A Moment of Grace

As if last Christmas Season's challenges wasn't enough, another one visits my family this week. My dad got hospitalized last Wednesday because of an unidentified infection spreading throughout his body. My dad has never been hospitalized for any sickness in his entire life. The anxiety of dealing with this predicament must be unimaginable for him. I have always sensed his aversion to the helpless feeling that unexplained sickness leaves one with. Watching loved ones hospitalized for the past 3 years and passing on is a wake up call on the reality of mortality.

I have barely gotten over my grandmother's death and my cousin's seizure attack and here I am faced again with something like this. Not to mention the increasing pressure that is picking up in my life at work.

But amidst all these, I am grateful for the peace that has found me today. Through the encouragement of friends. Through the knowledge of God's grace. Through the certainty that miracles happen. Through discovering what truth really means despite of what the facts in this life may say.

The week is over. The day is done. And I find myself finally alone in my room. Struggling less and less with anxiety. Giving in more and more to peace that surpasses all understanding.

I haven't found a lot of time this week to be alone with my thoughts. But this experience reminds me that I can't allow myself to be swept up in too much busy work forgetting what really matters most.

So I end this night with a little ode to my father.

_______________

you wrapped me in your arms
as tight as you can somewhere
in between a struggle of love
torn between a fight that
leaves a wide gaping hole
inside your heart

you hold on for the last 60 years
to everything you know
only to find that reason or
intelligence cannot explain
the mystery of what you're going
through today

so tonight i pray for the letting go
of strength you tried to keep up with
so that you will receive the only
strength you need in this moment of grace
and find that in letting go of all reason
a miracles shines upon your face.

What Is Offset Printing?

I have never come across this term till now and it's funny because this production process is actually something that I partake on a daily basis. So why am I asking what off-set printing is? I'm asking because it is what the business of my new career journey will be. :)

And reading through this short introduction on off-set printing I realize that I am in the right path. Aligned to all my dreams. How funny that just yesterday I thought everything seemed hopeless but as the inspiring Pastor Prince says, "Hold fast to hope in the most impossible circumstances". And I did. And here I am. A step nearer. A heartbeat closer. Riding on a new wave of hope. :)

_________________

The next time you read a newspaper, browse through a magazine or even glance at brochures in the mail spare a thought and think about what it takes to print and publish such vast amounts of information and graphics. Offset printing is responsible for almost 40% of all printed material that you see around you.

It would be difficult to create a complete list of the applications of offset printing. If something needs to be printed, offset printing can do it. Here are some examples of the applications of offset printing to get you thinking on the entire scope of offset printing.

• Newspapers are probably the most visible example of offset printing that is a part of everyone’s life. Every morning you are greeted with an application of offset printing. It is to the credit of the speed of offset printing that such high volumes can be generated every single day.
• Books are another application of offset printing without which life would simply not be the same. Whether for education or entertainment, books are the life source of many a people and they have offset printing to thank for making books affordable.
• The law too has to thank offset printing for making the legal process more streamlined. Large volumes of legal forms and documents are printed using offset printing.
• Businessmen would be lost without offset printing. Important financial data is at their fingertips thanks to offset printing.
• The marketing and advertising industry would regress by centuries if it weren’t for offset printing. The entire direct marketing industry would perish. Offset printing is used for printing flyers, brochures, PR material and a host of other marketing applications.

Thus, offset printing affects every aspect of our lives – social, economical, educational, professional, legal and even our relationships! Hallmark just wouldn’t have the same effect without offset printing now would it?

LiYAB PILIPINAS: A New Renaissance

How many of us Pinoys often sit around waiting from dawn till dusk the flourishing of the Filipino dream? What is the Filipino dream anyway? So much has been said about the American Dream where the promise is of a land that prospers your life. But what has been said about the Filipino dream? For me, the Filipino dream is that of becoming authentic to the nature that we have been born with. For more than 300 years the Philippine Culture has been influenced by so many nations. I have often wondered about a simple question. So who is a Filipino?? Stripped off all its influences what makes up a Real True Blue Pinoy?

photo by Adrienne Santos
model: Javi Cabanes
location: Vista Mar Cebu City

I've been reading a lot of magazines these days and have been running into people who mostly represent something quite extraordinary happening in the Philippine Society today. There seems to be a New Renaissance flourishing from the quiet coffee tables of Starbucks to the corners of FullyBooked Boni High to the bright lights of Mag-Net to the cozy hippie scene of Cubao X. There seems to be an uproar coming from the once silenced voice of Filipino writers, artists, photographers in magazines like I-MAG, ROAM Philippines, indie musicians performing in 19East or Saguijo.

I am not a well informed individual. But for someone who has been "out of the scene" as long as I have, the gravitation of this phenomenon to lift up the hidden talents ingrained in our culture and collective make-up is tugging at my heart strings. I see entrepreneurial and creative endeavors from Multiply to Facebook to Blogspot. I see an overwhelming desire for dreams and to see dreams come true for fellowmen alike in careers, vocations, foundations you name it.

There is a huge hunger that refuses to be satiated now with just mere pop culture. There is an unquenchable desire for meaning. There is a passionate desire to burn bright and light up dreams that have been asleep.

LIYAB PILINAS, the heartwrenching cry of The Outlook Pointe Foundation reverberates inside many of us seekers who have stood long at the sidelines just watching, observing and absorbing the changing faces of our country's people. Wondering if we will ever produce something phenomenal that can change this part of the world. LIYAB PILIPINAS is a cry of those who know that hope is just a step away and that a hurdle is not too high to jump over or a mountain too big that it can't be moved.

LIYAB PILIPINAS is the call of every born and bred Filipino who sees the soul of the nation with eyes of possibility. It is seeing a diamond in the rough shaping up to glitter through dust. It is seeing a sleeping giant awaken. It is seeing every heart that knows how to fight and struggle and love with the fierceness of a tribal warrior and the grace of a Maria Clara.

LIYAB PILIPINAS is a choice to overcome and believe and create with all you have and make it your life.

Ikaw, ano ang LIYAB PILIPINAS mo?

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The Subprime Earthquake Forum

I attended this forum at the Asian Institute of Management today on the current financial crisis that's been happening as of late.

Pardon my ignorance but honestly, I haven't been keeping track. It's probably a mortal sin because I am paid to keep track of these things to rationalize the direction of the company but I haven't. I haven't because I probably am simply just not interested in it. But I went to this free forum today since it was a way out of the office and I thought maybe it would be good to expand my mind a little bit and let it dwell on other things.

Being back at the AIM for a full length forum reminded me of all the case room discussions I've had during the 2 years I stayed in there. I used to call it the boot camp. The place that wracked my brain to the core. It was amazing that I never really suffered any serious migraines while I was in there compared to how I've been getting them now at work.

What struck me during this forum was the first question raised to the panelists. "What can an ordinary Filipino citizen do in times like these?", a bald headed man asked. It was the kind of question I'd listen to as opposed to the general strategic economic mind boggling scenarios they were trying to solve and comprehend.

Professor Macaranas answered the question and I also got struck with the answer. He replied, "Keep informed."

The impact of a financial crisis, I began to realize is actually really significant. Companies find it difficult to earn and thus need to cut down costs and even cut down on people. Leaving people jobless. Leaving services not rendered. Leaving needs unmet. Leaving people unsatisfied. Leaving lives helpless. And the cycle continues.

It becomes quite a scenario if nobody can control nor arrest the gravity of the crisis. What happens next? What can an ordinary Filipino citizen do?

It's appalling that even the most educated economists find no immediate solution for something like this. And it's even bewildering that in its impossibility, not many of these great intelligent economists do not recommend God as an answer.

Of course this mindset is only for the spiritual. But what else is there to address the infinite cycle of problems that is caused by man than to look for sense in the Creator of the Infinite?

Just trying to stretch my mind here as I try to unwind after a long and tiring work week. It wasn't so bad. This "earthquake" shaking the corners of the little office space I huddle myself in day in a day out has opened. Soon allowing me to walk free.