The Best Chicken Adobo Ever and Ever and Ever

     Ask any filipino what their favorite native cuisine is and chances are Chicken Adobo is right up there in their list. This comfort food is perhaps the best known recipe among filipino dishes in that it tastes just simply awesome. There are many variants to the dish depending which part of the archipelago you ended up asking, but the key ingredients remain the same for generations. These regional variations only adds more flavor and flair to the country's national dish. The proportion of the key ingredients themselves can vary ( soy sauce, bay leaves, garlic, black pepper) and depending on what your taste buds feel like you can add more spices, in the form of siling labuyo, jalopeno pepper, and bell pepper. Onions, pineapple chunks, and onions can be added as well.

     Chicken adobo is a dish inherited from the Spanish during colonial times. Although pre-spanish filipinos marinate meats in salt and vinegar to extend it, it was ultimately during the Spanish Period that the dish we know as Adobo was brought into fruition. Although many variants such as pork adobo, and beef adobo came soon thereafter, it is Chicken Adobo which gained worldly fame.

So, enough talk. Let's get cooking. You'll need the following:

• Chicken legs, wings, and thighs, about 5 lbs in all. 
• half a cup of soy sauce
• half a cup of white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons black pepper corns
• 6 bay leaves
• 7 cloves of garlic
• 1 whole onion diced
• 1 bell pepper, cut into strips
• a can of pineapple chunks
• half a cup of olive oil
• two and a half cups water

As in all filipino dishes, the secret to taste is in the preparation. Dice garlic and brown them in the olive oil. Add onions soon after until onions are tender. Let cool. In a large pot combine chicken soy sauce and your sauteed garlic and onions and let stand to marinade for about 3 hours or so. I usually marinade for a total of 5 hours to really let the flavors sink in.

Once marinated, brown the chicken pieces a bit in olive oil just enough but not too much. Then add in the remaining marinade as well as water and bring the mixture to a boil for about 30 minutes or so or until chicken is tender. Add in the black pepper corns, bay leaves, and if you decide to make this one spicy, add in the siling labuyo ( bird's eye chili).

when the chicken is tender, open the pan to allow the sauce to reduce. bring it down to a simmer then add in the bell pepper and pineapple chunks. Stir once. Then add the vinegar. Stir again and let cook for another 10 minutes or so.

Chicken adobo gives off that aroma you just can't resist once cooked. I serve mine hot over white rice topped off with chopped chives. If I want to get real fancy I would sprinkle some crushed pork chicharrones (think of it as filipino bacon bits) or browned sesame seeds. Dig in and enjoy!! 

Bon Appetit!!!

A Life Unhindered

Ever imagined how life would be like if we stop wanting for more, if we stop and take a deep breath and step back to see what we actually have RIGHT NOW? Wouldn't it be great if we actually say to ourselves," Yeah, I'm happy. I am where I'm supposed to be.". Do you think we'll ever get to that point?

Let's face it, the world we live in today is a world full of compromises. It is also a world riddled with dilemmas and issues yet to find reasonable basis not to mention solutions. Oh, we haven't gotten to the "solutions" part yet. Did you notice that anybody who is anybody out there seems to have a solution in mind for one of our problems. It can be in the form of a product or a service but the premise is the same; to solve a problem we may be having. All in the name of sound progress and efficiency, you might add.

Well, let's take a minute to imagine, just imagine for a second, what if we lived in a world devoid of material   things, devoid of schedules, devoid of tension and stress? Can you find your place in it? Putting the question more aptly, can you function in such a world? Do you know what your assets really are in this imagined world? My point in all this is that we often forget what our blessings really are and that we get caught up in the hubbub of everyday world that we forget to appreciate the little special things that are granted to us.

Living a life unhindered means some changes must be put into action. We cannot sit around idealizing such a world without putting at least some effort to see it to fruition. Living a life unhindered means you have to learn to let go of a lot of things. You have to let go of your desire for material things, your ambition for more money, the many different causative factors which put stress into your daily life. It also means having an open mind. You have to be mindful of what your options are. Remember that the path of least resistance is the best way to take. Learning to see through situations and changes in your life enables you to be more in control; to be able to step back every once in a while and see things in perspective gives you more freedom to exercise your power to choose what is best for you and when.

Lastly, learn to count your blessings. Don't wish for a fuller cup when you don't see a half-empty cup as being half-full. Don't want more than is necessary. Be forgiving and be more giving. When you learn to do these things a special feeling begins to dawn unto you. It is the feeling of being light, being content, being worry-free. Leave what you can behind. Carrying excess baggage only slows you down. Remember that life is about journeying and not simply just living. Don't try to find yourself in the universe of things. Chances are, more often than not, you are already where you are supposed to be. You just don't realize it yet.

Learn to see with your mind's eye and learn to feel with your heart. Don't be wasteful of your emotions. Rest when you can. Work when you aren't resting. Love all the time. Share what you have and share your gifts and skills. Learn to acknowledge the resounding truth that you are never alone and that you will never be complete until someone completes you. Respect the world around you. Listen to what mother nature teaches us over and over again. Learn to be a conservationist. Clean and green is not just a movement, it's a way to save a planet. When you finally get old and sit in that little stool of yours out back in the garden somewhere, take a deep breath. Recount back the years and just like the beautiful large tomatoes you see yourself planting someday, your life was indeed beautiful and unhindered. 

Live a life unhindered. Start now.

Fat Loss Factors You Need To Know

Weight loss solutions have been perhaps one of the biggest, if not the biggest, focus of any pharmaceutical company out there and primarily because of the huge demand for weight loss products which can run the gamut from diet pills, weight loss drinks, herbal teas, and pretty much anything and everything in between. The amount of products available for the consumer is unbelievably astronomical and yet people still jump on any new fad, online weight loss programs, exercise dvd's, pills, and exercise equipment with the sole hope of shedding those unwanted pounds.

Let's be honest with ourselves, who doesn't want to look good wearing clothes several sizes or inches smaller than what they normally wear. I can tell you pretty much everything that is health related in losing weight but what concerns most of us the most is how we look and how we feel after losing all that flab. The truth of the matter, however, is that there is a vast majority of you out there who do not really understand how your body utilize and store fat. Furthermore, fat is essential in the metabolic processes that run our bodies. To even add further to that simple truth is that adipose cells or adipocytes have key physiologic roles that our bodies can't do without.

So when you see a bodybuilder claiming to have only 1% or 2% body fat you have to think if that is even healthy. And by the way, measuring body fat with calipers is not the most accurate way to measure fat. The adipose under your skin is not the only place your body stores fat.  Fat can be stored in the omentum, the liver, the renal fat pads, and even in your long bones, among others. So what do we really need to know about fat loss? So before you engage in any quick weight loss tips or rapid weight loss diets some groundwork needs to be covered first.

Firstly, our body breaks down food into three basic building blocks or macronutrients; complex carbohydrates, fats in the form of lipids and triglycerides, and proteins. These macronutrients will be broken down even further into metabolites which our bodies will utilize to replenish our cells, to power our daily activities, to maintain our physiologic processes. The rule of thumb is whatever your body does not burn or use up gets stored. Stored energy is packaged in the form of fat handled by your adipose cells. So from this key knowledge we can deduce the first fat loss factor tip. Since most of what we eat comes from food groups high in complex carbohydrates, sugars, and fats, simply altering the ratio or percentage of food we consume from those food groups greatly affects the way our body's ability to utilize food nutrients. 

Secondly, how we eat and how much of what we eat should depend on the amount of work or activity that we do. Unfortunately, that is not the case since a great percentage of us are obese. In other words, we consume more than what is necessary. So the second key knowledge we have to realize in our quest for weight loss is how we understand what appetite and satiety really means. In essence, these two are medical terms which essentially cover how our body responds to hunger and how it responds to having been satiated. So here is the second fat loss factor tip;  we can control our appetite by eating frequently but in small increments. It is when we do not eat for long periods that we tend to eat more than what we really need. Satiety can be had by eating more of foods that are essentially low calorie and drinking more fluids. You see, stretch receptors found in the stomach tell our bodies that it already has it's fill hence we feel full. The fuller you feel the lesser you eat.

The third topic we need to cover deals with activity in the form of work or exercise and inactivity. What I am essentially getting at is metabolism. Metabolism, as many of you may not know, is controlled by many factors such as hormones ( or imbalance of hormones), diseases ( whether acquired or congenital in nature), and age ( as we get older our metabolism goes down). For or purposes, however, let us assume that metabolism is governed by the amount or lack of activity that we do. So here is the third fat loss factor tip; always be in constant motion. Always keep moving. You don't have to run or spend 2 hours in the gym everyday. You can do little things like take the stairs instead of the elevator, do more house chores, clean out that yard , etc. The fact that you are always about prevents your metabolism from slowing down and resetting itself. Remember this key knowledge, it is your metabolism which makes you fat!! It dictates when your body will start storing fat instead of utilizing it. Remember also that protein and carbohydrates that are unused are still stored as fat.

Lastly, there are other key points we need covering but will have to reserve them for future posts. Issues like mindset, emotional control, and others need to be covered in greater detail not just in passing. So until next time, do come back. JowelMD signing off but not signing out.

The Hurdle of Truths : Accepting what is and Looking forward to what is yet to be.

     The second  step towards lasting personal change isn't really a step in the sense that it is something you have to commit yourself doing. Rather, it is  something you have to commit yourself undoing. Our daily lives are so full of noise and clutter that we often miss out on the more important things. There are a lot of hurdles you must overcome in order to achieve a lasting personal change. The first thing you must realize at this point is that you will have to find a way to close your mind off from these noise and drawing deeply from within an inner calm, an inner solitude you can call your fortress. It's about finding a focal point in your life from where you can draw strength and energy from.

Many times, and more often than not, we forget to see a lot of obvious miracles happening before our eyes. Life, in and of itself is a miracle and not a day should go by that is without purpose, without having a chance to do something better, to hope, to dream, and to immerse yourself in all the beauty of what makes you uniquely you. Nevertheless, we often find ourselves unwilling to, and to some extent in vehemence, admit that there are truths that we simply have to live with; to accept with all of our being, and to make do with what those inherent truths give us in terms of how we grow physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

I guess the obvious question we are alluding to at this point is, " Is change possible?" or "Can personality change?" or maybe even, " Can we truly change for the better?". The answer to any and all of these questions is a big resounding YES!! One thing that makes us truly unique as human beings is how we adapt to environment and situations. It really all depends on two factors; our desire to change for the better, and our dedication to make that change lasting and final.

Ok, let's talk about the first truth we must face and overcome. You can seek any self-help guru or motivational coach you want but the inescapable fact remains, when you finally realize that you can make your life better, and when you also realize that it is inherently your task to rise up to this challenge and commit yourself to whatever is necessary to reach this goal, to be more content, to be more loving, to be one with the world around you and be connected with the people you love deeply and care for with a much deeper, fuller sense of connection, then you know that the first truth you must realize and inherit deeply is the fact that you cannot change alone. You need to change the world around you to better fit in it.

Your personal development goals may be different from everyone else's or may be similar but you still need to go through the same process. You can change the way you feel, think, opt for a more open mind, be more patient, be more understanding, be more compassionate, be more open to people in general, be unselfish, be more patient, and so on but if you don't change the environment or situations you are immersed in, it will be more arduous to implement self change strategies you want to commit yourself to. What I am essentially saying is how you engage the world around you is only half the battle. Just as important is what you choose to engage and what you choose to omit altogether. In other words, you need to see challenges and situations in terms of their relevance and immediacy. Filter out and do away with irrelevant stress in your life and deal with only the things that matter to you and matter most. Don't let the small things bog you down. Rise up and see your life for what it truly is.

When you learn to do all of these things you will find that your burden is lighter. You will re-learn and feel again certain it feels like o hope, to dream, to be excited about living life to the fullest once again. In other words, you look to tomorrow with fervent eyes. Tomorrow offers another chance to start anew, to make what today was even better.

" Weight Loss; How to do it naturally with Herbal Belly Fat Burners"

     If your'e like most people, you are probably on the heavy side and may have tried many diets schemes, diet fads, and expensive exercise equipment to help shed those unwanted pounds. The truth about diets is that they do not work. Exercise equipment often target specific muscle groups and if you wanted to focus on other groups of muscles you would need to buy a separate exercise machine for those. Diet pills which help curb your appetite do so by unbalancing your body's natural metabolic processes. Losing weight is easy if you understand key knowledge about the science of weight loss. 

     We often forget that in order to lose weight we need to change the way we see, think, and engage food. What most experts will tell you is avoid this, avoid that, eat more of this, eat less of that. That's a horrible way to lose weight don't you think? I wold like you to think not in quantity or even quality, but rather, in variety. What I mean is it's ok to eat what you want but you have to set certain limits on how much and how often. Don't punish yourself by eating salads and fruits for most of the week but salivate when you see someone eat a philly cheese steak sandwich. Get the picture now? You see, losing weight is more about a change in your lifestyle, your habits, and your way of thinking more so than your change in food choices. It's about understanding what you want for yourself, what your goals are, and how healthy you want to be. I can go on and on about how diet and exercise improves your health drastically but if it falls on deaf ears what good would that sound medical advice be? Rather, let's take this topic of weight loss in stages and see how we can better improve upon ourselves and better our state of health.

     As before, before I go on and expound on matters further, I like to give some helpful hints along the way to help break the ice. Here are 7 things you need to do to add 10-15 years to your life:

• Stop smoking
• Understand what a BMI chart is and where you are in it.
• Learn to swim and swim 30-45 minutes a day.
• Discover the wonderful world of juicing.
• Learn to be a "herbalist"
• smile often and think only of happy thoughts
• worry less

     As I mentioned earlier, losing weight involves many things; a change in your lifestyle, your habits, the way you prepare and cook food, and lastly, the way you see food. I don't have a given set of methods per se on what food types should you eat more of but let me share with you what most of the world's older cultures practice and believe in:

• Eat more of what grows from the earth.
• Raw foods are better than cooked foods
• Eat less of animals which eat what comes from the earth.

     A lifestyle change can be drastic to some people but to others it can be simple and life changing at the same time. You have to think in terms of wellness and health benefits rather than on the aspects of health alone. What do I mean by lifestyle changes? Well, for starters, do not eat at fast food restaurants often, do not buy canned and processed foods, do not drink beverages other than water, juices, and a glass or two of wine only. Know that you simply do not start out blindly. There are factors to consider which are vital to your target goal. First off, have your present state of health evaluated by your primary care physician. How overweight are you? Do you have co-morbid diseases like hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, etc? Are you suffering from arthritis? All of these factors need to be considered in order to plan a safe exercise regiment for you as well as helping your nutritionist formulate a table of what food groups should you eat more of, be wary of, and to avoid altogether.

     Move constantly. Never stay still. When your body is in constant motion you burn more calories and you lose weight. If you need to do an exercise regiment for weigh loss or simply to give your heart a good cardiovascular workout I recommend swimming. It's safer for your joints and works out all of your major muscle groups. You can't get that from any equipment from your local gym. Learn to be a "juicer". Juicing machines can be had for reasonable prices these days and I don't see why every household doesn't have one. When you drink extracted vegetable, fruit, and herb juices, you drink the raw, natural energy that is contained in plant life. Enzymes, anti-oxidative vitamins and minerals, natural sugars are absorbed readily giving your body an extra boost prior to any workout or rejuvination after working out. Learn to colon cleanse and drink lots of water. Celium husk based fiber preparations are available almost anywhere and at good prices. Drink these twice daily for 10-12 days to help rid of unwanted toxins from your body. Fiber serves a two-fold role in this case. It also serves to absorb some of that fat from your diet preventing further absorption.

     Lastly, learn to be a herbalist. Did you know that the rain forest contains more medicinal plants than the medicine list contained within the physician desk reference? Imagine a world of natural healing, constantly being one with nature. Most people have no knowledge of the medicinal properties of ginger let alone the rest of the herbs that are within our reach from the local supermarket. There is so much knowledge how plants can heal you and how they can stave off diseases like cancer, stroke, diabetes, rheumatism, and the list goes on, that it's a shame we don't take advantage of it. In order to prolong your life you need to drink vibrant life energy from juicing vegetables, fruits, and herbs. After about 4 days of juicing initially, which I recommend to be about a glass of juice 2-3 times  day, you will start to feel more energetic and vibrant. You will find that as you progress further you will learn to eat around your juicing and not juice around your eating.

     As I have mentioned earlier, herbs are power packed with essential vitamins and minerals as well as enzymes which help our body cure a disease, recover from a disease, prevent a disease, or simply boost our immunity against infectious processes. From the viewpoint of weight loss herbs excel in that they act in multiple ways to help you lose those unwanted weight. For instance, green tea is an effective wight loss drink because it increases the way the body utilizes and metabolizes fat. Green tea benefits, however, goes way beyond weight loss benefits. It contains one of nature's most powerful antioxidants, epigallocatechin gallate or EGCE, which inhibits cells that cause cancer. Green tea also reduces the following; heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, esophageal cancer, and many more. These herbs or herbal belly fat burners are a safer more natural alternative to diet pills.

     Lastly, don't lose hope. Losing weight doesn't happen overnight. Think how good you will look in your favorite outfit several sizes down. The compliments you will be getting and the way you feel when you wake up every day is much more gratifying than you think and it will make your journey to the new you even more special.  

 

The First Step to Lasting Personal Change

You know, It really amazes me how many infomercials, webinars, websites, links, etc. are out there promising you a "new and proven" technique, method, or secret that can make you thousands of dollars weekly or even daily through a home based business using nothing but a computer and an internet connection. What's more convincing is that these adverts include testimonials of regular people, presumably just like you and I, who have actually used the course or product to make the kind of money promised to them. Well, a lot of people actually fall for these internet business courses and buy them with the hope that a few extra hours a day can help make ends meet or even pay off the mortgage.

The truth is, almost always these products or programs fail to deliver the goods and the consumer ends up searching for something better. Making money in the internet is real. The way to make money through the internet is careful planning, finding a profitable niche, selecting a product or service to fill this niche, advertise, advertise, and more advertise. When I say advertise I mean targeted advertising and not advertising blindly. Of course you need to master using the right keywords and action words in your ads to be more visible to search engines and search phrases. Action words are words which compels your reader(s) to act upon them or catch their attention long enough to arouse their curiosity. But enough of this internet money-making venture. My purpose for writing this post is not to teach you how to make money on the internet but to make you ponder on, and later investigate and delve deeper  the factors which circumvent around this simple notion- we are never truly content. We yearn for more than what we actually need. Sounds familiar? You know it does.

There comes a time in our lives when we have to take everything in retrospect and try to undermine why we aren't happy and contented with our lives. We need to limit our associations with material things and focus our efforts and energies on relevant key issues like health, relationships, personal growth, and global outlook.
A lot of times, when you ask somebody what the central focus of most of their problems are you'll know that it usually revolves around the issue of money. Don't get me wrong, we need money to survive in society but we don't need too much of it. The media has hardwired financial independence into our subconscious as something that is attainable only if we make more money than we actually need. Of course a lot of people would disagree with me but let me ask you this- you have heard of business execs or even CEO's of companies actually dropping everything and leaving their job to live in the tropics somewhere living on simple living and eager means, right? They leave their cellphones, emails, laptops, and other "tie-me-downs" behind and start living a simple, stress-free life, being one with nature, being at peace with themselves, and donating their wealth to charity.

I guess the one question which begs answering is why. Why would someone making millions of dollars leave all that behind? Why the sudden and drastic change in retrospect? The answer is they have had enough. They have reached a truer sense of understanding of what their actual needs are and how to go about attaining them. The revelation is intense and so life-changing that their complete reversion to the exact opposite is so sudden and without hesitation. What do they know that eludes us? They have learned to LET GO. Letting go is the first step to lasting personal change. Your complete and utter surrender to the fact that something has to change or something will give is the paramount move by which you will plant your cornerstones on. Learn to let go and accept certain truths in your life. I usually advice people to make an honest list of what they need to change in their life. Here is an example:

       1. If I don't change my eating habits and exercise more often I will be unhealthy and die early.
       2. If I don't mend things between me and my parent/ brother/ sister/ wife the distance grows between
           us.
Now, how about rewording the first statement as, " If I don't do anything to start being healthy I will never grow old enough to see my grandchildren!" and the second statement as " If I don't come out in the open and  patch things up they will never know how much i really love and care for them.". Do you see now how we need to see things in a different light at times in order to compel us to act upon them sooner?

Letting go is not easy. It is, however, necessary in order to move on. IN order for us to change we have to admit to ourselves that we needed changing. We have to accept the notion that we need to let go of some things in order to attain something new. An old life for a new one, if you will. The next post we will cover is about uncovering and defining your fears.
  

The Storms Ahead

Life is full of surprises. Nothing is ever as we expect, and nothing is almost always as we suspect. Everything changes and very few things, if any, ever remains the same. How we cope or adjust to changing situations or uncertainties pretty much serves as a good measure of how our resolve stands up to the challenge called Life. We have our own storms to weather and our own crosses to bear but the most important and justifying factor above all else is the HOW; how me maintain sole control of our own ship even if the sails go awry.

I once knew a friend who had it bad in every which way possible. Everything he ever tried to do almost always goes wrong. He never saw himself as a failure or that he amounted to nothing, rather he saw himself as having a bad set of directions or road maps to life. In other words, he saw the whole experience as a learning curve. He saw it as a chance to rethink strategies over and, perhaps, gain new sets of guidelines or principles. Where is this friend of mine from my college days now? Well, he holds an MD, PhD now. If you are in the circle of medical research and the medical field in general, you probably know the weight of those two titles following a person's name. How did he do it? I had the good fortune of running into him back in 2004 and over a cup of coffee from our favorite brew shop he said to me, " Jowel, I can't even remember how many times I failed but I remember how many times I got up to try again."

That got me thinking then, and although I had no mind of trying to delve into his answer deeper, I had a notion of where he was aiming at. Now its 2013 and here we are, still trying to get ahead, still trying to make any unwasted effort count. The question that's been burning in the back of my head isn't about the HOW anymore. It's more of the WHERE now. The question of HOW we managed all this time and eventually HOW we got here is now irrelevant. A more important question that we should ask ourselves is, "WHERE is HERE exactly?". Are we where we should be, ought to be, or supposed to be?

Nobody can really answer that in the fullest sense, or at least in the sense where it should make some sense. Our notion of time and precedence is dictated by our priorities and needs in life. We don't really take the time to worry about nonsensical stuff in the midst of the flurry of everyday living. Well, let me ask you this? How many times have you felt that something is indeed lacking in your life, that your bowl is never really full, and that the answer always eludes you on what that key ingredient is to finally complete you. Does it revolve around a  certain relationship with a cornerstone figure in your life? Is it about finances? Is it about outlook in general? IT can be a lot of things, really, but the common factor is that you LACK or cannot GRASP it.

The problem boils down to this fact- there is an inherent feeling or need that we harbor which simply dictates to us or tells us that we have to BE IN CONTROL of most, if not all, aspects regarding our lives. I mean let's face it, with control comes a sense of security which affords us a solid stand on just about anything. When we are in control we have an explanation when something goes awry or amiss. With control comes a level of confidence which enables us to take command of any situation and turn it around to our advantage.

What about having FAITH in something other than our abilities? DO we simply confine ourselves to our beliefs and sense of understanding and be polarized from a larger, much wider world view? What happens when we lose control? How will we manage then when nothing goes our way? The storms ahead can get worse when we fail to deal with situations which leave us unhinged. The solution, my friends, is a rather simple one. Simple in the sense that it deals with how we define or, in some instances, how we re-define what our priorities are. It is, however, difficult in the sense that most, if not all of us, have the inherent difficulty of accepting what the situation really is, as it presents itself. Rather, denial and diversion is the mode by which we deal with crisis and problems in our lives.

So, the next several posts will deal with key issues to help you get back on top, be in command and yet have an open mind. Being the captain of your own ship depends on many things and we often omit our faith in the weather. Having a steadfast resolve requires patience, the humility to admit what needs changing and what is inherently lacking, and the courage to strive and forge ahead.              

Window To Your World

Ever wonder how life would be like if you were someone else? How many times do we daydream that our lives would be so much better  if we had money, fame, power, or even the power to have a choice. I guess it's safe to say we engage in such frivolities ever so often when things aren't going the way we want them to. Well, imagine this- YOU CAN make whatever you want to do or achieve happen and the only limit that prevents you from doing essentially just that is YOU. You can change and achieve anything given enough   desire, mindset, determination, and courage to overcome your fears.

We all remember a time in our lives when we were full of the vibrant energy of youth. The world laid out so much possibilities for us and we aspired to be anything we want to be, dreaming, hoping that one day we will BE that person we dreamed of becoming. Then life took a hold on us and we played our part in the scheme of things; we went to school and got a degree, got a job, married, started a family, sent the kids to school, and the list goes on and on. And yet we find that at some point in time amid all this is that there is SOMETHING LACKING. We can't quite put our finger on what that missing piece in our lives so we continue to do the things we do hoping that someday we will experience enough and understand enough of life so we can decipher what we thought we were "lacking" for so long.

Well, guess what, the years go by and you find yourself much older than you expected to be and you find yourself sitting quietly on your front porch one Sunday afternoon wondering to yourself where the years had been. Maybe you feel complete and contented on how life treated  you. Maybe you still find yourself unfulfilled and wanting for something missing in your life, something you felt you needed to uncover a long time ago but didn't get the chance to. Something  you need to find and discover for yourself in order to be finally happy. What could this key ingredient be?

A lot of times, due to our nature as human beings, we learn to compensate and adapt whenever something is lacking or amiss in our daily life. We fill the void with something else. This displacement of unspent energy occupy us but in the end leaves us with more questions in need of answering. How is it that we see things in lucid polarity, that there has to be a in-between of things, a black or white, a soundness of reasoning in place of scary uncertainty? The only thing that really sounds "real" is that we cannot always exercise control. At times, being fluid has its own advantages. Learning to roll with the punches and dealing with situations are lessons learned out of necessity.

So, this brings us back to our first question- what is lacking in our lives that leaves us empty and searching? The answer to that question is rather simple, if you haven't figured it out already. We merely have to learn to LET GO and ACCEPT what life has to offer and BE CONTENT with what we have and not what we don't have. You see, finding happiness is easy, keeping it and sharing it is the real challenge.In order to achieve this you must learn to harness, nurture, and emit positive energy. Positive energy comes from within and it starts by learning how to love. Learn to love yourself first. Take care of your health, nurture your bodies with rejuvinating foods, and do away with negativity in the way you think and feel. Your world has many windows and you simply cannot stay fixated in staring out of just one. Learn to love life from many angles and you will awaken long dormant joys you never knew existed in you.

Letters from Nowhere

Sitting on the back of a rusty pick-up truck bound for the highway of life, a lone traveler stares into distant skies with tired eyes. Eyes weary of a long hard life of toil and with nothing to show for it but calloused hands. Unheeding of the howling wind blowing by his face or the promise of yet another storm, he sat there, hunched to his thoughts and unaware of his misery. He fumbles around to regain his composure after a sudden jolt brought about by an imperfection on the road, he came upon a crumpled piece of paper amongst the many litters of trash people just dump on the back of any old truck. To save himself from further gloom he began to read.

     “If there ever was a reason to make a life justifiable it would be for all the right reasons and not just for a sole reason, even if such an idea would seem noble, if not too overly. If there was ever a time to search for a meaning to anything such a time would be, for whatever reason earnest would  deem necessary, be wanting and in need of haste. Too many wonders to seek explanations for and too many questions needing any sort of explanation just to make their time worthwhile in posing.

      And yet here we are, wanting for a liberation from a prison we ourselves do not yet know or are afraid to face. Lost in a daze we scramble to define our existence, not with words or actions or even ideals, but with hopes and aspirations; dreams we are waiting to unfold before our eyes, yet we are paralyzed by the mere notion of their fruition or the taxing commitment they inherently require.

      And then there is our notion of time, or lack of it. Everything revolves around many aspects which define how we live our lives but the painful truth is nothing really revolves. Everything evolves. Time passes and we lose it. Everything changes over time, nothing is eternal. Everything is ethereal. In this wisp of a moment we come to the sad realization that as we die slowly each passing day, we have forgotten how it must have felt to live. To live for a moment’s respite, to live for someone you love, to live for an ideal, to draw strength from the vibrance of this thing called life and drench yourself with its longing; its unquenchable thirst; its energy.

      In silence we hope, and if we remember, we pray. We hold on. We hold on to anything with semblance to substance, to security, to permanence. Even if we had to lie to ourselves to believe, at least long enough  for some sense of resounding half-truths , no matter how falsely or unstately that notion may seem, just so we can put meaning to our actions and gratification to unheeded effort. And still, we come to the point in question…the beginning of something we do not yet know or want to know and the end to something we would rather not ponder upon. The truth is we simply have to learn to let go. To let ourselves dream and bask in the silence of unconditional existence; to not take more than we need and go back to simple living.

      When we filter out the noise hard enough and long enough we can finally listen to the one person we haven’t heard from in a long, long time. Ourself. ”

     “Hey, buddy! Your stop’s just ahead. Let’s get a move on, shall we. Looks like another long night of rain.”, cried the driver. With that our lone traveler hops out of the truck that served as his refuge, at least long enough for him to finally understand. Staring at the blackening sky one last time, and after a long sigh, he forges ahead and the night finally swallows him.

     He smiles knowing that somewhere in this world, under a starry  moonlit sky, a child dreams and Hope is renewed. And with Hope comes Chance; a chance to start all over again, to finally be free, to be alive.

     Unbeknownst to our lone traveler a pick-up driver parks by the roadside somewhere, writes another entry to his journal, tears it off for want of something better to write about, to feel about, to feel alive about, and throws a yet another piece of crumpled paper at the back of the pick-up bed, and heads out. A chance indeed.