Category: Inspirational

名詞 > 動詞

I don’t why but nowadays (or even in the past?), nouns have more value than verbs. I mean people are in constant melee to have nouns: family, friends, material possessions, events, money, love, happiness–all things you can think of–and then judge others on the size of their “collections.”

A is better off because she has a bigger and shinier diamond ring than B.

A is envious of B just because the latter has a more spacious house.

It’s like we have neglected the fact that verbs (or gerunds) are the mother of all nouns.

Being happy brings happiness.
We go around looking for that person, the love of our life, forgetting to actually be in love.

We strive for knowledge, but the act of learning is something we do grudgingly.
We want peace but getting along doesn’t creep in.

Are actions too common that they are better off to be hidden under the rug? Or, are they so “shy” that they wanted to be pushed into the shadows of the trophy we put onto display?

Verbs are only accepted if we have the nouns to back it up.

A person who sings is not a singer without an album that is recorded.
A person who writes is not a writer unless a book is published to prove it.
A person who cooks is not considered a chef without a restaurant to cook in.
A person who finishes the race needs a ribbon to validate that the track is crossed and finished.

Why can’t we just be contented with verbs? In other translation, why does the end have to justify the means to make the journey worthwhile, or just enjoy the journey itself? When we value life more than living, it’s easy to fear death and forget that every minute we are dying.

Just saying. 🙂

“Life is a game played on us while we are playing other games.” ~ Evan Esar

P.S. I like metaphors, not because of their artistic and figurative way of expressing themselves; not because of the creative outlet it can be as a means of expression; not because it somehow gets you more to see the point; and not because it makes me sound like a clever brash (haha). I like using metaphors because I’m tired of having to repeat the same words all the time.

“Life is like riding a bicycle.

To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”

Albert Einstein wrote this quote in a letter to his son, Eduard, on February 5, 1930. I wonder what the son thought about it. Regardless, there are only two ways: one is to accept and another is to differ.

There are so many quotes by Einstein that I lovelovelove. But when I read this one, I kinda went…ick.

I mean–okay, we are given the opportunity to choose to just keep moving. But there are also times in life when the “just keep moving” mantra is not applicable. If we keep on going without knowing if we’re heading towards the right direction, we might be getting off a worse track.

I want to live a life in which I can jump off that bicycle (that might just as well be heading in circles) and sit and savor a sunset, a laugh, a moment of perfection found in everything…because life is meant to be savored, absorbed, adored and experienced.

This is true even for the parts that stretch me and those that rub uncomfortably against me. Yup, these can be sat with, experienced and better yet, learned from.

In every opportunity presented, I ask myself what I’ve got to lose. If it’s something really dangerous/risky, I’ll avoid it. Else, I’ll have to try. But nope, I don’t want to move in circles or keep heading in the same atrocious direction. I want to hop out of the madness and listen deeper to the very thing I’m tempted to rush through.

Sometimes we go through random pauses. When this happens, we not only start to think, but we also start to feel not just normal classified emotions, but emotions that we can’t think of words for.

Sometimes we spend time trying to describe the emotion to others, only to have it describing something else—because the emotion we have and the thought we have go together to ourselves but not to other people.

Why do we sabotage ourselves and keep these feelings inside? Maybe because we’re too scared to know what others might think of us, or we’re not ready to face the resulting circumstances that would emerge once our thoughts come into public.

Conversely, we wish that somehow we could touch others and they would fully experience what we are feeling. We wish to have someone to understand it. Maybe it would calm us down. Sometimes there is nothing, so we just wallow and wait for the emotion to pass. Then there are times by some chance when someone is going through the same thing at the exact same time; that is if we are lucky, because the best thing we can have at a time like this is someone who understands.

Last night, Louie and I had a long, dead serious conversation about stuff that concerns us. For what was expected to be an ill outcome from a decision, all became well.

Photo credit:　Ｊｅａｔｔｅ　Ｇｏ

We’ve agreed to share problems right away for better understanding and settlement of good grounds and stop walking just around to avoid getting “bruises and scars” but go through the process of healing them. At this point, I’ve realized more that safe isn’t really safe after all. Unresolved feelings are like a brick wall around life—and that wall is stopping many wonderful experiences.

Not to go into the granular details: no masks, no shields, we’ll go into a trail, a big and powerful step for positivity. We’ve affirmed to keep strong trust, faith, commitment, guidelines and communication. For one, I believe everything would work if we put the time and effort into making it work.

Half the fun is taking risks and seeing if they pay off. And second, as Dr. Phil says,

“If you’re in love with somebody, you will swim the stream, you will climb the mountain, you will slay the dragon…”

Sometimes we go through random pauses. We should take advantage of these short breaks to highlight and discuss things that matter and even don’t matter much but we feel they’re right to dole out. We’ll see the imperfections, alright. But more importantly, we can search for ways to make up for them. Hey, the universe is friendly.

Let me introduce to you my bedtime pals, from left to right, top to bottom.

Here we go:

1. Bongga – a donkey who’s the best friend of Cheffe; bought in Baguio

2. Pulley – Pooh (face with no body); given by Willy

3. Lamian and Tang – a rabbit who has faces both front and back; bought in China

4. Bread – the violet gingerbread man; bought in Baguio

5. Momo – white mouse; given by Mom as my sister’s high school graduation gift

6. Misces Potts – violet mouse; given by Mom for my 21st birthday

7. Doo Ling – brown bear who’s the best friend of Pulley; given by Aunt Bibi from Hong Kong

8. Ujm – white sheep; given by Louie from New Zealand

9. Mangga – mango who’s the best friend of Bani; bought in SM

10. Mash – white jellyfish who’s a cousin of the three mousekeeteers given by Vinnie from Hong Kong

11. Octi – violet octopus who’s the little sister of Mash; given by my sister from MNL Ocean Park

12. Cheffe – the ultimate huggable chef; bought in Baguio

13. Piglet – Piglet of Winnie the Pooh; given by Aphu

14. Timmaya – large brown bone pillow; given by my team mates in IBM for my 21st birthday

15. Dodsy – pink mouse; given by my godmother for my 1st birthday

16. Bani – banana who’s the best friend of Mangga; bought in SM

17. Shrimpy Spinach or Shrimpach – white duckling who’s the boyfriend of Octi; bought in Baguio

Yesterday, Dad arranged them so well that I was prompted to take a picture of them. For sure, I’ll miss every one. I’ll only be bringing Dodsy with me because it is she that I hug when asleep together with Eyen and Flammy, two pillows I have since I was a baby.

Forgive me for being this childish but my stuffed animals are like my babies. I name them and talk with them. These little dolls are like millions of fans screaming my name as I walk on to “that stage with the lights”—or in real world scenario—as I come home. How?

My sister, Leigh, is the one controlling them with a baby’s voice. She’s the one who infuses a big fantasy world we escape into when we’re stressed out living the real. My role is to act as Achi Bert who’s the big sister in the whole “bed” neighborhood we call the Apple Street.

Why am I saying this? I wanted to post a memorable picture of them ’cause I won’t be seeing them for a long while. But more than that, I guess it’s to express that sometimes, life is full of drama that we have to deal with things in low spirits.

Playing with dolls is one of my outlets of releasing madness and a way to stay connected with the little girl inside me. It’s a fun fair; it’s like magic. If we have these small little “creatures” to play around [and a sister or a friend who can make them “talk”], we can regard them more as a balm to soothe our wounds or sought them as a lifeline to save us from drowning.

73.

That was the number placed on Aphu’s birthday cake in her birthday celebration last night. Aphu, by the way, is what we call Grandmother in Cantonese.

At 73, Aphu has garnered quite an accomplishment as she’s still considerably strong, in good mental and physical health apart from diabetes and minor heart disease. She has dearly loved my grandfather whom she had bore eight children with, and now she has 16 grandchildren.

Inspired by her glowing presence, I started thinking what my life would be like when I’m old and wrinkly. I wondered if I myself could live up to that age—

Who will I be married with? Who will be my loyal friends? Will I even have friends by that time? What about my children? Will I have the chance to read back my teenager kinda letters or maybe show them to my future generation as I think they wouldn’t know what snail mail is about next time? Will my children or grandchildren take care of me?

In some other families I know of and see, life is miserable for old people. Some of these old fellows, without anyone to turn to, either work still in monetary need or work to keep themselves from going senile.

Well, I don’t know but I guess when I’m old I want to lie on the beach every day and read books and drink a lot of virgin mojito in a bikini. Haha. That’s not me on the picture, indeed, but you get the point. I want to enjoy what’s left of my life, not working some menial labor, and live it together with my loved ones—ike Aphu, or even better.

On a parallel plane, yesterday, while I was on the bed watching Wish Ko Lang with my parents in quiet, I have just imagined living without them. Breaking up my own bubble thoughts, to Mom, I joked, “You’re for real?!” and touched her face. And then I pondered upon the question, “If I could spend the rest of eternity in one moment, which moment of my life would I choose?”

There was no debate, no questioning involved, the moment was chosen in my mind.

But let’s face it: Common knowledge says that moments don’t last. Even if they seem to stretch out to eternity, a moment is just a moment. So even though we’ll never be able to spend the rest of our lives in one moment, we can do everything in our power to repeat that moment over and over again.

Barring that, we can sear the image of that moment in our mind and cling to it like a castaway clinging to a piece of driftwood. For only that kind of moments, the ones that take our breath away and make us want to experience them forever, make life worthwhile.

Come now, smile. Pinch yourself and you know you’re alive—to make more of those moments and so will I.