My Few Reasonable Words (✿◠‿◠)

“She hoped to be wise and reasonable in time; but alas! 

Alas! She must confess to herself that she was not wise yet.”  ~

 Jane Austen, Persuasion

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I am very very very very batty right now. 

Batty! Batty! Batty! 

Very! 

I am the Queen of Illustrious Highness Battiness, tadah! 

Only help is my freezy' can of Coke, bag of chips and box of Oreo's. It is s-u-b-lime to be left unfettered to my gruesome munching devices; it would be wise for anyone within proximity to NOT make mention of my hideous gorging.

Of course I will suffer _ later. 

Remorse will be my due company.  I am enlightened aware that this impending cycle is my  doing: grump, munch, smile faintly, feel better, and wait for my junk food fueled dopamine high to wear off.  A staunch resolve to be good will commence, sans penitence. I know me so well. (✿◠‿◠)

“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, 

see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, 

to speak a few reasonable words.”

~ Johann Wolfgang von 


In this wicked state, I might as well allow my mind to wander amongst the main road of a favored memory. There are constructions that enamor and pavements that entice - here are some pictures. I distinctly remember that moment as provocatively settling. How snug the conditions of my own personal adventure from which quiet I had this unfolding epiphany.

We are purposed by feelings, I realized
We come ALIVE to taste life's long table buffet of personalized emotions, the encounter of which shapes spirit and unfurls the soul. The trauma of encountering all manner and shades of feelings, the understanding, working and mastering of it grants us wings; human wings. Not so like the angels, for angels have no feet. 

We are us, and only  fully 'us' when we have encountered the evolution of our own inner selves; entirely separate,  living breathing creation from each other, but belonging to one another universally. It's the most beautiful thing, but we don't ever know that from the beginning, because our common nesting is a preconditioned earth of fear.

So we love each other with a magnitude of  underlying apprehension. We care for each other with an underlying distress, and we progress to adulthood yoked by this accidental ancestral fear. It doesn't matter who you are, where you are, where you came from, if you're rich or poor, we're all infected. That's why we want each other to be a certain way, talk a certain way, love a certain way. It's in the air, this contagion. It's in history. It's in the psyche. It's both genesis and genetics. 

Our feelings are guides, much like spiritual ones. 
We must encounter them, face them, talk to them, determine their truth, accuracy and fallacy. When we do, our minds awaken who we are and logic elucidates what we're meant do. As for fear itself; it is lovingly resolved to a faith that lifts our wings. 

 There. 

These are my few reasonable words. 

I will now take a walk. 

"Of Cut-Up Cards and Cherub Gifties' "

Roselle Quin

"Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor... Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting."

-Mother Theresa

I wonder if the youth still celebrate Valentine's Day, the way we did when I was young?

It wasn't a day of garish spending, but of cut-up cards, heart pins, tiny cherub gifties' miniature heart chocolates. The day was framed in a Juliet  sort of way and reveled  in celebration of innocent frivolity. It was half- Easter - half Christmas in a red polka dot box topped with a ribbon of romance. If one had a sweetheart, then adoration, but if not, it didn't sullen the mood. Friendship was the focus, gaiety the goal, - heart the reason; a kinda'  love your neighbor world day. 

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One doesn't have to go along with the brassy commercialization of a day meant for bliss. The pressure of having to be with someone, the pressure of having to be in the right pricey place, the pressure of having to buy all the 'showy' accessories of a branded date, tsk, no - it won't guarantee fond memory. It's the everyday a-f-f-e-c-t-i-o-n that matters actually.

Valentine's Day is affection in motion. Give some and have fun! 

There is no remedy for love but to love more.
* Henry David Thoreau

How to Live a Sunday

First you wake up and smile. 

Then you laugh -

at a crazy thought shared.

Afterwards, go for a dark Macchiato. 

And Salmon.

With eggs and capers 

 Tiddly' bits of all that's good.

Break bread.

Then think about it.

That special brownie.

Decide it might be good. 

Ten million decisions everyday.

The best ones done on Sunday.

Flowers and stout. 

This

is

how

to

live.

This Great Blissful Fragrant Incense: The Adventures of Mrs.Q

“Maybe happiness didn't have to be about the big, sweeping circumstances, about having everything in your life in place. Maybe it was about stringing together a bunch of small pleasures. ~ Anne Brashares, The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants

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I must take care of this blog like a newborn babe of my mine, pampered and fed with all the nutritious munchies' of life! It has been some time and kindness has doled out days of joy full occurrences wherein I found myself  doing  nothing but have fun! At times I had to ask, "is this allowed?" knowing what I was experiencing was a shift from what my body, my mind, my entire being was used to doing. My soul was gently coaxing, but it took a while for my self to accept the fact, that yes, I can simply put down my hair, or tie it up and enjoy. 

“You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestation of your own blessings.” 

~ Elizabeth Gilbert

Once my current reality settled, I decided to take charge of my happiness and took in the gardens, the temples, the art, the streets, the food, the tea and the people. Wonderful! Oh, and I have a gazillion photos, which I truly should upload in Flickr or in anther site - and I must, must, must do it asap!  Oh'I will chastise myself if I don't!

“Later she remembered all the hours of the afternoon as happy -- one of those uneventful times that seem at the moment only a link between past and future pleasure, but turn out to have been the pleasure itself.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

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These pictures were taken last October 2014. A long time ago, I hate to admit, but the holidays took over my days and this humble homey' blog of mine was left unattended for the duration. My bad. 

Bodhiccita Lady ~ Mindful Realizations To a Path of Bliss

Roselle Quin

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⊰✿░S░W░E░E░T░✿░B░L░E░S░S░I░N░G░S░⊰✿

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Bodhicitta, mindful & ripe with the juiciness of awakened existence, is a semantic energy I hooked from a Buddhist book my husband recently gifted me. The concept of going through life's motions in meditated movements dedicated to the conscience of lifting every act holy for the good of "one, some and all" is very precise in its Christian notion of renunciation... of "doing unto others" and offering unto God all the dutiful, mundane tasks that at times even inwardly cause suffering. So injected I am with this crystalline intention, that a seizure of illumination zipped through my spinal consciousness - A life of Dharma - spiritual purposefulness for the whole of the Sangha - the community.

Bodhicitta is pineapple for the soul,  spiritual saccharine that oxidizes our inner being with scentsy wisdom pulps, venturing us to live in this earthly plane on higher ground! All actions, however simple, however ordinary, however piddling becomes a stepping stone to N-I-R-V-A-N-A if consummated through  gratitude and generosity. The whole of man's existence becomes suffused with majesty & regal with meaning -- the meaning one endows by the charity one  devotes to all sentient beings.

For what is heaven, but the state of being free, truly free from ignorance and loathing! Hate is vulgarity of living, while Heaven is to exist in uncomplicated rapture - easy joy - metta.  "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy,"  Romans 14:17 ~  To be in bliss is to live sane, and to be joyful is to ascend as a supreme being walking in the divine ground of existence ( streets of gold), released from the bondage of an odious ego. To be enlightened is to be a child of God. Venerable.

Our destiny is not far yonder a mythical physical material hope in an afterlife of moneyed riches, but the attainment of a present  imperturbable stillness of mind after the hell fires of intemperate desire, aversion, delusion have been extinguished.

I have much to work on to be what I want but inspiration has spoken.

This quote inspires me:

We need to transform our mind, to rid it of ignorance, hatred and attachment. Transforming our mind means that even if we are in a very difficult situation or place, as long as our mind is happy, everything will be fine.~ Namdrol Rinpoche

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And my life? Well,  let me see...I have no excuses! None at all! 

I have to live my life from the abyss of my crystal soul and not chipper away the bright bits of my spirit for no account at all but procrastination + fear. Hell of a combination, hah! My Lady Prism me has morphed into a tangle of ta' - do's and must- do's and have - ta'- do's and have - ya' - done - it, and not yet done, and be done with it and do more today, dammit!  A ballistic tornado days spent desperately tidying rogue minutes and batty seconds while keeping groggy' monkeys of distraction and anxiety at bay till I succumb to impatience, frustration and a tear of vexation. 

Too much to do, there just isn't time to create, to paint, to go to that pottery class, to take the beaded workshop, to meditate, to study alchemy, to wish, to dream, to spew magic, to nuke a spell.
                                                                I am a  litany of excuses.  This is my tale. Woe is me! 

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Not very Disney, noh? I mean, my tale. Nothing very fairy about it. But I'm  done with all the this shindig drama I've heaped on myself and taking my Honey Doo's advice to --> chuck it. Stop hogging'  everything and get on with what you want, he always would remind me. 

There's always the "do wants" for me, I figure, maybe before I unfold the new longings of my soul,  I need to specify what exactly --> I don't want.

I DON'T WANT

1. I don't want to be busy picking up other people's mess, whoever they are. 

2. I don't want to feed other people's monkeys.

3. I don't want to pet other people's monsters of complaints, expectations and distractions.

4. I don't want fear of what other's may say or how I'm viewed or perceived define me.

5. I don't want to starve my creative soul. No. 

I WILL NOT BE DISTRACTED BY NOISE, CHATTER AND SETBACK. I KNOW WHAT I WANT AND IT'S ALL MINE. 

WHAT I DO WANT

I want to --> not be shy.  I want to --> not be tepid, lukewarm, unsure, awkward. 

 I want to --> not see cracks, limits and impossibilities. I want to --> not be swayed towards accepting baggage heaped on me. I want to enjoy - period.  I want to accept my radiance and take relative good care of myself without trepidation or vanity. I want wisdom. I want to nurture and feed my talent. I want to give expression to my inner spirit. I want to be gallant towards my body respectful of my feelings. 

And why do I want all these? 
Heck, I want it all because my greatest wanting is to GIVE! 

And so that's that..and this is this..and I thank the Divine for these spanks of wisdom plunked in my cerebral. A bit of shaking and sweet thumping from heaven's nirvanic realm, reminding me to take charge, get my Bodhi selfie groove in loop, and walk my bliss. Nothing less. 

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Those who haven’t yet given birth to precious Bodhicitta,

May they give birth,

Those who have given birth,

May their Bodhicitta not lessen

but increase further and further.

~ His Holiness Gyalwang Drukgpa

Chimes, Charms, Enchantment

“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, 

and, it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe 

These photos are so February 2014!
 They've been lounging in my archive, waiting...waiting ever so patiently for me to write something and launch the post. Alas, days went by, and months, then life morphed into a maze of this and that, which rendered this blog buried in publish neglect. sad.

The Hubby and Me - enjoying our pose! 

Looking at these pics, you'd think I was the queen of high spirits, hah! 

Quite frankly, yes and even more bluntly, no! The prime truth of the matter is, these photos represent ooooh, snarky sobby' trying days rife with challenges and changes and not knowing what the future holds, what the next step would be, what to, where to, whatever! 

Life was a cliffhanger...SMILE! 

But the Divine was at work ( uuh' yah! ) and threw us an unmistakable thump to dress up swank and parteh', inspite of! Yes, inspite of sullied circumstances having been acquainted with folks less than honorable with their dealings. 

Ah, one must dig the grandest measure of  good out of a decrepit situation, wisen up like the evening owl, and brave forth like the most majestic of eagles ( drama!). 

Why the heck pout and gripe when all things are but temporal, even the muddled. These are the good old' days being ushered in! Welcome it! 

Cliffhouse, Tagaytay, Philippines

My youngest son with me.

And so we did!  In style! 

I donned my creamy favorite vintage dress ( + my grand brown hat too, let's not forget!), genuinely celebratory and thankful for the beautiful scenery, the wonderful people, and the glorious food!  

It was a sparkling time and I was touched by a serene spirit whispering, it was Valentine's Day, things would be OK. 

My eldest son.

That was way back February, cupid's shinning star moment of love. weddings, chimes, charms and enchantments that glistened the succeeding months of working situations with a smidgen of luck linked into one another, until here I am and here we are, in the future I was merely trying to picture back then! 

So let me see, what's there to learn:

1. Be calm. Inspite of trying times. Be calm. Calm is insight. Calm is wisdom. 

2. Present your best. Your best brings about solutions.

3. Enjoy. Even in the middle of muddles, life gives permission to laugh and be merry. It is essential to sanity.

"There aren't any shortcuts to tomorrow, you have to make your own way.To know where you're going is only a part of it.You need to know where you've been, too.And if you get lost, don't worry.The people who love you will find you. Count on it."  ~ Quotebites

Balducci Ristorante, Here's My Story: About the Blue Dress Too!

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Will I find myself back to Balducci? Like - ever? Maybe not. Or..maybe yes..hmmm...but most likely NOT. Balducci and me, we have no...none of the sparks between us. Nobody's fault, mind you.

It was a late Saturday evening and the skies poured gregariously. The rain, let me tell you, it was beautiful that night - not at all rat dreary or gutter dreadful. Instead, the falling drench silver glistened our evening streets with a kind of filmy sheen that reflected the warm golden glow and shadows of streetlights and city cafe's. It was an incandescent sight, a bit..what's the word...NOIR!! 

Feeling the "passion" at Lartizan Boulangerie Francia

Roselle Quin

 Passion is vigor for life. The more you have, the more you get. None of us can afford to let life get boring. That starts a downward spiral of passionless living: no interest, no energy, no youthfulness. The most obvious example of passion is the romantic kind. People smitten with true love ( or what seems like true love at the time) are different creatures, whether they're seventeen or seventy when cupid comes calling. Life takes on a new finish: glossy instead of matte. Having a passion for life or anything gives us a similar glow. ~ V. Moran

                                             OK enough of the mush mush because this chandelier 'ere --> totally rocks the mood! 

I lurrrv' the place!! Who wouldn't, eh? Cream and rose velvet and soft inspired lights swiped in unobtrusive refinement... And fine linen..the linen which I messed up with a splat of gravy, hehe!

Ah, this has got to be my new fave of faves, Love, .....swoon..swoon....the dot inside the enchanted circle of my brain - the *rose* among the roses, a poetic marvel of a place, my friend,  where you can fun pretend to be lost in Austen or a bit drunk in Downtony' fantasy...a Lady Mary Crawley sort of feel. :D

The ambience is cherry hush sweet, as if the very bubble  between air one sniffs was fathomed from flesh diamond bouquets of cultured crystals. Just imagine coming in from the smelly belly of the underworld into pure ethereal lightness..you sink on a plush pink blood chair and there you are - alive, relaxed, transported. 

In this mortal plane we inhabit, there are to be discovered, if you will it enough, levels and steps, paths and corners, nooks, and crannies, spaces and rabbit hole roundabout portals to a peek of heaven. This place is one of them. 

It was a Saturday lazy afternoon and we were actually at the shop next door contemplating a dinner of grilled squids and clams after a rather lengthy highbrow discussion about life -- not ours, but of "Hannibal's" - the conqueror!

Anyway, before Hannibal could cross the Alps  and present himself to the hapless folks of far yonder, who apparently, thought him the god Hercules (something like that), my itching curiosity got the best of me and in a second's lull, excused myself and made a lickety- split to check out the dreamy lights + menu next door. 

It was deeeeelightful!!! 
I was smitten by everything I saw and went tripping back to report my discovery to the Hubs. 

Well, you know how I can sometimes be, eh? So I  hyperventilated the awesome of every slightest cutesome corner I saw, excitedly guzzling ooh' ahhh' the smell, the color, the touch of my discovery, while at the same time truly settled for a night of what we had originally planned. 

However, the Hubs, probably brain spiked with my high tweaked blubber, insisted that we forget the clams....and follow "my heart"... aww... :D 

Lartizan Boulangerie Francia for a pastry shop is mythically fabulous! Enchanting! And I don't think I've seen such all out smiling attentive waiters for a long while - waiters who seem to have imbibed a drugged substance of patience as I deliberated ( lengthily...back and forth..like a 3rd grade who can't crack fractions...) on choices. 

Coupled with the romantic interior, splendid breads and exquisite pastries on the counter, and  capped with a decadent line of chi chi sounding  menu, the evening was made for a splendid gustatory experience.

We went in for a simple but delectable serving of ravioli and this generous plate of roast chicken. The bread sampler basket was royally piled with choiced slices from their bakery. 

This is quite the full dining interior. It was an early dinner so we had the luxury to choose our table.

I love the warm inlaid brick interior which  lent the place a homey artisan atmosphere. The chairs, as you can see, are deep red beautiful and such a cushiony pleasure to sink into. 

(And the Hubs, waiting for the coffee and tea selection. )

It is with gratefulness of heart and soul that I write down this memory of a night. An evening of evenings I'd constantly remember as the years flitter on and on and on.

 I'd like to end this post with a feathered line of poetry from Elizabeth Barrett Browning which goes....

“I would build a cloudy House

For my thoughts to live in;

When for earth too fancy-loose

And too low for Heaven!

Hush! I talk my dream aloud -

I build it bright to see, -

I build it on the moonlit cloud,

To which I looked with thee.”