Cost of a Miracle

A little girl went to her bedroom and pulled a glass jelly jar from
its hiding place in the closet. She poured the change out on the floor
and counted it carefully. Three times, even. The total had to be exactly perfect. No chance here for mistakes.
Carefully placing the coins back in the jar and twisting on the cap,
she slipped out the back door and made her way 6 blocks to Rexall ' s
Drug Store with the big red Indian Chief sign above the door.
She waited patiently for the pharmacist to give her some attention,
but he was too busy at this moment. Tess twisted her feet to make a
scuffing noise. Nothing. She cleared her throat with the most disgusting
sound she could muster. No good. Finally she took a quarter from her jar
and banged it on the glass counter. That did it!
"And what do you want?" the pharmacist asked in an annoyed tone of
voice. I ' m talking to my brother from Chicago whom I haven ' t seen
in ages," he said without waiting for a reply to his question.
"Well, I want to talk to you about my brother," Tess answered back in
the same annoyed tone. "He ' s really, really sick...and I want to buy a
miracle."
"I beg your pardon?" said the pharmacist.
"His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head
and my Daddy says only a miracle can save him now. So how much does a
miracle cost?"
"We don ' t sell miracles here, little girl. I ' m sorry but I can ' t
help you," the pharmacist said, softening a little.
"Listen, I have the money to pay for it. If it isn ' t enough, I will
get the rest. Just tell me how much it costs."
The pharmacist ' s brother was a well dressed man. He stooped down and
asked the little girl, "What kind of a miracle does your brother need?"
" I don ' t know," Tess replied with her eyes welling up. I just know
he ' s really sick and Mommy says he needs an operation. But my Daddy
can ' t pay for it, so I want to use my money."
"How much do you have?" asked the man from Chicago .
"One dollar and eleven cents," Tess answered barely audibly. "And it '
s all the money I have, but I can get some more if I need to."
> "Well, what a coincidence," smiled the man. "A dollar and eleven
cents--the exact price of a miracle for little brothers. "
He took her money in one hand and with the other hand he grasped her
mitten and said , "Take me to where you live. I want to see your
brother and meet your parents. Let ' s see if I have the miracle you
need."
That well dressed man was Dr. Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon,
specializing in neuro-surgery. The operation was completed free of
charge and it wasn ' t long until Andrew was home again and doing well.

Mom and Dad were happily talking about the chain of events that had
led them to this place.
"That surgery," her Mom whispered. "was a real miracle. I wonder how
much it would have cost?"
Tess smiled. She knew exactly how much a miracle cost...one dollar and
eleven cents....plus the faith of a little child.
In our lives, we never know how many miracles we will need. A miracle
is not the suspension of natural law, but the operation of a higher law.

Dagohoy 'd Filipino Immigrant

It was the first day of school in Washington, DC and a new student name
Dagohoy, the son of a Filipino immigrant, entered the fourth grade.

The teacher began, "Let's review some American history, class. Who said
'Give me liberty or give me death?” She saw a sea of blank faces,
except for Dagohoy's who had his hand up, "Patrick Henry, 1775." "Very
good," said the teacher.

"Who said 'Government of the people, by the people, and for the people
shall not perish from the earth'"? Again, no response except from
Dagohoy: "Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, 1863," he said.

The teacher snaps at the class, "Class, you should be ashamed, Dagohoy
who is new to our country knows more about our history than you do."

She hears a loud whisper from the back: "Screw the Filipinos." "Who
said that?" she demanded. Dagohoy put his hand up. "General John Pershing,
Manila, 1896."

At that point, Jack, another student says, "I'm going to puke."

The teacher glares and asks, "All right! Now who said that?" Again
Dagohoy answers, "George Bush, Sr to the Japanese Prime Minister during the
state dinner, Tokyo, 1991."

Now furious another student yells, "Oh yeah? Suck this!!" Dagohoy jumps
out of his chair waving his hand and shouts to the teacher at the top
of his voice, "Bill Clinton to Monica Lewinsky, the Oval Office, 1997!!"

Someone shouts, "You little shit if you say anything else, I'll kill
you." Dagohoy yells, "Congressman Gary Condit to Chandra Levy,
Washington, D.C., 2001!"

The teacher faints. "I'm outta here!" mutters one student as he sidles
to the door. "President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Baguio City, December
30, 2002!!" Dagohoy responds.

As the class gathers around her on the floor, someone says, "Oh shit,
now we're really in big trouble!" "Saddam Hussein, on the Iraq invasion,
Baghdad, May 2003!" Dagohoy bellowed.

"Now, I really have to run," Jack mutters, heading for the exit,
"Gloria Macapagal Arroyo again, Pampanga, October 4, 2003!!!" Dagohoy shouts
triumphantly jumping with glee.

Struggle a Little - Then Fly!

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly, that he brought home.
One day a small opening appeared he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours. It struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther.
So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, but, it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly, he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and the body would contract. Neither happened!
In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It was never able to fly.
The man acted with well-intentioned kindness but he didn't understand the consequences. The restricting cocoon and the struggle required to get through the tiny opening, were nature's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were to go through life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been and we could never fly
So the next time you are faced with an obstacle,
a challenge, or a problem, remember the butterfly.
Struggle a little - then fly!

Don't mess with a Filipino

In a New York sidewalk, a Filipino is
enjoying a hearty breakfast “ coffee,
croissants, toast, butter, jam, etc.

When an American, chewing gum, sits
next to him and starts an unwanted
conversation..

American: You Filipinos eat the whole
bread?

Filipino : Of course!

American: ( Blowing bubbles with his
gum) We don't. In the States we only
eat what's inside. The crust we collect
in a container, recycle, rebake them
into croissants and sell them to the
Philippines .

American: Do ya eat jam with bread?

Filipino : Of course!

American: (Chuckling and crackling his
gum between his teeth) We don't. In the
States, we eat fruit at breakfast, put
all the peels, seeds and leftovers into
containers, recycle them into jam and
sell it to the Philippines .

Filipino : Do you have sex in America ?

American: Of course, we do!

Filipino : What do you do with the
condoms?

American: We throw them, of
course!

Filipino : We don't. In the
Philippines , we put them into
containers, recycle them, melt them
down into chewing gums and sell it to
America .

Love is...

relax

...not what we have or what we don't have....but how contented we are

dreaming chicago

colors

Living like Ants

When I was young, I had always felt excitement and some kind of elation every time a typhoon would strike our province. I had this unusual and silly feeling for this calamity partly because typhoons are already an ordinary part of my life which I have lived with since I was born. Our province, Catanduanes, a small island located at central and eastern part of the Philippines is the most prone province to be hit by typhoons in our country. It is an entry point of typhoons that hit our country because of its location that faces the vast Pacific Ocean in which typhoons usually originate. And truly because of this unfortunate location, we experience the largest number of typhoons that hit our country more than any other provinces or regions in our country. Indeed, most of the strongest and most devastating typhoons that hit our country: the typhoon "Sening" with 280-300 kph/160 mph wind force in late 60s (I'm not yet born that time, so I’m not sure about the exact year), "Rosing" in 1995, 260-270 kph/150 mph and "Loleng" in 1998, 250-260 kph/140 mph and the latest supertyphoon "Reming" last December 1, 2007 at 280-310 Kph directly landed in our island.
Typhoons are truly a common experience for us and have become associated with the way people from our province live. This is true because these typhoons are almost always expected to come in the rainy season starting from September to December or the "ber" months and sometimes extending from January to summer time. It is very unusual if not a single typhoon visits our place in a year.
“Living like ants” – that’s the way I describe ourselves in that province. I remember when I was young when I would enjoy observing how ants would quickly rebuild their sand or clay dwellings every time I would enjoy ruining them. "We are not far from what they are doing" I would often say to myself each time I saw the sight of our neighbors as they rebuild or repair their torn houses a day after a typhoon hit us. I can see all the houses in front of our house and even our house to be almost blown up by the gushing winds of these typhoons, yet it will not take long for us to rebuild or repair our houses without any grudging or grumbling on why it happened to us. Instead, we are grateful that we are still alive and nobody was hurt. And that gratefulness will serve to be our energies and inspiration to work for whatever aftermath the typhoon had brought us. We would start gathering all the pieces of our house that were blown away or damaged; clear our yard of all the scattered debris of some of our neighbors’ houses, fallen branches, leaves and fruits of the trees or plants in our backyard like the rimas, papaya, ipil-ipil, coconut, guava, jackfruit, orange and kurumbot vines, horse radish (kalunggay), banana and many other various plants that suffered the natural calamity that had just passed.
Clearing our yard, for me is the most exciting and enjoying part of these typhoon times not only because I’m happy that the typhoon is over but also because I can have the chance to harvest the unripe bananas which are scattered in our yard and then request my mother or my father to cook “pinakll’o” (unripe kalibo banana cooked with coconut milk and sugar). Furthermore, my sisters and I can also enjoy eating unripe papaya as we prepare it with vinegar and salt (hinambull’ang hilaw na tapayas). Moreover, what causes me to really feel profound happiness is when our entire family would have to work together to clean our house and yard; do the tons of laundry as all our clothes, curtains and blankets were all drenched by rain and some sea waters brought by that recently passed calamity, and many other chores that our family cooperates to be done. These are actually to some, arduous activities and obligations to be carried out, but for me during those times, were precious memories worth treasuring.
Another reason why I feel excited and actually long for these typhoons is because before it actually hit us, there will be holidays from school. Our classes will be canceled and I can have the chance to enjoy the holiday with my friends or the company of my family. We could have the chance to savor the earth’s nature through its winds and strong waves of the Pacific Ocean which is just some 50 meters away from our house with its thundering sounds as its huge waves strike the already damaged seawalls. We would enjoy teasing the ocean to show us bigger waves by throwing stones in it. We would also enjoy challenging the winds by pushing our bodies against them, giving us opportunity to lean on this invisible nature that will amaze anybody who could see us, especially if they see us from a distance.
A few hours before a typhoon hits us, our mother gathers us and gives us jackets and hats or extra shirt to put on to our heads to shield us from cold or rain that she said may cause fevers or colds. “Magsull’-ot kamo kaini ta baad sall’uhuton ning ripot ang mga payo nyo” she would always say. And she would also prepare our stomachs with enough food which is usually an egg noodle sauted with sardines and one or two fried fish (pritong malughaw na binakall kila Nang Gimay) which she will divide us equally among us, six children while saying, “Magapasallamat na kamo kang kaunon tang ini ta ang ibang mga tawo dai ngani ning mga pigakaon.” (Be thankful that you have this meal, some people don’t have any food to eat).
Indeed, those foods are actually more than enough for us. We really have a very full stomach after eating those as we dip our individual small shares of that fish in a soy sauce and lemòn (calamansi) to add more flavor to it so that we can eat it with a bunchful of rice. “Dapat pirmi kamong handa, baging nakigera, magkusog man ang bagyo di basog ang mga tullak nyo” (You must always be prepared just like in a war. Though the typhoon will get stronger than what we expected, at least you’re full enough to face it) she would continue saying. Our father will also often cook a "ninatkan na kalunggay" (horse radish with coconut milk). Because he sees to it that those Horse radish plants that were grown in our lot's corners and fence will be trimmed down before the typhoon arrives (after the typhoon, leaves of those plants which are very delicious (for me) and nutritious to eat will no longer be of use). He would cook it with coconut milk and some dried fish or dried octopus which are some of his catch a few days ago from the sea (Because he is also an expert fisherman). Those horse radish (kalunggay) or egg noodles meal were an excellent menu before the arrival of typhoons. It gives us the stamina to stay fit and be prepared to that forthcoming natural disaster.
Truly, I have plenty of vivid recollections about our lives in our typhoon prone island province of Catanduanes as it continues to linger in my memories; memories and lessons that contributed to my view of life as I picture us to be “Living like ants.”
Oh! How I miss Catanduanes, my home province.
And of course…..typhoons!

Tranquility

Mayon

Red Sky

Blue Sky

Serenity

ur on my cam