Waiting For The Sun

I am still frustrated. It rained the whole day yesterday so I still could not go out and garden. Monsoon rains and a typhoon in the north are affecting the country.

Visiting some random previous posts from my blog and the most emotional so far were those I wrote during my cancer journey twelve years ago and when Pope Francis visited the country in January 2015.

Sometimes I wonder how I was able to write sincerely from the heart, feeling everything with tears in my eyes. But I did. Those earlier posts were certainly inspiring for me now that I could look at them without being so emotional.

Oh yeah, I am now focused on reading. I’ve read 80 books since the start of the book challenge. I may be able to finish the hundred books I challenged myself to read this year. Lately, I’ve been reading historical fiction. I don’t know why but I love books describing about how life was centuries ago. Riding on wagon wheels instead of cars, candle lights instead of electricity, farms filled with different kinds of vegggies and ornamental plants, beautiful.

I started a different genre though last night about the story of identical twins. One died accidentally. The parents just relied on the story of the twin who was left behind when she uttered the name of twin number 2 when she saw the accident. They were seven years old. The parents were confused which twin really died because the one left behind seemed to manifest the character of the dead one. This is intriguing. I am in the middle of it.

A friend posted a photo of her graduation from graduate school. I told her what an accomplishment. Several years ago, she was a stay-at-home mom then she enrolled in an Education course. She is a guidance counselor in their school. Now she has finished her MBA. What a feat.

I wish the sun would show its face today.

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

Behind The Scene

We are almost in the middle of the month and before we know it, January is gone.

Oh my, I missed this blog for three days. Kind of not inspired enough to blog. And to my blogger friends, I am sorry for not even commenting on your posts. Trying to catch up.

I joined Goodreads Reading Challenge again this year. I committed myself to read another 100 books. It is really a challenge for me finishing that much for the year. Started with a historical novel, two books which are some kind of a series, a paranormal story and a thriller and courtroom scenes by Connelly. I found a book about dogs too. The cover was just too tempting because the pictures looks like our dog Noki. It’s my sixth read.

How are you getting along with this Covid environment? Funny how the department of health prefers the vaccine from china which is more expensive and not as effective. They are letting the local governments procure their own and the latter prefer Pfizer. I wonder if they’ll have enough facilities to restore those vaccines.

Read Full Post »

Tuesday Musings

Imagine yourself awake at 4 am. Up with the lark so they say.  Imagine yourself holding a broom (walis tingting) and a dustpan in front of your house  sweeping the street with cigarette butts, candy wrappers, plastic with straws thrown by unscrupulous passersby.  Imagine yourself sometimes seeing a whole bag of Jollibee or  McDonald’s trash thrown by people in cars just passing by our place.  How dare they do this, it pollutes the environment and a sight for sore eyes.  But they are undisciplined. One of the reasons why sometimes we get flooded when it rains hard.  You can’t help but shake your head in wonder. Don’t they clean the surroundings of their homes? Are they just happy throwing their trash everywhere? It is a case of, “as long as it is not in my backyard, it is okay”.  Really!

Nowadays, it’s my daily routine, waking up early, meeting the dawn and the sunrise and sometimes enjoying  few precious moments in the garden. I sleep early too. Around 8 pm, I couldn’t get my eyes wide open enough to read a few more chapters. I feel so sleepy.  Maybe that’s what’s growing old is all about.  The routines are comfortably  and necessarily observed and followed in our lives.

I am getting nostalgic again. I think of the younger days trying to recapture those moments of bliss.  See what the morning brings? Nostalgia  🙂

“People leave traces of themselves where they feel most comfortable, most worthwhile.” 
― Haruki Murakami

 

 

Read Full Post »

Never Again

I was trying to look for  previous posts if I ever blogged about the Martial  Law years. Nada!

Except for a little mention when I blogged about the Aquino family, there was nothing about the martial rule. Forty six years ago,  Martial Law was declared by then president Ferdinand Marcos suspending the civil rights and imposing military authority. It was declared on September 21, 1972 but was officially announced on radio and TV on September 23. I remember that was a Saturday and we had our PE class. One of my high school classmates used to bring a small transistor radio which we often listened to in between our PE and Music classes. That day, September 23, we couldn’t find any live music station and all we got was static. We were not aware that Martial Law was declared then and so many personalities who were against the government were put to jail and some just vanished without a trace. One of whom was of course Sen. Ninoy Aquino who was my personal hero.

I was already working in Makati  City when rallies were daily occurrences in the afternoon  after Ninoy died  on August 21, 1983.  We threw confetti, watched live programs/rallies in front of our building at the corner of Paseo de Roxas and Ayala Avenue. It  was there I saw so many freedom-loving people, personalities opposed to the Marcos regime. The Marcos family fled to Hawaii during  the EDSA Revolution back in 1986.  They came back lording it over again, this time Imelda, (the wife), BBM (the son) and Imee (the daughter). We never learned from history. We allowed them to come back. With those billions of loots they got from the Philippine coffer, they are back in  Philippine politics.  Marcos trolls are everywhere. They want to unseat our duly elected VP Leni Robredo by contesting the results of the 2016 election. BBM is relentless.

The latest report was that Imee made “sumbong” (complaint)  to Duterte regarding the COA (Commission on Audit). The COA is ” is an independent constitutional commission established by the Constitution of the Philippines.  It has the primary function to examine, audit and settle all accounts and expenditures of the funds and properties of the Philippine government”.  

COA found out about the anomalous transactions  at the turf of Imee  And she is not happy about it. Duterte is not happy about it. COA is now the only institution that does its functions so well.  How’s that again? It was Duterte saying “ihulog sa hagdan ang COA auditors”. Don’t wonder if he said that, he has a foul mouth.  He said at the beginning of his presidency that he hates corruption but almost all of the people he placed in the government (alipores as we usually say) are corrupt.

We say NEVER AGAIN. Never again to  Martial Law. Never again to  dictatorship.

Read Full Post »

These October Rains

Rainy Thursday morning.

And here I thought  the rainy season had come and gone but it’s not to be. We are under yellow rainfall warning and it’s been raining since last night. It is already 8:15 am but it is still too dark outside.

These thunderstorms.

Yes, it is cold and the rains are accompanied by thunderstorms. Thunder and lightning, you are cruel. Our dog Noki has hidden under our dining table since early this morning. He is afraid of thunderstorms. Our car alarm acted up crazy too.  A burglar in the vicinity? Nope, it’s because of the thunder.

It is still raining outside, that kind that would last longer than those heavy downpours.  It’s a wet, wet Thursday. Gosh I wanted to go back to bed and sleep an hour or two more but I am not  used to waking up late or  napping so early in the morning. I’ll probably read instead.

I watched the Senate hearing yesterday afternoon.  Some of their guests  bloggers  are aligned with Duterte and are perpetrators of fake news. Mocha  is known in the blogging world (she claims she is a blogger and has a large following on  Facebook)  but I wonder if she is the one writing her own blogs. She’s been appointed as assistant secretary  in Communications in Malacanang  but it seems that she can’t separate her being a blogger of mostly fake news to being in the government.  I laughed out loud when she said  that she was invoking her rights against “self discrimination” instead of  “self-incrimination”.  Does she even know what self-incrimination means? Sen. Bam Aquino retorted that she was not being accused of anything so  there is really no need to say that. Haha  🙂  🙂  Even Sen. Nancy Binay told her that she must choose – to do her job responsibilities or her  opinions as a blogger.  The nerve of the girl. She is full of herself. She was bashed by the netizens on Facebook and became a laughing-stock.  She even has the nerve to take photos with Sen. Trillanes. The latter  filed a case against her last week. He will pursue the criminal and administrative cases against her  despite the friendly gestures. There you are folks, our government has become….I don’t know what!

Telling a lie has become the norm for them. You tell a lie once and it would be hard to believe you the second or third time around.  Once you tell a lie all your truths become questionable.  I read this quote earlier and it is true.

Happy Thursday everyone!

Read Full Post »

Remembering The Good Old Days

Maybe those old songs that I played on YouTube triggered it. I don’t know but those times when we were kids seemed so vivid in my memory.

My two brothers and I lived in the province when we were growing up until we graduated in grade school when Dad decided to transfer us to the University of Sto. Tomas where we finished high school and  college.   During our younger  days, Mom used to go to Metro Manila to be with Dad and we were left in the care of my maternal grandmother and my unmarried aunt.  We lived in their old ancestral house with two older cousins.   My aunt just visited our house every day to water the plants and to feed  the chickens in our yard. Those were the days, I could recall them now.

I wonder what’s with Royal True Orange and crackers. I remember that when we get sick, we would have a bottle of Royal True Orange and  crackers by our bedside.  Back then,  the doctor in our town makes home visits.   I wonder how he managed to divide his time between those home visits and caring for other sick people who visits the Municipal Health Center.  There is always a ready tube of Liberol Ointment when we get colds. I wonder if it is still in the market until now but it was very effective for chest and back rub for us.  It’s been decades since I saw a tube of that liniment.

My oldest aunt (Mom’s side) had a sari-sari store in the barrio where we lived before.  Fancy having those Vicks candies with free plastic rings inside. My girl cousin and I would collect different colors and put them on our fingers. The world of kids. I also remember those crunchy but hard biscuits  my aunt used to sell per piece. They were shaped like bracelets.

I also remember this – madre  cacao. My dad used them as perimeter fence in our property there in the province. They produce lovely flowers  during  the summer months and we would use the young stems to curl our hair and make them wavy.   We had annatto seeds  to color our lips even if the fresh seeds are pungent.  Back then I didn’t even know that the dried seeds and extracted annatto oil  were used as food color.  I only knew of their use when Dad introduced me in the kitchen.

When we were kids, my oldest brother and I were fond of climbing trees in our backyard. We had guava trees, star apples and tamarind trees.  We would gather  ripe cashews and  save the seeds which contain the nuts inside.   We would roast them and eat the hot nuts.  We sometimes eat the ripe yellow fruit, slice it thinly and put a little salt on top.   Duhat fruits or Java plums are plenty during the summer months.  There will always be a duhat tree in the backyard or at our neighbor’s which we used to climb back then. Locally, the fruits  are called lomboy.

Ah, the times we enjoyed those early years and I am right here reminiscing.

Read Full Post »

Unfolding

The day’s unfolding –

The sun’s rays take a bow

Streaming down your back.

The pressure of the day is real

You are as real as the sun’s face.

And you wait

As the day unfolds.

 

Read Full Post »

Tuesday Blues

It’s raining.  And it’s been raining since this morning. That kind of rain that never seems to stop, we call it “tigatik” in our language.  Brrr….it’s cold in here.

It’s a perfect time for that hot cup of coffee or  that pot of hot green tea.  Along with some other gifts last Christmas,  Nissa gave me tea biscuits and a box of organic green tea from Marks and Spencer.  I have lots of tea flavors actually but lately I was more addicted to morning coffee than afternoon tea. I can’t resist this though.

That first sip warms my throat and it’s pretty good. It really makes you think of cold and rainy afternoons.

By the way I have just updated my  other blog (it’s not new, it’s been there for about a year now) at WordPress. I posted several photos taken with friends.  If you have time,  you may visit it too and maybe, just maybe click follow.  It is different from  Dreams and Escapes because it is mostly pictures  with a bit of writing and reflections on the side. I call  it Dreams Never End. Some of you are already following it. Eventually, that would have to replace this blog because I only got 28% more free space on my allowed limits that is why I don’t want to post more pictures here.

How was the start of your new year? More than a week is already gone. It seems like time is too fast.   I am done with 5% on my commitment to read 150 books on Goodreads.  Just finished seven books, four books ahead of schedule.  It’s a nice phase. Just love those books I’ve found.

It is a rainy Tuesday, I hope it is sunny on your side of the planet.

Read Full Post »

Thursday Blues

It’s a day wasted. I was supposed to file my SSS retirement forms  today but when I got there at exactly 8am, the slots for thirty people are already filled up. What a shame!  The branch near our place opens at 7am and it was already full when I arrived. To think that inquiries and other transactions are categorized in five windows. Maybe tomorrow I have to be there and line up at 6am so I could be included in their 30 slots for filing of retirement/pension benefits.  Too bad really. Government services in these areas are still so slow.

We are now officially under the amihan season with cold winds and long nights. The colder climate is always a welcome thing from the months of November until February the following year.  It’s during November though that we are visited by stronger  and more powerful typhoons  and  weather disturbances.  There is a tropical storm named Meari  being monitored by PAGASA and  another tropical depression both on the eastern side of Luzon. I do hope they won’t become strong typhoons and won’t bring too much rain in those areas.  Come to think of it, we are sometimes visited by typhoons too during December and they are as strong as those we usually have during November.  It’s  cloudy today.

Our country is teetering on the edge.  News says that as of the first week of November 2016, there have been  over 4,700 deaths, both from legitimate police operations and vigilante-style or unexplained killings since the president  assumed office last July. It seems that this government is more focused on war on drugs than on other aspects like the economy which is slowly sliding down.  And he is saying that these killings  might reach up to 30,000.  Again my question is where are we going?  Investors’ confidence is at stake here.  How could we  encourage foreign investments  if this government is only focused on one thing?  How could we solve poverty which is the main reason why people down the line are into drugs?  He is now the head a  sovereign state and must not only focus on domestic issues but on foreign relations as well. He is against dictatorship but is aligned with the Marcoses.  How could you believe in a foul-mouth, slut-shaming, uncouth and boorish man at the realm?  Please God save our country. We are being divided instead of being one as a nation.  It’s so sad  😦

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

Dreams And Reality

Nostalgia.

Yes, I am feeling a little nostalgic at the moment.  Last night, I reread a book of poems by Rod McKuen, one of the two books that I have entitled Alone. You can actually finish it in less than an hour but when you are absorbing each word, enjoying what it means in your life and looking back at   those life journeys you had before, it is even more nostalgic. The flow of each word is like a balm to your heart.

This is actually my 1,849th post in this particular blog, not counting  the posts on the other four blogs  I have on gardening, photography, my grandson Nate and a newly minted one for when I use up the remaining 29% free space allowed here. It’s been a long journey, blogging for a little more than seven years. Sometimes, I wonder how I was able to share those  thoughts in between.

I remember a few lines from my 1,000th post four years ago. I can’t believe I lasted this long sharing my thoughts with the world. Still hoping I could inspire more, I am grateful for those online friends who leave inspiring words too, coming back now and again to update me with their journey.

“Documenting one’s own frailties, insecurities, battles and happy thoughts takes a lot of courage, more so if you are doing it publicly through a blog. One thing though that I don’t regret doing is sharing my plight as a cancer patient and survivor. I started this three years ago right after I found out I had colon cancer. Each of us has her own coping mechanism and mine was writing my thoughts and sharing it . I’ve always said and I will say it again that if I could touch a single soul out there who’ll draw a little inspiration on what I went through, then that would be enough, it would make me happy. To my surprise, a few online friends found some of my blogs helpful in their own journey, having experienced the same thing that I did. Kindred spirits, if I must say.”

We can do better, we can reach our dreams, we can learn to fly.

I reviewed some of the photos I took since I learned how to take  shots of my garden blooms.  I transferred them to a hard drive when Multiply closed its doors  and I have to find a way to save all those shots.  This shot is nothing new here, I remember posting it when I was still active in participating in the weekly photo challenge at WordPress.

A moment in time.

They were flying in formation at a speed that I could not capture so well. I love taking photos of clouds on a clear day but they came as a bonus.  Seeing nature at its best keeps you grounded, the beauty of one summer day etched in your memory.  Sometimes, watching the sun show its face on a bright morning is blessing enough. Sometimes, a hesitant smile from a stranger you meet along the road of life makes the day worthwhile.  Sometimes, finding a lovely bloom in your garden is grace enough.  Dreams may not always turn into reality but believing in it takes you to another level, a happy feeling that life would always be something to treasure  no matter what.

Read Full Post »