Memories of a birthday

Josh had his 3^rd birthday party last Saturday, 2^nd of July. It was just for a small group of people: godparents and their families, and very close friends.

Pictures are now ready in our web-album (taken by Ninong Marc) and some can be found in Ninong Mhelo’s site.

Re-building bridges

I had the most amazing day today. I’m not the kind of blogger that bores you with whatever happened to my mundane life in a day, except, of course, when some stupid idiot buggers my day. I just felt that I need to voice out the elation I had when I re-connected with old friends.

The other night, I was busily going through my small number of friends in Friendster, and I was led into this friend’s friend, whose name sounds oddly familiar; from there I got a link of a yahoo group. I checked it out, and goodness gracious me! It was a collection of old schoolmates from my good old hometown San Jose, Occ. Mindoro. Hands quivering in excitement, I signed on and joined the group.

Boy! Am I glad to know that some people still do remember me – probably because I did some name-dropping like my Mom’s – nah, I hope I etched a mark in people’s memory on my own. A wide grin spread across my face when I saw names of old classmates listed as members of this group, and their emails are there, too. So I did what I had been aching to do all these years, re-build old bridges that had been rotting to pieces because it hadn’t been trod upon in years.

Barely a day had passed and old friends started sending me emails and today we had a good chat over at YM. Look what I got from it! An old class picture of the class I left in the middle of our third year.



For a large image of this pic go here.

I am so delighted that there’s this group, which helped in a way of patching up broken connections and gaining new friends, who shared, somehow, a history with me.

Cherish your human connections: your relationships with friends and family. – Joseph Brodsky

Photographs of the natural world which have meaning

A very good friend, Marc Aviles, submitted some of his pictures for the photo project ‘To Singapore with Love’ in celebration of the country’s 40th birthday. Six of his photos (one was even a two-page spread!) were included among the 330 best images featured in the 264-page hard cover book, which was officially launched 5^th of July. Participants in the said project are listed here.

If you have $40 to spare, why don’t you get a copy; otherwise, go to a bookshop and scan through it or check out this one, which was included in the book. This captured head shaving ritual was selected, too, and so as this aerial shot of Tiong Bharu. I’ve already got 4 of them, only two are left for you to find. Actually, there’s one shot at the Labrador Park, which is very similar to this, only better.

Ninong Marc, Josh is very proud of you.

Like a fleeting tale pleading to be remembered

People have a way of making themselves believe in words such as forever and everlasting. When you have found this ‘perfect’ love, all the world disappears and re-emerges as a new one full of laughter and joy, filled with all things beautiful and bright, and trouble-free; promises like ‘I’m forever yours’ and ‘I’m here until the end of time’ holds a certain truth and meaning. However, this world begins to crumble down like a heap of dirt beneath your feet when suddenly you learn that you have got to move on and let go of the utopian love.

Why does it hurt so much when you were the one left who has to learn to let go? When asked, you’d answer that it was never a bad relationship only that it had a bad ending, or that it simply was never meant to be. And so you go on with your desultory life, barely even living – praying and hoping that someday you’ll begin to trust again.

You are standing in front of a sunrise, yet you can’t find the beauty that lies before you; you’re wishing that you could find whatever it was that lies beyond the horizon, just as you wishes for the sea to swallow you whole. And so you endured the agony of escaping the bondage of that warped relationship; running thousands of miles away from that past you are trying to mend.

A mother's love for her child as the prime example of love or friendship

Just how does one say ‘thank you’ to the person who had given her a chance to live? How do you say ‘I love you’ when these words don’t seem to be more than enough to express what you feel?

I have said that I was my father’s metaphor, but in some ways I, too, am my mother’s daughter; I guess I am a mixture of both – aside from their names: Rey and Nel.

What I am today is what my mom raised me to be. She had shown me that women have power and strength to become whoever they wanted to be. I adore her and idolize her; she’s a woman of intelligence and of great courage.

I thought then that all mothers loved and cared for their daughters the same way she had always done for me, but as each day or years go by and the more I see of the world around me, I realized that our relationship is extraordinary - far beyond what is conventional.

I am thankful that I have a mother who taught me to love myself, as well as the others, to trust in my own instincts and to be true to myself. She had given me the greatest gift a mother could give to a child: a beautiful example of strength and courage.

To the most special mom in the world: Happy Birthday! We love you, Mom.

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness. – Honore de Balzac