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UPEC SUPREME PRESIDENT'S REPORT
FEBRUARY 21, 2009
The strongest muscle in our body is the heart. The leading cause of death for women is heart disease. The heart represents many things; love, joy, family, St. Valentine's Day, and life itself. Our hearts never attack us, we attack our hearts. When we shut our hearts we are basically shutting off the flow of life to our hearts. Let us drop the judgements and rejoice in love when we see it. During this New Year I have definitely seen it and have been lucky enough to receive it.
When we are giving and receiving love, we are nurturing our souls and emanating good energy. Many thanks and countless hugs go to the officers and members of the UPEC councils in Fremont and Merced; for braving the stormy February weather to be with me and my family (UPEC Supreme Ava, Lucy Parriera and State Youth President Mary Ernestine Batista). It was my first time driving through the ice and snow that covered the grapevine and had us slowly proceeding with CHP escort; the Rosary definitely came in handy - seeing us through without the use of tire chains. Both visits were well attended, enthusiastic and loving. Mary and I both received generous donations for our charities as well as shoes and socks for Join Hands Day (Samaritan's Feet). Due to a winter flu that I had at the beginning of this month, I was unable to share in the celebration of our Fraternalist of the Year, the irreplaceable Maria de Cabral - but have a token of appreciation for her service that I plan on presenting her in thanksgiving for her dedication and tireless service to our society and the Portuguese community as a whole. My love goes out to our sisters in the UPPEC who celebrated their anniversary this month as well.
It seems in last month's report I was so excited about the word merger that I merged two of my friends together and made them one person; Megan Silva and Amanda Sargeant - both Past State Youth Officers (Amanda having also served as our Past Queen). Having seen them both at the Mantanca in Bakersfield, I wanted to make it a point to share with you how exceptionally they are growing in maturity, grace and fraternalism - both representing our society and their families extremely well - we should be very proud to have them in our UPEC family and my apologies for the typo.
This is the first month of my term that is completely full of activity - the start of a jammed pack year of business and fraternalism - and just like when a new President is elected for the United States, they know that their success and progress does not just magically happen, nor does it occur based solely on the President's effort alone - but on teamwork and the love of who we are and what we do. Combining our forces to be a more helpful and productive organization will be a fruitful, necessary and emotional process. Remember that positive emotions heal and negative emotions are the number one cause of diseases and stress; the number one issue that is so difficult for humans to handle is forgiveness. If we can forgive our past mistakes, and our present misgivings - then we can move forward into a happy, healthy and prosperous future. Our hearts will not be free to love and our societies will not be around for another 100 years if we are stuck in our ways; lacking in our faith, or distrusting of each other. Having just made it back from being a rector for a girl's retreat at the Sacred Heart Retreat Camp in Big Bear, California (where the snow glistened and inspired), I can say with full confidence that together, with love and understanding of each other's needs, we will be as strong - if not stronger as the day we were formed - provided each and every member believes in our collective greatness.
This weekend my UPEC travels include the UPEC Board meeting in San Leandro; Hayward's Official visit today (Saturday, February 21, 2009) and Tracy's Official Visit tomorrow; next weekend will take me back to southern California (Redlands and Artesia). I look forward to these opportunities of fraternalism, friendship and love. Thank you for your continued support.
QUOTE FROM HELEN KELLER: "Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence."
QUOTE FROM MICHAEL LEUNIG: "Love one another and you will be happy. It's as simple and as difficult as that."
