Endless Love

We had a family get together today to celebrate the wedding anniversary of mama and papa. They would have been married 49 years.

My aunt gave me a letter a long time ago. It is still in my file but I had no chance to go over it today. It was papa’s letter to my aunt talking about my mama. He was actually professing his love for mama who was his girl friend and was talking about how great a person mama was and he was sort of breaking the news to my aunt first so she could tell their parents. Actually in that letter he was also asking my aunt to write mama to assure her that he was really single (hehehe… mama wanted to be sure) I am not really sure if my aunt had a chance to write her because they eventually got married… first a civil wedding then a very simple church wedding which was 49 years ago this day.

In one of papa’s voice tape to me when he was still working in the Middle East, he played the song of Lionel Ritchie and Diana Ross. He dedicated it to mama and he talked how lucky he was to have married her. “Endless love” … it is a joy for children to see if their parents such kind of love…

After we had dinner we sang some songs and my sister sang Tom Jones’ “Elusive Dream”… can’t help from having a smile in my heart hearing that… there might not have been goldmines but their journey together would have counted most and that is one golden legacy we will be certainly looking forward to… one more year and it would have been their golden anniversary… certainly looking forward to it! Maybe papa is also looking down at us tonight smiling as we celebrate their anniversary! :-)

Vincent's Bit :)

My niece and her family are staying with us and every time I would arrive home my grandnephew would come to the door and call me “Bit” (well that’s how it sounds!) and he has this cute little smile on his face and glow in his eyes as he gets my hands for a hand blessing, sometimes he would also kiss me… and when he does that it takes some of the tiredness out (and I have been very tired lately…arghhh!!!)

He is two and really small and skinny (good thing he is not sickly though) but he is so independent and funny the way he moves and falls (he falls a lot!). He seems to know the way to my heart… oftentimes my niece would tell me that when they would scold him he would say “Bit” implying that he will tell me what they’ve done to him when I get home…

I don’t really know… he just makes me lighthearted. Eventually he is going to be bigger and the cuteness will be gone. I wonder if he would still call me “Bit”… maybe he’ll get my name right in time but I sure hope he doesn’t lose his killer smile…well at least his “tiredness-buster" smile for Beth. I sure like his smile! :-)

School's out...

Our teacher gave her closing remarks in our forum which means the end of our class. My other class ended sooner… so that means school’s out… well at least temporarily since I have not enrolled for the second semester… I was really tempted to enroll especially since I don’t want to lose the momentum and I liked one of the subjects offered but finally decided to stall if off and not enroll for the second semester since there are so much I have to do in the office plus I have to work on a promise to my nephew.

The class I referred to at the start was one difficult class for me. I really felt exhausted and overloaded from all the readings we have been making and the assignments we had to work on. Sometimes I had to re-read some of the required readings since they did not seem to be getting to my mind… like I understood it but did not understand at all (arghhh does that make any sense???) many of the concepts and words were so alien to me and I would easily forget them. But I surely admired our professor. She was so diligent and ever “present”... she was not spoon feeding us but just guiding us in our topics and allowing the discussion to flow and encouraging us to use our contexts (our unique situations) for the required projects so we get to really understand the subject matter. I keep asking myself I would have the same energy if I was handling her class and somehow I could still see that she was giving us sooo much! Anyway the class is over. It was exhausting but very fulfilling and I’d like to honor her (of course she would never find this blog but I’d like to honor her still) with this poster I made…

We sure had a lot of interactions and conversations in that class, some are even personal. I’m trying to work and apply some of the things I’ve learned for our training this December. It will really be great if I have a chance to work on my project. I think more than this poster that would be a greater tribute to my teacher. :)

Poverty in our midst

Everyday I walk through the streets of Manila, I see so many people sleeping on the streets…their dirty clothes serving as their blanket… they are lucky if they have used cartons for their mat…some have cans beside them… some seated with outstretched hands begging… families pushing wooden pushcarts that serve as their home… men and children scavenging plastics from piles of garbage… children climbing through PUJs to beg money from passengers.

Everyday they seem to be growing in numbers! Homeless children… homeless people… homeless families!

Poverty faces me everywhere!

And so many times as I pass such scenes I could hear Jesus’ response to Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar playing in my head…

“Surely you’re not saying we have the resources to save the poor from their lot. There will be poor always pathetically struggling… think of the good things you’ve got! Think while you still have me… move while you still see me… You’ll be lost and you’ll be sorry when I’m gone!!!”

These have been hard times… but I still feel so blessed that I have work, a roof on my head, food on the table and a family that cares for me… There really is much good things happening to me that I couldn’t help but be thankful.

Still a lot of times I wish I was really rich… very very rich that I could do something for all these people… but that is just wishful thinking. What good is that?

Then at times I’d blame the government for their lot but in my head I’d say our government with its available resources couldn’t really do so much… it takes so much work and so much time!

Ahh the corrupt politicians… yes! Yes! I’d like to blame them… then I think of the people who voted for them... ah serves us right!

The church… it should be unthinkable to blame them… but they too couldn’t do much for the poor! There are just so many of them!

JC was right… there will be poor always who will be pathetically struggling! One can not really do much to help but one can move in his own little way… You will not be able to save them all but at least you could touch some lives… Even just one life… or even for just some moments…
Think of them… and move!

Goodbye Tita Angie!

Tita Cecile, my aunt from Texas called and said that Tita Angie, my other aunt, their eldest, already died. It was sad news for all of us even if she was sick a long time. My aunt is doubly sad because there won’t be any wake or funeral as her remains will be cremated immediately. It was her wish my uncle told them much earlier. I remembered that she also wished her ashes to be scattered.

Tita Cecile came all the way to the Philippines to take a last glimpse of her brothers and mother when they died. My grandfather died a long time ago when she was still here so she was there to be with him one last time. She was there before they were all buried… but not with her sister who is in the US and much nearer to her.

I know that the spirit is gone from the body… that what she’d be seeing if she had a chance to see her would just be a body… still it is sad not to be able to her one last time… not to be able to say goodbye to her face and give her your prayer… to be able to tell her “rest in peace!”

Maybe my uncle believes that we could send it anywhere since she is now a spirit…

I really don’t know…

But I realized that it is not really for Tita Angie why we would have wanted to have a wake and funeral… it was for the family left behind… that we may mourn for our loss… and that we may comfort each other for the loss…

Tita Angie, you are gone! The last years has been difficult for you. May you now rest in eternal Peace!

Noon mass at Veritas

Sometimes I am not able to go out of the office during lunch break to attend mass at Binondo Church so I would ask my officemate who listens to the mass in radio at DZRV -Veritas 846 (am station) to turn her volume higher so I could hear it… sometimes I would sit near her so I could listen and participate on my own. Lately I discovered that I could watch their radio broadcast through their website since they are video streaming their radio broadcast. I have no speaker in my machine… so today I borrowed my boss’ speakers and I was able to celebrate the Eucharist from my monitor by going to the Veritas846 site… I know it is not the same as being there in church but at least I could attend some form even if I could not go to church.

I used to do the same when I am on field and even out of the country, I could attend the service if there was cable TV and I could tune in to EWTN. :)