God, Happiness and Life

We are always happy to put up the Christmas decor every year. Practically, all the nooks and crannies are adorned to provide the merry making and gift-giving mood. The simple decor during the season provide that adrenaline rush that comes with the holidays. There are more pictures actually but I could not retrieve them from Flicker.

"To be happy is your only moral duty. That is the meaning of life."

Life was a little less complicated. Less demanding. Less material. But wouldn't that be boooorrrriiiinnnnggg?

Last Saturday , my daughter left for Jakarta, Indonesia to teach pre-school children in an international school there. She has a year's contract. Bakit parang kung iisipin ko ang tagal yata. "Mommy", she told me, "I will see you December. Mabilis lang ang araw. And I won't forget your birthday is November 22 not 21". How time flies. My daughter will be 30 in January. She hinted that she wants to get married as soon as the boyfriend asks her. I could not understand what I felt last Saturday. At first wala lang. Lorraine is an independent girl. Way back when she was still in her elementary grades, she did things without much help from me. She is an intelligent girl. High school meant more independence. And yes, college. She was even into this religious thing. Obviously, she wanted to be left alone. And I did let her be. I knew she was and remains to this day a responsible and a mature person. There was no fear at all for me, allowing her to run her life almost...

I have written sometime ago in my personal journals the following: I Deserve .... 1. God's Love and Protection. 2. A Healthy Body and a Sound Mind. 3. Peace of Mind. 4. To Feel Great. 5. Love and Be Loved in Return. 6. Loving and Caring Persons in My Life. 7. Financial Security. 8. To declare and wish for a Better Life for My Children and all deserving children for that matter. 9. Happiness. 10. Feel and Make Others Feel Good about Life. Every Single Day is A Gift. Live, Experience and Love Life. Cheers!

From: Atlas Shrugged of Ayn Rand This is exactly my idea of true happiness. Happiness is not to be achieved at the command of emotional whims. Happiness is not the satisfaction of wahtever irrational wishes you might blindly attempt to indulge. Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy - a joy without penalty or guilt, a joy that values and does not work for your own destruction, not the joy of escaping from your mind, but of using your mind's fullest power, not the joy of faking reality, but of achieving values that are real, not the joy of a drunkkard, but of a producer. Happiness is possible only to a rational man, the man who desires nothing but rational actions. Just as I support my life, neither by robbery nor alms, but by my own effort, so I do not seek to derive my happiness from the injury or the favor of others, but earn it by my own achievement.

There are some people who really ARE good at posturing. Just a thought -- wouldn't the world be a much better place to live in if there were less of these types? But then again, we also need clowns to serve us our daily dose of laughter. Right? Enough said.

If I had a lot of money I shall ride a plane. Go to Abu Dhabi. And get together like the old times. Pero since wala I shall just give my gifts which I am sending through this blog. Sensya na nangangarap lang naman po... Patek Philippe yan. One for each day for 21 days. Heto pa 3G Nokia cellphone. Sana naman na pa smile kita. Hirap lang di ko alam exact date ng birthday mo. Ano kaya yon?

"It is easier to succeed than to be happy. There are short cuts to success. None to happiness. The main ingredient of success - money is easier to get - marry it, fake it, win it, inherit it, grab it or beg for it than the main ingredient of happiness which is self-respect. Self-respect can only be earned, never inherited, married, faked, grabbed, or solicited. It is easy to be rich. It is so hard to know oneself and be a real person. It takes book knowledge to succeed. It takes self-knowledge to be happy. Be truly happy first, then. Know yourself, then you can play and learn all day long. Then, if you care about them, those pillars of success -- fame and fortune will follow at your happy, busy heels like excited puppies about to take a walk with their beloved master. For happy people are always successful, and not the other way around."

Hi Ayat, Happy Birthday My Friend !

She is now 74 years old. Hypertensive and glaucomic. Well that's the term I use to lighten me up. My mother has glaucoma. It is a progressive and irreversible eye ailment. It seems I could not do anything for her. She is fast losing her sight. Back then, my mother often irritated me. When I was younger, she would nag and nag and nag. Oh, but these were the useful nags, I must admit. When you are young, parents can really piss you off, right? But that's all changed now. The realization came when I had my own children. Parents will be parents and children will need to be children. They have to go through life like we all did. They have to experience everything - good or bad, first hand. Life was designed that way. And when I see my mother now thinking how I could make the remaining years of her life better. I remember the first time my children and I visited her in her new place. She was oh so happy. Typically, she had prepared well. She kept apologizing saying the place is too ...

My father died in 1995. He wasn't sick. In fact, it was just a cataract operation. Something went wrong with the operation. Some doctors intimated it was overdose of anesthesia . Emotionally, it was difficult for me. In the past I had some issues with my father but at the time of his death all's settled. We had made up. What remained was the animosity coming from my mom. She remained rooted in the past.(emotional as well as physical pain dominated their married life) And the after effect of this situation destroyed my balance. I loved my mother. I knew where she was coming from. And this made it even harder for me. When Papa died, we were financially alright. Being the eldest, I took care of everything. My father had also left some money. We buried him at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani literally translated -- Burial For Heroes. (He was a WWII veteran) God Is Good Always! Now, I remember my father with longing. Despite his "shortcomings", I realize I loved him. Though he w...

The last time I visited the Virgen of Antipolo was ages ago. Back when I was sooooooo much younger. It was a trip made around this same time of the year to celebrate summer. Back then, weather patterns were more predictable. Summer is summer, not a drop of rain. Riding on a public conveyance to Antipolo gave us a good look at the scenery. Felt like taking a short trip to the province. Lots of trees and plants along the way. If only the radio didn't so much produce those head cracking music. And I thought that there was a law banning loud music blaring on passenger jeeps. I knew we had arrived. The roads had suddenly turned dense with tricycles, jeeps, and vendors by the wayside. We alighted and I asked my friend if she knew the way. She acknowledges that it was a mere walking distance. We'll just have to feel our way. And so we walked turning to the left here, and turning to the right there. And here we are. Obviously, we looked like people who hadn't been there for a while...

Aging is inevitable. Much like death, all humans will eventually grow old. Perhaps, I am on the verge of meeting the inescapable. I am happy but not really ecstatic that soon this certainty will come to pass. Now what do I still need to do to make the passage as cool as possible. Here's a few from my list: 1. Continue marketing. Go to the market to buy our week's supply of foodstuff. The slight anxiety from all the bargaining helps strengthen my negotiating skills thus, sharpening my memory cells. 2. Get it going with the cooking. Early on, I used to consult cookbooks before I can cook a relatively good dish but not anymore. Cooking came in as a creative exercise. Concocting different food preparation styles including different combinations of ingredients made cooking an adventure. 3. Housework? Done! Makeover the house. Clean the bathrooms, Wash the dirty kitchen and laundry sinks. Sweep the dried leaves accumulating in the garden without let up. Wash the dishes. Dry and ...

I had a dream early this morning. I dreamt G was on his way to where ever he's going carrying this laptop. In the dream I was afraid or worried. For one, I saw dogs. And in my dreams this usually meant treachery... I just had to post it here. So I can come back later if and when my dream positively prove to be psychic? I had so many similar dreams about dogs. In many instances one or two devious humans would really prove themselves back stabbers or 'do no gooder'.

It's summer this part of the world. This means temperature can rise up to 36 degrees. We are a tropical country and perhaps that's one of the reasons why lots of foreigners come to our beaches this time of the year. I read somewhere that Boracay was inhabited by no less than 80,000 people during the Holy Week. And I've been there only through pictures and stories care of my children. They say and I believe that sand is as fine as sugar? But Bali too has the same quality of sand. I know I have been there. Too bad, Bali isn't as attractive as before. Remember the terrorist bombings. Pity! These days you need to say you've been to Boracay to be cool. Otherwise, how can one explain why you haven't been there..there's not enough dough. Gosh, I haven't even been to Puerto Galera , the poor man's Boracay so my son says.

It was almost 4 years ago when we moved to this new place. It's a nice house, quite imposing if I may say so. Almost the opposite of where we were then. I have never lived in a house as nice as this one. Large rooms, nice bathrooms, a terrarium ( a place where we house some of our indoor plants), a petite but nicely coiffeurred front garden as well as a back garden where I grow my herbs and a couple of flower plants. I have one problem though. Maintenance is tough. I usually allot one full day just to do some basic cleaning like sweeping and scrubbing the floors. What I use for scrubbing are old and throwable towels. They clean better than non-towel type of cloth. Although I realize that we might not be able to stay here for a long time, I treasure every moment of it. I will most surely miss decorating the house during Christmas when G and I spruce the house with lights and loads of colorful trimmings on the windows and the front door. The decors, I created myself while the rest bo...

Why do I get a blogger's block everytime I start working on my blog? Perhaps, I get self-conscious? But there's no one watching while I do this. Perhaps, there's so much I want to blog about that a qeueing problem occurs in my brain. So here I am convincing me to just relax. Easy now.

I am new at this. I wrote an entry an hour ago but I forgot to save and so all is lost.