Bright As Yellow
by Innocence Mission
And I do not want to be a rose.
I do not wish to be pale pink,
but flower scarlet, flower gold.
And have no thorns to distance me,
but be bright,
bright as yellow,
warm as yellow.
A quiet spectator on the outside of life, a fragile phantom flushed with ravenous hunger, deep inside is the smoldering craving of the hottest flower in the garden..
Bright As Yellow
by Innocence Mission
And I do not want to be a rose.
I do not wish to be pale pink,
but flower scarlet, flower gold.
And have no thorns to distance me,
but be bright,
bright as yellow,
warm as yellow.
in a few days, she'll be thousands of miles away from us. i'll miss our kulitan, our frequent arguments (yup!), her nagging, her almost delicious pansit, chopsuey, adobo and barbecue (ha ha!), her constant striving to beat me in cooking pasta and losing at that(sorry sis!). Of course!
i'll miss her taking care of her son, miggy.
i'll miss seeing her do miggy's projects, getting no less than excellent marks, her artistic tendencies showing.
i'll miss her driving our car- our out-of-town trips. i'll miss her pointing out trees when driving on highways (angie, santol/mangga/kape, o! ang dami bunga!)
i'll miss her stories of korean telenovelas. her nursing of crushes (wu chun, dao and the likes). her collection of korean & chinese flicks (gazillions!), piling inside her drawers.
i don't know which is harder though, leaving or being left behind. and yup, i'm considering myself a part of the olds but lately i have a feeling that i still am a wimp on most things, like this, like saying goodbyes. hay.
“ It is clearly not the journey for everyone. People succeed in as many ways as there are people. Some can be completely fulfilled with destinations that are much closer to home and more comfortable. But if you long to keep going, then I hope you are able to follow my lead to the places I have gone. To within a whisper of your own personal perfection. To places that are sweeter because you worked so hard to arrive there. To places at the very edge of your dreams."- Ben Johnson

Hesus Ng Aking Buhay
by Arnel Aquino, SJ
Sikat ng umaga
Buhos ng ulan
Simoy ng dapithapon
Sinag ng buwan
Batis na malinaw
Dagat na bughaw
Gayon ang Panginoon kong
Hesus ng aking buhay
Saan man ako bumaling
Ika’y naroon
Tumalikod man sa ‘yo
Dakilang pag-ibig mo
Sa aki’y tatawag at magpapaalalang
Ako’y iyong iniibig
At siyang itatapat sa puso
Tinig ng kaibigan
Oyayi ng ina
Pag-asa ng ulila
Bisig ng dukha
Ilaw ng may takot
Ginhawa ng aba
Gayon ang Panginoon kong
Hesus ng aking buhay
Saan man ako bumaling
Ika’y naroon
Tumalikod man sa ‘yo
Dakilang pag-ibig mo
Sa aki’y tatawag at magpapaalalang
Ako’y iyong iniibig
At siyang itatapat sa puso
it's been months. every time, i see myself battling between sitting & blogging my life away or just ignoring the urge to do so. the latter always wins obviously, of course, till now. so what changed my mind today, this night, this very minute? *sigh* in all honesty and directness, the sad thoughts- those freaking sudden realizations that's making the life of me unsettling and huffy, this one particular nagging feeling i've been ignoring and denying for a long time. ( now im hating blogging because in a way, i am putting things in perspective i am seeing things a lot clearer and those deeply held emotions are prone to better understanding for such a denying mind, like mine. and it's not looking good. tsk, tsk.)
"love if anything is fleeting.."
there are days when i feel like im losing it. everything or should i say everyone is crap. you go to work and the very first person you talked to has just embarked on a mile-long rant about the super- duper- hot- the-sun-is-the-culprit weather, the forever hanging PCs in the office, the weekly failing QAs and flunking team ranks and all negativity about each and every person in the whole wide universe! now you know the names she baptizes people behind their backs - the gold digger, the oldie, the smarty-smart, the bitch, the miserables and so on and so forth. whew! at the end of those first-person-I-encounter-in-the-office moment, i feel like i've been robbed off the beauty the day and the world has to offer me.
over the weekend, i have decided to put a forgotten good habit back to life. its the string of not-so-good events that i have thoroughly contemplated that had me pondering of a perfect way out. maybe it was impending- these events lately that shook my world out of its boring daily orbit. i didn't expect it of course but as they say life is just a mirror and what we see out there, we must first see inside us. i'm am now putting things in perspective. and i'm starting with myself. as i have been too spun-out by the recent events, i have finally decided to die to myself. die. every chance i can get. to all my wants. and loves. to be no longer subject. to be indifferent.
for a whopping 3 minutes or so, this late in the afternoon, i have decided to own these words again. to arm me with life's disparity, i will die to myself and practice it in my ordinary day-to-day existence. because more often than not, I don't get what I want most out of life. *sniff*. and its sad. and it breaks me. and i want to move on. and get the best angie, my best self, out of or better, with this suffocating shell. and how do i do this?
the mortification of the body strengthens the spirit.
as a very pious and spiritual teen *sigh* (gone were the days), i lived up this very powerful words. i have read a good amount of spiritual memoirs, one of which was Sister Lucia's Memoirs, of Fatima. this tiny book has changed me *sigh again* for quite a while and taught me to suffer for Christ. it emphasized on the virtue of suffering which links us to Christ Triumphant. and i was amazed by which my beloved Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta mortified themselves for God. ordinary things mortified and done out of love made them stronger spiritually.
and the forgotten days will be back again ;)
now, i have no better goal than this. i will accept life as God wills it. and i am armouring myself with mortification and self-denial again because i know that to live in this world is to suffer. but to suffer like Christ is to gain perfection.

from the first scene, where jude sings ..is there anybody going to listen to my story all about a girl who came to stay.., i was totally drawn. and it didn't help that the main character, jude, was way over cute and has a liverpool drawl! plus the hair, very.. unruly. haha! ok this looks so, so familiar ;) anyways, they did some of my favorite beatles songs like, "strawberry fields forever", "i want to hold your hand", "if i fell", "all you need is love", "across the universe", "hey jude", "and i love her". i love the part where jude was creating an artwork of strawberries pinned to a white wall, and interchangingly the vietnam war was being shown. and as he crushed and destroyed the strawberries due to love frenzy with lucy, red juices oozed on the wall as real blood brought by war was shown too. and all along, jude was singing
"strawberry fields forever"!!! ang galing! it was an artwork in motion. the funny thing was i was singing with the characters all throughout the movie. hay, i couldn't figure out why others would say that this is a beatle betrayal. the movie was psychedelically charming. as an artist wanna-be, i was blown away by the use of visual arts and effects. the casts were unknown, but i give them a 5 star for their performance. this is the first movie i really, as in really enjoyed watching this year. and im sharing this especially to all beatle fanatics especially to my rocker cousin, ryu! yup, do watch it and you'll know exactly what i mean ;)
I had a quiet, blissful and happy saturday night. my family and i went to stroll and dine along mall of asia's row of restaurants facing the bay. hay, it was lovely! even before parking, we had the chance to view the colorful fireworks! and as we strolled, we noticed that the grounds were very clean and spacious. the walk was lined with lamp posts illuminating strollers with a kind of sepia glow. palm trees were sprawled near the fountain area where mostly kids look amazed at the artistic splash of water. the dancing waters of the fountain was spectacular, or maybe i was just surprised that it danced, with its different tricks to a groovy old frank sinatra song! kaaliw! the kulets were asking me with coins which they were planning to throw in the fountain. it then gave me the idea! i led them near the fountain, gave each of them a coin and asked to say they're wishes out loud! boy, were they excited!! nakakatuwa talaga ang mga bata!
shempre, the aunt got to wish too ;) "1-2-3! say you're wish... kiss your coin.. and drop it in the fountain!" we saw our coins splashed below the fountains' shallow water. that, had them goofy and giddy!!! i, specially was in a play mode, running and tagging after my two pamangkins who were shrieking and laughing at the same time. then, my ate and i, had each of those two kulets, hunched on our backs while we race at the nearest palm tree! hehe! it was so, so much fun, i swear. i mean i should be doing this at least once a week to keep me sane ;)
anyway, along with these were restaurants and bars that offer great food, mostly seafood and filipino dish. bands also performed and made sure everyone was having a good time. every once in a while, a brave person would jam with them. we dined at trinity's, a seafood restaurant and preferred to stay outside. with the perfect view of the bay plus the great music playing, i know my mom was enjoying herself. and that alone, completed my night! hay.. ;) well, the food too was scrumptious especially the buttered, sweetened shrimps! ang sarap! again i was mentally jotting down that one of these days i'll conjure something like it ;) we passed some street artists. one had his face painted in ghostly white. he wore a black costume ala charlie chaplin. he stood in a tiny podium, staring at passersby, i guess to entertain. i was not entertained though, he looks damn scary!
mabel and sis grace
miep, mumay and ate
ate. buchog and happy :)
this day i went home feeling , oh so free!
and i finally saw it all- how my instincts have been perfectly right and how it was trying to save me all along. and so i've been right all along. sabi ko na nga ba!
and now i know that there is something about distancing that makes you see the world sharply defined. and i am amazed how it freed me!
because we mistake love with the need of companionship. because we give too much emotions to the wrong person. because we get too much amazed and emotionally-involved to have thought of it as something beautiful and magical. and we are wanting to be with that person only because there is potent and unrelenting nagging in us to find someone to love.
and then the distance.
sabi ko na nga ba.
i cannot possibly like him! not in a romantic type of way.
tsk. i cant always be sappy for things as complicated as this, diba ;)
by kendall payne
Digging deep, I feel my conscience burn
I need to know who and what I am
This hunger jolts me from complacency
Rocks me, makes me meet myself
Jacob walked a limp to remind him
Of the greater gift of the greater one
But when I fell, I fell to my own resources
How can I carry the truth, if I can't even crawl to you?
I wanna feel something sweeter than this sin
Cover me in leaves roll me over again
I've been everybody else now I wanna be
Something closer to myself
Paint me in a different light
Shed me yet another coat of skin
Mark me with ash until I'm clean again
Cause I'm so sick and tired
Of being sick and tired
I know I can love you, I know that I can
I wanna feel something sweeter than this sin
Cover me in leaves roll me over again
I've been everybody else now I wanna be
Something closer to myself
caller: "Ar yu da supervisoor?"
me: "Yes, you've been transferred to a supervisor. How may I help you?"
caller: "Ar yu eeengliish?"
me: "No, are you? (cheery tone) How may I help you today?"
caller: "Wel, I du not want to tok to yu cos i dont tink yu can speak eengliish!"
hello lang?!! sino bang mas english-sounding sa ten?!!

caller: "Whaaat?!!! Don't tell me it's not f****ng there! I
pay you a f****ng fortune!!! blah blah blahme: "I do apologize but I am not pulling up anything at all for that listing. I could arrange a refund for you though.."
caller: "How are you spelling Twickenham anyway?"
me: "Oh, I believe there's only one way of spelling Twickenham!!( in a very fast voice) That's tango-whisky-india- charlie-kilo-echo-november-hotel-alpha-mike."
caller: I'm looking for a company called _____, something
like that. I dont have the address all I know is that it's in the
UK.me: So you're not sure of the name?
caller: Yes, but it's something like that. Sounds like that.
me: Do you know what type of business please?
caller: I'm not sure.
me: ( in very patient, pleasant and helpful tone but through gritted teath) you're not sure of the name, you don't have the address, and you' don't know what type of business it is, how do you suppose we'll find it?"
suddenly, oddly, missing them. true. i miss the challenge of having them turn around from one irate customer to a very satisfied one. i am missing the the challenge of doing a national, all-over-the-corners-of-the-uk search and finally finding their most precious number. and their absolute joy when we find it- wow! i miss showing them how we filipinos have mastered their country's geography and language even beating them at those most of the time! i miss getting angry with them while keeping myself cool and composed. i am babbling all of these but i sure am meaning everything.
by jewel
Sometimes
I feel
my heart
fall
to vague depths
between
words there
are such
spaces that
I can't help
but feel
My Heart
fall
between
the pregnant pause
of all you will
not say
and all
I can
not ask
i am marking this year as a crossroad.
i have been someone who's keen on reworking my self from time to time. and i know it will be lifetime process. because when things really hit me bad, i totally forget what i've learned in the Accepting Life- key to wholeness category."If God solves your problem, you have faith in His abilities. If God does not solve it, He has faith in your abilities."
Sent by Shakira of Nancy