The Feast

I am a reserved type of a person. 

I developed an attitude of being an observer first before a participant. 

Picture this: In a party where everyone is having a good time dancing, chatting and laughing the time away, I am seated at a table near the far end of the room, just observing. Lonely? Nope. But I can enjoy any party just by observing the people, place or the events as they unfold right before my eyes without the need of involving myself into dancing, singing or chatting.

But that’s just me. 

Thank you 2011

We welcomed the year 2011 in Eastwood, Libis where we attended the New Year celebration and bade it farewell in Antipolo, Rizal. 

Many wonderful things happened in my life during the year 2011 that made my heart overflow with gratitude. God's blessings were in abundance filling up and nurturing every aspect of my life to the fullest. It is a fact that I am wallowing in the sea of God's blessings at every moment that my consciousness just take them for granted. For instance, I always have great sleep at night and wake up refreshed every morning for as long as I can remember that my consciousness considers it as given and expected. Or the fact that I always have a healthy mind and body. While it is good to always expect positive things to happen in life, continued occurrence of an event on a daily basis will eventually become inconspicuous to the mind resulting to one's inability to recognize its value and importance, hence, the lack of feeling of gratitude for its occurrence.

In addition to my continued existence which I have always been thankful for, I have also received blessings that were unique and remarkable. Memorable blessings of 2011 started on a high note when I got hired by Bro. Bo Sanchez as one of his contractors. It has opened a source of great financial support for my family at the time when we needed it the most. But the most exciting part of my job are the opportunities to learn lessons of great value from the spiritual and financial mentors, advisers and gurus who give talks during meetings, webinars and conferences of The Truly Rich Club and the Wealth Circle Martermind group of Bro. Bo. The experience gave me the inspiration, desire and expectation that one of these coming days, I, too, will be able to manifest financial abundance and eventually become one of the mentors imparting wisdom, inspiration and solutions to other people who share the desire of expansion. I also had the chance of going to Cebu City on business trip for the purpose of documenting the Natural Healing Method used by Dr. Romy Paredes in effectively curing the illnesses of his patients who were afflicted with life-threatening diseases. The Cebu trip was a wonderful learning experience that inspired me to change some of my eating habits and that of the members of my family in order to obtain and maintain optimum healthy living.

The year 2011 also presented some challenging situations like the hospitalization of our eldest child JJ due to asthma attack. There were also times when we missed due dates for payment of our bills because financial sources seemed limited and constricted. I entertained some doubt as to whether we are teaching our kids enough information commensurate with their capacity to learn in our present set up of unschooling them. But these challenging situation came with it the blessings of far greater magnitude that has transformed the heartbreaking situation to that of feeling of awe, gratitude and appreciation.

All the events that transpired during the past years proved that our lives are moving toward the right direction pursuant to our desires and aspirations. Some difficulties arose from time to time but along with them came the solutions with positive effect far greater than the hurt and anxiety they have caused us. I believe that the situations we considered as problems were actually blessings-in-disguise meant to reorient us to the right path every time we somehow get sidetracked. We are still alive and well, a testament that we are covered by His Grace and insured by His love as He continues to complete the work He began in us. God's love never failed us an It never will.

We received the greatest gift of year 2011 with the birth of our 5th child, Jyl Marjana Jaime. We are now finally complete as a family as we continue to grow, advance and expand in all areas of our lives. 

Thank you very much God the Father, Lord Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit for all your blessings and everything You are making of us. May your works be done in us, for us and through us.

Unschooling Our Kids

Our two older kids, JJ and JM, attended private schools. Their learning pace was alright but we noticed that their homeworks per subject that they brought home everyday were equivalent to a day's learning and we were the one's who were assisting them in doing the same. Furthermore, we noticed that the topics they were being taught in school were matters within our knowledge and ability to teach them.

Ever since we got married, my wife and I decided to shun 8 to 5 jobs and consider them only in extreme circumstances. This is in line with our desire to be around our kids as much as possible. As a matter of fact, we were able to do this by having home-based work or night shift schedules where we leave our kids at night after they fell asleep and return home before they wake up in the morning, giving them a sense that we never left them.

This sense of togetherness has grown and rooted deeply in us that even our kids are enjoying and craving for it every time. This circumstance, in addition to other considerations, has convinced us to home school our kids. We enrolled them with the Catholic Filipino Academy (CFA), a home school provider founded by Bro. Bo Sanchez. We homeschooled JJ and JM for 1 year. It was a wonderful, challenging and adventurous experience of how home schooling is all about. It was really a challenge in the sense that we needed to find balance between enjoyment of learning and the pressure of accomplishing the lesson plan within the given time frame. There were many times when tensions erupted because we tried to enforce learning on them at times when they were not open to it. We have since made adjustments as we continually learn from our experience.

Home schooling is not always rosy as had been depicted in several advertisements from some home school providers. I saw several ads showing the kids and parents happily reading a book with all those wide smiles and such. I am not saying that home schooling is altogether difficult. While the satisfaction and joy parents and kids derive from home schooling is great, I am not discounting the times when tensions and flare ups sometimes occur that cause discouragement to kids and disappointment to parents. A lot of parents quit home schooling right after the first try because they were only told about the advantages of homeschooling but not properly informed about the challenges and how to surmount such events every time they occur.

Before our kids were accepted for enrollment by the CFA, they mandated us to attend a seminar during which they discussed the advantages and challenges of home schooling. In addition to the seminar, the CFA provided continuous support to parents in resolving issues related to home schooling. This support helped us survive the first year of home schooling.

Homeschooling our kids with the CFA was an adventure. Overall, it was a great learning experience for us as with our kids. But then certain turn of events challenged us to move our kids from home schooling to unschooling. 

The difference between home schooling and unschooling is that in home schooling, the kids are enrolled with a home school provider that provides curriculum, books, examinations and report card to the students, whereas in unschooling, the kids are not enrolled in any home school provider and it is the responsibility of the parents to create their own curriculum with the liberty to use any books on any subject matter they want to teach their kids. Furthermore, students who were enrolled with a DepEd accredited home school provider can enroll with the regular schools at anytime while unschooled kids need to undergo DepEd validation exam if they want to go back to a regular school.

Harold R. McAlindon said: "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

By unschooling our kids, we are making our own path as we move forward. It is a great challenge for me and my wife to ensure that our kids are learning great things that are beneficial to their physical, spiritual and emotional maturity. We made this decision knowing through faith that God will always bless us and His Holy Spirit is always with us to give us the knowledge, wisdom and intelligence we need to properly mentor our kids.

God Bless Our Family!

Self-Healing Naturally

I just came back from Cebu City where we interviewed people who have been diagnosed with terminal illnesses like cancer and cardio-vascular disorders but have all been healed through natural healing method.

Dr. Romy B. Paredes, though a Physician by profession, chose the road less traveled in the field of Medicine and Health Care by promoting natural healing methods through the practice of Integrative Medicine. His aim is to make people more responsible of their health as championed by his slogan, "Empowering people to take control of their health."

Remaining healthy is actually a personal choice. Of course, it is not easy as it sounds. It is a decision that starts first with the mind if one expects to be successful in implementing a healthy lifestyle. I am the product of my own habits and releasing myself out of these deep entrenched patterns of thoughts and actions needs more than just resolution. People who have some form of addiction whether physical like addiction to drugs and alcohol, or psychological like gluttony and pornography, need a teacher, guidance counselor or any person who can give them concrete, practical advice, guidance and inspiration to effectively pull them away from their addiction and change their mindset in order to steer them clear from going back to the same habit.

On the field of health and well being, I highly recommend the 52 Healing Habits by Bro. Bo Sanchez. This program is well rounded that touches not only on the physical aspect of human health but includes the psychological and spiritual dimension that completes the holistic approach to a person's perfect health and well-being. What makes 52 Healing Habits a wonderful program is that it does not only talk about concepts of making one's self healthy, rather it provides specific do's and don'ts, lists of right  foods and practices including the right mindset to obtaining optimum result.

In the present world that is dependent on drugs being churned out by pharmaceutical companies, I was quite surprised to know that serious diseases can be cured using natural healing method. By natural healing method I mean eating fruits and vegetables and by using medicinal plants. And talking to people who have gone through the experience made it all the more compelling. We were made to believe that ingesting drug is the best or only way to cure an illness or disease. I have read books and talked to some doctors about the effectiveness of drugs and I agree with their conclusion that pharmaceutical drugs were merely intended to suppress the symptoms of the diseases but do not cure the causes. 

Human advances in Science and Technology have been enormous. In the field of health care, we are already at a point where any condition of human mind and body diagnosed as illness or disease has at least two corresponding drugs manufactured for its cure. It is unfortunate, however, that, despite the attempt, sincere or not, by the pharmaceutical companies to provide cure for the diseases or illnesses, they actually created a"kill-the-messenger" approach to health. In other words, the drugs do not eliminate the root cause but merely suppress the disease by treating the symptoms. Worst, pharmaceutical drugs, while treating the symptoms of a diseases, cause several negative side effects that are diagnosed as separate illnesses and therefore need another different kinds of drugs to allegedly cure them, and so on and on eventually making the person take several pills every day that started with just one.

It is dreadful how humans have become so detached with their natural, inner self. Human experience written  in history has taught us that we are more than the physical body we see and touch. Our physical body has intelligence that proceeds from the mind that created it. We are part of a whole Eco-system being nurtured by mother nature. Our attempt at supplanting this natural nurturing proved rather ineffective with devastating effects on our well being. Of course there is no single way of eliminating diseases and illnesses but going back to nature is a big step towards the right direction.