It's has been a great month for mini get-together among batchmates in Manila.  In times of sufferings and sorrow, you can count on the batchmates to be at your side offerring much needed comfort and support.
   Thanks to Paring Erick for his untiring efforts in bringing us news on their gatherings.  His leadership is much appreciated.

Happy Thanksgiving Day
God Praise Through All Your Days

   Surprisingly, Thanksgiving Day didn't become an official American holiday until 1942.  The Pilgrims had experienced the hardships of disease and death when they held feast in 1621.  In 1942, when the world was experiencing the horrors of World War II, U.S. Pres. Franklin Roosevelt declared the fourth Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving to God.

   But wherever you live, God wants you to thank him - not only when things are going well, but in all circumstances.

     Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:20).

   Thanksgiving and praise go together.  They do demonstrate that you're trusting God with your life - in good times and bad, in plenty and in need. 

Family Of the Month

Click on picture to enlarge

   Separated by the China Sea ... Joey, Helen, JT, Ayet, Ila and Ali are so united as one happy family.

Oct. 12, 2001

Dear Val,

Thought I sent a reply to you already. Hindi pa pala. It's usually the memory that goes first when one is starting to age. Take note: di ko sinabing "old." 

After graduation, my parents bought a house in Valenzuela. Our moving there prevented me from visiting old high school friends kasi walang extra allowance. I finished Vet school in 5 1/2 yrs. instead of 6. I supported myself during the last year of college as I started to work while making my thesis. After college graduation & passing the board exams, I became a protege' of an American Consultant practicing in the Philippines. This paved the way for me to work as an Animal Health & Management Consultant handling numerous livestock farms, mostly large scale piggery operations. I receive a retainer's fee a month for every farm that I handle. It was a lucrative private practice, the only drawback of which is the pressure for me to deliver favorable improvements on farm performances not to mention the ordeal of daily out of town trips even on weekends. 

Several years ago, I was diagnosed to be a type 1 juvenile diabetic. I lost a lot of weight. Since then I have to inject 2 kinds of insulin 4 times a day and daily blood tests to cope with the illness. I also must undergo a battery of Lab tests regularly to prevent complications. My endocrinologist advised me to lay low from working which is difficult for me at the start since I'm a workaholic. I got very depressed. Helen Roque's mom must've had a difficult time dealing with her diabetes. 

Right now, I'm back on my fighting form...hahaha! Finally gained back my lost weight. Still doing all the injections & blood tests but am able to put my entrepreneurial skills to practice. Together with a business partner, i am involved in 2 business ventures. We supply raw materials (black ball clay) in container loads which we mine from the south to supply to manufacturers of floor tiles, vases, toilet bowls & lavatory for export & domestic market. Aside from this, we trade seaweeds to processors in Manila for export. We finance several farmers to plant seaweeds, the harvest of which is sold back to us. We also buy & sell seaweed harvests from other farmers from neighboring towns and ship it to Manila in container vans. The processed seaweeds are made into emulsifiers/binding agents for medicines, gelatins, cakes, ice creams, etc... I still practice my profession when I have the time. Sorry, I don't have a vet clinic you can advertise in the THS webpage. Hindi kasi feasible mag set-up ng Vet Clinic especially now that the economy is on a sharp downturn.

I am attaching photos taken from my webcam. As I said before medyo malabo. Hope these photos will do for the Halloween.

Best regards to Chona & the kids.

Chito

WELCOME TO MID-LIFE CRISIS!

So Tony, here is something from my "real-time" research on mid-life crisis:
 

Pareng Val,

Peace and every blessing!

There's one thing I can tell you after reading your e-mail . . . WELCOME TO MID-LIFE CRISIS!

You have been in this world for forty years; and maybe, aware of your existence for about thirty . . . and living with a purpose for about twenty.  And what does one have got to do at forty?  Reflect and reassess.

The feeling of being bored and unhappy most of time goes with mood swing and the desire to explore new horizons.  A job you're doing for several years may either be a source of joy, contentment and satisfaction . . . if you know that you are helping a lot in your field and are actually enjoying it.  But is should not prevent us from exploring new things.

I have been in the ministry for fourteen years; going to fifteen.  My routine could be a bore.  And yet, I cannot afford to stop and say, "I'm no longer happy.  I better be in another field and quit."  Why?  Because I know this is my calling.  I try to count each and every blessing that goes with it.  And while there is crisis after another, God helps me find assurances that I'm okay . . . and in the end, happy.

Do you regards your present call as a lifetime vocation or just a stop-over in a journey?  In trying to weigh things, have you considered other facets of your life, i.e., your family's future, your wife's point of view, your own future, etc.?

Val, we are just journeyers here on earth.   Dumadaan lang tayo.  It's not about having a particular job and doing it;  it's about touching people, making them happy, and seeing yourself and your mission in the process.  It brings fulfillment and happiness that no amount of remuneration can compensate.

There is but one thing that you need to ask yourself.  Are you still happy? 

Consider these: Is your disappointment only temporary?  Is it just mood swing?  Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed and found yourself having tantrums? 

If you're no longer happy with what you are doing, you don't have the moral obligation to continue.  Go on with your journey.

God bless!

Pareng Erick

Family Of The Month

Joey, Helen, Ila, Ayet, Ali and JT with "bunso"

The Pandy Family

     Love conquers distance.  This is the lesson in life that we can get from the Pandy family.  With Joey working in Sembawang Offshore Engineering in Singapore as a Senior Structural Engineer.... Helen and their son,  JT and 3 daughters, Ayet , Ila and Ali miss and love their Dad more than ever.  Here is their recent family picture with their adopted "bunso" in Singapore Zoological Gardens.

The events of this day cause every thinking person to stop their  daily
lives, whatever is going on in them, and to ponder deeply the larger
questions of life. We search again for not only the meaning of life, but
the purpose of our individual and collective experience as we have
created it-and we look earnestly for ways in which we might recreate
ourselves anew as a human species, so that we will never treat each
other this way again.

The hour has come for us to demonstrate at the  highest level our most
extraordinary thought about Who We Really Are. There  are two possible
responses to what has occurred today. The first comes from  love, the
second from fear. If we come from fear we may panic and do  things-as
individuals and as nations-that could only cause further damage.  If we
come from love we will find refuge and strength, even as we provide it
to others.

This is the moment of your ministry. This is the time of  teaching. What
you teach at this time, through your every word and action  right now,
will remain as indelible lessons in the hearts and minds of those  whose
lives you touch, both now, and for years to come.

We will set the  course for tomorrow, today. At this hour. In this
moment. Let us seek not to  pinpoint blame, but to pinpoint cause.
Unless we take this time to look at  the cause of our experience, we will
never remove ourselves from the  experiences it creates. Instead, we will
forever live in fear of retribution from those within the human family
who feel aggrieved, and, likewise, seek  retribution from them.

To us the reasons are clear. We have not learned the  most basic human
lessons. We have not remembered the most basic human  truths. We have
not understood the most basic spiritual wisdom. In short, we  have not been
listening to God, and because we have not, we watch ourselves  do
ungodly things.

The message we hear from all sources of truth is  clear: We are all one.
That is a message the human race has largely ignored.  Forgetting this
truth is the only cause of hatred and war, and the way to  remember is
simple: Love, this and every moment.

If we could love even  those who have attacked us, and seek to
understand why they have done so,  what then would be our response? Yet if
we meet negativity with negativity,  rage with rage, attack with attack,
what then will be the outcome? These  are the questions that are placed
before the human race today. They are  questions that we have failed to
answer for thousands of years.

Failure to  answer them now could eliminate the need to answer them at
all. If we want  the beauty of the world that we have co-created to be
experienced by our  children and our children's children, we will have
to become spiritual  activists right here, right now, and cause that to
happen. We must choose to  be at cause in the matter.

So, talk with God today. Ask God for help, for  counsel and advice, for
insight and for strength and for inner peace and for  deep wisdom. Ask
God on this day to show us how to show up in the world in a  way that
will cause the world itself to change. And join all those people  around
the world who are praying right now, adding your Light to the Light
that dispels all fear. That is the challenge that is placed before every
thinking person today.

Today the human soul asks the question: What can I do  to preserve the
beauty and the wonder of our world and to eliminate the  anger and
hatred-and the disparity that inevitably causes it - in that part  of
the world which I touch?

Please seek to answer that question today,  with all the magnificence
that is You. What can you do TODAY... this very  moment? A central
teaching in most spiritual traditions is: What you wish to  experience,
provide for another.

Look to see, now, what it is you wish  to experience-in your own life,
and in the world. Then see if there is  another for whom you may be the
source of that. If you wish to experience  peace, provide peace for
another. If you wish to know that you are safe,  cause another to know
that they are safe. If you wish to better understand  seemingly
incomprehensible things, help another to better understand. If you  wish
to heal your own sadness or anger, seek to heal the sadness or anger of
another.

Those others are waiting for you now. They are looking to you  for
guidance, for help, for courage, for strength, for understanding, and
for assurance at this hour. Most of all, they are looking to you for
love. -- My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

Dalai Lama

When I meditated on the word guidance, I kept seeing "dance" at the end of the word. I remember reading that doing God's will is a lot like dancing. When two people try to lead, nothing feels right. The movement doesn't flow with the music, and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky.

When one person relaxes and lets the other lead, both bodies begin to flow with the music. One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back or by pressing lightly in one direction or another. It's as if two become one body, moving beautifully. The dance takes surrender, willingness, and attentiveness from one person and gentle guidance and skill from the other.

My eyes drew back to the word guidance. When I saw "G," I thought of God, followed by "u" and "i." God, "u" and "I" dance.  God, you, and I dance. This statement is what guidance means to me.

As I lowered my head, I became willing to trust that I would get guidance about my life.

Once again, I became willing to let God lead.
________________________________________________

"A man's steps are directed by the Lord" (Proverbs 20:24)
________________________________________________

-----Original Message-----
From: Parado, Felix - TP1FHP [mailto:tp1fhp@socalgas.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2001 2:10 PM
To: 'Buzon, Valentino'
Subject: Count the cost
 

Dear Val, 

Just thought of sharing this w/ you... I received this from my bus pool friend who has no child. Let's all enjoy our children. Time does go quickly. This is one of the email I passed along that really keeps things in perspective. We have much for which to be thankful! 

I have seen repeatedly the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards listed this way.  It's nice, really nice!! 

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock!

That doesn't even touch college tuition.  For those with kids, that figure leads to wild fantasies about all the money we could have banked if not for (insert your child's name here).  For others, that number might confirm the decision to remain childless.

But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down.  It translates into $8,896.66 a year, $741.38 a month, or $171.08 a week.  That's a mere $24.44 a day!  Just over a dollar an hour.  Still, you might think the best financial advice says don't have children if you want to be "rich".

It is just the opposite.

What do your get for your $160,140?

Naming rights.  First, middle, and last!

Glimpses of God every day.

Giggles under the covers every night.

More love than your heart can hold.

Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.

Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.

A hand to hold, usually covered with jam.

A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites, building sandcastles, and skipping down the sidewalk in the pouring rain.

Someone to laugh yourself silly with no matter what the boss said or how poorly your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140, you never have to grow up.

You get to finger-paint, carve pumpkins, play hide-and-seek, catch lightning bugs, and never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to keep: reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh, watching Saturday morning cartoons, going to Disney movies, and wishing on stars.

You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.

For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck.

You get to be a hero just for retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof, taking the training wheels off the bike, removing a splinter, filling a wading pool, coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat to history to witness the first step, first word, first bra, first date, and first time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal.

You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren.

You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there with God.

You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.

ENJOY YOUR KIDS AND GRANDKIDS!!!!!!