Friday, August 31, 2007

Fiction

Fiction... wonder why I posted this with this title.

I dreamed about this. And though I don't actually have anything to blog about...

Well, if you think I'm just another face in the crowd... think again because I know all your riddles.

I'm a fact... in a mask of a fiction.


P.S. You hurt me again... with your DOUBLE.

Get it?
Doubt it!

Monday, August 27, 2007

Na Margem Do Rio Piedra Eu Sentei E Chorei


I’ve heard about this book 3 years ago and for that 3 long years I searched for it wondering what was in that river and what was the cause of the weeping.



Then my search came to an end. I could only realize that it was just a book, but I waited for 3 long years just to read it… just to finally have it. And it made me realize, for all these years in my life, I’ve always been there at the river Piedra sitting and weeping.



I sigh briefly knowing how those years seemed to be just so yesterday. How everyday seemed to be so routinely passed by without anything new, no changes at all. But when I look back to all those years… everything is different.



“Patience is a virtue”. I’ve been known by this simple phrase and it is not just because I always quote it everyday but because I’m living with it everyday. Maybe waiting is not so bad, at least if you are sure that what you are waiting for is there at the end. But to wait without any guarantee, to wait without any assurance is an agony you get through everyday. You would dream that each breath you take would be your last. You live one more day and die at the same time. And all those lessons you have learned from your olden memories are just foolish thoughts in the mind of God. But that is the other lesson, I guess. To trust God completely when the road seemed to be so endless and the unknown is what is in the end.


But how long is forever to someone waiting in vain?



So by the river Piedra I sat down and wept… but still waiting… still hoping.


P.S.
I wonder how many people already went there at the river Piedra and wept.
I wonder if they only came to weep.
I wonder if there are some who came by for joy.
I wonder how much tears were shed that made the shallow river once became so deep.
I wonder how the river endured all the emotions shed to her.
Did that made her cold?... cold waters of the river Piedra.


P.P.S.
Even the book cried… so I smile.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Magic Moments

I’ve been told that we should not let those “magical moments” in our lives pass us by without noticing it. That is the reason why I have to blog about that moment of my simple fame for such overwhelming complement for my humble work.



I wrote an article a week ago and humbly post it without any intention to seek any attention from any reader out there. But to my surprise, someone left me a note in my e-mail saying that she admire my article and she even featured my blog in one of the most known and widely-visited website.


Later did I’ve come to know that she is a movie producer, a script writer, a journalist/columnist in one of the most prestigious and most-read newspaper around the country and she works in one of the biggest network in the local television.



I post this not to boast but because this is one of my “magic moments” in life that I wanted to remember forever. And when the olden time comes and I would look back to all of my previous posts, I will remember that flickering moment of honor where I could stop my memory for a moment and relive that euphoria of simple compliment to my humble work.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Ordinary People


One of the exciting things about my profession is the fact that we could meet and get along with big people… I mean “BIG”. For one reason, it’s because even those prominent politicians, those super models and those superstars do get sick too.



I could say that I’m fortunate enough be chosen as one of those private medical technologists that could meet those “Biggies” both in the political world and show business. And because of that I am able to meet them face to face, enter their own mansions, ride their own private luxury cars and somehow be protected by their own private body guards like I’m one of them.



And at the same time, I’m learning a lot of things from them. And somehow they made me grasp that impeccable reality that everybody is just ordinary people.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

No Other Flower


“… for there will be no other flower like her.”

-(A Love Story)-

Just the other day, we watched the movie “A Love Story”. This is actually a late post since I’ve been planning to write something about the movie but my time won’t allow me. And since today I was not able to go to church because of the storm, finally, I was able to blog this.

Well, I’m not really so much in to local flicks to tell you honestly and I had no intention to watch that movie either at first. But since all of my co-leagues at work are dying to see that movie, I ended up going along with them, and to be honest, the movie really got straight right in to my ego like a bullet just seeped into my nerves hitting me from the very core.

It is indeed a love story so as not to go farther from the title.

I could quote some of their finest lines that touched me so much.

Karyn (Angelica Panganiban), the wife, when she finally met Joanna (Maricel Soriano), the other woman, quoted – “I may not be the perfect wife but I never cheated my husband because I love my husband.”

I believe that faithfulness is the very core to prove your love to someone. Just as what is written in the bible – “You can never serve two masters at a time for you will either love the other and hate the other.” Same with marriage, faithfulness is the best way to prove your love to your other half.

Another nice lesson from the movie was the story about the flower. In here, the father of Ian Montess always reminds his sons that they should never pick a beautiful flower if they will just play, and tear and will throw it after, and just like in relationship/marriage, they should never get a girl just to play, tear and throw her after because… “… there will be no other flower like her.” Nice one. Hope everybody could digest that thought.

Forgiveness is another lesson. From the story, Ian Montess (Aga Mulach) was so mad to his father because there was a time when their mother left his dad and went away with other man. And after 14 years of broken marriage, the wife (Ian’s mother) went back to their father asking for another chance, and their father forgave her immediately like nothing had ever happened before. Like nothing was ever done, like there was no damage at all.

You see, Ian could hardly understand how could his father forgive her mother so easy. And his father said – “… it is because of LOVE.”

But how deep is such love that could forgive even the most hurting sin? Then I remember Jesus, who, because of love is ever willing to forgive even the most filthy secrets.

In the final scenes of the movie, when Ian (Aga Mulach) and Joanna (Maricel Soriano) decided to finally end up their wrong relationship, it was then when Karyn (Angelica Panganiban) decided to set Ian free. She quoted her last lines saying – “… all those times that I fight for you made me realize how much I love you… but we have to grow…”

I wonder just until when we should fight for love? I believe that in marriage, it is not just a right but also a duty, a responsibility of a couple to fight for each other. But what about those love not yet bound in marriage?... is love not worth fighting for?

In every twist of the story, I can’t help but sympathize with Karyn (Angelica Panganiban); she was an exact epitome of a wife wounded by her own love. Her ego, her pride was stolen and was hurt and so sad that the hostile hands that made her bleed inside was the same man that promised her love – her own husband. But love…

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." (1 Cor. 13)

Love never fails. so as the story reached the end, Ian told her wife that what she had fight for was not a failure.

indeed it is ... "A Love Story".


P.S. In some ways, I believe that their game of asking questions and answering it with another question somehow saved their marriage. That is to my reckoning.


Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Beatitude
Blessed are the Shallow for they shall never drown;

Woe to those who are Deep for they shall struggle to survive.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Gospel In Medicine

“We are the one chosen to explore the microscopic world. We look beyond what the naked eye could see in the world of reality. We inject pain but we extract the truth.”

- Medical Technologists -



As far as I’m concerned, I believe that we (the Medical Practitioners) have the most dangerous job existing in the planet of humanity. You might think that I’m only exaggerating things owing to the fact that everybody believes that the most dangerous thing to do is to go to the battlefield like those soldiers; but no one has ever told about the war inside the edifice of a hospital. The war between life and death. The war in every edge of every breath held by the palms of those Medical Practitioners where every second counts.

I say, it is the most dangerous job NOT ONLY for the fact that we risk our own health because we communicate very closely to anyone even to those people who have the most deadly complications, and thus, we risk our own lives even worse that those soldiers in the battlefield who could just die with just a wink of an eye. But to risk your health is like a death of a slowly decaying body while you breathe every stinging feeling of poignant plague of disease.


Aside from risking our own health and our own lives, our job itself is at risk because at any moment of mistake done, our license, that piece of paper that holds our integrity for the said job, that piece of paper that we had strived for to have… we studied hard… hard enough as anyone could hear upon our lips just to earn our degree and pass the National Board Exams, that piece of paper that proves the battle that we have survived thru could be revoked from us. It is our responsibility to be perfect because in our work… “There’s no room for mistake”.

And above all these, the most dangerous part of our job is when other people’s lives are the ones at risk in our own hands. If it would only be our lives “alone” it would be much better. But to risk even the lives of those people you don’t even know, those people you barely know at all, those strangers and those innocent children… it is far more dangerous than risking your own life, I tell you.

The lives we save are NOT just their lives but also our own lives. We don’t just save lives but we spare souls too by giving then another chance to live and make up for the things they took for granted before. We are God’s soldiers for the inevitable fragility of life.

My work is NOT JUST my profession…

IT IS my SALVATION.



Friday, August 10, 2007

Sweetest Downfall



"You are my sweetest downfall... I loved you first... I loved you first..."





I was singing this song with the wrong lyrics and unknown melody... but the funny thing was... someone's ears were captivated and even proposed to arrange some gigs for me like he had just discovered the next big thing to conquer the music industry. Hahaha! But I am really not that sure if I should grab that opportunity owing to the fact that I was once a frustrated rocker who wanted to made it in to the music business but never even tried to because I criticize my own music. I call that lack of confidence but time will tell if I should shift into another carrer and pursue my passion since childhood. If my guitar could talk maybe it can tell me what to choose.

Saturday, August 04, 2007

Dancing In The Rain



Life is a two sided road – the joy on one side and the pain on the other side. Let us face the fact that life won’t give us sunshine everyday. And more often that not, life pours on us heavy rains and with all those chilling winds. But it is God’s will that life won’t give us just sunshines but also heavy rains because God wants us NOT ONLY to smile when we see the sun shining brightly on our way but also to appreciate the gloomy rain and to learn how to dance under it – that means, even in the midst of bitterness of life, we should learn how to STILL appreciate the brighter sides and still praise and thank the Lord in spite of the poignant reality that bites and stings us in everywhere it could.



So whenever you find yourself under the rain… learn to dance… and when the coldness of the winter strikes you… learn how to skate and make snow man… learn how to feel the joy deep within even in the midst of the chilling and killing snow – hope you get the point.


On The 25th



People especially those who are close enough to me thinks I’m a weirdo in so many ways because of the things I naturally appreciate… even the most unnoticed things around.



I confess I am…


Here are some weird things about me…


1. I appreciate and enjoy the mere sound of the cracking manual typewriter or the light sound of the keyboards of the computer in the midst of deafening silence inside the room. Yup!... For me it is music.
2. I would notice a cooked fish’s face first before I started to eat because I believe that there’s always a story behind every cooked fish fried in our kitchen.
3. I could watch the rain the whole day… I mean the whole day and sympathize with the sun as it desperately forces its rays to shine forth behind the thick clouds.
4. I could watch the line of those ants with so much enthusiasm.
5. I get mesmerized by the traffic lights and personally think that it is very relaxing to just sit inside the cab and watch it as it changes its colour.

… and the recent weird thing I did was, I walked the whole road of España boulevard just to count how many stoplights are there on the vertical horizon of the road.

Here’s the trivia… all in all there are 25 stop lights excluding the side lights leading to another road.


Isn’t it weird?
Isn’t it strange?

And thus the title of this post derived.