2018

As we approach the end of 2019, I am getting many prompts to look back and take stock of my accomplishments, failures, joys and sadness of 2019 and then to create a plan for what I want to accomplish in 2019.

Okay I am in but for the 2019 bit. 2018 was another difficult year for me but much less the past 6 years before it. The first half of this year was full of course corrections and endings. In this last have, I find myself in a holding pattern, reaching out for my next steps on many fronts but not being able to grab them. I guess and hope this is the rest period and it will end soon.


I am healthier than I was this time last year, my Spanish and French comprehension have improved, I finished the year-long study of ‘A Course in Miracle’ and I am capable of meditating for 20 minutes at a time (I could sit for 5mins this time last year).

I made new friends and know who I want to be regarding my relationship with others, my work and myself. I know what kind of people I want in my life.

 My favorite thing about 2018 was the unexpected role model that came into my life. Because of this person, I am a little braver, more open and my light is slipping out from under the bushel.

 

My Journey continues

My journey continues…Kind of

Though I haven’t succeeded in starting a new job and my financial health is stuck in the mud, I am excited to say that I have succeeded in other goals.

 I successfully completed my term as co-leader of the Women's Employee Group at my organization.

A year ago, I could hardly comb my hair without experience neck and shoulder pain and now I can do leg lifts and handle 12.5 pounds weights at the gym.

In September, I enrolled in a beginner’s Spanish class to be able to comprehend the usage of the verbs "Estar", and "Ser", and yesterday I completed my last class.

 I also started to review "La Langue Française" and I am very excited that my comprehension has improved.

My drive with learn Spanish and improving my French grammar has led me to two new loves on Netflix. My two-favorite new obsession are two television series, Gran Hotel from which aired in Spain from 2011 to 2013 and from France, currently in its 3^rd season, Dix pour cent (Call my Agent).

Keeping Calm internally and Externally

Living on this beautiful earth is a gift but it can be emotionally exhausting when dealing with others, whose taste, values, and attitude, spirits and life views differ from your own. It make so much sense why most of us do seek to build communities with people we think are just like us.

I am a proponent of the sayings “You can’t control another person’s reaction, you can only control your own” and “It is none your business what someone else thinks about you”.


To follow these life tenets,  I am happy that the book “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz exists. I like that it exists because going to bed at the end of each day with a joyful heart and a peaceful mind is one of life's blissful gifts I want to experience.

My grandmother use to say that when she saw me angry, she knew I was always in the right because I only become enraged  when I know I am right and it is time to say enough is enough, especially in situation when someone is being inconsiderate towards me or others. 


As I got older, I learned to pick my battles and acquaintances carefully, while remaining open to interactions and ideas that makes me a well-round person. I have also been doing great at stopping the paralyzing worries of what others thought of me, worries that would keep me awake all night,  worries that would  stop me from experiencing life and from sharing my ideas and opinions.

As I go deeper into my spiritual practice, I am learning to create a world that I would love to live in, one in which I have a life that is respectable, happy, engaging, productive, and meaningful life. I am also learning to deal with life’s curveballs a fruitful way.

For a while now I have been going through a transformative period and as I near its end, and enter into another evolutionary stage, I am happy that Mr. Ruiz’s book came into my life. I have known about the book for years but it is only just recently that I read it. Every day before I start my day, as part of my Morning Prayer and quiet time, I recite the four agreements to myself. Thank you, Don Miguel Ruiz. I am looking forward to these agreements becoming part of my innate habits.


Since I am saying thank you, I want to thank my favorite Iconoclast, Cate Blanchett, to my friends on 12 and Beacon of light radio stations, because, of you all, I will  keep my light from under the bushel.

We've debated, now let's take action. Shall we?

I've been thinking about all the summits, seminars and workshops we organize to address societal and workplace issues. Every year, many of these events, attempt to solve the same issues that were tackled in past years or by other organizations in the previous months. In fact, I have gone to many and even helped organized a few and my takeaway has also been solutions similar to ones I have heard before.

Lately I am feeling the urge to move beyond just talking. I know for certain that we have come up with many great solutions, and I feel it is time to implement them.



In the past, whenever I am at a seminar, I usually think to myself, why am I here? What I am going to do with this information I am getting?
Lately, I have been using these questions to help me select the seminars, workshop or talks I take part in because I realized that after each event, when the exciting of being part of these engaging dialogs fade, I would tuck the solutions I gathered away because I don’t have mechanism to implement the solutions.

But now instead of refusing to participate or to listen because I don’t have the influence to move things forward, I need to fight to be heard; I need to keep asking, the question, ‘how do we move forward from just talking to taking actions?’ to others. I need push to work collaboratively with those who have the influence to create the vehicle for change to actualize.

So world, how do we move from talking about equality for women in the workplace and in life to taking actions to make sure it is a reality?




Update!!
Interesting development form UN Women's Global Innovation Coalition for Change (GICC). Please read.

The situation at Myanmar: How can this and others like it stop, now and forever?

Yesterday I watched the briefing of the UN Security Council on the plight of the Rohingya suffered at the hands of Myanmar Military and their currently state as refugees in Bangladesh.

As I listened to representatives from UNDP, UNHCR and several Countries speak for the refugees, this thought keep plaguing me: How can we get the perpetrators and people like them to stop themselves from harming others before they lose their souls?

I am happy for organizations like the United Nations, and for the Countries around the world working towards ending these atrocities and providing support to refugees.

I am happy for democratic laws that can hold people accountable for their crimes and deter others from committing atrocities against another person or people.

How can we get the perpetrators of such crimes to stop themselves?

How can we teach these perpetrators that abusing those they see as “different” is a behavior of lowness not honor?

Should we teach our fellow humans that our world is much better if we learn to accept and cherish each other’s difference, because that is what’s going to keep our world from vanishing?

 

Click here: UN Security Council's meeting regarding the Rohingya Refugees to watch the meeting






Update!!
Minutes after posting this blog,  I saw this piece   regarding meditation as a solution from a tweet from UN Secretary General António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres.

Blockchain

I am out from under a beautiful rock. What is Blockchain? 

 I learned about it yesterday at a health care conference. If you've heard about Bitcoin, you've heard about Blockchain. For me, learning about blockchain put the whole bitcoin explosion in a new light.

Blockchain is a way to storage data that allows for multidirectional usage. It allows many users to securely access, share but not copy the same information. It is the genius creation by a group of people with the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.

I can see immediate use for in regards to Supply Chain management in Health systems.  If it is guaranteed that our protected health information (PHI) stays so, it will revolutionize the way healthcare is delivered, and be a great benefit to case management.