Prophesied

I received a precious gift recently.

It came from my new-found friend Marilou Rodriguez. We both attend a ladies’ bible study.

“Why Yay?” She asked me one day, curious about my name.

“It’s the name of my father’s favorite writer during his time,” I replied.

Then on my recent birthday, she handed me a book—its pages already brown with age, a compilation of articles from a popular magazine column entitled “Where a Country Begins,” from 1955 to 1962. It’s author: Yay Marking.

Marilou scribbled: “This book has sentimental value to our family. We have taken good care of this book for about 48 years. Hope you’ll take care of it.”

I was close to tears as I leafed through its pages. Then it dawned on me. Tatay must have prophesied about my purpose, even when I was just a baby. Well, father knows best!

And our heavenly Father definitely knows! The bible says He calls us by name. He definitely knows me! All my days have been ordained by Him from the beginning of time.

What could have caused my father to own that name for his bunso? I never imagined I would—could—be a writer, much less a book author. No wonder Tatay didn’t allow me to take a course I wanted after high school; and I even begrudged him for that. He definitely treasured something in his heart for me.

Tatay passed away a long time ago. If he were alive, he would surely be grinning from ear to ear, knowing that his little girl finally fit into the mold.

No wonder I found that name cool, and use it more often than my real one. When I started to write for magazines in the 80s, a friend suggested, “Use Yay!” And so I did, ever since.

Oh, wow! I have a name to keep up with. Yay!

MCU Community

I recently conducted a seminar for some 300 high school and college graduating students of the Manila Central University—courtesy of my long-lost friend and former San Miguel Corporation colleague Ira Maniquis—to commemorate the University’s 106^th anniversary.

Thank you Ira (Ira now heads MCU's Communication Affairs on top of doing what he loves most—coaching basketball. Ira used to handle SMC's basketball teams aside from managing its Corporate Communication Office), Student Affairs Dean Lourdes Cruzat, University President Dr. Aristotle Malabanan, and the school’s various deans for your warm welcome.

I sensed the University leadership's efforts to be student advocates, be up-to-date and viral—to make learning fun and relevant to the needs of the students.

Case in point: In its recent anniversary mardi gras, everyone, from the university's management to its student organizations and groups, put together their talents and creativity so that booths could be put up and everyone tasting and enjoying whatever they could share to bless others. A practical lesson in community building.

Great packages indeed sometimes come in subtle tones. MCU had been a really low-key institution but search its website and you’d be surprised at what it’s contributed so far—some of the country’s best doctors, dentists, pharmacists and nurses, with its board examinees always making it to the top-notchers’ lists.

Hats off to you, MCU!

SCARE

Had a recent bout with the ultimate fear-faith factor.

“How long do I have?”

“Lord, will I see you soon?”

“No, still need to enjoy all my grandchildren, even those soon to come!”

“Streets of gold at last!”

“Whose hand will my hubby grasp in his old age?”

“No more pain, no more crying!”

“More books to write, more souls to win, not yet!”

“No more white hair! Forever young!”

“Lord, if this is it, let there be no more complications. Just let me walk into the light.”

I’m sure you could identify with this tug-of-war between leaving and staying. For crying out loud, I’m turning 59 before month’s end. Some of my younger friends have gone ahead. Who’s to say the next buzz isn't for me?

And what would you have thought if your doctor orders a colonoscopy because you reported a series of bloody poo days? (Could one Briton’s similar incident a long time ago have prompted the by-now classic expression, “that bloody loo?”)

Anyway, before I digress, thank God the colonoscopy confirmed that whatever I hemmed and hawed about for four days was plain and simple hemorrhoid.

But just for the sake of argument, what IF?

How can I even bargain with God? He said He held my life in His hand. My life is not my own. He created me. He knows exactly the number of days I have on planet earth.

Couldn’t our Maker who appoints the seasons and times of our lives do with us like the turning of leaves from green to orange to yellow to brown, then falling off their branches and finally finding their resting place in an obscure patch of land?

But I’m not a leaf. I am His beloved. We are His beloved!

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that those who believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

So how can I even fear death? As far as I am concerned, death has lost its sting! Like Paul, I believe that to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord. I will not be a wandering ghost instilling fear in the hearts of my loved ones. Hey, heaven is heaven! I won't be staying here a second longer.

That’s why when the trumpet or the buzzer or the whistle sounds, I’m all ears. Neither am I packing anything. I have everything I need. Jesus promised salvation to all those who believe. My good works? He’ll surely reward me for those but those will not be the reason I’m entering heaven. Jesus is! Check out His conversation with Nicodemus in John 3, the bible.

Believe in Jesus. That’s your ticket to foreverland! And this is no fantasy either. Jesus promised He would go and prepare a place for us.

Proud, directionless, I-me-myself-self-centered Yay one night yielded her heart to Jesus. Little by little she grew in her faith; learned to distinguish her priorities; realized that life is not about position or power or possession, but knowing and obeying Jesus, the author and perfecter of one’s faith.

You could have that too, and no longer be afraid of death or anything. He has you covered!

Forever Big Brother

Kuya with his grandkids Raffy and Uriel

Happy birthday, Kuya!

Kuya Tony turns 73 before the end of this month. He’s the eldest among eight siblings, with me at the bottom of that ladder.

So you can imagine that when I was yet a whiny toddler (my siblings always chorused I was the ultimate cry-baby), Kuya was probably busy chasing after his crush and getting quite serious with “where-do-I-go-from-here?” thoughts.

He was, I’m told by his contemporaries, the “crush ng bayan.” I don’t doubt that at all because his old photos show a striking resemblance to current heartthrob, actor Jericho Rosales. “Pero hindi lang gwapo,” a high school classmate said, “magaling pa!” He was always on top of his class.

As expected, even while working to finish his engineering course, he excelled in college, then pursued a career which brought him to executive level in one of the country’s biggest corporations. We both retired from San Miguel Corporation in 1998.

Kuya is not so well nowadays, and he and Ate Cora, his wife, have bravely coped with the challenge. We make it a point to visit him once in a while for a tete-a-tete and to discuss some family business. Funny it’s only now that I’m seeing my brother in three-D. Coming from a big family and with six siblings in between, we hardly spent time together in our younger days.

Nowadays, he regales my brother Dan, our sister Mita and myself (our other siblings live abroad) with stories of his youth and we’d always end up laughing our heartiest laughs, hanggang maiyak sa katatawa.

Then we’d once more reminisce nung unang panahon incidents which would draw even more teary laughter. When our cousin Kuya Ador (Kuya’s contemporary) joins us in these visits, our conversations turn more hilarious.

Kuya Tony recently talked about his first pair of leather shoes, bought after religiously saving money to afford his dream brand. “Besa shoes!” This new yuppie sat on the bus one day, excited about his prized acquisition and imagining everyone admiring it when he got off in our hometown (Sampaloc, Quezon). He sat like someone on cloud nine, extended his foot a bit too far, then felt a scrape. Besa's been scratched! “Mayabang kasi!” He now laughs it off.

But really, Kuya had never been a show-off. I remember him as a hard-worker and passionate about life, even music—he was my Pavarotti! But never boastful.

After his recent hospital stay, Kuya lost considerable weight. Well, we all grow old and lose weight and never look like our former selves. That’s life.

But my image of Kuya will never change—kind, funny, considerate, self-controlled, patient, intelligent and wise, lover of life, a good son, father, husband and provider to his family.

Kuya Tony will forever be my big brother!

Yuppie Map

(With Butch Jimenez and cover artist designer Nixon Na)

“You’re trying to make your mark in the corporate world. The workplace will test your character and your faith. You either go with the flow – you compromise. Or you go away – you resign. But there’s another way. You go up – you submit to God and trust Him to mold you as you do your job in the best way you can.

”In Going Up? the author, Yay Padua-Olmedo, shares with you lessons she learned from 30 years of navigating through the pitfalls and highpoints of the corporate world. Going Up? is filled with nuggets of practical wisdom you can apply in your everyday work situations.”

This blurb basically describes my second book, launched recently by OMF at the Manila International Book Fair.

If you’re a yuppie, I pray you’d go and get the book, now available in OMF Literature and other Christian bookstores. Penned in those pages may be something you can relate with, for a sort aha! moment you may need re your current work situation.

That of course is the Holy Spirit’s work. Mine was just to dig up the experience. His is to flavor your reading with wisdom.

I hope this excerpt from Butch Jimenez’s (currently senior vice president and head of Human Resources and Corporate Transformation, PLDT) foreword helps:

“Yay’s book is a balance of everything. While she drives home principles, theories and more importantly values that will help a person navigate through the corporate maze, she draws these principles not from textbooks but from actual experience, as she herself rose from the ranks in some of the country’s biggest companies.

“In many respects, this book is like a map. It helps guide you. A map can’t take you to the place you want to go. You have to ride in a car or start walking to get there. But a map does guide you where to turn right or left, or what to do when faced with a fork in the road. If you want a ‘heads up’ on what you may experience in your corporate journey, this book will give you the insights.

“Finally, a distinctive of this book is that it is written with a lot of wisdom. A lot of business books are filled with tech­nical knowledge. But in truth, it is wisdom that will help you make the right decisions and take the right path. God once asked a young man what he would want most in the world. The man asked for wisdom. And he went on to become the most powerful man of his time.

“For those starting on the journey into the wild and crazy corporate world—here’s a map to guide you along the way.”

(With loved ones, the OMF family, friends and book lovers)

Joaqui's Favourite Pastime

Forgive me if I crow a bit. Believe me, only grandparents are entitled to this privilege.

Got some great Joaqui news.

Of course to a grandparent like me, “great” may mean that special moment Joaqui started turning to his side, the first time he chuckled, the moment he pointed to the Jollibee mascot and said “Jabee,” or his first ever no sablay dash to the toilet.

When Joaqui adeptly held my son’s drumsticks for the first time and wowed us with his baby drumsing (that was what he said when caught with the sticks, “Oh, I’m just drumsing!”), we naturally chorused, “Hallelujia!”

So here we are again, proud grandparents, grinning from ear to ear as if Joaqui won an Oscar. So, as usual, I’m just too happy to share his opus with you.

“My Favorite Pastime,” speech he delivered at Mt. Annan Christian School’s (Campbelltown, NSW) Speech Night (second place among Year 2—Grade 2 in our system—contenders):

“My favourite past time is playing with my sister. I like my sister because she’s very funny and silly.* My favourite game to play with her is hide and seek and tag. We like playing together because she is part of my family.

“My sister’s name is Charlize. She looks cute. She has long black hair and big beautiful eyes. I love my sister. And I’ll still love and forgive her every time she does something wrong.

“My sister is 3 years old. And when she turns 4, she’ll go to prep next year and I’m excited to be the one to pick her up from her classroom.

“My sister is very joyful and happy and is always there to cheer me up. That’s why playing with my sister is my favourite past time.”

Paolo Joaquin Atas, bow.

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*To Australians, “silly” stands for being playful and humorous

Super-Size Me

What makes your blood pressure rise whenever you see one of these hallowed brands in a store window?

Louis Vuitton? Hermes? Gucci? Prada? Chanel? Rolex? Lacoste?

I bet you would say, “All of the above!”

We love good brands. That’s understandable—since trusted brands assure us of quality and performance. A trustworthy company surely takes the pain to gain its customers’ confidence, making sure its brands satisfy for the long term, giving them that extra edge above other consumers.

No wonder they command the highest prices. And their customers don’t flinch!

Offer Paris Hilton a stylish $10,000 Hermes Birkin bag—a brand which easily caters to her vanity and which she may love too for its utilitarian appeal—and she’d just be too happy to oblige.

You may get the same unblinking reaction from our own very own Ruffa Gutierrez, or Jinky Pacquiao. With the latter’s billions, who’s to say she couldn’t have a Louis Vuitton, even if it costs Manny, the world’s most prized boxer, say P200,000?

Inggit lang tayo!

But we ordinary mortals would flinch at these price tags! In the first place, LVs or Rolexes are out of our league.

Enter jafakes. They look and sometimes feel like the real McCoy.

And they definitely envelop you with a weighty super-size me aura—a sparkle which gets to your friends whom you truly magnetize with your feel-rich blings .

Because otherwise, why settle for a jafake when you can trust another brand which will work as efficiently anyway.

Case in point: I bought an imitation designer bag for a few bucks. In a few months’ time, its handles gave way, so bye-bye runaway Coach!

Naunahan kasi ng porma, instead of common sense.

So I made sure my next choice was a no-nonsense yet still stylish leather bag. It was definitely costlier than a jafake, but it didn’t cost me a fortune, and proved a good match to its weightier contents. (You know what things teachers lug around in our bags?)

I’m sure I’m not alone. Most of us Filipinos have a collective propensity to embrace branded products, no matter how fake.

I used to go with my sister Daisy (She’s now in heaven by the way and so immune from the worldly desires we still struggle with.) to Greenhills shopping center. Oh boy, those goods really looked delicious. Of course they were all fakes! But observe shoppers going gaga over them.

So who are we to blame for our collective love affair with branded goods, even if they’re not the real thing? (Don’t we always look for a whipping boy?)

“Mental colony,” someone wittily punned "colonial mentality" a long time ago to satirize our tendency to glorify anything American even if they're undesirable. But we’ve moved from being a US stooge. Today, we are as competitive as any Tommy Hilfiger, Dickies and Harry Potter brand.

My goodness, we devour foreign authors’ works yet snub our own which can stand up against them. (Please excuse this diversion so I can plug my book—“GOING UP? Making Right Choices at Work”—due for release at the International Book Fair, SMX, Mall of Asia, Sept. 15-19. Please look for the OMF booth.)

Honestly, we can never be defined by our possessions, more so by the brands we acquire.

And I’ve discovered that only one brand—or one name or one manufacturer or one identity —matters.

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph 2:10). The bible says that in the Lord’s hand, I am a brand new creation!

Why must I be agog about other brands when what matters IS MINE already?