Saturday photo

Marriage... the calm before the, er, blissful union of two souls
and the lifelong celebration of the gift of love,
given, reciprocated, and shared.

***

Saturday photo

Savoring 'la dolce vita'... away from it all.

Yep, I'm feeling the stress from 'City life' now... from my toes to the tips of my hair!  I feel that my 'tank' is nearly empty and, I'm mostly running on adrenaline... commitment and inspiration. I know though that, at some point, my body will realize that I am 'cheating' it with the will of mind and my heart's passion, and it would just drop (dead) from exhaustion.  So, before we get there... I need a 'refill', therefore I'll get some! 

Joyfully, we have a special family occasion today... I have a good reason to leave behind

Date and Dine Italian Restaurant and Resort...
a hidden haven atop the beautiful hills of Antipolo.

the stressful "noise" of the City, and retreat with my family in this haven of a place, Date and Dine Italian Restaurant and Resort. The Resort is nestled in a quiet and exclusive village atop the beautiful hills of Antipolo.  It's a pretty place, a mix of classic and modern architecture that depicts the 'then and now' of Philippine home coziness, brought together by the inviting blueness of a small swimming pool in the middle.  With its cozy and homey appeal, it was initially envisioned by its owner to be a Bed and Breakfast place... a place close enough and private enough to get away to and recuperate from stress when the going gets tough in the City. 

It is owned by a lovely couple who have an appetite for entertaining guests. One is a Filipino garments manufacturer (Obra ni Juan) who loves cooking, and the other is a technology professional who later trained in the culinary field.  As they come to enjoy

Private and cozy:  highly recommended for family
events and other intimate gatherings.

entertaining guests with their cooking, they decided to open their private space to friends, and friends of friends, and share their cooking, too, using secret recipes in an Italian Restaurant.  Later, as they realized how four rooms in their modern home are rarely occupied, they decided to open these to guests as well who need a place for overnight stay, a weekend stay, or accommodation on a short-term basis.  And this led to the soft opening of Date and Dine about two months ago.  The accommodation rate is highly affordable, which includes breakfast, and the use of the pool, gym, mini office, wi-fi connections, recreation areas and the dining areas.  My family and I are very lucky to be among the very first guests of this lovely place.  We stayed overnight using all four rooms and had an exclusive use of the restaurant and all the amenities for our family event.  The personalized service is highly satisfying... it's like being in your own home with extra pampering, guaranteed to keep your mind away from work... and the stress that goes with it.    

Places like this, which make important family occasions even more special, are wonderful reminders that, indeed, life is good!  Thanks be to God that my family and I found another place to retreat to when City life becomes too grueling and unkind.  

***

Happy Mother's Day

To all the "Ilaw ng Tahanan" out there, Happy Mother's Day!
Thanks be to God for all of you.

Something that a colleague of mine said yesterday made me pause to think. She said:  "You've been serving as a loving mother, nurturing the whole Faculty of Engineering...."

That might just have been my colleague's opinion, and she might just have been being generous about it, just the same, it made me think about my work... and how I got there in the first place, considering that, growing up as child, I never thought I'd ever work in the Academe.  And later, after finishing College, I still could not picture myself adopting teaching as a profession.  I guess, when you surrender your life to God, and pray that He helps you become His faithful servant - in whatever little way that your 'smallness' as an individual could handle - He really does guide you, and help you. 

Today, as a way of celebrating Mother's Day, my eldest sister and I spent the day helping out her daughter, who is also a goddaughter of mine. Our daughter is getting married soon.  My sister and I went to accompany her in accomplishing one of her Catholic preparations for the marriage, heard the Holy Mass together, and then ate lunch together.  We spoke about a number of things... very good things.  Just to make sure that I am not getting too stressed out, my sister subtly asked about my "daily routine" these days at work.  

As I was going through my activities in my head, arranging them so I could give my sister an overview... this and that scenes from my conversations with students and my colleagues at work came to mind.  I realized one thing:  most of the things I spoke to them as the Faculty's "mother"... the pieces of advice and opinions that I gave them... most of those are words from my own late mother. I am certain, too, that those are the pieces of wisdom she gained from discerning God's will in fulfilling her role as our mother.

Indeed, mothers are the instruments of God in shaping us to become the unique individuals that God intended us to become.   Biological motherhood is one way, I'm sure the best way, of experiencing motherhood.  However, as my colleague's observation, there are other ways by which a woman can fulfill the role of a "mother" the way God has intended mothers for - the nurturing shepherd of young and inexperienced souls.  The important thing is we endeavor to be humble enough to accept God's will and wisdom, serve with all our hearts and with all the love we are capable of, and remain faithful and appreciative of His love.  And, without a doubt, life becomes truly meaningful then... and happiness is the perfumed mist that keeps you refreshed and envigorated all day long.  And you glow with the beauty of it all.  

And, to lighten things up a bit, let me share a song that comes to mind on this occasion...

"Hey Mom... what was it like when you were young?

Has the world changed, or is it the same?"

***

Video Credit:  Thanks, YouTube, for the video link.

***

Wednesday nostalgia....

... because the present reality is too 'harsh'. ======================================================================
by PAM


The last thing I'd want for this little space of mine in the www is for it to become a place for ranting - from me.  So, I'm going to avoid it - ranting - at all cost.  

I feel that I'm beginning to forget what it's like to write creatively... I mean, yeah, creatively... as in artistically.  Uhm, well, yeah, I thought I kinda know how to do that. Aren't we allowed to have our illusions?  Well, that's mine, deal with it!  :)  

My harsh reality is 'biting' me hard lately... I think I've been writing too many business letters... recommendation letters, administrative letters (is there really such a thing?  Nah, I'm just making that up, just to make what I do at work sound important!  Hahaha....), partnership proposals (O-K, that's not how it sounds, so don't raise your hopes!), MOU here, MOA there, Opening Remarks here, Closing Remarks there... oy!  I'm losing my little artistic side - the very reason for the existence of "Sari-sari...".

Alright, I know, no ranting... thanks for reminding me!  Since it's too hard to get my mind off "work mode" even in the middle of the night that it's quite impossible to write anything 'creative', let me just take the easy route... write one of my formulaic stuff:  Wednesday Nostalgia.  And, no, that ain't cheating either... or, maybe it is... whatever!

"Notebook"... ah, luv, luv, luv!  "Feels like Home" by Chantal Kreviazuk... ah, luv, luv, luv!  What if we put them together?  Well, I'm sure it's everything that's creative and beautiful.  Let's do it....

"A window breaks down a long, dark street

And a siren wails in the night

But I'm alright 'cause I have you here with me

And I can almost see, through the dark there is light." 

Alright, I don't think there is a need to explain how that beautiful experience "feels like home", right?  I think it's self-explanatory... or, maybe, some things need no explanation at all.  So, I'm just gonna shut up right now... and play the video again.  Feel free to do the same. I'm pretty sure it's worth it. So, let's do it!

Ciao!

***

Video credit:  Thanks, YouTube, for the video link.

***    

Holy day

Blessed John Paul II, "The Millenial Pope", and
Blessed John XXIII, "The Good Pope",
are saints!

A great day of rejoicing for Roman Catholics around the world!  Two figure heads of the Church are canonized today.  We have two new saints... two of the most beloved Popes of the Church are canonized by His Holiness, Pope Francis.  Thanks be to God!

***

Saturday photo

Sunset and evening star...
...and may there be no sadness of farewell when I embark.

As I join the football world in mourning the passing of Tito Vilanova, former FC Barcelona Manager/Head Coach, I got reminded of a poem from High School days.  Here goes....

Crossing the Bar

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Sunset and evening star,

      And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar,

      When I put out to sea,

   But such a tide as moving seems asleep,

      Too full for sound and foam,

When that which drew from out the boundless deep

      Turns again home.

   Twilight and evening bell,

      And after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell,

      When I embark;

   For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place

      The flood may bear me far,

I hope to see my Pilot face to face

      When I have crost the bar.

While the ball will keep rolling on the meticulously manicured pitch, guided by gracefully moving players in an orchestrated move conjured by their master tactician who is thoughtfully watching from the touchline - all 'servants' of the beautiful game, the blaugrana crowd will continue to cheer... cheer their men to victory.  And yet, in the fullness of their blaugrana hearts, there will always be a tiny gap somewhere... that little but all-important space you used to fill with your reassuring physical presence.  

You will be missed, Tito!

***

Farewell, Tito...

...may you rest in peace.

Today is a day shrouded with black for FC Barcelona fans everywhere in the world as it brings the sad news of Tito Vilanova's passing.  He was 45 years old.  Yesterday, I went to bed with the alarming news of Tito's emergency surgery as his condition reached a critical level after suffering a relapse from his bout with throat cancer.  This morning, I woke up to the news of Tito's passing.  It was heartbreaking.

The former manager of FCB, who had to step down as his throat cancer recurred, succumbed to the killer disease today after two and a half years of fierce battle.  He was diagnosed with the deadly disease in the last quarter of 2011 while effectively filling-in the big shoes of Barça's Assistant Manager.  He was the personal choice of the then Manager, Pep Guardiola, to be the second in command in the FCB Coaching Team.  He was also Pep's

Terrific coaching duo:  Pep (left) and Tito (right).
(Photo credit: AP)

first choice for an Assistant Manager when the latter was called to coach Barcelona B prior to their "terrific-duo" days in the Primera Division of the Spanish La Liga.  Yes, Tito was an integral part of those glorious years - historically, the most successful years of FCB's first team - when Barça was winning trophies left and right, including the treble in 2008-2009 season. Whatever the competition was, they were the Team to beat, with the expressively passionate Pep as Manager, and Tito as his cool-headed right man.  


Tito took over the daunting task of manning the Barça helm after Pep finished his tenure as Manager and went on sabbatical in 2012.  Tito was supposed to have defeated the disease, and therefore, was welcomed by the battalion of culés around the world as Barça's new chief strategist.  Being a 'true blue' Barcelona man himself with authentic blaugrana heart, culés around the world had high hopes that the glory days will continue.  Indeed, they did, albeit less stellar as the Pep-Tito days. 

And then, Summer of last year, Tito stepped down from the Barça helm as he reportedly suffered a relapse. Of course, most culés missed him as soon as the first FCB kick on the pitch was made without him.  However, there is hope in the notion that he might just be recovering... after all, he's done it before, fought the same battle before... and won it.  These days, there is no telling as to how the reality of Tito's now permanent absence in the coaching team would do to Barça.  With Pep in another country - another League, another Club - and with Tito gone, the Barça that we knew for the past how many years is gone, too.  

But we go on, with our blaugrana hearts ablazed with the passion for the beautiful game... it's the best and the most fitting way of honoring Tito's memory.

Thanks, Tito, for the great journey in that beautiful pitch of green that we all love.  Sadly, that journey has come to an end, and we send you home now.  We shall always remember you with great fondness for as long as the beauty of the game that we all love endures.  Rest in peace.

***
Top photo credit:  Thanks, Getty image.

***

Reflections

A blessed week with family, and an excellent book.
======================================================================
by PAM


My siblings and I grew up with the observance of the Holy Week as an integral part of our summer vacation 'equation'.  As children, we would participate in the yearly procession in our old neighborhood, attending the Maundy Thursday/Last Supper mass, listening to the Last Seven Words reflection on TV with our parents, and then joining the Easter Sunday procession at dawn.  After our mother passed away, we moved houses in the City a few times, and we lost touch with our old friends in our old neighborhood.

These days, our family observe Holy Week with one of our 'favorite' activities: Visita Iglesia.  We enjoy our 'bonding time', especially with the young ones in our family.  We would

Visita Iglesia... a spiritual journey.

usually pick an area in Metro-Manila, and visit seven churches, praying the Way of the Cross, with the youngest among us leading and saying the reflection per Station.  This year, we decided to expand our pilgrimage out of Metro-Manila.  We started from our Parish church, then visited another church in the Metro, and then drove towards the South - in Tagaytay City and other places in the Province of Cavite - with the Chapel and Convent of the Pink Sisters as our last stop.  In the process, we were able to visit two churches that we have not visited before: the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette and the Divine Mercy Church in Silang, Cavite. And because we were on pilgrimage, we refrained from taking 'selfie' shots, or any photograph at all... and concentrated on our spiritual journey.

As this is the first time in two years that the newly renovated/reinforced Manila Cathedral has been re-opened to the public, we decided to pay it a visit before finally going home.  As always, the spiritual fortification and joy from our Visita Iglesia is refreshing.  It made our souls sing happy tunes of praise and thanksgiving to our Lord, who is our refuge - through thick and thin.  The warmth of familial togetherness felt good, too... beautiful and sweet.

As we drove from Quezon City to the Cavite area, and Tagaytay City, specifically - and back - all day on Maundy Thursday, we were amazed by how big the crowd was in every church we visited, and every church we passed by. We thought big crowd gather in the churches we traditionally visit every year. We were wrong.  We saw young and not-so-young people alike praying quietly, or following the Way of the Cross with their families and friends.  Of course, we see many of them snapping photos with their DSLRs or their smart phones, and yet, there was an unmistakable sincerity in the way they show reverence to this beautiful tradition of faith.  While Social networking sites seemed to have cultivated a 'modern culture of shallowness' among us, creating a 'picture-perfect life', and 'picture-perfect us', for the benefit of our thousands of friends... it seems that somewhere, in the deepest recesses of the Filipino soul, God resides.  We would like to think that this is an indication of the Filipinos' deep spirituality... an indication of our reverence for and strong faith in God.  It's beautiful to watch... and it makes us feel great.  

***
'The Road' that is worth taking

I finally read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, and whew, what an experience it was!  

Yeah, I bought a paperback edition almost two years ago now.  However, after reading the first five or six pages, I decided to stop, and continue reading when I had enough 'leisure reading time'.  Why?  It didn't sound like the type of book that one reads just to pass the time while stuck in traffic or something... then again, it's Cormac McCarthy, and "The Road" won him a Pulitzer Prize in 2007, so what did I expect? 

I chose to read "The Road" this Holy Week because I feel the need to reload my "moral artillery", which is growing thin, like the proverbial cartilage on my knees, as I bear the heavy weight of responsibilities in my work place every single day.  There are questions on the feasibility of nuclear energy in the Philippines as an alternative to conventional energy sources of high-carbon dioxide emission.  The point is to save the earth from being suffocated by the load of carbon dioxide emitted by thermal power plants that use fossil fuels.  And, nuclear power plant, being low-carbon emission power plant, is suggested as a

Compelling, moving... unforgettable!

sustainable alternative to fossil fuel-fed power plants.  While the technology has been proven to be robust, safety issues in operating nuclear power plants remain to be a stumbling block that prevent nuclear energy from becoming a 'mainstream' energy source, what with the Chernobyl and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disasters.  And, how many times did unscrupulous leaders use power generation as a camouflage in building nuclear weapons?  In the end, it's not just about developing a robust technology... in fact, that is the easy part.  The more difficult part is using the technology well - for the common good, and for a truly sustainable future.  Unfortunately, the work of scientists and engineers, like myself, usually starts in technology development and ends in making the technology work on large scale.  We don't usually call the shots in the Board Rooms where crucial decisions are made regarding the utilization of the technology, where moral questions are answered... or ignored - if they are asked at all, that is.  

In the middle of sorting things out, technology-wise, "The Road" brings the focus back to humanity, to morality... to what is right and wrong.  The story revolves around a father ("man") and son ("boy") tandem - survivors of an apocalyptic event that turned the richness of earth to ashes.  McCarthy carved a compelling plot with the sharpness of his artistry on a tender block of nagging moral issues.  Before the reader knows it, McCarthy has left the sharp knife in the reader's hand, to continue carving... and the tender block turned out to be the reader's own heart! Very clever, indeed.  

The story proceeds to show how the loving relationship between the man and the boy evolved into an entwining of their souls - so beautiful.  And this beauty shines in the face of all the endless adversaries along the road... the road that is lined with the terror of darkness and the ugliness of starvation and death.  It is more than amazing how McCarthy could conjure a feeling of hope and goodness, and draw a picture of optimism using heartbreaking hopelessness and the crushing agony of nothingness as background. 

"He was beginning to think that death was finally upon them and that they should find some place to hide where they would not be found.  There were times when he sat watching the boy sleep that he would begin to sob uncontrollably but it wasnt about death.  He wasnt sure what it was but he thought it was about beauty or about goodness.  Things that he'd no longer any way to think about at all."

I finished reading the book around midnight of Good Friday, a way of personal Holy Week reflection... and it was too good, it wrenched my heart.  I only wish that McCarthy's sketch of the future is just that - a sketch, imagined, fiction.  But for us who see science, technology and innovation as a way of life, may this serve as a warning... a limit to our tendency to satisfy our curiosity to our heart's desire without distinguishing right from wrong, a limit to our big appetite in exploring the 'unknown'.  May we be brave enough to heed the warning and, like the boy in McCarthy's fictional future, may we learn to listen - to God's breath - with our hearts.    

*** 

Saturday photo

Breathe, look up, soak up the sun...  bloom.

Two days ago, I saw 1,234 former students of ours in the University walking in their academic gown along the Roque Ruaño Drive in the campus... for the last time - as students.  Yep, they came four, five or six years ago, dreaming to become Thomasian Engineers or Information Technologists or Computer Scientists.  And now, they are about to live their dreams.  

Four, five or six years ago, they are nothing but inconspicuous buds in a colorful garden where beautiful elements competed for attention... and now, as they bloom, they are the center of attention in the garden, and they define everything that's beautiful in it.  And they are a sight to behold!

I feel blessed... blessed to be among the first to smell the fragrance of beautifully blooming flowers in that garden of dreams - dreams that are nurtured by love and commitment to serve God through teaching... dreams that do come true.  

Ah, the life of an educator... too beautiful indeed!

***

Never mind...

...I'll find someone (un)like you!
=============================================================================
by PAM



A couple of days ago I got an e-mail alert from a networking website regarding a request from someone to be included in my professional circle.  The request was from someone whose name I remember too well... not that I'd like to remember his face.  I think it's important to make that clear.  Anyway, after seeing the alert, for some reason, this song came to mind...

"...regrets and mistakes, they are memories made."

Who am I kidding?   Nah, it was not for "some reason" that this song came to mind.  It was for a specific reason, a specifically "ugly" reason... as ugly as what the lyrics of this song is saying, but the lessons learned were as beautiful as Adele... as beautiful as her voice and her artistry.  

And, yeah, I'll find someone so unlike you!  Someone better... so much better.  Then again, any decent person should be better than you, ya know.  And, no, you're not welcome in my professional circle, dude!  You have the nerve to even think about being included in it! You have no shame!

Gotcha!  Happy April Fool's Day!  ;)  =)  =)

Alright, no more foolin' now....

Actually, it's this song that I've been singing for the past how many days now... :)

"...all of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow.

I have died everyday waiting for you... and all along I believed I would find you."

"...

Beautiful, just beautiful!  The music, the video... Christina Perri - a perfect blend of beauty right there. Plus the fact that we waited for the first installment of "Breaking Dawn" with such trembling anticipation.  Never mind how it sounds so foolish now to be 'trembling' rather than to be 'freaking out' over Edward Cullen and Bella Swan's wedding. Yeah, the whole blend is kind of breathtaking, especially the first time I saw this video. 

Alright, April, 'I have died everyday waiting for you'... therefore, don't make me "kill" ya, okay?  :)   Be beautiful... in fact, be stunning.

Okay, go for it!

***
Video credit:  Thanks, YouTube, for the video links.

***