Forwarded Messages

Commencement Speech Given in the Ateneo de Manila University for the Graduates of 2015 You cannot imagine how great an honor it is for me to speak before you today. And that is certainly not a cliché or an exaggeration. Few people would ever guess that despite the many blessings I’ve received in over 30 years as a ballerina, most of my young life was spent pining for something that you all have and I don’t—a diploma from the Ateneo de Manila University. You see, I come from a certified Blue Eagle family. My father, his brother and my siblings all graduated from the Ateneo, with all four men in my family in the Honors Class since their elementary grades. Although I married a magna cum laude from Harvard. (Sorry, my husband made sure that I stuck that in there somewhere.) When I was seventeen, fresh out of high school, I found myself standing at a crossroad in my life: I was accepted in both the Ateneo and UP for college. But I decided to go to Russia instead and pur...

She was nobody. A nameless woman in a sea of people.  A woman with a secret: she had a gynecological problem that caused her to bleed continually. Under Jewish law, anyone that touched her would be ceremonially unclean. So she hid in the crowd, seeking anonymity and isolation. Jesus was with Jairus, an important man in the community, a ruler of the synagogue. They were on an urgent mission to save Jairus' daughter, who was gravely ill. The woman wanted to be healed as well. She had heard of Jesus and the miracles he had done. She knew that no holy man would touch her on purpose... they wouldn't want to defile themselves in that way. She would have to find a way to be healed in secret. The gospel of Mark tells the story: When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from ...

Re-posting from happy Can-D

 TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. 

TIP 1: Do Not Talk To Her As If She Is One of The Guys. Listen to guy buddies talk about anything for more than five minutes and you likely will hear one of them let the other know that he is an idiot. When men talk with their male friends, they tend to be direct or even argumentative. They share their opinions freely and bluntly. They jokingly insult each other. They blast anything the other guy says that they do not like or agree with. They rarely stop to think, "Am I being insensitive? Could I possibly be hurting his feelings?" The guy code is to let the chips fall where they may. Women are NOT like that. If a husband talks with his wife in the same manner he talks with his buddies, his directness, bluntness, or argumentativeness may well cause her to feel disrespected or controlled. He thinks he is being honest and forthright. She feels he is being a jerk. If you really want to be a better husband, understand that women speak a different language. Unless you l...

It was the music pumping through the speakers at the optometrist's that made me see you clear for who you are. The lyrics kept thrumming loud when I was standing there with my thick glasses, waiting for the receptionist. Waiting there with the Mennonite woman in her netted white bonnet and purple flowers falling down the cotton front of her cape dress. And Robin Thicke just keeps crooning it on some radio station like he's Marvin Gaye, like he knows the wants of women. And I'm sitting beside a Mennonite woman, us both bespectacled and motherly rounded, and I shift awkward in my chair when the song hits it grinding refrain, and there are men like you who know a woman wants a love that respects. There are men who wear old Wranglers and drive rusting mini-vans to pick up the kids after piano lessons. And pick up broccoli because it's on sale this week. And who stop those matronly vans to pick a bunch of the wild Black-eyed Susans growing in the...

The world's first temperature-controlled city, Mall of the World, located along Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai. Occupying a total area of 48 million sq. ft., the project will comprise the largest indoor theme park in the world, which will be covered by a glass dome that will be open during the winter months.  The project will also house the largest shopping mall in the world with an area of 8 million sq. ft., which will take the form of an extended retail street network, different to the typical shopping mall concept currently available in Dubai. Additional districts within the project will include a wellness dedicated zone catering to medical tourists, a cultural celebration district as well as a wide range of hospitality options comprising 20,000 hotel rooms catering to all types of tourists. Once completed, the City is projected to become a year-round destination, welcoming around 180 million visitors annually.  -- Dubai Holdings