Miracle Sundays: What "The Sandman" Reminded Me

We finally started to watch "The Sandman" after finishing "Stranger Things". Episode 4 featured Lord Morpheus battling Lucifer. It was truly an interesting battle because they battled through their mind. They would state their weapon as they battled. It was a battle of wits. It came to a point when The Sandman seemed to be on the brink of death. Lucifer shot "anti-life" against the King of Dreams. He won when he countered it with "hope". 

Some discussions online said that Lucifer could have countered it with "Despair". I disagree. The antonym of despair is still hope. Hope, joy and optimism defeats despair. The film certainly made me think about it. Despair is one of the things I have experienced when I had my second PE*. It plagues me whenever I feel unwell. 

“What power would Hell have if those here imprisoned were not able to dream of Heaven?” - The Sandman

It was hope I felt when the new meds. It helped me breathe again. It's what I feel when after a bad day I feel I have more energy. And with hope I can dream to feel more alive. But it's only possible if you have faith. It was Matthew (the raven) who nudged  Lord Morpheus' to fight back. He told him he believed that they would be able to get out of hell. 

Pray so that you may have hope and continue dreaming. 

*PE - pulmonary embolism

 #BeKind #StaySafe

Wanted: Change Makers

I couldn't sleep last night. I was trying to understand and make sense of why PNoy died at such a young age. I admired him as a leader. He had the heart of service and he lived his life with integrity. These were principles my Dad kept teaching us growing up. 

There was one post that really bothered me yesterday. It read, "Everytime the Philippines needs saving, an Aquino dies." There's been three in my lifetime, Ninoy (1983), Cory (2010) and PNoy (2021). I remember my parents bringing me to Ninoy's wake at Fort Bonifacio. I was 8 years old and my parents explained to me what was happening to our country. This was followed by tumultuous years in the country. It was not an easy transition to a democratic government. 

I think all of us yearn for a good life. We all want to live in a harmonious society. One thing I learned in the past year is the value of the community. When they made calls here to stay home they reinforced it with the need to do it as a community member. People complied because they knew that they had to do it for the whole population. 

In my sleepless state last night I thought about what I could do as an individual to help make my country better. I know life is hard and we tend to keep to ourselves when we struggle. Seeing the sprouting of community pantries in the past few months warmed my heart. It tells me there are a lot of Filipinos with a heart for service. It's just a matter of finding and encouraging them to serve. Can you think of selfless people in your community who'd be good leaders?

If you think about it, the good mayor (itago na lang natin sa initials) VS ran because he was fed up with how things were being done in his city. He's young, just a bit experienced, but he had a heart of gold. Voters took a chance on him because they wanted change. I heard he's still been having a hard time overturning old policies in his city hall, but that hasn't stopped him from making changes. We probably have someone like him lurking in each of our communities (barangays). We need to find these change makers so we don't just keep falling back to the old system. 

What do we need to do to spark this kind of real change?

CB///*Yr2/76 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/103 #StayHome #BeKind  

Hope in a Tree

We have this huge tree outside our home in Manila. It's been there since we moved. It has survived all the typhoons that passed and it luckily did not burn when the roof of the warehouse beside us caught fire. 

L-R, top to bottom: January 2020, Q4 2020, April 2021, May 2021.

Last year before we left for Singapore the tree looked really sad after the Taal Volcano erupted. It eventually deteriorated and we thought it was going to die. Lo and behold the tree recovered. Miggy sent me a photo and the tree looked really healthy again. The tree is a survivor!

I've been feeling exhausted again the past few days. My doctor had to lower the dosage of my meds because I was having unusual bruises. I think it may have affected my energy. Miggy sent me a photo of the tree this morning. It had yellow flowers all over! 

The yellow flowers are so pretty :)

I told myself, if the tree could do it, so could I! Seeing the tree with so many flowers brought me so much joy and hope. I think it's the same for our current situation. We'll all eventually get out of this horrid pandemic and blossom with happiness once again. 

Happy weekend everyone!

CB//*Yr2/34  #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/61 #StayHome #BeKind   

There is Always Hope

Last night I was reading the speech made by President Aquino when he was conferred an honorary degree by the Loyola Marymount University. I was mainly curious because my sister got her MBA degree at Marymount University (but in Virginia). It was a long speech, but I found the answer I've been looking for in the past week.

I am at my worst when I'm sick. I've just recovered from a 3-week bout of sinus infection and I was feeling really good when I went to work last Monday. I was all systems go to plow through the projects I have to complete this quarter. Ended my work day quite happy and was looking forward to spending time with family in the evening. By 9 in the evening I was feeling sick and by ten I already had a fever. I went to sleep early, but kept waking up and by 3:30am I gave up trying to fight the sickness and drank some paracetamol. When I woke up in the morning I was in bad shape and had to take the day off.

By Tuesday night I was pretty much despondent about being sick again. I generally have a sunny disposition and only my family sees me when I'm down in the dumps. I get really cranky when I'm sick and that's because my brain goes to the gloomy side when I'm unwell.

So what does PNoy's speech have to do with my flu?

Being election year there's so much negativity floating around back home. When you open social media you see complaints left and right (yeah I complain too), mud slinging, judging, etc. etc. It's an endless tirade of people giving their opinions. I rarely see solutions from these tirades. I can certainly whip out the PolSci in me, but I prefer to discuss these things in person (that's why I miss my Dad so much, but Miguel actually likes talking about politics and current issues so lucky me).

I always wondered how can a President survive his time in office where expectations are very high and the satisfaction threshold is in another galaxy. I guess as any leader would do, you identify problems create targets, plan programs and work hard to hit your numbers. We all do this at work and we all experience office politics as well. As a leader there would be times you'd have to say, "Team, heads down and let's do the work." And you just ignore all the negativity surrounding you. You cannot after all solve everything in one go (we all experience this when we run programs).

So PNoy said, "There are so many who are disenfranchised, who are powerless, who are in a condition that really can make them so despondent, so cynical, so hopeless. But yet, they strive in their daily lives and if there was one mission that we sought out, those that have joined us in this quest, it is that we have to maximize opportunities for all. And in the end, that is not just a thing to do, that is the right thing to do."

Maybe if we all spent some time teaching at least 3 of our co-electorates what kind of candidate we should vote for (and not necessarily who), then maybe we could really move our nation up several notches more.

Thanks PNoy for pulling me out of my flu rut. Now we just need to wait for the meds to work its magic. 

A Dose of Sunshine

My Dad used to serve as a judge in a Regional Trial Court and some of the cases that were raffled off to him included murder, terrorism, rape etc. Pretty depressing but he manage to handle it well through prayer. Despite all those horrid things he had to handle he kept a positive outlook on life. There is not problem that cannot be solved. No prayer that will be left unanswered.

And this is one thing that held me together even during difficult times. At the back of my mind I always thought that there was sunshine out there even though there were times I stubbornly stayed in the shade. I hope I got some of my Dad's tenacity. When he wanted to do something, he did it. He'd find a way to do it. My Mom is the same. She's a great project manager and can get things done in a practical manner.

A few years back I wrote a blog post about the lack of good news about our country. I was happy to see that eventually some local media started putting "good news" sections in their coverage. But, I think it's not enough. Last November some of my colleagues asked me if it was common to see 5 murder stories on the front page of our newspaper. I was horrified because I knew it was an exception and I wanted to highlight the good things happening in our country.

After that I started to look closely into the news from other countries and realized that yeah we're pretty much a negative bunch. It's not only on the news, but also on social networking sites. I think what we need both as a people and as individuals is a heavy does of sunshine. Something that would make us have a positive outlook and determination to make things work. It's not bad to cover negative stuff in the news, but there should be a good healthy balance to show that some things do work and highlight what needs to be worked out. That's what I noticed in foreign newspapers. They would cover bad stuff, but give constructive criticism.

But that's just me and my bottomless optimism :)

"I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe." 
Dalai Lama