Pause.

We sit silently and watch the world around us. This has taken a lifetime to learn. It seems only the old are able to sit next to one another and not say anything and still feel content. The young, brash and impatient, must always break the silence. It is a waste, for silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is the great paradox.”

Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

Sometimes, when everything seems overflowing: joy, happiness, remorse or grief; When these emotions seems to swallow ourselves and distracts us from thinking straightly, pause. Give yourself a break. A cup of coffee in the corner table. A date with your dog. A time in your nook. Never be afraid to spend a little time dating yourself because sometimes, being alone gives you time to grasp who you really are, to go back to your roots, to observe and to appreciate.

Just a snap out of my brain

Inquiry.
Learn to ask the right questions to get the right answers.

Time.
What makes life exciting is because change is inevitable. Time is constantly moving. We may choose to give our best shot at the moment or just let the moment pass. Whatever it is, a failure, a regret or a triumph, it will pass and if time is good enough to give us another chance, we may repeat it again this time reversing the failure, the regret or the triumph. We never know.

Tamed.

You become responsible forever for what you have tamed.

This is one of my favorite quotes from the book "The Little Prince." While grooming my dog on a Sunday afternoon yesterday, this quote popped out of my head. Why? I also asked that to myself ( funny isn't it? ). Thinking why, I flashback to what I'm doing during that time: My dog gazes me straightly with her puppy eyes, loving how I wash her hair while me, I'm talking to her haha, saying sorry for not being able to groom her for the past few weeks. Then I told her that I'm busy with work and during the weekends I have other errands. Then ( eureka! ) this quote popped out of my head. 

I realized, my problem is that I commit and commit to things that I almost forgot to savour every moment with these things. I just want to do more and at the end of the day, for having to meet all those commitments, my thinking is just to meet them but not savour them, with all those wants, at the end of the day I am dead tired and I have no spare time to think of the feeling when I'm on that moment, even to jot it down to my diary. I said to myself "You become responsible forever for what you have tamed." Do one thing at a time, savour it, do it repeatedly until you mastered it. Applying it to my pet, I am responsible for her, I should try to know more about her, about dogs, to allot time for her every weekend, and savour the moments we have during those commited time. After that, do the next commitment and apply the principle again. Living like that maybe called a slow lifestyle compared to what the world requires now, but for me, those are things that requires the investment of time, and having able to focus yourself on one thing at a time makes it more fulfilling and precious.

The Stars

The stars.

In whatever form I maybe,

In wherever stage I have been,

they're always there,

constantly looking,

at the me,

who have already grown,

who have already changed.

In my fall,

In my coup,

I will always look at you.

Me and the World

When you open your eyes
Widely
And expose yourself to the world
You'll realize how small you are.
All those trivial stuffs you keep minding
What you wear.
What haircut to choose.
All those selfish desires that you thought would satisfy you,
would disappear like bubbles.
When you start engaging yourself to this world,
When you start exploring its allure,
you'll see those simple stuffs,
a beam,
a sun,
a tear.

All those simple emotions would make sense.
Sooner, you'll realize that through sharing yourself to this
world.
Whether leaving a part of yourself to a friend.
To a loved one.
Or to a stranger.
Would be what you call life.

The Dripping Water

Way back during my last year in college, I was taking a course about management. Lectures here consist of management theories and concepts. One concept that resided into my mind up until now is about problem solving and whenever I encounter a problem whether in life, work, or a computer science-related problem, this pops to my mind.

My professor has this scenario:

There was dripping water from the rooftop. What will you do?

As explained by her, one easy solution to this problem is placing a bucket where the water directly drips. But does this really solves the problem? No. It is just temporary. For the permanent fix, you have first to investigate the root cause. Why there is dripping? Where does it come from? and so on. After such investigation, the real solution would be fixing the hole in the roof and the hassle of changing buckets whenever it is already full will be eliminated.

In real life, do you apply permanent fixes to your problem? Or you manage to live repeatedly with cumbersome problems because you have only applied temporary solutions? Think.

Country is to Jeepney

During the weekdays, en route to work, I always ride the jeepney from Magallanes going to Mall of Asia. Here's the thing, jeepneys have the choice of lining up in the inner parking or outer parking where passengers go and ride. As I do this routine daily, I have made an observation wherein people would always go to what they think is the most filled jeepney and yes, I understand that they were in a rush and it is a logical reason. But in the back of my mind, I think that if the passengers will flock and go to the more spacious jeepney, in minimal time, it will be full but what they do is that they ignore it and the consequence, the jeepney gains no passengers.

I compare this scenario to our country. I do not intend to offend anyone, but this is more of a personal opinion. Filipinos would always go the more developed country, to the more flourished country and leave the nation. Similar to the jeepney, how can our nation develop if we will leave it behind? If we do not give it a chance to flourish? If its children, most of all the professionals, who we believe is our hope, will neglect it? If we only devote ourselves to our nation, invest our time and skills to it, in no time, we can achieve what "abroad" countries have.

Baby Steps

"Dream hard. Work hard. It never comes after you wrapped and decorated with a red ribbon."

This thought occurs to me en route to work. I am currently a new hire for a shipping company (I graduated this summer 2013) and you may ask out of the blue, what the hell is the relationship of that quote above with me being a new hire? Well, working 8-9 hours a day and commuting for about 2 hours going/back to our house in Laguna, I am still adapting to the idea of not having that much free time. I mean afterwork I am dead tired and on weekends, I have to do my filial duties. During these times, I have always asked myself if my life would stick to this kind of lifestyle, after all, I have no choice but to work. How about all those dreams I wanna have during my wee hours? I wanna travel (a lot), engaged in volunteer activities, explore and the list go on and on......

Head bumped! Luckily, I have this spontaneous boyfriend that always scolded me whenever I have this kind of negative thinking. And yeah, as what he 'scolded' (haha!) I should stop complaining and in contrary, work hard! This is a start of a new chapter in my life, maybe I was still adapting to the changes, entering the 20's era where you are starting to create your own identity and at the same time, the world pressures you with money, time and expectations. So what to do? Work hard! Dream big, set your goals, and work hard for it. Grab it. Hold it. A 'dream come true' never presents itself at your door wrapped and decorated with a red ribbon. You have to chase it CONSTANTLY, work hard for it, and this loop never ends until you have it at your hands. What is important is whatever stage of life you enter, you never lose hold of your identity and your dreams. Never let the world point out to you what is right/wrong, or what to do, what is important is you live your life in making your dream come true. Imagine yourself working hard for something, maybe it all equals to a bucket of perspiration, blood (haha!), sleepless nights, eye bags, etc. but whatever the ending of this struggle, if you gave your best shot for something you really care, it's all worth it.

Dreams. Set it. Chase it. Grab it. Hold it. Dreaming is not just about knowing what they are, it also is about knowing the steps on how to make it come true. Took the baby steps and after sometime, you'll realized, you're a day closer to it.

Conviction

   Bon jour! Before heading to the 'article thingy' itself, I wanna start off with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi:

A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than the  'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.

   Though commuting would always mess up my hair every time I ride the jeepney on my way home, I still prefer to fully catch the blowing wind coming from the jeep's window (sometimes it hurts though). For a minute, my eyes though open were blind and my mind would start to wander off on that far away side of reality, the dream world. Satisfaction would always fill up my mind every time I sit there on the jeepney while the wind brushes off my face. Maybe because it is my precious, personal time of opening up my mind with every possible things I've done, I would do, I hope to do or will do. During this time a flood of hope would wash away all those negative vibes, realizing that the world is a collection/a big set of possibilities.

   One time, the idea of conviction just popped out of my head. Maybe it was because of the argument between the driver and the commuters about the system of jeepney transportation here, fitting too many commuters in one jeep. Sometimes, rather than feeling fearful of the brawl itself, I find it fascinating to hear both sides of the argument, hearing the convictions of each individual. Conviction is our foundation of belief. It what makes us as up as a unique person. It molds us. Rather than having none at all, rather than being dependent of others' belief, rather than accepting them all the time, it is better for us to have our own convictions because it molds up our personality, it showcases what we hold on to. I think that people just have to accept the fact that we have grown up in different environment, we experienced, perceived things differently and we learned differently from these experiences, that's why we have different beliefs/convictions. We have to embraced diversity. We should not be afraid of speaking our side and engaging ourselves in arguments because though we view things differently, it is a way of gaining integrative unity. Embracing does not mean that we changes our side and accept the other person's conviction, rather, it is being able to open up our mind, listen and criticize not just the other person's system of belief but also of our own.

   Great day everyone!