Linggo, Disyembre 18, 2011

Q: How important is money in evaluating your job?


There is no denying that a supportive boss or warm camaraderie can help boost the morale of employees, but work environment is not the lone factor that keeps people in their current job.

  • There are tons of reasons that inspire people to keep on going but the bottom line is money. It is the money that pays the rent, puts food on the table, sends children to school and takes one to new and exciting places.
  • In a survey among 3 million expatriates workers in the UAE, 67% is looking for pay rise while 47% might quit the job if promotion is not on the way.
  • The superheated job market in the UAE in the recent years (inflated salaries are used to attract talents) gave way to the perception that salary is the determining factor for employee loyalty. However, when the job market cooled off, there are other factors that are impacting employee commitment and loyalty.
  • The payoff of providing financial rewards to deserving and qualified staff is still worth the investment for companies.  The pay should be linked to performance and the company should have a transparent performance management system.

Why high caliber talent needs looking after?

  • It is five times more expensive to rehire someone and keep them performing than to keep the “star employees” in the team.
  • As hiring increases and the ability to attract high-calibre talent becomes more competitive, companies will need to look at their employee offering both in terms of remuneration and career development opportunities.
  • Employers should treat their employees as fixed investments. A senior staff member, whom the boss relies to, for example, will lost feel heartbroken when he learned that a newcomer gets the same salary as he is. For him, it was like being treated unfairly and will lost interest in his job.
           

Factors lead to leaving a job

Aside from insufficient salary, there are other factors that compel workers to quit their jobs.

Fact:

Top 5 reasons for UAE Professionals to quit their job

Lack of communication and involvement by top management                51%
Lack of promotion despite good results                                                   47%
Lack of company ‘vision’                                                                          31%
Too lengthy to commute to work                                                             25%
The boss is taking credit for your own work                                            24%

  • Irreconcilable differences between a worker and a manager can drive an employee away. Employees will start looking for new opportunities when they aren’t respected in the workplace.
  • Company politics, lack of career development and poor leadership and management can also turn off workers.
  • During times of economic instability, leadership and communication are king. Poor leadership and management result in no empowerment, direction or motivation for employees. This leads down to breakdown in trust.

Why workers stay loyal?
  • Personal growth rank among the top three reasons why workers stay loyal.
  • Employees are likely to stay if they feel they are growing and developing in their career. This doesn’t mean a promotion but that they are bettering themselves and their future.
  • Other will stay for benefits aside from their salary.

lead or be led...



Here are a few leadership challenges to ponder…
  • If you want to lead, where do you start?
  • Are Leaders born or made?
  • What are the leadership skills you need to develop?
  • Are you tired of being a follower?


Want to be a leader? Here’s what it takes…
  1. Maintain a positive attitude… solution oriented, action oriented, people oriented. Enthusiasm begets success.
  2. Embrace change…Change is certain. Followers tend to resist change. It is the mark of a leader to embrace change and take advantage of the opportunity it presents.
  3. Deploy courage…Douglas MacArthur said, “Courage is just fear that holds out a little longer.” Good advice. George Patton said, “I don’t take counsel from my fears.’ Good advice. Leaders choose courage.
  4. Take a risk…The biggest risk is to never take one. Leaders are determined to win or try again.
  5. Listen…Leaders listen to learn. Your prospects know their needs and they know what’s happening on the frontlines of their business. Just listen.
  6. Communicate…Leaders set the example for open communication. Use their heads. Say what they feel. Speak from their heart.
  7. Delegate and empower…Leaders share responsibility. They don’t dictate, they set examples for others to follow. Leaders encourage growth in others by challenging them to take new responsibility, encouraging them to succeed and supporting them if they fail. Leaders understand that the mistakes are lessons on the way to success.
  8. Understand others, yourself and your situations…Leaders understand the importance of an open, inquisitive mind. A constant quest for knowledge brings greater understanding,
  9. Commitment… Commitment is the catalyst that makes all the other leadership qualities a reality. Daily rededication to commitment is the difference between leaders and would-be leaders,

Start small. Lead a group or committee. Do whatever is necessary to make it a winner. Do it again until it begins to feel natural. Respect the power of leadership and the power of the people you seek to lead.

Biyernes, Disyembre 16, 2011

finding your peace of mind

Once Buddha was walking from one town to another town with a few of his followers. This was in the initial days. While they were travelling, they happened to pass a lake. They stopped there and Buddha told one of his disciples, “I am thirsty. Do get me some water from that lake there.”

The disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed that some people were washing clothes in the water and, right at that moment, a bullock cart started crossing through the lake. As a result, the water became very muddy, very turbid. The disciple thought, “How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink!” So he came back and told Buddha, “The water in there is very muddy. I don’t think it is fit to drink.”
After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get him some water to drink. The disciple obediently went back to the lake. This time he found that the lake had absolutely clear water in it. The mud had settled down and the water above it looked fit to be had. So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to Buddha.

Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said, “See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be ... and the mud settled down on its own – and you got clear water... Your mind is also like that. When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own. You don’t have to put in any effort to calm it down. It will happen. It is effortless.”

What did Buddha emphasize here? He said, “It is effortless.” Having 'peace of mind' is not a strenuous job; it is an effortless process. When there is peace inside you, that peace permeates to the outside. It spreads around you and in the environment, such that people around start feeling that peace and grace.

Biyernes, Disyembre 9, 2011

A Woman and Her Birthday


Birthdays are time for fun and frolic and remind people that they are growing older.
Celebrate!
  1. "Time and Tide wait for no man, but time always stands still for a woman of thirty."
  2. "Thirty five is a very attractive age; London society is full of women who have of their own free choice remained thirty-five for years."
  3. "Inside every older person is a younger person - wondering what the hell happened."
  4. "Old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative."
  5. "You are only young once, but you can be immature for a lifetime."
  6. "Age is a number and mine is unlisted."
  7. "A well-adjusted woman is one who not only knows what she wants for her birthday, but even knows what she's going to exchange it for."
  8. "The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age."
  9. "Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair."
  10. "As you get older three things happen. The first is your memory goes, and I can't remember the other two."
  11. "Thanks to modern medical advances such as antibiotics, nasal spray, and Diet Coke, it has become routine for people in the civilized world to pass the age of 40, sometimes more than once."
  12. "When I have a birthday I take the day off. But when my wife has a birthday, she takes a year or two off."
  13. "The first sign of maturity is the discovery that the volume knob also turns to the left."
  14. "Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter."
  15. "You know you are getting old when the candles cost more than the cake."
  16. "You are only young once, but you can be immature for a lifetime."
  17. "A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age."
  18. "Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional."
  19. "A woman has the age she deserves."
  20. "Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough."
  21. "Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act."
  22. "Men grow old, pearls grow yellow, there is no cure for it."
  23. "Life is one long process of getting tired."
  24. "Let us respect gray hairs, especially our own."
  25. "Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you have not committed."
  26. "When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it happened or not."
  27. "Call this an unfair generalization if you must, but old people are no good at everything."
  28. "Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen."
  29. "Of late I appear To have reached that stage When people who look old Who are only my age"
  30. "I'm sixty years of age. That's 16 Celsius."

Miyerkules, Oktubre 26, 2011

Love is...


Here is a song that speaks of love in its truest language...

Love - love is patient love is kind
Love does not worry does not boast
It is not proud it is not rude
It is not easily angered
Love keeps no record of wrongs

Love never fails never fails
I promise you
My love will never fail
And I will give to you
Faith hope and love

Love does not delight in evil
Love - will always protect
always trust and always hope
and it will persevere
love rejoices in truth

Love never fails never fails
I promise you
My love will never fail
And I will give to you
Faith hope and love
Love never fails never fails
I promise you
My love will never fail
And I will give to you
Faith hope and love
But the greatest of these is love
there is only one happiness in this world - to love and be loved.

















Martes, Oktubre 25, 2011

Round 3: Thought Provoking Questions

And the asking continues...
Thoughts of mine: If I had live my life to the fullest then I won't have any regrets at all.  Could  have, would have and should have is not in my vocabulary.

Thoughts of mine: This question reminds me of 'prison break'. When it comes to loving, there is no how far, but what can you do unselfishly for the one you love.

Thoughts of mine: All the people I love  matters to me the most.  I hope I can still vividly recall all the beautiful memories and smile when I reached this age.

Thoughts of mine: Sometimes I'm afraid to ask because I don't want to know. Not knowing  shields me from the pain of knowing. 

Thoughts of mine: I have learned that even small things matters and  i should be grateful even for the  air that i breathe.

Thoughts of mine: My favorite question! I have difficulty in expressing myself verbally. Sometimes I count on my actions to say the words for me. 

On a shallow note: One day I will ride this hot air balloon without any care in the world.

Thoughts of mine: I always lose track of time when I'm lost in my own world.

Thoughts of mine: No, I will not because everything happens for a reason. Good or bad we have to keep marching on.

'Thoughts of mine:  It's when you feel like life is not worth living anymore but you have to be alive it is 'existing' but when you are truly happy and have every reason to live, it is living.

Thoughts of mine: She knows you, she's a keeper. But you also need a friend who will not worship you but tells you what you don't want to hear.

Thoughts of mine: I 'd like to teach the world to sing... 

Thoughts of mine: I wish I have more time with the people I love and do the things I want to do.

Thoughts of mine: This is why when you're down, don't ever think that  you're the most unfortunate being in this world.

Thoughts of mine: Little things that touches my heart.

Sabado, Oktubre 22, 2011

Work Stuff # 1: Communication between management and staff


“Good communication between management and employees helps a company as a whole rather than a collection of parts, like a circulatory system of a healthy body. But there are often questions for both sides about when, how and what is appropriate to raise...and with whom. So the first step in improving communication is making sure that it has space it needs to grow.”

In discussions on how for elements of classic management, communicating clear expectations ranks first followed by rewarding performers, coaching for better performance and not tolerating poor performance.

So how important is communication between management and staff?

Communication is indeed one of the most talked about issues in every organizations today. People read books on the subject, attend seminars and conduct workshops to equip themselves. Ability to communicate varies for everyone. Some may find it difficult while for others it is not a complicated activity. As mentioned Communication is the circulatory system of the company. Without proper communication the whole organization is doomed to fail.

The main problem with communication is always the illusion that communication has occurred. Once a memo was sent for example, we assumed that it has been received and communicated with the staff. Here lies the problem of follow thru. Or when we fail to communicate our expectation to the new staff, when they fail we tend to put the blame on him. We failed to remember that the secret to getting what you want from the employee is to find out what they want and show them the path. Otherwise, here communication is not really communication and management is not really happening.
How are we going to improve communication between the management and the employees?

Regular contact

One of the best ways to encourage communication is keeping a channel open through regular contact. These include formal meetings or informal gatherings outside of work. Food always helps with dialogue and management should not create an atmosphere that is intimidating for people. (People have to feel like they can express their views without fear of repercussions.) The key here is regular and regular is not the same as often.

Listen Please!

The most important part of communication is listening. Unfortunately this is something that many people struggle with due to lack of aptitude or unwillingness to be patient. Listening is different from hearing. Some people while doing this is ruminating on their head how to dispute  the things you are saying. In order for the management and the employees to improve communication they must truly listen to each other.

Staying well- balanced

Gaps between management and staff can widen if com communications become narrow or stereotyped, such as only discussing  performance targets or problem areas, or being forever cherry and upbeat. Adding  a few balancing questions can make communications well rounded and keep people engage.

Being open and realistic

While it might not be feasible to be completely transparent about everything all the time, it’s better to say outright if you aren’t in a position to talk about something than ignore an elephant inside the room.

Making communication worthwhile

The aim of communication is to understand one another, but people also need to feel that the talk has been worthwhile. Staff members can become discouraged if they leave the room empty handed.
Following through

Following up what’s been discussed is important for showing care and interest. Follow ups has more impact id  offered unsolicited i.e. without having to be chased or reminded. If people don not follow through, others may feel that they are given ‘lip service’. This means that they are told what they want to hear and no on is really going to do anything about their issues.

As with so many things good communication between the management  and staff depends on quality and not on quantity.  Like the body’s circulation, a company needs its arteries to be clear, open and able to carry nutrients as to where it is needed.

Huwebes, Oktubre 20, 2011

Create + Actively = Creativity


"creativity is the ability to make or think or see or hear something that did not exist before."



1. “There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.” — Edward de Bono
2. “There is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost.”  — Martha Graham
3. “Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.” — Theodore Levitt
4. “A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man’s brow.”  — Charles Brower
5. “When we engage in what we are naturally suited to do, our work takes on the quality of play and it is play that stimulates creativity.” –  Linda Naiman
6. “The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.” — Alan Alda
7. “It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.” — Edward de Bono
8. “A painter told me that nobody could draw a tree without in some sort becoming a tree; or draw a child by studying the outlines of its form merely . . . but by watching for a time his motions and plays, the painter enters into his nature and can then draw him at every attitude . . .” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
9. “Genius means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.” — William James
creativity quotes10. “The creative person wants to be a know-it-all. He wants to know about all kinds of things-ancient history, nineteenth century mathematics, current manufacturing techniques, hog futures. Because he never knows when these ideas might come together to form a new idea. It may happen six minutes later, or six months, or six years. But he has faith that it will happen.” — Carl Ally
11. “Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.” — Mary Lou Cook
12. “You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club.” — Jack London
13. “Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.” — Henry Ward Beecher
14. “The key question isn’t “What fosters creativity?” But it is why in God’s name isn’t everyone creative? Where was the human potential lost? How was it crippled? I think therefore a good question might be not why do people create? But why do people not create or innovate? We have got to abandon that sense of amazement in the face of creativity, as if it were a miracle if anybody created anything.” — Abraham Maslow
15. “Nothing is done. Everything in the world remains to be done or done over. The greatest picture is not yet painted, the greatest play isn’t written, the greatest poem is unsung. There isn’t in all the world a perfect railroad, nor a good government, nor a sound law. Physics, mathematics, and especially the most advanced and exact of the sciences are being fundamentally revised. . . Psychology, economics, and sociology are awaiting a Darwin, whose work in turn is awaiting an Einstein.” — Lincoln Steffens
16. “The world is but a canvas to the imagination.”  — Henry David Thoreau
17. “We have come to think of art and work as incompatible, or at least independent categories and have for the first time in history created an industry without art.”  — Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
18. “So you see, imagination needs moodling – long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering.”  — Brenda Ueland
19. “Creativity is… seeing something that doesn’t exist already. You need to find out how you can bring it into being and that way be a playmate with God.” — Michele Shea
20. “The most potent muse of all is our own inner child.” — Stephen Nachmanovitch
21. “As competition intensifies, the need for creative thinking increases. It is no longer enough to do the same thing better . . . no longer enough to be efficient and solve problems” — Edward de Bono
22. “Listen to anyone with an original idea, no matter how absurd it may sound at first. If you put fences around people, you get sheep. Give people the room they need.” — William McKnight, 3M President
23. “Everyone who’s ever taken a shower has had an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.” — Nolan Bushnell
24. “All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning.” — Albert Camus
25. “You write your first draft with your heart and you re-write with your head. The first key to writing is to write, not to think.” — Sean Connery
26. “Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” — Walt Disney
27. “God is really another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things.” — Pablo Picasso
28. “To draw, you must close your eyes and sing.” — Pablo Picasso
29. “A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
30. “The wastebasket is a writer’s best friend.” — Isaac Bashevis Singer
31. “Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” — Jonh Steinbeck
32. “If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” — Vincent van Gogh
33. “Where observation is concerned, chance favors the prepared mind.” –  Louis Pasteur
34. “I shall become a master in this art only after a great deal of practice.” — Erich Fromm
35. “I began by tinkering around with some old tunes I knew. Then, just to try something different, I set to putting some music to the rhythm that I used in jerking ice-cream sodas at the Poodle Dog. I fooled around with the tune more and more until at last, lo and behold, I had completed my first piece of finished music. ” — Duke Ellington
36. “Because of their courage, their lack of fear, they (creative people) are willing to make silly mistakes. The truly creative person is one who can think crazy; such a person knows full well that many of his great ideas will prove to be worthless. The creative person is flexible; he is able to change as the situation changes, to break habits, to face indecision and changes in conditions without undue stress. He is not threatened by the unexpected as rigid, inflexible people are.” — Frank Goble
37. “Invention strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory; nothing can come from nothing.” — Sir Joshua Reynolds
38. “Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every conceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.” — Huxley, Thomas
39. There is no use trying,” said Alice. “One can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” — Lewis Carroll
creativity quotes40. “Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.” — Albert Einstein
41. “The principle goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done – men who are creative, inventive and discoverers.” — Jean Piaget
42. “The creative person is willing to live with ambiguity. He doesn’t need problems solved immediately and can afford to wait for the right ideas.” — Abe Tannenbaum
43. “An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.” — Victor Hugo
44. “An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.” — Edward de Bono
45. ” Conditions for creativity are to be puzzled; to concentrate; to accept conflict and tension; to be born everyday; to feel a sense of self.” — Erich Fromm
46. ” Creativity is the quality that you bring to the activity that you are doing. It is an attitude, an inner approach – how you look at things . . . Whatsoever you do, if you do it joyfully, if you do it lovingly, if your act of doing is not purely economical, then it is creative.” –  Osho
47. “You become more divine as you become more creative. All the religions of the world have said God is the creator. I don’t know whether he is the creator or not, but one thing I know: the more creative you become, the more godly you become. When your creativity comes to a climax, when your whole life becomes creative, you live in God. So he must be the creator because people who have been creative have been closest to him. Love what you do. Be meditative while you are doing it – whatsoever it is!” — Osho
48. “Every day is an opportunity to be creative – the canvas is your mind, the brushes and colours are your thoughts and feelings, the panorama is your story, the complete picture is a work of art called, ‘my life’. Be careful what you put on the canvas of your mind today – it matters.”  — Innerspace
49. “It seems to be one of the paradoxes of creativity that in order to think originally, we must familiarize ourselves with the ideas of others.” — George Kneller
creativity quotes50. “The highest prize we can receive for creative work is the joy of being creative. Creative effort spent for any other reason than the joy of being in that light filled space, love, god, whatever we want to call it, is lacking in integrity. . .
– Marianne Williamson
51. “The world is but a canvas to the imagination.” — Henry David Thoreau
52. “To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.” –Osho
53. “We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own and other’s people’s models, learn to be ourselves and allow our natural channel to open.” — Shakti Gawain
54.
“When you are describing,
A shape, or sound, or tint;
Don’t state the matter plainly,
But put it in a hint;
And learn to look at all things,
With a sort of mental squint.”
–Lewis Carroll
55. “Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.” — Goethe
56. “I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.” John Cage
57. “What is an artist? A provincial who finds himself somewhere between a physical reality and a metaphysical one…. It’s this in-between that I’m calling a province, this frontier country between the tangible world and the intangible one—which is really the realm of the artist.” — Federico Fellini
58. “Some people use things; they destroy. You’re a creator, a builder.” — Amelia Atwater-Rhodes Quotes
59. “To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” — Joseph Chilton Pierce Quotes
creativity quotes60. “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” — Maya Angelou
61. “By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The non-existent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.” Nikos Kazantzakis
62. “Behind all creation is silence. Silence is the essential condition, the vital ingredient for all creation and all that is created. It is a power in its own right. The artist starts with a blank canvas – silence. The composer places it between and behind the notes. The very ground of your being, out of which comes all your thoughts, is silence. The way to silence is through meditation. When you arrive in your own silence you will know true freedom and real power. Stop, take a minute, and listen to the silence within you today. Then be aware of what disturbs your inner silence. It could be negative thoughts, memories, sensations. And when you are aware, you will know what is draining your creative power, and you will know what needs to change…on the inside!” — Relax7.com
63. “One of my early mentors, poet David Wagoner, who divides the creative process into three phases – madman, poet and critic – once told me that you need to find your own magic to stay in the world of creative play.” — Sonia Gernes
64. “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.” — John F. Kennedy
65. “Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.” — Bertrand Russell
66. “The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.” — John Maynard Keynes
67. “Held in the palms of thousands of disgruntled people over the centuries have been ideas worth millions – if they only had taken the first step and then followed through.” – Robert M. Hayes
68. “Life is trying things to see if they work.” – Ray Bradbury
69. “The stone age didn’t end because they ran out of stones.” – unknown
70. “Truly creative people care a little about what they have done, and a lot about what they are doing. Their driving focus is the life force that surges in them now.” — Alan Cohen
71. “An artist paints, dances, draws, writes, designs, or acts at the expanding edge of consciousness. We press into the unknown rather than the known. This makes life lovely and lively.” — Julia Cameron
72. “A truly creative person rids him or herself of all self-imposed limitations.” — Gerald G. Jampolsky
73. “Creative power, is that receptive attitude of expectancy which makes a mold into which the plastic and as yet undifferentiated substance can flow and take the desired form.” — Thomas Troward
74. “Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.” — George Lois
75. “A harmless hilarity and a buoyant cheerfulness are not infrequent concomitants of genius; and we are never more deceived than when we mistake gravity for greatness, solemnity for science, and pomposity for erudition.” — Charles Caleb Colton

Don't be afraid to get out of your comfort zone, unleash your creativity.

Linggo, Agosto 28, 2011

I am a prodigal blogger

come on my sweet escape, welcome me with open arms.

I don't intend to make an entry today but out of the blue here I am typing away. it's been a looong time I know. I have been through many important events in my life...anniversary, my 2 great loves birthdays & many emotional ups and downs but can't find the right words to say. suddenly i found myself hitting the bookmark...and here I am.

Like a long lost prodigal child i let my sweet escape embrace me.

Work has been work. Busy Busy busy but that doesn't stop me from exploring other facets to enjoy life.

Music...what's on my playlist? Now, it's boyce avenue, an acoustic group doing covers of almost any music genre...suddenly I appreciate Neyo and Timbaland (this is after I listened to the acoustic version and somehow understood what they are trying to say). I love their rendition and can't help putting it on shuffle most of the time.

Books...i've found an addiction towards Nora Roberts by accident. I was browsing through Borders one day and found a good series. I have now two of hers and want the other two if I find it.

Life...I'm trying to establish a strong bond with my sister now. (maybe, I'll discuss the complexity of our bond one day). And i love to live more each day...looking forward to waking up to a blessed day everyday.


Life is good...just embrace it.

Sabado, Hulyo 23, 2011

looking at the bright side

Dear my sweet escape,

it's been so long. i thought i'll never touch my keyboard and write to you again. what can i say, you're in my veins. writing to you is always my panacea. a cure for my feeling of melancholy.

so here i am, tapping my keys away.

lately i've been moody and emotional. maybe it's the hormones or just of those days when my spirits are on a down low. i tried to self analyze but hey i don't have a degree of a shrink. so i just let these feeling passed until i find my reasons to smile.

i learned that smiles cannot be found unless you look on the bright side of things. dwelling under the blanket of negative things will just make me feel more gloomy. i have to remove the blanket and feel the sun shining on my face.

now, i feel better. i can laugh more, sing like no one is listening and dance like no one is watching.

let me indulge in this childish character for a while...

 before i forget...

things that i enjoyed today...

  • eating cashew nuts + lemonade
  • singing "just the way you are" by billy joel
  • listening to boyce avenue...cool acoustic
  • sleeping

till then,

ianne

Sabado, Hunyo 18, 2011

Ode to the Tatays


Once every year, there is this special day that is dedicated to the one person who shape our lives – our father. Today is their day…the day we call Father’s Day.

One day is not enough to thank our Father…it takes forever to give them thanks. I want to share with you my thoughts on this special occasion for our Tatays.
                
Thank you, Tatay… you will always my guiding light. You might not heard it from me but I love you.

To my Lolo Efren who is also my second Tatay, this is for you...

When I think of my husband as a father, I always think of these poignant photos. This is how me and our kids see him...




To the best dad, husband and friend, nobody does it better than you. That’s why we love you more each day.
                                                                                                                Love,
                                                                                                                BOT
                                                                                                                Calista
                                                                                                                Horatio