Everything Good List

They say when life is sucky, all you have to do is say your thank you's. And so I'm going to start thanking more frequently from now on. Starting with YOU (yes, you.), thank you for dropping by to read this post. In lieu of all the thanking (hehe), I'm going to bring out my Everything Good list once again. This has long been delayed anyway. It's time to remind myself again how wonderful life can be. (Mental note: Believe, believe, believe. Yes life is wonderful. Haha Kelangan pa talaga ng affirmation. Hehe)

-Breadtalk's pork Floss (i can never get enough. takaw!)
-Body Combat super workout
-Paris (sana makabalik pa.)
-my iPod's playlist (kahit paulit ulit lang. Hehe)
-being able to let go and not care (it's hard!)
-The Secret (i'm still working at it. concentrate.)
-Finishing my MDP 2 training (woohoo! 2 more modules to go.)
-Novenas (St. Raphael's)
-chatty, friendly (and cute) strangers ;)
-scoring tickets to the Ateneo-La Salle game (one more please for tomorrow's game?)
-being able to say goodbye and not look back (di ko pa nagagawa. haha)
-coffee and beer
-just being a friend (again, it's a hard thing to do!)
-going home a little early than usual
-UCC's corned beef breakfast (i'm currently hooked. don't know why. nothing special about it really.)
-being (and still trying) healthy
-unlimited SUN
-feeling good about yourself (it's the Secret's secret!)
-glowing and being beautiful (it's the Secret i tell you. or naging feeling lang talaga ako. haha jk)
-having lots of energy and not get tired
-a working metabolism: eating heaps and loads, then feeling as if you have not eaten anything afterwards
-steady days (i wish i could have lots and lots of it.)
-good, long, meaningful conversations
-senseless conversations

Alright I'll stop now. I'm starting to feel good already. Yipee!! :)

Rollercoasters and the Weather

Liking (or loving) someone can really be tiring. It’s like riding on a super rollercoaster.
The ups, twists, and turns leave you high, giddy, and dizzy all at the same time. You don’t know when the next drop or turn is. One minute you’re up and happy, the next minute you feel down and sad. You’re left confused as hell, dazed with all the flying signals.

You can’t really tell. Today may be a sunshiny and cloudless day, but the following day it can rain and pour without any warning at all. It can leave you all warm and then bitter cold after. Just like that; love makes you glow and sick all at the same time.

They say it is how the game is played. But that’s only for the “players” right? How about the ones who are in it for the real deal?

Tiwala

Question: When do you stop trusting?

It's when you're put in a situation where you are not sure anymore. Doubts constantly run through your mind. That queasy feeling in your gut seems to keep returning more frequently than it should be. You are not at ease with what’s going on; you start to think that everything is not what it seems to be.

Answer: You stop trusting when confidence (on a certain thing, situation, or person) makes a final exit.

Question: When is trust broken?

It's when words and actions start going in opposite directions. Contradictions are strewn all over the place. 1 apple + 1 apple = 2 bananas. As much as you try damn hard to make sense of things, you just can’t seem to. You go in expecting to get a certain thing, only to find out you’ll be getting a completely different one. Surprise surprise.

Answer: Trust is broken when you can’t figure out how adding up 2 apples can become 2 bananas. (What the?!)

Trust is a tough act. It’s something that one must strive to constantly and consistently preserve. Trust is what you say and do at the same time. It is ironic how it takes so much effort to build trust, yet it only takes a couple of seconds to break it, and probably a miracle to repair it.

Twin Flames

Excerpts from the book Bulalo Soup for the Sole by Theresa "Jew" R. Lariosa. It's a great read. All of her articles talks a lot of sense. Really funny and witty, and relational too.

Soulmates are a bane and a boon to my existence. They’re just too many to keep track of, maintain and keep. When I meet someone and there is a certain connection, I immediately look up my past lives list and wonder if I met him when I was in Vienna or Israel. I never bother to think he might be a new soul drawn to my old and tattered one.

But when I met this magnificent man a few years back, I was ready to jump off my ship that was full of bogus soulmates and stay with this one and only twin flame. He was absolutely perfect. Tall, dark and handsome. Yes, when I’m with him I resort to clichés and simple adjectives. I become dumbstruck. The verbose me turns to a mumbling fool. Abedi-abedu-abedu…Elmer Fudd would be a literate character compared to me!

He’s my twin flame. One of a kind. We click even if we’re far apart. You can’t just get that in a bar or at a street party. It’s an inexplicable, priceless connection! There were no promises made, no commitments formed and no pressure. It was as if we had not been apart for too long. It was just right that we were together at that moment.

Some say you never end up marrying your soulmate or your twin flame. Maybe that’s good. It’s probably the universe’s way of making a beautiful thing always fresh and new—never tarnished by fights, petty squabbles and tantrums. My twin flame and I know that when we hold hands, we really mean it; when we hug, the passion is there; when we kiss, it’ll always be a first.

I flew back with this knowledge and I wasn’t discouraged when I saw Manila’s polluted air. I was recharged and ready to face more of this game called life. Twin flames are meant to do that. They ignite a spark in you that makes your light shine brighter than usual. You’re of the same light. Two of a kind. When your flame begins to weaken a bit, try to look for your twin flame. If you can’t find him or her in this lifetime, there’s always a box of matches.

Hope Still Floats

HOPE.
-noun
the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best

-verb
to believe, desire, or trust

Perhaps it is hope not love that makes the world go round. How else then would the fallen still find the courage to fight? The forlorn to have the patience to wait for love? Or the hurting to bravely accept love again? How else then would the grief stricken still have the strength to smile?

What gives? I say hope.

When everything seems bleak and nothing seems to ever go right, giving up can be a very tempting offer. Despair starts to creep in when all efforts seem futile and we see failure grimly staring back at us. Nobody said it was going to be easy. Life isn’t exactly a bed of roses. You can’t expect everyday to be a sunny day. However this doesn’t mean we should throw everything away and start running at the slightest hint of possible failure or pain. It ain’t over til it’s over right? There. Is. Still. Hope. We believe, desire, and trust that what we want can be achieved; that things will turn out for the best.

Hope is the rainbow that comes after each rainstorm. It’s the tiny window that opens after the door closes. It’s the beautiful sunrise that comes after each dawn. It’s the stars peeking through the clouds on a dark night. Hope transforms our fears into comfort, our uncertainties into clarity, and despair into optimism. Hope gives us unbelievable strength that we don’t even know we have. Hope provides guidance when things become murky and we see nothing. We may struggle and falter, have doubts, and perhaps consider giving up altogether. But in the end we still push ourselves. Dauntless and fearless, we eagerly face our adversities and rely on hope to see us through. When life sucks and gives us a hundred reasons to give up, hope gives us a hundred and one reasons not to.

Meet My Friends

Birdie, Kid McDo, & Grimace from Clarisse.

It's A No Deal

When do you say enough is enough? When do you decide to get up and leave? As much as we want to be that super fighter with a mean ‘never say die’ attitude and as much as we want to be that tough chick who kicks butt all the time, there are going to be instances when we are going to be tried, tested, and pushed to our limits. We all have our own boiling points. Some can take the heat pretty well, while some get out as soon as they see steam coming out. But sometimes even the strong ones who initially chose to stay get burned. No matter how resilient you are, things will take its toll on you at some point or another. You’ll get tired too, and the white flag will eventually have to be raised.

Making the decision to pack up one’s bags is the hardest thing to do, because there’s always that sense of unwavering hope in us (it’s supposed to be the one that keeps us going) that maybe just maybe things will eventually fall into the right place in their own time. It plays non-stop at the back of our minds that we start believing in it and postpone our happiness for it. But we eventually get exhausted from waiting for it to materialize. And then you discover that it’s not going to happen anytime soon. That’s when you start bringing out the bags and start packing. It’s when you suddenly know it’s not worth it to stay anymore; it’s when you believe you deserve better. Be it in career, love, or life in general, we all deserve no less than the best. It’s something that we never negotiate for.

Life Bites

Life has a funny way of playing tricks on you. Sometimes when you think everything is fine and dandy, life suddenly sneaks behind you and throws you one of those big curveballs. It just hits right smack at you, that there isn’t any time to react. I’m not fond of surprises (well, except for the happy ones though. hehe). You’re caught unprepared. By the time you start to act on it, everything’s over already. Useless na. It leaves you with an awful feeling, like a bad case of stomachache. You feel weak and vulnerable, unable to think or move. You feel stupid, wishing you had known earlier. You feel hopeless and clueless on what you’re going to do about it.

I don’t know, but it seems like these past few weeks, life has been throwing me a lot of these curveballs along my way. It’s not a good feeling. It leaves you drained and sometimes sad. It leaves me with a lot of disoriented thoughts. I can’t think straight and clear at all. I feel bad for not knowing how to go about it. If only I had it my way, I just wish people would tell me beforehand so that I would know what to expect. Even if the truth hurts, I’d rather they tell me straight up. At least I can prepare myself and I would know what to do. Better yet I wish I could have the foresight to see things ahead of time. Sana manghuhula nalang ako.

Big Girls Don't Cry

Watching PBB housemate Geeann giving up Pamela, her most treasured doll may seem funny at first. Why would somebody cry so much for a doll right? But then after awhile you’d slowly understand where she’s coming from. The doll has been with her since she was a child. Pamela has been her constant comfort friend for years. Parting will always not be easy.

Each one of us probably have our own share of experiences of losing or having to part with something (or someone). The decision to let go is hard as it is. But it’s the moving on after the letting go part that’s really a big bummer (sorry for the lack of word). It’s not easy to lose all so suddenly the familiarity, constant-ness, bond that you’ve grown so accustomed to. It’s like a comfort security blanket thing that we hold on to dearly. Some have placed a sentimental attachment to it, while some see it as their emotional investment, while some have a deep personal commitment to it…all of which makes it so hard to part away with once the planets conspire and calls you to do what you’ve been dreading—to let go and give up on it.

It takes a whole lot of getting used to in dealing with the initial absence. There isn’t really any trick to make that not-so-good feeling go away. You just have to be strong, accept it, and learn to deal with it.

Sour Grapes = Tasteless

They say when you’re UP, it’s inevitable that there will be some people who will try to bring you down. It’s a nasty habit I must say. I can’t stand people who say stuff about others whom they don’t even know personally. “Can’t stand it” is to put it mildly. I should use the word hate. I hate it when people say stuff against a person whom they don’t even know personally. There.

I don’t understand why some people can be such sour grapes. Is it because of bitterness? Perhaps envy? Or insecurity? People should be happy for the person instead of looking for every opportunity to bring the person down. If you know nothing about the person then you have no right to say anything at all. It’s just not right. I do believe that a person’s track record will speak for itself. At the end of the day a smart person will know if the things that have been said are indeed true or not. So I say, before you judge a person (unfairly), try to look at your own backyard first. Clean yours first before meddling with other people’s backyards. Stop being self-righteous.

Obvious ba galit ako. Haha. For me it’s just unethical really to go around dissing people. Syempre diss the ones I love, you’ll definitely hear a looot from me. I won’t diss you back but don’t expect me not to take it sitting down either.

Meet the Easter Bunnies

Taken on a whim by none other than Tin while celebrating Val's birthday.

Left to Right: Pops, Val, Mom, Candice, Clarisse, Tin

A little trivia: We celebrate Easter Sunday to remember the resurrection of Christ. Easter eggs are used to symbolize new life. Like little chicks, we are born into a new life with Christ. Same goes for the rabbits, which also symbolizes life. You'd be surprised to know that the mother rabbits are known to reproduce lots (and lots!) of baby rabbits. 

Dark Chocolates, Jelly Beans, and Candies

Read this bit from PDI a few weeks back.  It's a nice way of neatly summing things up if I must say so.

“Bitter isn’t always bad. There’s a pleasant sort of bitterness, like rich dark chocolate. There are days when I crave for jelly beans and caramel candy, but too many sweets give me a headache. This is my dark chocolate phase, and I’m going to enjoy it.”