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Practice what you preach

Everyone wants to merit respect of others. It is when you feel you are respected that you feel proud inside. You become at ease with yourself, confident and happy.
Actually, the shortest way of achieving this objective is to be yourself…to be sincerely honest with what you think, what you believe, and what you want to say and do. Unfortunately, there are people who want to get the respect of others by pretending, by putting on a mask of something, which they are not, by asking others to do what they themselves cannot do.
For instance, you would hear a politician say: “Now is the time for reconciliation. Let us forget past differences and be one in support of our government. Only thru reconciliation we can hope to attain development and progress.” Then an aide whispers:
“Sir, there’s someone on the phone. He wants to talk to you.”
“Who is it?”
“It’s that commentator of Radio Station DYNADA.”
“Tell him to go to hell. He campaigned for my opponent in the last elections.”
There is even a joke about a priest, who, on the pulpit, was exhorting the congregation to leave behind the temptations of the flesh. He was saying:
“Follow the path of purity, don’t look aside, else you will be tempted. If on this day, you are having illicit relations with someone, break it. Leave her, else, when judgment day comes, you will be condemned to burn in hell”.
Then a voice from somewhere below the podium said:
“Father what about me?”
He then put his hand over his mouth in an attempt to muffle his voice and said: “Ssssh, ours will go on!”
We don’t play this kind of game only with adults. Sometimes or is it oftentimes?, we are even insincere to our own children.
Take the case of a mother who wanted to impress upon her daughter the proper behavior of a polished, educated, and conservative lady: “No flirting over the phone! If somebody calls, talk to him in a refined manner. Do not show emotion or excitement. He might think you’re that ez-to-get.”
Then as is providence, the telephone rings. The daughter runs to pick up the receiver. The mother looks at her sternly to remind the daughter of what she had just said. The daughter paused for a moment, perhaps to drive away all excitement and emotion, and then, picks up the receiver.
“Hello!” she answers dryly. Knowing that the call was not for her and apparently disappointed. She looks up to her mother and says:
“It’s for you!”
Suddenly the mothers’ eyes sparkle. She grabs the receiver from her daughter’s hand, and controlling her own emotions she said:

“Hello!” There is a short pause, then her eyes lights up. “I thought you won’t call. Really? No, he’s not here. He will be working overtime. When? Right now? Aaah…okay! Give me a few minutes to change. Okay! Bye…take care!”
Then realizing that her daughter was closely watching, she sternly says:
“Hey! That’s your Dad!” forgetting entirely that it was her daughter who answered the phone first.
Incidents like these are happening in our daily lives. To gain the respect of others we attempt to project an image which is not actually ours. We don’t only fool others, we also fool ourselves by thinking that we are what we are not. All premises considered…we are…all of us…Fools.
Reminds me of a story about a doctor of a mental hospital. In one of his rounds, he dropped by the room of a patient who was about to be dismissed from the hospital. He was declared cured and well.
To find out for himself whether the patient should be dismissed, the doctor asked questions:
“Name, please!”
The patient answered: “Napoleon Bonaparte”
The doctor smiled sarcastically and countered:
“Who said so?”
The patient answered back: “GOD!”
The doctor’s eyes widen and his face assumes an angry expression and he declares:
“NO! I DID NOT!”

Life's biggest booster

These are My Biggest boosters, JIVE: Jan, Ivy, Valerie and Earl.

-the addition to the family, Bjork and Eejah, my pretty granddaughters.

Hug your child today, or a PUSHER will

Thus runs a billboard put up by a certain civic organization to warn parents of the menace of drug addiction.

November, is drug addiction awareness month, and chances are that more billboards carrying similar warnings, will be erected in the street corners, cautioning the youth against the dangers of drug use, drug abuse, drug dependence and drug addiction. For drugs have that drawing effect. One takes a dose, a gulp or a whiff at it, to satisfy his curiosity. But it’s almost certain he wont stop there. Once he experience that giddy sensation of floating on pink clouds, he’ll want another dose, until just one dose won’t be enough. From then on, his need increases gradually, and before he knows it, he is in too deep to be able to successfully shake off the habit. It even ceases to be just a habit, but a need – a life-or-death need. And he’ll defy anybody, anything, to fill that need.

As the need increases, so does the damage to his mental and physical stability. He loses weight until he’d appear immaciated and dehydrated. At first, he would experience lapses of memory, but as soon as dependence sets in, the lapses become more frequent and at long periods that sometimes, he’s seen walking like a zombie, with wide un-seeing eyes bulging from it’s sockets.

Speaking about the subject, give’s me a feeling of Déjà vu. For I had stood in front of an audience, talking, yet, not remembering what I had said.

It was during class in Social Science, when I was in college. I was asked to report on any topic I would want to. I chose drug addiction – my instructor didn’t know that at that time I was high on drugs. I had taken an overdose of Ativan, Corex, Mercodol and Tricodeine, taken one after the other, drunk as one would drink a punch. Only this was more than a punch. It delivered a horse-kick on my brain.

If I was rated high for that report, it may not have been for the consiceness, comprehensiveness of detail of the content. It could have been due to the clear illustration of the effects of drugs - myself.

As I mumbled the words, I watched the distorted faces of my classmates. It was as if a warped mirror was between us. There were those who appeared small and thin like clinging to a leaning stalk. Others looked like balloons with bellies ready to burst if pricked with a pin. As they smiled, their mouths opened like huge caves, showing ax-like teeth. Their horrible faces seemed only inches away ready to gnash and devour me and munch me into smithereens.

Some of them may have been saying something, but what I’ve heard were not voices, but the drone of a million bees swarming around me.

Why did I take drugs?

I am not about to make a confession. I’d rather speak on general terms.

Why do people take drugs?

Psychologists, psychiatrists and experts on drug addiction have listed down several reasons why a person is drawn into drug use.

They say that:

a.)a person resorts to drugs to overcome some fears or apprehensions.

b.)Others do it to overcome a feeling of insecurity or a complex.

c.)There are those who use drugs to acquire a little courage or boldness to be able to speak out their minds.

d.)Others do it to shut the world out of his door so he can be alone in his fantasies of glory and fame.

e.)there are those who take drugs as a refuge, or as a companion in their desperation, in their feeling of total helplessness.

f.)others do it because of too much pressure – pressure from work, at home and in school

g.)while others do it for the sake of curiosity

All these maybe true. But if you analyze all these factors, you’ll discover that the reasons are not many. In fact, in all these boil down into only one strong, compelling reason: the need, the thirst, and the hunger for love. One experiences fears and apprehensions only if he does not have the confidence borne out of the love and inspiration from the people around him. He only feels insecure and suffers from an inferiority complex if people in his sorroundings make him feel rejected, unwanted and hated. He wants to shut the world out of his door if he does not find in that world the love, the inspiration, the feeling of belonging, and the acceptance as a human being. He would not experience despair if there is one – just one kind soul who would whisper to him a word of inspiration, affection and “L-O-V-E”.

If a person is deprived of these little but valuable and priceless things, then, he’d look at the bottle of cough syrup, or a stick of grass, or a Mandrax tablet as his only friend.

In the home, as years pass, the little things that count so much are gradually forgotten, or taken for granted. We don’t send the kids off to bed with a kiss anymore. We don’t spend time with them in doing their homework. We spend weekends with friends and cronies instead of taking them to the beach or even a stroll at the park. We may not know it, but right now, they maybe starting to stray. Then, it may be too late when we discover that they are already in too deep in drugs, and we ask ourselves why we allowed it to happen when all that was needed was just a simple, costless hug.

When you left home today, did you kiss your child goodbye? If you did not, then, tomorrow, when he wakes up, give him a hug – or a Pusher will.

For my Pretty Rosebud

it took me sometime to think and ponder of what I have to say to you on this very special day.

Looking back, holding you In my arms, so fragile in all those five pounds in weight; I couldn’t believe you have grown such a beautiful person. Is that you my dear?

Until now I am amazed of your presence in my life . . . is this the baby I bore twenty years ago? That tiny babe whom I spent sleepless nights with . . .changing nappies, mixing formulas in the wee small hours of the morning and singing lullabies ‘til I dropped?

Amazed is the word that is fit to describe my feelings about you. the moment I got hold of you... the moment I took a good look at you. . . what a sight to behold! I marveled at your existence! I spent my waking hours looking at you . . . every line and creases of your skin is a joy to behold . . . every moment spent with you is bliss.

today my dear, you marked another milestone In your life, two decades to be exact. Still my astonishment hasn’t changed – you’re still that babe that I used to lull into sleep in my weary arms; the babe that made me a natural woman . . . the babe that given my life meaning . . . the babe that gave me strength and courage.

I cannot offer you grandiose celebration on your natal day, for you knew the very reason. But I can give you all the love i’ve got in this world. A love no person on earth could take away from you. a love meant only for you.

May our love for each other grow stronger until the next decades of our lives; and let no circumstances alter or come in between the two of us.

I will love you, always;