Lemonade Love

I'm ending my blogging hiatus - partly due to life-induced writer's block and partly due to being totally inundated with Facebook tags - to say thanks to Marj for this lemonade love she sent me for having a blog with "attitude and gratitude."

I can't say I've been sporting much of an attitude here these days - I've been a touch confused about life lately, hence the utter wasteland that is my creative life. But I am most definitely filled with gratitude for this wonderful affirmation from a spunky blogger and blog buddy whose entries I always enjoy. Hugs to you, Marj!

I've always blogged mainly for the catharsis of it - which is why my little corner of cyberspace has always been as random as I am in real life - and because I have always loved to write. I never expected it to last for as long as it has, nor have I expected to have found so many kindred souls through it who are actually happy to take this journey of growth along with me. And those are more things, huge things, that I am most certainly grateful for.

Now for my turn to spread the love... I am giving my lemonade love to:

1. Megamom - my once-teacher and life-mentor, who juggles the chaos that is her life with triplets and a full-time career with unflappable grace.

2. Manggy - who shares his love for food and life in this visually satisfying but hunger-inducing blog

3. Panaderos - whose insightful entries are bakery goodies of wisdom.

4. Iris - who's spunky and sassy and making her way through life heart-whole

5. Jean - who's always big on honesty and an attitude to die for

6. Abaniko - whose lovely photos of places he's been always inspire a tug of envy but more a dollop of gratitude about being alive in such a wonderful world.

7. Pepper - the ultimate Miss Positive powered by her faith;

8. Merry Cherry - who is following her heart into service to our countrymen.

9. Woobie - no one does attitude like Woobie does. :) No one. When it comes to romance matters, I want to be her when I grow up!

10. Honey - whose attitude towards living life to the fullest cannot be beat. I miss you, sis!

Your turn to spread the lemonade love!

Here are the rules:
1. put the logo on your blog or post
2. nominate at least 10 blogs, which show great attitude and/or gratitude!
3. be sure to link to your nominees within your post and let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog
4. share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.
5. How did you get a great attitude and gratitude

Okay... blogging done, off to yoga now. Have a good Sunday everyone! Click here to read the rest of this post.

Smack in Mundania and Other Blah Blahs

I have a confession to make. The utterly barren landscape of my blog over the past few days cannot be accounted for the busyness of my Real Life. The fact that I've recently discovered that my parents and aunts and uncles have discovered my online sanctuary may be playing a bit of a part in it (sorry, guys, but it's true - knowing you read my blog sort of weirds me out)- but that's another story for another day.

On the contrary, for the first time in months I've been relatively free to do whatever I want with my down time without any obligations hanging over my head. My life here has settled into a routine - and I suppose that's where some of my current ennui stems from. But for some weird reason, I'm not scrambling to take advantage of this lull to explore or to do more at the moment.

So what have I been doing apart from going through my day-to-day routine? Catching up on my pulp fiction reading list, for one. Backing up my dying iPod's music files. Experimenting with making my own salad rolls. Spending entire days off (apart from going to the gym for a work out) just lying around and doing nothing. I haven't even felt like blogging!

You'd think that all this down time has given me more time for introspection and figuring out what to do with the rest of my life. But I have persevered and succeeded in avoiding that as well.

I still have no definite plans for the foreseeable future - a bit of a concern when I am going on month eleven of what was allegedly my one year "break." Thinking about the future just gives me a headache - so I've been choosing not to think about the future at all. I know, I know - wonderfully mature behavior. Obviously, I am currently embracing the identity of drifter after being a pathologic planner all of my life.

I really need to pull myself out of this pit of blahs I've suddenly fallen into and get my positive energy going again.
Click here to read the rest of this post.

Out of Narnia

I first fell in love with the land of Narnia as a little girl watching a cartoon version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The story of four ordinary children stumbling by accident into a magical land of talking animals and other mythical creatures come to life immediately captured my imagination. But it was when I found the entire series of books a few years later in our school library that I became a lifelong devotee.

There are seven books in this series by Christian author C.S. Lewis, all of which are related to each other yet can stand alone. Despite criticisms against them in recent years for their alleged "racist" and "sexist" undertones, these books stand as classics that are still loved the world over by both children and adults alike even today.

I've read all of the books in the series too many times to count and, even today, I continue to go back to these stories over and over again. One thing I've enjoyed about revisiting these books as a grown up is finding parallels to my Christian faith woven into the narrative. While C.S. Lewis denies that he created Narnia as an allegory of Christianity, he does not deny the existence of similarities, specially between Christ and Aslan, the Great Lion son of the Emperor-Over-the-Sea, guardian and savior of Narnia.

Reading the books as an adult, I have learned to appreciate the stories through the lenses of my experiences and see the instances where the fiction mirrors my life, more specifically my walk in faith.

In one of the books in the series, when Aslan tells some of the children it would be their last visit to Narnia, he explains that was because it was time that they got to know him and love him in their own world. Because he had met them and allowed them to know him in the fantastic world of Narnia, it would be easier for them to meet him and recognize him in their own world.

I have been given the privilege to meet God in very personal way many times in my life. Like the children of the Narnia saga, these encounters have seemingly been a product of coincidence, but with eyes of faith, I've realized that they were really brought about by His design.

But once I am back in the Real World, it becomes so easy to forget.

It's so hard to hear His voice in the noise and distraction of life. It's so hard to see how He is moving in my life when I'm so caught up in my own concerns. I praise Him that despite my stubborn insistence on straying, He constantly brings me back to Narnia, to remind me that He is the God of miracles, the God of love, and the God who keeps His promises.

That is the constant challenge He has for me - that I may persevere in the walk that He has called me to walk even during the times in my life when I can only vaguely remember the brief glimpse I had of Him. And it is my prayer that He will give me the grace to have that seeking heart, that I may be sensitive to feel Him moving in my life, recognize Him in my everyday, and love Him unabashedly - even when I am out of Narnia.



Click here to read the rest of this post.

Party 101!

Hey, folks, there's a party in my Middle of Nowhere!

No, not because it's my birthday (that's still a few days away and another celebration altogether). It's because my blog has passed its 100th post mark - this is my 101st post. Welcome to Party Central 101!

I can't mark my blog's existence in years because you can see from the archive list that it's been around since 2005 - so technically it's over 3 years old. But I wanted a blog milestone to celebrate since I really just started blogging 6 months ago. Hence this big hullabaloo for reaching post number 100.

I initially started this blog to be a repository of random thoughts and gripes - and also as a means to practice my rusty writing skills. However, since I really got into blogging, this blog has evolved into a place to meet people of differing opinions and a place where I have learned much over these past few months. I've been having so much fun! Even if I've been confined to my very little corner of the blogosphere, it's been a really great place to be.

It's pretty obvious to regular visitors - (wowee, I still can't wrap my head around the concept of regular visitors I've never actually met!) - that this blog is still suffering from serious blogizophrenia. Personal diary one moment, travel blog the next - my thoughts bounce off the walls of this pinball mind of mine and posts come from all over the place. I am, as one of my new on-line friends, Linc, puts it - blogging in the "me niche."

However, despite my blog's needing a serious dose of direction, there are still people who come - and stay! So I'd like to thank everyone who reads my posts and engages me in a conversation every now and then. It's great to know that I'm not all alone my middle of nowhere in the blogosphere! I'm even more amazed to realize that while I started doing this to keep in touch with my friends, I've actually ended up making new ones through this blog - and that's really double the blessing.

So I'd like to give some (link) love to the people who have taken the time to regularly read and comment on my posts, to tag and be tagged back, to link and react, and who have become an informal circle of friends for me on-line - Manggy, Em Dy, Ris, Woobie, Panaderos, Mari, Ness, Joey, Marj, Megamom, Vanessa, all my fellow doctors from The Blog Rounds, and everyone who has ever made a comment that I haven't enumerated here. Thank you so much for your visits - and I look forward to having you guys around for the next 100 posts!

Oh, yeah... I'm not really sure what this means since I haven't really thought seriously about monetizing this site, but there is one additional thing to celebrate about aside from this being party 101 central.

Would you believe it? For a blog that started out as a means to find my way out of my quarter-life conundrum, that's not so bad at all. :)

So pull a chair, have a slice of cake, and blow out the candles with your hopelessly lost but happy hostess. The champagne is free flowing, and so is the beer - and whatever poison you may want to overload on. It's time to party!
Click here to read the rest of this post.

God Bless the Children

Today, May 15, 2008, Bloggers Unite in a project that aims to harness the power of the blogosphere "to help elevate human rights by drawing attention to the challenges and successes of human rights issues." Take up the challenge. Blog about it.

****

"The child shall not be admitted to employment before an appropriate minimum age; he shall in no case be caused or permitted to engage in any occupation or employment which would prejudice his health or education, or interfere with his physical, mental or moral development."

- Principle 9, Declaration of the Rights of a Child

To all Manila citizens, they are a ubiquitous sight - knocking on windows, peddling their wares. Rain or shine, night or day, they dart among cars stalled in traffic, knocking on windows with winsome smiles and wistful eyes. We have become so used to seeing them that we take for granted that, by virtue of who they are, they should not even be there at all.

photo by six foot small

Several years ago, as a college student researching for an article for the school paper, I had a glimpse of what some of these children's lives were like. My two interviewees were both flower vendors, both below twelve years old and small for their age.

Their typical day would consist of going to school early in the mornings until noon. Once home from school, they would help their mother and the other women of their community prepare the strings of sampaguita they were to sell in the evenings. After dinner, the girls would walk down the length of East Avenue to Quezon Avenue, most of the time staying out until past midnight until all their flowers had been sold.

As heartbreaking as their story was to me even then, I realize now that these two little girls were among the lucky ones.

Street children continue to be a major problem in the Philippines. Whether they are children working to augment their meager family incomes or children who have been abandoned and survive only through their own wiles, their numbers continue to swell to the hundreds of thousands around the country and are growing every day.

Instead of being accorded with protection and nurturing that is their right, in their young age they confront the harsh realities of the urban jungle. Undernourished, exposed to possible physical and sexual abuse, violence, and substance abuse, with no opportunities for education, and no moral guidance apart from the law of the streets, these children live on the edge of a very high precipice - over which many of them inevitably fall.

Innocence should be but an empty word to these children made to grow old before their time. Yet their resilience wins over the meanness that they encounter on the streets, and the joy and ebullience of childhood sometimes shines through. They are not beyond redemption.

Fortunately there are many organizations and kindhearted individuals who take up the cause of these lost children. Some provide shelters for the homeless, where volunteers take care of nourishing these children physically, mentally, and spiritually. These people help the kids reclaim their lost childhood and give them hope for a better life off the streets. However, despite these small victories, the enormity of the problem remains.

The challenge is for us to learn to see these children in a different light - and to shake off our matter-of-fact acceptance of their existence. The challenge is for us to realize that these children deserve to have a real childhood, the same kind of childhood we were blessed with. The challenge is to realize that our responsibility to uphold and defend the rights of each child extends to these desperate children of the streets, who have nowhere else to turn.

They are, after all, children, too.

****

Among those already doing the work (and whom we can volunteer with):
Childhope Asia Philippines
He Cares Foundation
Child Protection in the Philippines

For more eye opening fare on Child Labor in the Philippines, try to find a copy of the heart-rending documentary "Minsan Lang Sila Bata" ("Children only once").

Click here to read the rest of this post.

Must Love Dogs

is it possible for anyone to resist this funny face? (our family pug, Sage)

A person can fall under any of the following categories: dog people, cat people, other-kind-of-pets people, and get-those-animals-away-from-me people. I make no secret of the fact that I am and will always be a dog person.

Dogs are funny, amusing, and great companions. But it's their uncomplicated love and adoration of their "pack" that is a definite draw for true blue doggy lovers - and something that cat-people hold against them.

While there have always been dogs in our household for as long as I can remember, I really want to have my own dog. Not a family dog, but MY own dog. Unfortunately, given the uncertainty of my circumstances, it would be crazy to even consider raising a puppy now. But I've already gotten as far as coming up with the breeds I'm considering when I do get one - someday.

The breeds on my dream-puppy list, all things being ideal, are:



Chow chow - It's like having your own live big, cuddly teddy bear. Intelligent and independent, they won't mind being left at home very much and can adapt to apartment living. The drawback? A chow would require major grooming - and shedding hair would mean I might end up living in a giant hairball instead of an apartment. And they're notoriously hard to obedience-train.


Golden retriever - It is among the most popular breeds today. And why shouldn't it be? Highly intelligent, loyal, friendly, sweet, and gentle for their size. And so very pretty. This breed requires serious grooming, though - and lots of exercise. (Hello, me and lots of exercise? Does not compute!)



Boston Terrier - they look like miniature boxers, they're highly intelligent and easy to train - and they'll take well to apartment life. What more can a yuppie doctor ask for?





Any other suggestions for my dream-puppy list? Since I'm not going to be following through on this particular wish of mine for a long time, I'm still open to any and all recommendations.

In the meantime, I get my dog fix from our two family dogs. One is a stately old Boxer lady, who turned ten a few months ago (that's 70 in dog years, in case you didn't know), and the other is a incorrigible clown of a pug, who is about two years old. I am also silly in love with both of them, and would also most definitely consider these breeds when it's my turn to get my own puppy.

But most definitely, if I were ever to write a personals ad, one of my desired qualifications would be, "Must love dogs." Then again, as they say, you may never find the perfect man or woman, but you can always find the perfect dog... so I think I'm going to stick to chasing my elusive puppy dream for now!

****

Post-script: Here's another option for people who are looking for pets. I recently stumbled upon the site Me Find Home - and it's all about adopting pets from the PAWS animal shelter in Katipunan Avenue. They have around 30 adoptable dogs and 100+ cats, all rescued and neutered/spayed and dewormed, who are just waiting for someone to take them home. I'd consider getting one if I could, but we have our hands full already with the two dogs we have at home.

But if you're in a market for a dog or cat right now, you just might find your perfect canine or feline companion here. Spread the word to your other friends who might be looking for pets. These animals need good forever homes. You can check out details on how to adopt and how to get there on their website.

Click here to read the rest of this post.

A Surprise Visit from Wikipilipinas Filipina Stories

Ever since I started being a bum, I have developed the habit of checking my email first thing in the morning, and yesterday morning was no exception.

First order of the day, of course, was reading and publishing the comments coming in from my Blogger blog. Imagine my surprise when I found this message from Mrs. Noemi in my inbox:



The comment was made in my previous post, "The Filipina Doctor: Coming Full Circle" which I wrote initially for the first edition of The Blog Rounds.

Since the topic of the post was on Filipina doctors, and I was a regular visitor of the Filipina Images site, I decided to upload it there as well. On the off-chance that it would qualify as an entry to the Wikifilipinas Filipina Stories writing project, I submitted the post as an entry to the contest as well. Since the winners were to be announced on the same day as K's wedding, I had to turn the invitation down.

Of course, I never thought I would even place.

Still not quite believing it, I headed on over to the site, and a post on the event, together with a list of winners greeted me.


That's the only time it sank in that I really did win!

At the expense of sounding like an Oscar speech, I want to thank the judges for choosing my post as one of the top three. I feel really honored to have been picked because there were really great posts from other blogs submitted. You can find links to the other entries on this list.

While the contest is over, the Filipina Images campaign is an on-going project and an advocacy that deserves support from Filipino bloggers all over the blogosphere. I really appreciate the effort that the organizers of this campaign have put to change the image of the Filipina on-line.

It's about time that the world met that real Filipina - amazing, strong, resilient, and a force to be reckoned with.

So I invite my Filipina blogger sisters who still haven't placed the "'Yan ang Filipina!" icon on their blogs to do so and add "Filipina" to your blog description tags. Let's show the world we are proudly Filipina.




Click here to read the rest of this post.

Pinay MDs on Singlehood

While I am no longer living in the bitter barn this morning, the touchy topic of impending spinsterhood is still on my mind.

I've blogged about this topic several times, in varying moods, both in a positive and negative way. Inspired by Em Dy's comment about how lay people have a hard time understanding the dilemma of the single female doctor and as a spot check to see if I was going back to my old habit of unhealthily fixating about it, I turned to the blogosphere to see what my other single Pinay sisters in the profession had to say about their state of life.

Apparently, it's something they've also found worth blogging about. It's a celebration of us as women first and doctors last.

Doc Whisperer, a Pinay allergologist based in New York, writes about the alarming rate of suicides among single female doctors. On a more positive note, she shares with us an article about the Quirkyalone phenomenon.

Midnight Rainbow, a family medicine physician, talks about her own mortifying moment as a single woman under scrutiny in Tales from the Atretic Follicle Society.

Lalaloo, an internist-in-training, names one very real problem facing single Pinay doctors today - The Limited Selection Syndrome.

Kamoteng Myra, another young Pinay doctor based in the States, writes about a single person's ideal pet.

Kai, soon to be an internist-in-training as well, talks about men and shoes - or men as shoes - in Feet Freedom.

Doctor Angel-No-More on The Doctor is Out jots down her list of 49 Things to Do Before She Gets Married.

Tina, a US-based Pinay pediatrician, shares her empowering view celebrating the joys of being single and free in The Spinster Returns.

Finally, Em Dy gives us her own wise take on How to Be Happy.

Before I engaged in it regularly, I didn't understand the lure of journaling on-line. Even a compulsive writer like myself would be wary of spilling my guts on the world wide web, ready for everyone to feed on. After all, neurosis should be a private thing. But finding my voice through blogging has also taught me to hear the voices of others like me, and in this way helped me find friends in strangers and realize that I am not quite so alone.

These posts are as honest and as real as they can get. It underscores once more that while we all have a unique perspective on things, our concerns and struggles are very much the same.

And, yes, I'm feeling so much better now.

* * * *

If you are a Filipina doctor with a blog post on being single, please let me know through a comment - and I will gladly add your thoughts to the list.
Click here to read the rest of this post.

Proudly Pinoy Blogger, MD

As a newcomer to the blogosphere, I am still amazed by the sheer number of medical doctors who blog. Despite their busy schedules - whether as clinicians, researchers, teachers, or trainees - doctors from all stages in the journey, coming from different parts of the world, take time to distill their lives and thoughts for anonymous readers on the world wide web.

The content of these blogs are as varied as the doctors themselves. While some aim to make lay people more aware of health issues or the latest medical innovations, a good majority of the doctors' blogs I've stumbled upon so far are about their lives as doctors or their attempts to make a life outside of medicine.

Given the sheer number of Filipino bloggers loose on the blogosphere, it comes as no surprise that there are much more than a handful of Filipino doctors who blog. Doc Em Dy of Pulse has done a great job of making a listing of other Pinoy doc bloggers on line. To consolidate this growing Pinoy medical blogger community, Bone MD of The Orthopedic Logbook, has also come up with a project called The Blog Rounds. The Blog Rounds is a blog carnival specifically for Filipino medical bloggers similar to the Grand Rounds started on Blogborygmi almost 3 years ago.

As a doctor who blogs, I know I am biased towards reading blogs written by other doctors. It's always fascinating to see through other colleagues' eyes and discover that underneath all the surface differences, beyond the different medical systems, we have much more in common which each other than we realized. The experiences, the struggles, the frustrations, the rewards - the journey to becoming a doctor - is the same. But more importantly, while it is often not explicitly stated, doctors who blog contribute to demystifying medical life for our non-medical readers and showing the world that, yes - "doctors are human, too."

I think that The Blog Rounds is a great way of fostering a community spirit among Pinoy doctors on-line - wherever they may be. There is much we can learn from each other that we cannot learn from our books or our practice; and, in the same way, each of us, regardless of where we are on our journey, has much to teach. It also welcomes non-medical Pinoy readers into our world and gives our collective voice the chance to be heard.

Fellow Pinoy doctors and health care professionals interested in joining in the fun can read more about how to do this over here. But for this project in particular I am tagging my other Pinoy MD bloggers The Doc Whisperer and Caffeinated Gurl to join in the fun.

Sulat na tayo, mga kapatid!

* * * *

Speaking of blog carnivals, I'm very pleased to share that my entry "Anything and Everything" was featured in this week's Grand Rounds hosted at ChronicBabe.com. This week's theme was about New Beginnings, and I felt that experiences as a temporary general practitioner after being an adult internist-in-training for 3 years was just what they were looking for. Many thanks to Jenni for including my post!

Next week's Grand Rounds will be hosted at Canadian Medicine (many thanks to the site owners for the link love and the mention!) and you can read about the guidelines for submission over here.

Readers who enjoy medical related content will definitely enjoy the Grand Rounds, which features posts from medical bloggers from all over the world. If you want to know what medical life is really like, beyond Grey's Anatomy or House, MD, you can find the upcoming schedule and archive for the Grand Rounds blog carnival on Blogborygmi.

Happy reading!
Click here to read the rest of this post.

Lost... Unfound: a Blog Review

Call me morbid, but murder mysteries in particular have always had a peculiar lure for me. Perhaps it's the challenge of a good puzzle waiting to be solved, or maybe it's the underlying compulsion to grasp a murderer's motives - whether to protect ourselves from becoming victims or becoming these very people we fear. Or perhaps it is a little of both.

Apparently, this is a fascination shared by millions the world over, if the huge success of TV crime dramas like the CSI franchise or the multi-million mystery publication business is anything to go by.

Fans of the immensely popular crime and suspense genre will probably find the blog Can You Identify Me? Do You Know Me?, a site I found through Entrecard, an interesting and compelling read.

In this blog, the reader crosses the line separating the gripping world of crime fiction, whether in the form of books or television, into the gruesome yet an even more fascinating reality.



This site brings into focus those who are lost - murder victims found without any identification, people who are alive but who have forgotten who they are - and are still waiting to be found. The blog's author serves the victims who deserve to come home and find rest, as well as the loved-ones they left behind who cannot mourn their loss because they have no closure.

Each blog post describes an unidentified victim in detail - when and where she was found, what she was wearing, what was with her when she was found. But instead of describing these facts dispassionately, the author taps into our sense of outrage and pity by writing each entry from the point of view of the victims themselves.

The effect of using a first-person narrative is both powerful and eerie, as the reader hears voices from the grave begging for anyone to at least give them back their identity even if they cannot give them back their lives.

There are also composite drawings or pictures of the victims themselves, as well as objects that could possibly help those who knew them identify them. Posts end with contact information of the agencies in charge of each case and where to find these unidentified victims.

The posts I've browsed so far are about people who were found in the continental United States. I know most of my few readers are from the Philippines or around Asia, but I'm sure some of you know more high-profile bloggers who could possibly give this particular blog the attention it deserves. Check out the site - then pass the word.

These people deserve to be found. After all they have suffered, they deserve to come home.


Click here to read the rest of this post.