My father had these pictures framed a few months ago. He proudly showed me his piece of art and explained the logic behind it. He said that life is simple… At the break of dawn, the sun rises and provides us a chance of a new beginning. We wake up with hope in our hearts. The day passes with us working, even to the point of breaking our backs, if only to reach that goal of a better life. And by the time the Sun sets, we are like majestic birds with wings spread out as we try to fly to back to where we truly belong.

If I had the chance to add one more though, I’d put a small picture of a family in between. Everything we work for becomes more meaningful when we do it for the people we love. I have always believed that life becomes more significant when you learn to eliminate the words ME and I from your vocabulary and replace it with YOU and US.

-- I have seen my Dad in his best and his worst. His hair has turned gray but his soul is strong. He has showed me how it is to hold your ground and be brave. So whenever he talks to me about life, I listen.

The wee hours of the morning can really make me think about everything and I realize there are so many things I still have to learn. You and I are both young and we will surely make mistakes but what’s important is we try to get up, learn and live for the people in our lives.

You can't always present a smile every day. Sometimes you need to show the world you're also a bad-ass bitch. Knock them out cold if you have to but do it without losing your dignity.

-- perfect the art of smiling with a raised eyebrow. That should be enough to send a message that yes, you are a good person BUT you're not someone the world should mess with. wink*

It has been raining cats and dogs the whole afternoon. I found myself looking out the window and staring at the trees while the sound of the rain gently swept me away to another world...I saw myself wearing a long white dress. John Lennon's song 'Woman' played at the background while I slowly walked down an aisle adorned with beautiful red roses. As I reached the altar and was about to reach for the hand of a wonderful man....BANG!..the door flew open...."MAMA! May star ako!"

-- Joaquin is back from his Saturday classes. He really knows when to wake Mama from dreaming.

A small fact and a dose of unsolicited advice.

The fact: 

I’m sure most of you know The Beatles, right? Have you ever tried to listen to their song – Come Together? It’s a funky song but if you read the lyrics, you will find it difficult to understand what it means. Lines like “HE GOT MONKEY-FINGER, HE SHOOT COCA-COLA” and “HE ONE MOJO FILTER. HE SAY ONE AND ONE AND ONE IS THREE” would sort of give you just a hunch these boys at the time may have been so high with LSD and cocaine that it manifested in the way the song was written. Seriously though, it’s not really the case. Each stanza actually describes the four members of the band. Using figures of speech, John Lennon tried to present all of them to the world in weird slang language, hoping that somehow, it would unite the band and have people understand who they really were as individuals.

Now for the piece of advice:

Each one of us is born unique. Unless you use your own DNA to have yourself cloned, no one can follow your blueprint. Some present themselves as plain as white paper and there are so many others who come as messy graffitis. You are like an idiomatic expression that has to be deciphered in order to be understood.

Life is meant to be lived with the purpose of learning from each other. Our world actually serves as a big box where we all come together. Be very slow when you judge people. You may find a great person hiding underneath. Understand and you shall be understood. Learn to respect and you shall be given the same.

-- Gems are not found on the surface of the Earth. You find them by digging deeper.

I used to lock myself in Daddy's library and read away. While my sister and brother spent time with their friends, I spent my summers drowning in books when I was young. I remember closing my eyes and pulling out any book that my fingers touched. From literature to history... down to learning the sign language of the alphabet, I learned it all through reading. To so many, I didn't have a social life but to me, those were the best years. 

-- don't depend on the net alone. Teach your kids to love books. Who knows, they might grow up posting status messages like this someday.

So I lost my hour glass figure when I had my first baby. That pretty black dress may forever be lonely inside my closet. No bikinis kase baka isipin may built-in salbabida ako. And when I look at my body in the mirror, I smile 'cause it reminds me of tadpoles I watch in Animal Planet. When I laugh, my belly looks like an ocean after a really devastating earthquake -- with twin tsunamis rushing back and forth.

Some women cry about it, some just don't care anymore -- I belong to the latter. You see, it's my constant reminder of motherhood. My fat belly signifies that a living child once grew inside of me...and the Tiger stripes on the sides remind me of how brave I was through it all.

-- so yeah, who cares if I have to hold my breath for pictures or go blue trying to close my zipper? I'm a MOMMY and I'm happy. I'm not a size 26 anymore...I'm a 34 and proud of it.

Remember when I said your simple posts can touch lives? I know mine did in a very beautiful way. 

This is Pat Pat. She read my post and did her best to contact me. She calls me Ate Apple and sends me messages since I talked to her through PM the other day. You think it would be that easy for a 19-year old to do that but not her...she has Muscular Dystrophy. She told me she used to attend ballet classes but after getting sick, she can't walk anymore. She never stopped requesting that I see her today until I finally had time to hop in my car and visit her even for a few minutes.

I can imagine everything has changed since she was diagnosed with the disease but regardless of what she's going through, she still has that BRIGHT smile on her face.

This is a beautiful day. It's Joaquin's birthday and even if my little boy has a nasty toothache, we were blessed to meet a wonderful person.

You want to know what BRAVE means? Ask Pat Pat.