April for Aphrodite

Here comes and goes fast April, the start of spring, the fourth of the month in the Gregorian calendar named after the Greek goddess Aphrodite, with its showers, flowers, blooms, green grasses and green foliages. April is simply beautiful, but makes people edgy because they just cannot contain it to stay put and some think it’s just a fleeting month to enjoy before the torrents of winter months (again?), negatively overlooking another quick season of fall.

Belonging to the Asian-Pacific American ethnic group, we look forward to next month’s May celebration of our Heritage Month – a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States, which encompasses all of the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island).

Huge corporations such as ComEd and Exelon and others are now emphasizing and focusing on multicultural diversity programs in their media roundtable discussions where VT/CPRTV were invited to attend, meaning that our Asian American Pacific Islanders group is now getting attention from the high echelons of mainstream industries.

April 2015 is the first National Autism Awareness Month as declared by the Autism Society.

The aim of this month is educate the public about autism. Autism is a complex mental condition and developmental disability, characterized by difficulties in the way a person communicates and interacts with other people. Autism can be  present from birth or form during early childhood (typically within the first three years). Autism is a lifelong developmental disability with no single known cause (thanks to Melody Dizon’s contribution, CPRTV Health & Wellness Host, who will be contributing as VT columnist in our next issue)

Welcome to a new VT columnist who is starting her maiden column entitled “On a Bright Side,” in this issue which will surely bring hope and joy to our readers amd to their families.

Pastor Nancy Abiera is a very, very interesting person, an ordained minister of the Gospel and is a spiritual life coach with over twenty years in the corporate business world in finance and accounting.  She is in the ministry coaching, teaching and mentoring people for over thirty years in understanding and discovering the true self, balancing and managing emotional challenges as well as dealing with the deep issues in spirituality, and more.

She is the founder of Christ Cross Cultural Community Church and Global Glory Congregation equipping and empowering men and women to know and live their God-given gifts for His glory.  She is a long-life partner of her husband, Dr. Jonathan Abiera, at home, church, business and social arenas for over thirty years. Help me welcome, Nancy on page 31 of this issue.

Nonchalantly, Nancy quipped, JESUS “Chuy” Garcia which VT endorsed last month  lost to Rahm EMANUEL (Hebrew meaning of God), right? Cute, I thought. Something must be up and coming for the city of Chicago.

A fair warning when you read about our cover story, on Aster Bhandari, whose exciting life was taken away too soon in an accident leaving her husband, children and grandchildren, written by our Senior Editor, Elsie Sy-Niebar.

Happy Mother’s Day to all, and enjoy the glorious feeling of love, joy and peace with this beautiful springtime in Chicago.