Ten Poems To Open Your Heart

Finally, I am done with the 2022 Goodreads Reading Challenge. Capped it with a historical novel about Scotland and England which I really enjoyed.

A few weeks ago, I told you about the five books given by a friend who spent a month here from Canada. He taught me how to slow read these lovely books. So, I am starting a new journal too.

It’s a book devoted to love, to a loving compassion for others and to a love that embraces this world and the next.

Imagine perusing the words of such famous poets like Mary Oliver, Neruda, Sharon Olds and many others.

Housden says in his eloquent introduction: Great poetry happens when the mind is looking the other way and words fall from the sky to shape a moment that would normally be untranslatable….When the heart opens, we forget ourselves and the world pours in: this world and also the invisible world of meaning that sustains everything that wss and ever shall be.”

How poetic🌷❤️😘

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More Books….Still

I am about done with my 2022 Goodreads Reading Challenge. I am on my 150th book which I promised myself to read this year. It is a historical novel based on things that happened centuries ago. I do still intend to record my book reads for 2023, but I wanna try slow reading and keeping a journal at the same time based on the books.

Of all the five books that a friend visiting from Canada gave me, I am pretty excited with Roger Housden’s Ten Poems To Open Your Heart. Even the dust jacket looks so enticing. I’ll start from this one of course. My friend suggested that I focus on the words, quotes and sentences. He said that the experience is rich and fulfilling.

Journaling….I will start with this in a few days as soon as I finish the 150th book this year. There is a biblical passage in every page. Here’s one:

“PLEASANT WORDS ARE LIKE HONEYCOMB, SWEET TO THE SOUL AND HEALING TO THE BONES. – Proverbs 16:24

Here’s my new journal. It will surely be another reading journey for me.

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Blessed

Ver, a balikbayan friend from Canada gave me all these books this morning. He is a photographer, writer, poet, vlogger and a voracious reader. I learned from him several authors and their works. Can’t wait to read them all.

I particularly want to know how Roger Housden analyzes ten poems which include that of my favorite poet Mary Oliver, Rumi, Neruda, Naomi Shihab Nye and other writers. Finally, I have books by John O’Donohue, A Celebration of Rumi by Andrew Harvey, The Ascent of Truth by Thomas Merton (my fourth book of him) and Albert Camus’ The Outsider.

Many, many thanks Ver, so nice seeing you and exchanging news with you.

Isa ulit magandang kumustahan at pagkikita🥰😍😘

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P.S. I Love You

This book has been on my reading list for a number of years but it is only now that I tried reading it.

I seldom read love stories nowadays, I am more focused on historical fiction, memoirs, poetry, cook books and some inspiring ones that I get to find now and then. The other day though, I tried finding an easy read novel in between my reading genre.

P.S. I Love You is a book about two teenagers who found ‘true love’ despite their young age. A rich boy and a poor girl. I thought it was one of those stories that has good ending. I can truly relate because the boy died of cancer, that traitor illness that some of us encounters. P.S. is actually the initial of the boy.

I enjoyed reading this one, finished it overnight and still included in my Goodreads Reading Challenge for this year.

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Everyday Life Nowadays

Okay, I am blogging offline, will have to publish this when we have internet connection. The past two days, Globe Telecom has been down. I wonder when it will serve our connection again. Though I could blog and read other blog posts, they are not updated on my tab.

I usually wake up at 5am almost every day except when Josef reports to the office three times a week, from Monday to Wednesday. Since Jovy brings the car to work every day ( she works different time), Josef takes a ride with his officemate who lives in the town as ours. They pass by every day at around 4:50 am since our street is a short-cut to Pasig area then to Bonifacio Global City where JP Morgan Chase is located.

You know the morning routine of a senior citizen like me. I sweep the yard, clean the dogs poop, water my garden plants, then hose the garage. I clean the house first before preparing breakfast. Since I only take plain oats and nuts every morning, I only need hot water for it and for my chamomile tea. I only prepare breakfast for mom and Josef. He works at home twice a week. By around 8:30am and 9am, I’m usually done with the morning chores. Lunch is at 12pm. I take a slice of whole wheat bread with what dish I have prepared earlier. Then I’M FREE.

Take that to mean the rest of the afternoon is my “me” times when I am able to read and update our Catholic page and group on social media where I’m one of the admins. Reading takes the cake of course. I recently read two books which I both rated five stars⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐.

Home Before Sundown was written by Barbara Hannay while The Sweetness of Forgetting was penned by Kristin Harmel. Both are new authors on my list. I just copied some lovely words from Harmel’s book.

– the dawn’s narrow finger are just reaching the horizon

– life changes you, even if you don’t realize it while it’s happening, and it turns out you can’t take back the years that have passed by

– you do not always have to see something to know that it is always there.

Presently I am reading We Were The Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter, another e-book about the holocaust. Seems like an interesting read too.

The mother of a friend died and they live in the same town as we do. My friend and her family are coming home from Australia and we’ll see each other tomorrow together with some priest friends and brothers from the Society of Saint Paul. Fr. Pao will be celebrating mass.

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Reading Updates

I appreciate that I found the Goodreads app a few years ago. Based on my virtual library there, I have read around 1, 616 books. I’ve participated in their Goodread’s challenge the past six years. I am about 80% done with my challenge this year finishing 120 books so far out of 150 books I committed myself to read.

I just recently read The Tumor by John Grisham. A short take about malignant brain tumor, a far cry from the usual subjects he writes about. It is a fictional account of how a real, new medical technology could revolutionize the future of medicine by curing with sound – a focused ultrasound. I also found a new author in the person of Kathleen Grisson called Glory Over Everything, a historical book when Negros were sold as slaves in America. It’s an e-book that kept me glued. Though some fictions are historical, they are probably based on research about those earlier years.

Think about having wagons instead of cars as means of transportation. I have just started Water for Elephants, a popular book that I keep postponing to read.

There is a Goodreads page on Facebook and that’s where I find titles I am curious to read. Sometimes, there are many short reviews about one particular book that I have read before or some titles that I have seen for the first time.

Reading is such a wonderful hobby, it takes you to places you haven’t been to.

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Thank God It’s Friday

Hey friends, I am back after almost a week of not even visiting WordPress until now.

It is summer here now and it is so hot. We are due for some house repairs and supposed repainting but then again I am so lazy to contact a carpenter to do the job.

Alden is in the hospital at the moment. He had colonoscopy yesterday and ultrasound this morning. They will probably go home this afternoon. They are renting a room for my niece who serves as their runner when they need something from outside the hospital. He is in a three-bed ward so only one companion is allowed. He had to have another blood transfusion before his scheduled colonoscopy. I am praying he could recover soon. Please pray for him. Thank you so much.

I don’t think this is funny. VP LENI was interviewed a few days ago and they asked her about her favorite book. She said To Kill A MockingBird then went on to explain why. She was influenced by it on becoming a lawyer. Those detractors who don’t even know the title of the book bashed her again saying that she didn’t answer the question. She did but knowing how they seem to be all-knowing, they probably thought that To Kill A Mockingbird is not the title. It is just so annoying that these pretenders don’t even know a good book. If you are a reader, you remember the story and the title of the book which is your favorite, right? Which reminds, I like to reread that book one of these days. I don’t know where my copy got to.

Talking of being lazy, I finished three books by David Baldacci lately, The Fix, The Fallen and Long Road to Mercy. They are all so captivating. Enjoyed the read. I am doing some spiritual readings too for Lent. Watched a new episode of the Fourteen Stations of the Cross at the Hundred Islands in our province in Pangasinan.

By the way, today is April Fools Day and I am again reminded of the song The April Fools.

In an April dream
Once you came to me
When you smiled I looked into your eyes
And I knew I’d be loving you
And then you touched my hand
And I learned April dreams can come true

Are we just April fools
Who can’t see all the danger around us
If we’re just April fools
I don’t care, true love has found us nowLittle did we know
Where the road would lead
Here we are a million miles away from the past
Travelin’ so fast now
There’s no turning back
If our sweet April dream doesn’t last

Are we just April fools
Who can’t see all the danger around us
If we’re just April fools
I don’t care, we’ll find our way somehow
No need to be afraid
True love has found us now

There you go. HAPPY APRIL 😘🌷💐🛻🌞

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When Monday Comes

Let me see, it’s been almost a week since my last post. Nothing new, just sometimes so lazy to write. I didn’t even visit my reader feed. Sorry about that online friends. I hope you are all doing good.

The weather here is like summer now. It’s hot during the day and still a little cold at night. I have to water the garden twice. The soil gets dry easily. Anyway, there is always joy pointing the water hose on my face and feet in between watering the plants. Our three pups like frolicking in the garden when I am there. There is one more to go this week to another friend and officemate of Jovy. Saddie and Max are all we are keeping, the litters of Lassie. They were the last two to be born.

This is Saddie, a female. Look at her nose, eyes and ears, they are light brown. Could not take a shot of Max, he keeps running.

Another blessing. Got my share of cash dividend from Union Bank credited to my account last week. Good enough for three or four months of grocery, yeay! The wonder of having small investment in blue chips. It is nice to hold it long-term.

I am on my 31st read this year, a true story about child abuse. Third book I read about parents abusing their children, so hard to read actually but I am learning so many kinds of abuses.

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Saturday, Saturday

It’s almost a week now since my last post here. I have to submit to SSS several copies of mom’s photo holding a current newspaper before they were satisfied. Finally yesterday, I received an e-mail that they processed the renewal of Mom’s pension. She is a survivor pensioner so we have to renew it every year just to let them know that she is alive and kicking. She complains about being nervous when she wakes up and this morning she said that her one eye could not see. Otherwise, she is still healthy for her age of 92 going 93 by April. She complains that she could not go out. It’s been three years since she arrived back here. Alden could not fetch her because he is sick. My other brother who lives close by cannot drive yet because he had brain operation a few months ago. I am the only one who could take care of her.

I joined the 2022 Goodreads Reading challenge and committed myself to read 150 books this year. I am done with four. I am never in a hurry though. I choose those new authors and discover what they have to offer. Last year I was able to finish 144 books, an eclectic mix of historical, contemporary, memoirs, one YA book and a couple or three love stories. Here are the books I have rated ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐.

A Winter Beneath The Stars – Jo Thomas

Evergreen – Belva Plain

Redeeming Love – Francine Rivers

What The Wind Knows – Amy Harmon

Knight in Shining Suit – Jerilee Kaye

Long Walk To Freedom – Nelson Mandela ( a memoir)

Cold Mountain – Charles Frazier

The Orphans Of Race Point – Paltry Francis

These are just some of the few titles I enjoyed reading last year.

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It Was A Busy Tuesday

For the fourth time since this pandemic I have to go out again yesterday to get an additional form for mom’s renewal of her Social Security survivor’s pension since it is nearing January 16 which is the date of Dad’s birth.

I was able to contact SSS Cainta branch manager via e-mail. According to him, their branch is already closed since November last year. I have to go to another branch to get the non-remarriage/no co-habitation form, an additional requirement. Mom could no longer write her name so I bought a stampad ink months ago for her thumb marks.

I e-mailed everything, such gargantuan requirements. SSS just want to make sure that the pensioner is still alive.

Speaking of booster shots, I am in a quandary whether to get one. According to a friend whose son lives in Saudi Arabia, they are on their second booster there. Would this be endless meantime that it is in experimental stage? We had about more than 5,000 positive cases yesterday and according to our health department, there are already 7 cases of the Omicron variant. Sometimes, their reports are no longer believable.

Right now, I am on my third book. I joined the 2022 Godreads Reading Challenge. Yeay for 150 books.

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