On a roll

It's Monday and I'm on a roll!!! 

Had a productive meeting with my CMO this morning. It was a very good discussion. 

I had a concall with S this lunchtime and from the vibe that I got, I think they loved me! 

This is what it feels like --- I am floating in the air! 

I feel so blessed. My heart is filled with awe and gratitude.

Thank You --- for not letting me down. Thank You for not abandoning me in uncertain times. You helped me with my Plan B (and C, and D) no matter how late I started. 

God, I owe you everything.

This is going to be a great week! 

*prancing around like crazy*

Oh well

"While you're ignoring her, another guy is giving her attention. While you're giving her problems, another guy is listening to those problems. While you're too busy for her, another guy is making time for her. While you're making her cry, another guy is trying to make her smile. While you're not sure if you still want her, another guy already figured it out."

From my sister.

Quiet weekend

Tired. This whole week was draining. 

New projects. With half my concentration.I honestly don't know how I managed to wing it.

At any rate, it's comforting to know that someone cares. 

In trying times like this, I appreciate the emotional presence. 

Now I'm looking forward to cocooning in the weekend. 

Relieved and looking forward to it. 

Passion, death and resurrection

"Passion makes a person stop eating, sleeping, working, feeling at peace. A lot of people are frightened because when it appears, it demolishes all the old things it finds in its path. No one wants their life thrown into chaos. This is why a lot of people keep that threat under control, and are somehow capable of sustaining a house or a structure that is already rotten. They are the engineers of the superseded. Other people think exactly the opposite; they surrender themselves without a second thought, hoping to find in passion the solutions to all their problems. They make the other person responsible for their happiness and blame them for their possible unhappiness. They are either euphoric because something marvelous has happened or depressed because something unexpected has ruined everything. Keeping passion at bay or surrendering blindly to it - which of these two attitudes is the least destructive? I don't know."

- Paulo Coelho

Weekend breather

All  my bags are packed, I'm ready to go... 

I need this weekend trip. 

I'm so glad I'm doing it. 

If there is such a thing as comfort food, this is comfort gallivanting. 

5 hours to flight. Game on!

I want 'ya, Mini Cooper! Wooot!

Spotted in Kuningan City: white hatchback Mini Cooper.

I love!

I should put you in me bucket list. =)

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R-E-S-P-E-C-T

was all that I was asking for. 

Even that, you failed to give. 

Funny --- and ironic at the same time --- how I was the one hurt in all of this, yet I am the one slow to anger.

I don't know where your fury is coming from. Ridiculous, how you feel you have the right to it.

Still no anger on my end. Perhaps you're expecting me to be, but I will not give you that.

My anger will be your absolution. 

All my love and my kindness to you. All because I know you need it. 

But amidst all this, I pray --- for my own peace. 

For my heart and my spirit to heal. 

All the love for you. 

Still.

Hope springs eternal

Today, I was reminded of the plenitude of options. 

In a state of inaction, I was blessed. 

True enough, when God closes a door, He opens a thousand and one windows. 

When I heal - completely - I know that I will see more clearly what is in store for me in the near future. 

It's a blessed day!

Thank you.

Reason and Season

To everything there is a season,
a time for every purpose under the sun.
a time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
a time to kill and a time to heal ...
a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance ...
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to lose and a time to seek;
a time to tend and a time to sew;
a time to keep silent and a time to speak;
a time to love and a time to hate;
a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

True enough. God will make everything beautiful in His time.  

I am only waiting for mine.

Happy place, comfort zone

In moments of turbulence and times of uncertainty, I seek refuge in your arms. 

Thank you. 

Thank you for the comforting words, for the assurance that you are just here.

Thank you for being my voice of reason, for putting order in my otherwise chaotic thoughts when I'm overwhelmed with too much emotion. 

Thank you for taking care of me.

Life and five balls

Bryan Dyson – Former CEO of Coca Cola delivered this very short but equally poignant speech. It hit home for me so I wanted to share it: 

“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them – Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit and you’re keeping all of these in the air.

You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – Family, Health, Friends and Spirit – are made of glass. If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for it.

Work efficiently during office hours and leave on time. Give the required time to your family, friends and have proper rest. Value has a value only if its value is valued.” 

 
Very well said. 

February 1

Woah. 

Time flies. It really does. 

I'm counting the days and the hours until May. 

Life-changing.

Scary.

I'm frightened. 

But the risk is so worth it.

Live, breathe Web

I live and breathe Web. 

Take this from me and it's like shooting me in the head. 

I'm not alone feeling this way. All my kids are digital experts. Taking the online space away from them is like removing oxygen.  

It's great to be back in the game.

That's how it is for people who eat and drink web sites for breakfast.

One milestone per day, April. One milestone per day.

Enter the Dragon: New Year, New Beginnings

The Year of the Dragon has begun. For the Fire Snake, this year is supposed to be average yet transformational. Now, I don't really know what to make of that. How can something be average and transformational at the same time? 

At any rate - earth luck, man luck or heaven luck - life is what we make of it. It's how we make the most of it. 

True enough, this year is transformational for me. 

For the first time in my life, I am planning for something that's in an unfamiliar terrain. For the first time in my ENTIRE lifetime, I'm not planning for my career. It's a little bit disconcerting for me. It's frightening. For an impeccable planner like me who has everything covered from Plan A to D, fixating on just one option and one direction is something very new.

I'm mortified but excited at the same time. What is unknown is something that scares the hell out of me --- but the risks far outweigh all my reservations. 


So Dragon, being the Snake's celestial housemate, may you bring me good fortune and great positive transformations in the year ahead!

Compromise

...is a big, big word.

It's tough. It's difficult. 


When you are in a relationship --- you just really have to. 

When you are engaged --- all the more that you need to learn its essence and how to do it. 

It's hard. 

Pero sige --- para sa 'yo --- kakaririn ko. 

That's what I promised you, anyway. 

To have your back --- even if I compromise mine. 

I have to hand it to you, though. Thanks for trying, too. 

Don't get tired of trying.

Compromise. 

Big word. 

But I hope we're bigger than that.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

So very apropos.


Sometimes, I get tired of fighting for what is right. I stop and think: what is the point? I will get over-turned, anyway. My voice will not be heard.

None of us are. 

And again -- what is the point for me if I'm already moving on to other priorities? 

Then I read this quote. 

It is tiring to fight for what's right, sometimes. Especially if the dominant opinion --- or the more powerful one --- gets all the audience. 

But today, I just had to be reminded. 

I still have to. Win or lose --- I have to fight a good fight. For the sake of my kids, for the sake of their careers.

I just need to find that energy and take back my swagger. 

For that --- bukas na bukas, bongga na ulit! Fight!!!

Happy 2012!

Simple. Happy. Steady. Quiet. 

This was how I spent my New Year with the family. 

As I downloaded the Christmas revelry's photos while my fiance' is still fast asleep --- I cannot help but smile. I am happy and content. I am filled with joy. There was no need go out, party and get wasted. I am happy being still.

And yes, I have to get used to calling him the fiance' from now on. 

It's a brand new year. 

For the first time, I am not planning solely for my career - where my next country of assignment will be, how I will advance in the corporate ladder, how I will reach my KPIs.

For the first time in my entire existence, I am actually planning my life with someone. 

It's a scary change. I've never done this before.  

But as the cliche' goes, I just need to take that leap of faith. 

2012 will be a brand new year of faith, hope and love.

Cheers to a better year ahead --- to stillness, to a steady and happy life.

Happy New Year, everyone!!! 

Day before Christmas

Some folks are not "birthday people," aka one of my besties. They dread the coming of their birthdays and choose to celebrate quietly - or not celebrate at all.


I, on the other hand, am admittedly not a Christmas person. When I was a child, I had one lonely quiet Christmas that did it for me. After that, Christmas wasn't the same for me again. And year after year, there's something about December that makes me feel lonely. And something seems to happen during the season that reinforced how I felt about Christmas.

Delamar once said that it's the pressure of being cheerful and joyful during the season that puts more pressure into people, which makes them more depressed during the holidays. I was one of those people. 

Until I left the Philippines.

There is nothing like Filipino Christmas. That, I can truly say. That so-called Christmas spirit --- it's unexplainable but it's just in the air. It makes people kinder, nicer, more generous. The spirit allows us to be more gentle with each other. 

Outside my hotel room right now, I can hear the unrelenting honking of buses and jeepneys --- as early as 6am. People are rushing to go back home to their families in time for the Christmas Noche Buena tonight.

Manila is noisy. It's busy. It's traffic everywhere. Normally, I will be superbly annoyed. But not today. Not this season.

Because it's Christmas. And I finally felt it in my heart. 


Merry Christmas, everyone!Light and love this holiday season. And let's not forget why we are celebrating in the first place.

Finally...

Filipino food! 

Lechon kawali (don't forget the Mang Tomas lechon sauce!), pinakbet, sisig, chicken barbeque and  kilawin!

'Will definitely need to pound the pavement in January to burn calories!

 

Manila, my Manila

True enough, despite the miasma of traffic gridlock, the roundabout search for parking in malls and the seemingly incessant smog hovering over the city skyline: It's good to be home. There's no place like it. Na-miss kita, Manila.