The passion of the pink bowling ball

Today, an hour before going to the opening of our company’s annual bowling tournament, I remembered some hazy scenes of my previous night’s dream – a girl with a naughty smile threw a pink bowling ball into the bowling alley. The ten bowling pins, instead of being afraid of the rushing pink ball, had decided to play with it.

That strange dream suddenly took me a few years ago on that same bowling lane, that girl was with me, a girl with a life entirely different from mine, and it was as if some divine force thrown a bowling ball into us. The wave of energy touched both me and the girl sitting beside me. She felt the vibrations of that pink ball, and so did I. We are not afraid. So what now?

We are always given a choice, to avoid the things that will hurt us or, like the bowling pins, have fun and take pleasure in that sudden rush of energy that set the lane rocking.

I have a name for that pink bowling ball: passion. I can use it in describing the beauty of an earth-shaking meeting between two people, but it isn’t just that. It is in the excitement of the unexpected, in the desire to do something with real warmth and in the certainty that the meeting is a beautiful dream, though not the realization of our expectations. Passion sends us signals that guide us through our lives, and the interpretation of those signs is always up to me.

I would like to believe that it is love. With someone I don’t know, I don’t understand and who didn’t figure in my plans at all. All those months of self-control, of denying love, have had exactly the opposite result: I have let myself be swept away by that girl to treat me a little differently.

And if that is what happens, if I have already lost her, I will at least have gained one very happy month in my life. Considering the way the world is, one happy month is almost a miracle.

As my tiger friend puts it, “Hindi mahalaga kung ano ang sitwasyon, ang mahalaga masaya tayo!” (Circumstances doesn’t matter, it’s our happiness that counts!)

I woke up, confused if it was really just a dream.

The Wolves

A Grandfather from the Cherokee Nation was talking with his grandson.

"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.

"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves."

"One wolf is evil and ugly: He is anger, envy, war, greed, self-pity, sorrow, regret, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, selfishness and arrogance."

"The other wolf is beautiful and good: He is friendly, joyful, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, justice, fairness, empathy, generosity, true, compassion, gratitude, and deep VISION."

"This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other human as well."

The grandson paused in deep reflection because of what his grandfather had just said. Then he finally cried out; "Oyee! Grandfather, which wolf will win?"

The elder Cherokee replied, "The wolf that you feed."

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from: Cherokee Wisdom

The Mousetrap

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.

What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral; the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

The next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage and help one another.

Doubt

Sri Ramakrishna tells of a man who was just about to cross a river when the teacher Bibhishana approached him, wrote a name on a piece of paper, fixed it to the man’s back and said:

‘Fear not. Your faith will help you to walk upon the waters. But the moment you lose your faith, you will drown.’

The man trusted Bibhishana and began to walk effortlessly across the waters. At one point, however, he had an immense desire to know what his teacher had written on the piece of paper fixed to his back.

He got hold of it and read what was written on it: ‘Oh God Rama, help this man to cross the river.’

‘Is that all?’ thought the man. ‘Who is this god Rama anyway?’

As soon as doubt entered his mind, he went under and was drowned.

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Story Source : Paulo Coelho Blog

Image Source : Doubt

The Wedding Finger

EVER WONDERED WHY WEDDING RINGS SHOULD BE ON YOUR FOURTH FINGER AND NO WHERE ELSE?

There is a beautiful and convincing explanation given by the Chinese ......

The thumb represents your Parents.

The second (index) finger represents your Siblings.

The middle finger represents you.

The fourth (ring) finger represents your Life Partner.

The last (little) finger represents your children.


First, open your palms (face to face),bend the middle fingers and hold them together,back to back.

Second, open and hold the remaining three fingers and the thumb - tip to tip.

(As shown in the figure below):

Now, try to separate your thumbs (representing the parents). They will open, because your parents are not destined to live with you lifelong, and have to leave you sooner or later.

Please join your thumbs as before and separate your Index fingers (representing siblings). They will also open, because your brothers and sisters will have their own families and will have to lead their separate lives.

Now rejoin the index fingers and separate your little fingers (representing your children). They will open too, because the children also will get married and settle down on their own some day..

Finally, rejoin your little fingers, and try to separate your ring fingers (representing your spouse). You'll be surprised to see that you just CANNOT, because husband & wife have to remain together all their lives - through thick and thin!!So clever, those Chinese!!

A special place in hell...

…is reserved for my board mate who approaches as I am eating my favorite pack of potato chips on a boring rainy Sunday afternoon, that only contains three chips left and asks, “Hey bro, can I have one?”

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*This is my random record of anything that annoys me. I had this idea last night to post "A special place in hell..." series on this blog - a weekly post perhaps, just for fun.

Are you still a virgin? What kind?

“Are you still a virgin?” the boy wearing white uniform asked his girl classmate beside him naughtily smiling.

“Of course, yes,” snapped the girl in a lowered voice, ashamed that other MRT passengers might hear her. But I did. I was minding my own business, but I heard their conversation and became interested.

The boy mockingly said, “Wag mo nga akong gaguhin, virgin? Baka yang ilong mo na lang ang di nagagalaw!” (don’t fool me, virgin? Maybe your nose is the only one left untouched!”) They giggled and turned their conversation into a whisper, seeing that I am smiling too.

My mind flooded by our lunchtime sex related talks in our office. Sex topics never fail to amuse us.

Virginity in this day and age is subject to interpretation and the question “are you still a virgin?” is often followed by the answer “what kind?” referring to whether you already experienced oral sex, anal sex, “finger” sex, vaginal sex or sex of all kinds. What “sex” is now? Is it just penetrative sex? The concept of virginity itself has become quite obscured among us, especially to teenagers.

Girlfriend-boyfriend relationship was previously called “steady,” then became either “on” or not. Now it was replaced by “special friends,” “friends with benefits” and FUBU or “fuck buddies.” Sexual norms is rapidly changing and “Maria Clara” image is dead. I believe that education plays a vital role to combat loose morals.

Sex is usually never discussed in Filipino homes and the youth get their information from their peers, the internet and magazines. First-time sex happens in unsupervised homes. Let’s accept it. Pornography is easily accessible nowadays – DVD’s in Quiapo, it the internet, in magazines and in mobile phones. I believe that education is the key but the DepEd’s plan to integrate sex education in the elementary level was shelved because of the strong opposition from the highly political Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines. Some priests nowadays are corrupted by stinking Philippine politics. Catholicism in the Philippines is becoming the prime mover of backward progress.

The world now has become so much more complicated. We are more independent on matters of courtship, marriage and sex.

Are we just having open minds or loose morals?

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Image Source: Joan Semmel. Sunlight, 1978.