Go ahead and kiss

Don’t kid yourself. Most adults, both men and women enjoy the company of good-looking people. All the more if and when they get a kiss by these gorgeous people. Ah, lest your thoughts start going naughty, I only meant the social kiss. I do not mean that romantic kiss that you might be imagining right now. 

There’s the kiss on the cheek which is the most usual type, kiss on the hand, kiss on the head, kiss on the shoulder, kiss on the nose, and many other forms.

Oh well, if you search the Internet, you’ll find the meaning of all these kissing gestures.

But I’m not into meanings this time. I’m just into the happy, goofy, fun feeling of receiving a kiss from a great person, sweet friend, long-time admirer (one that you like haha) that you haven’t met for some time. It’s the perfect experience. It’s the perfect treat.

Life is short. When a friend or long-time acquaintance you haven’t met for long asks to kiss you on your next meeting, go ahead and kiss. The good feeling will linger for a long time.

Food for thought:

A kiss makes the heart young again and wipes out the years. - Rupert Brooke

A man's kiss is his signature. - Mae West

Serendipity

I was at a doughnut shop yesterday afternoon waiting for some young people. I was early so I decided to observe my environs.

I took photos. I have found photography most enjoyable. Many thanks to an unexpected December project - the best Christmas surprise ever, I was able to buy a camera.

The photos are inspired by serendipity. There is no theme. It’s just spur-of-the-moment inspiration.

It's not a very busy street yet at mid-afternoon.

The road is wide and spacious... for now.

The biggest shopping mall to locate in the city is nearing completion.

Tree-lined Santiago Blvd. Hopefully the trees will not give way to development.  

After about nearly an hour of waiting – like I said, I was there early, the young people arrived and we started the meeting. The serious matter was sprinkled with guffaws and laughter from time to time. It was fun. It is really fun to be with the young. You hear their unspoken thoughts and issues. Of course, since we are all young once, we can relate with what they go through. After all, we all share life phases at different periods of our life.

Get connected with young people. With them, hope springs eternal. 

Food for thought:

Good habits formed at youth make all the difference. – Aristotle

Passion rebuilds the world for the youth. It makes all things alive and significant. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sunday at the mall

Sunday at the mall, I met an old acquaintance.

She approached me and asked about the condition of an old friend. We got to talking. Then she shared about her intent to leave her job after twenty long years. She wanted to rest. I said, go. Execute that plan. You've worked hard and long, you deserve to lie low for a while. She naturally had apprehensions most especially that her well-meaning friends encouraged her to wait out for another five years or so. She explained that she's not keen on anchoring her decision on money. I said, right. I support your decision to rest.

Why am I supportive? Because she has thought well and hard about it. She has prepared for it.

Leaving a well-paying job entails a radical life change. These adjustments are part and parcel of the package. Bring the entire family into the plan so they will understand the upcoming changes and be ready to adjust, as well.

Everybody deserves a break. She has worked for twenty years. Surely, her well-deserved break is not so hard to grant.

She can do consultancy on the side so she won't get bored. She can do mentoring. There are a lot of things she can do given her experience, caliber, and professional track record.

Like I always say, everyone will approach a life phase. It is disconcerting, unnerving and scary. However, if the ultimate reason is health, we should totally support. After all, health is the greatest wealth. 

Lady, I support you. Go enter that new life phase. Make God your banner.

Food for thought:

They're different kinds of challenges depending upon what phase of life I'm in. - Alanis Morissette

Do it now! can affect every phase of your life. It can help you do the things you should do but don't feel like doing. It can keep you from procrastinating when an unpleasant duty faces you. But it can also help you do those things that you want to do. It helps you seize those precious moments that, if lost, may never be retrieved. - Napoleon Hill

You don't know what you're missing

Duck rules

If the cutters are the little lords of the harvest, the lovely duck is the queen after the harvest.

 They always come during post-harvest when food is in great abundance.

The beauty of living adjacent to a rice field is that you are a daily witness of the seasons of life. The real life actually happens right before your very eyes.

In a few days, plowing will begin for the next round of planting season. 

Life indeed is made up of seasons. 

Food for thought:

The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time. - Abraham Lincoln

So during those first moments of the day, which are yours and yours alone, you can circumvent these boundaries and concentrate fully on spiritual matters. And this gives you the opportunity to plan the time management of the entire day. - Menachem Mendel Schneerson

The light turned red

       Interesting discussion I had with my teenagers. We attended a funeral mass this morning in honor of their grandmother. Following the mass, we tagged along the hearse.

      

      While stopping on a red light, my teenagers who were talking about the number of people who paid their last respects to their grandmother suddenly said, what if you died Mi (short for Mommy)? You will have throng of people paying their last respects for you. My other teenager said, yes, the Army and Police will be there including those you have served. Then, my other teenager said, maybe they will honor you with a 21-gun salute.

      

      I said maybe. However, I will be buried in Bohol. If I’m here at the time of death, I will have some days for funeral here but I have to be buried in Bohol. However, if I’m in Bohol at the time of death, I won’t be brought here anymore.

      

Then, the green light went on, and the drive continued.

      

I think that the way I openly talked about death with my teenagers have allowed them to look at death differently. It’s not something that we should be afraid of. It’s a natural occurrence of life.

 Food for thought: I've told my children that when I die, to release balloons in the sky to celebrate that I graduated. For me, death is a graduation. - Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Time for the harvest

Time to relax today. Yesterday was a grueling day.

I was having coffee when I saw the cutters about to begin their task. Hmm interesting. It hit inspiration.

I grabbed my camera - a Christmas gift actually, and dashed outside to shoot.

Little lords of the harvest tending to their tasks.

Note: This photo blog is dedicated to the unnamed cutters of the neighboring rice field.  

Funerals and flowers

I was in a wake last night and the night before. While seated on a wooden bench, a fresh set of beautifully arranged flowers arrived. They pleased my eyes. Suddenly the thought of flowers made me ponder on flowers and funerals. Do they really come in pair? But flowers also come during Valentine’s right? I decided to hit www.google.com to do some research.

            

According to Wikipedia, a funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor. These customs vary widely between cultures, and between religious affiliations within cultures. The word funeral comes from the Latin funus, which had a variety of meanings, including the corpse and the funerary rites themselves. Funerary art is art produced in connection with burials, including many kinds of tombs, and objects specially made for burial with a corpse.

            

Moreover, funeral rites are as old as the human culture itself, predating modern Homo sapiens, to at least 300,000 years ago. For example, in the Shanidar cave in Iraq, in Pontnewydd Cave in Wales and other sites across Europe and the Near East, Neanderthal skeletons have been discovered with a characteristic layer of flower pollen. This has been interpreted as suggesting that Neanderthals believed in an afterlife although the evidence is not unequivocal – while the dead were apparently indeed buried deliberately, the flowers might have been introduced by burrowing rodents.

            

Thus we know that funeral ceremonies are universal. It cuts across cultures, genders, races, and societies. We Filipinos have our own set of customs and traditions where funerals are concerned.

            

According to my research, a 1951 excavation in Northern Iraq determined that at least eight species of flowers, based on soil samples, were used at burial sites dating back to 62000 B.C., according to mcadamsfuneralflorist.com.

Furthermore, flowers at funerals symbolize the life cycle, its beauty, and to bring warmth to the ceremony. Before the advent of embalming, flowers were also used to mask body decomposition. I was wondering how flowers come to symbolize the life cycle and its beauty so I started thinking. The analogy is perfect. A flower plant starts from a single seed. The seed germinates, grows, blooms, withers, and then dies. Such is the human life. From our mother’s womb, we develop until our mothers deliver us, we grow, we bloom into maturity, we grow old for some, and then we die. It’s as simple and complex as that.

          

Let’s face it. Flowers do have their effect on people. In a wake, flowers soften the atmosphere. It brings calm and peace. It’s really the beauty of flowers that bring on the calming, soothing effect. No matter when or where it started, flowers will remain universal in their symbolism and application during wakes.

             

So, what are we waiting for? Bring on the flowers.

This blog is dedicated to my mother-in-law Mimi Villalongja Canlas who passed away on January 3, 2012. (In my Father's house are many mansions, it if were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. John 14:2)

Get God onboard

Have you had plans that you have set aside for some time now? Say a decade? Well, it’s time you start pounding on them. The plan has been there for a while, probably tucked in one compartment of your mind. Now is the time to revisit that compartment, bring out the cold stuff, thaw if necessary, unpack, look at the bigger picture, and work out the details.

New Year is the perfect time. It is after all, a new beginning. Get on with the plan and implement it. Easier said than done? Well, you need support. Discuss it with family members and closest confidantes and friends. Pray about it. Work out the details with them and most importantly, start that single step. For instance, write that first letter. Do that research. Visit that office or person. Start with a single step so the fluid plan gets into motion. It’s like energy transformed from potential to kinetic. Hmm where did I learn that? Ah my Grade 3 teacher.

        Let’s simplify. When the plan is now out of the compartment, review it. Delete the non-essentials. Leave only the essentials. Simplify. Don’t create complicated action plans. Connect with people who can assist you. Then start implementation. Remember simplify. Don’t stress yourself. When everything is covered, wait for the result. Be patient. It will come in time.

        Now, remember that when your plan is not aligned with God’s, it will meet hitches along the way. So as you revisit your plan and decide to execute the details, keep God onboard.

        For a final touch, add a key ingredient - focus. Commit not to get distracted by anything or anyone that comes along the way. Remember the plan has been stored for a long time. Focus on fulfilling it now and enjoy the rewards soon after. 

Food for thought:

Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.