The New Filipina

I serendipitously discovered a movement called “Yan and Pinay”.  

So i’m joining, my blog is so timely.

 
Logo by Jonas Diego

So here’s my share:

Filipina is Maria Clara, the martyr in Noli Me Tangere.
Filipina is Gabriella, the revolutionary.
Filipina is Loida-Nicholas Lewis, a fil-am billionaire
Filipina is Cory Aquino, in whose leadership the new Philippine constitution was ratified. Cited Woman of the Year (Time Magazine)
Filipina is Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, cited one of the most powerful women in the world
Filipina is Lea Salonga (famous for Miss Saigon), Laurence Olivier and Tony awardee

 

 

 

 

 

Dark Nights of the Soul

I first heard this from Chris Collingwood, my Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) facilitator. He mentioned it as a metaphorical representation of his experience at one point in his life where he felt he wasn’t ‘moving forward’ in his NLP journey. Only to realise it was a passage where the outcome was a new level of NLP skills that was beyond expectations at that time.

This is what I’ve been feeling lately, I couldn’t seem to move forward in some areas of my life — even if I may know what to do, with the required abilities.

During one of the NLP timeline-metaphor exercises, I had a vision of my present as a butterfly in the eye of a storm, and the near future as butterfly emerging from a  coccoon. Coincidentally I came across an online forum on dark night of the soul (inspired by St. John of the Cross) that mentioned something similar. I’ve been trained well enough to “snap out” or “reframe” or “get off” my current state. What with a plethora of skills from psychology to philosophy to NLP plus a host of other tools and applications (i.e. Landmark forum). I have the tools within me to choose my state and create my reality.

Yet when dark night of the soul descends upon me, I allow myself through it, eyes wide open. Maybe other psychologists or therapists may not agree with me (not to mention ’motivational’ gurus appalled by the thought perhaps) – others may even label the experience “depression” and without much of a second thought prescribe “solutions” to get over it, be it medical or otherwise.

Knowing I have the tools, the ability, is my lifeline. When to exercise the lifeline is a gray area. I think it is a personal judgement, a very personal journey.

I suppose it is like when Jesus went through 40 days of fasting, with temptations from the devil… he could have used his power, the power of God, to “get off it”. But he didn’t.

This is not first time I’m going through this.  In fact to a certain extent, I’ve already had visions of it coming — seeing myself seeing nothing, tabularasa — it’s scary but I thought, been through it before and emerged stronger. I did not anticipate the intensity of it this time.

I only have faith that experiencing this lunar journey has transformative power, as Thomas Moore suggests (in his book “Dark Nights of the Soul”, a phrase he adopted from F. Scott Fitzgerald).

I came at a crossroads, and have to leave all baggages behind to be able to move on. In this journey, you can only bring what is essential: what sustains you. And in this dark night of the soul, that is what I am rediscovering.

Sometimes unlearning is more challenging than learning.

 

 

 

 

Back to My Roots

“Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinangalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan.” - Jose Rizal

There was a time when I never missed Philippines while being overseas.

Yet as the years go by,  I start missing the country, the people, the food, the music, the drama, the passion, as well as the  kababawan. I especially miss the humor and the lighthearted way that Filipinos deal with life despite the seemingly endless challenges and tragedies of our nation.

Jose Rizal once said, one who does not know how to look back to where he came from, won’t get to where he’s going.

I think it’s not so much a matter of having to look back to be able to know where I’m going… it’s a pull that simply happens.

There is something strengthening in framing my life, my present and future in light of being a Filipina, and remembering what Filipino is being about — our heroes and leaders, what they fought for, liberating us from the Spanish, the Japanese, the Americans, remembering the generations before me who stood against dictatorship and martial law from the  First Quarter Storm to People Power… I once heard that our constitution is one of the best in the world in protecting freedom and human rights.

I’ve read dozens of motivational and inspirational books from Og Mandino to Paullo Coehllo, Andrew Matthews, etc. But now I realise, what really moved me forward the most in life were inspirations from Jose Rizal’s biography I read when I was a young girl, and his novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo which I read as a teenager.

Maybe it’s time to revisit them…

 

Rice and Marriage

“You know you’re ready to get married when you can cook rice.”

That’s what my parents used to say. When I moved to Singapore, I found out the Chinese say the same thing. My guess is, probably all Asians say the same thing. Rice, after all, is our common denominator.

When you leave the Philippines (or Asia), the first thing you miss is the food. Thus, I learned to cook Pinoy style, and my first rice pretty good — it was soft, neither mushy nor hard.
I thought, ‘how ’bout that I pass the test! I’m ready to get married!‘ And when I finally did, my husband, who is Russian-German aussie (whew!), would rather have potato dumplings!

 

 

 

Life Begins at 30

Just turned 30 half a year ago.
Just migrated to Oz down under couple months back (officially).
Just got married couple of weeks ago.
Just got born in blogosphere few minutes ago. 

I feel like a little girl again.  Exciting!!!