Your mantra for the week:
“My blessings follow me wherever I go, thank you, God!”
Put your attention now on your Higher Self which is the God within you. Fill your mind and heart with love and gratitude, and this feeling will bring to you all the things you will ever need—everything for your highest good and greatest joy.
The most important prayer in the world is just two words: “Thank you.” As you fill your mind and your heart with gratitude at all times, you open up the floodgates of blessings to flow into your life, for you cannot be unhappy and grateful at the same time.
In your mind, in your heart, in your lips must be those two words: “Thank you.”
Gratitude is the appreciation of kindnesses received, the many blessings that are already in your life. Many times, you do not remember to say thank you for these things. Your Higher Self, the God within you, always responds to your gratitude. For as you are grateful to receive, more is given unto you.
Thank the God within you for your physical body, a perfect vehicle given you for this lifetime. There are 52 trillion cells in your body, with each one having a life of its own. Be grateful for each cell, each atom, each electron and proton. Sometimes when part of our body is ill at ease, we forget to thank God for the other parts that are whole and perfect and feeling well, in the same way that sometimes we lack a particular thing, and we forget to appreciate all the things we already have.
No matter how little you may think you have, when you are grateful for it, it increases and multiplies.
There are many people who love you. Sometimes they don’t love you the way you desire to be loved. But you can still say thank you. And to those who don’t love you, you can still say thank you because they are reminders that there are still lessons to be learned about love.
Also, be grateful for all the challenges, all negative situations, for they are all really blessings in disguise. No matter what has happened in the past, when you look back, you know that some good came out of it. Have you said thank you?
Have you thanked the Father within you for your own capacity to love? How grateful are you for those who bring so much joy into your life—your friends, your families, your spiritual family and all those you have chosen to share your life within this lifetime? There were ups, there were downs, but in all cases, you know they cared.
One of the most wonderful, uplifting thoughts is to remember how beautiful life really is. For every negative thing that is occurring in the world, a million acts of kindness are also happening. Put your attention on your Higher Self as often as you can, and you will see your life unfold with such happiness.
You have abilities, you have talents—how grateful are you for them? Do you wake up in the morning and say: “Thank you, God, for my creativity, for my being able to be your instrument—for love, for wholeness, for abundance?”
The most important prayer in the world is just two words: “Thank you.” And the Bible says, “In everything, give thanks”—even for all situations that seem to be a thing you cannot be grateful for, for therein lies a gift. And as you say thank you, that gift unfolds for you.
One of the most wonderful gifts given to all of us is our capacity to go within at any moment we decide. And as we do, we enter that Kingdom of God where the sun doesn’t shine upon us and isn’t on us, but is in us; it shines from within and brings us sunshine in all Its glory.
There, we see life as it truly is, the most beautiful gift of the universe. There, we realize we are not separate from anything, that we are one with God and even all things.
And from within you, that still, small voice will be saying to you, “Look around you. Look at all the beauty that there is. Look at every human being in your life. Each one is different. Each one contains Me. Yet, there are times when your perception is different and you get hurt.
But listen: “My beloved child, I have given you the capacity to forgive not only others but yourself. If you truly realize my presence in your life, you would be grateful every moment of it. For this gratitude will bring to you all that you will ever need, and what you need looks for you, comes to you in expected and unexpected ways…”
Quest for Miss World 2014
Since last year, I have been unofficially part of the local franchise of Miss World Philippines through franchise holder Cory Quirino, whose beauty could have made her our first Miss World candidate.
My role in the organization is to take care of figuring out the life cycles of the beauty contestants and their chances of winning the beauty title, both here and wherever the international competition will be held. The system worked magnificently last year.
I trust that this evening, coronation night, which will be telecast via GMA 7, will prove to be as accurate. I have made my computations, have seen the beauty of all candidates and narrowed it down to three possibilities.
I have my first, second and third choices. If the judges will see it my way, then chances are, by Dec. 14, we will have a back-to-back Miss World titleholder.
My first two favorites follow one another in their contestant numbers, and that is the only hint I will give.
The talented Boy Abunda
Congratulations to Boy Abunda for the excellent interview he had with Loida Nicolas-Lewis on his ABS-CBN show, “The Bottomline with Boy Abunda.” He asked the right questions, handled perfectly and succinctly the answers of the interviewee, and brought out of her the quintessential Loida which no other interviewer has been able to do. I asked her afterward whether this was true for her, and Loida agreed wholeheartedly.
Boy has really come up in the world where he truly belongs. In another interview, he said, “All my insecurities drove me to work very hard to become a better person. While at the Ateneo, I strove to get the Ateneo accent and to be like the other students who came from well-heeled families. A lot of people have judged me as pangit, which I don’t really mind because I am more interested in their not thinking I am bobo. That is more important to me. I am now working on my Ph.D, but my audience is still more interested in who broke up with whom and who their current partners are.”
Boy’s motto of “becoming better all the time” has brought him to the very top of his trade. And the bottom line is, he deserves all the fame, respect and popularity he is now enjoying. Nice things do happen to nice people.
Manuel Roxas’ unknown history
Another TV host who is truly making good on television is writer-poet Lourd de Veyra in his show, “History with Lourd de Veyra,” on TV5.
He recently featured the life and loves of President Manuel Roxas, who, Lourd revealed, married Miss Philippines Trining de Leon for political expediency at the suggestion of his friend and co-senator, President-to-be Manuel Quezon.
This was despite the fact that the one who held his heart was soprano Jovita Fuentes, who honed her singing career after she and Roxas had drifted apart. Her focus on her voice and talents led her to international acclaim.
Quezon’s suggestion was made on the basis that, in addition to holding the title of Miss Philippines, Trining de Leon’s father was Ceferino de Leon, who was also senator.
By the way, Senator De Leon was the next-door neighbor of my maternal grandfather, Felix de la Fuente of San Miguel and San Rafael, Bulacan.
Furthermore, my paternal grandfather, Pedro Maria Sison, was also a senator, who was elected for two terms from 1916-1922. On his second term, he was with Vicente Singson Encarnacion, Isauro Gabaldon, Manuel Lopez, Joaquin Luna and Rafael Palma, among others.
What is not well-known is that President Roxas had a mistress who was also a Miss Philippines titleholder. Later on, she also became the mistress of one of my closest relatives.
During the same period, President Roxas had an illegitimate daughter with a third lady, who ended up marrying one more relative of mine and produced a world-class beauty.
The Roxas connection with my family does not end there, but for the sake of delicadeza, I will stop right here and leave it up to interested readers to research on what happened in the generations that followed.
One day, that, too, will be part of history. Thank you Lourd!
