Good morning, Friends.
Today I decided to support people who have experienced narcissistic abuse.
It’s a good goal to have, a worthwhile goal. I hope I can use my blogs to help spread information regarding this societal disease.
May God bless us all.
Thank you so much for all the Likes and the Follows. I really appreciate them. I will take time to visit your blogs. The internet connection where I live is too poor for surfing most of the time, deswegen.
Have a great day!
When I finally recognized that the only choice left is the living in the now, my vision became clearer.
Regretting didn’t make sense when all I did in the past was my best and was for the best, in the best ways possible, both in the eyes of humans and the Divine.
Before God all the people of the earth, high or low, are like smoke that disappears, like a vapor that quickly vanishes away.
Psalms 62:9a. (TPT)
From the unknown, then through a short bleep of life, then on to the unknown again, this is how living is.
How can I even trust the visions of this consciousness when it has not saved me at all from avoidable disasters? Wondering what comes next after this lifetime is similar to wondering where I was before I was born. Living for that unknown future could be another trick played on me by my consciousness. It’s burdensome.
Let Heaven exist, as the Divine wills. Let it welcome those who will get into it. But as for me, there is the now that I live in. As the Divine wills.
Starting anew is exhilirating when one has courage. It’s like a birdling’s first flight-launch, or a butterfly breaking free from its cocoon, or a baby fish’s first swim.
When we were born as babies we were blessed with a million-fold possibilities. We could grow up into ANY-HUMAN with our full potentials realized. But the burdens of this world imposed on us with or without our consent weighs us down, impedes our impetus, burns out our routes, traps us in.
When I finally recognized that the only choice left is the living in the now, my vision became clearer. I saw, at last, that it’s possible to be reborn several times within one’s lifetime.
Have you recently claimed your freedom, in whatever size, shape or form specific to your existence? I celebrate for you, congratulate you, and am very happy for you. The universe rejoices for you. You, indeed, are stuff that stars are made of. You have rightfully taken your place amongst creation. You have finally acknowledged your right to be here—to exist, to flourish, to thrive, to be.
Start to be happy from now on. Start to breathe the healthy breaths of a free creature, the inrushing of air that reaches to the depths and inner recesses of your delicate lungs. The kind that supports the total swoosh of life-providing blood flowing through all the tissues of your delicate body.
Delicate child of the Creator, your life’s blood rejoices at your freedom. You have acknowledged your existence. Existence has acknowledged you. You belong to the general scheme of interrelated things. Take the place reserved for you since the beginning of time. Anything is now possible for you and your lovely soul. You are.
Step out into the open air and let the clear sunshine guide the paths that your thoughts will now take. Let no shadow daunt you again. Let the shadows of fear and insecurities flee from the sound of your approach. Evil intents cannot exist side by side with you. Sinister thoughts will feel shame at being associated with your truths.
You belong to the sun and the moon and the sky of the myriad stars. The howl of the wolves and the roar of the lions welcome you in the vast spaces of privileged movement—you have become true brothers and sisters, children of free provisions, blessed siblings throughout time immemorial.
You are dearly beloved, oh child of the Creator. All that have life in them embrace you. You belong. Take your rightful free space. Congratulations!
Man lives in a very short time frame.
He measures it with a blink of an eye,
a cycle of the moon,
an appearance of a
gray hair.
That’s why he frets
about what he wants most but is not able to see:
CHANGE.
Tiny sand grains carried by water currents don’t
seem to affect river stones,
yet they grind the stones
into soft gentle curves.
So does how each thought,
will,
and action
of every human being
affect
his kind’s history.
(composed 2002)
It is noisy
and I’m waiting for the Sabbath.
Green things spring out of the Earth
to breathe of the cool air;
iron sheets are resounding drums of pounding droplets,
but the radio drowns them out.
For many hours I am cooped up in a basket
and as I glance at the window I glimpse at vitality.
In my dreams I see ribbons of dreams wafting through
the solemn stillness of the night shadows.
The trees outside stand guard to the holiness of the hour
while I shuffle my feet catching up with the lateness of work.
Every day I wait for my Sabbath.
I will share it with the old man pushing the sluggish cart
in the muddy market.
It will silence the wailing in my ears
and the groaning in my neighbor’s heart.
It will snuff out the greediness of my world.
(composed 3rd week of July 1997)
I first read this charming little book, called The Gift of Acabar by Og Mandino and Buddy Kaye, some 37 years ago. That’s where The Credenda is found, a packet of wisdom.
If you haven’t read it, you won’t regret if you try and look for a copy. It’s just a short read and I hope you still have the child in you to allow you a tear or two as you get inside the story, of a friendship between a boy and a star.
I post The Credenda now to say THANK YOU to the inspiration and encouragement it has brought me along my journeys. May it also bring you lightness today as you read or re-read it.
Take care!
Turn away from the crowd and its fruitless pursuit of fame and gold.
Never look back as you close your door to the sorry tumult of greed and ambition.
Wipe away your tears of failure and misfortune.
Be at peace. Already it is later than you think, for your earthly life, at best, is only the blink of an eye between two eternities.
Be unafraid. Nothing here can harm you except yourself.
Do that which you dread and cherish those victories with pride.
Concentrate your energy. To be everywhere is to be nowhere.
Be jealous of your time, since it is your greatest treasure.
Reconsider your goals. Before you set your heart too much on anything, examine how happy they are who already possess what you desire.
Love your family and count your blessings. Reflect on how eagerly they would be sought if you did not have them.
Put aside your impossible dreams and complete the task at hand no matter how distasteful. All great achievements come from working and waiting.
Be patient. God’s delays are never God’s denials. Hold on. Hold fast.
What you sow, good or evil, that you will reap.
Never blame your conditions on others. You are what you are through your choice alone.
Learn to live with honest poverty, if you must, and turn to more important matters than transporting gold to your grave.
Anxiety is the rust of life; when you add tomorrow’s burdens to today’s their weight becomes unbearable.
Always learn from others. He who teaches himself has a fool for a master.
Be careful. Do not overload your conscience. Conduct your life as if it were spent in an arena filled with tattlers.
Avoid boasting. If you see anything in you that puffs you up with pride look closer and you will find more than enough to make you humble.
Be wise. Realize that all people are not created equal, for there is no equality in nature, yet no one was ever born whose work was not born with him or her.
Work every day as if it were your first, yet tenderly treat the lives you touch as if they will all end at midnight.
Seek out those in need. Learn that he or she who delivers with one hand will always gather with two.
Be of good cheer. Above all, remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.
Look up. Reach out. Cling simply to God and journey quietly on your pathway to forever with charity and a smile.
Meditate.
-(I have yet to verify if this is really the Buddha’s)-
Live purely.
Be quiet.
Do your work with mastery.
Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds!
Shine.
The power of this group of words put together is enhanced by its bareness.
It is so powerful that after reading it, one is compelled to blessed quietness, and so, to rest.
My picture here is not of the moon, but of the yang—the active sun, searing and unforgiving.
Nevertheless, it cannot force its way all the same through kilometers upon kilometers of cumulonimbus thickness—however gossamer this body of suspended water is.
Such contrasts is what makes up our earth, and meditating on our inadequacies side by side these contrasts may help us chance upon the courage to break out of our own heavy and dark clouds.
The constant will to shine is what makes us alive.
Let us keep on being hopeful this new year, and all days thereon.
Let us hope for each other.
Let us pray for each other, wherever we are in the world.
I wish all your dreams fulfilled.
Amen.
Update. 15th July 2021.
Good morning, dear Everyone. Here are the words of that prayer. Thanks for dropping by and praying with me.
I am calling on all of the efficacies of prayer,
on all the collective love of all sincere hearts that selflessly wish for only goodness to all of humanity and all living creatures,
big and small in the biosphere, in all parts known and unknown,
from the deepest of the ocean floors and caverns and cliffs
to the highest of the habitable atmospheric layers that can sustain metabolism...
I am calling on all pure intents for the support of life, love, freedom, respect,
celebration, sustenance, generosity, humility, understanding,
acceptance, goodwill, health, mutual dependence and mutual giving,
and thankfulness...
I am calling on all the powers of LIFE and the celebration of life
and acceptance of all peoples...
Let us bless the earth, let us bless one another,
let us pray for each others' lives,
let us focus our wishes on each others' wellbeing and inner happiness
and continuous hope
and never-ending supply of strength for the will to live and let live...
I call on all powers of life to curse the greed that is enslaving the systems of this earth...
I call on all greed to be found out and to be defeated and to be banished...
May it all happen. May it be so.
It will be so. It is.
Amen. Amen. Amen.
(September 20, 2021. Hello there. How are you today? I have to insert a note here, saying, that I am not “politically motivated” regarding this post. My personal sentiments here is from a person-to-person, or human-to-human, standpoint. That is, I am seeing President Duterte as a person raher than as a politician. Yepper, these are two diferent things where the Philippines (and many other countries) is concerned right now. This post may be polarizing, but I’d rather not remove it because this is true not only for me but for many Filipinos as well, especially those who have experienced the president’s heart ever since he came into the political arena decades ago. Alles gute und viel Spass! Danke!)
(Update. 14th July 2021. Good morning, Everyone. As you can see, this post is already more than half a decade old. And this is on politics. We know how things in politics change very fast. I ask myself how much Pres. Duterte has changed over the years while he’s the president. Honestly, I have no answer. I am a bit disappointed at how much he missed doing what he had planned to do at the start. I’m sure he is, too. My heart goes out to him. His dear friend, the Honorable Perfecto Yasay, Jr., whom he appointed as Secretary for Foreign Affairs (please see blow) is not with us anymore. He succumbed to cancer-complicated pneumonia last year. May he rest in peace. Of what I can sense from the president’s speeches lately, he has become increasingly tired, more tired than when he first said so years ago. I’ll see which Filipino-authored biographies of his speak out from the heart of the common Filipino. Oh, no foreigner-authored biography for me, please. It will be bound to be propagandistic (just being cautious here!), for the revenue and fame. Thanks all the same.)
I’ve just decided that the world is free to condemn Duterte an a_s.
However, for us who understand what’s happening, he’s our chance at making it good in this life ever since European Christianity destroyed our society until today (one can read about it in, for example, “Colonial Mentality: A Review and Recommendation for Filipino American Psychology” by E. J. R. David and Sumie Okazaki, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign). That’s about 500 long years. But whereas Europe has “devalued Christianity,” we to this day remain a “God-fearing people,” maybe all not meticulously “religious” but certainly with a very strong sense of the spiritual <<< this I have no doubt.
The other day an illegal-drug laboratory capable of producing 400 kilos in one day was discovered. The operators abandoned the building when Duterte won the election.
The world can call us a nation of idiots, that’s fine. We’ll just do what we think is right. Anyway, when Duterte talks publicly he actually means it for our consumption, ergo his complete array of colorful expressions — such contextual emphatic expressions that non-Filipinos will find difficult to understand — so that we finally begin to think for ourselves, be free from “colonial mentality” that is our bane.
We had been stu_id as a people and now is our chance to make up.
The industrialized world does not know all this, how we have suffered all these centuries, so they have no right to meddle with how we solve our problems. Instead they should be asking us in what ways we need help, because we urgently need help. But Duterte will not sell our national soul just to get help. If we can educate ourselves to the truth within Duterte’s term, either before he retires or before he is assassinated, then we’d have a hope at stopping the oligarchs’ excesses and give more chances to our poorest folks to better their lives.
The world condemns Duterte just on the basis of his stupid stupid mouth but for us his mouth is the least of our problems. And if indeed he was a cold-bloodied killer then that’s his business before God. (How can his neighbors of/for decades love him if he violates human rights?) But right now he’s not being a cold-bloodied killer as a president. I understand what’s happening. As of now he has restored the power of the law in the land. He constantly lectures us in all of his speeches that we must abide by the law. We have hope now in witnessing the culture of impunity disappear among the elite moneyed class. These are little gods, out of the reach of law. These elite are the remnants of the colonizers. Duterte has made enemies among them simply because he won the election. (There are mga elitista, many of them, who work for the plight of the people, and they are not part of who I’m referring to. There are non-elitista who are biased against Duterte simply because they are embarrassed of his rough ways and they want to distance themselves from him — these are the ones who are slaves to colonial mentality and many of them are fans of Leila de Lima<– that’s link to a video where she hysterically defends herself in front of media, a very un-lawyer-ly and cowardly procedure, instead of facing her accusers at the parliamentary investigations.) 🙂
The police and the wo/men-at-arms have once more become honorable to the people’s eyes. They’re back with their dignity in their correct places because they are sure now that the law will not abandon them to the moneyed-powerful. My people have not felt more safe and more hopeful for a very long time. The 700,000 who voluntarily identified themselves to the police got scared of the power of the law by way of the police. This was what Duterte wanted to happen. The majority were identified, had their names put on record, and were released back to their homes. The rest of us who have not violated the law are not scared of anything at all.
When the world calls Duterte an ass it’s us the people who feel the pain and we are at a loss because the world is more quick to condemn that to find out what’s true. The only way to stop Duterte’s foul mouth is to simply not provoke him in the first place. If the world thinks we’re a stupid primitive bunch, then so be it. We are only trying to survive as humans with dignity.
Here is the Philippines’ foreign policy (DFA Secretary Perfecto Yasay privilege speech, UN General Assembly, Sept. 20-26, 2016). The Secretary of Foreign Affairs Pefecto Yasay, Jr. is a pastor’s kid, a lawyer and teacher in the U.S., and Duterte’s dormitory roommate while both were in law school. Watch and listen: https://youtu.be/ySLG0NVdUZc
—–> Here is a summary of that speech from the UN webpage, below. (Source: https://gadebate.un.org/en/71/philippines )
Statement Summary: PERFECTO R. YASAY, JR., Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the Philippines, said that after his country’s hard-fought and hard-won independence, it zealously valued and guarded its rights and liberties through democracy and a system of checks and balances. Five months ago, the people had elected new President Rodrigo Roa Duterte with an unprecedented and resounding electoral mandate. For far too long, the Philippines had been unable to fully advance due to corruption, worsening crime, and the prevalence of illegal drugs, and corruption had become the breeding ground for the illegal drug trade. The Government was determined to eradicate illicit drugs and their manufacture, distribution and use. The rule of law and strict adherence to due process fully governed the campaign against corruption and criminality. Noting that the Government’s actions had grabbed national and international attention for all the wrong reasons, he urged everyone “to allow us to deal with our domestic challenges in order to achieve our national goals, without undue interference”. Extrajudicial killings had no place in Philippine society, and the Government did not and would never empower its law enforcement agents to shoot-to-kill any individual suspected of drug crimes, though police had the right to defend themselves when their lives were threatened.
The goal of the Government was to “leave no one behind” in its development strides, he said. The Philippines continued to enhance the delivery and quality of social services, including in health, education, food, water and housing. As one of the most disaster-prone and vulnerable countries to the adverse effects of climate change, the Philippines reiterated its call for climate justice and the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities in the implementation of obligations under the Paris Agreement. The country remained committed to the rule of law and to peace, including the recent decision on the Arbitral Tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague with regard to the disputes in the South China Sea. Noting the final and binding nature of the Arbitral Award, the Philippines reaffirmed its commitment to pursuing peaceful resolution to regional disputes.
Here’s another speech that Secretary Yasay gave on September 15 at the CSIS Southeast Asia Program (Center for Strategic and International Studies): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1F1kgh7cbg
. ❤ . I pray that no evil intents interfere with the plans of the president and his cabinet for the nation. I pray that the cabinet officials and their staff stay motivated and creative in all their activities. I wish them all the best of health. I pray that the malicious elements in the senate and the house of representatives listen to their conscience, and change their hearts for the better. I pray that the elite who insist on being blind, up there in their white fanciful tower, come down and have their fancy shoes dirtied with farm manure so that they begin to see reality. I pray that the youth, the young ones who are in schools, study their lessons well and study some more beyond what their teachers could deliver to them because there’s much more truth out there that is not taught in our schools. I pray that all teachers and all of the religious and sacerdotal add to their duties the aim of eradicating “colonial mentality” from the nation’s collective consciousness. I pray for the complete healing of everyone who has decided to turn their backs on drug addiction, and start to be really happy. I pray that persons in government who used their positions for the purpose of enriching themselves stop at their tracks and start giving back to the people the money and goods that they have stolen from everyone. I pray that the person on the street, the ordinary everyday person, hold on to his/her God-given strength, continue to hope, continue to work hard and honestly, until our nation is collectively delivered from the constant threat of poverty. I pray that Filipinos all over the globe take care of their health, stay sane and reasonable, not be blinded by the power of money, and stay spiritually intact in the face of any form of discrimination and cold treatment. I pray that the foreigners in my country stay safe, healthy, happy, and appreciative of the people’s friendliness. And I pray that the little ones, the children, imitate the president’s sweet little daughter and not follow our Tatay or Lolo Digong in speaking bad words. 🙂
My dear president, my virtual teacher, our leader, our elder brother, our friend, please continue to be in good health, stay humble, stay grounded, don’t forget to pray everyday, don’t forget your children’s and grandchildren’s birthdays, stay strong-willed, stay sane and lucid, stay reasonable, stay “transparent”, and manage your stress so that it doesn’t affect your rational judgments. Stay compassionate and sensitive to the poorest among us. May God bless you, our nation, and all peoples of the world.
❤
Source of picture above: http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/moro-insurgents-1906/
That was the picture that Duterte was referring to at the meeting with the ASEAN leaders. Here is an account of that meeting: https://www.eaglenews.ph/duterte-shows-obama-asean-leaders-photos-of-moros-killed-by-americans/
… and here is an account in relation to the picture when he was not yet a president: http://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2005/10/the-bud-dajo-massacre-a-hundred-years-later-will-america-apologize-2/
… and here is a 2011 scholarly/academic study of that 1906 event …
Hawkins, Michael C. “Managing a Massacre: Savagery, Civility, and Gender in Moro Province in the Wake of Bud Dajo.” Philippine studies 59, no. 1 (2011): 83-105.
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We are not a country of haters. Japan was not less cruel to us (that’s why my grandfather had bitter memories of such cruelty) but we have no problems with Japan anymore. My cousin even teaches English to school kids there and is now starting her own family there, too.
Stay well, everyone, and let’s try to be happy in whatever peaceful we can. It doesn’t need much to be happy (yeah, and here’s my recommended book on that topic: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28254.Stone_Age_Economics
🙂
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Hi! 🙂 Today is actually Thursday, June 9, 2016. Senator Sanders and President Obama had just concluded a short meeting at the White House. I was writing this post while waiting for the senator to come out after the meeting and speak to the journalists who were eagerly waiting for him outside. I had just finished writing when he came out to speak and so I was able to add the fresh info at the last paragraph. 🙂
First thing I did Wednesday morning was switch on the TV to check how Senator Sanders faired at the California primaries. I couldn’t believe that the difference was that big! Some things must have happened at the polls much like many things happened at the other polls previous.
I had to bear listening to CNN because I wanted to hear what he had to say. Oh boy was I rewarded! He won’t quit! I was so happy yesterday and until today Thursday I still am celebrating for this decision of his. Right now I’m waiting for his meeting with the US president to be streamed live and I’m afraid again that he’ll be pushed to quit. That will be a real downer not only for me but for the millions who are following this election process on the Democratic side.
I’ve decided to name Senator Sanders as my newest hero today. I hope I won’t change my mind in case he gives way to pressure and drop the campaign. If he does that I’d know that it was because it has become a matter of life and death for him, and not especially to his person but to the welfare of the people especially — like a sort of a hostage situation. Otherwise he’ll push through until the end of the election process.
He’s become my hero because it was though his campaign that I began to understand how immediately tangible corruption is even in the country that boasts itself as a bastion of democracy. I began to understand that ‘democracy’ can be used by an institution to describe its dynamics even though the process does not really involve the freedom given to citizens to decide collectively how they should be governed by leaders that represent their interests.
In this election season I have seen how campaign choreographers have manipulated information and rhetoric so that attention is taken away from the most important aspect of the voting process: to scrutinize the issues in a clear and systematic manner. What happened instead is that money, power, and prestige are being used so that the winner is the person who will continue to allow these very influential entities to continue with their various interests. If there were no adverse effects coming out of this then there’s nothing to gripe about. However, this activity affects in a great way those on the other end of the spectrum — residents who have no money, no prestige, no power, no influence, no education, and the worst, those who have no houses.
Senator Sanders’ platform is clear and simple: subtract privilege and power from one end and distribute these throughout the spectrum in a manner so that there is enough left until the other extreme end is reached. Does this mean that privileges and power are flattened out so that everyone will have equally the same? Nope, that’s not it. Property and privacy are maintained. What is being changed is the defective dynamics that allows uncontrolled greed to effect an unchecked hoarding of resources by an extremely few entities so that only a few individuals suctions the benefits that should have been shared at relative degrees by everyone else who have participated in the overall economic machinery.
What the Senator Bernie Sanders proposes is simply this: a clear check and balance machinery be imputed into the system so that nobody goes houseless and hungry in this beloved land of plenty. If you want the specifics then all is explained at his campaign’s website: https://berniesanders.com/issues/ .
Again, so why is he my hero? — Because he is not in this race simply for the sake of winning. He is in this race for the sake of the people and he is doing it after decades of working for the people without himself getting rich or hoarding power. In fact, he has not involved himself with the moneyed sector. This by itself is factor enough for his cause to be ignored. What appears now is that, more than just being ignored, he has been continually elbowed out of the process for months now. It does appear that the status quo is indeed very threatened by the movement that he has generated. It must be understood, though, that this “movement” had been there for almost a century now but every time its voice gets heard a bit the powers-that-be lashes back eventually if not immediately and reestablishes its pedestal. However, at this juncture of American history Senator Bernie Sanders had the privilege to eloquently utter the voice of this “movement” — which is the collective sentiments of all of the everyday working persons. Because of him millions of Americans have finally come to understand what has been happening and they have become enabled enough to make a choice on the aspects of the political and economic life within which they are a part of, within which they have invested their talents and time, and within which they will get the resources to enable them to lead a life that is compensatory to their investments.
This much information and awareness have not been disseminated to so many in a way that is happening now through the Senator Bernie Sanders’ campaign. Many are still blind to the truth, still blinded because the ongoing information blockage by the mainstream media, but this will change. The millions of young people, 45 years old and younger, will spread this knowledge and realization all throughout their lifetime and beyond, and America will again become the land of the free.
… and!!! … woohoo!!! Nothing has changed! After his talk with the president just now his rhetoric remains and he says he stays in the race until the end!!! May God bless Senator Bernie Sanders! Mainstream media must be “seething” by now!!!
Thanks for dropping by! Take care!
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sacada lang 