five in one

This is what happens when you lose your internet and are forced to go offline for the holidays.

magazine print of original piece

For a hands on crafter like me - I take things apart and put them back together again in new and different ways.

boast of quietness

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1996), Jactancia de Quietud, from Luna de Enfrente, 1925

Christmas Comet Lovejoy

Writings of light assault the darkness, more prodigious than meteors.
Escrituras de luz embisten la sombra, más prodigiosas que meteoros.

The tall unknowable city takes over the countryside.

La alta ciudad inconocible arrecia sobre el campo.

Sure of my life and death, I observe the ambitious

Seguro de mi vida y de mi muerte, miro los ambiciosos

and would like to understand them.

y quisiera entenderlos.

winter is coming

After an extended autumn our beautiful weather has turned. Leaves are scattering in the wind. Skies have turned leaden and gray.

Window Dancer

When days are shortened and dusk falls before 5:00 p.m. you know winter is on its way.

We truly have been blessed with a long and great fall season. Last year we only had a couple of weeks between a rainy summer and a sleety slushy winter.

Bonifacio Day 2017

On November 30 we celebrate Bonifacio Day in the Philippines. 

Andres Bonifacio was a hero and leader who spent his life fighting to uphold justice for his people.

Today we recall him in his poem, "Pag-Ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa" - love of country or better yet love of my homeland. 

mix & match | a Thanksgiving lauriat

This year's Thanksgiving celebration was spent among transplanted multinationals in our US home base of Weehawken, New Jersey.

We wanted a stress free gathering for our tiny group of neighbors and friends so we pre-ordered a scrumptious Oriental lauriat from the aptly named Precious Restaurant in Hoboken.

brain entrainment

If an item is note worthy enough to appear on Wikipedia and the Huffington Post it certainly adds to its popularity. Whether its validity can be vindicated by such may not always follow even as we are made aware.

However in the case of mind entrainment it seems that enough have jumped on the band wagon and tooted its horn enough to have it touted it as the latest cutting edge avenue for mindfulness and wellness. 

memoricide - a spreading worldwide dis-ease

Ilan Pappé, Israeli historian and political activist, refers to the uprooting of Palestine's indigenous olive trees and the massive erasure of Palestinian history as state organized memoricide.

Memoricide is not just forgetting the past, it is the killing of our memory.

All over the world it seems governments, countries, organizations, and peoples prefer to bury a past that brings up messy issues with the possibility of attendant accountability or reparations.

The disrobing of Draupadi, 

Histories throughout the ages hold memory is an essential part of life. Memory is the love that forms the foundation which sustains and nurtures humanity in limitless ways.

memory in our genes | history on our skin

Commissioned Art by Mahala Urra

The recent uproar over the exploitation of a tribal elder at the recent Manila FAME event has opened a whole can of worms. 

Read a BBC article on it - one of many that have since gone viral. 

Apo Whang Od Oggay herself may well disagree. 

Sleeping figure is celebrated Kalinga tatoo artist, Apo Whang Od

#MeToo

Caught between a rock and a hard place.

On the upside we all rejoice over the whistle blowers who finally toppled Harvey Weinstein.

Predators and perverts like him have no place in our world or the future of our children.

Yet bigger fish like self professed pussy grabbing Donald Trump and forever rape boasting Rodrigo Duterte are presidents of nations.

Even when someone like Bill Cosby gets to court his sexual assault cases end in a mistrial.

war torn interiors

PBS just aired Ken Burns' film "The Vietnam War" - a ten-part, 18-hour documentary series co-directed with Lynn Novick.

Featuring testimony from nearly 100 witnesses in an immersive 360-degree narrative telling the epic story of the Vietnam War in all its heart breaking folly.

As a freshly enrolled college student in the mid-70s we had the double whammy of the war abroad and the Marcos declared martial law back home in the Philippines.

for the love of Joni | then & now

Reading a tender homage to Joni Mitchell in the New Yorker magazine due this October 7. Capturing the images and drama perfectly - of life then and the trajectories that lead it here.

I had just moved to the big city, enrolled at the state university - martial law was so new and not as impactful as living on my own for the first time. 

It was a year of many firsts for me. 

defining tenderness

Even I was amazed at the number of definitions the Merriam-Webster dictionary listed for this word. 

releasing, relaxing, letting go

Definition of tender

1 :     marked by, responding to, or expressing the softer emotions : fond, loving

• a tender lover

2a :   showing care : considerate, solicitous

• tender regard

b :   highly susceptible to impressions or emotions : impressionable

• a tender conscience

3a :   easily chewed : succulent

b :   having a soft or yielding texture : easily broken, cut, or damaged : delicate, fragile

• tender feet

a world of hope in these uncertain times

I left the Philippines 12 years ago because finally at the age of 50 I reached my saturation point.

Checking for leaks in a hot air balloon of the Philippine flag. 

Sick and tired of the urong-sulong dance of two steps forward, one step back, I packed it in and moved to Sedona, Arizona in 2006.

I came with such high hopes of manifesting my dream of building a spiritual center that truly mattered and made a difference in a world gone sideways.

for the love of our humanity

The 1987 Philippine constitution was written into law by the Filipinos right after the Marcoses left. Though the real Macoy is long dead, his family have since returned and continue to rub our noses into their entitled lives.

In the meantime, no equality or diffused wealth for the common good has been prioritized persistently and consistently into the betterment of our poor and disenfranchised.

double the sadness 9/11 holds for FilAms

For Filipino Americans who lived through the yoke of Marcos' dark dictatorship, September 11 is indeed a heart breakingly sad and devastating day. 

This year is the 100th birthday of the scourge the world knows as Ferdinand Marcos. Long dead yet still a Philippine treat and bleeding canker living on in the antics of his family and minions. 

Across the globe in the US the horrific events of 11 September 2001 brought the world to its knees in profound sorrow and sympathy for New York City and all who were affected by so much love and loss.

Who is to say which tragedy is worse? To this day many have not recovered and most still remember the terror in these tragedies.

Pinoy Dreams : a perfumed nightmare

In the wake of Duterte's bloody extra judicial killings [or EJKs] our Pinoy media is flooded with the Belo-Kho wedding of the decade.

They've even created a hashtag to mark the grand occasion. #aKHOandmyBELOved

Fairy tale or fantasy? Dream come true or trumped up circus?

Diverse as the two are there are too many similarities to them.

Both draw and fascinate the masses - polarizing the pros against the cons.

Both are over the top spectacles - in varying stages of questionable taste.

We have to beg the obvious - just because they can be done does not make either right.

In the wake of Kian's recent death both are tragic at the least and heinous at the worst.

Life in the Philippines has devolved into this sad circus of demented entertainment between the haves and the have nots.

healing vs medicating

As a holistic practitioner and natural healer I am quite particular about personal health and my care.

This business of yet another broken foot brought my priorities into focus when I sought treatment for it.

At first I opted for a podiatrist whose clinic was just a few blocks down the road from where I live.

But after two weeks of consults and three boot changes it became abundantly clear that capable and well practiced as he may be he was not the doctor for me.

I opted instead to return to a New York based foot specialist who has been treating our family's feet issues through the years.

What a world of difference it was.

break | breaker | breaking

On Sunday I had another bad fall and broke my other foot.

It's been a while and even I had to look back at past posts to see when it was I had broken my left foot.

That time I was careening down my apartment stairs with two shopping bags full of stuff to hand to the driver. I missed a step and landed on the edge of the next one, full weight slamming hard down on the vulnerable side of my foot.

Yes, extremely OUCH!

Only to wrap it overnight in Salonpas and stick in some reliable sneakers to go walking all over New York City the next day with high school classmates who were visiting from the Philippines.

revoking permission

Standing revealed in a moment of clarity
surprised
stunned

Revelation appears in a torrent of torment
recalling
replaying

Apparently this matters much in my world
revealing
resonance

In the center of my circle
complete
conscious

A voice steadily nurtured
vehemently
validates

A L L that is

channeling dragons

Late last night I got this text: How are you? Have you been watching GOTs?

Who are you? Obviously you know nothing, Jon Snow!

WTF? I keeel you now!

hand stitched

Mahala and I do video calls where we show each other what we're working on regularly.

Where she gives me real time tutorials on tech glitches and drawing how to's, I share my crafty hands on skills with her.

Mahala & I, Thailand April 2016

I especially love hand sewing our clothes. We come from a family of globe trotting shoppers and acquire a lot of beautiful pieces gifted to us through the years.

A clearer image of our matching tops

focus vs fix

You will really enjoy this. It is always amazing to get in sync with Source.

I just found a little mouse scurrying around the apartment I recently moved into. Yuck! right?

I immediately informed my landlord and started researching natural ways to get rid of it pronto.

drugstore find

One solution was to use camphor. So I purchased some 100% organic mothballs - tablets actually, from the neighborhood drugstore.

blatantly BHAKTI

On my birthday in conversation with Mahala [fave and only child of mine] I declared that with each passing orbit around the sun I choose more and more to be blatantly Bhakti.

Art by Mahala Urra

We both got such a thrill over this that Mahala made this graphic illustration to celebrate the occasion.

I love the balance of this - how very Yin and Yang it is captures who I am. Mahala knows me so well and put this all together visually.

what I love about July

Oh July how I looove you!

You are the month in which I chose to be born - bursting into the sizzling summer sunshine.

I came surrounded by many loved ones and teachers - highlighting my contracted life lessons.

Padooka - Footprint of the Gods

alignment & lining up

I love and have been an advocate of Abraham's teachings for many many many years. 

Abraham is the fountainhead of the information upon which the hit movie, “The Secret” was based.

The collective entity known as "Abraham" channel their messages through Esther Hicks via workshops and lectures on practical applications as well as up-to-the-moment leading-edge expanding information regarding the Law of Attraction.

Over the years Abraham and Esther have tried to give us [humanity] some basics - presenting important integral truths in countless faceted ways so more of us are able to access and accept these. 

Eager as I am to embrace all that's good about the Law of Attraction though I have all too often gotten in the way of my own manifestations on several occasions and instances. 

What an adventure this growing current is then - Law of Attraction's tsunami sweeping around the world. It is just the motivation and inspiration humanity has called forth.

Collectively and individually. Consciously or ingeniously.

There are thousands of books, films, essays and lectures now available to fuel our current paradigm shift in consciousness.

Ask and it is given indeed. Most especially for those in greatest need.

Here is a video clip that may contain some gems for us. 

Happy trails and be well! 

national holidays

June 14 was Flag Day in the US.

Betsy Ross Painting - Betsy Ross 1777 by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris

June 12 was Independence Day in the Philippines

The Making of the Philippine Flag by Fernando Amorsolo

I wonder what was going on in these women's minds and hearts as they sewed together what would be the symbol of their nation?

Lost and augmented as their histories have been embellished and now recorded for posterity, we are left to wonder how our current times and leaders will be memorialized and written into our history.

May they live up to all the potential and possibility we hold in our hearts.

pity the nation

Here are two poems of the same title, written years ago, they still capture sentiments of our current times and captivate our present imagination. Time to rediscover who it is we truly are.

heart shards & shattered hearts

Home is where the heart is.

And my heart is the center of my being.

This is the haven in which I live.

This is the sanctuary that houses and nurtures me.

I invite loved ones to come join me.

This is where I learn to love all that I invite in.

It has taken me so long to learn to love.

This is the temple of all that was nurtured and has matured.

I belong here.

As my life belongs to me.

This is the temple of my being.

This is the home of my belonging.

we are the ones that we have been waiting for

Choose love. However challenged we are. No matter how challenging. Stand united in this.

Calling on all change warriors and all of humanity!

What better motivation than world leaders like Trump and Duterte who show us beyond the shred of a doubt what exactly we do not want for our selves and for our world?

Even the most lethargic sedentary sloth feels their heart kindled and ignited today as a result of the unbelievable indignities we are being subjected to.

This is not the time to be passive and invisible. Stand up, awake and arise, be counted and make your life count.

So much anger needs much love. So much pain needs much healing.

Healing not to fix what is broken but heal to preserve our higher nature and protect our world.

We each need to look within ourselves to find true inner peace in order for there to be any hope of peace on earth.

These times bring strong emotions. Use them to motivate and inspire. Not to aggravate and complicate.

Live in the light of wisdom and love. Shine and drive off the darkness of ignorance and lack.

who we remember & what we devote ourselves to

Neil Gaiman is an admired author and a prolific writer that has grown better through the years and aged gracefully in wisdom even in the constant glare of his incessant celebrity.

There's just so much to Neil that we admire!

all by his lonesome

"Back a few months ago, I was headlinin' a great big nightclub

And they put me up a couple days early, I came in a couple days early

And they put me up in what they call the "Star Suite"

Now here I am, headlinin' in one of the biggest nightclubs

In the country and I wake up at eight o'clock in the morning

In this "Star Suite" all by myself"

"Awwww"

"Yeah, that's what I said, "Awwwww."

"But I did what I've always done, man, to cheer myself up

I picked up my guitar, I sat down and I wrote me a little song

Now this is how it feels to be alone at the top of the hill

Tryin' to figure out why."

embracing life

I have always been demanding of myself and others.

Never high maintenance but definitely difficult at times.

I do not concede defeat. Instead I question and challenge.

I like options. I love to choose. I advocate for change.

move, moving, movement

A home of my own is important to my Cancer beingness.

This recent hunt for a new apartment took longer than planned and some of the initial options presented were just too dismal.

Besides I loved my little barrio and was adamant about remaining here. Daunting as it seemed I would not give up.

Persist. Insist. Resist.

friends & relations

People come into your life

for a reason, a season or a lifetime.
When you figure out which one it is,
you will know what to do for each person.

~ Anonymous

Phases of our lives.

Of all our relations friendship is the most valued and valuable.

So fragile and ephemeral and yet the foundation upon which our lives rest and are weighed.

into the fire

"I think the role of the artist is always twofold: One is reacting to your time and the other is chronicling your time." ~ Neil Gaiman

We definitely are living in interesting times. More so than ever this shows up in our lives whether we are aware of it or not. How we show up in our lives now is truly revealing.

Creating a home and a private pocket of my own is a priority for this Cancer Monkey.

Yet recent nesting challenges have been particularly prickly. An emotional roller coaster that has thrown me into dizzying heights and depressing lows as I hunt for another apartment.

My neighborhood for the past six years has grown popular and overpopulated. Making it harder to find a quiet corner in which to roost.

Loving the area too much to budge or seek other options just yet, I feel my breath catch and my muscles knot up as I go through the day's listing with my realtor.

Enough already and let me unpack my stuff from storage and get on with my life!

Due to pressing demands prices have escalated and spaces have shrunk. I'm refuse to give up or give in. Even if it's become harder to lean into these shifting gusts of change.

My current situation feels a lot like a microcosm of the macro upheavals that our nation is going through at the moment.

On the one hand, not having a home whose hatches I can batten down. On the other divide, feeling exposed and vulnerable in this Trump induced chaos.

This change warrior is growing fierce and strong, honed in these extremes. 

dreaming the world into being

We came as creators, not to be regurgitators.

It is delicious to take thought beyond. ~ Ahraham-Hicks

All of creation is energy - a combination of vibration and light.

All humans have the ability to dream the world into creation.

We all hold energy that can be made manifest by the power of our intention.

Clarity and discernment are key to the drive and focus that motivate the intent.

How we interpret and direct what motivates us.

How we are driven and at the effect of our emotions.

This dictate our results and outcome.

Learn and educate yourself beyond your circle of comfort and knowledge.

Get curious.

Immerse your Self.

Fiction has two uses. Firstly, it’s a gateway drug to reading. The drive to know what happens next, to want to turn the page, the need to keep going, even if it’s hard, because someone’s in trouble and you have to know how it’s all going to end … that’s a very real drive. And it forces you to learn new words, to think new thoughts, to keep going. To discover that reading per se is pleasurable. ~ Neil Gaiman

Hail Hillary!

March is Women's History Month, when we commemorate the struggle for women's rights and celebrate the political, social, economic and cultural achievements of women throughout history.

The theme of 2017 is "Honoring Trailblazing Women in Labor and Business."

Never has that been more important than today here in the US under the misogynistic "the Donald."