What is Responsibility?

"With great powers comes great responsibilities."

Not like superheroes, we don't have  super powers to speak of but we do have the power of choice to live up to the responsibilities that we have.

Responsibility is the commitment to CONSISTENTLY do the job you are tasked with based on the parameters of the highest  QUALITY.  Doing it due to mere compliance is not being responsible.  One should understand the VALUE behind the task and its importance in the whole scheme of things.  Commitment follows understanding.

The thing is, responsibility does not only reside in the WORK PLACE.  Responsibility starts AT HOME.  

House chores are good training to learn the meaning of responsibility.  If you notice that your mother is continually reminding you of your work at home then YOU ARE NOT BEING RESPONSIBLE.  If your father is always in your case with regard to the quality by which you've done your chores YOU ARE NOT BEING RESPONSIBLE.  Just imaging yourself like this at work and I you can be assured of a SHORT TERM stint at any company.

The home is where your values find their roots. To have good values growing up would always mean a valued worker at the office.

Again, RESPONSIBILITY is a matter of CHOICE.  So choose to BE RESPONSIBLE.

A Breakfast Story

Cooking breakfast for the kids may not be all that glamorous a house chore but it's definitely fulfilling as a father.  Planning the weekly breakfast menu, waking up early in the morning, donning that sexy apron (Nahhh!  Just kidding!  No apron for this dude!) and multi-tasking with Facebook and other Internet "news" (let's skip on the "news" shall we?).

Anyway, today's lunch pack is Fish Fillet and rice.  Not too much rice for Colleen and Carl---a lot for my teenage daughter Chesca.  Now if my eldest son Ringo would bring baon to school then I'd be needing at least two more cups of rice to cook and a bigger cut portioning of viand!  

Breakfast is squid rolls.  It would have been better is I still had that special sauce from the supermarket but what I thought we still had---we don't (check on that for the next grocery day).   Anyway, I guess we'd just have to do with "toyo" or "suka".

The problem with me multi-tasking is that sometimes it gets the better of me.  When I get too engrossed with something on the Net I tend to forget the primary objective which is preparing breakfast and baon.  This morning was a day like this.  In my haste to catch up and finish cooking by 5am, I loaded the squid rolls for frying; however, I did not foresee that what started out as thumb-size rolls could swell twice as large!  After a while I came back to my cooking and saw these giant squid rolls overflowing my frying pan!  Geez!  Di tuloy pantay pagkakaluto ko!  Anyways, sarap pa din naman! (or I would like to think it was)

My Baby is Now a Lady

I don't like surprises. I was under the impression that my role during Chesca's bday was only that of the photographer and all the speaking chores given to my wife, I was caught flat footed when called on to speak. I found it difficult to arrange my thoughts that time. For me, the event was a mixture of happiness and sadness. Happy because it was Chesca's birthday; sad, because she's baby no more. Naturally, what came out of my mouth was so incomprehensible I didn't understand me myself! Anyway, here's really what I wanted to say:

1. Keep your priorities straight. Life is all about achieving your goals. Know what you want and focus on accomplishing it.

2. Don't rush things. Everything will come in God's own time. Rushing into situations usually end up a disaster.

3. Always keep a POSITIVE ATTITUDE. Look at your life as HALF FULL and not HALF EMPTY. An old Persian proverb would say, "I cried a lot when I had no shoes and then I saw a man WITH NO FEET." The kind of attitude that you have will determine your future. There is littel difference in men; but that little difference can be a BIG difference. That little difference is ATTITUDE. The big difference is whether it's POSITIVE or NEGATIVE.

4. There is no SMALL TASK. Whether you are cleaning the sala, washing the dishes, or nagtutupi ka ng damit---everything should be done with INITIATIVE and accomplished with QUALITY. Making this a habit will give you the proper foundation for the corporate life.

5. Remember Newton's 1st Law of Motion: Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. In the quest of your goals failures will be there to derail your journey every once in a while. Learn from them. Each failure will tell you what NOT to do in the future.

6. Remember Newton's 3rd Law of Motion: For each action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In other words, all our actions have CONSEQUENCES. Choose your actions well. When in doubt---PRAY and God will show you the way. Make sure that when you decide on something you are ready to face the consequences. WALANG NAG SISISI SA UNA---LAGING SA HULI. In relation to this, ALWAYS DO GOOD TO OTHERS AND GOOD THINGS WILL COME BACK TO YOU. Sa mga wawalang hiya sa iyo and sasabihin mo lang e, "KARMA-KARMA lang yan!"

7. Always remember God. Thank Him for all the blessings He has given you---BIG and SMALL. God is everywhere so take each opportunity to pray.

You may be a lady now but YOU WILL ALWAYS BE MY BABY GIRL! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHESCA! WE LOVE YOU! .