81 ...
We are so busy living every moment of our lives. Have we noticed though that many of us are sleep-deprived? What is it about sleep that we could not just
get into it and enjoy it? We lie down
and pray we could rest our minds and bodies, but it takes so very long to get
into that restful mode. Our minds
seemingly won't stop calculating, configuring, worrying, planning or reviewing
what went right or wrong during our waking time. We toss and turn, we take breaths, we stretch
our bodies to relax, but nothing works well to get to the zzzzzz-mode. One restful moment or one good sleep time
would be so worthwhile for our weary souls, but what about need for sleep and imposing it that we do we not get?
Monday, August 31, 2015
Property
80 ...
Perplexing to realize one day is finding you have acquired material property of all sorts: land, homes, personal effects, gadgets ... things that do not substantially matter to meaningful living, but are there gawking in front of you. What do you do with "things" that have accumulated knowing you could not take them to your grave when the time comes? You make an effort to streamline, but you still could not part with a lot of things. You make an effort to donate, recycle or sell a few items, but you still are faced with the truth that you lament and regret so doing. What is it with materialism that all humans are affected by it?
Perplexing to realize one day is finding you have acquired material property of all sorts: land, homes, personal effects, gadgets ... things that do not substantially matter to meaningful living, but are there gawking in front of you. What do you do with "things" that have accumulated knowing you could not take them to your grave when the time comes? You make an effort to streamline, but you still could not part with a lot of things. You make an effort to donate, recycle or sell a few items, but you still are faced with the truth that you lament and regret so doing. What is it with materialism that all humans are affected by it?
Value
79 ...
If you could put value on yourself, what would it be? How much do you think your net worth is, and by what measure do you weigh it? Self-worth is relative and sticky at the same time. Putting monetary value to who you are, what you have become and accomplished, and what you are able to do or could further contribute to the wealth of a community is risky to gauge. Wouldn't it be remarkable to know what human beings like you and me are really worth?
If you could put value on yourself, what would it be? How much do you think your net worth is, and by what measure do you weigh it? Self-worth is relative and sticky at the same time. Putting monetary value to who you are, what you have become and accomplished, and what you are able to do or could further contribute to the wealth of a community is risky to gauge. Wouldn't it be remarkable to know what human beings like you and me are really worth?
Boost
78 ...
Status that injects power speaks volumes. Whether it is boosted by money, notoriety, ego or self-esteem, powerful status commands either respect or contempt. When someone with powerful presence walks into a room, for instance, most everyone's head turns to his or her direction as if a magnetic field just popped up. What is unknown however, are complex and conflicting thoughts it builds between and among those gathered around it.
Status that injects power speaks volumes. Whether it is boosted by money, notoriety, ego or self-esteem, powerful status commands either respect or contempt. When someone with powerful presence walks into a room, for instance, most everyone's head turns to his or her direction as if a magnetic field just popped up. What is unknown however, are complex and conflicting thoughts it builds between and among those gathered around it.
Home
78 ...
Status that injects power speaks volumes. Whether it is boosted by money, notoriety, ego or self-esteem, powerful status commands either respect or contempt. When someone with powerful presence walks into a room, for instance, most everyone's head turns to his or her direction as if a magnetic field just popped up. What is unknown however, are complex and conflicting thoughts it builds between and among those gathered around it.
Status that injects power speaks volumes. Whether it is boosted by money, notoriety, ego or self-esteem, powerful status commands either respect or contempt. When someone with powerful presence walks into a room, for instance, most everyone's head turns to his or her direction as if a magnetic field just popped up. What is unknown however, are complex and conflicting thoughts it builds between and among those gathered around it.
Far & Near
76 ...
Geographical location has changed from east to west, yet thoughts of recent past are still pulling you back. You must decide what is important and let the superfluous ones die out. You can't manage two entirely different lives and places, so live in the moment!
Geographical location has changed from east to west, yet thoughts of recent past are still pulling you back. You must decide what is important and let the superfluous ones die out. You can't manage two entirely different lives and places, so live in the moment!
Monday, August 10, 2015
Impressions
75 …
From personal experiences, you could learn that first impressions do not really always last. When you make judgments of people from first impressions, you almost get surprised by the untruthful results of those impressions. When you entertain a notion about a situation you believe you understood, you almost immediately get proven wrongly. We are not sure what exactly prods us to make biased opinions of people, and situations. We seem to keep reacting based on how things superficially affect us, and we never ever have the time and space for facts to come out that could guide our determinations. We could learn from tried and tested approaches that sensitive listening and paced, critical thinking contribute to bring about positive impressions in our present and future life awareness.
From personal experiences, you could learn that first impressions do not really always last. When you make judgments of people from first impressions, you almost get surprised by the untruthful results of those impressions. When you entertain a notion about a situation you believe you understood, you almost immediately get proven wrongly. We are not sure what exactly prods us to make biased opinions of people, and situations. We seem to keep reacting based on how things superficially affect us, and we never ever have the time and space for facts to come out that could guide our determinations. We could learn from tried and tested approaches that sensitive listening and paced, critical thinking contribute to bring about positive impressions in our present and future life awareness.
Haste
74 …
Not many actions taken with hurriedness bring good results. Eating hurriedly could cause stomach indigestion and succeeding pain. Completing a project without full understanding of steps could bring about many mistakes and stresses. Making quick decisions on important issues prevent you from fully assessing their consequences. Adverse effects could undoubtedly confront you when you lightly give a significant idea quick, significant thoughts and opinions. Haste does yield wastes of efforts, resources and time.
Not many actions taken with hurriedness bring good results. Eating hurriedly could cause stomach indigestion and succeeding pain. Completing a project without full understanding of steps could bring about many mistakes and stresses. Making quick decisions on important issues prevent you from fully assessing their consequences. Adverse effects could undoubtedly confront you when you lightly give a significant idea quick, significant thoughts and opinions. Haste does yield wastes of efforts, resources and time.
Rain Showers
73 …
Rain, when it comes gently dropping, soothes the mind, body and spirit. Gentle rain caresses the skin. It is like a tender loved one’s touch soothing pain or melancholy. Mild raindrops do the same, but they take deeper, grander effect on the physique. Raindrops wetting and dropping mildly on the skin give a tender tickling and a massaging of under-skin flesh. They renew the especially dry, tired epidermis and give it new life. When big raindrops touch your scalp and body however, you get the most interactive response of your skin. They give an eventful pounding that wakes up all negative feelings … almost telling each inner terrible emotion to come out and be cleansed. Rains bless our most inward self … our spirit. They do so when after an outward purging and cooling off, we experience a relief from tiredness and noises of our bodies. What is not there to love rain?
Rain, when it comes gently dropping, soothes the mind, body and spirit. Gentle rain caresses the skin. It is like a tender loved one’s touch soothing pain or melancholy. Mild raindrops do the same, but they take deeper, grander effect on the physique. Raindrops wetting and dropping mildly on the skin give a tender tickling and a massaging of under-skin flesh. They renew the especially dry, tired epidermis and give it new life. When big raindrops touch your scalp and body however, you get the most interactive response of your skin. They give an eventful pounding that wakes up all negative feelings … almost telling each inner terrible emotion to come out and be cleansed. Rains bless our most inward self … our spirit. They do so when after an outward purging and cooling off, we experience a relief from tiredness and noises of our bodies. What is not there to love rain?
Negativity
72 …
Irritating thoughts, disappointing situations, and unpleasant attitudes boil down to nothing less than negative vibes. They create chaos in our minds and hearts, and they bring out in us unhealthy dispositions. Of late, I attempted to celebrate someone’s gracious life by bringing together folks close to the person. While a good many of those I invited were excited about it, a few injected discouraging responses and lame reasons to thwart the milestone event. I did not realize until then how easily negativity affected me. I discovered how it poisoned me inwardly quickly as well. Negativity brings out the worst in our character!
Irritating thoughts, disappointing situations, and unpleasant attitudes boil down to nothing less than negative vibes. They create chaos in our minds and hearts, and they bring out in us unhealthy dispositions. Of late, I attempted to celebrate someone’s gracious life by bringing together folks close to the person. While a good many of those I invited were excited about it, a few injected discouraging responses and lame reasons to thwart the milestone event. I did not realize until then how easily negativity affected me. I discovered how it poisoned me inwardly quickly as well. Negativity brings out the worst in our character!
Anxiety
71 …
Unease, disquiet, apprehension … you may call anxiety by any other name and the yield is the same … a fretfulness of the heart, sadness almost, of the mind. Anxiety over separation is by far most discomforting. When you long for a loved one to wrap you in her/his arms and in that moment it couldn’t happen, you feel a nagging pang of pain. It is even able to paralyze your positive emotions, and cripple the cheer in your heart. Self-made separation yields the worst anxious feeling because you become aware of the wound you yourself caused. With that, nothing you attempt to ease it with serves the purpose. All you are left with is a quiet longing for time to speed up itself so you could repair the self-inflicting damage to your spirit.
Unease, disquiet, apprehension … you may call anxiety by any other name and the yield is the same … a fretfulness of the heart, sadness almost, of the mind. Anxiety over separation is by far most discomforting. When you long for a loved one to wrap you in her/his arms and in that moment it couldn’t happen, you feel a nagging pang of pain. It is even able to paralyze your positive emotions, and cripple the cheer in your heart. Self-made separation yields the worst anxious feeling because you become aware of the wound you yourself caused. With that, nothing you attempt to ease it with serves the purpose. All you are left with is a quiet longing for time to speed up itself so you could repair the self-inflicting damage to your spirit.
Sunday, August 9, 2015
Backbones: “Pulubi” / Alms-seekers
70 …
You could not hide your stare away. You could not help seeing and noticing them from the corners of your eyes even when you try. With their open hands asking for alms, they are everywhere – at stairwells, doorways of opened or closed windows of buildings. They are out on roads and alleys, and they are even alongside stopped transport like jeeps, buses, tricycles or any other transport means. Their hands are always outstretched for measly peso, food and water. They are either the marginalized, the impoverished poor of the poorest in crowded urban cities. You do not know specifically from which part of the country they come, why they do what they do, and what situations brought them to their lowliest of work stations. Many sport dilapidated clothing; others are around with very young, tag-along and pitiful-looking children equally fitted in tattered clothes and bare, dirty or wound-filled and blistered feet. Many of them look malnourished and disheveled. You could not tell outright who is really disfranchised and who is part of a ring that uses and enslaves them for self- gains. They are there for sure, the poorest of our society’s backbones. Perhaps some of them are trafficked souls – battered and living in constant fear for their lives. Perhaps, some of them are our family abandoned sisters and brothers. Maybe they are our mentally ill. What do you do when approached by an outright “pulubi” wandering in your midst?
You could not hide your stare away. You could not help seeing and noticing them from the corners of your eyes even when you try. With their open hands asking for alms, they are everywhere – at stairwells, doorways of opened or closed windows of buildings. They are out on roads and alleys, and they are even alongside stopped transport like jeeps, buses, tricycles or any other transport means. Their hands are always outstretched for measly peso, food and water. They are either the marginalized, the impoverished poor of the poorest in crowded urban cities. You do not know specifically from which part of the country they come, why they do what they do, and what situations brought them to their lowliest of work stations. Many sport dilapidated clothing; others are around with very young, tag-along and pitiful-looking children equally fitted in tattered clothes and bare, dirty or wound-filled and blistered feet. Many of them look malnourished and disheveled. You could not tell outright who is really disfranchised and who is part of a ring that uses and enslaves them for self- gains. They are there for sure, the poorest of our society’s backbones. Perhaps some of them are trafficked souls – battered and living in constant fear for their lives. Perhaps, some of them are our family abandoned sisters and brothers. Maybe they are our mentally ill. What do you do when approached by an outright “pulubi” wandering in your midst?
Backbones: Mommy Friend
69 …
Rains come. No, they don’t just
come, but they pour steadily from thin drops to thicker, cool drops. From their window and gated fences, a boy and
two girls staring at the rain pouring outside look dismal at their playground,
until their Mom notices their disappointed faces. She gets up from her corner seat inside the
house, asks them to take off their clothing down to only their bottom underwear. She opens the house door, and then the gate. She releases them outdoors where the steady, cold
drops of rain tickle at first their young skin, and then surprises deeper their
whole body with refreshing wetness and delightful, massaging drops. It takes a Mom-friend to feel, and then
expose her inner children’s longings and desires. It
takes an empathetic, special Mother to fulfill pitter-patter longings and
desires out in the open! Backbones: Fruit Vendor
68 …
At dawn or early evening fruit vendors push their carts where prospective buyers could see them. On any given moment, you could see them open up a fruit of choice that demonstrates its freshness and succulent nature. As if that were not enough a gesture to haul in homemakers wanting the freshest, best fruit for their tables, the fruit vendor takes a piece of any of the fruits he peddles, and entices all those around to get close and purchase it by pealing, and eating or slicing and putting it in his mouth right in front. How can anyone resist melons, bananas, apples, pears, rambutans, mangosteens, papayas, soursops and sweetsops or juicy pineapples? The peddler does his job well drawing in thirsty, hungry folks on their way home. Taking fruit to where people are is one sure way of enticing them to buy!
At dawn or early evening fruit vendors push their carts where prospective buyers could see them. On any given moment, you could see them open up a fruit of choice that demonstrates its freshness and succulent nature. As if that were not enough a gesture to haul in homemakers wanting the freshest, best fruit for their tables, the fruit vendor takes a piece of any of the fruits he peddles, and entices all those around to get close and purchase it by pealing, and eating or slicing and putting it in his mouth right in front. How can anyone resist melons, bananas, apples, pears, rambutans, mangosteens, papayas, soursops and sweetsops or juicy pineapples? The peddler does his job well drawing in thirsty, hungry folks on their way home. Taking fruit to where people are is one sure way of enticing them to buy!
Backbones: Roofers
67 …
Work that generates income is always sought. Work that generates income, but puts workers at risk is something else. Not many skilled roofers like to be up on a roof, especially when the weather is hot and humid, not even if that were the source of their bread and butter. Roofers who do not mind being up on top of a building however, on any given weather, are the real special heroes folks needing their homes and establishments attended to. The sweltering hot weather, however, is one roofers’ dreaded foe. It requires them to wear clothing that discomforts them, but at the same time protects them from stealthy, dangerous sun exposure. They could not just wear their preferred ordinary, comfortable shoes because of the heated, burning galvanized iron that could burn soles of their footwear. Instead, they must live with thick-soled, adhering shoes to get the work roofing done, and rightfully so. Anyone afraid of height must not get close to a roof-top job. No roofers could get the work done if anyone of them fears his life at the top might make his feet and gait likened to jelly or gel!
Work that generates income is always sought. Work that generates income, but puts workers at risk is something else. Not many skilled roofers like to be up on a roof, especially when the weather is hot and humid, not even if that were the source of their bread and butter. Roofers who do not mind being up on top of a building however, on any given weather, are the real special heroes folks needing their homes and establishments attended to. The sweltering hot weather, however, is one roofers’ dreaded foe. It requires them to wear clothing that discomforts them, but at the same time protects them from stealthy, dangerous sun exposure. They could not just wear their preferred ordinary, comfortable shoes because of the heated, burning galvanized iron that could burn soles of their footwear. Instead, they must live with thick-soled, adhering shoes to get the work roofing done, and rightfully so. Anyone afraid of height must not get close to a roof-top job. No roofers could get the work done if anyone of them fears his life at the top might make his feet and gait likened to jelly or gel!
Backbones: Tricycle Drivers
66 …
Men, young or advanced in age, monopolize this occupation in villages and subdivisions all over Metro Manila. You can hear tricycles early dawn as their masters start engines at late or early hours of evenings and mornings. Drivers then run their transport around or mill at a terminal while waiting for passengers. Sometimes, fortunate ones earn a thousand and more pesos in half a day; others not so fortunate earn as little as five hundred or less pesos, especially if they rent the tricycle to run and make money for themselves. Drivers take pride in their tricycle and care for them much. They understand that a clean, upscale transport is by far favored by prospective passengers in contrast to unkempt, dilapidated ones. They are well aware of scrutinizing costumers making preferential treatment for updated, well-kept and decorated rides, except of course on bad weather when all running ones get flagged no matter their condition. What makes tricycle driving an easy source of income? Well, drivers pick you up from street-ways close to your residential door, and take you just as close to your next destination ride or stopping spot!
Men, young or advanced in age, monopolize this occupation in villages and subdivisions all over Metro Manila. You can hear tricycles early dawn as their masters start engines at late or early hours of evenings and mornings. Drivers then run their transport around or mill at a terminal while waiting for passengers. Sometimes, fortunate ones earn a thousand and more pesos in half a day; others not so fortunate earn as little as five hundred or less pesos, especially if they rent the tricycle to run and make money for themselves. Drivers take pride in their tricycle and care for them much. They understand that a clean, upscale transport is by far favored by prospective passengers in contrast to unkempt, dilapidated ones. They are well aware of scrutinizing costumers making preferential treatment for updated, well-kept and decorated rides, except of course on bad weather when all running ones get flagged no matter their condition. What makes tricycle driving an easy source of income? Well, drivers pick you up from street-ways close to your residential door, and take you just as close to your next destination ride or stopping spot!
Backnones: Peddlers
65 ...
Whether up on buses, jeepneys or down on hectic and risky roadways, male peddlers compete vigorously for whatever it is they sell to travelers and drivers. Peddlers flag buses and jeeps begging for a chance to sell snack items and cold drinks to weary passengers, especially those stuck in heavy and long traffic. They weather the weather be it torrential rains or humid, sweltering heat. They dodge cars, bikes, and buses to sell for a meager gain/living: peanuts, cashews, munchies and fruits, water/soda, even face towels – true relief from ugly, suffocating and dirty fender bender belches and gas engine emission. They put their lives at stake in order to take home a few pesos to their families. Scoffing bystanders and passengers think of them as nuisance and irritation from and their often quiet drive to and from destination. The truth of the matter is they are marginalized heroes of mothers and children depending on them for hand-to-mouth living existence. Negative impressions and judgments on them are by all means offensive and inappropriate. They are the true backbones of though growing, but still fledgling economic conditions in congested cities like Metro Manila.
Whether up on buses, jeepneys or down on hectic and risky roadways, male peddlers compete vigorously for whatever it is they sell to travelers and drivers. Peddlers flag buses and jeeps begging for a chance to sell snack items and cold drinks to weary passengers, especially those stuck in heavy and long traffic. They weather the weather be it torrential rains or humid, sweltering heat. They dodge cars, bikes, and buses to sell for a meager gain/living: peanuts, cashews, munchies and fruits, water/soda, even face towels – true relief from ugly, suffocating and dirty fender bender belches and gas engine emission. They put their lives at stake in order to take home a few pesos to their families. Scoffing bystanders and passengers think of them as nuisance and irritation from and their often quiet drive to and from destination. The truth of the matter is they are marginalized heroes of mothers and children depending on them for hand-to-mouth living existence. Negative impressions and judgments on them are by all means offensive and inappropriate. They are the true backbones of though growing, but still fledgling economic conditions in congested cities like Metro Manila.
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