Tuesday 27 March 2007

Your Mother is always with You

For a dear friend Marilou F.
Our deep sympathy for the passing
away of her mother this early spring.






Your mother is always with you...

She is the whisper of the leaves
as you walk down the street.

She is the cool hand on your brow
when you're not well.

Your mother lives inside
your laughter. She's crystallized
in every tear drop.

She's the place you came from, your first home.
She's the map you
follow with every step that you take.

She's your first love and your first heart break...
and nothing on earth can separate you.

Not time, not space...
not even death...
will ever searate you
from your mother...

You carry her inside you...

(poem taken from: www.mothers.net)
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Thursday 15 March 2007

Pinays Celebrate International Women's Day




(photos by ML)
In keeping with their yearly celebration of the IWD
International Women's Day (March 8), Philippine Women's
Forum e.V. (Babaylan Germany) and Babaylanes Internationales
held an information evening with a film showing of
Lualhati Bautista's story "Bata, Bata Paano Ka Ginawa"
at the Internationaleszentrum Stolzestrasse in Cologne,
Germany on March 9, 2007.
The film Bata, Bata Paano Ka Ginawa, starring
Vilma Santos, Albert Martinez, Ariel Rivera, Raymond
Bagatsing, Carlo Aquino and Serena Dalrymple and
directed by Chino Rono, tells of the story of Lea, played
by Vilma Santos a Filipina torn between her belief in herself
as an individual who has her own right to her own decision
and the expectation and tradition of Philippine society
regarding women as mothers and partners.
'If I am were a person who has no own identity, I would
never be a good mother,' declared Lea to her ex-husband
as the two searched for the reason for their failed marriage.
At the end of the film, Lea while giving a talk during
a graduation ceremony, she concluded: "The question how
the children are made is not really difficult. The most difficult
question is for parents to know how they would raise
up their children as decent, just and humane beings. For if
the children are molded as such, then we could offer them
a decent, just and humane society. We should all reach
for the stars and make our collective dreams come true."

The women agreed to hold another gathering to talk
about the film and specifically on the topic of Filipino
women and their rights and obligations as well as
privileges as mothers, partners and above all as thinking
individuals.
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Thursday 8 March 2007

MARCH 8 (IWD) INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY





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I am woman, hear me roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And I know too much to go back an' pretend
'Cause I've heard it all before
And I've been down there on the floor
No one's ever gonna keep me down again.

Oh yes, I am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain
Yes, I've paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to
I can do anything
I am strong (strong)
I am invincible (invincible)
I am woman.

You can bend but never break me
'Cause it only serves to make me
More determined to achieve my final goal
And I come back even stronger
Not a novice any longer
'Cause you've deepened the conviction in my soul.

Oh yes, I am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain
Yes, I've paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to
I can face anything
I am strong (strong)
I am invincible (invincible)
I am woman.

I am woman watch me grow
See me standing toe to toe
As I spread my lovin' arms across the land
But I'm still an embryo
With a long, long way to go
Until I make my brother understand.

Oh yes, I am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain
Yes, I've paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to
I can face anything
I am strong (strong)
I am invincible (invincible)
I am woman.

Oh, I am woman
I am invincible
I am strong

I am woman
I am invincible
I am strong
I am woman.

(Helen Reddy and Ray Burton)
Taken from: www.lyricstime.com

P.S.

Would like to send my best wishes to dear
friends who celebrated their birthdays.
March 7 to Jo. B.
March 8 to Beng
Wish you many returns of lovely years.
Thanks to the lovely smiles of Angela, Fatima,
Lara, Jiada, Nelly, Debbie, Malu, Belly and
Yolliebelle

A Meaningful International Women's Day!