The Secret

From the moment when Oprah Winfrey talked about this book in her talk show, I was intrigued about the number of people who claimed that it changed their lives based on their reviews that I read on the internet, more so when my curiosity couldn’t figure out why it was entitled like that in the first place. The thought of adding it to my reading list slipped through my mind until six years later though.

This book is mainly about transforming your negativity in life to a positive one which is affected by how we think. We can receive the things that make us happy by going through the three steps of the creative process; (1) ask, (2) believe, and (3) receive. First, we should know what we want in life, be it materialistic or not. Second, we need to have faith that what we want is already within our reach. And finally, we should be happy when we have received what we want.

The foreword, which is at the beginning of this book, is what grabbed my attention. For me, it’s what motivated me to continue reading it further because of these questions that appeared in my head:

1. What is “the secret”?
2. If “the secret” has been known centuries ago by other people, then how come not everyone knew about it in the first place?
3. How do we apply “the secret” into our lives?
4. What is the title of the hundred-year-old book read by Rhonda which gave her a glimpse of “the secret”?

I understand that there are other people who had also contributed to the success of this book after its publication, but it would’ve been better if the contributions were simplified into one or  several important statements to get straight to the main ideas. Furthermore, it would’ve been nice if Rhonda mentioned the title of the hundred-year-old book that she read since it did give her an idea of “the secret” in the first place, but so far, there isn’t any of it.

On the other hand, the book has served its main goal by  elaborating the answers to my first three questions. The writing style is exceptionally well-written since the overall message of this book has been easily conveyed to me without having the need for me to re-read some paragraphs all over again.

Hey, “Watch” It There!

On my 12th birthday, my parents decided to take me to a shop in a mall where I could choose from either of the two watches as my present: one had flowers all over it and the other was an automatic that had a face where you could see the mechanism of a real watch. Although I chose the first one, I decided to go for the latter one instead after my parents reasoned out with me.

The Swatch automatic 23 jewels, or the “skeleton” watch as what I used to call it, had been with me for almost a decade. Despite of accidentally being scratched during my vacation and having its wrist leathers torn over the years, it was still able to move its second hand every day. Unfortunately, several months before the PNLE (Philippine Nursing Licensure Exam), it stopped moving, so I had no choice but to use one of the two functioning watches that I have left.

The Casio 3125 LDF-30 was bought by my dad when I was in college for some reason that I couldn’t remember. It was my first choice for the PNLE and although it’s water-resistant, it’s battery-operated. Hence, I scrapped off that idea.

The Casio Tough Solar 2790 LCF-30 is originally my mom’s watch. It  was just hanging in front of her dresser the whole time and doesn’t look that much like a women’s watch, so I got the impression that maybe it belonged to my dad or it was already busted, but thankfully, it wasn’t! And to top it off, not only is it battery-operated, but it’s also powered by solar energy. In short, in case the battery would be dead, I have another way to keep it moving! It also alarms every hour, which is an additional plus for someone who wants to be aware of the time left.

 If you plan to buy/use a watch, here are the…

1.) Purpose. If you need a watch for something important or if you don’t have time to change its battery, go for the one that requires movement to be active or the one that’s powered by tough solar. I had a classmate who wore a watch with a second hand, which was among the requirements needed for a student nurse on duty. Unfortunately, it stopped moving before he went to his assigned patient because it ran out of power supplied by its battery.

2.) Power Source. An automatic watch is the best because it only needs movement for it to work. The one that’s powered by tough solar is all right, but only if there’s sunlight for it to be recharged. As for the non-automatic watch, well if you do have time to change its battery, then use it if you want. I had been wearing my automatic skeleton watch for almost a decade. Can you imagine how loyal it was with me even though I never had it recharged even once? It’s really amazing.

3.) Display Functions. If you’re the kind of person who tends to forget what date or day of the week it is, go for the watch that has those functions. Me and most of my classmates kept asking each other what date it was whenever our exams asked for it before we answered them.

What I’ve Learned from Facebook

Some people…

1.) keep sending game requests, which is annoying for those who rarely play Facebook games or who have to scroll all the way down the notification list for other important things that have been piled up by the number of game requests.

2.) keep posting quotes on their Facebook walls without even giving credit to the ones who created those quotes or without trying to understand their true meanings. There are also those who keep posting quotes in order to get the attention of some of their friends whether they’re enemies or not.

4.) use their Facebook walls to vent out their feelings, especially if they’re the quiet and/or shy ones in real life.

5.) change their statuses to “engaged” or “married” when in fact, they’re only “in a relationship”. Do they seriously want their friends to ask details regarding about the date and the venue of the wedding? My Guidey…

6.) make a big deal out of friends who suddenly change their statuses from “single” to “in a relationship”, “engaged”, or “married”. I was among those who changed my status from “single” to “in a relationship” just to see how my friends would react, with the cooperation of my mom of course. Some of them said that my mom was going to kill me if she ever found out about my “boyfriend”, some of them congratulated me for finally becoming a “lady”, some were disappointed with my status, some wanted me to bring my “man” with me to the graduation ball, and there’s one who wanted to find out who my guy was so that he could chop them off. Hahaha.

7.) post pictures of their babies’ ultrasounds and/or pictures of them proudly showing off their big bellies. I think Facebook is trying to tell me to get a boyfriend. Nyek!

8.) show on their Facebook walls which place(s) are/were they at. Do they want psychopaths to stalk them or something? Especially if those psychopaths turn out to be their friend(s)?

9.) use the jejemon language for their posts. Facebook isn’t like Twitter where you have a 140-character limit, so why the heck would they shorten their messages to the point where it would become vague to be understood.

Photo credits to: nicolai-bauchrowitz