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WHAT MATTERS
9/3/2010 5:42:13 AM
LIVE A LIFE THAT MATTERS: On August 25, 2010, I received an email from Mary Ann San Mateo, a Filipina who is now in the United States, exhorting everyone to live a life that matters. I was awed by the message, and I am sharing it with you today.
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>Here is the email: "Live A Life That Matters--- Ready or not, someday it will come to an end. There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
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>"All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else. Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
>It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed. Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear.
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>" So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire. The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away. It won't matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived, at the end. It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
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> -ooo-
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>CHOOSE A LIFE THAT MATTERS: "Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant. So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured? What will matter is not what you bought but what you built, not what you got but what you gave. What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
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>"What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught. What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example. What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
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>"What is important is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone. What will matter are not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you. What will matter is how long you will be remembered by whom and for what.
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>"Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident. It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice. Choose to live a life that matters. Regards, Mary Ann F. San Mateo, Lavendongroup / Rapid Access, LLC…"
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> -ooo-
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9/3/2010 5:42:47 AM
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LET US FORGIVE
8/29/2010 10:50:30 PM
Altho it's hard, let's forgive one another. Hatred/resentment is a rust on the soul, vexatious to the mind,onerous to the heart and toxic to our health. For our own mental,physical and spiritual health, let us get rid of this toxin. "To err is human,to forgive, divine." (Alexander Pope). "No man can make me stoop so low as to hate him."(Booker T. Washington")."Forget about the wrong things people do to you. You must not try to get even. Love your neighbor as yourself".(Leviticus 19:18).
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9/3/2010 5:57:59 AM
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WHAT IS THE BEST RELIGION
7/20/2010 8:29:05 PM
A brief dialogue between a Brazilian theologist Leonardo Boff and the Dalai Lama.
Leonardo Boff - one of the renovators of the Theology of Freedom.
Dalai Lama
In a round table discussion about religion and freedom in which Dalai Lama and myself were
participating at recess, I maliciously, and also with interest, asked him: “Your holiness, what
is the best religion?”
I thought he would say: “The Tibetan Buddhism” or “The oriental religions, much older than Christianity”
Dalai Lama paused, smiled and looked me in the eyes ….which surprised me because I knew of the
malice contained in my question. He answered: “The best religion is the one that gets you closest
to God. It is the one that makes you a better person. The religion that will do that for you is the best
religion”
To get out of my embarassment with such a wise answer, I asked: "What is it that makes me better"
He responded: “Whatever makes you more compassionate, more sensible, more detached, more loving,
more humanitarian, more responsible, more ethical.”
I was silent for a moment, marvelling and even today thinking of his wise and irrefutable response:
“I am not interested, my friend, about your religión or if you are religious or not. “What really is important
to me is your behaviour in front of your peers, family, work, community, and in front of the world.”
“Remember, the universe is the echo of our actions and our thoughts.”
“The law of action and reaction is not exclusively for physics. It is also of human relations. If I act with
goodness, I will receive goodness. If I act with eviI, I will get evil.”
“What our grandparents told us is the pure truth. You will always have what you desire for others.
Being happy is not a matter of destiny. It is a matter of options.”
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WORDS OF WISDOM FROM A FRIEND
7/10/2009 6:28:39 AM
Subject: words of wisdom
Words of Wisdom
A Birth Certificate shows that we were born
A Death Certificate shows that we died
Pictures show that we lived!
Have a seat . .. . Relax . . . And read this slowly.
I Believe...
That just because two people argue,
It doesn't mean they don't love each other.
And just because they don't argue,
It doesn't mean they do love each other.
I Believe...
That we don't have to change friends if
We understand that friends change.
I Believe...
That no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.
I Believe...
That true friendship continues to grow, even over the e longest distance.
Same goes for true love.
I Believe...
That you can do something in an instant
That will give you heartache for life.
I Believe...
That it's taking me a long time
To become the person I want to be.
I Believe...
That you should always leave loved ones with
Loving words. It may be the last time you see them.
I Believe...
That you can keep going long after you think you can't.
I Believe...
That we are responsible for what
We do, no matter how we feel.
I Believe...
That either you control your attitude or it controls you.
I Believe...
That heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.
I Believe...
That money is a lousy way of keeping score.
I Believe...
That my best friend and I, can do anything, or nothing and have the best time.
I Believe...
That sometimes the people you expect to kick you When you're down, will be the ones to help you get back up .
I Believe...
That sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry,
But that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.
I Believe...
That maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had
And what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.
I Believe...That it isn't always enough, to be forgiven by others.
Sometimes, you have to learn to forgive yourself.
I Believe...
That no matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn't stop for your grief.
I Believe...
That our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are,
But, we are responsible for who we become.
I Believe...
That yo u shouldn't be so eager to find
Out a secret. It could change your life Forever.
I Believe...
Two people can look at the exact same
Thing and see something totally different.
I Believe...
That your life can be changed in a matter of
Hours by people who don't even know you.
I Believe...
That even when you think you have no more to give, when
A friend cries out to you - you will find the strength to help.
I Believe...
That credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being.
I Believe....
That the people you care about most in life are taken from you too soon.
I Believe...
That you should send this to all of the people that you believe in, I just did.
'The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything;
They just make the most of everything.
(FROM A FRIEND)
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GOOD NIGHT LOUIE LIWANAG
4/27/2009 2:31:22 PM
They say that when the heart is full, the mouth could not speak. Especially when what fills the heart is grief, when an unspeakable sorrow burdens the heart, no words are adequate to express this grief.
At best, albeit with great disbelief, one could only surrender to the infinite will and wisdom of the Almighty, and running out of words to say, simply cry out: “God’s finger touched Louie last night, and he slept.”
As what Brod Consul General Ed De Vega did, when he roused me from my sleep last Wednesday morning with that email that screamed all the way from Barcelona, Spain, informing everyone in the Sigma Rho Fraternity that Luis C. Liwanag II, our beloved Louie, my kabatch, Undersecretary in the Department of Budget and Management, is dead at 61.
I am in the middle of a dreadful dream, I told myself. Or the recipient of a cruel prank.
How could Louie be dead, when it was not long ago when I saw him in the pink of health, his infectious laughter resonating at the EDSA Shangrila during the platinum fraternity ball of the Sigma Rho? He was with his son, and our brod, Lean, and we talked a lot about our sons whom we hoped would turn out to be better Sigma Rhoans than we have been or could ever be.
How could Louie venture into that undiscovered bourne from which no traveller would ever return, when he has yet to finish the second revision of a book he was writing which would have enlightened us about the management styles of the five presidents he had served? The chapters on Arroyo’s “experimental conjugal management” would have made for an interesting—and instructive—reading.
How could we lose this magnificent specimen of manhood who played low-handicap golf, drove a mean backhand volley at tennis, ran the full course of marathons and, without even trying, could beat Rene Saguisag in his prime at ballroom dancing?
How we wish we could divert that unalterable move of the Divine Finger so that, by the sheer force of our faith, we could tempt it to rouse Louie from that deep sleep of peace!
Here was a man who, it seemed to us, could not—would not—stop for death…because he was too engrossed in the business of living. And what a life it was! Louie was the crowning glory of the Sigma Rho in his generation. He convened the Inter-Fraternity Council to stem the violence and mayhem that often erupted as a result of juvenile exuberance on campus. To provide healthy aggressive outlets for the brawn, he spearheaded the Olympics of Fraternities. To channel the combative urges of the brain, he sponsored debates between student groups. His erstwhile mentor, our archon Mengdu Pauig of Cagayan, recalls that during his term as grand archon of the Sigma Rho, membership reached an all-time high, and members of the fraternity, inspired by his leadership, rose to supremacy by grabbing the helm of practically all other campus organizations often through strategies that combined both brain and brawn.
With all his accomplishments at a very young age, and the network he had built, he was being enticed to join politics. But Louie demurred, preferring to work silently in government.
So it was not by mere whimsy or fanciful notion that the then UP Law Dean Irene Cortes described Louie as “Mr. Management Man.” Dean Cortes saw how Louie managed the fraternity in a fashion no different from what a skillful CEO does with his organization. As grand archon of the Sigma Rho, Louie saw to it that its resources—its resident members, alumni and their vast network—were fully harnessed for effectual activities on- as well as off-campus.
Our brod and UP law dean Bart Carale had nothing but praises for Louie, thus: “Grand Archon Liwanag leaves behind him a Fraternity that will cherish a legacy of intellectual craftsmanship, political acumen and a warm and genial leadership.”
This warm and genial leadership, to say the least of Louie’s attributes, had been very much in evidence as Louie, starting from the administration of Ferdinand Marcos down to that of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, went the rounds of executive positions in the Public Estates Authority, Maritime Industry Authority, Light Railway Transit Authority, National Housing Authority, Bureau of Internal Revenue, and Malacañang as Senior Deputy Executive Secretary to Presidents Ramos, Estrada and Arroyo.
The general public will remember Louie very well in a TV footage and in news photos of him lazing at the swimming pool of President Fidel Ramos (who promoted him to his position as Senior Deputy Executive Secretary), together with El Tabaco himself, right after Ramos relinquished the presidency to his successor, former President Joseph Estrada. That intimate photo showed the trust and the camaraderie that Ramos placed in, and enjoyed with, Louie, who, despite his outer bonhomie and affable persona, was a competent, dedicated and serious public servant.
On Sundays, a smaller section of the public saw Louie in yet another light of his multi
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6/29/2009 10:21:52 PM
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