Another Weekend

There’s that trigger again reminding me to start another blog post. I feel so lazy. I haven’t visited WordPress in a while.

I had a conversation with a friend from Canada (there were four of us when we were in college). Grace met an accident last Easter Vigil, had multiple pelvic bones fractures surgery which was not successful so she had a hip replacement surgery. Then she got infection in her gall bladder so she went under the knife again. Among the four of us, she is the only one who was not affected by cancer. All three of us had it, the two with breast cancer and me with colon cancer. Three survivors. Grace introduced me to their parish priest who also blogs about all of his homilies. I visited his site and left a few words via e-mail. He answered, how nice.

Last January, Sr. Thea, an FMM nun, told me that she was diagnosed with lung cancer this time after several years of being free from it. I don’t know about Precy since we haven’t gotten in touch for so long now. She changed her cellphone number.

Grace told me to be gentle and allow myself to grieve. Sometimes though, I still feel so low and couldn’t think of something nice to blog about. But I read, I am on my 82nd book this year. I found a book with Japan as the background during the 15th century. Just started so I don’t know yet if it is worth-reading or not.

I was laughing finding this on my newsfeed except that I no longer use a library card. I mostly read e-books nowadays and have my virtual library at Goodreads.

Another image the words of which I find provoking but it’s true. I remember a friend who told me once that the journey to life is not always a straight path.

Have a beautiful and peaceful weekend😘☺💐🌷🎉🎈🎊

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Dad And Mama Julian

Last week I received this sad news that our neighbor and friend in Kamuning before passed on. The family live in Australia. Mama Julian was 98.

I remember those days with fondness when we were living in the same place and the same compound. Almost every night, Mama Julian would bring his ukulele to our place and dad his guitar. They would play music together and I would just listen. They could pick chords of several songs without even looking at anything. During lazy days, the four of them – my mom, Nana Mina, Mama Julian and Dad would play cards called Entre Siete in our place. Mama Julian and dad would partner together and they had this what they call dentoy, movement of their heads, sway of their hands and other such nuances which they do together to let each other know what cards he had. Nana Mina and mom could not defeat them. Mama Julian was the godfather of my youngest brother.

His youngest daughter told me this: Arlene, I felt warmed when I hear these very precious moments in the life of your dad and mine. I remember these too.

She said further that truth be told, your Dad was the only true and loyal friend to tatay. He’ll have his memorial service on Sunday via Zoom and that happens to be Dad’s 100th birthday.

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These…..

A friend, a former classmate in high school just sent me a lovely pic collage and beautiful words of greeting. Amazing🙂 Thanks Bechay.

I agree that the more we face life’s challenges, the more we become stronger. Birthdays are not just the number of years beside your name, they speak of experience. We don’t only grow older, we become wiser through the years. And sometimes you wish it is your birthday every day, an opportunity to read those inspiring and wonderful words of greeting. The beauty of reaching out even without face-to-face contact.

And Facebook seems to be your online diary. I limit it to about 400 plus friends and I don’t post publicly. And there are limits to sharing your world with them, I don’t publicly complain of life’s struggles but I have chosen friends who understand and empathize. Isn’t that great? I don’t always see them personally though. I have a friend who’s been one for almost five decades now. He migrated along with his family to the US several years ago. We keep in touch from time to time and celebrate new beginnings and triumphs. Lovely to be remembered.

Fr. Lovell sent me a lovely message via text. Inspiring words. He is busy with his ministry and graduate studies. When you see these words like, keep safe, ingat, more blessings, God bless, doesn’t your heart jumps with joy?

These….

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Morning Thoughts

Someday perhaps we will meet each other again,

We’ll sit by the fire and reminisce

Those lovely days of old while drinking hot cups of coffee.

We’ll laugh how it was then,

The innocence of youth,

How insecured we were.

Trying to find that elusive thing – happiness.

We’ve gone a long way now,

Counting the grays in our hair

But the essence of friendship remains.

Ah, it is beautiful🌻

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Today

culled from the net

“What day is it?” asked Pooh.
“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.
“My favorite day,” said Pooh.”
― A.A. Milne

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Thinking Of Yesterday

Just saw this from the “memories”  app at Facebook. Back when Multiply was still alive, I had a little more than a hundred friends, both online and personal ones. I got to see some of them eventually. Multiply has disbanded sometime in 2012 I think but the memories remain.

What Are Friends For?

One of those close friends at Multiply then was Bella a retired teacher who taught in Thailand.  She  was sickly but I admired her wit and how she viewed life. She viewed herself as a fashionista here and depicted me as a gardener which I loved.  She was always the first one who would decorate her house as early as October with those Christmas trimmings and tinsels. Every year, the colorful themes and decorations made us uttered “ohhs”  and “ahhs”. She made the celebration of Christmas so beautiful.

There are friends and there are friends but a few of them touch you  and they’ll remain in your heart forever. Bella is one of them.

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On Giving Gifts

A food for thought Mar?  And yes, why not make a blog of this?

“Why do girls like gifts that last so long?” Mar asked.

“This could be a whole blog“,  Agnes commented.

“It’s because we love making and keeping memories and gifts of that nature are worth-keeping”, I said.

“Maybe because that kind of gift is an indicator that your love is eternal…unflinching…and steadfast???!!! Nelia questioned.

Why indeed?   And would you agree if I say that men are more romantic  than we are when it comes to gift-giving?  Are women more practical in terms of finding that one special gift that would delight the recipient?  Romance does play a big role when it comes to gift-giving and I don’t mean friends or relatives but between husband and wife.

Call me a bit on the practical side but I’d rather have something that would make me remember the occasion it was given than having that bunch of roses  or that big bar of chocolate which in a day or two would somehow be forgotten.  Don’t give me flowers, I prefer a pot of it where I could see it everyday growing in my garden. How practical could you get?  Once in a while though, we want to be surprised and those romantic dinners complete with the wine and the music make us excited.  We always welcome the idea that it is a well-thought  of gift.  And that oh-so-romantic-dinner-by-candlelight is  really something special.  Us girls sometimes give you the hint that we want this or that.  But always, in the end,  it’s the surprise of receiving an unexpected gift that makes us smile.   How could it be otherwise?

Do I sound so unromantic?  But as I’ve said I love keeping memories and what more would  I want than  something that would last longer?

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