Here We Go Again

The year is young.
Yes it is the New Year and I intended to once again, after the long wait, to open this blog so that I can update the world on what exciting things are happening now in my life.

2015 has been nothing but good to me. It is my fault, mea culpa, that I did not blog about that year. This year, 2016, I am hoping that things will even be better than the greatness of 2015. As a proof to that confidence, I decided to write on this blog again. I hope that I will remain faithful to delivering raw my experiences, but more than that, I hope I will be able to shed more lights informing and educating more people. So much so, I am also dreaming of saving souls through my essays and reflections about the Gospel.

I am really excited of being here back to the world of blogging. I am hoping to share as much stories as I can about life.

Let's Rock 2016 now.

Continue reading and learning from here. !!!!

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Above are just some of the most memorable moments that happened last 2015. I wish I can outdo the happiness brought by the previous year. let me now recall the highlights of 2015 in a nutshell.

2015 Highlights

1. I became part of the Victory San Pablo cell group for single male attendee. It is a great fellowship where I gained a number of friends from the faithful department and it was amazing.

2. That summer when I spent the Holy Week with my best friend is one of the biggest gifts I received for 2015. I rushed to manila from laguna and spent three glorious days with Aizee and other friends.

3. My sister successfully arrived and got a good job in Abu Dhabi U.A.E. which is a blessing to our family in terms of material resource. It is because of my sister that I do have my new phone now. So thank you really!

4. The formation of Mentor's Hub which initially was launched by my CBF friends. i am really thankful to Joy, Leonel, and Victor for the assistance and for showing me ahead of time the possible challenges that may occur in my leadership for millennial mentors.

5. My being part of the ZPMI Family where I now work as a Voice Teacher. The bonus of this blessing is that I got to work with a boss who possesses true integrity and whose visions are almost identical to mine in terms of music education. I am so proud to be part of ZPMI since it is a Christian company which really strives for excellence. Aw! I met a lot of new friends and potential mentors. Sad though that one of them had to leave me so soon. Sir Roy who became one of my best advisers as a team leader died just before the year ended. His life is one huge of a blessing.

6. My assignment to Lourdes School of Quezon City as Voice Teacher and as Moderator for elective music class. I believe the greatest surprise that God allowed me to experience for 2015 is to be with the best of students in music and the best community of faculty and administration in a Catholic setting.

So many things and to all of these I am really grateful. I pray that we all surpass the blessings received for 2015 and have the best 2016 of our lives.

We've Got December

Name it and December 2013 can enflame it.

That is how I view this month as probably the highlight of 2013. There are always given dates that would stand out and I am very happy to have them. It is not yet the end of the year but we are expecting more for December and they are all the best.

Heartaches will always be there but the supremacy of happiness can never be denied just like what I wrote in my last essay. That's just part of it. We will never forget that this year Madame OA left us. As well as the heroes I mentioned in my last entry.

This month I was able to make it to Dasmarinas City Fiesta and attended the pontifical mass there. After that was a date with my nephew and two nieces Lizzeth, Lester, and Lianne. How can I forget that there was also the December 14 Christmas party of the company where we really had so much fun. We attended an after party night because that was also the birthday of Louie.

The day after December 14 is truly historical. Partially, I can say that it was the climax of December

I Hate Bidding Farewell

For sure, everybody doesn't want to leave and be left. In just a month we bid farewell to a number of special persons that we would never want to let go if only we can keep them. June Kiethley has been an inspiration to most media personalities during the 1986 revolution in the Philippines. She has been instrumental to documenting the restoration of polity democracy in the Philippines in a post Marcos transition.

We also said goodbye to Maestro Agripino Diestro this November. He is one of the most supportive artists that I have known. I was supposed to have an interview with him during my college days but because of a conflicting schedule I wasn't able to get into CCP on the day he would want me to be there. He is for me the father of instrumental festival. His persona is so festive that you will never remember him as a lonely person but always a joyous one. This attitude was being captivated by his son Jopi who does his craft in a very festive manner also.

The world mourned last December 1 when we heard about the tragic death of actor Paul Walker. He is not celebrated because he is an actor. People's heart were touch because he is a philanthropist. He is a person with a big heart and open hands. He is generous and he values non material realities. The story about Walker buying a $9,000 engagement ring for a groom-to-be who cannot afford it and gave it to his fiance,it is of some worth. The story about his unhesitation to donate goods to Filipinos after the storm surge as narrated by the people who are with him in ROWW. Walker is a saint in his own right.

Just when we thought everything is done and no one will follow, Nelson Madela, the icon of world peace and equity died at the age of 95. His life is indeed a life worth celebrating. He championed the rights of people not just of his class but humanity in general. When the black people took over South Africa, they intended to get even with the whites. However, it was Mandela who exemplified the true meaning of the equality he was fighting for. He never sow hatred for white people.

Yes, I hate saying goodbye especially if goodbyes mean we will let go of worthwhile memories and persons that lifts the dignity of human race.The fact that we are still here, gives a chance for a difference. We are as capable as Walker, Mandela, Diestro and Kiethley in terms of what they have proven to the world. We are all capable of making a difference. Just remember, Pope John Paul II died.It was a devastation to all faithfuls.But now, we have Pope Francis and this Pope, alive that he is, continues tomake a difference.

My Mom just met Katriz earlier. She gave the box of truffles which I pre-ordered. When we were in highschool I never thought that she will be a mother who will become a pastry expert and will make people happy by bringing sweet tastes to their buds. How are we going to make a difference? It is a question that will linger in my head as I attend the city feast of Dasmarinas City tomorrow. Christmas is just hovering around the ambiance. Carrying on the dreams that I had last year, I am just too glad that in just a year I made a lot of difference in my life and soon I am hoping to make some improvements to others' lives as well.

Our Common Past

I am writing this entry here in Laguna. Just went home yesterday so I can be with my family and to be able to go to Batangas for a visit to most of my friends whom I haven't been reunited for quite a long time. I was supposed to go there with Vien. But the weather of Christmas lurking around, never permit us. So I stayed home. Recollecting and resting. This is rest. This is a sanctuary. Laguna has been a fortress of mine from fatigue and loneliness.

How was my week? Perhaps that Friday when JS and I were together explains the climax of this week. We share common dreams and interests. It was her birthday. She's now 26 just like me and earning her money much more than I perhaps because she's been long in the teaching profession now while I'm just starting with a company.

What did we do? I was in front of Adamson University at 5pm waiting for her. From then we had the LRT-MRT experience. It's always the same thing. I pity the people whenever I see them inside the train. The experience doesn't seem to suit her birthday.She almost got irate because of the long wait for the trains, you see they are always loaded and we can't get in because it would over load. She even dropped her shoes down the train rail. Oh no... it's a good thing I was tehre to take everything under control.

Where did we go? To Robinsons Pioneer where she bought her new tent which she will use Wednesday for the hike. She's really good in mountian climbing I am not. Something that we don't share in common. That day is also the first major dance concert of Enrique Gil I was able to see Araneta outside but we know that the best is inside. The adoration for Enrique is something we don't also share in common. Yes we are at Trinoma where we celebrated her birthday and after that bought a pen for Chad.

The interest for fitness and wellness. Something that Aizee and I share in common. Before I even go to JS' birthday, Aizee and I started that Friday with physical exercises and most importantly a long run. Jogging is a healthy habit and how I wish we can do it everyday not only to be well but to bond with each other. Yet we know that the schedule of work and loads to do will never allow us.

Who can forget that we watched "Catching Fire" last Sunday? Oh it's been a week. One thing that really stood out as cool is the experience last Wednesday in A Veneto, Clyde celebrated his birthday on the 27th and I bought him a cake and placed it in our locker. He was so surprised when he open it. CJ, EJ Jeel and I went to A Venetto to have our lunch there it was quite fun.

This Sunday is fun too. Raph visited me in the house and right after that, Lorraine and I went to SM San Pablo just to treat ourselves and bond together. I am now watching the 27th PMPC Star Awards for Television where Rey Langit received his lifetime excellence award. Congratulations to all who won sapecially to Kim Chiu who was chosen star of the night.

Our common past is something we value with our friends. Tomorrow, my friend Chesk Jessa Silvestre will celebrate her birthday. She died 5 years ago without me even knowing where she was buried and laid. Our common past is treasured even more when people leave us. Today we say goodbye to June Kiethley who passed last week, an icon of democratic broadcasting. Also to Agripino Diestro who was hailed as the resident conductor of PPO. And just early today, to Paul Walker who just attended a fund raising event for the typhoon victims in Visayas.

What links most of us is not only our ancestry and tongues, we are linked and connected by our common hope, common visions, common dreams.

Giving Season

When I was in college, one of the good books I have read is entitled My Losing Season. It is about a basketball team meditating on how they weren't able to manage winning a peat in a basketball season. The author, Pat Conroy, tried to narrate in his memoir how as a starting pointguard, he was able to unveil some of life's secrets and pains. That in every losing season there is an opportunity for players to reflect what they have done wrong, strengthen the ties they have with each teammates and their coach and train harder so as not to disappoint themselves the next time.

My November 25 journal entry I chose to entitle "The Giving Season" and indeed it is. It is officially the start of Christmas carol trips, in just three more days we are about to remember the Thanksgiving Day of the Americans. In just a month we are about to remember the birth of our Lord Jesus and how His Father, our Father, gave His Son to us as the primordial act of giving.

Just today, ALicia Keys visited the typhoon victims to do the giving. To serve as inspiration so that the people can have something to hold on to. It is the same way with Manny Pacquiao winning his fight yesterday with Brandon Rios. It is the same way with artists mostly local artists sending the warmth of their loves to the typhoon victims as a way of giving back. How is it? Giving back, a project that I have always wanted to accomplish as I start working in a big company.

I want to giveback. It is a promise of everyone to their every self. It is rooted in the very nature of mankind to donate and offer. It is our way of sending gratitude to our maker.It has always been this way.

Yesterday, we were able to watch "The Hunger Games 2; Catching Fire" my friend Aizee was with his girlfriend Fericka who I have seen for the first time. We went to Alabang Town Center and enjoyed the window shopping and sight seeing there. Feeling the coolness and the ambience I had almost forgot that 1/10th of my people are suffering. There comes Hunger Games. A depiction of what futuristic world could be one day when we're gone. It is also a depiction of corruption, of betrayal of public trust, of deception, of malevolence and extreme poverty.

What was good about the movie? It never make you felt that the violence is around. It was overpowered by the outpouring of love and dedication manifested by the tributes. How sacrifice matters. How dignity is established by truth and how a person who uplifts the moral of the suffering can become an inspiration and icon to set things in a new world order. It is a search for humanity in each and every individual and did I not say, HOPE covered most of the plot.

HOPE. I believe it has been the core message of my blog all along. I always end my journal entries with sentences that looks up for a brighter tomorrow after reporting whatever happened in a particular day. It is also the same message that I found seven years ago as I waited in a tricycle near Brgy Palayan Liliw Laguna. I was waiting for my Empress. Then she came unexpectedly without warning. I was stunned and it lead into a lovely day. How lovely she is that day as she appeared in her magnificence riding in their van. I was looking at her in a close distance while the sky is beginning to shed her rain. It always rain in Laguna every November 25. November 25 2003, It also rained in Liliw and it was one of those days whose I cannot outgrow. I wouldn't want to. The day was a day of HOPE. Yet, more than that, it became a day of love.

LOVE. At the end of the movie, Catching Fire, one will notice how love encapsulated the entire underlying theme. Katniss, finally found love inseide her and probably was able to learn how to love others. Christmas is not just season of giving. More than giving and donating, It is a season of love. My former choral group used to sing "Seasons of Love" during caroling activities. I saw love yesterday as we celebrated the Christ The King Sunday, in the sacraments, the readings and the cooperation of people. I saw love yesterday in the hearts of FIlipinos sending their support to Manny. I saw love between Aizee and Fericka the same as with Dimitri and Zet. I saw love ten years ago and seven years ago. I saw love today in how our celebrities give back. I saw love during the wake of Tito Tony, in the eyes of the bereived. In the eyes of my uncle and aunths who visited us the last time I was home. I had my four day vacation and thanks heaven for that.

More of love I will be able to see in Batangas probably as Vien and I visits there next Sunday. Giving is not that significant without the heart beating for the receiver. Without love, giving is futile. It is a season of giving and we should not forget that it is first and foremost the season of love.

With Fervor Beneath Faith

This is the evening of November 14, 2013, when all the wailing are reverberating and Christmas carols seem to be postponed. Too many concerts were canceled but too many concerts being put up for the benefits of the tragedounts. This is the date when we are suppose to celebrate the birth of a great woman, Carmelita Te Veridiano, my Filipino teacher, but we just cannot do that. This is the day ten years ago when we ate as a group in a chicken soup house in Liliw Lagubna when there was no electricity current at all because of the typhoon. That was ten years ago, when students can roam around the other town despite the presence of a storm.

Today, it is very much different. An archbishop is asking for a day of prayer, fasting and silence after a calamity. International concerts like that of Matchbox 20 and Foxes were cancelled so as not to insult the mourning populace only to find out local communities are organizing benefit concerts as a form of empathy to people who were ruined by the typhoon surge. This happened after a massive earthquake struck the country not even a month ago. These are evident signs of a new world order, of a day after tomorrow scene, of apocalyptic premonitions.

Nonetheless, the magnitude of the storm is something which human science is still trying to explain and figure out. Most of the time it is bringing fear and tremble to my people, some are seeing this as a form of chastisement and others are stoic about this and believe that it is part of the natural order of things. I am calm knowing that Go dis in full control. The picture of a portion of humanity helping each others hands to lift the victims up from the horrors of yesterday makes you feel at ease about it. It is a lesson which we are learning over and over again. First, with Ondoy; second with the March 11 earthquake and Japan tsunami; with Haiti's earthshake; with habagat; with Pablo; with Boh-Cebu quake and now with the aftermath of Yolanda. Humanity has to stand as a race. Nothing should hold us down.

It is the same motto that comes to mind as I recollect the good old story that happened ten years ago. We were a whole batch gathered in Madre Ignacia hall for a career guidance spearheaded by the Rotary Club in Nagcarlan. They spoke about their careers. One of the speakers was Mr. Tubana, our own teacher. They inspired the entire batch of their stories amidst the rain that makes it hard for us to hear them. They answered most of our questions. I can remember how Mary Blanch ask them a question and bringing out her dilemma about what career path to choose. That was the birthday of Mrs. Veridiano. A rainy Friday. And still the group composed of Kevin, Jhoy, Jenna, Relmark, Daryl, Rene and me pursued a hang out after class. To eat somewhere in Liliw together. There was no electricity but still a happy moment for all of us. We are then aware that soon we will separate ways as we face our college lives. Nothing stopped us from bonding with each other. Not even the typhoon threat at that time. Not even the absence of electricity. Not even the consciousness that my Dad will hit me if I got home wet.

That's the spirit. The same spirit rooted in our being as members of the resilient Filipino offsprings. We are going to stand up no matter what. I want the world to know. I WANT my countrymen to remember that. I want us to prove it. I want the world to learn from us. I want to see happy and cheerful Filipinos composed after the tragic moment in our current history. I want us to SOAR!

Two Ambassadress Spotlighted

Ten years after a wonderful experience of bonding with my highschool classmates for an annual retreat, I am writing this essay with all of them in mind; amidst the plight of my own people who were devastated by a massive earthquake in Bohol and Cebu; in the wake for storm alert which is suppose to hit the country tomorrow; and in the height of the senate hearing for the queen of all scams causing taint of integrity and questionable division in the bastion of senate.

Sometimes I want to wonder when will these all end in a country where all my former highschool friends are depending their dreams for a better life in the future. There was one person who asked me last week if I exercised my rights to vote last Barangay election [October 28, I answered no, because I was working that day for a double pay shift. I believed I contributed more for the country by working on that day than voting a Barangay captain and councilors whose impact for the country's growth is not even as large as the OFWs who give remittances almost every day.

Just recently, Sarah Asher Geronimo was named the NCCA goodwill ambassador for music and arts. There were certain objections for her installation. One prominent figure contesting her appointment is Olivier Ochanine, music director of PPO. Here's a quote of his facebook status about Asher...

"Here is a challenge for Sarah Geronimo.

Without searching the internet or any other sources, please answer the following:
1 - What piece(s) is Lucio San Pedro known for?
2 - What country is Gustav Mahler from?
3 - Give us the names of 2 successful Filipino pianists aside from Cecile Licad.
4 - Who wrote the Ring Cycle?
5 - Who wrote the 1812 Overture?

That's just a start. But I'll be very happy if our music ambassador can answer these correctly without searching the internet."

They were actually questiong the capacity of Asher to hold the post.

We also have Jessy Mendiola who was chosen by the Koeran government to be the an honorary ambassador for Korean tourism. “I am very honored and thankful that the KTO chose me as ambassador. The Koreans are very nice to me when I visited their country and they instantly became dear to my heart,” said Jessy.

It is really good that both of these celebrities are being chosen as ambassadors. But I just remember, everyone is called to be ambassadors. Ambassadors of Christ.

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Personally, I have so much of experiences that enabled me to grow happy and wise. October 27, one of those which really stand as my favorite as I commemorate previous events in the past that happened on that date.

October 30 was Katriz' birthday and I went to Laguna so as to give her my supposed gift and to reunite with my family for the All Saints Day. I wasn't able to give her the gift because of my busy schedule

October 31 became a great day compensating the remorse of 30. We went to San Pablo to treat my Mom and we were with Lorraine who enjoyed the trip also as we ate in Jollibee and bought Aizee my graduation gift.

The concert of Libera happened on October 29 and it had a repeat in Cebu. Just a day ago, One Republic had their concert in Araneta and tomorrow is the scheduled concert of Matchbox 20 which is also the birthday of Charry Vane. There is a news that the cocnert will be cancelled due to the storm. Enrique Gil, the dance prodigy of Star Magic will have his first ever dance concert in Araneta exactly on JS' birthday. They are really making his name big.

But as I am writing all these, two songs occupy my mind in a sentimental way---Zedd and Hayley William's "Stay The Night" and Bruno Mars' "Gorilla"

and so I sing....