Curbside Stories

I am not into poetry but this winning piece by Lily Myers made me feel otherwise. This poem so profoundly explained how men and women differ in their views about personal image. Read on... Across from me at the kitchen table, my mother smiles over red wine that she drinks out of a measuring glass. She says she doesn’t deprive herself, but I’ve learned to find nuance in every movement of her fork. In every crinkle in her brow as she offers me the uneaten pieces on her plate. I’ve realized she only eats dinner when I suggest it. I wonder what she does when I’m not there to do so. Maybe this is why my house feels bigger each time I return; it’s proportional. As she shrinks the space around her seems increasingly vast. She wanes while my father waxes. His stomach has grown round with wine, late nights, oysters, poetry. A new girlfriend who was overweight as a teenager, but my dad reports that now she’s “crazy about fruit.” It was the same with his parents; as my grandmother became frail an...

Photo from here . What can you say about having extravagant Christmas parties before we hit the holidays? I know it only happens once in a year but ever since the typhoon Haiyan left Tacloban City in Leyte and other parts of Visayas literally flat, I feel like there is no sense having Christmas parties with tons of leftover foods and drinks when you see images of families who beg for food in the streets. I find no reason for spending parties in plush restaurants when there are still families who have no roofs to protect them from the weather. I applaud those companies and families as well who, instead of having parties this yuletide season, opt to donate or spend a day or two of charity works. I mean, at this point of economic hardships and calamities, we must be more sensitive to the feelings of others. Let us be more generous in giving to those who are most needy because I believe that if we are generous to others, God will also be generous to us.

It may be December and everyone is excited to have a vacation, but I am here in the office waiting for my turn to share what I have learned from reading chapters 5 to 7 of the book by Brian Tracy entitled Focal Point . We always do these kinds of stuff, reading portions of a book and share it to every employee. This activity is one of the programs of the human resource to train the employees. It is actually a two point process, the speakers (usually managers and department heads) get to learn new managerial skills, including public speaking, and at the same time rank and file employees get to hear their managers deliver the message. This book hopefully will teach its readers on how to simplify their lives to double their productivity and to achieve their goals ultimately. There are 12 steps on how to do it but the point of this book is to make personal changes to allow new opportunities to come in, both in personal and career life.

I was watching Beastly earlier this day when I heard in the news that Paul Walker is dead because of a car crash during an event to raise funds for the victims of typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. I am still in shock. Fast and Furious will never be the same again. We will never forget you, Paul. Thank you in behalf of the Filipinos from all over the world.