A Strike of Soulmates

Last day of August – despite the threat of a transportation strike, I walked my way towards our office only to find out that work has been cancelled. But as usual, my colleagues were also around and we simply accused each other of being workaholics, recited famous lines from old local movies and laughed ourselves off while continuing our work. 

Since we were still on the holiday mode, I went out with bossingshe and applethea that afternoon to watch the light comedy Crazy Stupid Love. It reminded me of the movie Love Actually – only with less characters and more laughable antics. The characters were also circularly related to each another and the theme focused only on the romantic connection of soulmates and keeping them. The relationship of Cal and Emily (played by Steve Carell and Julianne More) seem to stress that aside from knowing your soulmate, one ought to choose them in order to keep them with you. Although I liked it that Cal’s daughter (Emma Stone, Easy A) gets Jacob (Ryan Gosling, The Notebook) to change his playboy ways, I wanted to see a bit more strength in the development of his character in the movie to convince me that their relationship is for keeps. Or maybe I want to see more of his photoshopped-like abbs. (Just kidding)  =P

Soulmates. What or who exactly is a soulmate? I have a hard time believing in the concept of soul mates, let alone the idea that they will meet and end up being together. But that’s because I’ve met people I got along so well in an instant and I'm just so happy to find someone I can share my hobbies, interests and passion with. It makes me giddy sometimes but not always wired with romantic vibes. Have you ever tried sitting down with people from a very different walk of life? They've usually got something interesting to say. That is, if you keep an open mind and heart AND they don’t come across with an egoistic air around them.

As it happens, these "soulmates" just seem to come and go. They can be just around the corner or they can be at the other side of the world. According to a book recommended to me entitled Soulmates by Thomas Moore, a soul mate is one you have a soulful relationship with, the one you can communicate anything under the sun without inhibition or pretense. We can have several soul mates – friends who share our love for hobbies and collectible items, friends to whom we sit down with and say nothing at all but totally get what the other is feeling. Two of my college buddies shared the same birth dates and called each other soul mate or “kambal.” Heck, the Hero Jose Rizal called his German friend Ferdinand Blumentritt his soulmate!

But on the notion of a soul mate a.k.a. life partner, I asked my former high school science teacher who is a fan of magical science and who wrote a note entitled the Magical Method of Calling your Soulmate: How does one know his/her soulmate? How can one be so sure that he/she is “The One?” I mean, we get a lot of similar frequencies once in a while, right? He simply replied “If you know yourself, you will know your twin soul.” 

I guess that's an appropriate advice for the girls who get worked up and hyper at the sight of their male crushes in my former school where he works.

Have you watched the movie Somewhere in Time? There’s this dreamlike scene when writer Richard Collier (played by the late Christopher Reeve), finally arriving in 1912 via self-hypnosis time travel, walks into the park looking for the woman he saw in a portrait. He then sees someone familiar behind the trees and is entranced by the scene. The woman, actress Elise McKenna (played by Jane Seymour), slowly walks into sight, gazes at him with wonder and awe and asks “Is it you?” Talk about swoon moment.;)

In the end though, they didn’t get your typical happy ending on earth – which I admit was a bit depressing but better than the usual cliché of them getting back together quite easily. The striking thing there is that they felt so strongly towards each other- Richard was able to travel through time and Elise was able to wait for so long to meet him again in the future. Then they died almost instantly after seeing each other (Yesss! I mean, that's sad).

It’s a bit impractical to look for your soulmate in the past but it puts other so-called relationships and soulmates to shame, don’t you think?

How about you? Do you still believe in soulmates? Despite my skepticism and sarcasm, the crappy events I’ve experienced and served as witness, the world taking a turn for better or for worse, I know I do. I have done so. I still do. And I will continue to be...so far. Hahaha. ;)

If you forget me

love this poem. this should be one's mantra in case of looming break-up. ;)

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine

- Pablo Neruda

*sigh*

The news that made the headlines

William and Kate marry!

"Marriage is intended to be a way in which man and woman help each other to become what God meant each one to be, their deepest and truest selves."  

-Archbishop of Canterbury in his sermon during William and Kate's wedding

The same afternoon we got back from the office outing, I kept my tired eyes open just to watch the royal wedding in BBC. From a shallow point of view, the parade of hats made me long for the hats I owned (and lost) and Kate’s Alexander Mcqueen wedding dress reminisce old world charm when Hollywood star Grace Kelly’s married the Prince of Monaco. Who wants flowers when you can have trees inside the church?

I’m not a psychic, but I think they have what it takes to make their marriage work. Aside from the fact that they’ve known each other for almost a decade, Kate, I mean Princess Catherine, has gracefully handled the pressure and attention throughout the years while William seem to have grown into a good and decent prince. He could have chosen almost any beautiful upper class girl; she could have her own life and could have dished out insights about the royals for a fortune. From stalking news of the upcoming wedding, it does sound like true love. ;)

Despite the usual reserve the British Royal family exude, the two managed to come across simply as a couple in love, conversing throughout the wedding, beaming at the cheering crowd, exchanging loving glances…you get the picture.

I don’t normally waste my time writing this kind of stuff, but it will go down in history (hopefully not just as the wedding of the century). As it also happens, I  believe in the advice Princess Di gave to his son before her death: Marry your best friend. But please don’t just befriend cute and charming guys in hopes you’ll find your match. 

Long live the Royal Couple!

My favourite part of the wedding: Still holding hands when they made their exit in the balcony.

*****

Pope John Paul II is beautified

Back in Summer of 2004, I had parked myself in front of the TV and vigilantly watched news from Vatican through CNN. Although he looked so frail, the pope had appeared several times in his balcony waving at the growing crowd in St. Peter’s Square praying for his recovery. Days later, he eventually passed away and I had stationed myself morning ‘til evening in the living room to wait a little bit longer for the white smoke to appear in the Sistine Chapel's chimney…

Nearly six years later, I watch him make the first step to sainthood. Indeed time flies so fast.

Being such a skeptic, I take note of the quick time interval between his death and beautification as compared to many others lined up for sainthood. Commentators mention the existence of a group called the devil’s advocate composed of experts like psychiatrists, doctors and psychologists that aims to disprove miracles as part of a stringent process in declaring who’s going to be venerated. In the Philippines, people line up in objects (second-class relics) that the pope used during his 1995 visit in the Philippines for the World Youth Day, among them the pope mobile once displayed weeks later at the school I went to in Alabang.

It must be special treatment. It would be interesting to have a career in that special group but it has long been dissolved. When they brought the blood of the pope to the altar inside elaborately-styled silver vial case, I though, wow, these people actually reserved his blood for this occasion years ago…

Believe.

“Why do you think did the centurion believed?” My spiritual director asked me when I relayed to him my meditations on the faith of the Roman soldier who asked Jesus to heal his servant by just saying so. After short pause, I lamely told him it was probably because he was powerful and was used to giving commands to his servants who would carry it out immediately. After a moment's breath, I slowly added that it was probably because of love; the love of his people who told him about Jesus and the love he had for his sick servant - love that gave him the confidence to believe. What else would defy reason and motivate us to trust in the absence of any concrete evidence?

Up until now I can’t fully understand even my own answer to his question. For the meantime, I try to suspend my judgement and just believe for a change. So far it is better than to burden myself with too many doubts no earthly wisdom can erase. 

"Blessed are they who have not seen and have believed" (John 20:29)

I suppose that instead of considering it as plain ignorance, it may just be a gift, one I have yet to receive after a long time of disbelief.

*****

Bin Laden is dead!

If my mom hadn’t pointed it out, perhaps I wouldn’t have noticed the irony of people rejoicing over someone’s death. It was all over the news, website and social networks – posing updates from Washington, flashing pictures where the ceasefire took place, looking back to the events of 9/11 (I had turned on the TV that fateful morning, flipped through the channels and paused momentarily at one particular scene of a smoking tower, trying to deliberate whether what I was seeing was real or a stunt). I suppose it is a monumental event, but I also fear that this could spark more radical measures as a form of retaliation. And it’s just 2011! No more tsunamis, nuclear plant breakdowns and tornadoes please…

I hate wars. It gives me the chills when people lose their temper and argue over petty issues which are often fueled by how people handle with it and do not actually focus on the problem at hand. Whenever someone release a string of curses and naively think it’s so cool to call someone a b*tch and the like, I’d like to see how would they would actually fare if they were caught in the middle of a ceasefire. *insert sarcastic tone here*

The b*tch culture is in, but it will never be cool. I admit having a hard time sticking to the kind of life I choose for the meantime with all the supposedly cool stuff I could have and do. I see it everywhere, or at least in the net.

I just need to remember what really makes me not just happy but elated. And nope, it is not finding the cutest pair of high-heeled pumps, although that would be awesome acquisition. Maybe if I get to read and watch all the books and movies I had long wanted to watch. Maybe get that one trip I could share with people who matter to me. Maybe hold a hand. Maybe world peace! =) 

Hmmm…I have asked too many if not hard questions in this post. I might as well scare people off at this rate. I’ll end this one in a simple question then: what’s your side of the story when all these things happened?

Sources:
Will and Kate pic - http://www.popsugar.com/Kate-Middleton-Prince-William-Royal-Wedding-Pictures-16158967?page=0,0,25
JP2 pic - http://lionswordwriting.wordpress.com/2011/01/15/the-beautification-of-the-late-pope-john-paul-the-second/
Transcript of Royal Wedding Homily - http://www.interaksyon.com/article/2705/full-transcript-bishop-of-londons-sermon-at-the-wedding-of-prince-william-and-kate-middleton

Fun beneath the (hidden) sun

After the Sagada, Manila and Baguio trip (which I will probably post a more extensive article later on), I took another leave from work to join fellow formators for some bonding time. I wasn’t suppose to join the office outing but because I’m one of those people who appeared to be free at the moment, I went with another colleague despite of all the work I was suppose to catch up. As it turns out, the party-but-sometimes-introvert girl me actually had fun. The food was great, the place was large and spacious, with the interior design of the halls and sleeping quarters beautifully decorated with wooden furniture and interesting ornaments. The pool and the gardens were wide enough to swim in and explore respectively. 

"Dakula na?"

My Kokology books also proved to be useful in this place, as the girls bonded with each other in discovering the hidden meanings of choices that reveal our deepest and perhaps naughtiest secrets. The conversations vary from the cheesiest love story to human sexuality and further studies. Tempting indeed. =)

Fun! Fun! Fun! Now back to work!

When you seek inspiration, look to Japan

Since stress is on its way again with all the leadership and skills development workshops we have to conduct this March and May, I have been dying to put something in my table to pleasantly distract me or anyone coming up in my desk. Who would be happy to see all the files stacked one after another? So, giving the office and my little space some "feminine touch," I bought this:

Cherry blossoms. Kawaii! =)

I guess has become quite common in malls to see this branching out of bags or window displays, but as I am evidently a fan of anything Japanese, our office gets this little cherry treatment. Maybe I'll buys some green stalks and natural-looking orchids next time. Don't want to make real plants suffer from neglect.