if life were a giant skit

This would be it

definition

It's just an absolutely fantastic feeling to know what you have to do. Because there's a timer that rings: it's time to move -- you kiss your I'm sorry I shouldn't have overstayed my welcome goodbyes, and say your I'm sorry I was so late hellos.

Hello. I'm sorry I was so late.

hope for it

adage for the ages

Dream big.

"Deep enough to dream in brilliant colors I have never seen" - Chris Rice

a must watch

Especially if you've grown numb to everyday statistics.

"... the problem for me was not ignorance-- it was preconceived ideas."

breaking it down

The level of intensity in this scene from "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is right up there with what happens in the end in "Best of the Best" and the screaming-into-Albert's-Abyss scene in "Garden State." I scoffed at most parts in the movie because of the storyline's shameless parallelisms to "Forrest Gump" (that's what happens when you use the same writer for both movies), but this scene alone did it for me.

I still believe that there is a reason behind everything that happens. But we often fail to realize that we also give reason, regardless of the size of the role we play, to everything that happens too.

optima dies, prima fugit

Andy, I'm stealing this from you and never giving it back.

"Optima dies... prima fugit"
(The best days are the first to flee.)

-- Virgil

today marks the summer solstice

Today will be the longest day we'll have this year... and in certain respects, it already has been.

eavesdropping

The smiley story of the day.

After announcing that we had safely landed in Los Angeles, the pilot of the plane must've forgotten to flip the switch to the PA system. I continued reading my book until I heard the same voice, only hushed and affectionate this time, coming from the ceiling speakers. I put my book down, along with a few curious others who also paused in what were doing at the moment, as we all strained, shamelessly, to listen to this homesick voice speaking to the person on the other line:

"... Hi honey... yes, we landed safely... (murmurs) I'll be home in an hour.. (murmurs) ... don't wait up... can't wait to see you.. (laughter)... I love you. Can't wait to see you."

It was all so simple. As we filed out of the plane, I threw a smile over to the pilot for having given us all, without even realizing, a candid reminder of the good life.

should the sun not rise tomorrow

Polaris. The North Star. Contrary to popular belief, it's not the brightest star in the sky. Not even close. It's actually really, really easy to miss because it's so nondescript. And there are hundreds of thousands in the sky more beautiful, more magnificent... all fighting for your attention.

But it's the only star in the sky that never moves, never shifts. Unwavering. Persistent. Steady. Faithful.

It will guide you home.

what we need, what we have.

It is a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people. But the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma. At the center of all religions is Karma. You know, what you put out comes back at you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth... every action is met by an equal or an opposite one... and yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that... Love interrupts... the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I have done a lot of stupid stuff. I would be in trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge... it doesn't erase my mistakes. I'm holding out for Grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity.

-Bono, lead singer of U2

many the miles

My mind has been running a lot lately. So I decided to keep up with it.

Central Park is a runner's dream. There's an amazing lake/reservoir there called the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, where a soft dirt jogging path circles around it about one and a half miles. I've been there all hours of the day, but my absolute favorite time is dusk -- our sun's final exhale that soaks all the colors from the sunset with a deep blue as if a flood had broken into the sky. I can't help but think: this happens every single day.

Within minutes, everything's gone. You could watch this performance a thousand times but never notice it leaving the stage. As we should.

Then you begin to notice the bright reflections of lit buildings, even stars, on the lake itself. I'll have to quote Forrest here because he put it best: "...it was so clear, Jenny, it looked like there were two skies, one on top of the other." And most times, I'll jog to a stop, climb up onto the metal railing and be quiet. I wonder if others do too.




This is one of the more honest things I know about life.

27 on 27

As a kid, I remember that I couldn't wait to turn twenty-seven. For the same simplistic reason why most people chose the day they were born on as their favorite number, I did too. It was during that period when kids were making a conscious effort in establishing what their favorites were, so that in the event someone asked, we'd be ready with a quick answer and a modest explanation for: numbers, colors (red, because it starts with an 'r' and shares the same amount of characters as my name), ice cream (rainbow sherbet) and ninja turtle (rafael.. 'r' again AND for his red bandana!). Note: Narcissism was forgivable at that age.

Evidently, it never once appeared as one of my lottery numbers or roulette picks. But if you're as hopeless as I am, you stick with them and hope it comes around the next time.

Except this time, someone else did the choosing for me and gave me an age that I'm not quite ready for. I feel like I should have made a bigger dent in life by now. I guess the reality is that we're going to continue to complain every single year until one day, we realize that we'd give up an arm and leg to be [insert age here] again.

So I'll give it a shot. A butterfly landed on my finger, and quite respectfully, I will try to squeeze every moment out of this.

zero nine

At first glance, 2009 is setting up to be a nondescript year. The elections are finally done with. No Olympics of any kind, nor any other significant world sporting events for that matter. As usual, work and school will resume on Monday, and as usual, the sun will rise. Nondescriptly.

Those who look forward to waking up each morning would disagree.

I can't say that I'm there yet. I don't remember the last time I looked back on a year, contently folded my hands and concluded, "You know, this was a great year." Assessing life at the end of the week? Sure, I'll be able to point to a few good ones. But yearly? No way. At least not yet. We are a very forgetful species. And as a result, we're not as thankful as we ought to be.

I think I need to never lose sight of the small, seemingly-trivial things that happen in my life. Because when you add them all up, shouldn't it explain the unrecognizable, unpredictable places we'll be at in five, ten, twenty years from now? That it's usually the small things that bring definition to the big things that happen in our lives. During the years of puberty, no one wakes up one morning and freaks out because they're suddenly five inches taller. It's never like that. It's because of the unseen, daily stretches of growth that occurs on the atomic level... and maybe we've forgotten to give enough credence to the small decisions we make everyday.

I could only summarize all this blabber with this. In the simple yet poignant words said by Brenden Foster, when asked about what he thought were the best things in life, his immediate reply: "Just having one."

Happy new year.

entertaining angels

inhale

There's something indescribably satisfying about being able to see your own breath when it's cold enough.  Like 15 degrees cold.  Even when I'm currently in the middle of Nowhere, North Dakota.

It's unbelievable how our bodies work.  I see my breath and realize that a split-second ago, it used to be something else.  Sure, a childish way of describing the Krebs cycle, respiration, etc.. but still. How effortlessly we breathe in this unseen but necessary purity and paradoxically transform it into a kind of poison, the somber truth being that without any of this taking place, we'd be dead. 

Hah. Is the parallelism I'm going with that obvious?

The Unseen will keep us alive and kicking.. even hoping.

Exhale.

today

For our generation, this is like watching a man step foot on the moon. This day is that enormous.

And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.

-Barack Obama

Proud to be an American. 

it's really autumn when..

... you see the scarves and gloves come out in full swing.

Let the season really begin.

Truth is so obscure in these times and falsehood so established, that unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.

-Blaise Pascal

the shortest night

Tonight, I danced with strangers whom I will never come across again, to the playful banter of a brass band unyielding amongst drops of rain transforming.

Things are as they should.