Reflections of a Grandma

How can you even know how precious your baby is until you feel the soft touch of his fingers on your face, the complete trust he has in you as you hold his hands and take a step or two, the smile on his face as he recognizes your voice, the warm embrace, the wet kisses on your face, the moments you pick him up and he snuggle close to you, safe and warm in your arms. It’s the unspeakable happiness he shows when you are around and the inexpressible love that  make him so precious, so loved, so treasured.

(Note: this is our baby Nate’s first published photo in a national Catholic journal). Proud to be a grandma.

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Country Roads

I miss going on road trips. I haven’t done any this year yet but I remember the joys of seeing countryside scenery in all its glory. I love the feel of morning air and the fresh scent of some places far from the madding crowd, so to speak. I found these photos taken about three years ago on our road trip passing by SCTEX going to Olongapo City. SCTEX (Subic – Clark -Tarlac Expressway is a  93.77-kilometre (58.27 mi) four-lane expressway north of Manila adjoining the North Expressway. It ends up at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Zambales.

My son who took the wheels when we reached Subic was fined P200.00 for traffic violation back then. The traffic regulation they have there is quite different from what we have  in Metro Manila. If you rely on the traffic light here in the metropolis, in Subic, it’s a first come, first go basis even if the traffic light turns green on your end of the road. If you are not a resident of the place, you’ll surely won’t know that you are violating any traffic rule.  That’s traffic discipline, so they say.

It takes simple things for one to enjoy life and going on road trips is one.

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Cupcakes, Why Not?

So how are you guys?  It’s been a while. I got addicted to reading e-books, that’s why. Not only that, for the past few days, I tried to finish two books by Jenny Colgan, two wonderful, funny and engrossing chick lit read.  She’s a new author on my list  so it’s quite a novelty to read something with lots of cupcake recipes and pointers on baking…yes….cupcakes.  I never tried baking cupcakes though since the few sessions that I had with Sylvia Reynoso Gala’s Culinary Studio , I took money-making courses like Chinese cuisine, making bars and cookies, cupcakes not included. Once you learned the basic of baking, you could always experiment on other recipes as long as you have the right ingredients. I’ve done that for the past few months and it’s quite a thrill to discover new things in the kitchen.

If you have time and if you love chick lit books, I highly recommend these two, Meet Me At The Cupcake Cafe and Christmas at the Cupcake Cafe. Both books have excellent reviews at Goodreads.

Of course,  reading an e-book could not compare to holding  and smelling a nice, newly printed book in your hands but then sometimes, it is easier to get hold of a copy and read  it conveniently through your phone. It does not need so much space on your bulging bookshelves and you can delete it once you’re done to give way to other e-book titles.  Reading is such an engrossing hobby and once you start all over again, you simply forget the time. When you are transported to a new world, there is a different kind of magic.

Maybe one of these days,  I’ll try cupcakes too.

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Going Back To The Old Place I Love

You are etched in my memory, a place where I could rebuild my dreams and still believe that they do come true.

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My Aglaonema Blooms

Yes, aglaonema plants have flowers too which are quite similar to the flowers of spathiphyllum plants and green foliage anthuriums.

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The Gift Of The Morning

Good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.

- Mary Oliver

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Weekly Photo Challenge: The Sign Says

Okay, here we go, another challenge for an amateur photographer like me. I’d like to think though that there will always be shots that speak of those moments when you thoroughly enjoyed something and wish there would be more opportunities to visit again.

I remember this. My kids and I celebrated Mother’s Day at an Italian restaurant then went to Avilon Zoo for the first time. It’s been years since I visited one. We enjoyed feeding the rabbits and having pictures with Jenny, a friendly orangutan  trained to shake hands with visitors.  A joyous celebration of feeling like a child again and  enjoying  it with the kids.

Taken during our first visit to Caleruega. We were so eager to feed the Koi fish at the large pond  and watched  their golden bodies merrily swimming.  That was the start of our love affair with Koi fish and had them in our small pond three years ago. It was sad that we lost them all during the flood last year.

We passed by this place on our way to Caleruega , would have loved to explore it but around that time, I think it was closed to the public. Just the name itself evokes peace and serenity.  It’s actually a center of spirituality run by the Salesians of Don Bosco where one can hold retreats, recollections and weddings.

For more of these challenge, you can visit this link.

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A Thousand Mornings (Part 2)…. Hello Mary Oliver!

Okay, I am reviving my month-ender and  “happy new month” blog. I used to do it in some of my posts but sometimes, in the midst of daily living, you forget things that were part of your routine.

May has quietly faded into June  and  as always it left something to cherish and to treasure. It was terribly hot but the afternoon showers that we got during the last week  somehow diffused the humid feel of the month. Yesterday, I visited my daughter at her office at BPI to get a package  sent by a friend from the US. I took an FX taxi from our place to Ayala Avenue and along the way I was like a child getting re-acquainted with an old place and taking note of changes that were not there thirteen years ago. Thirteen years, seems so long  ago -  yes, it’s been thirteen years since I left Bank of the Philippine Islands  when I availed of an early retirement to take care of my two kids.  Seeing new faces  but looking for old ones who were my former office mates, I now can’t imagine myself as part of the young crowd waiting for elevator rides  and beating the 8:30am rush  to log  in to work. I was with BPI for more than twenty-one years, right after I graduated from college. Waking up early, car pooling,  early morning masses at Greenbelt chapel, lunch breaks and quick walks to Glorietta, afternoon rush to share a ride with friends on the way home, the routine of a working mom, they came rushing back when I saw the facade of BPI. Ayala Avenue has changed of course with more high-rise buildings sprouting from every nook and cranny, it’s after all the Makati Central Business District. What I noticed though was there were lots of people lining up the sidewalk of Ayala Avenue smoking. I am glad I brought a face mask. During my time, smokers just stay at the back of our building at the open parking space. Why can’t they totally prohibit smoking in public?

Sometime last October, I wrote a blog on the newest book of Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings dreaming of having a copy of it when it’s published. It has become one of my top-rated posts  although it was more of me than the book. Yesterday, I finally got hold of it and perused each word, smiling like crazy holding it in my hands, enjoying the feel of  silk because the dust jacket  is so smooth to the touch.

This is my second book of Mary Oliver and I love how she portrays nature in so many different ways. It feels like you are beside a brook or just looking at an unknown bloom by the wayside or discovering the glint of the moon on a dark night.  Odette, who has become a close friend sent me all these, three books, two latest publications from my favorite author Richard Paul Evans and a copy of A Thousand Mornings together with a hard drive which she says I could use for all the shots that I want to save. Speaking of blessings, they pour in a thousand ways too.

Let me share one of her poems with you. Reading her words always keep me inspired, silently smiling to myself and telling the old me, I am lucky, aren’t I?  The  journey is long but I am blessed.

The Gardener

 

Have I lived enough?

Have I loved enough?

Have I considered Right Action enough, have I

      come to any conclusion?

Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude?

Have I endured loneliness with grace?

 

I say this, or perhaps I’m just thinking it.

       Actually, I probably think too much.

 

Then I step out into the garden,

where the gardener, who is said to be a simple man,

       is tending his children, the roses.

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And The Mountains Echoed

All my life, I have lived like an aquarium fish in the safety of a glass tank, behind a barrier as impenetrable as it has been transparent.  I have been free to observe the glimmering world on the other side, to picture myself in it, if I like. But I have always been hemmed in, by the hard unyielding confines of the existence that Baba has constructed for me, at first knowingly, when I was young, and now guilelessly, now that he is fading day-to-day. I think I have grown  accustomed  to the glass and am terrified that when it breaks, when I am alone, I will spill out in to the wide open unknown and flop around, helpless, lost, gasping for breath.

Siblings, parenthood, friendship – words  and topics that make up a good and brilliant story. I won’t attempt to make a review here that would probably spoil your fun in reading the book. This was recently released last May 21 so maybe some of you haven’t got hold of a copy yet.  I read his first two books, The Kite Runner which was released in 2003 and was  adapted into film later and A Thousand Splendid Suns  which was made available to the public in 2007. If you love Amir in The Kite Runner and cried with Mariam and Laila in A Thousand Splendid Suns, you would surely appreciate  Pari and Abdullah  in this new tale  “revolving around brothers and sisters, and the ways in which they love, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for each other.”

I wrote a review of his second book  A Thousand Splendid Suns back in 2007 and posted it here  two years later when I was organizing my blogs at Multiply. I was quite excited when I read about his third book  not knowing what to expect since my views of him as a writer  were colored by his first two novels but here is a good review I found after finishing the last page without spoiling your fun of discovering what makes it a five-star in my list of lovely reads.  There is that feeling  when you reach the last few pages and you don’t want it to end  – you feel the intensity, the emotions playing in your mind and you want to know more about the characters who have endeared themselves to you in the first few pages.

My best read so far this 2013.

 

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Weekly Photo Challenge: In The Background

When you dream, you could open feel that you are on top of the world and the clouds and blue sky are never far from your reach.

And when you commune with nature, you are really closer to God.

And the beach could be a big playground for those lovely thoughts. It is  lovely to see how nature channels you back to peace, tranquility  and silence.

See more posts here.

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