2013: My New Year’s Prayer

"You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. 
That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies; that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life."
                           ~J Krishnamurti

My favorite anecdote about prayer is about court pleadings. One time, a devoutly religious client of our office upon reading the last page of a case pleading saw that it contained a prayer concluded & said, “because of this prayer, we will win the case.” My late father, as a member of Adoracion Nocturna in our parish wrote a paper on prayer which I remember today with so much fondness. Mincode, my NGO network’s Pablo Relief Operations in 3 Provinces that were hardest hit by Typhoon Pablo is called "Our Help is our Christmas Prayer!"

So, my first act for 2013 is to articulate my litany of prayers:

Access to beaches: For many of us, owning beaches is not important but access is.  It is heartwarming to note that the Department Of Environment & Natural Resources (DENR) is enforcing the 20 meter plus 5 meter water easement from the highest water mark. This easement of “25 meters from the water line” is based on the 20 meters easement from the highest water mark plus the 5 meters setback from walkway or beach pavement. My prayer is that this is enforced in all of our 7,100 islands.

Baganga: During this relief period, some of us are already grappling with short term & long term rehabilitation of communities. We will be putting up cacao nurseries in Baganga in time for planting in the next few months. Rice & corn grains can already be planted with perennial fruit & forest trees soon after clearing or grubbing operation is had with fallen trees. My prayer is enough funds for this endeavor. 

Copra price is very low & our prayer is for the coco levy funds to be used for the rehabilitation of the coconut industry. My prayer is for many coco farmers to be organized (as against individual farmer recipients of coco levy funds) around the proper use of these coco levy funds.

Divorce is long overdue. We thank our own Congresswoman Luz Ilagan & Gabriela for representing us women in this advocacy. Except for our Muslim communities, we are the last nation - state in this post modern world that does not have divorce & so our prayer is for the divorce law to be available as an option.  Our advocacy for divorce is related to our fight against violence against women. It is also in keeping with the women’s movement toward the promotion for bodily rights, autonomy and empowerment of the oppressed gender. It is not against men. It is against oppressors. 

Exercise: It has been said that sitting in front of e-gadgets is the new vice. My prayer is enough time to stretch and run or walk and burn calories. Even doing household chores is better than sitting.

Facebook & Social Media: There is so much to say and our prayer is for our right to freedom of expression to be always guaranteed. My prayer in this age of social media when news can be reported by anyone & accessed readily is a professional redefinition of the journalist’s role. Because anyone or everyone is now into reportage, the professional journalist’s role should be to make sure that facts in news reporting are correct and analysis is incisive & can be empirically validated.

I joined the signing of the people’s petition by the The Save Our Sunset (SOS) Manila Bay Coalition against the reclamation of Manila Bay. The prayer is to “stop the planned and future reclamation of Manila Bay & …to enact a master plan that maximizes the opportunities and potential of the waterfront for the enjoyment of the people,” among others.

Finally, from Regina Brett, I am adopting this as my prayer for aspiring writers, “A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.”

"Everyone has unique gifts and talents. 
What you love is what you're gifted at. 
To be completely happy, to live a completely fulfilled life, you have to do what you love."  
                       ~~~ Barbara Sher 

www.mindanaotimes.net/womenwise-2013-more-new-year-reflections/ 

I just finished writing a project design and I feel kind of drained. It is a pleasant tiredness, though, like one who has created something. Ernest Hemingway has a line on this, “After writing a story I was always empty and both sad & happy, as though I had made love & I was sure this was a very good story although I would not know truly how good until I read it over the next day.” 

Writing a project design which one wants to implement in a year or two is akin to planning our next days and weeks and years. In futures studies, we call this colonizing our near & far future. This is not unlike when one is planning a program of study or when one decides what university course to pursue. A Facebook friend of mine shared that she made a mistake in taking a college course. So, my advice was to look forward to when the course will grow on her, in time, or that she should turn back because to continue with the journey means she is further removed from where she wants to go. Of course, this is granting she knows where to go. A relevant mantra here are these lines from Alice in Wonderland: 

Alice, asked the Cat, Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'

`That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.

`I don't much care where--' said Alice.

`Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.

`--so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation.

`Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, `if you only walk long enough.' 

In writing project designs, like in life, one imagines the outcomes and results. What will it take to get the desired results?

In writing project designs, like in life, one imagines the outcomes and results. What will it take to get the desired results?

Every January, I always try to plan my year so as not to end up just doing the motions. But, recently, I find myself enjoying the moments like in a drift.

I am also in a stage where it is so easy to say that I have been there or I have done that. So, my mantra is no more of the same, please.

Truth to tell, there are always spaces for changes, like 2012 is an end of an era & 2013 is another era. We live our lives in seasons and cycles. The 10 year primary & high school cycle,  the four or more university years, the trying twenties, the young & middle adulthood, the empty nest syndrome years, & the retirement years. Life sounds simple when seen this way. And life is simpler too, when planning is done in cycles. What university course to take? What do I want to be? What will I do to be rich or famous? What will make me happy?

New Year is about resolutions. My mantra for when one quits bad habits comes from these lines, again, from Ernest Hemingway, “By then I knew that everything good & bad left an emptiness when it stopped. But, if it was bad, the emptiness filled up by itself. If it was good you could only fill it by finding something better….”  Or finding that which is just as good.

I found myself listening to singer Adele during the holidays and for the lovesick & brokenhearted out there, she says, “Never mind, I will find someone like you.”

Faith, Hope and Lots of Love For 2011 and Beyond

Faith, Hope and Lots of Love For 2011

I would like to start my new year contemplating about faith, hope and lots of love because our empirical reality does not so much inspire confidence and hope. Even as the practical act of plotting, preparing and planning the work of the near future are material acts, still the result is best if one is inspired. And Christmas is a great season from which to draw inspiration because it is a reminder of the more profound things in life. As Howard Thurman says “ When the song of the angel is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the king (and queen) and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flock, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among brothers ( and sisters), to make music in the heart.”

I think it fits a pattern that when one is in midlife, one engages in musings about our mortality and our moorings in life. My moorings are work, family and community. I actually woke up this morning thinking about what I want to do in the next decades. And then I realize that I want to simplify my life. While other heirs will probably focus on property partition now, my frame of mind is about community property and passing on the legacy to the successors who are interested in watersheds and forests. Perhaps, this is so informed by the cycle of climate change that we are experiencing now. So, here is to hoping that if we do our share of preserving and protecting our mother earth, we will experience a renaissance and respite from all the ravages of the rains, storm surges and floods.

Meantime, let us be trapped in the moment. Our work has a way of colonizing our life and future and thus how we spend our minutes, hours, days and years. Therefore, my message to the younger generation who are studying and contemplating the future is to really find out what you want to do and how you will want to spend the relentless moments in your work or career or vocation in life. But, as all things are learned, one must be exposed to all these work possibilities. It is just unfortunate that the laws of the market such as supply and demand, more often, have a way of determining our choices. This is why many of our young just consider most jobs available now as a stop gap measure towards their quest for the real career that we hope will be an expression of their personalities.

But, I guess one can have many careers in succession or many avocations all at the same time. Teaching and writing can be avocations. Of course, they can be careers, too. When I retire, I want to organize a venue for farmers to sell their fruits and flowers, a venue for artists to display their art, to organize a venue for wellness and for healers and peacemakers, a venue for the literati and writers to share ideas all in one place, and a venue for menopausal women to share this passage in life. And then I realize that all these would require monies and management. So, I am back to reality: the material basis of my pursuit of the finer things in life and what I have to do to realize a paragon of a paradise on earth.


In closing, let me share a line or two that I read a long time ago ( actually from a book by Roderick Gorney) which to me has been an article of faith : It is that happiness is a result of our zestful engagement in love, work and play. That happiness is just a derivative or a by - product of the work that we love to do and a result of our meaningful engagement in our relationships and with our loved ones.

2010 : My Personal Notes

The biggest event of the year is, of course, the changing of guards in the political palace that is Malacanang and the ascension to power of P- Noy, the scion of Cory and Ninoy on the wings of the political platform to address corruption and changes in our social, economic and political landscape.

One year passed and the victims of the Maguindanao massacre are still wailing and wanting for justice. There is still no let up in our national pain, grief and anger over this election related crime where journalists were among the 58 innocent women and men who died doing a civic duty to country.

Climate change was so palpable in the floods that hit our Philippines and Pakistan and many other countries. Thousands of travelers were stranded in London, Frankfurt, Schipol and other airports in Europe as hundreds of flights were cancelled in mid winter due to snow and this makes 2010 Christmas memorable but not comfortable.

The release by WikiLeaks of classified, confidential cables of the U.S. State Department stunned the diplomatic and international community. There is no knowing now as to the impact and result of this release of diplomatic documents but, for sure, there will be a redefinition of the legal landscape of confidentiality and communication technology in the conduct of foreign affairs towards security and world peace.

The whole wired world was aghast at the tragic hostage drama that happened in our premier park involving Chinese tourists and Rolando Mendoza, a decorated policeman turned hostage taker. We landed in the New York Times; ordinary citizens here and Filipinos abroad were tweeting and connecting through social media how inept we were. After the fact, our lessons learned pertains to prevention and management of crisis, who is coordinating and in charge, the importance of negotiation skills, the human resources skills of our women and men in uniform and the effectiveness of our justice system.

After fifteen years in prison, Hubert Webb, et. al were acquitted due to failure of prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Webb et all were the perpetrators. As to opinion on this Visconde massacre, the country is divided. Belatedly, the social media were used in this case for public awareness to counter the “ danger of a single story.” But, the pillars of our justice system are on trial here by the court of public opinion. We hear there is a move to re-open the case. Time left is six months before the prescriptive period of 20 years set in.

The whole nation was glued to the big show of Congressman Manny Pacquio in the world boxing ring. Charice Pempengco under the initial boost by Oprah became one of the stars of Glee, an American television show.

Our economic refugees abroad continue to send dollars to families here and thus children are able to have university education. The four (4) billion conditional cash transfer to the poorest families sounds promising given that it will be presided over by our dear Dinky Soliman, a colleague in PILIPINA, the Filipino national feminist movement. We have faith in the peace process as we have faith in our Ging Deles, another PILIPINA founder, and Dean Marvic in much the same way that we have faith in the negotiators on the MILF side.

So, happy holidays to all. Let me repost my signature Christmas wish : My wish is to be able to feel Christmas through the eyes and heart of the child in me and to believe in the magic of Christmas : faith in a Santa Claus from the heavens, giving gifts of love and all the works. Faith is a lot like love and hope and invoking that warms my heart !

Christmas

We all need to feel the spirit and magic of Christmas amidst all the mayhem we are experiencing in Mindanao.

This is not to downplay nor forget the monstrosity of the Maguindanao heinous massacre and the Agusan del Sur and the Basilan tragic events that followed but an invitation to reflect on the meaning and significance of Christmas.

If the goal of warlordism is wealth, fame and power, it would do us well to remember that the great Jesus was born very humbly in a stable among farm animals.

Of course, we agree that the Jesus Christ who said that we should love one another is our model of how one should be famous and powerful. Wealth, fame and power can be harnessed to serve humanity and therefore are not evil per se; the evils are its misuses to harm humanity. Harming others is an act of harming ourselves.

For many years now, we in the local feminist scene have been contemplating on what we call the “ Alternative Christmas.”

It is a growing concept so it is continually evolving. For example, in advocating that child care is a family and social concern, we promote Christmas cards that has the father St Joseph holding the baby Jesus.

In this sense, we still need to promote The Nativity image that will promote breastfeeding as I imagine there was no commercial cow’s milk formula nor television advertisements to undermine breastfeeding in Bethlehem at that time.

We like to imagine The Belen, or the Nativity scenes to be set in a barn or stable and include Mary, Joseph, the child Jesus, angels, shepherds BUT the Three Wise bearers of gifts are “WOMEN: Balthazara, Melchiora, and Caspara,” who are said to have followed a star, known as the Star of Bethlehem, and arrive after His birth.

We are not anti – men, but we wish to be allowed to imagine a world where women can be “ Three Queens” and find time to leave the domesticity of home to be able to travel and be as gracious and magnanimous as the Three Kings.

While we welcome the economic activity during the Christmas season and particularly, in these times of recession, it is prudent to be austere amidst all the hunger around us.

Don’t we feel violated when others spend millions on lavish Christmas parties while others are hungry? A recent Philippine Human Development Report published by the United Nations Development Program ( UNDP) has determined that “ massive and abject poverty and economic inequity, particularly in the distribution of wealth and control over the resource base for livelihood” is one of the root causes of internal conflicts and rebellion in the Philippines.

This kind of rebellion is perhaps not seen in Maguindanao, a province in Central Mindanao, among the high and mighty enough to have declared a state of martial law.

Our overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who are not able to go home for Christmas are missing their loved ones in a very big way. I have read their entries in social networking sites and they are missing our “simbang gabi, puto bongbong, caroling, office parties, etc.”

Our fellow countrymen abroad will assuage these feelings by remitting funds and Christmas presents galore. This is why some mothers think they wish to be “MRDs” ( mothers receiving dollars).

My wish is to be able to feel Christmas through the eyes and heart of the child in me and to believe in the magic of Christmas: faith in a Santa Claus from the heavens, giving gifts of love and all the works.

Faith is a lot like love and hope and invoking that warms my heart !