in unity

first picture of spring flowers in a sidewalk garden while i biked my way back from urasa

"in unity to dwell in unity;
la la la la la la la la la la (2x)
behold how good and how pleasant it is
for brethren to dwell together." (2x)
-from psalm 133:1

ANNOUNCEMENT

FIRST HAIRCUT IN JAPAN

COST: 2000 YEN

(2O times equivalent of my haircut in the philippines. this prompted me to invite mano rey, my barber back home, to migrate to japan.)

arman: uyy gagong gupit!
banban: pangit ka nagpagupit?
jepoy: buhi pa?

but hey hey hey it's 2000 yen kapatid, 2000 yen.

fellowship

english bible study with japanese; time out with other christians

no man is an island, so i was told. only islands are created to be, so aptly called, islands. the transitive verb form of it is defined by the dictionary as to isolate, to set apart.

in my entire life, i have only imagined myself to be in an island. but to be an island? never! and i say it with exclamation point. however, situations may come that may require me to be so - to be an island. one of which is my coming to japan. for a while, this was difficult. i felt like gnashing and gnawing my teeth for the rest of those nights when reality bites - that i am now alone like an island surrounded by water, only that i am surrounded by mountains.

the human Creator, the greatest Designer of the universe, commenting His creation masterpiece after each day of His 6-day work, that it was good or very good until after the last day of His creation when He said that it is not good for a man to be alone. so became the reason He put the first man to sleep and brought the first woman to the first man. when the man was awaken, lo and behold, there was a woman beside him, beautiful as i imagined her to be, with pearly white teeth, smiling, and perhaps saying, hello first man.

so i too sleep. i too wake up. unlike the first man, i have only mountains around me. (maybe she is sleeping too?)

for the time being, i have learned to accustom myself to the pang of isolation. it serves its purpose too. it gives me more time to identify my priorities, reorient them actually, and be passionate about the call to fellowship, of comradeship. learning to value the importance of a close association with other individuals having common interests and beliefs is the greatest lesson of all i learned while i contented myself with an early morning greeting by the mountain every time i wake up: hello island.

to be an island is to be set apart. but set apart for what? as einstein puts it: do not be a man [or island] of success but be a man [or island] of value. live for others, die for others. "for none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone." (romans 14:7) tough call it is but fellowship this is. the irony of it is i be an island first to learn to fellowship. maybe this is the essence of fellowship, the very purpose why for the meantime i be an island, i am being set apart.

(now i am happily involved in an english bible study with japanese and with international students. i ceased now to be an island. i belong. i fellowship. but still wanting to sleep...)

loggers and players

who says work cant be fun?

most of us live an unfulfilling life because we pursue the kind of work on the basis of its monetary compensation and the availability of that work at the time we look for it. they call it pragmatism. others say "kapit sa patalim." no other choice. then we end up being burnt out. and complain.

however, do we really need to end up this way? the day we went to the mountain of aoki sensei in shiozawa, i realized that work should not necessarily be a an infliction of unnecessary pains. the logging work i did was not the type of work i am doing right now, but doing that for the first time gave me an idea that a work could be fun. i now understood why PBA players would love to play basketball for the rest of their lives. in our case, after cutting those trees, we had to move them down the hill by sliding them in the snow. twas heavy, and heavy work indeed. but what made me do it? for one, like the basketball players, we played the work. two, like the PBA team, we worked with fun. and third, like any PBA individual player, it was something i liked to do, and be doing. why not just be a logger for the rest of my life?

having a light spirited friends as a company, aoki sensei, gary and i sang our hearts out as we walked back home in the snow. la la la la, whooo. who said work cant be fun?

EXPOsed 2005

the invitation was pronounced. the budget was 88,000 yen. i said no, i can't go. that was about the 2005 aichi world exposition and a sidetrip to shikoku island. and i thought that was all about it.

no seconds after i politely declined, i heard a voice, speaking fluently in japanese, saying they'd take charge of all my expenses. i bit my tongue, and could hardly say thank you. but to world expo off i went!

shikoku trip was cancelled. would i care i was in expo 3 days instead.

the pictures exposed the expo trip. patience was a virtue. i wore it like a sword for battle. i needed that in the throng of thousands lining up to get in. waiting time could be as long as 120 minutes, never mind the 4,600 yen per day entrance fee. impatience could kill; the opposite let me 'let live'. i was welcomed with the "no more tickets available", but hey there was "evening, there was morning - the second day."

japan pavilion, the last and only pav i went to in my 3rd day, best summarizes what the expo is all about: learning from nature. how timely can it be?

was it all worth it? better go and find out. but let this be my last words: i still remember the expo until today. and blog about it. and brag.

access expo at this website: http://www-1.expo2005.or.jp/en/

of peace, blessings, God's love, and my testimony

right after my back touched the bed, i felt a surge of silence deep within me. i never felt so quiet, so contemplative, so peaceful in my stay in japan until this night, on this bed, in what we now call "the NPO hotel" (actually this is a house turned into a special school for special kids, a nonprofit org). i felt so at home. this was a night before we left for the world expo. i saw flashbacks of what was happening in my life. i was smiling because i realized this has been a beautiful life after all, my life.

who would think of what i would experience as what i have now? bo, the street boy, preferring to run in the streets than run for errands, read comic books than textbooks, talk "johnny pusong" than current events. occassionally cut classes, lingered more in the corner of rovic, joining the outcasts, laid back, lazy, easy going, always not interested in what others call as best in life, no interest to climb up the ladder of what others call as success. i played in the streets, always in a hurry to get out from class and swim in the sea.

when i was in high school, i was at the top of the inverted pyramid. in college, i never attended any study group, oftentimes failed to submit homeworks. when everybody crammed for exams, i was in the streets laughing. an absentee, always aimed for compliance rather than excellence. i slept at 10pm when my roommate would sleep at 4am. i went to downtown after class when everybody went to the library for research. in my post grad studies in the philippines, i never went to class for almost two months. i cared less, and i was not bothered.

yet, me? being blessed? yes, i am blessed. i have been blessed. i was an honor student in the elementary when i didnt care anything about honors. they could have all the honors in the world, if they wanted it. i belonged to first section in a research and development class during my high school where all the honors of most schools in region 8 belonged to. i was at the top bottom of the class together with those who also didnt care. i was a UP scholar, both school and scholarship i never knew until i was into it. i was just going with the flow. my classmates applied for it, so did i. i just didnt care. i got a failing grade, many times got the minimum grades, a one-time scholarship allowance cut for a semester. i pursued a master's degree which i never really thought of pursuing. my director said so, so why not. i got the master's for free, and enjoyed a 6-day off because my classes were held on saturdays. and graduated. i applied for a month long sponsored study tour in japan in 1999, and was accepted. i applied for another master's in japan in 2003, and was accepted. will i graduate? would i care?

from the time i graduated in college, i found a job after a month of hiatus. was traveling to tacloban-manila-tacloban in one day almost every month. then i was accepted in a government employment which every unemployed hardknock sought for. i went through series of screening, i got the job clean. was trained for 6 months, was assigned as part of the 10-member cavalry out of 32 who worked as executive assistants. i attended different trainings in different places for free. stayed in posh hotels for free, the longest was almost 3 months, and ate exquisite food i could not normally afford.

in japan, i got all things free. opportunities just come when i never really look for it. been to disneyland, disneysea, world expo, etc. lucky? no, i dont believe in luck. everything happens for a purpose. i dont deserve all these, but God simply chooses to give them anyway. i call that God's grace - having what i dont deserve.

but the best part of all these is that i am saved from the condemnation of hell for free. it is a gift of God (romans 6:23) given to me which i humbly accepted in recognition of my own inadequacies and ineptness. the bible is clear enough to declare that "no one is righteous, no, not one." (romans 3:10) and that the "wages of sin is death." (romans 6:23) but God loves me anyway to a point he sent his one and only son to die for my stead. he did it for love. "for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but HAVE ETERNAL LIFE." (john 3:16) "believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved." (romans 16:31) "therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (romans 8:1) i simply chose to believe, and decided to accept Jesus into my life. "for it is by grace you have been saved, THROUGH FAITH - and this is NOT FROM YOURSELVES, it is the gift of God- NOT BY WORKS, so that no one can boast." ephesians 2:8,9)

why me among millions? i dont know. if i were not, i could not and would not complain because i simply deserve the worst in life. YET I AM BLESSED NOT BECAUSE OF WHO I AM OR WHAT I AM OR WHAT I HAVE DONE. I AM BLESSED BECAUSE GOD LOVES ME ANYWAY INSPITE OF. GOD LOVES ME NOT BECAUSE I MERIT THAT LOVE, BUT BECAUSE GOD SIMPLY IS LOVE. again, i call that God's grace. and i am blessed.

"therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the OLD HAS GONE, the NEW HAS COME." 2 corinthians 5:17

silenced

sometimes silence could be a better welcome remark than the opening speech delivered by a country representative (an ambassador? i won`t say) during that country`s presentation in the expo hall in 2005 aichi world exposition. i lost 25 minutes of my time listening to the mouth rumblings which i could have used to line up to see a far far better show of the hitachi group. lighter note, my friend gained back his strength for 25 minutes by sleeping the entire speech.

i was silent for the past 3 days. i tell you it was better that way. i needed it. i desired it. it was waited for. it was welcome. i gained a new experience, looked at new perspectives. nothing stopped me. and nothing could. the 3-day silence was spent entirely in the world expo. had i not pursued the silence in favor of the noisy university crammings, and so of this blogging (this blog is a byproduct of lackofbetterthingtodo), i wouldnt have gone this far.

because of the must see opportunity i must not refuse, so i was silenced. but it was a better welcome remark. nothing beats it. bet you on that.

hey back now to the world of blogs, i am.

imaginings

imagine there's no thesis
life's easy, if you try
no paper to think
only world expo to go
imagine all the students
are leaving today...

imagine there's no classrooms
it isn't hard to do
nothing to worry about
and no sleepless nights too
imagine all the students
living life in peace...

you may say i'm a dreamer
but i'm not the only one
i hope someday you'll join us
and the world will be as one

imagine no professors
i wonder if you can
no need for grade or homework
only entries in blog
imagine all the students
sharing all the blogs...

(with apologies to lennon and his diehard fans)

seasons of love: the musicale

the stage: season bliss
solo: why have you chosen me?
duet: can't live a day (without you)
trio: beautiful in my eyes
quartet: God causesallthingstogrow
quintet: love will be our home
ensemble: answered prayer

choir: til the end of time

all songs, except the solo, are taken from the album I Will Be Here, c 2001 Sparrow Records. solo song composer i dont know

passing of winter

picture taken in mt naeba, during the FIS World Cup, february 2005

my tribute to the passing of winter.

soon winter will only be part of my album. this particular experience, captured in a digiphoto, paints a thousand words. the mountain as background looks like a charcoal sketch, and the people as foreground seem to be a stroke of pastel colors, but such wordless scene brings forth the greatest speech i have ever heard. believe me so because i was there. i took part.

"the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge." -psalm 19:1,2

blogged

no, it's not what you think...

blog time

click the image to enlarge (then u can enlarge it some more). it's a good read when your brain doesnt work anymore understanding the relationship of education and economic growth. this is also a better reading material. it makes sense to me.

i had a hearty laugh while reading this inside the plane on my way to tacloban last december 2004. taken from philippine daily inquirer, forgot the issue. (for non-pinoy, maybe u can just continue reading your textbooks.)

i changed the title from break time to blog time as suggested. the latter is more appropriate. hahaha ive been blogging most of the time such that my break time becomes synonymous to blog time.