IN SEARCH OF MY SPIRIT

All my life I have searched for YOU.

What is life anyway?

Waking up in the morning to do the chores of the day.

I have to do this, I need to do that.

The hour is ticking fast, I have to hurry.

The Medicinal Value of Chinese Chives (Kut sai/Kutsay/kutchai)

One night in the early 1990's, I stood aghast as I looked at my father's black dog swerving towards us. My father had this penchant for breeding dogs, neither the renowned Labradors nor German shepherds, but the one breed typical in the Philippines: the askals (mnemonic for asong kalye or street dog). As far as I could reckon, all his dogs came from the lineage of his two fine askals way back in the 1960's. 

The Mystifying Aspect of Death

When my son Dane texted me that my cousin Kuya Genie died, I felt not sadness but regret that I was not there when it happened. Do not get me wrong for it is not because I did not love my cousin that I did not feel the sadness usually associated with death. I can not deny the fact that there is something morbid and uncanny about death. In fact, the most harrowing experience any anesthesiologist can ever get through is patient's death on the operating table. The haunting memory would last forever.

The hitches of large social network groups

As I watched the midnight sky glittered with colorful fireworks, I could not help but reminisce one New Year's Eve I spent all alone while looking out of the window at the 4th floor of Jose Potenciano Memorial    Medical Center (then known as Polymedic). I had spent so many Christmas and New Year's Eves while on duty but what made that New Year's Eve at Polymedic so poignant was the fact that I felt so out of place.

Traversing the Shaded Lights in Philippine Politics and the travail of the 'One Centavo Coin'

"Mambo Mambo Magsaysay"...thus went the chant that shaded my first perception of Philippine politics on March 17, 1957. Observing the tears and the sad faces of adults around, I sensed  a profound grief undeniably brought by the tragic death of President Ramon Magsaysay. Literally transfixed, the hardness of the one centavo bronze coin enclosed within my palm jolted me back to my designated chore: the one centavo coin I had to bring to a store down the bend of the road to buy my mother one bottle of vinegar, 1/4 kilo salt, a sachet of pepper with one bay leaf in it; and my mother admonished me never to forget to ask the store owner for 3 cloves of garlic as 'tawad'. 

GMA's and P Noy's Magics: Trick or Treat?

Okay, I never really liked the idea of Nonoy Aquino running our country but it does not mean I have ever favored former President GMA over him. As a matter of fact, due to unrelenting  frenzy on some despicable issues, I preferred anybody but GMA to run this country: and regretfully, although I had many other choices, that 'anybody' included P Noy, who I accepted as our president the moment he was declared the winner. I therefore pined my hopes and entrusted our fate on his administration; sadly though, the frenzy dramatically escalated into a mania, and I felt like riding a roller coaster or watching somebody play Grand Theft or Illuminati.

Book review: The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas

The Count of Monte Cristo

"Well, we're mortal, and the old must make way for the young, otherwise there would be no promotion", thus starts the story of Edmond Dantes. With a very promising career and a beautiful fiancee whom he loves so very dearly, this handsome nineteen year old lad has the world at his feet, but it is not meant to be since jealous hearts masterminded a  devious scheme that screwed up everything he should have had.

Dambana ng Kagitingan: Mt. Samat

Dambana ng Kagitingan (Shrine of Valor), Mt. Samat

Towering 555 meters above sea level sitting at the highest peak of Mount Samat at Bagong Diwa, Pilar Bataan, at 92 meters high (with 30 meters arms) made of steel, reinforced concrete and  marble, this majestic cross was erected in memory of the

gallant heroes, who with all the might that could still be possibly unearthed from their embattled bodies and  worn out spirits, valiantly fought to protect the last bastion of freedom in our then war-torn country.

Book Review: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte'

Jane Eyre: Charlotte Bronte

"My eyes were covered and closed - eddying darkness seemed to swim round me, and reflection came in as black and confused flow. Self abandoned, relaxed, and effortless, I seemed to have laid me down in the dried-up bed of a great river; I heard a flood loosened in remote mountains, and felt the torrent come: to rise I had no will, to flee I had no strength. I lay faint; longing to be dead. One idea only still throbbed lifelike within me - a remembrance of God - it begot a muttered prayer: these words went wandering up and down in my ray less mind, as something that should be whispered; but no energy was found to express them...It was near: and as I had lifted no petition to Heaven to avert it  - as I had neither joined my hands, nor bent  my knees, nor moved my lips - it came; in full, heavy swing the torrent

Propagating Gynura Procumbens

For the first Gynura Procumbens I bought from Mahogany Market in Tagaytay we shelled out 100 pesos. When Dannie came back he was able to buy 8 seedlings for 80 pesos each. Several weeks later when I told the seller that Gynura which they called ashitaba could be procured at 35 pesos in Cavite, we went home with 20 seedlings at 40 pesos each. We shared 7 seedlings to friends and relatives thus leaving us with 22 seedlings. With my husband and my mother taking 3 leaves a day, these seedlings would not last long.