced to Ted Williams, a 53 year old homeless recovering alcoholic. The Ohio area man held up a sign that read he had the “God-given gift of a great voice” and he was willing to share it with anyone who could donate some change. In exchange for a few coins, his patrons get a treat to sound bites of his bottomless, buttery, baritone voice.

I’ve seen homeless men on the side of the road in my recent US visit and it often piqued my curiosity on the words they scribbled down on that piece of paper. It must have been Ted’s lucky day because a kind patron encountered Williams on the highway , uploaded a video of Williams using his golden voice. The video turned out to be viral hit on YouTube with 9,871,461 hits as of January 5,2010. As a result of the video’s success and the former homeless man’s perfect voice, the Cleveland Cavaliers offered him a job as a full-time announcer for the Cavaliers and even offered him a house.

Read More »The once homeless and recovering alcoholic Ted Williams on a second chance in life

The spirit of Santa Claus

Tired from aimlessly walking around the Eastwood mall, I sat by the door with my daughter while waiting for Butch to pick me up. Who would drop by in front of me but this friendly Santa Claus who then chirped “Hello” with a gleaming smile. I smiled back at him and asked for a photo. Snap…

santa claus and my wishlist

Santa Claus is so much a part of my childhood memories. Feeling like a kid, I wanted so much to have a photo shoot with Santa Claus again. My overweight dad was often chosen to wear Santa Claus costume during children’s parties. I was five years old when I first caught daddy playing Santa Claus in parties. He was dressed all in red and white fur, from his head to his foot. A bundle of toys flung on his back, and he looked like a peddler just opening his pack. As he handed me a gift, I saw his wedding ring and my eyes beamed “Daddy is Santa Claus”. He pretended not to hear me but I knew. For some reason, I still believed in Santa Claus.

I stopped believing Santa Claus was real by the age of seven. It was my sister Lorna who told me that she caught dad placing gifts by the bed. For some reason, I was not disappointed. In my child’s mind, daddy is the real Santa Claus.

It’s always good for us to pause
And think awhile of Santa Claus–
That jolly symbol we revere
When we approach the changing year.
Behind his beard so long and white,
In which our children take delight,
There beats a heart from color free
Which bids all children “come to me.”
MARSHALL M. MORGAN, “The Spirit of Santa Claus

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Gratitude is the memory of the heart

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow. ~Melody Beattie

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I am right now in Cebu. I am beginning to love this place. There is still something missing about Cebu that makes me sad. Perhaps because I often travel to Cebu just to bury a family member. Just when I made peace with the deaths of family members, another chaos ensued after a class reunion, then a death of a classmate. Making sense out of a chaotic situation is futile especially if the door is shut in front of you.

A conversation from a dear friend tonight jolted me out of chaos when she said that “there are more important relationships that need responding to just like what you have just done; gving comfort to parents who lost a child.”
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The Natasha Goulbourn Foundation: Bringing depression to light

““Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but stigma and bias shame us all.” Bill Clinton

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Did you know that the Philippines has the highest incidence of depression in Southeast Asia? In 2004, there were over 4.5 million cases of depression reported in the Philippines.

Jeanne Goulbourn shares her wisdom on depression.

““Depression is a condition that knows no social class; it could strike anyone regardless of intelligence, educational attainment and financial standing.”

This wisdom she has learned in the midst of pain brought about by the sudden and untimely demise of her well-loved daughter, Natasha, who suffered from depression. As she grieved over her daughter’s passing, Jeanne said she asked God what losing her daughter meant, and prayed for a sign. The sight of over 100 dolphins convinced her she had a higher calling to help people with depression.

“I prayed that if I see five dolphins, Natasha might be in hell. If I see 10 dolphins, could she be in purgatory? But God, if you show me a lot of dolphins, more than 10, I know my daughter is with you. We saw about 108 in Puerto Galera,” she recalled, saying the sight was so rare it even brought the boatman to tears.

Like Jeanne, we know our grief will always be a part of our life and we eventually find ways to resolve it. She and a group of friends from various sectors formed the Natasha Goulbourn Foundation (NGF) five years after the death of Natasha. Its primary advocacy is to promote awareness on depression.

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Not many know what depression is. I have written about suicide prevention and mental health before just to raise awareness. I don’t claim to be an expert on mental health. It’s just that in the course of my grief work at the Compassionate Friends Philippines, I’ve come across a few observations of these mental health issues.

1. Shame often prevents a person from seeking medical help because of this stigma towards mental illness. And even if they ask for help, the gravity of their problem is minimized as mere despair. Oh yes, I know of one death by suicide from a friend because of this reason alone.

Read More »The Natasha Goulbourn Foundation: Bringing depression to light

Birthday greetings to the love of my life

And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. Abraham Lincoln

birthday-celebration
Butch turned 51 years old today. He is two years younger than me. As in all birthdays in my family, I celebrate it with food. The more we praise and celebrate life, the more there is in life to celebrate. This time around, I feel bad for waking up late and not preparing a special menu as I used to do in the past before my life became so busy. I love that he did not complain though. He even bought his own birthday cake for lunch. It makes me think that birthdays are nature’s way of telling us to eat more cake. (kidding!)

We spent the afternoon at the resting place of our beloved son watching the pretty blue dragonflies hovering nearby as well as the white-speckled butterfly that fluttered by the flowers on the basket. Just watching the wonders of nature was enough joy.

Earlier, I bought bright orange and pink flowers to brighten our living and dining room. I added a pale violet orchid plant to add the final touch on my antique writing table. He loved the flower arrangement and I hope that made up for my laziness today.

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Entertainment breaks with my PLDT MyDSL broadband connection

Do you know that when I just want to relax, I watch funny or entertaining youtube videos? It takes my mind off work, gives me a lot of laughter to just be and let worries go away for the moment. Even just the expectation of a mirthful laughter involved in watching funny videos has some very surprising and significant neuroendocrine/hormone effect. Experiments showed that viewing a favorite funny video can offset symptoms of chronic stress, which can suppress various components of the immune responses, particularly those related to anti-viral and anti-tumor defenses. See, that’s why I look forward to my entertainment breaks.


Read More »Entertainment breaks with my PLDT MyDSL broadband connection

The politics of motherhood

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I cringe every time someone outside the blogging world, asks me “what exactly do you do? or How long do you spend at your computer?” Well, let me just say, that we, mom Bloggers are not frumpy women that hang out with our computers all day. There’s more to being a mom blogger than one might think. Some of us are former career women, and professionals who decided to spend more time with our kids and blog because we are passionate about something and not as our primary job.

We also know when to have fun, to take time away from our kids and to take care of ourselves. When someone feels rotten about their day or asks me “what should I do? we had a fight” , I often say “take care of yourself first. Love yourself. ”

A famous Dalai Lama quote says it all ““If you don’t love yourself, you cannot love others. You will not be able to love others. If you have no compassion for yourself then you are not able of developing compassion for others.” I believe one cannot give what one does not have.
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a mom blogger in social media

noemidado4My daughter studied the birth certificate from the National Statistics office. She laughed as she saw the occupation of her parents.

Father- Law student
Mother- Homemaker

She could not believe her father was just a law student. I glanced at my husband, “Wasn’t it just yesterday we were struggling newly weds?”. Looking up from her birth certificate, she asked “Mom if I was born this year, what occupation will you place?”

I replied ” blogger”.

My answer brought a smile to her lips. She nodded “I thought so too.”
Read More »a mom blogger in social media

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a mom blogger who advocates constructive engagement in issues on family & society.
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