JONGOLOIDS

I’m awake in the afternoon. I fell asleep in the living room. And it’s one of those moments. When everything is so clear. Before the truth goes back into hiding. I want to decide ’cause it’s worth deciding. To work on finding something more than this fear. It takes so much out of me to pretend. Tell me now, tell me how to make amends.

Maybe, I need to see the daylight. To leave behind this half-life. Don’t you see I’m breaking down. Lately, something here don’t feel right. This is just a half-life. Is there really no escape? No escape from time. Of any kind.

I keep trying to understand. This thing and that thing, my fellow man. I guess I’ll let you know. When I figure it out. But I don’t mind a few mysteries. They can stay that way it’s fine by me. And you are another mystery I am missing. It takes so much out of me to pretend.

Maybe, I need to see the daylight. To leave behind this half-life. Don’t you see I’m breaking down. Lately, something here don’t feel right. This is just a half-life. Is there really no escape? No escape from time. Of any kind.

Come on lets fall in love. Come on lets fall in love. Come on lets fall in love. Again. ‘Cause lately something here don’t feel right. This is just a half-life. Without you I am breaking down. Wake me, let me see the daylight. Save me from this half-life. Let’s you and I escape. Escape from time. Come on lets fall in love. Come on lets fall in love. Come on lets fall in love. Again. (By Duncan Sheik)

I got these toothpaste squeezers from a Japan Home Center outlet in Makati. A very clever invention. Simple but truly useful.

A conversation between the host and a customer at a comedy bar goes like this:

“Host: Naglalaro ka ba ng farmville?

Customer: Yes. Level 28 na ako.

Host: Bongga! Taas ng level! Eh di naglalaro ka rin ng Cafe World?

Customer: Yes. Level 20.

Host: Wow sosyal! … Wala ka na rin social life! (The crowd burst in laughter)”

Definitely true for some of us.  Hoho!  I must admit spending hours in front of my laptop playing these FB games.  Though I still find time socializing; mind you.  But I guess behind all these addicting stuff, it provides us some sugar coating lessons about time management.  That if we can manage our time well, an abundance in harvested crops or sumptous dishes awaits us.

There’s an off-repeated expression that says, “To see is to believe.” And some answer that by saying, “We have no brain because we only think we have but we cannot see it; thus we don’t believe.” Well, the case is different for me. I have indeed proven that my head contains something. Fully intact with “no localized mass lesion, signs of ischemic infarction nor hemorrhage.” Thanking God that I still have the chance to live.

Just want to share this piece that has been circulating in emails. Too good to be true.

“the vicious circle

we lose our health to make our wealth

we lose our wealth to regain our health

we live as if we will never die

we die as if we never lived

we are so busy with daily tasks

yet we are so bored in being so busy

we look for meaning in meaningless things

and overlook things fraught with meaning

we have no time for others

yet we waste our time in absurd undertakings”

Meanwhile, I have updated my multiply photos again to include my recent visits in Club Manila East and Island Cove. A product of two separate occasions from two long weekends. Sample pic below. 

Some close family friends have been teasing me about playing favorites to the two kids at home. That is because, I posted Trek’s birthday invite but not for Coleen’s birthday which is also celebrated on the same month. To rest the case, I posted Coleen’s princess-birthday invitation, too. In fact, both of them have versions printed on tarpaulins.

Kids of today are lucky to have this kind of invites created as easy as ‘A-B-C’. During our time, even a simple caricature is limited to magazine covers and movie posters only. (Hmp!) Don’t ask me when.

With much enthusiasm and vigor, I cleaned up my play/work area at home last night. Imagine, doing the dusting and re-arranging of stuffs at almost past midnight until wee hours of the morning. It was tiring but the end result is a work of art (haha!). Now, I guess it will be more exciting goofing around this corner.

Of course things don’t always happen the way we wish they would. There are moments in which we feel we are seeking something that is not meant for us, knocking on doors that don’t open, waiting for miracles that don’t manifest themselves.

Fortunately that is the way things are - if everything went the way we wanted, soon we would no longer have anything to write about, nothing to guide our daily thoughts. This script serves our dreams as nourishment, but to our battles as energy. And as it always happens with the warriors that spend all their energy in the Good Fight, there are moments in which it is best to relax and believe that the Universe is still working for us secretly, even if we cannot comprehend it.

And so, let us allow the Soul of the World to fulfill its mission, and if we can’t help, the best way to collaborate is to pay attention to the simple things in life; the sunset, the people in the street, the reading of a book.

However, in many cases, time continues passing and nothing exceptional happens. But the true warrior of light believes. Just like children believe.

Because they believe in miracles, the miracles begin to happen.

Because they are certain that their thoughts can change their lives, their lives begin to change.

Because they are certain they will find love, this love appears.

Sometimes they are disappointed. Sometimes they feel hurt.

Then they hear the comments, “you are so naïve!”

But the warrior knows it is worth the price. To each defeat, there are two conquests in his favor.

In an interesting and diminutive book called “The Breviary of Medieval Knights,” there are some passages that have to be remembered in these moments of waiting:

“The Path’s spiritual energy uses justice and patience to prepare your spirit.”

“This is the Knight’s Path. An easy and hard path at the same time, as it urges us to let aside useless things and relative friendships. That is why, at the beginning, we hesitate so much to follow it.”

“This is a Knight’s first teaching: you will erase everything you wrote up to now on your life’s notebook: turmoil, insecurities, lies. And in place of all that, you will write the word courage. Beginning the journey with this word and going on with faith in God, you will arrive where you need to arrive.”

Even so, sometimes we keep on waiting - with patience, resignation, courage - and still, things around us don’t move. But since this is the path we chose, it seems impossible that life’s blessings are not working in our favor. It provokes, therefore, a deep reflection about what we call “results:” our destiny is manifesting itself in a way we are not able to fully comprehend . Jorge Luís Borges wrote a masterly short story about this issue.

He describes the birth of a tiger that spends great part of its life in the African wildness but ends up being captured and taken to a zoo in Italy. From then on, the animal thinks his life has lost sense and there is nothing left to do but wait for the day he dies.

One fine day, poet Dante Alighieri passes by this zoo, looks at the tiger, and the animal inspires a verse – in the midst of thousands of verses – of “The Divine Comedy.”

“The entire battle for survival that tiger went through was only so that it could be at the zoo on that morning and inspire an immortal verse,” says Borges.

Just like this tiger, we all have a reason – a very important reason – to be here, at this moment, this morning.

So relax. And pay attention.

(From Warrior of the Light)

Nitong mga nakaraang araw, panay ang nood namin ng mga news program upang saksihan ang mga kaganapan sa pagkamatay, burol at paglilibing sa ating mahal na Presidente Cory. Maraming mga indibidwal ang aking napanood sa telebisyon na nagpa-interview at nagbahagi ng kanilang mga eksperyensiya noong nabubuhay pa sya. Maging ang inyong lingkod ay may isang simpleng pagkakataon din na nakaharap ng malapitan si Tita Cory.

Araw ng miyerkules noon at ako ay dumalo sa novena mass sa Greenbelt Chapel. Sa hindi inaasahang pagkakataon, kasalukuyan din palang naroroon si Tita Cory. Sa kabuuan ng misa ay ilang beses ko yatang sinadya na sulyapan sya habang nakaupo sa kabilang bahagi ng simbahan mula sa aking kinalalagyan. Hindi ko nga yata masyado naintindihan ang homilya sa misa ng araw na iyon.

Hindi pa dyan nagtatapos ang kwento ko. Pagkatapos ng misa ay nag-lunch muna ako sa Greenbelt. Suwerte nga yata ako noong araw na yun. Pagkatapos ng lunch ay naglakad na ako pabalik sa aking opisina sa Makati. Sa pagbalik doon, ang pinaka-konbeniyente kong dadaanan ay ang elevated walkway sa may De la Rosa. Nang nasa bahagi na ako ng PLDT area, nakita ko na lang ang sarili ko na naglalakad kasabay ang isang babaeng nakasuot ng dilaw. May kasama syang isang babae at isang lalaking bodyguard yata. Kaming apat lang ang naglalakad ng mga oras na iyon.

Para akong na-starstruck! Hindi dahil nakakita ako ng artista, ngunit dahil parang nakakita ako ng santa. Maputi, naka-sandalyas na itim at malumanay maglakad. Naisip ko, ang nakita ko yata ay mga katangian na parang tulad sa isang madre. Si Tita Cory nga! At kasabay kong naglalakad! Gusto ko syang kamayan ng mga oras na iyon ngunit naunahan ako ng takot dahil baka sunggaban ako ng bodyguard. Ang tangi kong nagawa ay lingonin sya, ngumiti, at tumango upang magbigay pugay. Pagkatapos nun ay binilisan ko ang aking lakad upang mauna na. 

Yan lang ang aking simpleng “close encounter” kay Tita Cory. Ang ilaw ng ating bayan. Ang dilaw na ilaw.