love and vulnerability

Just read this today and wow!

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

school memories

A lot of times in my middle grade school years, the school I went to would receive bomb threats. You see, it was a Catholic school in a city where almost half of the residents believed in a different faith. It should have been no problem as the school was open for all children, irrespective of their religion. What matters most was educating the young minds to be better citizens of the world. But I digress...

Well, there had been memorable experiences because of that time. The Girl Scout march practices would only be confined in front of the cathedral within the school and most often, it gets cancelled due to the threats. That would lead us to eventually to just play marbles in the dirt in the parade grounds. These were moments of threat awareness but we still found ways to have fun as long as we do not leave the school grounds without our parents or guardians.

But one day, the threat must have been so grave because we were all confined to our classrooms during the middle of the day. We were not allowed to go out and the teachers were there to guard us. The school was in lockdown and I guess, the lines were so busy contacting all parents and guardians to inform them that we needed to be picked up from school. I remember, my dad left the office once he heard about the news to come pick up my sister and I. Until this moment, I will never forget looking out of our classroom window on the third floor and see our dad arriving. I know I was glad to see him but I do not remember feeling that scared. Maybe I was. Or maybe, I was just looking forward to going home early. I do not remember.

 *****

I remember, one time, when there was a big fire in a Muslim community, we can see the dark smoke from our third floor (or was it second?) classroom. Then suddenly, one of my best friends just started crying. It was because they lived there and she was scared for her mom and brother who were at their house. We could not do anything for her but just stay beside her. Later, her mom arrived to pick her up.

*****

We watched National Geographic's The Cave last night. It makes me wonder, what would I do when I am placed in that position? I am even older than the doctor in the movie.

glory

Something I heard today was really interesting. In today's homily, I heard about glory in Christ's context: Glory is not in riches, nor in popularity. Glory is in trying to love. A man works double jobs because he loves his family and he loves his students = that is glory. A team supporting its rival because what matters is to inspire - that is glory. A losing captain accepting defeat and still playing to provide for her family - that is glory. 

A very interesting way to define glory in Christ's terms.

And as an assignment, we were asked to cite an example of glory. That leads me to the heartbreaking Mr. Sunshine that I just finished watching.

There is glory in fighting for one's country because you love it, even in the face of defeat.

There is glory in supporting someone you love, even if it means giving up your life.

And there is glory in fighting on, for the people and country that you love, even when they are already gone.

And there is glory in moving on to honor those who have long been gone because you respect and loved them.

There is always glory in trying to love.

from the ledge

i love going to our neighbor's house when i was a kid. my sister does, too. and that house, has a ledge you can reach from a bench. one day, my sister and i were at our neighbor's and i was on the ledge. my sister wanted to go on up and insisted for me to hmmm... maybe leave, or give her space? i don't remember. but what i remember is falling down on the concrete floor and when i opened my eyes, the world was revolving so fast i can't fix my sight to one thing. i screamed and all i heard was my sister crying for me not to die. "please, please, don't die." we were not even in grade school then. i realized that time when she started crying that blood was pooling behind my head and our neighbor had to rush me to the clinic. my brother, who was in the house, was informed of where we were going and when i returned home, i was bald behind my back with a couple of stitches on it.

that was pretty scary, but i don't remember being pampered when i arrived home. my mother, who just arrived from an errand, was so worried though...

chili and gameboy

when i was a kid, i did not like spicy food. that was why my brother, after putting chili in my soy sauce, got spanked by our dad when i started crying over the spicy food in my mouth. little did they know that in my brother's back pocket was the gameboy that he borrowed from his friend. it got damaged when our dad spanked him so they had to buy a new one to replace it. my poor brother! he got spanked and instead of getting a gameboy, had to give it to his friend to replace that was damaged...

act of love

after visiting the strawberry farms at benguet, my mother came back to the hotel with muddy sandals. later, i saw my father in the restroom, holding one of the pairs of my mother's sandals, cleaning it - wiping the mud off the sandals carefully, saying "so that your mama wouldn't have to walk with dirty sandals."

such act of love makes my heart full. and makes me wish that one day, i will have someone who loves me as much as my father loves my mother.

remembering this today on 3 March 2020


there is always something to celebrate, be grateful for...

fun times with family and Filipino food while we were home away from home =)

remembering this day on 10 March 2020

It might be sunny but the weather is very cold. Or I might not just be used to it. I was even told that I'm dressed for winter weather. LOL.

Happy to spend the day with my loved ones =)

View of San Diego from the Cabrillo Monument

fiery red skies

What a fine view of a fiery red sky downtown late in the afternoon....

P.S. I just remembered one book that I like to read over and over - it describes a world where red skies mean a violation committed in the world beyond life...

good morning breakfast

So happy to be back at Oceanside after almost a year. And I was brought to a really nice place where they offer our kind of breakfast. So happy this morning.

Funny thing, though. When the waitress arrived with our food, she immediately placed the heavier breakfast in front of him while mine was the lighter one. I just really had to comment (jokingly) if that really means I cannot eat a hearty breakfast? She was apologetic and asked if she placed the orders wrong. We said if was fine and after she left, exchanged our plates.

remembering this day on 5/24/2019