MANTRA for the week: “I always have a choice… I choose to be happy.”
Today, Palm Sunday, metaphysically means opening your mind to your higher self or the spirit within you. Set aside all your desires and focus on your spirituality.
A spiritual person is brave, while many others are fearful; strong, for there are those who depend on him; curious, for there is much to discover; adventurous, for there is much to experience; forgiving, so others may learn to do the same.
A spiritual person is a friend to everyone; gentle, for there are those who need healing; able to heal himself through prayer, or at least attract those who would assist him in his healing; believes in being prosperous, for there are many with whom he can share his wealth.
A spiritual person reaches out to others every day to expand his capacity to love; believes in success, and succeeds in demonstrating all his desires; understands and is aware that he will receive what he is ready for.
A spiritual person is kind, for there are those in need of love and care; pure, for there are those who really care for him; has many desires but is never drowned by them, in the same way, that all rivers flow to the ocean and yet, the ocean never overflows.
A spiritual person is humble, knowing that he, too, is vulnerable and going through a process called Life.
Solar New Year
Tomorrow, March 21, is the Solar New Year, the third one in a year we celebrate in IAMISM— the first is Jan. 1 based on the Gregorian calendar; the second is the oriental Lunar New Year.
The Solar New Year was the first new year celebrated in pre-historic times, based on the four seasons, starting on the first day of spring. In those times, people worshipped the sun as God who came to life again after the winter when the surface of the earth seemed lifeless.
Today it is called the Resurrection.
Child protection
I am glad that there is such an organization called the Child Protection Network (CPN), which is supported by Raffles and Fairmont Makati, Fila, Sta. Elena Construction, as well as Philippine Tatler headed by Irene Francisco—who recently invited the well-heeled class to a cocktail party and benefit art auction for CPN.
It is that, in Metro Manila alone, there are at about 20,000 abused children in the home—something that government agencies are unaware of. I believe there are more than this number, because when I was driving through a street in Malate one day, it took me half an hour to traverse a fourth of a kilometer due to an ocean of children that occupied the road.
RH Bill
Once there was a Manila mayor who would reward trophies annually to couples who had the most number of children. There was even a year when the winner had 21 children.
How can abuse be avoided when many of these big families share one room as their home, practically sleeping on top of one another. That is why it is so shocking that there are still people and religious organizations trying to get the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill diluted to zero effect.
When people ask me why I am a P-Noy fan, I say that he is the only president who prioritized the RH Bill to become a law, aside from lifting the Philippines to investment grade.
Successful auction
The successful benefit art auction was efficiently handled by Andrew Thomas, one of Salcedo Auction’s in-house auctioneers. Tycoon Ricky Razon ended up owning Betsy Westendorp’s “Orchids” and Andres Barrioquinto’s “Midnight Gathering,” while CPN president David Bradley won the two-night Amanpulo package and Betsy’s “Sunset.”
It was nice seeing director of the National CPN units Katrina Legarda emceeing the evening’s program.
Jewel of a painter
Jewelle Yeung is a jewel of a painter especially in her latest show “Biophilia: Our Connection to Nature,” which she claims inspired her works because “I have always been transfixed with nature.”
Nature has a certain imperceptible spontaneity—just like our emotions which oftentimes are not obvious, except for those extra-sensitive souls that can peer into the invisible.
Viewing Jewelle’s paintings is like getting caught in the middle of an emotion, like a thought moving in the body, creating a sense of excitement that is captured by an unseen camera.
They are controlled passions in motion, which, in Jewelle’s own words, have been drawn from “uncontrollable states of flux.”
Jewelle holds a bachelor’s degree in Fashion Design and Technology, and a master’s degree in Fine Arts. She is the daughter of Mariquita Yeung, one of my choices for Epitome 2015: Dressing at Its Best.
The well-attended exhibit was presented by Theresa Herrera’s Collective 88 at A Space Gallery, Aboitiz Bldg., Legazpi St., Makati.
What Marcos Jr. forgot
When Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said that P-Noy is behind the anti-Marcos campaign, he forgot, or deliberately ignored, the rest—from the torture victims whose human rights had been violated, to those whose properties his father sequestered, to the priests and nuns who held vigils during Edsa I, to the countless who followed Cardinal Sin’s instructions to protect Enrile and Ramos in Camp Crame, to the many thinking Filipinos who are now aware that the late dictator’s ill-gotten wealth is being used to rewrite history by proclaiming the Martial Law era as the golden age of the country, and we have not even spoken about the $34 billion loot that the Guinness Book of Records called “the biggest theft committed in history,” which, by the way, left the country bankrupt.
Marcos Jr. is also accusing P-Noy of being divisive, even if the president is just imploring the people who to vote for vice president. To paraphrase the bible: “Choose ye today”—Robredo or Marcos Jr.
E-mail [email protected]; visit www.GeorgeSison.com, www. iamism.org; listen to his “Positive Session” radio program on DWIZ 882 AM, Saturday, 9-10 p.m.
