Your mantra for the week: “I accept change as a natural consequence of being alive.”
Let’s talk about mantras and how effective they are in bringing one’s desires to fruition. It is unlike any prayer that repeats itself, whose words have no relation to one’s aspirations.
Take these examples that cover the different areas of your life: Every day I AM getting healthier and handsomer/prettier; my finances increase and multiply with my every breath; my relationships are harmonious and loving at all times; my life is a series of successes that come from the God within me. Thank you God!
For greater effectivity, I suggest that you get or make mantra beads similar to what is called worry beads. Make sure that this string of orbs has 40 beads with a heart-shaped item to start and end with.
Keep in mind that 40 stands for liberation. This number is used symbolically, both in the Bible and in the I-Ching (the Book of Changes), to signify deliverance.
(If you are not inclined to make your own beads, please text us at 0920-9164842 so we can supply you.)
The mantra beads use the same principle of repetition in the rosary; and that is why, I wish they would change the word “sinner” to winner. That is the reason I wrote my book, “I Am a Winner,” to counter the sinner consciousness.
I sincerely believe you are a winner, but then you have forgotten you are one. I believe you are a child of God, deserving of all the good in the Universe.
Fabulous
Rupert Jacinto, Washington Post’s “Photographer to the Faaabulous, ” held his seventh “Faaabvlous” exhibit last week on the third floor Gallery of The Peninsula Manila. It will run until Dec. 6; the “Faaabvlous VII” coffee table books are available there.
The opening was followed by a charity gala dinner at Rigodon Ballroom with 250 guests all dressed to the nines.
During dinner, Rupert gave awards to his “Faaabvlous Women Icons of 2016.” Among them were two foremost artists, Betsy Westendorp and pianist Cecile Licad, and the only “Faaabvlous Male Icon” was sculptor Ramon Orlina.
On the list of “Faaabvlous Men,” five stood out—Ambassador Rolando Alvarado, designer Albert Andrada, artist Justin Nuyda, architect Juan Carlo Calma and tenor Christian Nagaño, who also regaled guests with songs at dinner.
The “Faaabvlous 15 Women” included familiar faces like Yoli Ayson, Gela Cornelissen, Michelle Lee, Rep. Sandy Ocampo and Katrina Ponce Enrile.
The coffee-table book includes a section of Faaabvlous Faces with Dazzling Diadems like Tita Trillo, Tessa Prieto-Valdes, Frannie Jacinto, Arnel Patawaran, Mariquita Yeung and Marissa Fenton.
The evening ended with some ballroom dancing to the music of Danny Favis and his band.
With the number of people desiring to have portraits by Jacinto, “Faaabvlous VIII” begins next month.
Salute to FVR
I must commend former President Fidel V. Ramos for his stance on the burial of the most unloved president of the Philippines, Ferdinand E. Marcos, who manipulated, instigated and even invented events so he could perpetuate himself in power as a dictator.
Ramos
Asked whether or not he would join the protests against the burial of Marcos or the dictator in the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB), Mr. Ramos replied, “Can’t you see that this press interview is probably the biggest protest yet although I still support President Duterte, I am a bigger supporter of 105 million Filipinos. There was a Memorandum of Understanding in 1992 between the government and Imelda Marcos in regard to the burial of the dictator in the Philippines.”
He reiterated that the agreement underscored that there would be no fanfare or the expected extravaganza that accompanies presidential burials. This agreement was done and was represented by then Interior Secretary Rafael Alunan.
Ilocanos chose Poe
It is unfortunate how President Duterte has assumed that people elected him with the big margin because he was agreeable to burying Marcos in LNMB.
I believe that the 16 million people who voted for him did so because of his promise to eliminate drugs and criminality and not because he was amenable to burying the dictator in LNMB.
I wonder what special affection the president has for the so-called “hurting Ilocano-speaking people” when he did not even win in the Ilocos region. It was Grace Poe who won in three of four Ilocos provinces.
No grieving
I am not grieving that the dictator is now buried in the hallowed grounds for heroes, because I sincerely believe this is temporary. One day, I foresee his remains will be exhumed through a referendum or some other, as of yet, unforeseen reason.
What really saddens me is that we have nine Supreme Court “injustices,” as Solita Monsod calls them, and that the President said he would follow their decision.
As I had said, this burial would not succeed in eradicating the divisiveness in this country, but rather would aggravate it—and it has.
Awaiting the blessing
I am of the firm belief that there is always a blessing that comes from any seeming unfortunate situation, and that blessing is that the millennials will finally get all the information about martial law and the abuses of the dictatorship.
If not for this sinister caper, people were beginning to forget the triumph of Edsa I. Thank God for this temporary burial.
Also, finally, people will know that for the last 30 years, Imelda has been dramatizing her widowship by shedding tears and sending kisses to a wooden-wax replica of her husband and, yet, many naive Filipinos thought his body did not decompose like that of a saint.
Yes, he was a soldier… he was a president, but look at what is written at the entrance of the LNMB: “I do not know the dignity of his birth but I do know the glory of his death.”
Marcos died Hawaii after being deposed by People Power. The incongruity of it all is so palpable, one can only get goosebumps and silently exclaim, Santa Banana, estamos jodidos otra vez sin juegos previos.
