to my fellow mds: blessings from the rock bottom pit

it is so amazing.  i never believed it at first.

but when i attended the feast, it was taught to tithe.

now, as a catholic, tithing never made sense to me before.  i first heard of this when i attended a christian church wherein their offering was given in envelopes rather than in baskets which were passed around.  when i asked the church goer, they said that the bible advised to give 10% of monthly income.

initially, i thought (at the time when i had no income): omg, 10%???? that is a lot!

so i just gave what i could, but this little factoid planted a seed that would eventually grow eventually.

after some time, i found myself being invited by several friends to the feast, the current catholic church that i now attend.  upon attending, i was surprised that they also encouraged tithing.  so i decided to try it.

and it is amazing how quickly things come back to you when you give it out.  call it positivity.  call it the secret.  call it god's grace.  call it anything you want.  but i always think, "grabe, ang bilis talaga mag balik ni god ng binibigay mo!"

to illustrate:

1.  last week, i was really down in the dumps because i have no in patients.  (go figure, starting practice.)  however, i promised myself that i would give a bit for yolanda victims.  i mean, come on.  if you watch tv and have a bit of a conscience, you would really be encouraged to do so.  so i did.  and less than 30 minutes later, i got a text message saying that i got my first hd philhealth payment which was 7x of what i gave for yolanda!!!!

2.  i was busy cleaning out my closet because, once again, i wanted to do my share of giving clothes and items which i think would be useful for the yolanda victims.  my sister did the same thing.  in the middle of it all, one has to understand that my sister and i don't always shop.  but we need to.

yesterday, we gave a bulk of the donations.  today, my eldest sister and i opened the balikbayan box my sister sent us from the US.  lo and behold, she sent her old clothes which she no longer used, and i found  myself getting 5 pairs of pants, 1 skirt and 1 top!  (complete at may isang set pa ng underwear.  oha!) amazing!  capris nga lang lahat.  (go figure.....)   na walang gastos!  amazing, right?

3.  this last thing has nothing to do with tithe, but the happiness of having a bit more than the funds i got at fellowship (which amounted to almost....um....nil).  last monday, i was at work in the mall and getting something from my car.  i went back to the mall.  when i was about to go home, i found that i could not find my keys (car keys and clinic keys).  i was frantic and praying to god that i would find the key, since it was the last key of the car that i had.  (this reminds me, i should get it duplicated!)  i approached a guard in the parking lot and asked to borrow his flashlight to check if the car keys were inside.  they were not.  i was on the verge of tears and prayed to god with all my might to find the keys.  i did not have the energy to go around the entire grounds of SM fairview to look for a set of keys!!!!  the guard then told me to go to the customer service before going to mr quickie (to have the car door opened) in case someone gave my keys.  before i could go to the customer service, i found out that the street sweeper, a young guy in his early 20s, found my keys about five feet from my car where i must have dropped them!  the keys were handed to me in perfect condition.  i wanted to hug the guy (but of course, prevented myself from doing so in pure cougar-ness).  in all surprise, i found myself opening my wallet and handing him a bill.  he looked at the bill and said, "maam, grabe naman ang laki nito!"  in pure joy, i just said, "ibigay mo na lang yan sa nanay mo."

i don't know if i was just bitten by the blessing bug, but i just thought to myself, "grabe, umasenso na siguro ako, kasi kaya ko na magbigay ng pera."

it's amazing.

so what is the point of this post?

i suppose this is the point.  this post is addressed to all my doctor friends who are now in what we view as the starting pit of our practice.  this is the worst it will get guys.  there is nowhere to go but up, my dear friends.  of course, we are so far behind from our consultants who have tons and tons and tons of patients.  but if we look from whence we came (like the dark ages of fellowship), we have come so far.  and we will go farther.

promise.

(pano nga lang kaya ito ma tatranslate sa love life????)