WRITE

To unravel your own thoughts gradually or in a slew of words that try to keep up with your frantic mind, until either way, they make beautiful sense.

To safeguard special memories the best way you can

To communicate in the way you intend

To document findings and preserve realizations

To share beliefs without forcing them on others

And for pure temperamental discharge.

Whenever I read the things you write, I see the world through your eyes, and it’s so so beautiful. It has nothing to do with your grammar and diction, and everything to do with your heart.

Project prospect: Prose, Poetry, and Ponders from the Past

I’m thinking about sharing some of the things that I’ve written before. From those days and that age when this thing called journal was (and still is) my only sanctuary; the only thing that I looked forward to everyday which gave satisfaction without fail. Where and with whom I shared all my thoughts and feelings freely. It’s like exhaling after I’ve held my breath for so long. That is literally how I feel like when I write on my journal. In retrospect, writing always brought out the best in me. And it always made me FEEL my best. 

I have a cabinet full of journals and I don’t know where to start. But I think the green and orange ones are my best bets. :D

P.S I don’t know how I managed to have so many P words in the title

Deviant

You act different from Society

And you are called a rebel

When all you want to do

Is just be your natural self.

Unconventional is bad 

Follow the status quo

People are quick to judge the roads

about which they don’t really know.

Personal entries

With my new theme (yet again), I’ve created a page which contains the link to my very own entries, i.e those that were not reblogged or were reblogged but on which I have added my very own thoughts.

I tried finding a way so that when you click on the page, you are directed immediately to the posts. To my utter frustration, I could not.

This is the link to the page which contains the link to my very own entries: 

http://parvastella.tumblr.com/jasminnermost

I suppose I could have just linked the URL of the entries with jasminnermost tags but that would defeat the purpose of my introducing the page.

It sounds confusing, doesn’t it? It does not help that my internet vocab is pitiful either.  

Anyway, I do not know why I’ve gone to such great pains trying to explain this.. Or DO this page thing for that matter. 

EDIT: With the help of my good friend, Tinny (http://littlescribbler.tumblr.com/), I don’t need to keep the page anymore. She gave me the code that I should put in my description, that when clicked would link straight to my own posts.  

Hurray!!! Thanks Tin!

I could use the page for other things though. 

I am so happy because some of our relatives from the States are here! Uncle Lito was here just 3 months ago, but now he came back with Kuya Jun, Ate Maria (Kuya Jun’s wife), and Avery (their beyond-adorable 18 month-old baby!).

Their purpose is to attend Ate Maria’s brother’s wedding in Iloilo, but in their itinerary is Manila so they could come to visit us too. It was our first time to meet Ate Maria and Avery. We’ve had so much fun these past two days getting to know each other and exchanging stories over delectable food, either home-made or in good restaurants.

They’ve left for Iloilo already, after which they’ll go to Boracay. But they will be back in Manila on the 30th. We’ve planned on going out for dinner and having sushi-all-you-can. 

Kuya Jun has always been a sweet cousin. He was last here about 15 years ago and I remember he used to kiss our sweaty smelly little heads. We also used to teach him some Tagalog words which he never could pronounce well. When they left that time, he gave us each a letter. I’ll look for mine! I hope I find it!

He is also such a joker, making us crack up every time. I want to share the funny things he says but I’m afraid I won’t be able to deliver them well. So let’s leave it at that.

I really wish they could stay longer. I hope they visit more often. Or better yet, I hope we could visit them in California! That would be so grand! But for now, I’m just really thankful we’ve had this chance to bond again.

Meet Avery, A very adorable baby!

She’s the baby version of Snow White. She’s so fair and her lips are so red!

And then, there’s the rest of the crowd

“This packrat has learned that what the next generation will value most is not what we owned, but the evidence of who we were and the tales of how we loved. In the end, it’s the family stories that are worth the storage.” -Ellen Goodman

“The great gift of life is to be intimately acquainted with people you might never even introduce yourself to, had life not done it for you.”     -Kendall Hailey

“Like branches on a tree, our lives may grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one.”  -Author Unknown

Realizations: On boasting and braggarts

• Those who legitimately have something to brag about, are usually the ones who stay quiet. 
• In line with that, I think that when things are going really really great, one has no need AT ALL anymore, to boast about it. Bragging is ego boosting; the need to reassure one’s self that the grandest is theirs. And that is only because they are not really assured/secure.
• But what is the point of being assured that the best is yours? Does it give you such a high that there are so many others “below” you?
• There are many kinds of bragging. I don’t hate all of them. In fact, I sincerely applaud those who are just gratefully proud. Those who speak of accomplishments and good fortune while acknowledging that it was not all them. That luck and chance and the Universe and God played a big part in it too.
• I excuse those who brag only with the intention of shaming arrogant people and giving them a dose of their own medicine.
• I really do not like it when people act as if they are the center of the universe. Those who connect every event and happenstance to them and their lives. 
• I applaud people who speak without an underlying tone of “I’m better than you” or “See how great my life is?” 
• I commend people who downplay their own achievements because they have no desire to be envied. These people are second to none in magnanimity. 

Those teeth of ivory

Bought Kimba new toys today. 1 ball, 6 small digestible gnaw bones and one big one. 

I immediately gave her a small bone and she consumed it in less that 10 minutes. And so I gave her the toy ball next. 

I thought she was caressing it, grateful for my present

I thought wrong of course. 

Kimba’s guide to ball destruction

Step 1: Secure ball using front paws

Step 2:  Look for ball’s soft/weak spot (If you are a master at this already, like me, you don’t need to. Just proceed to step 3) 

Step 3: Puncture it using canines 

Step 4: Enlarge the hole using molars and premolars

Step 5: Use incisors to weaken the material further by gnawing and pulling

Making very great progress

Keep at it!

Step 6: Pull at the loose bits using incisors

As you can see, friends, great hole right there.

Now, proceed tearing at another part of the ball. Follow steps 3 to 6.

Final product; fruit of her not-so-intensive labor:

I love her, she’s amazing— destructive teeth and all.

The least that we can have is what we want. The best that we can have is what life gives us as a surprise.

Never lose hope. The best is always and ever yet to come. :)

Marley & Me

It’s been a while since I blogged about a movie. I guess I had to wait for one that would really get to me again. 

Well, Marley & Me is the one. Which is why here I am, still up and typing (time check: 2:46 am); I couldn’t wait ‘til the morning to write about it.

A few weeks ago, I made a list of my all-time favorite movies. Movies that moved me, whether to so much laughter, or to tears. This movie did both.

Here’s a scene that had me, quite literally, laughing through tears.

Hilarious! Arbee does something of the sort to Kimba too. He grabs hold of Kimba’s hind legs and she walks with her front ones. I always thought it made her look like a wheelbarrow.

I love shots like this

Man and his best friend. I think dogs are God’s greatest gift to man. 

The idea of a dog beach is really really great! This was such a happy scene.

This is Marley while he was waiting for the kids to get down from the school bus, having arrived home from school.

The most loyal creatures.

“You give them your heart, and they give you theirs.”

Yes, and they will never EVER cease loving you. They’ll love you every day. No matter how long you’ve left them, or how neglected they are, they’re always just happy to see you.

From who else can we find love like that. Who else has a better example of unconditional love.

Animals deserve to be loved and cared for. Every single one of them. They deserve to run wild and free. They deserve to be every bit as happy as we are because they have the purest hearts. 

It takes a lot to make us humans happy. But to them, a pat on the head, a scratch behind the ear, will get them dancing around.

This is so picturesque.

Was crying nonstop from this scene (or maybe even before this) to the end of the movie.

And then..

Dogs must have a heaven. Animals must have a heaven. If they don’t, I don’t want to have one either. I don’t want to continue to be, if the world I will go to doesn’t have one of the greatest kinds of love ever known. If animals don’t have a heaven, then we don’t deserve one either.

Maybe religious people will smite me for what I’ve just said. But the God I believe in will surely not let these creatures with the purest souls just cease to be.

I get so emotional and affected sometimes that I say strong things that can draw gasps, tuts and head shakes, but I will never ever regret saying this. I’ve always prayed to God for the animals to go up there too when they die. Where, one day, we will all live infinitely better and happier.

Marley & Me made me realize how rich and blessed this world we live in is, because of the love of even just a single dog. 

I am ending this entry with a poem I read in the book, Heartland. Although originally not made for such, this poem by Leo Marks is used in the book to give voice to the animals. I always thought it fitting, accurate and very true.

The Life That I Have

The life that I have

Is all that I have

And the life that I have

Is yours

-

The love that I have

Of the life that I have

Is yours and yours and yours

-

A sleep I shall have

A rest I shall have

Yet death will be but a pause

-

For the peace of my years

In the long green grass

Will be yours and yours

And yours

____________________________________________

Let us give them the happy life that they so deserve.