Welcome to Lotus Rainier
The Good Samaritan Effect
I joined a spiritual reflection meeting that includes songs, gospel reading, lay reflection and Fr. Aris, SVD, giving the reflection. Let me share what I learned: "The Good Samaritan Effect, and where there's actualized goodwill, one to the other, we create heaven on...
A year of Bountiful Harvest
Our backyard's trees are growing fruits, 2021 we only had calamansi, this year 2022, we have figs, avocados, persimmons, calamansi, pears, oranges, kumquats and blooming plumerias. They are cared for by our green thumb gardener @enriquedlz who uses compost from his...
Ordinary beach days can be our best moments in life
I couldn't wait for the weekend to go to the beach. So, off we went with our #princess2015la. She had playtime all to herself. On her initiative, she started clearing up the kelp from the beach area and putting them in a pile. At some point, she even wanted to...
Creative Brilliance through Art
"Celebrating creative brilliance through art is a direct celebration of the core spirit of diversity. By its very nature, art invites and transports us to places beyond our current state of being - whatever the medium, whatever the realm. Art leads us to expand our...
God’s Favor Revealed in Fr. Melanio Viuya’s Reflections
“It is the Lord Jesus whom we meet in the faces of our marginalized and discarded brothers, in the migrant who is despised, rejected, put in a cage, but also in the migrant journeying toward hope, toward a better life.” –Pope Francis, Dec. 4, 2021 As I write this,...
From Love, Comes Creativity: Celebrating Filipina Creativity and Artistry
Imagine this gift from the Universe. I came to support Sophia N. Lee the first Simon and Schuster's Filipina published children's author, who chose another Filipina illustrator Isabel Roxas at a pre-order book launch at a 38 year old Filipina run Philippine...
The Egg Rolls that Made Me Cry
I was walking to my neighborhood market to pick up a baguette to go with an appetizer of Dagupan mild hot bottled bangus aka milkfish. On my way, I was admiring the intense fiery red flowers and what look like gumamelas. You may need to imagine them as I did not bring...
Janet Susan Rodriguez Nepales’ head-turning book on Fashion. Filipino. Hollywood. The World
Describe dress worn in Golden Globes 2023 made by David Tupaz. Bag specially made for Janet Rodriguez Nepales by Mercedes Jewel Brunelli “Creative people are critical: they don’t stop with the given and the (supposedly) “obvious.” They are imaginative. They make a...
Excited to Write a Book Chapter
Love this photo so much of #princess2015la, at 4yo. Today, now 7yo, she walked in and said, "Grandma, I have to do a book chapter. I have no time for sitdown snacks." Then, spread out on the table in the library are various pages, with headings. She is writing a book...