WHY BOHOLANOS KISS THE UBI WHEN DROPPED TO THE GROUND
TEN years ago, I accompanied Lolo Enrique in harvesting ubi in his little hilly farm situated across an old cemetery of the town. While carrying the harvested root crop to the hut beside the road, I accidentally dropped two pieces of ubi into the ground. Lolo Enrique yelled at me after seeing my carelessness, "Ely, pick up the ubi and kiss them," he ordered. I hurriedly did what he wanted me to do and uttered some words of repentance for what I’ve done that Lola Leling told me to do so.
I asked my Lola Leling why the ubi should be kissed when dropped on the ground. She answered politely that the ubi is sacred and it can bring malediction to the man if he did not do it accordingly.
Later, I was told that this Boholano practice is being followed for almost half a millennium now. Boholanos venerated the ubi plant as a sacred crop and that respect to the plant is still stronger today as ever. Though we, the new generation of Boholanos, adopted it without sensing the true cause of this custom we inherited from our ancestors.
According to Rene Sumodobila, the sacredness of ubi did not come without any reason at all. It is given by God. And it deals with the rich history of the Boholanos’ culture and their resiliency as a people to triumph over natural and man-made adversities.
Chinese traders during the silk trade brought the ubi (Dioscorea alata) to Bohol in the 10th century (Sung and Yuan Dynasties). When some Chinesse traders settled in Panglao Island, particularly Dauis, and married natives or who have been shipwrecked, they planted many different varieties of ubi root crops. Under the sandy-loam soil, the ubi thrived well and were easily accepted by the Boholano natives in Panglao Island area as an important part of their diet.
One day in the 1540s, the Portuguese-led Ternatan pirates (from Ternate, an island near Sulawesi, Indonesia) treacherously attacked and plundered the island. In the event, they killed more than 300 natives, including the ruling Datu Arripada Dailisan, and enslaved hundreds of men, women and children including Dailisan’s wife. As it was the custom in those days to abandon any site associated with death and misfortune, the survivors of the raid left the island and crossed the Mindanao Sea. In the rush to abandon the area, the Boholanos forgot to think about the ubi.
Many years later, when Christianity came to Bohol, the highlander Boholanos coming from Corella and other neighboring towns resettled the abandoned communities.
Unfortunately, in that Hispanic era, a great famine cause by long drought occurred. All the green vegetation died and the new settler around the Dauis-Panglao, Baclayon, and neighboring areas starved and many died.
The hungry Boholanos searched for food. While they continued searching, they asked God to help them to ease their suffering. Fortunately, in their constant search for food, someone accidentally struck a fleshly tuber in the ground, some are white and some are purple. The famish settler cooked it, tasted it without hesitation that it can be inedible or has poison. The settler found out that the tuber is edible, very delicious, and highly nutritious.
He told the other settlers about his discovery. Together, they found and dug more tubers. The unknown tuber saved the people from hunger. They instantly venerated it as a savior crop and for them, kissing it is not enough for giving thanks to the Almighty God.
Five Feng Shui Tips for Overflowing Abundance
DO you desire to attract prosperity in your life? If you do, don’t hesitate. It is possible to achieve this by integrating the ancient art of feng shui into every aspect of your life.
Jayme Barrett, best-selling author of Feng Shui Your Life, imparts his five techniques he discovered through many years of constant practice with the principles to bring positive energy into his thoughts, emotions, actions, and environment to realize his dreams and goals.
First, make sure your front entrance is free of clutter and that door can open wide, for the front entrance is the place where a majority of prosperity energy comes into your home. He suggested us to clear away any obstacles behind the door. If our door opens to a view of a back door or window, money may be escaping. The same is true if our front door opens to a flight of stairs.
Second, make sure your stove is stoked with prosperity energy, for cooking and eating are associated with prosperity. He suggested us to place a mirror and bountiful pictures in the dining room to double the wealth energy. On the dining table, a bowl with vegetables or fruit incorporated into the centerpiece represents plenty.
Third, create a good karma and incorporate tithing (or donating) on a regular basis. Karma is based on the idea of cause and effect. What we do now comes back to us. In other words, "As we give money, we receive money." Giving regularly is akin to taking out a karmic insurance policy. Give a small or large amount. Whatever feels right to you is perfect. Release the money knowing that it will come back multiplied.
This is in accordance with many spiritual traditions that emphasize the importance of financial giving. Here in the Philippines and throughout Asia, people donate money in the name of their ancestors, cultural tradition and religious mores.
Fourth, you must try to send positive energy to extremely rich folks. More often than not, people feel angered or envious towards successful people. These negative thoughts are extremely detrimental to your own ability to thrive financially. As you know, the thoughts and energy you send out come back to you. If you send energy daggers with the message of ruin and failure, guess what you receive in return? Ruin and failure multiplied! So, you must send words and wishes of prosperity to every one of them. You may say, "Wishing you even more prosperity, peace, and happiness." And the happier you are for the success of others, the more your energy will open to receive the same.
It is essential to reprogram your mind to bring in wealth. According to Joseph Murphy in Your Infinite Power to be Rich, you must say your affirmations out loud before bed and upon waking. This is the time when your subconscious is the most impressionable. His favorite affirmation from his book is, I recognize the eternal source of riches which never fails ... Infinite Intelligence is constantly revealing to me better ways to serve my fellow man. I am guided and directed to create products and services that will bless and help humanity. I attract men and women who are spiritual, loyal, faithful, and talented, and who contribute to the peace, prosperity, and progress of our business. I am an irresistible magnet and attract fabulous wealth by giving the best quality of products and services ... I am at peace inwardly and outwardly at all times. I am a tremendous success ... I radiate love and goodwill to all those around me and to all of my employees. All those connected with me are spiritual links in my growth, welfare, and prosperity.
Yes, positive affirmations can help. Instead of complaining about lack of money we can say,
"People love to give me money!" every day.
And fifth, keep a grateful heart and count your blessings. Being thankful to what the Lord has given you and share it to other people is good vibes for continuous flowing of prosperity.
Jayme Barrett’s tips are just only a few examples of many creative and powerful ways to increase the abundance in our life. It is essential to combine both inner and outer feng shui techniques in order for prosperity to take hold. Feng shui experts, for example, had said that we couldn’t expect a windfall of abundance by just only placing a water fountain in the wealth corner of our house without shifting our thoughts and actions to energize our environment. For each one positively affects the other and the result is a positive transformation in our life.
Farting Made Easy
DO you expel wind from the tail end every now and then, be it silent, noisy or smelly? If you are, then, don’t be ashamed. You are not alone. There are many out there farting.
Everybody passes gas, though, in different level. You and me are simply made that way. It is natural to all of us, for intestinal gas is a normal by-product of digestion. You begin producing it shortly after you're born and can even continue producing it after you die. But if you have more than your share, it's a major annoyance you need to solve.
To understand where did this bad air come from, lets find out what happened to the foods we ate.
All the foods we ate need to be digested up to its tiniest molecular units in order to enter in the bloodstream. Once food reaches the stomach, all proteins are broken into amino acids, all fats into fatty acids and all carbohydrates (simple and complex) into glucose molecules before being absorbed in the small intestine. When food does not get absorbed into the intestinal wall, it cannot enter the bloodstream. Indigestible food and liquids are sent down to the large intestine as waste for liquid reabsorption.
The large intestine is the home to hundreds of different bacteria growing within it. These bacteria live peacefully and provide certain positive health benefits to the body. Most of the bacteria in the large intestine are harmless and cause no problems. These bacteria rely on the indigestible food we eat for their own nutrition. Though there are also gas former bacteria that thrive from certain foods. They generate gases such as hydrogen and methane. Most of the gases you fart are formed by these bacteria. And when so much air were produce in the intestine, there’s no other resort than to fart it out.
This flatulence, utot in Tagalog or in Bisaya, contains odorless gases, such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and methane. But it also contains hydrogen sulfide, which causes the smell like rotten eggs, methanethiol, which smells like decomposing vegetables, and dimethyl sulfide, which smells sweet.
How much odor is produced also depends on the food you eat. Vegetarians might fart as often as meat-eaters, but their "serenades" do not smell as much because vegetables produce less hydrogen sulfide. The more sulfur rich the foods you eat, the more your farts will stink because bacteria will generate sulfides and mercaptans as they break down the nutrients.
There are many reasons why our farts exceed than normal.
Primary cause is eating more carbohydrates. Of the three nutrients, carbohydrates are the big cause that can produce flatulence because sugar and flour it contents will be easily fermented.
Second is eating hard to digest foods like milk. For example, a cow’s milk is unnatural to the human body, which is why a lot of people are lactose intolerant that means the body does not know how to digest milk, so it sets it aside as waste.
Third is the amount of bacteria living in the large intestines. Each person's intestinal fauna is composed differently so people do not react similarly to the same foods.
Fourth is chewing and swallowing air. Chewing gum gives people flatulence because it makes them swallow more air than usual. Each time food, liquid, or even saliva is swallowed, a small amount of air is carried to the stomach.
Fifth is intestinal infection. When a person has an intestinal infection, the lining of the intestinal track thins and nutrients, again, get sent to the large intestine without being absorbed.
If your married, it might not be grounds for divorce but I’m sure it is a cause for complaint. If you don’t want to be a lean mean farting machine forever, you can try these 10 easy ways to reduce farting.
1. Start to eat more healthily. Chew your food slowly, eat wholesome food little and often, rather than having large meals in the evening.
2. Change your diet to avoid hard-to-digest foods, like beans, raw onions, and some green vegetables like broccoli, cabbage and wholemeal bread.
3. Avoid eating too late at night. This may make it hard for your digestion to work properly.
4. Avoid sources of sulfur, which increase the risk of foul smelling wind. These include alcohol, preserved meat products, sausages, meat pies, salami and dried fruit that have been dipped in sulphur dioxide and squash.
5. Reduce your meat intake. The high protein content means a high content of amino acids some of which contain sulphur that might be turned into hydrogen sulphide.
6. Limit alcohol to one or two drinks a day. Heavy drinking can upset digestion, while the high sulphur content of wine and beer will often produce offensive smelling wind.
7. Take vitamin B supplements and friendly bacteria lactobacillus acidophilus.
8. Cut back on cigarettes. Smoking heavily can reduce the output of digestive enzymes by the pancreas which means some food may not be fully digested.
9. Eat two or three portions of fresh fruit and vegetables a day. The fibre and sugar content of these foods helps to promote the growth of healthy bacteria in the intestine, which can reduce the production of foul smelling wind.
10. Limit stressful situations, which may affect your digestion.
All in all, diet plays a significant role in the production of gas, be it smelly or otherwise. Carbonated beverages are an important source of intestinal gas. So are carbohydrates because they often contain indigestible sugars, starches and fiber. Some of the foods known that contain high complex carbohydrates are eggplant, apple, popcorn, cabbage, nuts, beans, carrots, onions, raisins, cauliflower, peaches, soybean, broccoli, pears, tuna, yams, sweet potato, cheese, cashews, milk products and yeast on bread. Rice is the only starch absorbed almost completely by the small intestine. Because rice starch never reaches the large intestine, gas-producing bacteria don't break this starch down.
Intestinal gas is rarely a sign or symptom of a serious condition. But you should see your doctor if your gas is persistent or severe, or if it's associated with vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, unintentional weight loss, or blood in the stool. Excessive gas may be a sign of another digestive disorder such as gastritis, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) or irritable bowel syndrome.
Intestinal gas can cause discomfort and embarrassment. But like death and taxes, it’s a part of life. It can be delayed, diminished, or directed but not deleted. It is the exhaust fume of digestion, the necessary result of the bowel's work and a sign of a normally functioning digestive system.
So, don’t fear my smelly friends. There is life after the gas chamber.
Detoxing Through Fasting
"Very few people know what real health is, because most are occupied with killing themselves slowly." - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Ph.D., Hungarian-born American biochemist and a 1937 Nobel Prize Laureate in Physiology or Medicine
EVERYDAY, many of us eat some toxins. We like to eat foods loaded with artificial flavors and chemically-created coloring agents, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, insecticides and other toxic chemicals, which overburden our bodies. And as this toxic overload accumulates year after year, augmented also by environmental pollution, drugs and medications, it interferes with normal functioning and spoils the body's elimination processes.
One way to make up this neglect is through fasting. Scientific studies show that, in fasting, large amounts of these accumulated metabolic wastes and poisons are quickly eliminated through the greatly enhanced cleansing capability of all the organs of elimination — liver, kidneys, skin and lungs.
Scientific fasting has proven itself, over several thousand years, as humanity's oldest, fastest and most effective weight-loss, detoxification, healing and longevity-enhancing modality known to mankind — both curative, as well as preventive. In fact, Hippocrates, Galen and Paracelsus, all 3 Fathers of Western Medicine practiced and prescribed fasting. They all declared that fasting is "the greatest remedy and the physician within." For during fasting, our body will self-digest its most inferior and impure materials and metabolic wastes.
An important element of fasting detoxification is mobilizing the toxins from their storage areas. Though, fast does not merely detoxify. It also breaks down superfluous tissue like fats, abnormal cells and tumors, and releases diseased tissues and their cellular products into the circulation for elimination. New cell growth is also stimulated and accelerated during fasting as the required proteins are resynthesized from decomposed cells. Several common symptoms of detoxification seen during this process could be darker urine.
Many people think that fasting needs us to avoid solid foods and just only water for sustenance for 3-7 days or more, depending on one’s health and doctors advice. But to many fasting therapists, this is not advisable. They recommend fresh fruit and vegetable juice instead of pure water. Freshly squeezed and extracted vegetable and fruit juices contain a wealth of vitamins and organically-complexed minerals. The juices all supply excellent energy, minerals, vitamins, live enzymes, and other nutrients necessary to enhance health during the fast. It will also supply the 400 calories or so our bodies require. Without that minimum caloric intake, our bodies begin to breakdown protein structures to get it. By providing much of the body's daily caloric needs with easily-digested juices, the release of toxins from the fat cells is much more gentle and gradual.
Additionally, fresh fruit and vegetable juices require little digestion, and are quickly assimilated from the upper digestive tract. Therefore, most of the 10% of bodily energy normally involved in our mastication, assimilation, digestion, and elimination is freed up. What's more, fresh juices have a cleansing effect of their own.
But not all of us can fast. Fasting therapist prohibits those who are thin, suffering with anemia, cancer, having a disease in blood, kidney, liver, and all important organs of the body, diabetic, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.
Scientific journals boost that scientific fasting enhances longevity, that we humans can double our natural life span like those periodically fasting animals.
"Fasting is, without any doubt, the most effective biological method of treatment... it is the 'operation without surgery'... it is a cure involving exudation, reattunement, redirection, loosening up and purified relaxation. We can improve our physical health and gain much while fasting. But we have neglected the most important thing if the hunger for spiritual nourishment that manifests itself during fasting is not satisfied," avers Otto Buchinger, Sr., M.D., Germany's great, self-described fasting therapist.
Although detoxing is the key to getting better, preventing toxins to accumulate in our body by avoiding harmful foods is the best way to protect our health.
Streamlining Your Life
NO doubt you've seen the word "simplicity" or the phrase "simplify your life" seemingly everywhere. There are numerous books, magazines, and a newsletter on the subject, and even advertising uses the phrase with come-ons, such as "buy our product to simplify your life." Some associate it with anticonsumerism or even deprivation, while others tout it as an excuse to spend their way to the simple life by purchasing exotic paraphernalia. What is it, really?
However we seek to get there, we're all attracted by the same profound yearning for more than the hectic, overwhelming, busy, and even numb lives that many of us lead. Life can be more than going to our jobs, going to the store, and going home at night, where we drop, exhausted, in front of the TV—only to repeat the process the next day. We want more, and many of us believe that if we simplify our lives, we can have more. Not more debt, clutter, and overcommitted calendars, but more depth, meaning, and vitality.
Simplicity means stripping away whatever is meaningless and being left with what truly matters:
Clearing your calendar of all the "I shoulds" and replacing them with what you love.
Freeing yourself from piles of clutter so you can breathe and relax.
Stopping foolish spending on your way to financial independence.
Simplicity is about living deliberately, and choosing your existence rather than sailing through life on autopilot. A simplified life is one that you have chosen thoughtfully, and, as a result, can bring you great depth and joy.
The great news is that simplicity is very much what you make it. You can simplify and live in a condo in the city; you can simplify and live in the woods. You can be any age, any race, live in any community. You can have a family, or you can be single. You can be a gourmet, you can love beauty, or you can love the plain and functional. To simplify, really simplify, you need to look inside and discover your own soul, your own heart’s longing, and peel away what obscures and hinders that discovery.
One woman said it well: "Simplicity is an individual thing...it has to be something that springs from the heart because it was always there, not something you can be talked into by persuasive people, or something that is brought on by financial necessity...this is not something we do because we want to be different, or because we’re rebellious to convention, but because our souls find a need for it."
The most notable proponent of this lifestyle was Henry David Thoreau. The following excerpt from his book, Walden, has become the embodiment of the simple living movement: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I wanted to live deep and suck all the marrow of life."
Thoreau’s words have come to symbolize that yearning for a life so many of us wish we had, if only we weren’t so busy, so overwhelmed, and so burdened by demands. Thoreau’s maxim is not about literally moving to the woods (unless you want to). Rather, it is about why he moved to the woods: to live deliberately and not, when he came to die, discover that he had not lived. He did not want to die having lived only a mediocre or shallow life.
There are several religious groups who continue to practice simplicity as a way of life, such as the Quakers and Shakers in America, and, indeed, most of the world's great religions and philosophies have advocated some form of simple living. The Greek and Roman moral philosophers preached the virtues of the golden mean, as did the Old Testament prophets. The author of Proverbs prayed, "Give me neither poverty nor wealth but only enough."
In more modern days, simplicity was associated with the "back to the land" movement, advocated by those who rejected mainstream society in favor of a simpler way of life. While the outward manifestations of simplicity have evolved throughout the decades, the inner craving for a simpler, less complicated, deeper life has been the steady driving force.
Simplicity will allow you to live purposefully. Beyond just getting through the day or the week, you’ll live as if there were a higher purpose for your life. This can happen once you strip away all that is meaningless, freeing you to focus on what you really love.
What are the three areas of life in which most people need help simplifying? According to The Simple Living Guide, they are time, financial and home.
25-Feet Python Wows Tourists in Bohol
LIKE the tarsiers of Corella, Bohol, this 25-feet python also attracts tourists - foreigners and locals alike to come to Upper Sta. Fe, Alburquerque, Bohol and see in person the world’s largest python in captivity. This female reticulated python christened "Prony" was a super hit among Filipino celebrities like Cesar Montano and Patricia Javier and many foreigners from all over the world who heard her existence in the island province of Bohol.
The name ‘Prony" came from Manong Sofronio Salibay who caught her in the town’s cemetery. This world-renowned python was only five kilos and five feet in length when captured on October 21, 1996. But many cannot believe what she is today. Under the caring hands of the Salibay brothers – Sofronio, Eugenio and Jingjing--- "Prony" became a 200-kilo python whose body length is now 25 feet with 28 inches body width.
"Her growth is very abnormal," Manang Jingjing says. "Reptile experts from London Zoo assigned by Charles Wartenberg, director of Animal Kingdom Foundation, Inc. informed us that her size is like a 40-year old python. Maybe because of how we cared her.
"We give her everyday all our love. We always talk to her day and night. We called on her name even if she cannot hear us. Since our calling is in our hearts, she could hear us. She could receive the vibrations and messages from our minds and hearts. This summer we sprayed her water three times a day. According to reptile experts, her life span is 150 years. We are hoping she will live up to it.
" "Prony" has already swallowed cats and dogs. In fact, she had feasted 40 live dogs before Animal Kingdom Foundation, Inc., led by Mr. Wartenberg, raided the Salibay brothers that saved 12 dogs reserved for one year ration. Today, live goat and pigs are her monthly gourmet.
"Under the watchful eyes of AKF Inc., we already feed Prony five goats and five pigs, alternately. But now, we try to give her only pig, a 40-kilo pig a month. And we make sure that the pig is clean and free from disease.
"We received an offer that will give us millions but we turned it downed. We are not after the money. "Prony" is not for sale. It’s our mission now to care her forever. Our family loves her very much. She’s a family treasure," the lady sanctuary keeper admitted.
"Prony" is now house in the steel-caged situated beside the house of Salibay brothers. It was built with the help of AKF Inc. and with the assistance of PepsiCo.
"The P5.00 entrance for food and maintenance is a small amount compared to the great experience of seeing in person the world’s largest python in captivity," Manang Jingjing opined.
On summer "Prony" averages 300 visitors a day. Many of them were awed when they saw her in her steel-cage. "Oh, no! It’s a monster. A real Anaconda," a South Korean tourist shrieked watching "Prony" opened her mouth. And the African-American, who was standing near the railing together with his wife, avowed, "Only in the Philippines!"