While scanning my old files in school I found this nice article about receiving a gift from an old newspaper published by our “beloved?” school. ^_^ While reading I found it interesting and decided to post it here.  This article was originally written by Tiffanie Laurel.

First, please consider who is giving you gift?

1.  This is very  important, if the someone giving  you a gift  is a person you do not like, or you know that  has alternative motives, bless yourself and politely refuse.  IF they insist, refuse again.  No matter what the gift is, refuse.

2. First, if you have been offered a gift from a person trying to make make amends, before accepting, consider if the gift is sincere; or, is the gift a peace bribe.  Secondly, if you were in the wrong, realize how desperate this person is to have things be better.  If the gift has personal or deeper meaning, seriously consider returning one in kind.  If a person gives you a gift of something that they prized, say, a memento of sorts, return it after you are done appreciating it, and perhaps offer them a gift with importance to you.

3. Now, if someone you do not know offers you a gift, seriously consider the motive.  If it’s a stranger trying to befriend you, think of what kind of relationship that will become.  Do think of what it means, not of what it is.  Remember, in the end the choice is up to your judgment - judge wisely.

4.  If you have a casual friend or co-worker  give a gift, it is not likely to be personal.  It is likely something given in a mass to multiple others, such as impersonal friends and other co-workers.  A thank you and smile should do.

5.(a)  On to a place more difficult, when a good friend offers you a gift, you will realize that it is to receive.  It’s easy to consider yourself worthy of a menial or temporary prize,  and it isn’t so easy when someone close to your heart gives a gift from their heart.  You may even feel guilty or unworthy or maybe shame or that you mus repay them with a gift yourself.  These concerns rob both people in the party.  Don’t feel guilty, a gift brings joy to the ‘giver’ when they see a free ‘joy’ of receiving on someone they love’s face.  If you feel that MUST repay them, simply be thankful and accept their love.

5. (b)  Now, when ‘the someone’ you love gives you a gift, that is the time when it is hardest to know what you feel about it and how to react.  You may act undeserving, refuse the gift because it was ‘too much’, or may quickly give them a gift in return.  Instead, show them how much it means, how amazing it is to you that they are ‘giving’ to you, and most importantly, share with them the joy of getting something without paying or working for it.

Truly, the best way to receive a gift is to show joy.  It rewards the giver and lets you enjoy your gift, receive a pleasure, and appreciation.  DO NOT act false, but think about the thought that went into your gift.

To receive what was not ‘bought’ for yourself is the most humble things.

To receive something you didn’t earn, could not earn, is humbling but it should bring happiness of getting something.

To say you don’t deserve or have not earned is irrelevant, but it can make the giver lose the happy balance that comes from giving, for truthfully, the fact they are giving you something that makes you deserving.  Accept it.

The receiver is always deserving in the heart of the one who loves them.  Enjoy your gift.  You are somebody’s favorite person.

Feel good.

Eat Slowly
Life is often rushed. But eating slowing encourages you to take a time-out. Pause a moment before you eat to give thanks for the gift of food that lies before you. An attitude of gratitude helps you to enjoy each bite more. Plus, the more you chew, the more your teeth and salivary enzymes break down your food so your stomach doesn’t have to.

Engage All Your Senses
You don’t have to be a chef to be an artist in the kitchen. The food you prepare can engage all your sense—from the aroma across the room to the vibrant colors and playful textures. All these characteristics create a rich, satisfying experience no matter what you’re eating. If you’re the one in the kitchen, toss in some edible flowers, garnish with your favorite herbs, and try using plates in colors that complement your creation.

Dine With Others
Sharing a meal or breaking bread is a timeless custom across all cultures. It’s a way to celebrate your food. Eating with others might also encourage you to relax and enjoy the full experience around you, which will also help you eat more slowly.

Eat Without Distraction
Turn off the tube. Step away from your desk. Give eating your undivided attention. Savor every bite. These strategies will help you tune in to your body’s sensations so you know when you’re full. There’s no reason to keep eating if your body says enough. In fact, yogis will tell you to stop eating even before you are full because a full belly makes you sluggish.

Try Small Plates
Looking to other cultures can give you cool cues for eating well too. For example, a beautiful Japanese custom is to serve each item in its own small dish. These dishes enhance the visual experience as well as encourage you to eat smaller portions. Each small entrée in unison becomes an ensemble of food with plenty of interest and variety to make dining delicious.

Eat Seasonally
In our fast-paced world, it’s easy to lose track of nature’s seasonal ebb and flow. Eating the freshest fruits, vegetables, and fish of the season ensures that you’ll have the widest selection to choose from and increases your connection to mother earth and the natural rhythms beneath the sun, moon, and stars.

Eat Locally
A good cook knows that it’s all about the ingredients. To ensure that your meal is sensational, make certain each ingredient is fresh. The best way to do this is eat only foods that are growing in your area right now. If you buy something that isn’t growing near you. it’s likely to have withered a bit while withstanding travel over time and distance.

Believe it or not, your savings, affect the way you stand, the way you walk
and the tone of your voice. In short, your physical well being and
self-confidence. A man without savings is always running. He must! He must
take the first job offered, or nearly so. He sits nervously on life’s chairs
because any small emergency throws him into the hands of others.

Without savings, a man must be too grateful. Gratitude is a fine thing in
its place. But a constant state of gratitude is a horrible place in which to
live. A man with savings can walk tall. He may appraise opportunities in a
relaxed way, have time for judicious estimates and not be rushed by economic
necessity.

A man with savings can afford to resign from his job if his principles so
dictate. And for this reason he’ll never need to do so. A man who can afford
to quit is much more useful to his company, and therefore more promotable.
He can afford to give his company the benefit of his most candid judgements.

A man with savings can afford the wonderful previlege of being generous in
family or neighborhood emergencies. He can take the level stare of any man,
friend, stranger or enemy. That ability shapes his personality and
character.

The ability to save has nothing to do with size of income. Many high income
people spend it all. They are on a treadmill, darting through life like
minnows.

“Take wasteof your spending; you’ll drive the haste out of your life.”

If you don’t need money for college,a home or retirement, then save for
self-confidence. The state of your savings does have a lot to do with how
tall you walk.

Eat Slowly
Life is often rushed. But eating slowing encourages you to take a time-out. Pause a moment before you eat to give thanks for the gift of food that lies before you. An attitude of gratitude helps you to enjoy each bite more. Plus, the more you chew, the more your teeth and salivary enzymes break down your food so your stomach doesn’t have to.

Engage All Your Senses
You don’t have to be a chef to be an artist in the kitchen. The food you prepare can engage all your sense—from the aroma across the room to the vibrant colors and playful textures. All these characteristics create a rich, satisfying experience no matter what you’re eating. If you’re the one in the kitchen, toss in some edible flowers, garnish with your favorite herbs, and try using plates in colors that complement your creation.

Dine With Others
Sharing a meal or breaking bread is a timeless custom across all cultures. It’s a way to celebrate your food. Eating with others might also encourage you to relax and enjoy the full experience around you, which will also help you eat more slowly.

Eat Without Distraction
Turn off the tube. Step away from your desk. Give eating your undivided attention. Savor every bite. These strategies will help you tune in to your body’s sensations so you know when you’re full. There’s no reason to keep eating if your body says enough. In fact, yogis will tell you to stop eating even before you are full because a full belly makes you sluggish.

Try Small Plates
Looking to other cultures can give you cool cues for eating well too. For example, a beautiful Japanese custom is to serve each item in its own small dish. These dishes enhance the visual experience as well as encourage you to eat smaller portions. Each small entrée in unison becomes an ensemble of food with plenty of interest and variety to make dining delicious.

Eat Seasonally
In our fast-paced world, it’s easy to lose track of nature’s seasonal ebb and flow. Eating the freshest fruits, vegetables, and fish of the season ensures that you’ll have the widest selection to choose from and increases your connection to mother earth and the natural rhythms beneath the sun, moon, and stars.

Eat Locally
A good cook knows that it’s all about the ingredients. To ensure that your meal is sensational, make certain each ingredient is fresh. The best way to do this is to eat only foods that are growing in your area right now. If you buy something that isn’t growing near you, it’s likely to have withered a bit while withstanding travel over time and distance.

Let me explain in my own words as to why the pursuit of wealth has been the dream of many for ages.

Take note that I am focusing mostly on the situation of my home country, the Philippines.

Due to different factors like socio-economic standings and scarcity of resources, it has become the goal of each and every potential employee to seek the best possible source of income. Poverty is seen as *the* hell of today’s society, and no one ever wants to experience not having money in their own pockets.

But that is pretty much natural for most people anyway. However, what is unnatural, in my opinion, is how this “need” is addressed.

People look beyond necessities nowadays and see their desires as the prime reason for getting jobs in the first place. They want to receive salary so that they can feed their addictions and fuel the temptation within themselves to buy what their hearts have been craving for. They already have food, clothing, shelter, and other basic necessities in life. The reason why they seek more is because of desire.

No one wants to suffer the fate of lacking what they want.

Wanting is a natural part of human nature, and this is not necessarily bad. It makes us reach for greater heights and pursue what can be the evolution of our lives. It leads to improvement and enrichment of one’s existence. That, in itself, is a good thing.

Of course, everything, including enrichment, is to be taken in moderation.

We are consumers; people who are stricken by a lifestyle obsession. We constantly pick up signals from different sources like the mass media and the people around us. All of a sudden, life is not about “have done” and “have not done” anymore, but “have” and “not have”. Today’s society is no longer focused on achievements but possessions. No one gives a damn anymore if they have contributed to their community anymore, as long as they have their posh mansions, sports cars, and Scandanavian furniture. If they do not have these though, it does not stop them from dreaming or trying to get as close as possible to that feeling of luxury.

Is this greed? Maybe.

But there always are reasons for greed. Most people would condemn greed as a crime without a second thought. They would declare politicians as corrupt and criminals as evil without looking into the roots of that evil itself. Money may be said as the root of all evil, but what really makes it so is the desire.

What can fuel greed? Desire.

To further examine this phenomenon, we must ask the question: “What fuels that desire?”

It seems that this is not just about “having” and “not having”. We are all guilty of having an inferiority complex whenever we see someone with something that we have been wanting, but do not have. This has got to be, I think, the biggest factor in this equation. Sometimes, we do turn green whenever we see someone who is better than us. It is within human instinct to feel a sense of jealousy whenever we feel as if we are being thrown off our high horse.

No doubt, Filipinos have this negative trait through and through. Do not deny it because you do know that it is within us all. We are familiar with statements within the lines of “Akala niya kung sino siya…”.

I therefore conclude that among the Seven Deadly Sins found within the tenets of Roman Catholicism, which is the main religion of the Philippines, the main sin of this country of ours is not Greed, but Envy.

We are so emotionally attached to the concept of “having” that “not having” is like torture to us. Each passing day of not having something we desire is like hell on earth, and we would rather be damned by the deepest levels of the abyss than spend another second of our lives deprived of that which we desire.

Okay, maybe that was exaggeration, but you get the idea…

Money is a resource, and that is that. It is something that is used to procure necessities and desirables. That is all you need to see it as. Such a resource can be gained as long as you have a job. The thing is that people do not know how to use this resource properly. Their desire to obtain their wants is so great that they fail to understand that it is that want that drives them closer to financial hardship in the first place.

No, you do not need a PSP because it is going to become a thing of the past anyway within a few years, and something will replace it. The same goes for every other material trend out there.

Get a job and do what is necessary, not for the immediate present, but for the future. Think of your families and your future endeavors before you give in to the temptation of purchasing that which you want.

I believe that most people laugh at those who pursue “less-demanded professions” because they seem to have dug themselves a hole within their materialism so far that they feel as if they are in a different league. The sad thing is that they feel as if they are more superior because they are within professions that are more in-demand in the market. Having such is not bad, but it is their cockiness that really stings.

I’m not saying that earning lots of money is bad though, so don’t get me wrong. I am just saying that we should use it more properly from now on because it really is finite. It does run out.

Also, we must watch our own actions, especially on how we treat others, because of this issue. Let us not belittle those who are going through the road less taken. “There is a reason why it is the road less taken” is not substantial enough of a statement for anyone to use as a reason to judge them.

Fulton J. Sheen used to say, “A smile across the aisle of a bus
in the morning could save a suicide later in the day.” That
statement is true. We all need the healing medicine “of the
heart” that a smile, even from strangers, provides. And for some,
that medicine can save lives.

English essayist Joseph Addison put it this way: “What sunshine
is to flowers, smiles are to humanity.” Don’t say you can’t make
a difference! Don’t ever say you have nothing to give! Each of us
can give a smile, spontaneously and sincerely. Its value may not
be at once recognized, but be assured that it will be felt.

There is this anonymous poem about passing along
a smile:

Smiling is infectious, you catch it like the flu,
When someone smiled at me today, I started smiling too.
I passed around the corner and someone saw my grin,
When he smiled I realized I’d passed it on to him .
I thought about that smile, then I realized its worth,
A single smile, just like mine, could travel ’round the
earth.
So, if you feel a smile begin, don’t leave it undetected;
Let’s start an epidemic quick, and get the world infected!

Today you will find plenty of occasions to pass along a
heart-felt smile. Remember… it’s the second best thing you can
do with your lips!

Thanks to cutting edge research in genetics, artificial DNA can now be created in labs on demand. What’s more, this DNA has the benefit of being dominant when introduced to a cell; meaning if a scientist sequences a strand of DNA and injects it into a healthy cell, the new DNA will take over and the original DNA is erased.

Alright so, what’s the big deal? First, we have to examine the reason why we age in the first place. According to modern science research, aging is caused by the corruption of one’s DNA. This occurs due to things like UV radiation damaging your skin and releasing anti-DNA free radicals. As time goes on, we slowly begin to lose our ability to regenerate because of this weakened DNA, until the point where our bodies lose integrity and we eventually die.

Now, why is this artificial DNA important? The most major benefit to these new pioneering discoveries is that fact that the artificial DNA is dominant. Therefore, conceivably, if a scientist were to take DNA from the peak of a person’s life (aka. Maturity when physical growth is complete), generate fresh copies in a lab, and then implant them into the aged person’s body, through normal cell activity, this fresh DNA could be spread throughout the whole body. The outcome? Complete cellular restoration within three years (the time it takes for all the cells in the body to be replaced, on average).

What vehicles can be used such that the fresh DNA has full penetration within the body? The most popular answer would probably be a retrovirus. Viruses are unique in the fact that they replicate extremely fast and are very adept at spreading their contents throughout a host’s body. If someone were to take a particularly invasive virus, like HIV, and replace the viral DNA with human DNA, this infusion of fresh genetic material could be achieved in a very short amount of time. Just for illustration’s sake, on average, once exposed to HIV, it only takes about 30 minutes for the virus to replicate enough to be contagious.

Another idea is a nano-machine. Scientists, sci-fi writers, and imaginative people have been toying with the idea of machines too small to see with the naked eye that could serve the purpose of healing the body and performing surgery for several years. As technology becomes ever smaller, the possibility of such creations arising becomes only a question of “how long?” instead of “if ever”.

What does this mean? It means that we may finally have an answer to aging. However, science is imperfect, and such measures may not work in the long-run. Although one may be able to halt aging eventually through pursuits like these, it doesn’t stop the many thousands of causes of death we face during the courses of our lives. In my mind at least, I take some comfort in the fact that we may be closer to averting at least one.