The Invitation

I haven't been back at the Studio. It's been three weeks, and I have been out of practice.  A few days ago, a yoga buddy sent me this poem with the message that it was one of our favorite yoga instructor's last day of teaching, and that she read a poem during final savasana.

Sad to have missed Ash's last class, sad to have missed her reading such a beautiful poem, and sad that she won't be in any of our classes anymore.

Sharing with you the poem she read.

Namaste.

-----
The Invitation  
by Oriah Mountain Dreamer 
Canadian Teacher and Author

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dreams
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life's betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your
fingers and toes
without cautioning us to
be careful
be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand on the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
"Yes."

It doesn't interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after a night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the center of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.
-----

Blogging.

I miss it, and I feel the need to re-learn it. 

Soon.

:)

Freedom To Love

This one is for all my friends who love. No labels. No names. No distinction. No gender.

All human beings. Free to love.

CATS Manila: Now and Forever

I LOVED it.  Friday night was a night of excellent singing and marvelous dancing, and I've been seriously thinking of watching it again! 

Thank you for this part of my Christmas gift! ♥

---

There's something about watching plays/musicals that I find uplifting.  I guess it's that whole experience of being immersed (even for a few hours) in the very essence of creative genius. Then again, maybe I should be more specific and say: "there's something about watching outstandingly executed performances in plays/musicals that I find uplifting.  After all, I don't get this kind of 'high' after every single play/musical I watch. 

Paul ended up sleeping through some of the scenes, and I had to explain to him what happened during those scenes.  Prior to watching, I told him to  read the synopsis so he'd have an idea of what CATS is about, and so that he wouldn't get lost in the singing and dancing, but he dint read the synopsis, and so he got lost, sort of.  

Despite getting "lost", he did admit that he found the play very entertaining--- because it is that, whether or not you got the story ;) There is no heavy drama, no epic romance, no war, poverty, or life-changing revelations in this play--- CATS is simply just about a bunch of cats, gathered for the grand Jellicle Ball, trying to impress the Old Deuteronomy (the Wise One) in order to be chosen to journey to the Heaviside Layer (Cat Heaven).  

As simple, or as shallow as the story sounds, I believe that it sends out deeper messages of hope, acceptance, identity, kinship, and second chances, all throughout.  I guess this is one of the reasons why CATS is appealing to most people, it is such a spectacular show that you get lost in its grandiosity, but in the end, you realize how much of reality it depicts.

And so there I was, right after the show, writing on a giant board how amazingly wonderful  my CATS Manila experience was. Go watch, if you haven't yet! :)

The Last Saturday Club (TLSC) at the Sta. Ana Elementary School

September 26, 2009 - Typhoon "Ondoy" (internationally known as "Ketsana") brought the worst (amount of) rainfall to Metro Manila. Roads, highways, streets were impassable due to heavy floods. People were stranded. People were hurt. People were killed. Streams, rivers, lakes, and canals overflowed. Houses were damaged. Cars turned upside-down. Schools were muddied out, and this particular one was not spared.

Fast forward to May 2010 - the Kindergarten classroom of the Sta. Ana Elementary School remains unusable. Since the room and everything in it were drenched in floodwater during Typhoon Ondoy, the school had no choice but to cease using the room and convert it into a stock room instead. The school's administration maintains that they never had sufficient funding to clean up, repaint, and refurbish the room. They were left with no other option but to transfer the kids previously using the room to another room.

May 29, 2010 - Around 30 volunteers from TLSC and 20 volunteers from the Rotary Club of Makati joined hands to distribute food and school supplies to the students, and more importantly clean up, repaint, and refurbish not only the Kindergarten classroom, but also the Library of the Sta. Ana Elementary School. Through the generosity and kind-heartedness of so many people, the seemingly impossible task of feeding 330 students, distributing school supplies to them, cleaning up, repainting, and refurbishing the rooms was completed.

To the many sponsors and volunteers, THANK YOU! ---your friends from TLSC :)

The Last Saturday Club (TLSC) + Futbol sa Kalye

April 24, 2010, the last Saturday of April.

We trooped to Tondo, Manila to finally meet the Futkaleros. With bags of toiletries in hand, a pedicab filled with a huge kaldero of arroz caldo from Illustrado (thank you, Bea!), plates of sandwiches, a cooler, and boxes of fruit juice, we braved the scorching Tondo heat and spent the whole morning with a bunch of wonderful and extremely talented athletes--- the kids of Futbol sa Kalye.

PNKY Travel Cafe, Baguio City

After spending a week in the City of Pines, I'm back and experiencing scorching Manila heat! Oh, the heat. It's giving me a migraine! 

So anyway, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Black Saturday were spent in Subic with Paul and his family. On Easter Sunday, Paul and I went up Baguio. While he "worked", I spent the rest of the week going around the city, eating fresh Baguio vegetables and drinking freshly brewed Benguet coffee (for about 30-40 bucks a cup!). I love Baguio :) Although it's so much different from how it was before (I'm definitely not a fan of how congested it has become), I still find the place quite charming.  There were a hundred different things around Baguio that I wanted to take pictures of, but unfortunately, the camera was busted. Too bad. Maybe a trip back during the Panagbennga Festival would be nice ;)

On Tuesday, Paul and I had lunch at the Manor with one of our favorite persons in the world ;)

[photo courtesy of Father B.]

On Wednesday, I went to this quaint little travel cafe along Leonard Wood Road. A friend told me I should visit the place because they serve good food and good coffee. True enough, they do. Fascinated by the place, I took out my camera phone and took a few pictures to share :)

soon as they saw me start reading my book, they turned on the lights. how thoughtful ;)

at that time, I was their only customer

the counter covered with lomo pictures of course caught my attention :)

a passer-by checks out owner's magazine collection, and look at those colorful bottles by the window!

PNKY Travel Cafe Menu

it's just as interesting inside ;)

see the rest of their menu online:  http://pnkyhome.com/

i got a latte for my afternoon caffeine fix...

...and a carrot cake (which was warm and soft and sweet and yummy :))

ceramic sugar container says "pnky"

my afternoon "merienda"

I meant to go back the following day for lunch/dinner, but Paul had other plans. So, maybe next time. PNKY is not just a cafe, it's actually a bed & breakfast, maybe staying there for a night or two would be a good idea. I hear they have nice, cozy rooms :)

For more info, check out their site: http://www.pnkyhome.com/

I found out I passed the bar exam on my dad's birthday :)

What a blessing! :)

Tuesday - I sent my dad a message saying that the Supreme Court had already released an official statement that results of the bar exam would be out on Friday, the 26th of March. I asked him to pray for me, and in reply he said, "Am always praying for you, Kat."

Thursday - I asked Paul what I was supposed to do on Friday while waiting for the results. He said he was gonna take the day off and spend the whole day with me. We dint really plan anything. We just agreed that we were gonna spend the day together.

Friday morning - Initially, we thought of going out of town, but then by lunch time, I changed my mind. I thought, "really, what's the point? Results will be out no matter where I am or what I'm doing." So, we ended up spending the whole day at the mall. We had late lunch at Mr. Jones, watched How To Train Your Dragon (which I really enjoyed :)), and then heard mass at 545 pm at the Greenbelt Chapel.

Friday evening - Lunch was really heavy so after mass, we dint feel like having dinner yet (I guess the anxiety was also already beginning to get to us). We walked around the mall and realized that a concert was about to start. It was Cobra Starship's concert at Greenbelt 3. Both of us weren't familiar with the group's songs (save for Good Girls Gone Bad) but we stayed in the area and watched anyway.

Eat, Pray, Love The Movie (trailer)

I loved the book, and I can't wait to watch the movie :)

Here's a photo of the author, Elizabeth Gilbert. Do you see the seeming likeness between her and Julia Roberts? I do ;)

Dreaming of Summer: CORON and CARAMOAN

I am dreaming of fine white sand, crystal clear waters, and sunshine (nope, not the kind we get here in smoggy Manila).  

All these talks of summer plans, vacays, and getaways are making me dream of summer beach trips. Literally.

One of the many lovely things about living in a tropical country, and an archipelago at that, is that there are just so many places to see, visit, and explore. Seriously, my list just keeps getting longer, and I'm not complaining :) I tick off one destination and then I add three more. That's how it's been for the last couple of years, and I love it :)

I can't wait to explore a new beach destination or two this summer, and I won't mind going back to those I've already been to. I am a woman of the sea, and I don't think I will ever tire of "beaching" ;)

As I researched for this year's summer trips, I thought of looking at albums of recent beach trips. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from two great beach destinations I visited late last year. The upside of non-summer beach trips is that you get to have beaches/islands all to yourself. The downside, well you don't get as much sun. Lucky for us last November, we got just the right amount of sunshine to enjoy these awesome destinations.

Ah, I can't wait to hit the beach!

Coron, Palawan

because I ♥ clouds

en route to Coron

we climbed Mt. Tapyas just in time to catch the sunset

Coron port at 6 a.m.

Jimmy Kimmel and the HMC

It's late and I can't sleep. Hoping this will bring sweet dreams :)

The Handsome Men's Club. Hilarious :)

Oscars 2010

I woke up early to catch the live telecast ;)

It wasn't as spectacular as last year's show, but Steve Martin was funny, and okay, Alec Baldwin, too.  

Now, these are just a few of my thoughts while I was watching the show.

Calauit Safari

I picked up Saturday's paper because a picture on the front page caught my eye--- that image of President Arroyo feeding the giraffes in Calauit Island.  I was just there last November with Paul and two of our friends, and I never knew that the Tagbanuas (one of the oldest known IP's or indigenous peoples group in the country living in Central and Northern Palawan) actually had a claim over the island and its surrounding waters.

Lomo of the Day :)

I just found out that one of my lomo photos has been chosen as lomo photo of the day, and it's right HERE! What a pleasant surprise! Hooray!!! :)

The photo was from my first roll of colored 120mm for my Diana F+. It was shot using the pinhole effect, at the UP Academic Oval during a late afternoon run. Now I'm suddenly missing shooting with the Diana. I should plan a Sunday trip to Quiapo and hoard cheap  120mm's (they're about half the price of the ones they sell over at the team manila stores) so I can again bring along the Diana anywhere I go ;)

Saturday Breakfast at Antonio's

After hearing the last few minutes of mass at the Pink Sisters Convent in Tagaytay (we arrived really late coz we, well, I assumed that Saturday mass schedule was the same as Sunday mass schedule), Chai and I went to Antonio's for breakfast.

The initial plan was brunch at Bawai's, but after reading a couple of bad reviews, we decided that we dint wanna risk it. We opted for breakfast at Antonio's instead.

Both of us have never been there for breakfast, so we were really excited to sample the breakfast menu. And... oh what a joy! :)

Today in Ellen

It was one of those episodes I found myself smiling (and laughing) from start to finish. I love Ellen (the show), and I love Ellen (the person). I just love it and her to bits! 

Anyway, this 4-year old Chinese little boy was featured today in the show. Oh he's so cute and adorable!

Eat, Pray, Love

So finally I finished reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love. I loved it. It’s one book I’m sure I’ll read over and over again. Chai lent it to me more than a year ago, and now that I’m done with it, it’s time to pass it on to Ta. I’m getting my own copy so I can highlight and mark favorite lines. I feel like I’ve become friends with Liz (yes, first name basis) already after my journey with her to the three I’s (Italy, India, and Indonesia). I love how she writes. I love her candidness, her wit, her sincerity, and how she makes everything sound so uncomplicated.  Many times I find myself reciting her life mantras in my head. I was, and I am inspired to say the least.

Fisheye2 at the Manila Oceanpark

It was my first time to use this new toy. I read the manual (while driving) during crawling traffic from Harbor Square to Roxas Boulevard (with Tata's help :)). The ones I took indoors dint come out nice. My film had low ISO and I dint use the internal flash, which I should have, really. Oh well. Next time. It was FUN, nonetheless ;)

Do you like Pho?

So Paul and I were in the Supermarket a few weeks ago and we found this interesting pack of instant pho noodles.

There it is, the new iPad.

"iPad" kind of sounds like barok "iPod"... Then again, it's e-mail, music, videos, and e-books on the go; plus a few more netbook functions (and i heard it can be used to skype???), what more can you ask for?