enter if you dare...

2005-10-26T17:52:00.000+08:00

Hugs

It's amazing how we show affection for one another. There are actually many different ways on how to show affection but none of them could be as inviting as a hug. Hugs are given all the time to all the people; A hug can actually mean different things to different people. A hug from your mother before going to bed could actually mean: "Good night, sleep tight, don't worry about the boogie man in your closet because I'm here and I love you". A hug from your dad on graduation day could mean: "I'm proud of you son, I always knew you could do it and this is a big step in your life." A hug from a long lost friend could mean: "I missed you. Why haven't you been calling me? We have to catch up on those old high school memories." A hug from a past boyfriend or girlfriend could mean: "I've missed this, we used to do this all the time!". A hug from your parents before going off to a foreign land to study could mean: "Be safe, enjoy life and be home for Christmas! And don't you forget that you have a loving family to come home to In case you get homesick." A hug after a date could mean: "I had a great time, hope you ask me out again sometime, I'd really want to get to know you better." A hug after a breakup could mean: "I need you, I love you but I know this is going to be the best for both of us." A hug from a friend after tragedy could mean: "It's okay, I'm here for you, everything will be alright." People may interpret hugs in all sorts of ways but one thing is for certain, it always leads to something positive. Hugs come and go through the years and it's a great way to show emotions to others without opening your mouth and being conscious of saying the wrong things. So next time you run into a jam and don't know what to say, give that person a hug... After all it's an unspoken emotion that could lead to greater things.

--- ceekster

2005-09-05T22:09:00.000+08:00

Traveling Light
Resil B. Mojares

Seasoned travelers have learned the art of traveling light. While others weigh themselves down with a ton of luggage, spend inordinate amounts of time packing, endlessly worrying about items forgotten, lost, or mislaid - the seasoned traveler moves through places lightly, unencumbered.
There is something to be said for the art of traveling light. This is a simple economy. Arriving by train on my first visit to New York, I did not have to take a taxi from Union Square to my hotel. I walked. Transiting in Rome for a few days, I checked my suitcase in a luggage depository in the airport (after I had transferred a few necessities into a light traveling bag), took the bus to the heart of Rome, and was quickly off to a walking tour of the city.
These may seem like a glamorization of penny-pinching, but he who travels light does get to explore and see more. On a whim, he can interrupt his travels, get off a bus, check his bag into a locker, and then roam town or city for a few hours before resuming his trip.
Traveling light is more than just a question of luggage. It also means traveling anonymously and alone. It means not having a fixed intinerary to follow, appointments to keep, traveling companions to drag you down, or hosts who plan for you things to do that you do quite relish doing. You travel as you are, free to seek out your own interest or follow your instincts. Now, this too can be a rather lonely (even selfish) enterprise. Yet in an important sense, there is essential solitariness to travel. It is always a personal experience: it cannot be done by a proxy, and while it can be shared (and joyously shared), what is sheared cannot be quite the same.
Traveling light is an eloquent metaphor. After all, whether or not we leave our home city, we are travelers all. It is not just places but time, life, which we transverse. To travel light is a greater virtue that it seems. Imelda Marcos' mountain of lug does not only say something about Imelda as world-traveler bit also Imelda as a person. It is not just luggage we are prone to carry in excess.
Imelda Marcos is not alone. Egypt's King Farouk ate 600 oysters a week. Farouk's grandfather, Khedive Ismail, kept a harem of 300 women and, in 1895 died while trying to guzzle two bottles of champagne in on a draft. It is strange how people can find pleasure in such gross rebundancies. Yet, the 2,700 pairs of shoes, 600 oysters, and 300 women are a metaphor (rather overdrawn, I must admit) for what we - in humble though not necessarily honest ways - burden ourselves with.
We weigh ourselves down with many things. Some of us, like a character out of a Joseph Conrad novel, carry the carcass of the past around our necks, unable to distinguish between memories we must hold close to the heart and those we need to shed off. We move slowly, as in a bog, On the other hand, there are those who seem so caught up in motion, they have no time for memory beyond remembering the facts they need from moving from day to day. Yet, though they may be in perpetual locomotion, they may not be traveling at all. I recall from a friend who seemed always in between places, just arrived from somewhere, going off to meet someone, or rushing off to catch a plane. Yet, it seemed to me, the energy he put into moving was mainly disguise for the fact he was, in life, not getting anywhere. He carried a single suitcase but traveled with excess baggage - the kind you cannot check in.
There are others of a more numerous variety, and if a decidedly less romantic mold, who lug with them things more vain and mundane - degrees, titles, honors, undigested knowledge, petty accumulations of worldly goods (from cars and clothes to bathtub and kitchen sink), and the weight of their self-importance. Though they carry heavily-marked passports, they have crossed few boarders. Beside them, Conrad's star-crossed anti-hero seems infinitely more appealing.
There are no easy tips for the art of traveling light, which is the art of life itself. We only know there are virtues to be prized - quickness, lightness, grace.

----- ceekster

2005-08-30T23:41:00.000+08:00

LOVE is a four letter word commonly misinterpreted by people to explain something out of the ordinary. LOVE is a form of expression from one person to another. LOVE is that tingly feeling one feels for another. LOVE is this exaggerated state in which one person is willing to sacrifice himself for the other. LOVE is motionless, still and serene. LOVE is something that everyone wants to experience yet is hard to come by. LOVE is often mistaken with LIKE. LOVE should be an eternity without borders and until the end. LOVE is like a paradox. LOVE is when two people show excessive practices of public display of affection. LOVE is when mommy kisses daddy. LOVE is when you're willing to go out of your way to do something special for that certain someone. LOVE is when you stay up until 12 midnight listening to her blabbing about her friends even though you find it boring. LOVE is giving and taking. LOVE is when you learn that you're not the only one important in this forsaken world. LOVE is when you give her something with no special occasion at all. LOVE is inhuman, unexplainable and untouchable. LOVE is something you risk everytime you fight. LOVE is learning to sacrifice something you love so much and giving time for her. LOVE is when you find no reason to be with her but you still are. LOVE is the best feeling of all. LOVE is subjective, like this post. LOVE is when it hurts so MUCH until the point you can't control it. LOVE is when I'm willing to give it ALL without expecting anything in return. LOVE is when I'm ready to get hurt even MORE. LOVE is when I don't know anymore what to do. LOVE is everything to me, is it to YOU??

Where are you LOVE?

-- ceekster