Thank you, Ate Rhiza! ♥

Thank you, Ate Rhizza Romero-Cabagnot! ♥

 You're one person who knows me too well and I always appreciate your acts of love for me. Stay sweet and thoughtful. Luv yah!

My Hearty [♥] [♥] [♥] Valentine Dinner

        
     Because I want to live healthy, I went "hearty-fruity" on my V-day dinner. Well, maybe I'm the most innovative person alive! :-) I just wanted to enjoy my food. I love food. So instead of eating on the rush, I carefully prepared my sculpted-heart-shaped-mangoes. Did you know that I'm a trying-hard chef since high school? Now you know! Tee hee! 

     
     That was my dinner date with myself. V-day is not only a day for lovers but also a day to do what you love and eat what you love. Whatever you do, whenever (V-day or every day), always do what you love and you will be happy. It's only in the mind. So, you better set your mind to happiness mode frequently or else you will miss the fun. "As a man thinketh, so is he."-♥BC

I'll Never Find Another You

This song is dedicated to my b-blue valentine...you know who you are...

There's a new world somewhere
They call The Promised Land
And I'll be there some day
If you will hold my hand
I still need you there beside me
No matter what I do
For I know I'll never find another you

There is always someone
For each of us they say
And you'll be my someone
For ever and a day
I could search the whole world over
Until my life is through
But I know I'll never find another you

It's a long, long journey
So stay by my side
When I walk through the storm
You'll be my guide, be my guide

If they gave me a fortune
My treasure would be small
I could lose it all tomorrow
And never mind at all
But if I should lose your love, dear
I don't know what I'll do
For I know I'll never find another you

[Instrumental Interlude]

But if I should lose your love, dear
I don't know what I'll do
For I know I'll never find another you
Another you, another you

My Blue Valentine

There are things that are meant to be concealed. . . .disclosing it on V-day was enough. :-)

All About Love

All About Love

Love is the most absorbing subject in existence. From ages to ages, we have different views about love. We put meaning to it as to how we perceive it. We view love as something that is of different kinds. But the truth is, there is only one kind of love – the love that comes from God.  There are many and varied manifestations but only a single reality. God is love and love is God. “Love God with all your heart and soul. Love your neighbor as yourself.” It is only when we realize this truth that we can fully experience the love that is everlasting. However, that is on a divine perspective and only few people have grasped its true value. In our modern and tormented world, love has become the most misconstrued word. It becomes an expression not affection.

I don’t want to sound “KJ” (kill joy) with my literary masterpiece today. It is Valentine Season and I know that we are too concentrated on the love that is pre-eminent to us. The love that stands out amid the multiplicity of its meanings, the love shared between man and woman. Hmmm…I know this is the most exciting thing to talk about and I bet you can’t wait to read this through.  Well, in my not so humble opinion, I would say that I am the most “in-love” woman alive. I love deeply and I show it. Love is what keeps me going and it just have to be that way. It becomes my reality. No matter how painful my experience, it cannot discourage me to love others more or a particular man – in the right time and in God’s provision! Oops…we’re not talking about my life here… Let’s just talk about love.

 Love is the ultimate value of existence. It is much, much more powerful than us - mighty and pervading. To give out this love is to share limitless possibilities. To love a special someone is to give oneself and it is an emotional experience that often takes us through a roller-coaster ride. When opportunity chooses us to feel this love, it will come and enter into our emotional system without even knocking. Like there’s a virus that corrupted our system. It is hard to decode and we often say we were caught off-guard. The firewall was turned-off. We will only realize we’re involved when we feel a sudden breathing discomfort. Didn’t we always say that seeing the object of our affection makes our heart skip a beat? And then we feel like our heart wants to jump out from our chest? Such a wonderful feeling of heaven and we say we are “in-love.”

“Being in-love” is love at its most intense, and personally focused in a very special way. We talk of “falling in love,” as if it was something into which we are precipitated against our will, like falling into a pond. It is a well-established phenomenon, no less surprising as a scientific fact than as a personal experience. Lovers are obsessed by the image of the loved ones, to whom they ascribe every virtue and merit; outside observers of the phenomenon speak of the lover’s “madness” or “blindness.”

For the lover, merely to see the beloved is to feast the soul; and to touch her (or him) is bliss. But when the two souls can interpenetrate, an even more magical state is achieved. The sense of “pouring out” of our essential being to another is one of the hallmarks of being in love.

Falling in love is irrational. The emotions involved are so violent as to override our reason. We feel that we are allowed to succumb into something, even the forbidden. We accept nothing but our feelings no matter the compromise. Luckily for the human race, love often chooses aright. Then reason and experience may give it eyes to see, and may transform a transient madness into the highest and most enduring sanity. Then the lover experiences a heightened vitality and finds new significance in life.

However, falling in love is just a preliminary period that we all go through. The real thing is sustaining the love amid the zigzags and the twists and turns of life. To fall is without much effort but to withstand it requires a lot of patience and understanding.  Love is to be nurtured. For the young love, it is a memorable experience and sometimes a lesson to be learned. For the mature love, it is a responsibility that cannot be taken for granted. It is something that we need to be reminded constantly about our commitment.

To love is a happy thing. There is no reason to hide it. There is nothing more sublime than the love that is being expressed to the beloved. I know that today, the Valentine’s Day, is one special occasion that we all celebrate. Love during this season, like an earthquake, is raised to its highest intensity. I can only feel the “kilig moments” of lovers on this day.  It is a big day to upraise and strengthen the connection and express it ultimately. Not only with bouquets of flowers and boxes of chocolates but with the intangible gifts of time and care. As a woman, the most significant expression of love that I can give is my unconditional service and undivided attention to my man. To take into account that to love is an active concern for the good of the other.  To relentlessly seek the good of the beloved and to be always willing to sacrifice. No amount of material gain can surpass such gesture. It is the most essential thing. If only people will understand that truth, then Valentine’s Day is not just February 14^th but every day of the year.

Whatever is your story, cherish the love you have. Whatever the circumstance, just always choose to love and love more. Love should not cease on a stressful situation but will always choose to persevere and continue to hope. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. Love never fails.” 1Corinthians 13:7-8 (NAB)

I know of a unique love story that may inspire you and give you hope. It is about a combination of love that endures and a love that is sweeter the second time around.  Only a quick view because I don’t think there’s so much space left on the pages.  There were young lovers who loved each other dearly but because of some inevitable interference, they didn’t end up at the altar. The man married someone else and the woman remained single until she grew old. The man had his family and his life was good. The woman, though she was left alone, also lived a good life and of course she wasn’t the type who would flirt with his ex. LOL She was distant from the man for many years – let’s say 50.  Then the man’s wife died and that is when the part two of their love affair begun. They get back together and they got married. Though they were already very advanced in age, you can see from the looks of their faces that they were truly happy. It was a big event in our place. I really don’t know how the woman endured her love but I believe that she is a woman of great courage.  I would say that her waiting paid off and that should tell us something. 

Love is indispensable and at its fullest can include an enormous range of emotions and sentiments. It can combine humility with pride, passion with peace, self-assertion with self-surrender; it can reconcile violence of feeling with tenderness; it can make us hope for the unattainable.

As for me, love is not for the fearful, the timid and the weak but for the strong and the courageous. It takes courage to love. It is like taking a huge leap into the unknown and no matter how you land, you could not have done otherwise.

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1Corinthians13:13 (NIV)

BRAVEHEART

"Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it."

I love this movie. The same thing happens every time I watch this - I always cry at the end.  William Wallace earned my respect since then. I admire him because he fights with passion and inspires people around him. More than that, he loves deeply. "I love you my whole life, you and no other," was his vow to his wife. Well, I had to watch this movie for the nth time because it inspires me in the many aspects of my life and it reminds me of my freedom to love.

As for me, living my life is sometimes a battle that I fight with passion not only to win but to make a difference in the world while I live. I don’t fight with the sword. I fight with my heart. I love deeply and I care deeply. It’s my freedom to be that way. It’s all for nothing if I don’t love. No matter the wound, it’s always my freedom to love. "To love is to live" just like "to believe is to see."

People may take my life but they can never take my freedom. It’s always my choice to love freely. ♥BC 

@ Moon Cafe

A Mexican Inspired Restaurant @ Gaisano-Riverside Mall, Alegria, Ormoc City

February 11, 2012

The Blue Rose

The Blue Rose

Hope against unattainable love.

Just some flower I received 13 years ago on my birthday. I really didn't know the meaning of this flower before. However, from the moment I received the Blue Rose, I cannot rest thinking its significance in my life. Even the giver that time cannot explain it. It's just something that the giver thinks symbolizes the person that I truly am. 

Recently, a major event in my life took place and I can only relate it to this wondrous flower. . .

So what does the Blue Rose means?

Much like its mysterious origin, the blue rose means mystery. An appreciation for the enigmatic, the inexplicable is expressed by the blue rose. A tantalizing vision that cannot be totally pinned down, a mystery that cannot be fully unraveled. A person who receives the blue rose is the subject of much speculation and thought. It indicates a complex personality that does not allow easy interpretation. 

The blue rose also symbolizes the impossible, or the unattainable. Since the blue rose itself is a rarity in nature, it stands for something that is hardly within one's grasp, an object that seems too difficult to be achieved. Thus the blue rose is admired and revered as an unrealizable dream. 

The blue rose being in itself something very extraordinary expresses that very same feeling. "You are extraordinarily wonderful", the blue rose exclaims. A truly wonderful personality, almost chimera-like is what the blue rose says about the receiver. A flight of fancy, an irrepressible imagination is what the blue rose is all about. 

Blue and its deeper shade purple have for long symbolized mystery and ambiguity. Again, the fact that the blue rose is a flower that has been fabricated increases this sense of surrealism. The meaning of the blue rose in this sense is an appreciation for something that cannot be grasped in full measure. It is an enchantment, a feeling of being completely bowled over in the very first instance is another delightful meaning of the blue rose.

The blue rose is also used as a symbol of caution. It expresses a need to be discrete. Again, there is a whiff of secrecy and mystery as expressed by the blue color. 

New opportunities and new possibilities are also some other meanings of the blue rose. The blue rose denotes the excitement and the possibilities that new ventures bring. The mysterious beginnings of new things and the excitement therein are very nicely expressed by this flower. 

The blue rose is a flower that seeks to convey a message of mystery, enchantment and a sense of the impossible. One should never forget that as a flower that is not found freely in nature, the blue rose has a certain charm and unique mystery that does not reveal itself freely. 

Fantasy and impossibility. Hoping for a miracle and new possibilities. 

The unattainable, the impossible. 

Bumble Cat is Blue Rose. ♥

Do. It. Now.

Two weeks have passed since New Year and it seems like nothing NEW is really surfacing in our day to day life. We feel that we are back in our old self and our resolutions are like written on the sand and washed out by the waves. Traditionally speaking, we always wait for January 1 to start a new beginning only to feel helpless on January 2 when we first break what we have decided to change because we are convinced that we can do it “tomorrow.” Then, we feel anxious and we hate ourselves. I can’t really digest such idea. People are obsessed with “New Year’s Resolution” and how come? Do we really need that? If so, why not make it a “Daily Resolution?”

The root of our dilemma - we are anxious because we are always procrastinating. In short, the “Mañana Habit” is deeply ingrained in our minds. “Mañana” means “tomorrow” or “procrastination” in plain English or “ugma na” in Bisaya. “Habit” is a behavior acquired through frequent repetition. No amount of “New Year’s Resolution” can beat the “Mañana Habit.”

Let me hand-pick how this “Mañana Habit” works. In some point, this is what each of us has experienced. You need to do something now but then you decide to do it later. As a consequence, you end up not doing it. Then, you tell yourself that you will do it tomorrow. Tomorrow comes and, still, you did not do it. The same thing happens the next day and it becomes a habit that is difficult to break. It is a battle that you can’t win because even fighting for it is left for tomorrow. You fail to realize that you only live today. You feel helpless and you get depressed.

But, how do you overcome this self-consuming habit? Very easy - change. DO IT NOW! Don’t wait ‘till tomorrow. I bet we all have heard this before. However, too little of us understands the words “DO IT NOW.”

Now, allow me to enlighten you with these 3 words:
1. DO. To do is to act and only action can beat procrastination. Drag your body if you must. Take a huge leap and don’t hesitate.
2. IT. Face it. The only way to do it is to face it. Don’t give in to a single excuse.
3. NOW. Not later, not tomorrow and not next year. Every second counts. Now is the perfect time.

So, wasn’t that easy? We don’t need therapy for that but the will to do it now. We don’t need a long list of new year’s resolution but only the will to change. One concrete example, of a DO IT NOW, that I can share to you is my own father’s smoking habit. He started this habit in his teenage years. We thought that he will never get rid of it but miraculously he made his way to DO IT NOW. One afternoon, while he was about to light a cigarette, he made an immediate decision to stop smoking. He acted on it by saying, “I will not smoke again” and threw away the stick of death. He did it and he never did smoke again. That is an inspiration for me. If my father has overcome the most difficult habit to break so why can’t I overcome petty habits or why can’t you?

Every habit started when we decided to do it and it should end when we decide to STOP doing it now. Remember your favorite Nike shoes’ slogan? It said, “JUST DO IT.” Take it from there. So just do it now. Think about the worthwhile benefits of doing things now.

Mind you, breaking a harmful habit is just one example. There are still many other things that we need to “do it now.” It may not be a habit to break but a good deed that you keep on postponing to do. Do it now. Every good deed is worth demonstrating. As what the Bible say,

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people…" --Galatians 6:9-10

Did you know that I was also procrastinating to write this article? LOL. Thank God I managed to DO IT NOW. 

“I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow human being let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”—Stephen Grellet

by: ivy congson

♥The most Beautiful Gift we can give each other is the Truth. ♥

Wait for the LORD

Don't go out and do something foolish or impulsive, trying to work things out for yourself. The counsel is to wait, looking to God for directions, and asking for grace to follow them.

"Find your delight in the Lord who will give you your heart's desire. Commit your way to the Lord; trust that God will act." Psalm 37:4-5

"Wait for the Lord, take courage; be stouthearted, wait for the Lord!" Psalm 27:14

The Bumblecat - Up Close and Personal

There's A Wild Side To Every Innocent Face. 

      My truth is mine, you're truth is yours. Own me if you dare.

           Beat me with your wit and I'll be your slave.

          

I am a woman of profound beauty and of high intellectual caliber. My great looking eyes can speak of what my provocative lips cannot. My crown of glory is my long, black hair. Things turn from gray to full color when I touch them. Flowers bloom when I walk passed a garden. My body has warmth that can ease pain.

I have talents heretofore that others don’t possess. My unique attributes make me appear to be rare kind specie. I belong to the limited edition of a collector’s item. A golden share in the stock market. An exotic food on the table. A girl next to your neighbor’s door. You can’t afford me if your heart is poor.

I was born a princess in my own kingdom and grew up to be a master of my own desires and passions. Due to curiosity, I became an adventurer in a wider horizon and that leads me to become more sensible and practical in making decisions. In addition, I became diplomatic and zealous of my independence of judgment and of the principles that I believe in. In any given set of circumstance, I believe that it is necessary to seek and impose justice. The experiences that I had have taught me that I should be sweet, slow to anger, romantic, affectionate, trustworthy, loving and "faithfulness-fanatic-one-man-woman" when it comes to the issue of relationship. As long as I don’t overdo it, I should also be sensual, crazy and funny.

I love to smile and laugh which makes people call me warm and friendly.

On the contrary, I am jealous, stubborn and argumentative. Due to procrastination, I have many unfulfilled desires.

THINGS I DO:
........includes reading, writing reflections, long letters, poems and quotes;
........watching movies/TV series (from high school crush to hard action films)...my favorites include Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, Notting Hill, Eat Pray Love, The Family Man, 50 First Dates, The Wedding Planner, The Proposal, Life as We Know It, RAMBO, Prison Break. I like Korean Drama too! lolz
........singing, dancing, hosting and organizing events like planning a wedding.
........baking, cooking, mixing drinks, pottery and growing a bonsai.
........books, rag dolls, pillows and hankies collection
........gadgets, shoes, bags, fitflops, perfumes, bling-blings and anything "kikay"
........ramen noodle fanatic, exotic food, fruits, veggies, peanuts, chocolates...but i can eat anything as long as it's not poisonous.
.......i sleep with music...from Opera, Classic Orchestra, Bossanova, RNB and Pop.

I can play one song using a guitar...if you wanna know, ask me...tee hee!

My favorite place in the house is the kitchen...a well-designed kitchen can make me very happy.

The bottom line...I am what I am and you can't be me. I am special and unique in my own way.