Wanting A Pleasurable Pastime: Gardening

By Danny S. Villanueva
(A copy for the Ihip Newsletter.)

At the start of my retirement several years ago, I had looked towards having worthwhile pastime activities which are pleasurable and invigorating. Browsing the internet, talking with siblings abroad, and composing articles for the Ihip Newsletter have kept me glued on my PC for several hours a day. This includes baby sitting Margaret, our grandchild, by watching series of nursery videos. Sabrie and I are fond of Sudoku puzzles, too. These are life pleasure, except that my feet get swollen for sitting too long.

I needed other diversions to provide some kind of physical activities in lieu of regular sports and exercises. Regular cleaning of our cars and the parts under the hood serve as a good work out for me. I tried for months to walk around the village early morning but the daily drill triggered my reflux that slowed me down and later compelled me to stop it temporarily. I become a ready handy man at home doing small repairs that keeps my mind busy on problem solving which seems to drive my reflux away.

Watering the garden and helping Sabrie do plant rearrangement have been a pleasant chore, too. The garden chore includes raking up falling leaves from the kayomito, santol, mabolo, chico and malunggay trees almost twice a day. Then about 2 years ago I put up a vegetable plot complete with balag made with young bamboo poles. Initially, it was fun with ampalaya vines growing abundantly with fruits. As time rolled by, it was not so much fun. nor was it easy. The kalabasa, upo and eggplant failed to sustain their growth. The ampalaya shows short life cycle. However, the Montenegro beans or sitaw grew beautifully with plentiful fruits that we shared with our neighbors. Sabrie progressed to widen the pepper variety from labuyo to bell peppers. She also added gabi plants. The lowly talbos ng kamote grows very well requiring much less attention.

Gardening has been the way of life for generations for our old folks. But for me without any farming background, where common sense only applies, our small garden provides a new source of pleasure for us. Groping to learn more, I found out that I failed to continuously plant seeds for sitaw and ampalaya regeneration for their long survival. Sad are the days when heavy rains would flood the plot that harms the young plants. Our gardening, indeed, becomes a kind of learning hobby where we find joy and relevance.

To have a vegetable garden is really satisfying. Starting with seeds, they begin to grow, eventually there are flowers and finally fruits appear. Now that is really awesome. It is also a joy to sit at the dinner table and enjoy sinigang or pinakbet with freshly grown ampalaya and sitaw, steamed talbos ng kamote, talbos ng sili for the tinola and the malunggay in ginisang monggo. Upcoming is the laing with our gabi leaves. These are enough to make our mouth water.

Planting, weeding and picking vegetable in the family garden becomes now a routine chore for me and Sabrie. As time moves on, we may need to try new variety of vegetables which are easy to grow with the existing plot. We may need to study and try ways to protect the plants from worms, weeds, ants and other pests that harm the garden.

The fun of gardening changes as our bodies are getting little older everyday. Getting down on our knees, or bending over, stretching without a decent warm up could cause us quite a bit of discomfort. But never mind that, what is important is that we enjoy our flowers, vegetables and fruits, and nothing like seeing the efforts of our hard work enjoyed by the family and neighbors.
#

Improve Living: Root Cause vs. Effects

By Danny S. Villanueva
(A copy for the Ihip Newsletter.)

In our everyday life, we see people to be real busy and concern addressing the malady of the many symptom, indications and signs of their predicaments. The problems do not stop at all, they simply would just rest for awhile and reappear a little later to create havoc once again into the life of these people. This makes life a terrible experience.

Take for instance the following snap shots in a typical neighborhood: Mang Rey has a painful gout problem which repeatedly recurs almost monthly. He dutifully addresses it by taking pain relievers without knowing what causes his gaut problem. He eats a lot and regularly joins his barkada for drinking sprees. He is anxious to see a doctor for his health condition, for he thinks it is just a waste of time and money. He relies on his kumpare’s quackery. Cause vs effect: eating so much foods rich in uric acid (cause); painful swelling of feet and hands (effects).

Rey’s neighbour, Aling Elena has a mounting loan from various creditors around the neighbourhood. Her husband, a security guard at the mall is a minimum wage earner and would drive tricycle after his duty to augment his earning. Aling Elena, who keeps up with her kumares caprices, has fancy for buying wares on instalment from the Bumbay. She resorts to 5-6 loan sharks to be able to pay the Bumbay. The problem spirals and she knows pretty soon she would not be able to cope with all the loan payments. How could she get away from this time bomb predicament? Cause vs effect: envy, jealousy and pride (cause); mounting loans, anxiety, bankruptcy (effects).

Mang Rey and Aling Elena are like many of our folks who must find and resolve the root cause of their problems, and not just deal with their effects in order to escape more lastingly from their difficulties. Effective people believe strongly in dealing with the root causes to bring about the greatest, lasting and sustainable improvement in their life.

Other examples of cause and effect: Experienced several failures, setbacks in the past (cause); low morale and self-confidence today (effects). Addicted in gambling and other vices (cause); involved in crime today (effects). Avid rumor mongerer (cause); poor relationship, quarrel with neighbors (effects). Lack of love of family and friends (cause); unfriendly, feeling of emptiness (effects). Poor set of priority and time management (cause); procrastinates, always late for appointment (effects).

It is understandable why people are inclined to deal with effects rather than causes. Effects are immediately observable and felt, so it is easy to respond to them. Upon temporarily fixing the effects, you get an immediate change that created a feeling of wellness and unconsciously forgo finding the “root cause.” On the other hand, looking for root causes can be wearisome and complicated and sometimes, frightening. This can drive people to run away when they realize the true cause of their problems. Also, some people might not even know how to go about looking for the root cause of it.

5 WHYS. The 5 Whys is an accepted, proven, easy, scientific technique used in the problem analysis in digging for the root cause. It does not involve any statistical assumptions and in many cases can be done without a data collection plan. You should have observed that asking "Why?" is a natural habit of three year old children in their curiosity to understand things. By repeatedly asking "Why" (why not six? five is a good rule of thumb), you can remove away the layers of effects or symptoms which can lead to the root cause of a problem. The technique is to ask the right questions to get the right answers. Wrong questions lead to wrong answers. The following is an example application:

Problem Statement: You are in your car and it stops in the middle of the road.
1. WHY did your car stop? (Answer) Because it ran out of gas.
2. WHY did it run out of gas? (Answer) Because I did not buy any gas earlier.
3. WHY did you not buy any gas earlier? (Answer) Because I did not have any money.
4. WHY did you not have any money? (Answer) Because I lost it all last night drinking with my barkadas .
5. WHY did you lose your money drinking with your friends? (Answer) Because I am not good in avoiding them specially when it comes to drinking spree (root cause).

The solution or corrective action now should address the root cause of “fond of drinking spree with barkadas.”

Choose not to prolong your suffering and improve your life condition. While you have temporarily fixed the “effects,” consciously focus now on the “root cause” and implement a corrective action.
#

Choose: Am I Part of the Problem... Or Part of the Solution?

By Danny S. Villanueva
(A copy for the Ihip Newsletter)

With so many different ideas in life we somehow place ourselves into certain position or side to issues that impact us. In most cases, these issues resemble concerns or problems that affect our thinking, decisions, tendencies and actions. Then we become involved directly or indirectly and knowingly or unknowingly. Without really being aware of it, we become either part of the problem or part of the solution on the issue we are involved in.

Do you remember during our school years, we were thought to follow the honor system and not to cheat in any way during written or oral exams. But somehow many took this admonition lightly and somehow cheated several times to pass the grade. Readily the cheaters become part of the problem. Other students who refrained from cheating by studying very hard are considered part of the solution.

How about the duty to pay our taxes? Many used various techniques to cheat and avoid or reduce the taxes they have to pay. Obviously, they are part of the problem. While income earners who follow diligently the proper tax payment are part of the solution. People who used to cheat but now correctly paying taxes are part of the solution too.

Many of us drive vehicles and somehow we tend to look for easier ways to deal with the traffic conditions. This leads us to do tricky minor or major traffic violation that we become part of the problem. The traffic policemen who allowed such violations are part of the problem, too. While drivers who behave well on the road and the traffic officers who do their job well are part of the solution.

There are other various examples we can point out to illustrate our becoming part of a problem or part of the solution- from the home, work and community settings. Areas of concern could cover relationship, health, crime, graft and corruption, politics, religion, sex, moral issues and many others. Evidently, many people are looking at things somewhat wrongly. Such behavioural penchant to violate rules of order makes the situation worse. If we are not helping to reform the world into the place we want our children and loved ones to live, as we are supporting the way it is now, we are part of the problem.

For us to be part of the solution is to create an attitude or behaviour that spells upright disposition which lead us to a decision tree like process of discernment: Do I know what I am concerned about? Is my understanding of the issue accurate or merely an emotional reaction? Is the issue on hand actually my problem? What are my options? What is the possible worst case scenario for implementing or failure to implement what I am concerned about? On the other hand, what is the best case scenario?

Will my actions have immediate and long term positive or negative affects? What are the potential improvement/change would occur whether home, community, or nation wide. Is my solution practical and realistic that can change for the better or is this a hopeless cause? What are the steps involved in implementing my solution?

We need to find opportunities that we do not become part of the problem but become part of the solution in our world of rules, regulations, provisions, laws, etc. that we have to live with. These designed conditions are supposed to help us. Let us help to make them work to the success of the majority of our people.

I believe that anyone of us can help solve the troubles, evils we are in, whether in small or big degree. Let us encourage each other to do our share to oppose, fight and solve the root causes of problems we are in now. So where am I – am I part of the problem or part of the solution? It is our choice – choose.
#

MIND SET: PROBLEM ORIENTED OR SOLUTION ORIENTED

By Danny S. Villanueva
(A copy for the Ihip Newsletter)

Can you remember the time when you worry about a problem time and again? You were terribly disturbed by the blow the problem has brought to your life. And you were not able to focus clearly on what action to take, musing: “Pambihira naman, nangyari pa sa akin ito! Paano na? Sakit ng ulo ito! Sana panaginip na lang ito. Hay, Diyos ko tulungan mo ako!”

Take for instance, Sabrie and I had experience with repeated problems with our Vanette family van. The alternator conked out at night travelling from Manila to Tarlac about three times in different occasions, engine over heated going to Baguio, and many more problems. We could sit there and mumble things like, "Why does this always happen to the Vanette when we are on long trips?" "When am I going to be able to replace this old piece of junk? It's so undependable!" For awhile, such experience made Sabrie avoid driving the family van even for short trips around Tarlac.

As a normal recourse, every time the trouble happened, we employed a little of solution-oriented thinking. “What can we do to fix the van problem more reliably and economically?” This resulted to a lot of corrective and preventive solutions such as replacement of the defective gasoline engine by a second-hand diesel engine and save on fuel, too; change all rubber hoses; overhauled the alternator and starter assemblies, and many more. You see that the question was centered on solutions that led us to creative or positive thinking to help solve the condition of our old family van. Sabrie and I never went to finding fault, like“Bakit pa kasi nabili natin ito?” We both readily agreed to come up with solutions to the immediate difficulty. While we opted to sell the 14-year old family van if there will be any takers, we will still have to deal with its regular wear and tear problems, but we will continue to be more clear-thinking to make appropriate solutions.

Generally, people use either a solution-oriented (growth) mindset or a problem-oriented (fixed) mindset. Those with a fixed mindset see their talents and abilities cannot be further improved. They believe that they are born with certain amount of talent and do not want to test their abilities due to the chance of failure. Persons with a fixed mindset would always guard themselves against situations in which they feel they need to prove their personal worth. Challenges are frequently viewed negatively, instead of opportunity for personal growth.

On the other hand, people that practice growth mindset believe intelligence, talents, and abilities can be developed over time. They believe abilities can be improved through hard work and persistence. When presented with a problem, those practicing growth mindset will likely rise to the challenge. People of the growth mindset do not fear failure, and instead, they view it as a chance to improve themselves.

Once you are confronted with a problem, be sure not to fall into the trap of thinking and brooding about the problem. Instead, ask yourself, "What is the solution?" Focus your thinking on the solution instead of the problem. This can be hard from the start, but like most things, it gets easier and easier with practice. Others called this technique "solution-oriented thinking." You do not have to be an engineer to understand that focusing on the solution is a much more positive activity than worrying on the problem. You know, turning our attention to potential solutions is more fun and gratifying than falling into the pit of pity that always goes with brooding on the problem. Even if a solution is not readily available, just the act of searching for one is an activity that will always get your mind away from the problem itself.

This solution-oriented mindset is also valuable to a group or community setting where multiple people are confronted with a problem that they must together tackle. However, the group can also get slowed down with worrying on the problem by themselves that can be contagious in a group. We should know the difference between worry on the problem and concern for solution, such as: worry distracts us, solution focuses us; worry disables planning; making solutions helps us plan; worry blurs our vision, solution clarifies our purpose; worry tends to give up, looking for solutions perseveres; worry exaggerates, solutions pinpoints the root cause of the problem; and worry focuses on self, developing solutions cares for others. So, why worry?
#

LIFE’S PRIORITIES: IMPORTANT VS. URGENT

By Danny S. Villanueva
(Teaching given by the author to PTG Community in July 2010; also a copy of Ihip Newsletter article.)

Many disorder and confusion in life are caused by choosing the wrong priorities in life. Pains, sickness and troubles are normal offshoots of mismanaged priorities. And such consequences ruin the handling of our time and resources on a daily basis. The problem boils down to our understanding and perception of what is “important” and what is “urgent.” Many of us find difficulty to tell the difference between the two. Understanding what is important but not urgent, and what is urgent but not important display how our mind works. Tackling what is urgent is commonly our weakness.

Important items are those essential (critical, crucial, vital) or “need” things we must have or must do. Not important items are the “wants” (would/feel like to do/have, nice to do/have). Our thought of “when” to have or do ascertains the urgency of the situation. Take for instance: Money is important to have, but not urgent when you have everything at the moment. Having money is urgent when we need to pay bills due by month end and we are running short of income.

We have here below a diagram that can help us understand and work out our priorities properly. In the first quadrant (urgent and important) shows an emergency or crisis situation that must have immediate corrective reactions (like fighting a fire, getting immediate medical attention, solving a car breakdown in the expressway, etc.). Failure to have foresight, plans and preparations leads to such crisis situations and wipes out completely our time management. Except for force majeure (act of God) cases, we must prevent this crisis situation by following the quadrant 2 situation.



The second quadrant (important but not urgent) shows the effectiveness of foresight and planning ahead to avoid/prevent problems/critical situations. Here, the pro-active person anticipates possible problems by being sensitive to their tell-tale signs and symptoms, investigates, verifies and prepares for the worst. For example: going through annual medical check ups, periodic car preventive maintenance, implementing safety practices at home/work, with limited resources- spending money on important/essential needs only, etc. This is the situation where we like to be at anytime in our life where there is ease, breathing space, time to evaluate/analyze and organized plan of action. The key here is to follow the designed plan and schedules without unnecessary delays.

The third quadrant (not important but urgent) is where our attachments and addictions fall within. For there is deception, a lie giving urgency to non-important things (vices, prohibitive drugs, alcohol, gambling, rumour mongering/idle talks, greed, amassing wealth, overeating, overspending, lust, etc. Take for instance the sales events of many shopping malls: they are urgent for those selling the wares or services; but not urgent for us consumers, for there will be other sales in the future. If we do not need the items being sold, then the sales offer is not important as well. Just like the first quadrant, this situation also ruins completely our ability to manage our time effectively. We must avoid falling into this very bad situation by being truly honest to ourselves and others.

The fourth quadrant (not important and not urgent) shows a situation of wasting our time of having and doing things which are not urgent and important all. For example: with limited resources-planning to gallivant (paint the town red) with the “barkadas”, saving and spending hard earned money to keep up with the Joneses, etc. To keep away from this terrible trap, do not be idle or tend to over sleep. Keep busy. Acquire healthy habits, past time and recreational activities.

In the realm of our Christian faith, what is priority is how we live the Word of God. The most important is how we love with charity and service: “God first, others second, and me third.” God’s call for sacrificial love is foremost to all of us, and there is urgency to sustain and uphold it in our everyday life. We must have clear ideas and vision of the good and holy things we need to aspire for. For effectiveness, we must plan/prepare on how to achieve and live them through regular habits of study, prayer, service and effective handling of our time and resources.

As to our daily time management, there are 4 recommended practical techniques:
1. Identify 3 to 5 most important for the day.
2. Look into tasks that provide highest value to others and myself. Give priority to long-term benefit impact it will have to others’ and my life.
3. As much as possible, plan and do important tasks in the morning. Afternoon can be filled with distractions/busy work.
4. Have a clear vision (short term: 1-3 years and long term: 5-10 years) on how your future would look like.

#

Tonino's Funeral- July 16, 2010

By Noli Villanueva
July 16, 2010

Good morning to all.

I am Noli Villanueva the younger brother of Pearl,
Pearl will not be with us to bury her husband Tony today, but she will be with us in prayers in this process.

Exactly one week from now, last Friday, the 9th, Theresa rushed Pearl to the emergency for a stroke like complaints. And she was examined and diagnosed and went to a procedure on the 3rd day, Sunday. She was in ICU until she was moved to a room last Thursday, which is a good sign to her treatment.

Pearl is not totally out of the woods as we say, and the Doctor in his good conscience cannot allow Pearl to be out here with us to bury her husband Tony.
She will be in the hospital for a couple of days more before she will go into a rehab for stroke victims. This rehab process can be short or can be long, lets us pray that Pearl get out of the process as early as possible. I want her to be out there doing what Tony and herself wanted to do ……to serve and help people.

From my Oldest Sister Daisy Pena, my younger brother Danny to my youngest brother, Father Maria Alfredo, the Priest and Ludy my wife, myself with our children and relatives ………I would like to extend our sincere gratitude and appreciation to Theresa and Carl, Patricia and Pesa with their children , for taking care of their Mom Pearl and at the same time attending to Tony’s funeral wake and burial . Thank you very much, you all did and still doing a great job to your Mom and your Dad. May the Lord bless you all.

And to all friends of Pearl and Tony , who came,….. who are here,….. and….. those who will still come , We thank you very much from the bottom of our heart. May the Lord Bless us all.

Thank you.

Trip to Oman: Opening of new BK

By Mary Christine C. Villanueva
May 2010

Hi, Papa & Mama!

Here's the first batch of photos.... i can't attach all together kaya eto muna...

Mas mainit sa Oman, 40 deg dun compared to 32 degrees dito sa Dubai. No tall buildings and puro rocky mountains.

The opening was very successful. Dinumog ng tao talaga.. puno ung dining namin for our guests but people keep coming and waiting for us to open the doors for the dine in, take out and drive-thru.

Nag serve ako ng drinks for 3 straight hours. Pati GM namin, regional managers for training, our HR managers - all of us were practically making burgers and fries for the customers. Andami nila umorder dun. Hindi sila napapagod pumila and makipagsiksikan para lng makabili ng BK... One indian guy was complaining he was so full after eating 4 whopper sandwiches! hahaha parang sabik na sabik sila for new taste... hehehe

4am na the following day nag close ung store dahil sinerve namin lahat ung nakapila sa drive-thru. And when we opened for the second day, mas marami pang nakapila sa drive thru pati sa dine-in namin. Ganun naman daw tlga pag may bago d2 sa middle east, tlgang hindi nagpapahuli mga tao.. hehehhe

We stayed at The Chedi. It's a 5-star hotel. Ang ganda and very relaxing yung place. Our GM told us na travel incentive un for us na sumama besides attending the opening of our 1st BK outlet in Oman. BK was there a few years back pero sinara because of some issues - hindi amin ung franchise na un before. So now that we're putting BK back there under our franshise, we're hoping na we'll open the 2nd store before the year ends. Oman is small lang so maximum na we could open is around 8 to 10 stores lang.