The American meets the Filipino…

Bordering the coast, in a little village in the Philippines, a small boat manned by a young Filipino man approaches the shore.

An American visiting the coastal village compliments the fisherman for the fishes he had earned from his early morning expedition.

The American asks him how long did it take him to capture these fishes.

“Not too long” replies the humble fisherman.

“But then why didn’t you stay longer at sea to fish more?” asks the American.

The Filipino fisherman tells him that couple of fishes is more than enough to feed his family.

The surprised American asks him then: “Then what do you do the rest of the day?”

I sleep the rest of the morning on my hammock on the beach listening to the waves crashing onto the shore, I play with my kids, I eat with my family, I take a little nap with my wife in the afternoon after my lunch. In the evening, I go to the village to see my friends, we drink some coconut wine and we play the guitar singing along. My days are pretty filled you see…

The American interrupts the Filipino and eagerly tells him: “I have an MBA from Havard and I can help you. You need to start off by fishing out to sea longer. With the profits earned, you will be able to buy a larger boat. With this money that you will earn from this larger boat, you will be able to buy another boat and start owning a fleet.

Instead of selling your fishes to a broker you will now be able to negotiate directly with major distributors chains. Eventually you too will be able to even own one of the major distribution chain.

Then finally you too will be able to go out from the Philippines to Los Angeles, United States, then if you are really lucky you may be able to later move to New York where you will be sitting in your own large office in one of those gigantic buildings with huge windows!”

The Filipino asks then: “And how long would it take me to achieve this goal?”

“10 or 20 years” replies the American.

“Then after what?”

The American replies with a smile on his face, proud to have shown the simple fisherman the magic formula: “After? It is then that it becomes interesting! When the time comes, you will finally be able to introduce your company on the Stock’s Exchange and turn your private company to a public one making millions of dollars!!!!!!!!”.

“Millions of dollars?? And after what?” asks the fisherman.

“After? You will be able to retire, live in a small village away from the pollution, by the sea, you will be able to lay on hammocks listening to the waves with no worries in the world. You will have time to play with your kids, eat with your family, take naps with your wife. In the evening you will go to your friends, drink, play the guitar and sing along the night away with your true friends” tells the American…

The Power of Now
Introduction, Page 6.
Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of Being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth. They are looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment, for validation, security, or love, while they have a treasure within that not only includes all these things but is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.

The Power of Now
Chapter 1, Page 9.
The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly—you usually don’t use it at all. It uses you.

The Power of Now
Chapter 1, Page 13.
All the things that truly matter — beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace — arise from beyond the mind.

The Power of Now
Chapter 1, Page 14.
All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.

The Power of Now
Chapter 1, Page 19.
Love, joy, and peace cannot flourish until you have freed yourself from mind dominance.

The Power of Now
Chapter 1, Page 24.
Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within.

The Power of Now
Chapter 9, Page 147.
It seems that most people need to experience a great deal of suffering before they will relinquish resistance and accept — before they will forgive.

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow–
You may succeed with another blow,

Success is failure turned inside out–
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit–
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit…

Some of the fondest memories I have are when Alexandre was a small child and it revolves around preparing the crêpes on Sundays while my son was reciting and reviewing his homework from school. The smell of the freshly prepared crepes being layered one of top of the others, waiting to be served was a mere reminder of how alive we all felt during the days.

Preparing the many fillings for the crêpes was a tradition, chocolate & jams prepared from the fruits of the season picked from the garden was the reward waiting for Alexandre after a hard Sunday afternoon of studying, usually served at 4pm

These are paper thin, almost translucent and very delicious French Crepes.  At times I would prepare them the French traditional way but for the sake of sharing this different style, I decided to list this recipe for now. The recipe calls for baking powder and this is very unusual for crepes. But it doesn’t make them puffy and thick. They are both delicate and tear resistant at the same time which makes them perfect for different types of filling.

Makes about 3 dozens 8-inch diameter crêpes (that is if you can protect them from the thieves lurking in the kitchen looking for an opportunity to steal one while you are flipping the next one

You can scale the recipe down if this quantity is overwhelming. But you also can freeze them, filled or unfilled up to a month.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• ¼ cup sugar (2 tbsp if planning to use with savory filling)
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 cups water
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
½ cup vegetable oil or melted butter (I use oil, but sauté them in butter later) + a bit of oil for a pan.

Preparation:

1. In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, sugar and salt. Add milk and water, stir.
2. Sift the flour with baking powder and add to the wet ingredients in the bowl. Whisk well, you don’t need any lumps in the batter. Add the oil, whisk again.
3. Heat an 8-inch frying pan or a crêpe pan (if you have one) over medium heat. Very lightly brush it with oil and pour a shy ¼ cup of batter onto the pan (use a measuring cup).
4. Wait until the surface doesn’t appear wet and the crêpe is lightly browned on one side, about a minute, flip the crêpe onto the other side. Brown this side as well, take it out off the pan, put on a plate and brush the crêpe with some melted unsalted butter. Or you can just dot the crêpe with tiny piece of butter and let it melt by itself. This will give the crêpes even more flavor and prevent them from sticking together. Go on with the rest of the batter. You can serve them right away with honey, maple syrup, chocolate or your favorite jam. Or wait until they are cold enough to handle and fill them with the filling of your choice.
5. Before serving, sauté the crêpes in melted butter over medium heat until they nice golden brown.

Bon Appetit

“You have hardened”, said the flower, bending her petals downward toward the half stone at her roots. “These rains should have softened you, made you more fertile and receptive to the seeds of the fields; but no. You have accumulated minerals and have become more silent and full of calcium. Why do you stay here? Why do you resist the brook that gives us water?”

The stone said nothing.

A number of clouds passed by, the sun set and the night arrived with an immense bronze-coloured freckled moon with acne scars upon her worn face and in this manner reflected down upon the silent stone which still had not fallen asleep. The flower, by now, had tucked-in her petals and slept profoundly, and at this time the stone began to answer:

“I stay here because your roots have made me yours. I stay here because it is no longer about my feeling the earth rather because I have become part of that which functions as a support of your stem which resists the wind and the rain. Everything changes, my sweet flower”, said the stone, “but I stay here because love is that microscopic space between your feet and my salted skin. You would only be able to feel it if destiny were ever to separate the two of us.”

The moon followed the fade of the stars. Dawn gave a yawn as the sun began to burn its horizon on the lower lip of the mouth of a new day. The flower awoke and extended her beautiful petals. “Good morning”, she said, “I dreamt that you were singing to me. How foolish of me, don’t you think?”

The stone said nothing.

Origin: Unknown.

A Hindu saint who was visiting river Ganges to take a bath found a group of family members on the banks, shouting in anger at each other. He turned to his disciples smiled and asked.

“Why do people shout in anger shout at each other?”

Disciples thought for a while, one of them said, “Because we lose our calm, we shout”

“But, why should you shout when the other person is just next to you? You can as well tell him what you have to say in a soft manner.”, asked the saint

The disciples gave a few other answers but none satisfied the others.

Finally the saint explained:

“When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot.
To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other.
The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other to cover that great distance.”

“What happens when two people fall in love?
They don’t shout at each other but talk softly, because their hearts are very close.
The distance between them is either nonexistent or very small…”

The saint continued,

“When they love each other even more, what happens?
They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love.
Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that’s all.
That is how close two people are when they love each other.”

He looked at his disciples and said.

“So when you argue do not let your hearts get distant,
Do not say words that distance each other more,
Or else there will come a day when the distance is so great
That you will not find the path to return.”

Have a Golden Summer with Alexandre!

Win a trip to Boracay for Two!

Free Airfare! Free Hotel Acommodations for 3 nights and 4 days!

Win by helping us get 24,000 Facebook fans and 24,000 VIP Members by May 24, 2011!

Here’s how it works:

1. In our VIP Member’s club signup form we have added a new field called: “Who Referred You”.
2. To win the contest, you have to to be the one who referred the most people to join the VIP Member’s club. This means you have to tell your friends to sign up, and be sure to put your name in the field that says “Who Referred You”.
3. You need to help us hit 24,000 facebook fans and 24,000 VIP Members by May 24, 2011. If we do, the deal is on!
4. We will announce the official winner of the contest on May 24, 2011.
5. We will give regular updates of our leaderboard (top 5 referrers) once a week.

It’s that simple! Tell as many friends as possible to become fans and sign up, and you can win a 24K Golden Boracay Experience! Call, Tweet, Share on Facebook, Email, shout it from the rooftops! You can win a dream vacation just by clicking a few buttons!

Sign up Below and Refer Others Here:

Make sure they put your name in “Who Referred You”!

Terms and Conditions:

• You are not allowed to subscribe other people without their consent. Abusers will immediately be detected and disqualified.
• The Prize is non-convertible to cash.
• The Prize is transferable. You may award it to whomever you wish (remember it’s for two people!)
• Selection of the hotel is at Alexandre’s discretion – but you can be assured it will be at least 4 stars.
• We will also announce 3 possible dates in advance for the winner to choose from. The winner has to choose only from those dates.
• We also have amazing rewards coming up for the 50K mark and the 100K mark respectively. Everyone in this particular contest is still eligible to join those and the number of people you referred will still be retained in the succeeding contests.

If you have any other questions or remarks, please comment below!

The Digestive Sisters – Karylle and Nicole – take a trip to Alexandre. In this video you’ll see them trying our pastries and cakes, our canneles, macaroons,  and more. Galit Galit! Thank you Karylle for your stamp of approval! For the full article at Yahoo! OMG click here.

by Pierre Marmonier

Our Jam story started in the year 2003 when, in our Paris home, we experimented with specialty jam recipes.

Now, living again in the Philippines, we decided to apply our French recipes to the local fruits. Our jam is cooked in small batches in copper cauldrons, like how it used to be done in France years ago. Our jam does not use any preservative, only natural fruits and sugar.

To maximize the fruit flavor of our jam, we impose on ourselves a minimum of 60 grams of fruits for 100 grams of jam.

We have developed our jam collection and have fused each collection with different flavors and spices. Through our jam, your mind will travel and discover an endless territory of flavors.

Enjoy the Experience, Enjoy our Jam Collection!

The Fruit Garden 100% Natural Homemade Jam