I realized...

                                                                       Source: tumblr.com via Sabrina on Pinterest

Recently I realized ...

...that no matter how hard you try to make people like you, some never will because of reasons only they understand.

...that cruelty can hide behind gentle words.

...that the kind of evil that we watch in tele novelas exist in real life.  

...that wolves in sheep clothing are all around us and are found  in the most unlikely places.

....that God has a way of working things out for us.  We just need to keep doing what is right and He will fix everything in His own unique way, in His own time.

Look at this Instagram

I watched this funny video recently. I think a lot of you will be able to relate to it.  Funny,
I guess many of us are guilty of the things shown in this video.

It's not just instagram. It's also Facebook and the whole blogging thing.  Anyway, Enjoy!

I Wish...v. 2

I wish tomorrow is not a work day. It's just the middle of the week and I am so exhausted.  I like teaching the kids but the kids I'm handling this year just leaves me too exhausted to do anything else at the end of the day.  Imagine having thirty-five  nine-year-old's in a class.  Multiply that by three because I have three classes.


I wish my nephew could stay here with us a little bit longer.  My sister, her husband, their baby, Emilio, together with their two helpers have been camping out in our home since yesterday morning.   Their house is in a flood-prone area and because of the weather, they decided to stay here for a couple of days.  It's just so nice to come home with a baby in the house again.

I wish I could control my appetite.  I have grown so big over the summer.  I saw a photo of me sitting down and I couldn't believe how big my thighs were!  I tried measuring my thighs and compared it with Ruel's and I was shocked to fnd out that there was very little difference!  Imagine that!

What do you wish for today?

Superman Is Dead

I had  a busy day.  Ruel and I were out the whole day.  We had to bring Ruel's laptop to the service center this morning, and then we attended the parent orientation at my son's school this afternoon.  

It wasn't all work though. The fun began at 4:10 when we watched Man of Steel with my parents and my son.

My son, who is a true Superman fan (ask him any trivia question about the history of Superman throughout the years and he can answer you with detailed explanations) watched it with his dad on the first day of showing last June 12 but he watched it again with us today.  

It was fun watching a movie with all of them.  I haven't been to a movie house with my parents for maybe more than five  years so it felt good to watch something with them again.

We had dinner at Max's afterwards.

I bet you want to hear what I think about the movie.  

Ok. I didn't like it.

It didn't seem like I was watching a Superman movie.

There's something that makes Superman different from all the other superheroes.

It is something I can't fully explain.  I can't put my finger on it.  

But I will try.

Superman is a superhero, he's something that's out of this world, but he is in no way intimidating.  You look at him in awe, but he doesn't scare you.   There is gentleness in his manner, friendliness in his colors, and he just shines in a way that Batman, Thor, Wolverine, Spiderman, Iron Man can't.  Superman exudes an aura of lightness.  

That's what's missing from this Man of Steel.

This movie's Superman had a warrior-like quality.  Handsome, yes but more in a warrior-like way. His costume was not friendly.  It looked heavy and dark.  He didn't exude an aura of lightness.

I found the movie very dark.  Krypton was dark, the costume of Jor-El and of the other Kryptonians were all dark and warrior-like.  They didn't seem to be peace loving creatures at all.  There were times  I felt like I was watching the movie, Thor because of the look of Krypton, their space ships and other technology.  The farm where Clark grew up was also dark.  Their house was kind of dreary, in need of a paint job and everything about it just looked too sad.  My husband said it looked as if everyone was in need of a shower.  Funny, I know. But I agree. 

I don't like how Jonathan died.  I just can't believe that Clark couldn't think of a way to save his father and that he would just let him die like that.  For a Superman and a Smallville fan, I just refuse to believe that Clark would allow his father to die without doing anything to stop it from happening.  They should have thought of another way for Jonathan to die, maybe they should have just stuck with heart attack. 

I think the fight scenes dominated more than half of the movie.  It was long and dragging.  There were young kids inside the movie house. I don't think they should have been allowed there...even with the presence of their parents.  Kids absorb everything they see and hear.  It's not enough that parents are there. Superhero movies today are all too violent for kids to watch.  

I usually feel good after a Superman movie.  The Superman theme also had a lot to do with that.  There's a lightness of feeling when you hear the Superman theme...something that's heroic, that perks you up and leaves you breathless in a lighthearted kind of way.  

This time,  I didn't leave the movie house feeling good.  There was no light feeling in my heart at all. Even the main theme was forgettable.  The movie just didn't strike a chord in me.  

For me, Christopher Reeve is still Superman and because he is dead, then Superman is dead.  

What I've been up to

I know I haven't really been blogging lately except for the sample editorials I posted last week.

I don't really have much time to do a long post today because tomorrow's a class day and I still have to finish preparing for my classes. But I do have time to give you an idea of the things I've been doing since the end of May.

Visiting a pet shop....

Celebrating six months of wedded bliss with my husband , buffet style in a Korean restaurant...

Checking out a new restaurant hub with Ruel and Toots, then walking in the rain afterwards....

Playing with my nephew and laughing when he literally licked my face as his way of kissing me...

Working on the documentation committee for our preopening activities newsletter....

(Not all of the ones in this photo are members of  our committee)

Celebrating with my sister as my nephew turned six months old...

getting scared of the strong rains....(see, almost zero visibility!)

revising my syllabus (don't blame me, they only gave us our loading the other week)

Window shopping for our future little girl .....(I'm not yet pregnant but I know God will grant our prayers soon so...) 

Going to the mall to watch Superman but with the line being SUPER long, we just ended up going to Buffet 101 and having a sumptuous lunch

That's what I've been doing. 

What have you been up to?

Be Our Best

I promised that I would post my editorial for the second issue of the official newsletter of our university's preopening activities.

Here it is....

 Imagine if the rainbow had only one color, if all the birds sang the same song, if flowers had the same color, shape, and scent, if people looked the same, talked and walked in the same manner and were good at the same thing. How boring, how lifeless, how senseless that would be!

 In His wisdom, God gave the rainbow different colors and birds different songs. He made the flowers different in their shade, shape and scent. Most of all, He made each of us unique.

 This uniqueness is evident not only in the way we look, in the timbre of our voice, in the way we move but it can also be seen in the things we are good at, in the things we can do and in the way we do them.

 God gave us different talents, different gifts. “Talents differ. All is well and wisely put,” (Emerson: The Mountain and the Squirrel). Nobody is superior or inferior. We have all been equally blessed. One person’s talent complements that of another. We cannot do the same things in exactly the same manner. We cannot all be teachers, doctors, builders, or artists. We cannot all be leaders. There has to be followers and even then, they have different duties, play different roles. No job is bigger or smaller. In this way, we all need one another. Whether we like it or not, we are all, in a lot of aspects, dependent on one another.

We have reached the conclusion of our preopening activities. We have been reminded of why we are here. We have been told where we are going. We have acknowledged the importance of letting go. In the person of Miss Fatima Soriano, we have seen the grace that complete trust and gratitude can bring.

 Now we return to our duties and responsibilities. As we journey on the path laid out before us, let us not try to be someone else, nor want what someone has. Instead, we should look within us and realize our own worth. Let us be grateful for what we have been given and concentrate on maximizing and enriching whatever they are. Do away with unhealthy competition. Instead of competing with others, we should compete with our own selves and make sure that we are better today than yesterday. That is the way to celebrate our uniqueness and giftedness. That is the way to celebrate God’s generosity.

 The colors of the rainbow make it such a joy to behold. The different songs of the birds give charm to the woods. The flowers, resplendent in hundreds of different shades, varied in shape and fragrance, turn a garden into a sanctuary for the weary soul. Our own individualities, talents and potentials, our own giftedness make the world more interesting. If we do our best to be to be the best we are, we give joy and charm to the world. We make it a beautiful place! -- Ms. Marie Claire M. Fernandez

Travel Light

The past four days had been busy. We had our pre-opening activities in our school. This meant perspective setting and a series of talks and workshops which centered on the theme: Towards New Evangelizing Breakthroughs and Frontiers of Paulinian Education, and on the new strategy that we are going to adopt which is the Blue Ocean.

Every year, all the participants (practically everyone who works in the school whether teachers or not) are given tasks either during the preparation for the activities or during the pre opening activities.  Just like every year, I was again assigned in the documentation committee.  This year, like  last year, I served as the editor for  the official newsletter of the pre-opening activities.

I would like to share with you my editorial for the first issue.  (I'll share the other one tomorrow).  This is for the benefit of those who have already resigned from the university but who still want to know what is going on.

Here is my editorial:

We are just about to embark on another academic year and as we prepare ourselves for the great task that lies ahead, we are reminded of our purpose and calling. We are here to respond to the challenges of a society ridden with problems of corruption, abuse, materialism, greed and apathy. We are reminded that we are here not only to teach the mind, but also to touch the heart. We are here to evangelize and to love. 

We know where we want to go. We are set to sail towards new evangelizing breakthroughs and frontiers of Paulinian education. The ocean is vast and there is so much more to be explored. Together with our students, we want to overcome that which has not yet been overcome, to exceed the limits of our potentials and to explore the great unknown. 

Like most humans, however, we are often enslaved by many things: our attachment to material things and people; negative feelings like envy, anger, bitterness; our hunger for power; our fear of failure and rejection, of losing sight of our comfort zone, of change and all that it brings, our fear of the unknown. These are the ones that paralyze us, that prevent us from being the best we can be, that diminish us to be less than what we truly are. Without even knowing it, we have become our worst enemy. 

Our negative habits, our frustrations and fears may become too heavy and cause the whole ship to sink if we ever leave port at all. The success of our journey lies within us. Whether we reach our destination or not is all up to us. We only have to choose to let go. It will probably be the hardest thing we will ever do in our lifetime but it will certainly be the most liberating and rewarding! 

 It is time to leave the shore and sail forth. It is time to let go of the baggage that we have been carrying around for years. It is time to focus solely on our purpose and our calling. It is time to “let go and let God”.   As we serve our community and society with the passion of dreamers and lovers, let us all remember to travel light.