Your mantra for the week: “As I keep focused on the God within, my every day is a miracle.”

Many people do not realize that Jesus of Nazareth became the Christ only after he was anointed by Mary of Bethany. Anointment in the ancient times used the same oil used to light up lamps and illuminate the surroundings.

Similarly, on the metaphysical and symbolical levels, when one is anointed, it simply means one is enlightened, in the same way that Siddhartha Gautama was dubbed the Enlightened One.

So Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, was called the Messiah, meaning a savior. That is the reason many people believe that only “Jesus saves.” But the real savior, when gleaned from the Old Testament, is the I AM (or the God within), which is derived from the name of God as told to Moses: “I am that I am.”

In IAMISM, the only savior is the God within, and not anything or anyone outside of oneself. Furthermore, man’s consciousness is a point of awareness in the mind of God, and everything that exists in the so-called Universe, visible and invisible, is made up of, in Jesus’ words, “all radiance and vibration,” or God Substance.

When one realizes that this is our true essence, metaphysically we can also be called the Christ—the only begotten son, a savior from all ignorance and fear.

The Christ or the God within you will give you the Power to rise above any tribulation, the wisdom to navigate through every challenge, and the courage to overcome any fear.

This Lent, remember to honor the Christ within yourself—the righteous way of using your I Am in its three persons as taught in English grammar, and the Christ within all others. When every human being accepts this concept, there will no more need for religion, which is the cause of all wars in human history. At that point, world peace would reign.

‘I love you, mom’

Vernon and Happee Go treated their mother Gracie Glory to a 10-day vacation in Boracay for her birthday, making her the happiest March celebrator as she watched the awesome sunset from the presidential suite of the hotel.

When you have a daughter-in-law named Happee Go, you can’t be anything else but lucky. What a wonderful way to say, “I love you, Mom!”

I’ve noticed that in many publications, Facebook posts and tweets, you would often read “I love my dog,” “I love my cat.” But one seldom sees “I love my parents” or “I love my children,” much less “I love my spouse.” I wonder why this is so, when it is so important for children and parents to hear the words “I love you” from each other.

Do yourselves a favor today, go say “I love you” to your children; greet your parents with a big hug and an “I love you”; and for those with spouses whom you often take for granted, say “I love you” and “Thank you for being in my life.”

Yes, this may not be a Lenten practice, but God is Love and, therefore, this is most appropriate.

Another birthday celebrator was concert pianist Ingrid Santamaria, who seems to get prettier through the years. Music truly does something for the body as it does for the soul.

In her small party at Tapenade, her guests included Imelda Marcos, the recently awarded “Commendatore in the Order of the Star of Italy” Raul Sunico, and Ado Escudero, looking happy after the successful exhibit of Hermano Pule in his museum at Villa Escudero.

Also present were Ping Valencia, who won Asia Tours’ round-trip ticket to Israel during the celebration of Israel Day at Shangri-La Makati (“I don’t know why I feel like I’m going home,” she said), and Minerva Tanseco.

Excellent dinner

Due to space constraints, my review of the dinner served at the Chaine des Rotisseurs was omitted last week. The dinner, as expected, was excellent, along with the pairings.

It started with tuna ham and purple pillows paired with Pere Ventura Cava Tresor NV; followed by seared duck magret with aji limo, baby cilantro, lime, extra-virgin olive oil, truffle oil and rocoto pearls; and river prawns with aji panca sauce, shallots, jumbo olives, dalandan granite, soft-boiled quail egg and camote dices, matched with Kaiken Terroir Series Torrontes 2014.

Lime coriander sorbet was served for an intermezzo. The main course was chargrilled Paracas scallops, aji Amarillo, leche de tigre, lime cilantro and sous-vide North Peruvian-style lamb shank, washed down with Luis Felipe Edwards Doña Bernarda 2011.

The dessert consisted of 85-percent Peruvian cacao Marquise, roasted caramel pecans, passion fruit coulis and sacha tomato sorbet.

The evening came close to my most unforgettable meal ever, at the Four Seasons in New York, years ago. It was made more special because of my conversation with the maître d’.

I asked him whether the restaurant provided some music during the delectable dinner. With an eyebrow stretched to his hairline, he said, in his thick French accent, “Monsieur, if you vant zee musique, you must go to zee conzert.”

The chilling effect

A diplomatic organization is having an “undiplomatic” time with its members divided into two factions. One side is threatening to resign because of the brash behavior of its leader.

I remember that diplomacy is defined as a “profession, activity or skill of managing international relations, typically
by a country’s representatives abroad.”
This is a far cry from what is being bandied around—the conduct of this diplomat is said to be nothing short of, well, Chilling.

Punning

Recently I took a trip to Cainta to take a look at a property. On the way, I saw an eatery called Caintaky Fried Chicken, which brought back memories of my punning days with Toti Zaballero, Phyllis’ beloved husband. When I would remind him that punning was the lowest form of wit, he always countered, “Not if you thought of it first!”

Then we would both guffaw.

It brought back to mind our favorite pun-ny jokes, like when Joan Fang was in the limelight and someone put up a resto called La Fang.

Also, there was a very popular dress shop in Taft Avenue called Très Chic, and so someone put up another dress shop called Quatro Chic.

In Los Baños, a haberdashery was called Elizabeth Tailoring, and in Sta. Mesa, long before the advent of overseas Filipino workers, there was a canteen called Babalik Carin-deria.

My friend Charlie Tan named his first daughter Luz, hoping she would put up a department store called Luztan’s.

After all that, I started laughing to myself. What if the Ho sisters, Helen, Doris and Linda, decide to put up a Christmas shopping center called Ho Ho Ho!?