A Time For Growth…
but you have been, ARE and always will be the one that touches the deepest part of my soul!!!
I haven’t posted in a while, but you’ve been on my mind. This one’s for you….
Sorry, I decided to change the video from my original post. Same song, same meaning, different venue and much better picture quality. Hope you enjoy this version!!
I just want to support a fellow colleague in real estate and moreover a dear friend. Jason, myself and a few other peers in the business have worked together on the same team, however we have always known that his greatest achievements have been in the Marathons and Triathlons he’s completed.
This time however, from June 6th to June 12th, Jason will complete a 545 mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles to raise money for people who are living with HIV/AIDS. Please join me in support of a worthy cause, be it monetary or moral, great sacrifices such as these deserve to be commended!
To make a donation or learn more about AIDS Lifecycle click on the link below:
http://www.tofighthiv.org/site/TR?px=1166261&fr_id=1220&pg=personal
Jason, have an amazing experience and we’ll see you at the finish line!!
An all male a cappella ensemble from the University of Oregon perform to Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance. I was quite impressed with these gentlemen and thought it was something cute. Hopefully it brings a few laughs and sets you off in good spirits.
Enjoy….
I created this post prior to leaving for the Philippines, however I never published it until now. There is always a reason to why things happen the way they do. Timing always seems to play the biggest factor in many of my situations. I’ve learned so much about my people, my motherland, my heritage, but moreover I’ve learned so much about myself. I have deeper more enriched relationships with everyone around me and I appreciate all the different talents and gift they contribute to this world.
A month prior to leaving for the Philippines, I set out on a deeper spiritual journey and fasted on juices. It was one of the greatest, however one of the most difficult sacrifices I have taken upon myself. I knew that my volunteer work would bring to different places of great poverty and that I would actually bear witness to those who suffered from hunger on a daily basis.
Whenever I would look at my five year old son I could never fathom the thought of him ever going hungry, yet there are millions of children that go to bed with empty stomachs. So with a great desire to bring myself to a position where I could possibly come close to what others were experiencing, I fasted on juices and prayed that God would strengthen my inner will and open my heart to great love and compassion.
I initially embarked on my spiritual journey about a year and a half ago and as I learn to surrender to what is, I began to open my world up to learning so much more about how I operate on a daily basis. Through this journey I also learned what my true purpose in life.
So whatever your religious and spiritual beliefs, I want you to know that I respect your space and ultimately believe that we are all called to learn how to love one another. I have posted a video from Spiritual Teacher, Tobias Lars about opening the heart. He takes a very unconventional and forthright approach to his spiritual practices, however when I viewed the full video stream, I found that I completely agree with his view on emotions.
As I look back on the five weeks I spent in the Philippines, one of the most important things that I practiced was to be with or to just be in the moment. I experienced life to its fullest by just being present, I laughed and enjoyed the company of family and friends. With the simple practice of being present and feeling good, I was able to free myself of so many mental and emotional barriers I placed upon myself.
I mentioned earlier that my spiritual journey began a year and a half ago and I must admit that when I embarked on that journey there were only a handful of friends who could truly understand the depth of soul searching that goes on during this period. Thank you, Mat and Jason for the spiritual guidance you have imparted upon me. Your support has given me the courage to take on the world in an extraordinary way.
I have attached a video clip of their documentary work Project Everlasting!
I leave you with a quote that is so fitting of my life at this very moment…
When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness extends in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourself by far to be a far greater person than you ever dreamed yourself to be.
-Pantanjali
It is officially closing time and my time here in the Philippines will be coming to an end as of tomorrow evening. Before leaving I want to thank a number of people, most especially those I have spent the last few weeks with. It has truly been an honor and privilege to be in the company of such brilliant individuals who give of themselves in service to others day in and day out.
Five weeks was by no means enough time to volunteer in such a way that it would make an impact on a large scale, however I know it is in doing the small things, such as moving one block at a time, that makes the bigger difference in the end.
From spending time with family and friends down to meeting a new network of like minded individuals through my volunteer work has all contributed towards the overall experience that has changed me and will continue to do so on so many levels. What I do know is that when there is a desire to serve others, doors of opportunity open up left and right.
Upon completing my volunteer application with the Philippine National Red Cross, I had expressed my intention and desire to volunteer with their Disaster Preparedness Program Service. I chose this service due to wanting to reach out to the flood victims of the hurricanes that devastated the Philippines in September of 2009. Because the operations of the Red Cross mainly concentrates on dispersing immediate assistance and aide in the event of a natural disaster they forwarded me to an non-profit organization Ang Balangay Ng Kaginoohan in Botolan, Zambales, a town who suffered six natural calamities last year.
Through an introduction facilitated by the Philippine National Red Cross, I met with the President of the organization, Mr. James Doble. On our first meeting he gave me a briefing of the overall situation of more than 20,000 individuals affected by the tropical storms. He informed me of the existing programs, future projects and immediate need of the people such as medical supplies and infant clothing.
In the following days I toured the communities to take pictures, video footage and speak with the families. After seeing with my own eyes exactly what happened to these flood victims and now being educated on the fact the flood victims will once again suffer the same issues with the tropical storm season beginning again in July, I was absolutely committed to assisting the organization in sharing their documentary video and mission with my network of family, friends and sphere of influence.
Like I mentioned, it is in taking the smallest steps that will make the biggest difference in the end. My first step is to share a letter from the President ofAng Balangay Ng Kanginoohan in hopes that if you feel compelled to reach out or learn more about future projects that you contact their organization.
Dear Sir/Madam:
The Municipality of Botolan in the Province of Zambales suffered six natural calamities last year (Tropical Storms KIKO, LABUYO, NANDO, ONDOY, PEPENG and Tropical Depression MARING) within a period of three months, from August to October.
This resulted into damages in infrastructures such as roads, bridges and residences. It has also devastated the means of livelihood and welfare of more than twenty thousand individuals and obliterating several communities.
The affected population is still living in evacuation centers and makeshift dwelling units, while the local government and private sector are jointly undertaking relief efforts and medical missions.
Despite the deep desolation fraught by the natural disasters, a number of kindred people in the village of Mayamban have consolidated together in order to form a new community with the desire of fostering an atmosphere of authentic human formation and responsive social conscience.
Ordaining ourselves as the Balangay, a social unit whose symbol takes its inspiration from the first wooden watercraft evident of craftsmanship by our ancestors even before precolonial times, and Kaginoohan as a word representative of venerable aspirations, we intend to fulfill the following goals:
1. Reducing Human Poverty
2. Alternative Learning Systems
3. Athletic Youth Leagues
4. Alternative Medicinal Practices
5. Discussing Aeta and Zambal Cultures
6. Advocating Indigenous Peoples Rights
7. Defending Women, Children and Gender Rights
8. Promoting Benevolent and Self-Managing Communities
9. Fostering Energy and Environmental Sustainability
10. Addressing Climate Change and Natural Disasters
11. Strengthening Peace and Conflict Preventions
12. Seeking Local and Foreign Agencies for Humanitarian Assistance
The Balangay in precolonial times demonstrated the seamanship skills of our ancestors. It is with this memory that we desire to be a vessel bearing a social unit reflective of unity and dignity.
The undersigned would also like to take this opportunity to inform you that the Securities and Exchange Commission has already approved and accredited our organization as a legal and developmental non-profit entity. As such, we are now ready to transact official business with governmental and non-governmental institutions and organizations for technical and financial assistance.
In this regard, we would like to seek the goodwill of your friends in obtaining information technology projects that could support our programs for recovery and rehabilitation.
Our duly designated representative for the United States of America is Liza Florida who is currently residing in California. Miss Florida, whose maternal side hails from San Marcelino, Zambales, has visited the disaster-affected areas in the Municipality of Botolan on Thursday 15 April 2010. She is personally known to me and has volunteered to obtain and facilitate projects for our cause.
May I therefore endorse her to your good office and also to the extension programs of other allied universities with the hope of obtaining possible assistance for our worthwhile endeavor. Should you favorably consider this letter, you may coordinate with me or directly with Miss Florida.
Thank you. I remain
Yours most sincerely,
James Ohmar Dasca Doble
President
For more information:
Mayamban Botolan 2202 Zambales
SEC Reg No CN201003647
SEC TIN 007-640-631
Contacts: angbalangay@gmail.com
(02) 430-6903
(+63) 921-777-3344
Please note that the letter drafted by Mr. Doble is to seek assistance from a particular university here in the United States, however the letter was articulated in such a manner that it is able to reach out to the general public. I am publishing the letter in hopes that you may gain a greater understanding of their cause and take an interest in participating whichever way you deem appropriate!
I have completed three weeks in the Philippines and I have so much to share I really do not know where to begin. I have sat down on several occasions to somehow put into words what I see, touch, taste, smell and hear as I experience the Philippines from a completely different perspective from my last visit in September 2001.
Upon arriving I was greet by the warm, humid island weather and familiar sounds of jeepney horns and buzzing tricycles. On a three hour car ride to my father’s province Morong, Bataan I gazed out the window at the lush, green terrain of palm trees, banana leaves, coconut trees and endless miles of rice fields as far as my eyes could see. Stepping out of the car, the smell of the newly burnt rice fields brought me back to my first visit to the Philippines at the tender age of three years old. At that very moment, I knew how powerful we are as beings and how our memories of every experience are all stored in our subconscience. All it takes is something to trigger one of our senses, then all the memories come surfacing back as if no time had passed.
There has been no greater experience thus far that compares than that of sharing the energy of love and laughter with old relatives, new friends and the people of the Philippines. My fondest times are those gathered with family and friends as they listen to my stories of home or of a land where (to them) water flows like milk and honey. To me though, the tables are turned as I relish watching the sun set on the beach and fall asleep in the bahay kubo (small hut) underneath the coconut trees.
I am proud to be a Filipina (a.k.a. Pinay) American knowing fully that I would have never had the opportunities before me today had my parents not taken their own risks. It still amazes me that the only provincial city that separates my parents hometowns is Subic Bay, yet they manage to meet half a world away in the United States. My father, a U.S. Navy man and my mother an immigrant working as an Accountant for an engineering consulting firm.
I wake up every morning to remember to open my heart fully in compassion and unconditional love. As I look into the eyes of every Filipino, stranger or not, I see a part of myself in every single one of them. I quietly, without words thank them for teaching me and reminding me of who I am!
As I complete my final two weeks here in the Philippines, I look back with great fondness at the historic time I have been able to participate in….The 2010 Philippine Presidential Elections, Holy Week (which video clips I will upload because no words can truly express and describe the events that take place), and finally one that leaves the deepest impression on me, a Philippine National Holiday, Bataan Day every April 9th. This also happens to be my father birthday (Happy 69th Birthday, Dad. I love you!).
On April 9, 1941 70,000 American and Filipino Prisoners of War were forced on a sixty (60) mile march by the Japanese Imperial Army, where 15,000 perished. This event would be know to everyone as The Bataan Death March. The largest single defeat in the history of American military!
Reference to the Bataan Death March and related events taken from the 2005 film, The Great Raid.
This has been an amazing journey thus far and I am grateful to have all of you who have shown your love and support throughout these last few years. We are all called to lead extraordinary lives and mine has truly been nothing short of that because of all of you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
As the infamous Johnny Depp has quoted….
May the wind always be at your back and the sun upon your face and the winds of destiny to carry you aloft to dance with the stars!
This video would best depict my life at this moment…..enjoy!
I’ll see all of you when I get back!!!!
As many of you already know or from reading the “About Me” section of this website that I have chosen to go to the Philippines as a volunteer for some amazing children’s causes as well as volunteer for the Philippine National Red Cross Disaster Management Service Division. It would be a series of life changing events that would ultimately lead me to this decision.
Being a single mother there has always been a great longing and desire to be of service, especially to the causes dedicated to women and children. But bearing witness to many families lose their homes in foreclosure to the devastating effects of the “mortgage meltdown” and almost having lost my own home to the Triangle Complex Fires in November 2008 led me to finally step away from a ten year career in real estate mortgage consulting. In December 2008 I ventured out into the non-profit industry with the intention of teaching homeownership preservation and to eventually launching The Myriad Foundation. 2009 would serve as a year of learning as my experiences would ultimately determine whether I would have the love and passion to stay in the non-profit industry and launch my own organization.
In September and October 2009 the Philippines was hit with a series of tropical storms which would be known as Typhoon Ondoy. The typhoon claimed many lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of families. Relief efforts were in full swing as the Filipino American communities and organizations came together as one to help the families that became victim to the typhoon. Unfortunately many of the food and clothing donation drives had to cease because the Philippine governement encouraged monetary donations due to the need of immediate assistance.
I had never seen such an outpouring of love from so many different walks of life until such a disaster brought us all together. My final decision to go to the Philippines as a volunteer arrived upon reading an article stating that many of the families were going back to their unsafe homes or the areas where their homes once sat. Their sense of community was in disarray due to the untimely and catastrophic experience and therefore these families were knew of no other home or had no other place to go.
Reading this article really put things in perspective for me. Back in 2008, I had the experienced the feelings of having to pack up my whole life in a matter of a few hours because of the fires were threatening to take my home, but in the end my home was spared. However, the families in the Philippines that became victim to Typhoon Ondoy were not so fortunate. These families barely have livable conditions and what little shelter they did have was now taken away by the floods.
So with that said, if you would like to keep tabs on this adventure for the next five weeks as I journey back to my motherland, the Philippines, I encourage you to check back on a regular basis to read my journal entries.
I will be volunteering for a few organizations, the first being K.I.D.S. Foundation with their Trek to Remember event. This event is a four day medical mission and a four to five hour hike to the villages of Miarayon, Bukidnon. This mission provides clothing, medical and school supplies for 1,000 children ages 0 to 17 years old.
To learn more about K.I.D.S. Foundation projects and events log onto www.KidsFoundation.org.ph.
The following three weeks will be spent with the Philippine National Red Cross in their Disaster Management Service Division. I would like to gain a greater understanding of the fundamentals to carrying out a Disaster Preparedness or Disaster Management program for those susceptible and those affected by vulnerable situations such as the typhoons and the volcanic eruptions.
To learn more about Philippine National Red Cross projects and events log onto www.redcross.org.ph.
In my final week, I will join my mother in her home province of San Marcelino, Zambales for her 3rd Annual Childrens Mission. This project provides school supplies, clothing, hygiene products and chocolates to the local schools in this province.
The service I give the next five weeks is a small gesture for the loving gratitude and abundance I have experienced in my life. It is my hope that my service will be a blessing to those whom I come across and moreover an opportunity to develop a sound infrastructure for The Myriad Foundation.
Our focus is to help support and promote causes for individuals, groups, non-profits and social enterprise companies through the use of advanced technology such as Internet video streaming and mobile broadband marketing. Please stay tuned while my friends at Peaceful Media assist me in launching www.TheMyriadFoundation.org.
TWIN FLAMES
Do you believe in soul mates?
I most certainly do! I believe that we all have multiple soul mates in our lifetime and that they come in the form of parents, siblings, relatives, friends and lovers. A soul mate is an ideal union, a bond, a connection and ongoing process of relationships and experiences towards personal growth and development. AND, I am becoming more and more convinced that Twin Flames do exist!
What is a Twin Flame?
According to Edgar Cayce, a famous psychic who is believed to be the founder and great influence behind the New Age Movement, a twin flame (also known as twin rays or twin souls) is one of shared ideals and purposes. Although the relationship of a twin flame relationship remains that of shared work, it is possible for twin flames to come together as a couple. All souls are individuals, but at the same time are deeply connected to their Creator.
Better yet described…
When twins get together, it is for some kind of spiritual service work. This is their primary reason for finding each other, because through their union a huge birthing of creative energy is released, to be used for their mission together. More and more twins are attempting to get together now to help the planet and humanity make a big shift forward in consciousness.
However, many of these attempts at reunion are unsuccessful because the individual people are not quite ready for the intensity of a twin flame reunion. It is more intense than any other union, and this intensity is at a soul level, not as much in the physical or even emotional bodies. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a good attraction at those levels as well, but the strongest attraction is of spirit.
To read the full passage of this article, as well as a compilation of other Twin Flame articles including Plato’s excerpt, please click on the link below
http://indreamshecame.weebly.com/what-are-twin-flames.html
As the unfolding of my life purpose becomes clearer with the each person I meet and the experiences I have with them, one thing remains certain. I may or may not have known them very long, but there is a magnetic and gravitational pull that I cannot describe in words. I do know that it is a connection and relationship that exceeds far beyond space and time.
I want to leave you with the final thought taken from the book, Edgar Cayce on Soul Mates by Kevin J. Todeschi
“Without a doubt, the entire world would become transformed if every individual suddenly came to the realization that the ultimate purpose for being alive was simply to learn how to love. Rather than being a philosophical possibility, Cayce was confident that, in time, every soul would come to an awareness of that very realization. An awareness that would enable each soul to find its personal wholeness and to come to an understanding that since we have been integrally and inextricably connected to the Creator since the dawn of our Creation, we are all soul mates with Him.”
Hello and welcome to Tristan’s Science Project. For those of you who are not logging in from school, my son Tristan attends Kindergarten at Ivycrest Montessori in Orange County, Fullerton. All students were given a science project with instructions on how to complete the project. All projects would be displayed at Open House and we were free to present in any way we chose to, so we decided as a family to be more interactive and participate by having you log onto a website to learn more. So let’s begin….
The Lima Bean Project!
WHAT DO PLANTS NEED?
Do Seeds Need Soil to Sprout?
Do Plants Need Soil to Grow?
1. Put three (3) Lima Bean Seeds in a jar of stones.
2. Put enough water in the jar of stones to cover the bottom half of seeds.
3. Plant three (3) Lima Bean Seeds in a jar of soil.
4. Water the seeds.
5. Put both jars in sunlight.
6. Watch the seeds for two (2) weeks.
Conclusion
Our observations have found that the Lima Bean Seeds planted in the stones and soil have both sprouted and therefore, this provides us with the answer that seeds DO NOT need soil in order to sprout (germinate). In conducting additional research we know that seeds need water and air (also known as oxygen) in order to germinate or grow. The ideal environment at the beginning stages of seed growth would be light, loose soil that will not compact, get soggy or crust over. Also depending upon other factors such as weather (temperature), type of seed and season of the year you are planting seeds, there are other tips that will help assist you in making sure you can produce the best results.
The additional information of our research provided above was found on www.jhudsonseeds.net.
Other techniques such as using paper towels and soaking seed in water then growing on cloth may be found by clicking on the link below
http://spikesworld.spike-jamie.com/science/plants/C22114-germinate-seeds.html
Plants do not need soil to grow. Our Lima Bean Seeds were able to sprout without soil, so we came to the conclusion that plants do not need soil to grow. Of course, we wanted additional information to help support this conclusion, so we continued to do more research. In doing so we found a technique called Hydroponics which is a form of growing plants by supplying all necessary nutrients in the plants water supply rather than in the soil. The word derives from the Greek root words hydro and ponics meaning water working.
You may read more information on Hydroponics by clicking on the link provided below
http://www.kidsgardening.com/hydroponicsguide/hydro1-1-intro.asp
So there you have it! The conclusion of Tristan Ylagan’s Lima Bean Project. Thanks again for visiting and if you enjoyed the video on bean sprout germination, we’ve attached another quick video on the time lapse of radish seed germination. Enjoy!
By: Tristan Ylagan and Family
Miss Shandra, Room 9