His Mysterious ways

Indeed it's true how our God holds the blueprints of our lives.  He has dominion over our past, present and future. How the Lord works in mysterious ways. Our daily struggle is proof of how He takes care of us in His perfect way. You know  this month found us in such a quandary as salary was delayed again. This time not only for a week but for almost 3 weeks and counting... Unbelievable right? Inhumane even! (These are facts that most of our relatives back home don't know about.  Hence, complaining about their own plight is so easy for them to do. If they only knew...)

I have come to terms with how my husband's company delays its employee's salaries, hence, I did not think much of it because I knew that the Lord will never forsake us. But you know what's amazing, despite our strife? It's the fact that every single day salary is delayed, our family has miraculously survived without having to miss a meal or borrow money.  The Lord DID know that my interest in the culinary arts would be put to good use someday. And that someday is here and now.  And what makes His plan more perfect is that He did not just put food on our table but sent angels our way. Angels in the form of friends, friends of friends, new found friends, and even neighbors willing to help in my small business :) We are so blessed to be loved by our God :)  

About 3 weeks ago I was surprised by the rush of orders I got from friends and new clients. Since then I have had continuous orders especially when it comes to my cakes. And more surprised because after more than a year in our flat, one of our neighbors became an instant friend and sort of "dealer" of my baked goods. She brings them daily to work which she sells to her officemates. A stroke of luck? Nope! It was God's will! Borne out of love for His humble servant.

So my promise to you Lord, as always, is to serve You before anything else. To work honestly and always give my best. To give my clients their money's worth! To inspire others as others have inspired me.

Let me take this time to thank Agnes Vicente, Carina Dagupon and friends, Elaine Valencia and friends, Jackie Mendoza and officemates, Kay and Mike Ganaban, and Jackie Alfonso. It is through your orders :) that we survive each day till payday. Group hug!!!! :)

FB is the place to be or not

borrowed image from trevordixon.co

I've once said that the social networking site, FB or Facebook has helped me so much in finding and reconnecting with long lost friends and relatives. While this is true, most will notice that FB has also been made into a battleground of sorts where some people bashed others and destroy their good name. Honestly, I may have clicked a few likes and even commented on posts that points out a particular truth. Am not saying I'm perfect because I'm not, but there has been some realizations over time... So, I came up with the following which is, once more, a product of my thought bubbles..

"Let Facebook be a venue to inspire people, to reconnect with long lost friends and relatives, to rejoice a milestone or the successes of friends, and even a place to promote one's craft. All in the spirit of good will.

On the other hand....

Let it NOT be a venue to damage spirits by destructive criticism(s), a place to wash your dirty laundry, to crush bridges, to lambaste, to promote havoc and wreck other people's lives.

Always remember that to be struck by a double-edged sword is better than to be destroyed by a double-edged tongue! For wound heals almost immediately, while painful words will always reverberate in one's mind even as you have forgiven the person who has spoken such."

Of FB, fries and coke floats among other things

FB has made reuniting possible, like most of us, I will always be thankful that a Mark Zuckerberg came up with this brilliant idea! I was a friendster fan before anything else but it was not good enough for me. And I guess during that time Friendster, seemed to be.... well, more friendly? For awhile my FB profile picture was that of Angel Locsin's and I gained FB friends because of her sexy picture. :)  

That is FB's bright side, the other side of the coin is that if someone wants to block you then whatever you do, you won't be able to get into the nitty gritty detail of the person you'd like to connect with. But am fine with that. Because there are people you don't really feel comf'table with to be part of your fb friends.  But this article is not about FB ~ it's about friends...friends I've lost and friends I've found. Six years ago (same age as my youngest son), I lost a very special friend. Hard to forget that, since my son is a reminder of that particular friendship-gone-awry. It was a misunderstanding that no one really understands (sounds redundant right?).  I guess she feels that I've betrayed her. Two sides of the coin, I feel she blamed me for her loss.

How does one feel when a friend is lost? It feels as if a limb has been cut off from your body... Feels like that last piece of Fries you were just about to dunk into your large Coke float. Honestly, losing a friend sucks! But it's not the fact of losing one that does, what sucks more is the reason why you've lost that friend. I've never really lost a friend before and if I had, it was not because of anything else except probably distance, transferring to another place or what have you (until about 6 years ago). I felt terrible. Terrible for her and terrible for me and my friends. Again 2 sides of the coin. Like "friends fries" and "coke bloats". I'm not going into any of the sordid details though. The fact of the matter is that, it is done and over with. My 3 other friends and I who used to complete our circle are no longer welcome. We've been deleted. Everything else has gone kaput! Finito! But as I've told her she may have closed her doors on us, but we've left our windows wide open. She's said her "Adieu" to which my reply was "Au Revoir." And as I keep saying distance should never matter, time spent should never matter. Reuniting after such a long time, your tune should remain the same, true friendship should endure. One cannot put a price tag on friendship, we cannot blame them for not being there for us. We cannot count the times we have been put down by our friends. Whatever we do in life is our choice. Near or far, our friends are only there to support or contradict us. But at the end of the day, we make our own choices. If you have not been honest to your friends, how in hell can you expect your friends to understand what you are going through, what you've been through, and what you continue to go through?  "Friendship must never be buried under the weight of misunderstanding" ~ Sri Chinmoy ~  I still believe that God would not have wanted friendships to end this way. Which is why, my understanding of friendship is something that I have never enclosed in a box chock-full of expectations.

"We all lose friends...we lose them in death, to distance, and over time. But even though they may be lost, hope is not. The key is to keep them in your heart, and when the time is right, you can pick up the friendship right where you left off. Even the lost find their way home when you leave the light on."        ~ Amy Marie Walz ~ 

In the meantime, this year amidst some personal setbacks, have turned out well for people like me who have been meaning to reunite. Ten years ago was the last time I saw one of my dearest male friends. I've spent years searching for him online, which has proven futile since he's not a fan of the computer age. The time we spent together during my vacation was short but sweet. Again, knowing that a long lost friend is fine is the best news always. The ten year gap in between was not a deterrent to our friendship. Life must go on. The years in between each absence should not count. What should always matter is we've remained the best of friends all through our life's ups and downs. I've reunited with more friends since...  this time through FB. Indeed, technology has brought more meaning to friendships ~ long lost, now found.

Jackie-ism

Then what used to be only two now widened a little more to form a triangle... :)

I met Jackie on another interview bout, which was initiated about three months ago as I needed a replacement for Kay as my assistant. She was the first person I got to interview amongst the several applicants for the said position. My first impression was that she was simply laid back, not in a negative way, mind you. She was very easy to like and as talkative as I can be :) I instantly felt that she was a perfect match. However, things did not work out as planned. Kay who was about to resign was the one left and I became an instant "resignee" if there is even such a word (even synonym.com could not locate it's definition hahaha). In other words, hiring Jackie for the said purpose did not go through (although we hired another Filipina, she was sent to a branch in Dammam). I felt bad not being able to help a kababayan land a job. I wanted to be able to give the same opportunity to another kababayan. And perhaps it was because of that need that another friendship began to form :)  

We were both in search of something that would appease our need to while away and earn at the same time. And realised later on that we shared the same passion for cooking. While I tried to discern my purpose whilst looking for a job that I can do homebound ... Jackie happened. God is good! In His infinite goodness he sends me friends who would strike my heartstrings and prompt me to move. Jackie's culinary ability inspired me and so prompted me to follow the path that the Lord has laid down for me. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And he shall direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5

Jackie helped me bring back my zest for entrepreneurship but I did not want to stand her way, I do not want to be a competitor. So I took on the other road, I took to baking and serving pasta instead. In this way we will always complement each other.

I believe that, not only as a Filipino, but as part of our humanity; we should not take advantage but rather take action to help each and everyone we come across with. Again, we have sealed our faith... friendship is also God's wonderful work so there is nothing else to do but to move forward and to take care of the friends He has sent our way.... :)

In the meantime, let me take this time to promote my good, good friend Jackie's catering service. I have tasted her Laing and it is one of the best laing that I have tasted in my entire life. Having enhanced tastebuds, I know good food when I've tried one. 

"Kay-ism"

I was going through some blogs that I have not published for one reason or another. The reason these blogs are still in my editing tab is either because I was too busy to go back to it or such was an incident that happened eons ago. Yet old news is definitely still newsworthy and I stumbled into this which I realised I've been meaning to published 2 weeks back. Read on...

Almost a year ago and a couple of days to the last quarter of the 2011 I felt terribly sad to be leaving friends behind. I expected that making friends in a country alien to foreign women going out at their own liberty, would be doubly tough and that I'm wont to just staying indoors and "behind the scene' so-to-speak. It's a good thing that I was still able to work for even  5 months because that paved way to forming a very good bond with Kay. 7 months ago being the only female at the HR department who was tasked to organise the files from scratch and to assist in the improvement of an existing system, my boss felt that I needed an assistant. So I went on a rampage to hire someone who shared my own "work principles". I did not have to wait for long because out of 4 interviews, I knew that Kay was the person I wanted to work with. (refer to previous article I WILL SURVIVE) 

And the rest is history, what started out as a need to have an assistant sealed our faith, we have grown to be very, very good friends. I continue to rejoice in the Lord and in the fact that He has sent an angel into my life! :)