my absence...

is a front to the current realities that have altered what i had expected to be a return to the quiet home life

and i'm not good at sharing openly or i'd rather postpone explaining for the nth time

but know that all is on the ups, and in my family we meet any ailment with lots of love and good humor =)

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like so...


who doesn't want to see this movie?...lol

life always reminds us

life perfect ain't perfect
if you don't know what the struggle's for

for your eyes only

i've seen so much on my travels this year...and have hundreds of photos to prove it?
nope

not that i don't have hundreds of photos.
it's just that no matter how skilled the photographer, no matter how fancy the camera, nothing can match the life and world you see from the complexity of your own eyes, your own mind.

sometimes you just gotta take your finger off the shutter, put down the sunglasses that shade the bright rays, or roll down the tinted window and allow your eyes to observe the grandeur, the life, the humanity around us.

stats and roots

islands visited: 9 (luzon, cebu, mactan, panglao, bohol, olango, nalusuan, panay, corregidor)

photos uploaded to my portable drive: 890

mosquito bites: too many to count

halo halos consumed: too many to count

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this weekend's trip to bicol was really wonderful. to think there is a beautiful place where when you look out across the landscape all you can see are coconut and banana trees or rice fields...and that's where most of my family is from. yesterday i was in libmanan, my mom's hometown. our stay was short, but i got to see where my grandpa's farm was and the corner store where the whole family worked (my grandparents, my mom, my uncles and aunts). my oldest cousin owns the land now and sells animal feeds in the store. the highlight was when my mom went behind the counter and started telling me stories: waiting for my grandpa under the box of salt to open the store at 4am, watching her admirers as they rode around the block a few times, waving to her boyfriend who worked in the store across the street..."this was me behind the counter," she said.

and as i tried to fall asleep last night, i couldn't help being overcome by emotions of humility, gratitude, and love.