CHANGE

Hello, I am back, been to a long hiatus, but not anymore. Here I am and will again fill your minds with my rantings and insights about a lot of things. My mind is a wanderer, it even gone to places I myself have never been, and it always brings me back all the things it learned, seen and experienced along its journey.

It's been a while, and I've been here and there, still restless and longing for something new in my life. Since I turned 40, another life beginning, I left Saudi Arabia, went around Singapore and now back home and I am pretty sure not going to stay for that long as I need to keep moving.

Keeping in touch with my mentor/spiritual guide, we had been on an adventure together, of the mind that is. Not seeing in person, but through our long distance conversations, I was slowly evolving into someone that I am not accustomed to, yet excited to be. Let's put it this way, I am changing. I see things on a different light and perspective. I see and understand a little bit more about what is going on around me.

Still with me? I'd like to share with you guys, the journey I am about to take, the world I am about to see, and the secrets that will be revealed to me; a journey where I will be facing the greatest fear most of us wouldn't want to face. The fear of CHANGE. To change who we are, to go against the norm, to stand up against something, to not go with the flow, to not do what everyone else is doing.

CHANGE, the word itself brings a feeling of defense, shielding oneself from movement, from doing something not of the ordinary, to face oppositions and mockeries, even threats.

The world is ready for change, but I am not talking about the change in the way we live, but in the way we think. The technological revolution is so intense that we are already so much into the acquisition of the latest gadgets that makes our life a little bit easier. It used to be a touch of a button, but now it is but a swipe of our hand. I learned that there are two worlds existing at the moment in the world right now, the TECHNOSPHERE and the BIOSPHERE, and guess which world is bigger? Which world has more population? Which world has more problems?  We are so dependent to technology that we forget where it all began. We become too lazy, too insensitive and too darn busy with our modern world that we experience more needs than we can ever fill up.

With the current situation of the world today, we need more people who will care much about human, environment and spiritual connection rather than connecting through cables, signals and radiowaves.
The world need a drastic change in the way human kind thinks and acts. The world needs people that lives and not just exists.

We need a CHANGE. But who would want to? Why do we need to? Why even bother when we are so comfortable where we are now. We need to because as living creatures with souls, we need to evolve to a higher level of consciousness, the great Dec 21,2012 is not about the end of the world but a start of a wave of spiritual understanding and body/mind integration. But not all of us were aware of it, because of FEAR. Fear of "the end of the world" brought about by the fear to change, we naturally wouldn't want to be moved or rattled in our small little world that we built. That's the only place we feel safe, and as long as we keep it, we are safe. But being safe means being left behind. Right now there are great thinkers who are leveling themselves up to reach that place in their minds where they see the world in the different light, and instead of creating and inventing the latest mobile phone and fast paced computers, they are planning and talking about how to balance the world. Great thinkers going out of their way and using their knowledge and wisdom in order to create world where everyone else care as much about each other, the environment and their spirituality. To teach the world that there is an alternative way to live, far from worries and the problems, if we only stop, look and listen. They are out there, you see them in the books they write, in the projects they create that supports the environment, in the halls speaking about how to be a better and sensitive people, in a stranger who will share with you an insight that will make you think and have a deeper sense of being.

They say it is not easy to CHANGE, a chair is a chair, and a table is a table, and a chair will never be a table. But I am not talking of changing who you are, but changing the way you think. To become open to all the possibilities the universe are offering us, to accept a gift of wisdom and greater knowledge and use to to better yourself and to better your relationship with another person. To be free to express yourself to the best you can ever be. We are creatures of greatness and great power, if we only tap into that power, the world will be a better place.

12 Laws of Karma - The Law Of Growth

It simple says that wherever we go, there we are. Known as the Law of Growth, change should always begin with ourselves. If we try to escape life in order to flee from any situation, it will be pointless because the problem is ourselves. Wherever I  go, I will still be "there" with all my issues and problems.

Our human nature often suggests we have the power to change everything and everyone around us, this law says that we have to start with ourselves instead. Because it is the beginning of true growth toward clarity, enlightenment and eventually fulfillment. It will be easy to change circumstances outside ourselves in the hope of finding peace and joy, in reality that true peace and joy come when we change ourselves, inside and out, that will affect everything around us.

Balikbayan Boxes, Hopes, Dreams and Changes

I've always wanted to work in another country, for a lot of reasons, and like everyone else the main reason is to provide a better life for my family. Who doesn't dream of giving our loved ones everything they need?
There's this thought I always have that working abroad would be the only solution. The dreams of plenty pushes me to look for a better future in another land. Hope sparks in my soul and together with my Dreams, I hopped on the first opportunity I got, and flew to Saudi Arabia.
I could still remember the desert heat that welcomed me when I alighted from the airplane after a grueling 15 hour flight. But I just closed my eyes, say a little prayer, thought about my family and breathe deeply. This is it, I whispered silently, dreams will start to come true.
After a week of excitement and discovery, suddenly it hit me, missing home; my mother, my brothers and sisters, the naughtiness of my nephews and nieces, the noise, friends, food, even the "smell" of my neighborhood. I had sleepless nights and sometimes found myself crying out of melancholy. New found friends would always say I'll get by and I did try.
Hours turn into days, to weeks, to months and after four years of working, I did get by. But nothing beats going home, to see them once again, nothing can replace that feeling of great joy, so much that my heart would seem to leap out of my chest upon seeing my loved ones waving at me at the airport lounge, me drenched in sweat and sticky already which is a welcome home treat from my beloved country.
Coming home, there's a song like sound in it, I remember Gary V.'s "Babalik Ka Rin" song that become our OFW theme for a while which really emcompasses the true feeling that we have, us, working far from our family, with the sacrifices and hardships amidst everything else.
Returning home, bringing with us not only "Balikbayan" boxes of suprises but that "Hopes and Dreams"  we brought with us the first time and "Changes," that each time we return home, we are a different person, stronger, wiser and proud; each time our family's life is a little better; friends will hear our stories of successes and failures, and they get inspired and maybe they themselves change; that society will look at us, "new heroes" and say wish these heroes would come home and stay. We bring home Change that somehow our country's leaders would look upon us and provide a better opportunity and reason in staying home. We, OFWs are also delegates of good example to those who suffered the stigma of being lower than others by changing our host country's view of us and that we are at par and as skilled and hardworking as them.
Me, I will always come home, for there is no place like it, sounds a cliche' but as Paulo Coehlo wrote in his book The Alchemist, "Your treasure is where your heart is," and changes occur each time I see the people I care about smiling, my friends being inspired, my neighbors in a festive mood, and watching television and hearing news about how my country's leaders are working for the betterment of my homeland.
In retrospective, no matter where in the world we are, from Alaska to Zimbabwe, my fellow Filipino expats will always come home, for we are sentimental, strong and resilient people who welcome changes each time.

My Past and My Future

I wish I am a fortune teller so I could find out what my future holds for me, but I am not, nor I would really like to be one. Though I would want to find out how much success I will enjoy this year, however, I have read that "next year would, for most people, be pretty much the same as this year.

That sounds like uninspiring, but in many ways, it is. The reality is that unless I change something, next year is all set in giving me more of the same. There is nothing wrong with that of course, especially if I am enjoying my life and I have in it all the things I want at the moment.

But, on the other hand, I am trying to really improve a lot in life, and the thought that next year will just be more of the same is not such an attractive proposition at all. But I need to understand that this situation is simply the law of cause and effect at work and that law is reliable, continuing and predictable. That is why I can make such a strong statement and know that it will be true. If I want to change my results, I have to change my methods.

When I think back over the last five years. What have I been doing with my time? Have I been learning and improving myself or have I been treading water? Have I been just turning up at that job of mine or have I got another project on the go at the same time? If I have not changed my methods substantially in that time, then I am very likely to have failed to improve my successes. Everything is the same, and it is.

I think it is time to say stop to all that has happened before, because what I will achieve in the future has only vaguely and remotely has anyting to do with the past. That is a very important life lesson to learn. My future can be completely different to my past if I want it to be and the way to make that happen is to start right now, in the present, by examining my ways.

First, decide what you want to change: your salary, your relationships? Whatever it is, you can do it if you are prepared to change your approach – your methods – the causes that are responsible for producing those effects that you wish to change. - Will Edwards, Inspirational Guru

He said, the principle is always the same, if we want something better, then we need to change something because we are the reason of the results that are happening in our lives. We are attracting people around whether we like them or not, we attracted the job we are currently employed in and we attracted the salary that pays for the things we have we need in our lives.

With that said, my future does not need to be the same as my past. If I am ready to change by dealing with myself, in long-term, my future will never be anything like my past.