Peace?

I found this picture while housekeeping my computer, trying to delete unnecessary files. I like this picture, probably taken 35 years ago in Parks and Wildlife in Quezon City. Those were really happy days and I was so sweet and kind and happy. And this prayer I added to my photo in my album was so easy for me to do then.

But sometimes I look at my old photo album and see it and utter the words "help me Lord!" after reading it. I felt the same when I saw this photo...

Ahhh....

Sometimes it is difficult to share your peace... sometimes you are not even at peace!!! So much chaos around you! You really try not to focus on them but you see them everyday and somehow it gets to you! Sometimes even little things build up! Just like driving in our road. We were on our way out today and we really had difficulty getting to the main highway. The highway is being widened and the road we are using have been temporarily closed so that we have to pass by the "real" road. It is supposed to be a 16-meters wide road but the "informal dwellers" there have taken over most of the space and have left only a very small portion a vehicle could pass. It is already difficult for one car to pass and when there's another car approaching, one has to drive back in reverse to allow the other to pass. The people there don't care about the vehicles! Some even put tables with items for sale beyond their spaces. Children wouldn't even move if you honk your horn. All of us in the car were all sighing wishing the same thing. We wish the government would clear the houses there and return the road!

Ahhh... wishful thinking! I don't know when it will ever happen. The dwellers there have more power than the legitimate homeowners :(

It is hard to pity them at this point because most of their structures are concrete and some even have cars parked in front (despite the already crowded street). So once again I pray, "help me Lord, be kind and loving to other people I will meet."

Yes Lord. Help me!

Glorietta explosion

It has been 3 days since the explosion in Glorietta. I saw the news on TV last Friday at around 1:30 pm and immediately thought of my friends who frequently shop in that mall. Good thing they were not there.

The blast came on a Friday afternoon when most people in Makati are still at work. Imagine more casualties if it happened on a weekend. Here's a video I found in Youtube showing the inside of the mall after the blast. It is really a big blast and the damage is so huge, not just to lives but also to property.



Philippine Bomb experts have identified that the blast came from the basement. They have found traces of RDX which indicates the possibility of a bomb but they still are not sure of what really went on. The government already offered reward for the information on the explosion and a terror group claimed responsibility for it but the military is still validating this. In fact they are also not discounting the possibility that the explosion was an accident.

So was it an accident? the work of a terror group? We don't really know at this time. One thing for sure, this is one great tragedy.

May God have mercy on those who have perished and those who were hurt and their families and grant them immediate comfort (I don't know how at this point but still I pray).

Vacation et al

This is a shot of the beach just in front on my aunt’s property. Hmmm… actually that’s my aunt’s property (with all those small coconut trees) and I too have a piece of my own land just a short distance from the place. It is on the foot of that mountain at the back! It seems far but it is actually just a short distance and the sand is wide since it is low tide.

I stayed in another aunt’s home also just a short distance from this place for a short vacation in the province. It feels good to rest! One shouldn’t really have to go far to rest but should learn to rest and be at peace wherever one may be but sometimes a change of environment is also good for the body and spirit.

The vacation also gave me some time to visit my aunt, my father’s youngest sister. She had a stroke mid this year and this is the first time I had a chance to visit her. She could move about and talk and function but she is not as fast and sharp as she used to be. Good thing my uncle cares for her well though you can also sense that it is a big weight on him. But when you truly love a person, you don’t really focus on the burden but just express your love, right? I believe it is the natural thing to do! Still, we pray for her well-being and complete recovery and also the strength and deeper love of my uncle to carry on.

I like going home to our province when there are not much (vacationers) people around. Although, I also enjoy being with people, I would rather just be “still” there and rest and just be with a few people I really care about. I am quite content to just sit around and talk in my aunt’s garden… a very beautiful garden by the way with 2 huge date trees in the middle… and be at peace.

Life there is very slow. My sister who was with me would wonder at the time. The clock would show that it is still early yet feels like it is very late already. My niece who was also with us didn’t bother much with time and just settled resting and reading books, including those of Emilie Loring.

There were also some land matters to attend to while we were there which distracted us from a vacation but my sister has already put the matters in her hand and took care of things. I informed her early on (even before I bought our plane tickets) that she’ll have to take care of the matters since I just wanted to rest. It was nice to visit one of papa’s share of the land though. The land is on top of the hill. It is a beautiful property even if it is rugged. From there you could see the rice fields below and the sea at a distance and on the other side you get to see a mountain range. There’s also a narrow creek downhill surrounding the property which is a good source of water. We still have my father’s drawing of how he would like to develop the land, unfortunately, he was not able to carry it out since he left us early. It is not that it is costly to implement his dream but someone should be there to carry it out but no one is ready to take charge of the property at the moment since it is so far from us. I don’t really know if papa’s dream will ever come into reality but the land will be there waiting…

Anyway, we also went to this beach while there. This is a neat beach even if it is rugged. In the sand is a spring of fresh water. You could actually put some rocks around, dig a bit deeper and you could rinse there if you want to. Of course we didn’t have to since my aunt’s home is near anyway. That’s not just it because just beside this place is a cemetery. Yup, a cemetery in the beach! It is actually weird to have a cemetery there. It is not really spooky but still weird. So I would say that the place is unique!

I would love to say that I would like to stay forever in our place but the welcome I get there is too much for me!

It is a different kind of welcome I get there…

And it is not from people but insects!

Geez, I think they love me too much and kiss me all over. I don’t think anybody else gets the welcome I get and I get it every time I visit! What can I say? I’m special! (well at least to them) Hehehe…The welcoming committee really wants to do it with a bang that they don’t just leave small marks but big red marks, really big red marks! I know it will take time for them to disappear. I could complain over it or I could just think of them as a souvenir from a nice vacation. :)

Me and a Date

Okay, that’s one messy me in the picture but where’s the date???

The tree at the back is actually a DATE tree.

Ever seen one before? Ever tasted its fruit? It is so sweet!

The tree in my aunt’s garden came from a seedling my father brought from Oman. There are two of them in my aunt’s backyard. They are huge but unfortunately they never bore fruit (don’t know if they will ever bear fruit someday). My aunt decided to put some of her orchids in the tree and the colors made them beautiful. This photo shot is not really nice (including me also… just woke up and was ready to walk to the beach but decided to have a picture taken first) as it wasn't able to show the whole tree but when you are in her garden looking over that tree and all the other plants there you actually feel a sense of awe at the beauty. It is not landscape perfect, it is a bit rugged but the plants and the butterflies and the chickens that comes around certainly creates a unique beauty to the place.

When my sister saw the date, she started teasing me. My siblings actually tease me every time they see a date or we talk about a date (okay not a person but the fruit) as they recount the first time I have ever laid my eyes on a date on one of papa’s trip back home from Oman. Papa joyfully told me about how sweet a date is and said he brought some and showed me a packet. I have never seen a date before and I immediately grabbed the packet, opened it and popped one inside my mouth. It was hard and definitely not sweet so I spitted it out and my father laughed! It was not really fruits on those packet but seeds which he brought for planting (hmmm, maybe that’s the seed that grew in my aunt’s place since all the other seeds did not grow?) I was too fast in grabbing the seed that he did not have time to tell that they were seeds!!! Anyway, he also brought frozen dates and preserved dates and truly they are sweet. It is not really a common food in our table but we do enjoy them every time we have them. And even if there’s no fruit in my aunt’s DATE trees, I do enjoy looking at them. I guess looking at my aunt’s dates also gives joy because they bring sweet memories of papa. :)

Emilie Loring

My 16 year old niece was with us during our vacation. She is fond of reading books. I think she could just stay in the province… even locked up in a room just reading books and the Reader’s Digest collection of my aunt… hmmm pretty much like me when I go there for vacation, except of course, I also enjoy relaxing in my aunt’s garden and talking with my aunt and uncle.

My aunt has a collection of Emilie Loring books, most of which I have read a number of times already. My sister doesn’t want my niece to be reading love stories and wants her to concentrate on school, worried that she would have a boyfriend if she starts reading love stories. Hmmm, I don’t think she should worry about that. I read her books and I’m still without a boyfriend… Ahhh on second thought, maybe my sister should worry about my niece being an old maid if she gets hooked on Loring! Hahaha…

Anyway, I like Emilie Loring books. I started reading them around college. I was actually a late pocketbook reader. In high school, I would read only text books and short stories. I started with pocketbooks only when I had an accident in the summer before my senior year and was immobile for a while and started reading Nancy Drew and Hardy boys then I got hold of my aunt and her friend’s collection of Mills and Boon and Harlequin romance, then my classmate started lending me her Barbara Cartland books. I became a reader but I never enjoyed them like I enjoyed an Emilie Loring book. The heroine in the other love stories had to cry a lot and face so much turmoil before finally having their happy ending. In some I have cried so much while reading a book that I keep wondering why it is so. Then I got hold of Emilie Loring and Grace Livingston Hill. Hill’s books are tinged with spirituality where love (even a kiss!) is so sacred and I like that also. But Loring’s books were filled with adventure. They were not really complex but light and exciting where even love was an adventure! And I was hooked! My aunt started with a few collection of Loring and Hill but I would buy for her from second hand book dealers in the University area until she had a bigger collection.

I have stopped reading love stories a long long time ago and have not really been fond of the thick bestseller books, though I’ve read some too. I would rather read books on spirituality and other non-fiction books but occasionally I still get a Loring book (from a set my aunt gave me) and just enjoy reading. Even if I’ve read them so many times, I still have a happy feeling after finishing her book. Hmmm… suddenly, I hear adventure calling and wants to check out a Loring, maybe hope that love came laughing by? Ah sometimes it doesn’t but still one can’t deny the fact that it’s a great world! :)

I'm glad I came...

I attended the first birthday party of my inaanak (godson). My kumare (my godson’s mom) rented a garden restaurant but brought their own food which they prepared till the early mornings. They decided to have the party in that restaurant since it was hard to go to their place and the restaurant was easy to find. The invite says 11:30 am but I was able to come at around 12:30 noon since we still had to fetch my niece who had a make-up class that day. We came to the school early but my brother still had to look for her since she was not at the gate. I was going to be late! However, my kumare just arrived at the venue when I got there and they were setting up the place. Good I made it! There were only a few people there when I arrived and I was thinking “Ahh Filipinos, late as usual.” Hmmm… but wasn’t I late too?

Anyway, the clock ticked and there were no additional visitors that came so my kumare said we could start already with the buffet after the prayer. The weather was good, the food was good and the place was nice too. There was a fountain in the middle of the garden and there were small nipa huts around with table where you could stay to eat. I liked the place and enjoyed my food and also enjoyed looking at the pictures of my godson.

The clock ticked some more and only a few people came. It was a children’s party but there were only 6 children that came (which already included my niece). My godson, cute as he is especially in his attire was not feeling well too. The place was only rented up to 3:00 pm and it was nearing that time. There were no more games played and my friend just asked me to distribute the loot bags to the children. After serving the cake, she also distributed some prizes that were supposed to be given during the game. Then, she gave me 4 other loot bags for my other nieces and nephews at home.

Finally it was time and there were so much food left. She started packing them in plastics for our “take home”. I said it was not necessary but she said they would not be able to finish them all anyway so she just kept putting foods in the plastic bags and I could see her sad face as she tells me that she was expecting a lot but they did not come. She was trying to make it light by saying that at least she was able to put up a party but still her sadness shows…

I felt sad for her. I knew how hard she prepared for that special event but many of those invited did not even value its importance. Maybe they had other things to attend to that day but they should have at least told her when she handed out the invites, so she wouldn’t be expecting.

It made me guilty in a way too because truth was I also did not want to come because I have been overloaded with work and studies the past few weeks that I just wanted to rest. But I did tell her I’d come and yes it was a good thing I came.

My godson will most likely not have any recollection of that event and I am sure (well I am hoping) my friend would only tell her of the nice people that joined that special event as she shows the pictures. I am glad I am in those pictures!

To everything a season

This song was taken from the Book of Ecclesiastes. This is not really a popular song among my generation (I was still a baby when it first came out and not one of my friends and acquaintances knows it when i sing it) but it has been one of my favorites since I heard it way back in my high school days.

I have been humming it a lot lately thought i'd post a video.