With Parasat Cable here in Malaybalay City,Province of Bukidnon trying to do its share in giving better service to their cable subscribers we are now watching live the 70th Globe Awards. Somehow it becomes a way - a vehicle to dream big and teach better once you see people being recognized for doing their best. 

In my present condition, my daughter and only girl among the four siblings is not feeling well so I find myself praying to high heavens to use my hands as a way to help her feel well. It is one instance when, like the films that are being acknowledged and awarded for excellence, I also offer with all my heart my hands so that God's healing power will be bestowed upon me.

You know this is one teaching moment for my beloved daughter and I to go through life's trials for her sickness reminds us of the many ordinary things we take for granted. After this ordeal, we hope to look at life more differently and more lovingly.

So the Globe Awards even had a surprise presenter: President Bill Clinton. Remember his wife, Hillary Clinton, sent through sickness that made her decide enough is enough an that it is time to stay with her family more. No wonder President Bill Clinton was invite because one of the nominated films is about President Abraham Lincoln.

Let us go back to the basics: let us look hard on our loved ones with love. Anything can happen but when the family is around and with us:life is bearable and meaningful.

Like any reality it comes as a surprise when finally a year ends only because another year begins. So out 2012 until December 31, one day more here in the Philippines, today being December 30 and come Wednesday, January 1, it is the first day of the New Year, 2013. Imagine 2013, barely two years more before my retirement come July 1, 2015!

So let the New Year come into our lives. May all the luck and good vibes come to each of us fellow teachers. Happy, happy New Year 2013 guys and gals! We are ending one year and starting another, a huge beginning. Let us own it.

Whether you are young or old, Christmas always brings a colorful ring to it. How much more if you add to it, a new year. This Christmas 2012 plus the New Year of 2013 are indeed huge events therefore huge teaching moments.

You just have to trace back as far as you can to what Christmases bring to every person's life. It offers teaching and learning insights for Christmas makes each one of us a believer of love. However little, we try to share in some way especially to a stranger. Then few days later come the celebration of the end of the year and the beginning of a new year. So resolutions to change for the better are the order of the day . Then little by little we teach ourselves the reality that resolutions are not commandments but only pleas for some kind of desire or motivation  to change for its sake for if one does not no one will be most affected except the person concerned.

So this Christmas of 2012 is a prelude to the epiphany of a New Year that can only become better as each heart teaches another to hold on for better things to come.

Followers and readers of Malaybalayan through Teacherallherlife and Elderly Blues & Blows, a very Merry Christmas 2012 and a very prosperous New Year, 2013!

Imagine the gift of time that by now we, teachers all over the world can only attribute to Providence. December 21 was predicted as the end of the world and now it is Christmas Day and few days from now,God we welcome the New Year - 2013! If it is not Divine Intervention then what is. . .

Time is a teaching moment for each person. Like yours truly, I am running out of time since I am already 62 and everything else falls within god's territory as to its extension. Another year, another teaching and gratifying moment from God Almighty.

So young folks out there. Never take for granted the time that seems so long for you to become an adult. Only to realize coming from our perspective that you are the best recipient of a gift of time. Do not hurry up to grow old or become an adult. Savor the time that the elderly keeps on hopingn to have more of. Enjoy your being young.

I am now looking at my children who have grown and I cannot help but cry of gratitude and happiness. I am now enjoying Christmas with them - at 62 years old! Still a teacher but will never be this age ever for few days from now - another year will be upon us, another year for me to be grateful. 

Fellow mentors and/teachers alike whoever and wherever you are: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

It is not all the time we hear of teachers easily acknowledged as heroes. The heinous crime against the 5-10 year old children attending pre-school  in Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut: 20 beautiful children massacred by a lone gunman, Adam Lanza, is one for the books. It is in the sense that most of the children who were killed were 5-6 years old. Then three (3) teachers were killed. A certain Victoria Soto was one of the first teachers shot while one of her pupils was able to escape due to her heroism. She used her body to shield her pupils which allowed the lone survivor, one of Miss Soto's pupils to run and scape sure death.

CNN narrates in various ways how the massacre happened. In all instances you are left wondering why someone can do such a horrifying thing. This is aggravated by the information gathered that the guns were owned by Nancy Lanza, the other of the shooter, who ironically happened to be the principal of Sandy Hook Elementary School. Then you hear some of the parents who did not condemn the shooter and his family and so we are left condoling for all parties: the victims, the parents and loved ones and the perpetrators of the crime.

Fellow mentors, we need not experience what happened in Connecticut. We can go on with our vocation to teach and learn from this sad event that teaching is our way of loving the children and doing our job not merely for financial reasons but as part of your mission-vocation to mankind. Teacher's teacher prays for the fallen teacher-heroes.

If the United States, the elderly and the senior citizens and other volunteers played a great role in making sure the election is truly genuine and democratic, other countries rely on teachers and assigned personnel to serve during the duration of the election. Teachers must be heard as to how they go about their tasks and that they be genuinely acknowledged for the commitment they possess. 

If asked we can almost hear from the teachers the wish that what has happened in the most recent election of the Americans which lasted for barely a day or two will happen to a certain extent in the Philippines It may just be a wish for the moment but with time  when the people themselves become politically matured then the wish may become a reality.

So do not lose hope fellow mentors, time may be an enemy sometimes but it can become our best friend when the right time comes along.

Events of the world tell us that elections matter especially when the country that elects its leaders is USA. For Filipinos for example and I am one of them I like Obama to be reelected. One reason is because my daughter was able to avail of the International Visitors Leadership Program that allowed her to visit USA. Another reason is because Obama represents an everybody's wish to experience USA either as a tourist or as an immigrant. Others may add their own reasons but we know that regardless of who wins, USA is a friend of the Philippines and vice versa.

So at 2:00 or 2:15 a.m., November 7, here is this blogger sharing to the world through her blog her enthusiasm to know who is going to become the next USA President. CNN says it is a tight race because all the polls show that while Obama leads it is not a big lead: Obama 49 vs. Romney 46 or in some cases even a tie. Today shares that in Dixville Notch there were 10 people who voted the earliest and of the 0, 5 voted for Obama while 5 voted for Romney.

By now elections teach us that people's will is a power no one can thwart.  If someone does thwart it sooner or later the people will do everything to be heard. In the meantime, we await the result of USA election especially the Americans' choice of their President and Vice-President.

In every family, the main topic, at least in the Philippines, when it is June or November is enrollment. June is the beginning of the school year so for the elementary and high school students, the whole year is set for their school life. For the college students, June to October is the first semester and come November it is the second semester.  Nowadays however, especially in the college level, the enrollment is slow or is it the students who are slow in coming?

Teaches are still worried when students do not come because we need the young to be lifted up and become better in all aspects. There seems to be laxity in encouraging the young to go to school. The parents want to do their share but finances deter them from showing enough approval. Then there are the peers of our young who seem to engage in many things and sadly not aligned with education. Some of them become pregnant either early in the semester and their grades leave many mentors shaking their heads.  Teachers have the tendency to compare the young with the past generations and it cannot be helped but the present generation is preoccupied with a variety of involvements, a big part not exactly good for their educational development.

It is enrollment time again but the students are slow in coming and we know that the answers are more complex than what we can see.

CNN always makes me think. As a teacher, CNN is one of my major sources of new information and updates. With the US elections about to happen on November 6, two episodes caught my attention in CNN, namely Romney Revealed and Obama Revealed shown consecutively. If I were an American voter, the data presented were very informative. I have my own choice of course but for this blog it is good to know that Obama and Romney were presented as human like us. 

One of the highlights that touched my heart was the fact that both great leaders are loving husbands to their wives and parents to their children. This is one perspective that sets the leaders apart from some of the leaders we have in other countries. May there be more of their kind.

There seems to be a great need for leaders who are human yet humane. Nowadays there is greater need for transparency especially when the future of a people greatly rests on their hands. Leaders are persons who are given the rare opportunity to serve others and their impact is so huge their influence is beyond the ordinary.

May I congratulate CNN for such admirable programs. May the American vote accordingly. I think I am an "American" by heart notwithstanding that I am a Filipino in word and in deed.

Anderson Cooper of CNN is currently interviewing the nurse, nurse for 26 years, who helped evacuate babies during Superstorm Sandy. This alone is one lesson learned: she was doing her job she says but she tried to do her job well and quickly added, it was a team work and not her alone- humility in action.

Gary Tuckman reported about a man who did not give a helping hand to a mother whose two sons were left in their vehicle. While the man explained his side, still a lesson can be learned from this scenario, that regardless of one's situation, one has to help even if Tuckman did comment the law does not call it a crime NOT TO HELP.

What has happened in New York, New Jersey and the rest of the world is another learning lesson: that the world is a temporary residence and as such, we have to be prepared in a spiritual manner. Today, All Soul's Day and yesterday, All Saints' Day are learning dates to imprint in our minds and hearts which the Scripture captures with depth: "Death is like a thief in the night".  If there is one lesson we can always treasure it is the gift of giving one's life through sheer generosity and volunteerism that even death is no longer a fearful event but a hope that greater life which has no end may jut be waiting the giver and the volunteer.

"May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen."


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