Words to live by Follow Your Dreams

Good morning friends. There are certain things to live by. One of it is to follow your dreams. Some says that if you will not follow your dream as if you will die. I came across with the article compiled by Natasha Persaud. It’s a good one. Those who gave more importance to their dreams, you have to aim for that. I want to share it to you.

Each of us has the power of transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary—the everyday into the special. - Johnnetta B. Cole

Great discoveries are made only by exercising the imagination. - Anonymous

I’ve always tried to go a step past wherever people expected me to end up. - Beverly Sills

To be true to yourself take some action—no matter how small. - Barbara Braham

As soon as you feel too old to do a thing, do it. - Margaret Deland

We can be anything. Maybe this entire experience is a series of lessons to learn that you can—yes, you can. - Maya Angelou

It’s where we go, and what we do when we get there, that tells us who we are. - Joyce Carol Oates

Those born with a talent which is meant to be used find their greatest joy in using it. - Johann von Goethe

We don’t know who we are until we see what we can do. - Martha Grimes

When people say, “It can’t be done” of “you don’t have what it takes,” it makes the task all the more interesting. - Lynn Hill

Compiled by Natasha Persaud

Dead or sleeping?

Dead or just sleeping? Don’t worry, those seals are just sleeping. They just love to gather all together and sleep together.

Keep It Big

Whether or not we mean to, most of us have a habit of making God smaller than he really is. “Everyone approaches God with a set of preconceptions gleaned from many sources,” says Yancey. “Church, Sunday school lessons, stray comments by believers and skeptics alike.” Such images aren’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, without mental images of some kind, it would be impossible to think about God at all.

But we need to remember that the God who we clothe in these images is in truth much bigger than we can actually imagine. When we’re not shrinking God down, we’re often busy doing just the opposite, shrinking ourselves down, pretending that God is too big and too important to hear us. Who am I to bother God with my problems? We ask, God doesn’t have time to listen to me.

Wrong. When we pray, we are entering God’s time—eternity. And eternity is very different from time as we ordinarily experience it. rather than picture God as a busy switchboard operator juggling incoming requests, we should think of him as a deeply relaxed and sympathetic listener, a powerful who can absorb all of our thoughts and prayers and needs. To enter God’s time is to accept that he is always available. He’s not hiding way off in the future. God is available now.

And as Yancey puts it, “The common question, “How can God listen to millions of prayers at once?” betrays an inability to think outside time. God’s infinite greatness, which we would expert to diminish us, actually makes possible the very closeness that we desire. A God unbound by our rules of time has, quite literally, all the time in the world for each one of us.” – Ptolemy Tompkins, Senior Editor

Baby Girl in a Push Cart

Baby girl is enjoying her ride on a push cart with her mom. She seems to be sleeping there but she is not. She is looking at the basket on top of the cart. Cute baby. Kheela is her name.

You’ve got the Power!

Here’s a very unfortunate reality that happens everywhere: the buck gets passed. I’m referring to this negative attitude we frail humans have: Everything is everybody else’s fault, not mine! We just fall prey to the temptation and keep on passing the buck to others.

Let’s go review those times. You know, those times when each of us said:

It’s not my fault – he did it!
What?! Me? Don’t blame me – if she didn’t do this and that in the first place, then everything would be ok!
It’s not my fault; I was just born with this set of genes!

(Try saying those things again, this time in a really winning voice.)

Now, do you realize how silly those things are? By passing the buck, we are robbing ourselves of this great power we possess. Something even greater.

We all possess the power to change our lives!

We can’t choose the genes we’re born with, or the way we were raised as kids, or the environment we grew up in. But we don’t have to be slaves to our genes, or our environment. Sure, they all affect us, but the last word is still up to us. We can change ourselves. We can expand our boundaries. We can develop ourselves more, without being limited by anything but our determination. That’s what’s great about being human. We are adaptable – and we conquer our environment! We don’t just suffer hardship or misfortunes – we surpass them!

As my life is not so meaningful these past few years I had to change myself for the better. Reading books, magazines and everything got me an idea to do things. I write now a lot. And I’m sure it will help me to become a good writer even not a famous one. I’ve got lots of interesting topics in my mind. I want to share it all with you. You can see my first content there in my blog. I will be planning each of my article there a unique one. I will make sure that everyone who visits http://pari-parisblog.blogspot.com/ will be contented. Every thing in there will bring up to date. So I do thankful to you all who will visit my blog. You may also freely give your suggestions for any article you wanted and I will do write about it. Thanks again for visiting my blog (Pari’s blog) . . . . . http://pari-parisblog.blogspot.com/ will make you believe in everything.

Believe: Trust in me! I’ve got the power!

Faith Healing and Psychic Surgery: Fact or Fallacy (3 of 3)

Good morning friends. This is the last part of my article about healing and psychic surgery. Enjoy your reading.

Is psychic surgery true? Studies of foreign researchers have remained inconclusive, some says it’s real, and others say it’s complete fakery. The inconsistency perhaps lies in the fact that some healers are genuine but there are others who are fakes. And there are times when even genuine healers face an operation when they have temporarily lost powers.

Still it is a fact that these healers the genuine ones at least, have healed thousands upon thousands of people from all over the world specially those otherwise given up by their country’s medical doctors.

Despite discouragement from some foreign governments and the adverse publicity against the faith healers, there are still thousands of foreigners, who flock to the Philippines every year in search of a miracle cure. Some go back either completely or partially healed; others not at all.

My friend have personally observed around 33 psychic surgeons in the Philippines and one in Brazil. She have witnessed thousands of psychic surgeries performed by them. She have also two laboratory reports of specimens taken from patients of the healers and another report from a Japanese medical specialist. All the reports proved to be genuine. Still we cannot openly advocate faith healing except perhaps as a last resort, because we are dealing here with a paranormal phenomenon whose results cannot be pre-determined or predicted. A lot depends on the powers of the healer at the time, the belief and attitudes of the patient and the people surrounding the healing process. It is a mystery that waits further study and explanation.

For those interested in seeing a Filipino faith healer, the above points are worth considering. Although it had seen many spectacular cures in the course of extensive research on the subject, it had also seen many spectacular failures. The decision lied in the visitor where he should subject himself to faith healing or not..

What do you think ? . . . . . . . . . . . . FACTS OR FALLACY ?

Faith Healing and Psychic Surgery: Fact or Fallacy (2 of 3)

Good morning friends. This is the second part of my article. You will be thinking a lot here if it is fact or fallacy.

Faith healing with its sensational process of bare-handed psychic surgery is one of the most extraordinary and controversial examples of and indigenous paranormal phenomenon in the country that many from all over the world must have heard but know little about.

Of the thousands of spiritual or faith healers scattered all over the Philippines, only around 150 to 200 can perform psychic surgery. And only about ten percent (10%) of these have consistent powers to practice regularly.

Bare-handed psychic surgery exists only in the Philippines. A similar phenomenon is found in Brazil, but their healers use knives, scalpels, scissors and other instruments to perform “surgery.” I decline psychic surgery as the process by which the healer while entranced opens up the body of the patient with his bare hands, take out diseased tissues, and closes the opening without any trace of the incision at all.

It is believed that this is done through the intercession of a benign spirit or saint using the healer as a channel or medium of the healing force or energy. All faith healers are members of one spiritist group or another.

Still enjoying ?

Faith Healing and Psychic Surgery: Fact or Fallacy (1 of 3)

Good morning everyone. When you visit the Philippines you will see a lot of things here. You will experience things which couldn't touch your mind ever before. Let me share you what I am saying. this is just the first part of my article. I wish that you will follow me till the end. You will be wondering if it is a fact or fallacy.

For about half of the 24 years in the business management of my friend, she was engaged in a very unusual hobby after office hours, doing research and writing books and articles on various paranormal and psychic phenomena. During her offbeat hours, the presence of a fascinating hidden culture of the Philippines became evident to her – a culture that is much more fundamental, more powerful and more pervasive than the outward culture that the ordinary visitor to our country becomes easily familiar with.

This hidden aspect of our culture, which she call the esoteric cultures of the Philippines, consists of beliefs in the supernatural, in the existence of various in habitants of the spirit world and the many rituals and practices connected with their supplication and intervention into our daily affairs. The esoteric culture also refers to the Filipino’s persistent belief in the awesome powers of the mind to transform one’s life and protect him from harm so long as that mind is connected with the spirit source. The paranormal is part of the hidden culture.

The Philippine Paranormal Research Society, a non-profit organization found in 1986, together with several business professionals and scientists, defines the paranormal as “any observable or experience able phenomenon, object, energy, force, event or human capability for which there is yet no generally accepted scientific explanation.”

Don’t miss the second part of my article . . . . . . . You’ll be surprised !!!!!!!!

Happy Heart Day

Happy Valentine's Day To All

France, Our Lady of Lourdes

Our Lady of Lourdes

February 11

Philippine Classical Music (1 of 6)

Good morning friends. For me music is an art. It has a pleasing sound that can make us imagine and dream. I am a music lover. For those who were enjoying music too, Philippine Classical Music is the great. You will love to hear it and while you are listening as you are being swing by the sound. It has a distinctive sound that you will love most.

Philippine music today is a unique blend of the traditions of the East and the West. It represents a resilient and wide variety of oriental and occidental influences, with the scale tipping heavily to the latter. Because of our long exposure to the culture of the western world, an imbalance in our cultural values was brought about by inevitable historical circumstances and foreign domination in the course of our growth as a nation. Our Asian heritage which existed prior to colonization was almost obliterated. A large percentage of our population understand and perform 197th century European and American types of Philippine music, both parochial and secular.

Philippine music presents the collective experience of its people as expressed in its folksongs and creative music, a reflection of their feelings, hopes and aspirations. Philippine music may be classified into traditional/indigenous and contemporary/western. There are two types of traditional Philippine music—the indigenous music of the pre-hispanic origin, and the hispanized or western-derived. This paper specifically deals with western-derived classical music.

The Spanish Period (1521-1896)

Four centuries of Spanish rule of Christian evangelism over the Philippine archipelago left indelible imprints on the socio-civic and religious life of Filipinos. Spanish friars came to the Philippines and taught the natives host to sing plain chant for Catholic Services.

Philippine Classical Music (2 of 6)

The most famous composer who excelled in religious music in the western tradition was Marcelo Adonay (1840-1928) of Pakil, Laguna.

New musical forms still in practice developed around religious and secular activities. The pasyon chants story of the Passion sung in the vernacular during Lent; the cenaculo depicts drama of Christ’s passion and death; the santacruzan and flores de Mayo celebrated the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary; the dalit airs mournful plaint; the awit chants story based on the Crusades; the tagulaylay recites lament; the kumintang is a war song turned love song; the kundiman sings typical love song in binary form; the duplo is a literary-musical joust; the carillo demonstrates shadow play, and the comedia or moro-moro depicts the fight between Mohammedans and Christians.

A few bamboo organs from Spanish models were constructed in the 19th century, the most famous of which is the Las Pinas bamboo organ built in 1818 by Augustinian friar Diego Cera. After its repair/restoration in Bonn, Germany in 1975, this particular bamboo organ has become the setting for annual organ festival at Las Pinas in February for the past 15 years.

A strong sense of nationalism was incited among composers and librettists by the Filipino rebellion of 1895 against Spain. Tagalog playwrights wrote revolutionary sarsuelas (song-plays) depicting contemporary Philippine life and culture. The first operetta was Sandugong Panaginip (Dream-Alliance) with libretto by Pedro Paterno and music by Ladislao Bonus. Julian Felipe composed the Martsa Nacional which later became the official anthem of the Philippines. Original lyrics were by Jose Palma in 1899, translated into English by Camilo Osias and later into Filipino by the Department of Education and Culture in the 1950s.

Philippine Classical Music (3 of 6)

Literary-musical organizations appeared in Manila and nearby provinces. Foreign artists and musical groups came to the Philippines in the 19th century in the course of their Asian torus and presented a wide range of concerts, operas, literary and brass band concerts.

American Period (1898-1946)

A co-educational system of public education was introduced by the American colonizers. Filipino and foreign folksongs were taught by rote throughout the country. American jazz and film music gained a foothold among the younger generation. European classical music and a new method of piano pedagogy was introduced by Sister Baptista Battig, a German Benedictine missionary who studied with Ludwig Deppe in Germany. In 1908, she founded the music school of the St. Scholastica’s College where there influence was lasting.

The Conservatory of Music of the University of the Philippines was established in 1916 to counteract the onslaught of American jazz and to raise the standards of performance and public appreciation for fine classical music. The first two directors were Wallace George and Robert L. Schofield, succeeded in 1926 by Alexander Pippay, a Viennse conductor/composer who introduced changes in the curriculum and appointed European artists in the teaching staff. He resigned in 1931 and founded the Manila Academy of Music.

Francisco Santiago (1881-1983), Santiago formed a triumvirate of composers known for their sense of nationalism, teachings and compositions. They wrote works n the larger forms: sonata, concerto, symphony, symphonic poems, mostly based on folk themes.

Founded in 1903 under the direction of Walter H. Loving, the Philippine Constabulary Band carried a long tradition of brass bands dating back to the 19th century. The PC Band gained international recognition when it won the first prize at the St. Louis Exposition in Missouri in 1904.

Philippine Classical Music (4 of 6)

It gave regular Sunday concerts at the Luneta par. The PC Band was further recognized in 1945 by col. Antonino Buenaventura and became a convertible symphonic band, continuing to date with involvement in varied civic and cultural activities. Provincial bands have become the purveyor of classical music throughout the country, and an integral part of town fiestas as well as a laboratory for young Filipino composers today.

A foretunner of the Manila Symphony Orchestra (MSO), the Constabulary Civic Orchestra was founded in 1926 by Alexander Lippay with the PC Band and faculty and students of the UP Conservatory of Music as members. The formal organization of MSO took place in 1932 through the efforts of Trinidad F. Legarda to bring music of the masters to the masses.

An outgrowth of the MSO is the Manila Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Sergio Z. Esmilla, which holds its concert season at PCIBank in Makati. The first Filipino artists to win international recognition abroad was soprano Jovita Fuentes, Isang Tapales, Merceds Matias, bass Jose Mossessgeld Santiago-Font, and violinists Ramon Tapales, Ernesto Vallejo and Luis Balencia.

Japanese Occupation Period (1942-1945)

The Japanese discouraged jazz and the music of the western allies, and favored the creation and performance of native musical forms. Prizes were awarded to compositions utilizing native themes. Filipino composers and conductors were invited to give concerts. The impresario; Alfredo Lozano organized the New Philippine Symphony Orchestra composed of Filipino musicians.

One of the few music schools that were open during the war was the Philippine Conservatory of Music affiliated with the Philippine Women’s University, founded by vocal pedagogue Felicing Tirona, with select faculty from the UP Conservatory of Music in its roster.

The works of Japanese composers like Kozyak Yamada were performed in special concerts. However, Japanese music left no imprint on the style and content of Philippine music.

Philippine Classical Music (5 of 6)

The works of Japanese composers like Kozyak Yamada were performed in special concerts. However, Japanese music left no imprint on the style and content of Philippine music.

Post-war/Contemporary Period (1946 to date)

After independence in 1946, Philippine music showed a marked growth in cultural consciousness and nationalism. Music schools increased from the pre-war 12 to 33, offering Bachelor of Music courses in piano, voice, strings and wind instruments, music theory, composition and music education. Some schools offer course for the Master of Music degree.

The League of Filipino Composers was established in 1955with 11 charter members. Filipino composers continued writing major works using western idioms with conventional traditions utilizing folk themes and legends. The concerto, symphony, symphonic poem, overture, suite, opera, choral, chamber, art song, ballet and incidental music were written during this period.

Contemporary composers utilized percussive dissonance, polyrhythm, atonality, music concrete, electronic music, synthesis of East/West in fresher modes, producing works of distinct cultural personality.

The ethnomusicologist/composer Jose Maceda whose exposure to Asian music and Filipino tribal music has produced an embodiment of his advanced thinking combining sounds with 20th century techniques in his avant-garde compositions.

Pioneering on the synthesis of East/West idioms, this writer has utilized ethnic Filipino/Asian instruments in her works. The younger group of composers led by Ramon P. Santos and Francisco P. Feliciano and followers like Ruben Federizon have pursued Asian environmental orientation, producing avant-garde works like Santos’ Singaw for jew’s harp, takumbo, gongs, violin, and Tinig for voices and percussions; Federizon’s Gabag-an for voices and ethnic instruments, and Tinig ng Lupa (Song of the Earth).

Phippine Classical Music (6 of 6)

An unprecedented cultural renaissance in the country came with the building of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, established by the former First Lady, Imelda R. Marcos, and was formally opened to the world in 1969. It has become the showcase for the works of Filipino artists in music, dance, drama and the visual arts. It has presented various national and international festivals. Celebrating its 20th year in 1989, the Cultural Center held a year-long series of performances in retrospect for outstanding works of Filipino composers, painters and choreographers.

Three important working agencies organized under the auspices of the Cultural Center are the National Music Competitions for Young Artists (NAMCYA) established in 1973 to discover and nurture young musical talents through competitions in provincial, regional and national levels in piano, voice, solo instruments, chamber, family ensemble and ethnic music; the Philippine Society for Music Education (PSME) organized in 1971 to upgrade the teaching competencies of music teachers through training workshops and seminars; and the Piano Teachers Guild of the Philippines (PTGP) founded in 1973 to raise the teaching performance standards in piano through regional competitions and seminars.

Meanwhile the Cultural Center of the Philippines continues its functional role as the catalyzing factor in bringing cultural programs throughout the Philippines with its outreach program, promoting international cultural exchanges with foreign countries. Its two-fold program promotes local artists and brings outstanding foreign performers to the Philippines to enhance the cultural scene. Its resident orchestra, the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of music director Oscar Yatco, carries a regular performing arts season throughout the year.

The Cultural Center places strong focus on the function of the arts in education for defining national identity, improving the quality of life of the people and the exaltation of the human spirit in the country’s development as a nation. – Dr. Lucrecia R. Kasilag