My Winning "Wilkins Super Mom Search" Entry

Why My Mom Deserves to Be the Super Mom of the Year

Let me start by saying, “There is no one like my mom.” And that is an understatement! She is a neurosurgeon, a lawyer, a financial manager and a call center agent all at the same time!

A Neurosurgeon

A college professor of ours once told us about neurosurgeons in the Philippines and the nature of their jobs. I have come to learn that there are only a handful of neurosurgeons in our country so it is their ethical responsibility to put their duty above anything including themselves. Their mentality is, “If not me, then who?” Our professor even told us that even in the marriage date of these neurosurgeons, if a patient is in need of an emergency neurosurgery,  that neurosurgeon has the heavy ethical responsibility to leave whatever it is that he/she is doing and attend to that patient. In other words, they are always “on-call” –not different from my mom. Whatever it is she is doing, whenever we, her 4 children needs her, she will always be there.

A Lawyer

Since I was in high school, I have always wanted to be a lawyer. All my teachers/professors agree that I am very articulate and expressive. No co-student of mine can beat me in a debate. I am very good in public speaking and arguing. There is only one person whom I have come to realize I can never ever beat –my mom! My mom is like a lawyer! You can never win a case against her! And if you’re guilty, you better be ready because she is just and she will implement necessary legal parental sanctions!

A Financial Manager

My mom doesn’t have a degree in finance, business ad, management or the like. For goodness sake, she doesn’t have a college degree! But give her the money and boy, she’ll know what to do with it! My dad works as part of the maintenance staff in our church. He doesn’t earn much, really. But my mom is a magician! Give her P1,200 and she can stretch that to feed a family of 6 for one whole week! I’m not really sure how she does it, but she does!

A Call Center Agent

I have experienced being a call center agent. It’s not pretty. With all the sleepless nights and restless work, I wasn’t able to endure it. I resigned after 3 months. It is not dissimilar to what my mom does, really: late nights dealing with my baby sister; midnight tasks preparing her milk; and sleepless nights taking care of us whenever we’re sick. The only difference is that resignation can never be an option for her; no health cards, no sick leave but priceless intangible benefits!

So there you have it: an on-call neurosurgeon; an articulate attorney; a crafty financial manager and a hardworking call center agent –that’s my mom! Either way I look at this, I can only have one conclusion, my friends: MY MOM IS A SUPER MOM!

Sean and The Box of Chocolates

Tears rolled on Sean's soft cheeks as he hangs up on a friend over the telephone. Pretty soon, the tears were not simply rolling anymore, they were flowing. And Sean wasn't simply crying this time, he was wailing, wailing like a little child. But after all, he was a little child, a boy probably no older than you. Oh, how he cried! He cried and he cried. He cried until he could no longer breathe. He has never cried like this before. By this time, he was already groaning, tears flowing seemingly endlessly from his eyes. Yes he was in sorrow. Indeed, he was. But it was not the kind of sorrow that weakens you. It was the sorrow of a kind that gives you strength, the sorrow that inspires you and causes you to want to become a better person. In my own words, I could describe it as the sorrow that doesn't make someone sad -because that's what it is -a joyful kind of sorrow. 


"What kind of people are they?" he shouted almost incomprehensively to himself. By now, everyone was already asleep inside their small apartment save for Sean. It was dark inside his room, for unlike other children, Sean doesn't like sleeping with the light on. The cold Christmas air filled his room and the sound of rustling tree leaves could be heard from where he was sitting. It wasn't a silent night at all. The sound of snoring could be heard from the bedroom next to his. Apparently, his father had a busy day. "What kind of people are they?" -he repeated his own question to himself as if really expecting someone inside his room to give him an answer. "How could they care so much? Where does all that care come from? How in the world could they care so much?" By this time, you could no longer understand any word he was saying, for he was crying and groaning louder than before. It was a miracle that he didn't wake his father on the next room.


Sean has known the Beverlys for a long time already, and he knows enough about them to conclude that they are different -"one peculiar family", he would always say. They have very different practices compared to Sean's family, and if you would ask him, he was just too glad he wasn't one of Mr. and Mrs. Beverly's "weird" children. "All those singing, and dancing, and hugging, and chanting, and bouncing ---it makes me sick!" --he once said. It would therefore be reasonable and logical to conclude that what Sean expected at the least was the desire for something from the Beverlys, or anything that has to do with them for that matter. But as unexpected as it may seem, that is exactly what is happening to him now. He was desiring something that the Beverlys possess. Of course, when I say that he was desiring it, I also mean that he doesn't have it. For it would be impossible to desire something you already have. Now, it may have come to your mind that what Sean was desiring was a whole box of chocolates, as majority of 12-year old boys would have desired -and with watering mouths too. A box of chocolates with all sorts of chocolates that you could think of: dark chocolate; milk chocolate; milk chocolate with almonds; milk chocolate with coconut and almonds; chocolate filled chocolates; round chocolates; square chocolates; house-shaped chocolates; chocolates shaped like pyramids; and yes, even a chocolate ginger-bread man! It would have been easier if this was what Sean desired. All he had to do was wait for the Beverlys to go on their long vacations (as they often do) and sneak inside their "creepy" house through the front door which the Beverlys always leave open, as Sean found out one day, "quite by pure accident, of course" -as he has claimed. Then, he would simply have to reach out for their refrigerator and grab that dreamy box of chocolates! But as what you would find out, what Sean wanted wasn't anything like that. Indeed, it wasn't anything like that at all. For what Sean desired cannot be seen by human eyes. It was invisible, as you may call it, and on second thought, I guess it could after all be likened to a box of different sorts of chocolates. Different from each other, yet all are the same in a sense that they are all sweet and mouth-watering! These things, as Sean has found out are: Love; Care; Attention; Peace; Gladness; Joy; Happiness; Care; Contentment; and Respect. And to tell you the truth, one doesn't simply sneak into a "creepy" house to take those things away.


to be continued


Copyright, January 2011
by Karl Zion M. Remojo

The Gift

To dream upon the breath-taking sight of the Clear Summer Sky, teeming with shining white clouds patrolling the Great Blue Expanse as Great and Royal Ships from the East sail the sea, bringing unexplainable hope with her Brightness, pleasant expectations from her Shining Whiteness!

To be as the Great Ancient Mountains -unshakable and unmoved, firmly standing in their Ageless Beauty -the Sure Witness of every Century's glory; towering high and unconquerable; concealing mysteries, secrets and enigmas of old, awaiting silently for their appointed times of revelation.

To soar as the Strong and Mighty Eagle of the North, every faithful to her Role and Calling, never tiring, daily fulfilling her destiny with each flap of her Heavenly Wings. Rising above each storm, gliding over every tempest; riding on instead of struggling from the fierce wind that's beyond anyone's control.

To walk in pride as the Great Golden Lion whose head is forever unbowed, shaking the earth with each step, pounding the soil with every leap. As the King of the Beasts, it fears no one, protecting its pride with its Strength and its Glory.

To walk upright as the sons of men, the most grand among all creation, the very representation of the Creator, and the outgrowth of the Mind of the Maker. With wisdom, he explores the Blue Expanse and conquers the Ancient Mountains. With wisdom, he surpasses the flight of the Mighty Eagle and tames the strength of the Golden Lion. He was made lower than the angels, much lower than the cherubim, yet he remains the envy of all creation. In all of these, he must remember that everything he has is but A Gift. . .a Beautiful Gift!

Secret Window

I have been a fan of Johnny Depp since high school. I really like watching his movies. For me, he chooses his movies rather well. His are those "unusual" movies and "eccentric" characters making it unusually beautiful and exciting to watch. There's Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, Pirates of the Caribbean (I,II & III), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

One particular movie of Johnny Depp that I want to talk about is Secret Window. It is a story of suspense where in we will meet Mort Rainey, a writer who found out just recently that his wife was cheating on him. Six month after this traumatic experience, Mort finds himself in an escalating conflict with John Shooter, a man from Mississippi accusing Mort of plagiarism, an accuse that Mort strongly denied. This conflict gets out of hand as Shooter goes to extreme means to get Mort to do what he wants --to finish the story with his (Shooter's) preferred ending.

The first time I watched this was when I was in fourth year high school. I found it to be, not just very exciting and good to watch, but really very interesting as well. Being a high school student that time, with little knowledge of psychology and psychiatric disorders, I simply enjoyed the plot of the movie, and the main character. When I became a college student, I appreciated the movie all the more as we studied psychology. Now, being a student of psychiatric nursing for almost two years now, I realized that the closest specific psychiatric disorder that the main character in the story experienced is Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder). It is amazing what traumatic experiences and repressed anger can do to a person, especially if that person persistently avoids to face his/her fears and refuse to accept his personal weaknesses. The movie is a thriller and no one could have done it better than Johnny Depp. I think it would be a while before I get tired of watching it.

" 'I know I could do it' ,Todd Downy said, helping himself to another ear of corn from the steaming bowl. I'm sure that in time, every bit of her will be gone. And her death will be a mystery, even to me." (Depp)

Indeed, some windows are better left unopened.

Don't you think?

Drug-Dependent

One thing to be noted in drug-addicts is that they virtually cannot do anything without drugs. They cannot start their day without drugs. They cannot be happy without drugs. They cannot work without drugs. Likewise, you probably know a person who -in his ordinary mode -is very shy and very timid, probably one who cannot even find the courage to speak. But this same person, when he is under the influence of alcohol becomes the exact opposite: he becomes confident, becomes talkative, expressing everything that his mind finds to think about. When he wants to say something, for example: he wants to express a hidden anger he has with a friend, or he desires to confess his love for a girl, this person deliberately gets himself drunk because he knows he cannot do it without alcohol. That is why he is called an alcoholic -an alcohol dependent. He is dependent on alcohol for courage; dependent on alcohol for confidence; dependent on alcohol for virtually everything.

As Christians, that should also be our attitude when it comes to God and His Word. God called us to be dependent on Him. How long will we realize and accept the truth that we cannot do it by ourselves. I, personally, as I mature more and more in my relationship with God, I all the more come to realize the ever increasing list of things that I could not do, and things that I do not have control of. In other words, I become more aware of my limitations. But this awareness causes me, drives me, and makes me more determined to seek God and find my strength in Him. It causes me to be more dependent on Him, because through Him, I can do all things (Philippians 4:13). The more I grow in God, I become more and more of an addict to His Word! I simply could not start anything without Him and His Word knowing that there are very few things that are under my control. The wisest thing to do is to lift up these things to The One Who controls them.

One more benefit of being dependent on God is that it takes you away from the desperate search of finding dependence on people. You see, no matter how your truest of friends desire to be there for you always, they won't, because they can't. They can't be with you 24/7. They can't be with you round the clock. Being dependent on people is foolishness. I am not saying that we should not have friends, it's just that we should not put the dependence that is due to God on them. When I feel that those who I refer to as my closest friends grow cold, and when I really cannot feel their care and concern, I get angry, I get sad, and frustrated at the same time. When they don't reply to my text messages or to my calls, I get the feeling that they're not there for me, and I get angry and sad. But from what I learned from these instances, I now start to thank them, because had it not been for those experiences, I would not have been in this level of dependence on God that I am in now. Because the help I am expecting to get from men was deferred, I started looking for it in the Right Place -from the Word of God. My friends are treasures, but my dependence is not on them.

I could very well relate to the psalmist when he said:

I said to the Lord, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing."

Psalm 16:2, NIV

If some are called drug-dependents, I am proud to say that I'm a God-Dependent! 

How Do I Live Without You?

Without You, there'd be no sun in my sky;

there would be no love in my life;

there'd be no world left for me. 

And now, I do not know what I would do 

-I'd be lost if I lost You. . .

And tell me now: How do I live without You?

But I Won't Last A Day Without You

I can take all the madness the world has to give,

But I won't last a day without You.

I can begin a day without this, or without that,

But I would not dare start a day without You.

I can finish a day without this, or without that,

But I won't spend a day without You.