RAIN IN SUMMER

It's Fr Niall O'Brien's 3rd Death Anniversary today. He was our editor, and the greatest mentor I ever had :( Strangely enough, though the weather is really 'summerly' hot today, the sky is so full of nimbus clouds. If you want to know who Fr Niall O'Brien is, just search through the internet. It will be worth your time.


















(our magazine cover right after he died)


It's summer and it's raining.
Well yes, the heavens have to cry
because you have gone away
"to the land where I can no longer hold your hand".

You breathed your last in one of those intricate
buildings of Italy, your favorite,
next to Philippines.
I have a photo of you here,
smiling cheerfully
behind the Leaning Tower of Pisa,
during a respite from the chemotherapy.

Italy, ah most beautiful, you have told me...
how often you talked about that place
with such passion and life,
like the life you saw in Leonardo's Last Supper,
like the passion you felt
from the strains of polka and mazurka.

You once gave me a postcard from Trevi Fountain
saying "Keep this, one day you'll go there."
I keep it until now, and though I may never
have the chance to go there one day,
in my mind I have thrown a coin
and wished to walk once again
along the secret cloisters of your heart.

But well, you see, in the sweet sadness
of this summer rain, I understand
that there is no more strolling
along the ancient ruins of your pure heart
and your most beautiful mind.

There is only remembering
of the undiscovered treasures
of the life you lived in an ugly world
which you endeavored to make so beautiful.

If only you could have lived long enough
to witness my own story
unfold into a new beginning,
something which you have promised me
over and over to come along.

I basked in the wonder of your zest,
in your wisdom you so happily shared,
in the hope that overflowed in you.
But then again your road had to end,
your own searching had to be concluded.
Farewell now, my dear friend and mentor,
thank you for showing me life
the way you have always seen it.
Thank you for helping me understand
the reason behind rain in summer.

PS: right after i posted this poem, it rained.

WHAT Eleanor Roosevelt HAD TO SAY

Hungarian sussage with rice and bottomless iced tea. What made the dinner more interesting for me was knowing the fact that it was one of the business owners' garrage and they turned it into a really cozy, artistic bar!

It was indeed an enriching evening with a few new friends. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Great minds talk about ideas, average minds talk about events, and small minds talk about people.” We were able to talk about people (a common friend who lives a miserable life because his mother runs it), events (that shooting rampage in Virginia Univ) and ideas. That, I can talk about for hours right now, because that's where we dwelled. We talked about Filipinos still molding clay jars, and not being able to move on and try out making porcelains -- real porcelains, for that matter. We talked about status quo and how it sucks the whole system. We talked about economy, how local producers opt to export products because it's not being supported in the country. We talked about many others things along this line, until finally we talked about pooling our resources and starting a business that would cater to tourists, backpackers, children, adults, parents. It has to be organic. It has to be cheap. It has to be interesting and unique.

AND IT CAN BE DONE! Now, this is what I call GREAT MINDS. To hell with voyeurism. To hell with greedy, mostly foreign capitalists. To hell with pro-gun societies. The world needs a few good men. And brilliant ones, mind you. :P

10 THINGS I DARED IN MY LIFE

RODE A BIKE - it was a dare enough just to ride it. the bike barely even moved. else i would have fainted :P

PERFORMED - our SFC music ministry was in need of a keyboardist. no one was available. no one would say yes. i stepped out of the line, learned the keyboard for less than a week. the next time our group performed, everyone was looking for me. yeah, that was only once in a lifetime.

CROSSED GUIMARAS VIA FISHING BOAT - it was fantastic! we crossed the sea from pulupandan to guimaras, for two hours, in an open sea! we were so oblivious to the danger. i was playing the whole time. mind you, we had to go back again that same day and it was only when we arrived back to pulupandan that we learned that the sea wasn't really so friendly when we crossed.

RODE A HORSE - same thing. the horse didn't even move a bit. and yes, i call that a dare *blush*.

CLIMBED A TREE - the last time i remember climbing a tree, i was in gade four and one of my classmates had to push me up. i ended up staying up on that tree till dusk, because i was so scared to climb back down.

GET DRUNK, REALLY DRUNK - no, that's not me on top of that pile in this photo. that's my youngest sister. im the one getting crushed to the ground.we were all laughing soo hard for like, hours. we couldn't remember anymore what made us laugh, in the first place. drunk. that's what we all were. it was my last birthday party as a single anne.

JOINED CHEERDANCING COMPETITION - and won. yes! and to think that it was an international competition! unbelievable! it was all for God, i was dancing and kicking around for him, during our Singles for Christ international conference back in 2001.

FELL IN LOVE - a dare enough. reinee courted me for over a year. i was wishing him to just disappear, vanish in thin air. but he didn't. he loved me enough to refuse to let me go. who wouldn't dare?

GOT MARRIED - i knew marriage will change my life forever. i wanted to do something drastic, to start and make sense of everything. indeed, taking the plunge cleared my perspective. then again it's not the be-all and end-all. i know that it's a work-in-progress, and that's how marriage is going to be.

BECAME A MOM - i am glad i dared!

HAIR TALK

Gabriel is growing fast. And so is his hair. Reinee and I intended to grow it long but great grandma objects violently. Nothing we can do. Lola gets mad only once.

But it's Reinee who is so fascinated with long hairs. Needless to say, I have to maintain my own hair. But just a couple of weeks back, I asked my cousin to trim it. She was snipping away for several minutes, and lo and behold, more than half of my hair was already scattered on the floor -- lifeless, massacered, gone forever. It took me two years to grow it back again. (Two years ago, Reinee and I had a serious fight and I cut my hair really really short as my sign of rebellion).

So, what's with long hair?

PS: I can't write anything these days. Writer's block I guess. I'll try to be up on my feet soon...

WEARING HAPPINESS ON MY SLEEVES

Been up to my eyeballs since I came back to work from a short Holy Week break. Want to write something about it but I'm running against time. I hope for now, the photos will speak for themselves...