Mom and Dad and their new kids

I spent time with my family yesterday. As usual the bratty Odie just snubbed me all day except for occasional deafening barks. My mom used to be afraid of dogs. When we were kids she always warned us to keep out of dogs but her outlook in life regarding the adorable mammals changed because of our first puppy, Brownie. But bless him, Brownie left us early this year. Good thing, some friends gave mommy this cross bred Japanese Spitz, who not only became an instant celebrity in our family, he became the youngest member of the family who received all the attention day in, day out. Then came Allie, a pure Japanese Spitz but he looks more like a wolf to me. Giggles. 

Anyways, Odie and Allie are the best of friends. But because Allie is camera shy, I can only post the image of bratty Odie.

Odie, the bratty dog.

Odie with Mom and Dad.

Pasyal
Last April and May, mom, dad and I went to Boracay and Lucban, Quezon. Mom and dad love to travel, they even invited me to go with them to Hong Kong, but well, I turned it down because of academic stuff. But we dream to travel out of the country next year. I hope we find time to do that.

Lucban Quezon Church (Kamay ni Hesus Grotto)

Dad and mom resting after walking all the way to the top of grotto.
Below, mom and dad at Boracay.

Of friends, washing clothes and vitamin string quartet

Would you have yourself inked by a 90-year-old Kalinga lady?
This question haunts me all night because of my friend Lauren who paid me a visit yesterday. I was all so shocked with the lizard tattoo on her left arm! Lauren, my good friend from old film days, the one who dresses in post modern Gothic-est flair with a flowing feminine long skirt and rainbow colored scarf to complete her unique modern goddess twist that she mastered through the years. Now imagine her with a tattoo. Only Lauren can pull that off, in a graceful way I might say.

The tattoo is more valuable because of this Kalinga lady who inked her. She is a 90 year old lady who used pomelo spine to ink her clients, she is a rare national jewel as she is famous for traditional way of tattooing (Kalinga tribal art) and she alone knows how to do it. There is this worry about not passing the valuable art to younger generation because she has no kids, but good thing she is training some folks around the area. There was also this anecdote about her refusing to ink non-Filipinos before.

Anyways, I am going to hurry up to prepare for lunch. I spent hours washing clothes yesterday and it made me feel very productive. I should start doing this routinely. Getting a high from listening to Here Comes the Sun by Vitamin String Quartet, very lovely.

Digging deep

After series of cleaning and digging my dear old cabinet full of stuff, secrets, dusts, crumpled receipts, books, journals, and all-the-unsorted-things-that-goes-inside-the-little-drawer-of-horrors, (whew such a challenging endeavor) i finally put order to the prevailing situation and put to rest the unending cycle of paper piling upon paper that closely resembles the Leaning Tower of Pisa only that the tip of the tower had reached a critical point of falling on its side already. Well, now I am happy that the cabinet is already seeing its golden days of orderliness. More space. Appropriately labeled boxes.

Artifacts uncovered

This is the cartouche of my name *giggles.
Macel had it made for me in one of the museums in Italy in her Europe tour:

Cartouche of my name*; just in case you want a cartouche of your 
own, lease click here http://www.virtual-egypt.com/newhtml/glyph/glyph.html

Then came the books. Take a peek, a handful of my treasures.

Good reads!

Well, I have to continue digging and sorting my other cabinets.
Hoping to find more treasures.


*written on the print out of my cartouche, for entertainment purposes only. 

Things to do within my lifetime

I have been reading blogs this morning, looking for something to occupy my mind, then I saw this picture of Monastery on top of Himalayas mountain. It looks so heavenly and the fog makes me think that it is well, like a castle floating in the sky. To look at the majesty of this picture, please click on the link, this is from Matthieu Ricard's blog, a monk, http://www.matthieuricard.org/en/index.php/blog/77_magic_moments/

Back to my original intention, I want to write some of the things I need to do in my lifetime. It has been an old belief that once you announce something into the big universe, you might really get what you wish for. So universe, I thank you in advance.

1. Climb the Himalayas and personally look at the floating castle in the sky (Monastery on mountain top)
2. To plant 500 trees and more.
3. To embark on a journey that explores the themes of culture, language and music.
4. To encourage someone to give up eating meat for one month (or maybe more).
5. To write a book about environment, goddesses and journeying.

These will be all for now. Maybe I will add another batch on the list but I think this is enough for the time being.

In addition, please mark your calendars dear readers on September 24, let us join the international movement of finding solution in moving beyond fossil fuels. Enjoy the video. I am planning of biking!

Work in progress

Source: Holstee manifesto, they produce products merchandise using 100% recycled materials, please visit them here http://shop.holstee.com/pages/about

Have been putting off things lately because of major paper work that I need to finish before Monday. Well, kudos to me, I was able to submit it on time. Yehey :) Will be back to posting blog entries soon.

Self reflection: a lesson on integration and isolation (chapter 1)

Achievable goals: the first step to self-improvement. –JK Rowling, Commencement Speech at Harvard June 5, 2008

Self-discipline is the key. If one has innate motivation to fulfil a goal, then one has to create a simplistic timeline to achieve certain milestones in the course of their quest.

The path of my life right now is about integration. Basically for me it translates into the collaboration of each member (unit) towards an ultimate expression of beauty, harmony and truth.

Which brings me into one of my basic quality: my aptitude for self-analysis to achieve clarity to live out my higher purpose (Higher Self). How else can one know thyself if not in isolation?

Therefore, I think withdrawing from society, from the loud chaos of city, from the busy routine of work, from the burden of modern living is the best way to purify the mind and achieve self-wisdom, if not holistic integration.

My weaknesses

Sometimes I associate myself too much on the work that I forget who I am once disruption occurs. It’s very alarming to lose myself just because I need the time off for isolation. How can I strike the right balance between the two? Proper isolation versus self-association to routine?

Failing to recognize little victories is also one of my weaknesses which leads to procrastination. Not healthy, it leads to project delays and baseless doubts and imagined failures. Imagination and creativity should be used instead to more productive endeavours.

My Strengths

One of my strengths is the realisation that I take time in fulfilling a goal, since I have yet to consider some important parts of myself. This made me believe in the power of timeline, schedule, visualisation and endurance.

That I made judgement based on human compassion, for enrichment and preservation of the planet and to inspire others to have compassion both for people and earth, that for me is living out the Higher Self.

welcome home

This is my new hub. This is the little space where from now on I will deposit my thoughts, my feelings, my dreams and my joys. I incubated this idea for a month, maybe because I want it to be more effective.
Out in the real world, there are a number of forces that limit our ideas, our forms of expressions, our real tendencies,  and it worries me that these very forces take away the genuine in us.  Hence, my new hub! 
Well, as the title suggested, Welcome Home! 

So here’s a little gift of warmth to my new home. May it keep me dry and safe from all the rains and snow out there in the great big world.