To a mentor, colleague and fellow girl scout, Rest in Peace Mommy
0 comments Posted by Malaybalay Blogger at 7:21 PMYears ago, Ma'am Carmen C. Unabia came to my life. She was one of my professors and she solidified my desire to pursue teaching as my career. Many years later, she visited my life once again when she prodded me to go on with teaching and make sure to do well in the field.
When I got married she came again to my life when she inspired me to hold on to the relationship no matter what. I did, until my husband of twenty years passed away after more than a year of sickness. As a widow, Mom Carmen's words would pop in and tell me I was up to any challenge whatever it takes.
When I revived my membership with the Girl Scout Movement, she was there again as a member and an officer. Both of us received awards for serving the Bukidnon Council for the past nine years and going. Very recently, the family of Mom Carmen received an award, as a Ching clan, to acknowledge the service of the Ching family for so many years.
Now, Dr. Carmen Ching Unabia, has passed away. This afternoon, April 9, 2013, we will hold a scout's own as Girl Scout volunteers. I am requested to give some words of testimonial because everybody knows how she has become part of my maturation and development as a person. While I am not yet sure what I will say, this blog will already tell you, fellow teachers, the great respect I have for Mommy.
To you Mommy, I think you can read this now wherever you are, like my husband Boni whom you have met, you embodied the Girl Scout Promise and Law:
On my honor, I will do my duty, to God and my country
to help other people at all times and
to live by the Girl Scout Law.
Mommy, God speed. Your Life is what we want to achieve when our time comes. God be with you. Rest in the Peace that God is giving you now. We miss so but we know you can be with us anytime anywhere now that God has given you the reward of eternal life.
Pain is a very good teacher of life's genuine challenge to see the joy just waitingto be unveiled.
0 comments Posted by Malaybalay Blogger at 7:22 AM
Families are complex groups of people. If not for the truth that when everything comes to pass, only God knows who is truly genuine and deserving of eternal happiness with Him in his Kingdom.
Having said the aforementioned context, pain is a very good teacher of life's genuine challenge to see the joy just waiting to be unveiled. Take the case of a relative who went out of her way to take into her fold a niece who has nowhere to go. She has children to take care of, so to be in a foreign country is like living in desert. Developed countries have this standard of living to mind your own business. Unless you happen to have neighbors with big hearts, you are really on your own This nice lady however is a christian and as it happened the young mother with children stayed in her apartment for months. Then came the time when the young mother borrowed cash which amounted to a huge sum but trusting that if better times come as agreed upon, she would be paid.
Then the time came when the mom and kids have to leave for after all there is a father who is supposed to contribute his share of feeding the kids. It seemed the mother got a job and life must have smiled brightly because they did not go back to their aunt's place. Without pointing out all the details, complexity arose when there was miscommunication in relaying manifestations of concern. It happened that the aunt who helped not only the mom with children but also a sibling who is sick with capital C. In the complex web of life's realities, the young mom happens to be the daughter of the sibling-brother. The culprit was the relayed information that it looked like the children of the sick sibling were blamed for not taking care of the capital C. The aunt who sent help seemed to be alluded as saying the children were instrumental in letting the condition become dangerous. All along what the aunt wanted to say was to ask why was the condition not observed early enough and why did not everybody prevent it to happen. Nobody was supposed to be blamed.
So now the state of affairs is the complex entanglement of who said what to whom. Now we offer to the best listener the intricacy of all the data and pray that one day, the real culprit is humble enough to apologize.
Pain is a very good teacher of life's genuine challenge to see the joy just waiting to be unveiled.
Nothing compares to the angst that haunts your whole being when a loved one is in the hospital and is battling sickness. Every movement of a sick person is labored. This leaves the caregiver incapacitated too. Learning is so painfully clear amidst hospitals and sickness. This scenario teaches anyone who loves to take time and reflect.
Teacher's teacher is life itself.
Watching 70th Globe Awards is a way to dream big and teach better
0 comments Posted by Malaybalay Blogger at 6:02 PM
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.
Ending one year and starting another, a huge beginning . . .
0 comments Posted by Malaybalay Blogger at 7:51 PM
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.
Christmas 2012 plus New Year 2013 are huge events-teaching moments. . .
0 comments Posted by Malaybalay Blogger at 7:23 PM
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!
Teachers of all ages, wherever you are: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
0 comments Posted by Malaybalay Blogger at 4:06 PM
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!
The massacre in Newtown, Connecticut heralds teachers as heroes but the parents are in grief for their chidren . . .
0 comments Posted by Malaybalay Blogger at 6:13 PM
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.
Teachers can only wish that duringthe elections in the Philippines this coming May we can learn from the US elections - if only in spiriit . . .
0 comments Posted by Malaybalay Blogger at 2:34 AM
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
