Love Smarts

IX. Love Smarts

Love is pain.

The pain of a broken heart. Hurts deeply. So deeply it seems, it eludes the mind. And so we struggle to find ways to cope. To mend a heart. A heart that once was whole. That now lay in pieces.

Salt itself has lost its taste! And life its flavor... 

So the broken heart labors. Weeping. Shedding salty tears. Until every drop has been shed. Flowing out. Into rivers, sea, and sky. Until the hurt relents.

And the rain renews. Once again...

Bitter were those days... Seasonless were those skies...
---<--@

Love Captains

VIII. Love Captains

Home is where the heart is. So you come home to your love... and your love comes home to you.

When you fall in love with a person. It just happens.

You suddenly realize, "Wow, I'm in love!" 

This is not to say love is a happenstance thing. One actually enters into love like an unknowing dream.

You have all these ideas in your head about a perfect person... and wham! Love takes you in and like a trap that shuts, one in love is in. So suddenly and wonderfully taken in.

You fall in love. You fall. Indeed, you fall in. But that's not true love, one must eventually accept. You'll have to clamber out of love and together experience each other apart. The true lover's art!

Physical attraction is important, one can not dismiss. Yet beauty is deeper than this. If physical attraction is not followed up by deeper connections, when time comes... love may not fulfill its intentions.

So when you fall in love, waste no time in discovering each other deeply. Make use of this safe harbor. That you and your beloved may build a strong vessel together.

So make it a fast ship with proud sails! 

That when tempests rise to break your love apart, you may together withstand it. Even in the midst of thy many adventures, great and small. So remember...

When you can stand apart from each other like pillars to a strong house, thy will in love abide. To revel in thy togetherness. For time itself will have proven the lovers worthy.

Thine is a ship that has mastered the sea. For Love has come alive between thee.
---<--@

Don't count the miles, count the I love you's.

Marriage is not a Love Affair

Found these passages meaningful...



CAMPBELL: ... But marriage is marriage, you know. Marriage is not a love affair. A love affair is a totally different thing. A marriage is a commitment to that which you are. That person is literally your other half. And you and the other are one. A love affair isn't that. That is a relationship for pleasure, and when it gets to be unpleasurable, it's off. But a marriage is a life commitment, and a life commitment means the prime concern of your life. If marriage is not the prime concern, you're not married.

MOYERS: Does romance in marriage last?

CAMPBELL: In some marriages, it does. In others, it doesn't. But the problem, you see, the big word in this troubadour tradition, is "loyalty."

MOYERS: What do you mean by loyalty?

CAMPBELL: Not cheating, not defecting -- through whatever trials or suffering, you remain true.

MOYERS: The Puritans called marriage "the little church within the Church."In marriage, every day you love, and every day you forgive. It is an ongoing sacrament -- love and forgiveness.

CAMPBELL: Well, the real word, I think, is "ordeal," in its proper sense. That is the submission of the individual to something superior to itself. The real life of a marriage or of a true love affair is in the relationship, which is where you are, too. You understand what I mean?

MOYERS: No, I'm not clear on that.

CAMPBELL: Like the yin/yang symbol, you see. Here I am, and here she is, and here we are. Now when I have to make a sacrifice, I'm not sacrificing to her, I'm sacrificing to the relationship. Resentment against the other one is wrongly placed. Life is in the relationship, that's where your life now is. That's what a marriage is -- whereas, in a love affair, you have two lives in a more or less successful relationship to each other for a certain length of time, as long as it seems agreeable.

from The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
---<--@

Love Quickens

VII. Love Quickens

The measure of love is to love without measure.

I do not know where I happened upon this saying, my loveliest love, but isn't it so true?

When I was younger, I looked at love differently. I took it from itself.

I made love mine and mine alone.

I wanted my girlfriend for myself and myself alone. And she wanted the same of me.

But love has a way of turning the tables on strangers like us.

In its own mysterious time, unknown to the uninitiated, to make itself known, love suddenly reveals itself.

With a sword, love pierces the heart. It draws blood to quicken the lovers to itself.

Then with strong arms, it subdues the self until it makes us all its own.

And suddenly, the stranger is a stranger no more.

We are one.

Unfortunately, my darlingest dear, that relationship did not survive the quickening of love.

For our hearts were not able to bear the doubt.

Nor our egos able to withstand the hurt.

Neither of us were strong enough to bear for each other, our love; the failing of our youth.

I was hurt. She was hurt.

Love was also hurt.

But it was the hurting that heals and it was the bearing that teaches.

And so for many years I grieved. Not really knowing that love also wept with me.

I do not know how many years it took for love to bear me away from my grieving, my loveliest love. But when I was able to smile again, it was with you.

It is all that I can remember now...

- selah -

True love begins with a doubt.

When love asks of itself, "do you love me?"

If one loves the beloved without measure, there is a sense of wholeness that embraces the lovers both ways and the heart that knows it doubts itself not saying,

I do.

There is a bittersweet pain to loving.

Lovers long for each other like love longing for itself alone.

It is the experience of being in love.

'Tis pain and joy.

For the quickening of love hurts.

Truly, it must.

Love reassures us wonderfully however, and gives us every chance to prove ourselves.

For at the same time loves takes us unto itself, love sets us free.

- selah -

Now that I have been hurt, I can love again.

(personal anecdote 20090824)
---<--@

“Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, and the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.”

from The Prophet by Khalil Gibran

Love is blind?

If love were blind,
why ponder the mind?
That's so unkind.

If love were blind,
why seek the heart?
Where to start?

If love were blind,
why must lovers begin...
where from within?
---<--@

Some say faith is a blindness that allows you to see. This is true, you know.

Hope is born of those little glimpses faith accords the eye of the heart...

And love, love is the sight that allows us to trust in faith.


We used to have those little autograph books in the sixth grade. In it there is always a blank that asks you for a favorite motto. I know a lot of us peek at answers others have given, I did too. One of the most famous answers was, "love is blind".

Hmmm... In retrospect. I must've thought this response mysterious enough to be universally considered a cool and appropriate sixth-grader response. Yup, I used to put it down a lot.

Intermission...

Love is not really blind though. It can be stupid to the eyes of the world. But what is wise to the unwise?

What love really does at times really, only love may really understand. And unless the love itself admits the heart into its inner council of love, one shall never see what is beautiful from the eye of its beholder.

You see, it is this world outside of ourselves that is blind after all. Not love.

Come to think of it, I should write, "love is kind", as one of my favorite mottos next time around...

It's more true for me nowadays.
---<--@

      You're the star that shines in me...

Happily Single

I'm not actually lonely...

I just like listening to lonely songs.

The best one for me at the moment is "Old Songs" by David Pomeranz.

Maybe I was lonely at one point in my life...

Maybe at one time in my past, "Lonely Won't Leave Me Alone" by Glen Medieros.

However, I don't feel myself trapped in the past anymore.

I used to cry with lonely songs. Now, I just sing with them. I sing with them and I feel no hurt. In fact, lonely songs these days relax me.

I know what they're expressing. I also know what I'm expressing. And everything else comes together in harmony. It's a sweet deal.

I have found there are many true loves in this world. 

All of them possess the potential to perfect an already complete person. The love of God and of all of God's creatures, the love of Country and of one's common humanity, I have come to realize such loves as distinct in themselves. Distinct from conjugal love nurtured from within the safety and surety of the marriage covenant.

There are different vows. Different rules. Different codes. Different indiviuals. Different communities. But
only a complete person can fall in love with any of them completely.

Only two complete individuals can fall in love perfectly. It would be nice to have a woman by my side. But I and I alone complete myself.

Love completes. Lovers perfect.

As I sing with my lonely songs I feel as if I'm almost there... on a journey that seem never ending.
---<--@

Love Decides

VI. Love Decides

There is no perfect person, only perfect choices.

I used to believe
that love and lovers
come by chance...

Soulmate? Happenstance.

But nowadays, 

'tis different for me...

Nowadays, I am convinced
one has to be more romantic...
and also, more free.

- selah -

Love stories,
it is usually assumed, is all about hellos.

One meets a person,
they fall in love, they fall out of love,
then they rise and fall in a lost sea...
until one day... their own love finds them...
Or not.

It really depends...

Because the greatest love stories,
if one may allow, are all about good byes.

It takes a leap. Or many leaps to arrive at it.
But before that, many a fond, tearful farewell...
to the old. 

That the weeping may all be wept...

Sometimes,
the heart has to trust - in the love itself.
The love that you and your beloved
chose to choose.

Which also chose you,
but - together
as one.

And there will be those times,
difficult times, when the heart decides
and then realizes...

Maybe after saying
all those painful good byes,
the heart in seeking for solace
may find - hello,
there is such a thing
as a soulmate
after all!

But perhaps,
not before.

Soulmates...
do not happen at random,
I don't think so.

You decide.
---<--@

Pinky Promise?

Anne's most important word...

Beloved of God, you who are -



There are many lessons I can share with you
about our Anne Frank - her life, and her times...
the power of youth, the longing of the nations,
the spirit of war, the maturity of remembrance,
the importance of human dignity and promise,
human citizenship, pluralism, freedom, peace...
but you know, my darling Starshine,
by far the most important thing
I have learned with her
is this...

...to simply be open to friendships
and believe in even the most impossible ones!

To see a world so full of potential friends (instead of the reverse)
and to care deeply about how the sharing of the world is had by all
across all our nations nurtured and governed by the LORD, our God
Who Himself is Friend - and - one Source of all meaningful relationships,
the God Who is, the LORD, the one Sovereign of all our Nations,
and the one, true and living God of our everlasting Peace.

- selah -

If I had not trusted in the friendship that was being offered to me in my Anne,
we never would have grown together in the way I now love my Anne forever...
(and I really wouldn't know who or where I'd be...)
---<--@

As we are all poor, so shall we be rich -
As we are all strangers, so shall we belong.
As we are all prisoners, so shall we be free.
As we are all orphans, so shall we be found.
As we are all widows, so shall we be loved.

For in the end, we are all wildflowers...

Love Recognizes

V. Love Recognizes -



Do not lay all your cards on the table.
Keep nothing hidden in your sleeves too.
Be honest but be careful about the truth.
Be open to what you accept - in thy heart -
but be vigilant about what you receive as well.

Above all, love.

Love that you might know the truth.
Love that you may be open to the truth
and in return, receive more love.

Love that you may always
have something to lay on the table
and love that you may always
have strength enough to love
without holding love back.

Remember, my darling,
the door of thy heart opens
from the inside not from the outside
that you may know to open yourself
- to love and to be loved -.
often... and freely... and deeply.

So love then and in return be loved,
that you may begin to know the truth
even when love to you is yet unknown.

Did not God do the same for us?

Love recognizes, let it begin...
---<--@

Valentine's Day 2013

Today we observe the power of overcoming love;
the love of God in Jesus Christ that leads every heart to love all in All.

It might not always mean - in the temporal sense -
the triumph of two lovers, but always the eternal victory of Love.

May we therefore, be blessed this day!

May God cause all our hearts to always, always be in love.

May our hearts and our spirits be glad
as we bear into mind today - the great wonder of triumphant love;
that love with the power to bear for all, to endure for all, and to hope in all.

And may the God Who is Love prevail in our souls forever!
---<--@



Proclaim the message of the Gospel in the Peace of Jesus Christ!

Salutation #156

You can not see love
yet you feel it when it's near
and even more so when it is far...

The spiritual soul
implicitly understands this.

But to the unspiritual
this only brings confusion.



(Rich in all things, Rich above all things)

Starshine -

Is Mankind 
truly experiencing 
an awakening in the soul? 

We can feel our way
toward an answer to this
by how we learn to come to love
what we can no longer see.

We can not see virtue
but we can understand its worth.

AND if this love of the spiritual
overcomes our love for the material,
far from nullifying our national prosperity,
it will cause our people to become rich indeed -
rich in all things, rich above all things.

Reality is that our Reality is
99% invisible to the human eye -

   We can not see Country
   but we hope to understand its worth.
   For what is essential is formed in formlessness.

We are seen more than we can see.
And loved more than we are able to believe.

---<--@

Salutation #127

That we lead many nations
in terms of faith - only means one thing,
we are a people prepared.

- selah -

For the burden of the times
is a burden of expectation.

If it were a burden of justice,
would any nation survive?

Therefore,
do not despair,
my people.

Believe.

---<--@


(Burden of Expectation)

What does a nation do with a burden?
It bears it together!
---<--@

THERE IS
an expectation - under heaven -
about this one nation of ours;
a requirement to succeed.

What is it about expectations
that make us cringe, my compatriots?

To whom much is given,
much must also be expected!

Is the Filipino truly free?

Have we become a nation mired
in a state of permanent revolution?

The mindset of War requires division - even in the midst -
but against whom must we fight against these days?

Increasingly,
we are becoming a people exhausted,
a nation dark and despairing,
trampled upon by unnamed tyrannies
and nameless tyrants.

Is the Filipino truly free?

- selah -

What is this freedom, this vaunted liberty?

We are a nation distinct, a nation among nations;
we are a nation led by a vision enshrined in our Constitution,
bounded by laws, and governed by an entire lineage of sacred trust
that goes from strength to strength and hope to hope
embodied - in time - through the Offices of this Republic
and duly represented by the mandates carried
by each their presiding Seats of public service
in persons elected or appointed.

We are a human society,
endowed by Almighty God with a culture,
a history, customs, traditions, aspirations, civic values,
and a freedom to pursue the happy ends
for which our generations (as a whole)
have dedicated and gained for this nation
self reliance and self determination
at such a cost!

What is it about the national success
that is becoming so fearful to us, O my nation,
that we have come to shun it?

Have we forgotten who we are?

No other nation upon the earth
can build upon this one, faithful Republic
the foundation of all her better days
than this particular nation -
this one Filipino nation!

Truly, there is a requirement for us to succeed!

But this requirement - under heaven -
(being that rightful expectation we all, as fellow citizens, share)
is only a requirement - and shall remain so -
as a thing remembered for us by God
and reminded in our hearts - these days -
by the most beneficent will of His Providential grace.

We have yet to claim it and make it ours!

And so let us together say, "yes, indeed."

There is a requirement for us to succeed!

- selah -

We are no different
from our other kindred nations
yet we are also distinct from each of them
because of the things that gather us together
into one common, human belonging; one nation.

We can not allow ourselves
to be defined by the those things
that strive against our peace,
that seek to tear us apart,
but by our free and human belongings
to each other as a whole,
one and distinct.

A nation - is - the people
- and - our connections - with and to each other;
our relationships - as citizens to each other -
and what (Who) animates and informs it.

Our freedom proceeds from this realization.

For we can not truly become free
to fulfill our national aspirations
until we have learned to serve
- as citizens to each other -
and we can not become
- as citizens to each other -
unless we participate in the work
to achieve a better Philippines.

And that this Republic is but one work.

- selah -

I have a belief 
in our beloved Philippines 
that transcends mere optimism.

And I often feel,
if I think about it long enough,
that I have come to a conviction of this
long before our time.

It is as though
it has always been there,
and never at all was it lost.

It sought as I sought
and now - we are together -
in our seeking.

And
in this togetherness,
we are together sheltered.

- selah -

The work we must do
to restore to ourselves our Republic endeavor
is not just the work of our government
in the Responsible State (not just the President's)
- it is ours as well, my people beloved of God.

It may only be accomplished
by nations and indeed, it may only be accomplished
by this particular nation, our one Filipino nation!

This is why I am addressing
much of this communication to each of you:

Only as
- we, the people -
can we effectively stand
against the evils of our present times.

Truly,
my fellow Filipino compatriots,
we should only expect for ourselves,
united across differences and one in our generations,
to succeed because victory is the only lineage
that belongs to the national peace
we must soon come to profess -
together this time.

Now is the time for peace:

This is our time.

Peace, I salute you.

(original produced 20100914)
---<--@

Battlestrong

Salutation #112

"If the veil of time were withdrawn

and the Kingdom of God stretched forth

- in plain view before thy sight -

if the LORD does not incline thy heart unto Him,

O Man, thou still would not be able to believe."

(The Story of Being Special)

The LORD God

created all living beings to be unique

- Angels and Men -

the LORD created them,

seen as well as unseen, We became.

And All of us are made to be special.

But the Devil and his angels, they said,

"since the LORD God willed

that all living beings are special - then -

I must be special".

And so was division in heaven sown.

For the Devil and his angels

- undid in themselves -

the life that the LORD God

- in each of us -

did bestow in abundance.

They cast themselves into the void.

But the Holy Angels of the LORD said,

"as the LORD God willed

that all living beings are special, then you,

O my beloved, must be special".

And so they were in God gathered.

For the spirit of the world is a scattering spirit.

But the Spirit of God gathers together.

- selah -

You make me special, beloved of God,

and so I am. And so you are, alleluia.

---<--@

Love Surprises

V - Love Surprises -

YOU ARE my waking dream,

everything that makes my everything complete.

You are my ordinary miracle,

everywhere I am, you were there, always with me.

Yet I was asleep to the wonder of you...

And then -

I wake up to the realization:

You are nothing like my illusion!

I love you for no reason.

I have loved you for a million seasons!

I love you, I just do.

- selah -

In my youth, I dreamt of you -

the shape of your face,

the look of your eyes,

the flow of your hair,

the curve of your smile,

the feel of your skin,

the fragrance of your smell,

the grace of your laughter,

the beauty of your mind,

the music of your voice,

the comfort of your warmth,

the peace of your company...

Alas!

The law of the heart is this -

my darling, beloved of my heart,

when you came into my life

in God's own time, by and by...

I understood -

Love writes the rules, not I.

Love surprises,

the most beautiful of reprises!

Relationships not random but made;

moments that far into forever fade.

Such sweetness... joy and gladness!

Brightness, kindness, beauty...

timeless.

---<--@

(A composite of my life's experiences with the mystery of loving...)


May you always be in love.

=^.^=

Salutation #107

A COMMUNITY DEPRIVED
of the feminine expression is barren and desolate.

It knows of no hearth,
no home, no place of rest...

no company to renew,

no heart to come home into;

no cheer to grace with solace,

no warmth to bless with courage;

no gaze to remind of beauty,

no love to bear with injury;

no touch to soften the harshness,

no fire to tame the wilderness;

no peace to prosper life,

no strength to ward off strife.

---<--@

(Woman)

When God made Woman,

the LORD fashioned her as a companion to Man;

a faithful helper, equal in dignity and promise,

without which Man

shall never be complete

as himself.

For there are no creatures

- upon the earth -

like Woman is to Man.

From this new community

God fashioned out of Man in Woman

comes the lineages

of all the generations

of the children of Mankind.

The truths established by God

in the story of the joining of Man and Woman

form the common foundations

of the institution of the human family.

It is the strength of the family

that determines the strength of the nations

unto which the preservation

of both human dignity and human promise

is universally entrusted by God

for the sustenance and protection

of all our generations

to the very last of our generations.

When the dignity of Woman

is left unprotected - and her promise -

is left undefended,

Man is not elevated but diminished.

When Man and Woman

exist in conflict with each other,

no nation will hope to survive the test of time.

That is the truth.

- selah -

Truly, truly,
each human relationship, no matter how humble,
have a lasting impact on individuals.

For these are the bonds
that God deigns to place in our way
not to entangle our spirits
and create more brokenness in our lives
but to liberate us
and allow us to freely enter
into the Truth with Him
and in Him.

Community is the LORD's way
of enlarging the love kept in our souls,
because our God is a great and good God.

We can see this in the way
God created the first community
in Adam and Eve.

Let us ask ourselves
how instead of reprogramming Adam,
which was not beyond the LORD's power to do,
why did our God choose to bless him
with a partner in Eve?

- selah -

Relationships matter
just as much as individuals -
each creates and recreates the other
and does so in a way and a fashion
that only the LORD can generate and perfect
with our willing cooperation.

One who seeks maturity
and longs for wholeness in the self
should always tread the holy ground of relationships
(either thine own or others like thine own)
carefully, gently, and with love.

- selah -

This is why

it is important for us to celebrate

International Women's Day -

We must ever be reminded

of this fundamental community of Man and Woman

and must always live in remembrance

of this most vital of all human relationships

- established by God Himself -

which forms the nucleus of every human family.

The success of any nation depends on it.

The ultimate destiny of all Countries is shaped

by how deeply we understand its truth.

Man and Woman

together form a common bond

and this bond guarantees

not only the order of our generations

but the quality of our everyday human living.

Man and Woman

together form a common witness
for the universal example

of the peace of their marital togetherness

- safeguards -

not only the transmission of human life

but the divinely ordained purpose

of the nations of the children of Mankind.

---<--@

Think about it -

I once thought that Filipina hair

was just plain black hair and that was all.

Obviously,

I was not at all in love

with my Philippines then.

I never really noticed

that our women sported not just plain black hair!

Framed by the warm light of our tropical sun,

our women's hair is actually cast

- in many subtle hues -

in darkest shades of golden brown.

Subtle, not obvious -

and pretty but

- only when -

love is in the eye of the beholder.

Exactly in keeping with our conservative nature.

As far as I am concerned,

all our Filipinas are princesses.

Beauty being what it is, inherited.

We should work to make sure

- this Country of ours -

is more a suitable place for all our women!

---<--@

March 8 is International Women's Day.

I love my Miyang. PERIOD.

Real Stars

Some stars are fake, some are real -

of the fake ones, the heart can feel,

because of the real ones,

when one can tell -

it's their nearness to our earth

that makes it sell.

Real stars shine with a warmth

that often reaches us

and are full of genuine concern

but fake ones really don't connect

as much as we would like,

their light is not as warm and comforting

as far as the heart can tell

they could be as far from our earth

as heaven is to hell.

---<--@

Love Gives

IV - Love Gives -

The giving is the gift.

Inasmuch as the heart understand thankfulness

so too shall the soul value the importance of gift.

Therefore,

let generosity rule thy heart

for the art of giving is difficult

and the way of receiving

even more so -

- selah -

Every joyful giver knows how it is to be thankful

for every true giver is always a true receiver first.

---<--@

Love Shines

III - Love Shines -

The Love of God is as bright as Day

and the heart of Man pines for its fullness.

The heart of Man awaits the coming of the LORD

like the Darkness awaits the dawning of the Light.

For we are the image of God

in each of ourselves,

the likeness of our Creator -

God fills us with His Love

and our hearts come to life in Him.

God comes to us

and He becomes God to us

by the Love we choose

to receive from Him.

For all of love is a giving;

a freedom that begins with God

and ends again with God.

It clothes us with the dignity to be

and empowers us with the grace to become -

the love of the LORD in each ourselves;

a limitless and omnipotent grace.

For the Lord Christ is the Light

and to Him belong the fullness of the Day.

- selah -

We are the love we give away;

what light we shine unto others -

For all of love is a giving.

It is a freedom.

We become all things by the love we freely give -

a reflection of the self that is shed as a light unto others.

The more we give

the more we become

the image of our true selves.

The less light that we shine

the less brightly we stand out

in the midst of the darkness.

A friend becomes a friend

by the reflection of the friendship

he or she offers to others souls

not unlike him or herself.

A father clothes himself

with the dignity of a father

by the light of the love

he gives away -

A husband clothes himself

with the dignity of a husband

by the light of the love

he gives away -

In the same way,

wife becomes a mother

and a mother, a sister,

and a sister, a friend.

---<--@

Love Happens

II - Love Happens -

If I myself can not accept you

- for who you really are -

then, who am I?

If I myself can not accept you

for what you have done or have failed to do

- whether good or bad -

then, what is good and what is bad?

Am I not only a reflection of the love I offer?

If I feign love, I am unsure.

But if I am true,

I will see you - for all that you are.

And I will say, "yes indeed!"

Beauty is when love is in the heart.

---<--@

Love Dares

I - Love Dares -

Can you hide it when you are in love?

Would you be a fool and feign affection when there is none?

For love is like a song that must be heard!

When love sings, there is harmony and it knits every word.

When there is no love, there are only words and no rhyme.

When a fool sings, it is without meaning.

For only a lover can sing to the heart.

Love is wise that makes itself vulnerable.

So when you are in love, make sure to let thy beloved know.

In the midst of the din and the haste

of thy everyday living, let thy beloved know -

with words but especially without, sing her a song.

Let thy beloved know of thy love -

let the whole world hear of thy sweet, sweet melody

and everything will soon fall quiet as your hearts begin to sing...

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