When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world. Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness. This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form. 
Ang mga kaibigan ay isa sa pinaka-mahalagang regalo sa atin ng Maykapal at mayaman ako sa mabubuting kaibigan. Dahil siguro hindi tayo nagkaroon ng pagkakataon mamili ng ating pamilya, bumawi sa atin ang Panginoon at binigyan tayo ng kalayaan mamili ng mga kaibigan. Tumpak ang sinabi ni Jacques Delille na, "Chance makes our parents, but choice makes our friends." At tamang-tama lang dahil kailangan natin sa buhay ng mga taong naniniwala sa atin kahit sa mga sandaling nawawala ang bilib natin sa sarili. Napakalungkot ng buhay ng walang kaibigan---walang matatawa sa corny text jokes mo, walang magpapaalala ng mga kapalpakan mo, wala kang kasabay umiyak sa sinehan, walang aalalay sa ‘yo kapag nalasing ka, at higit sa lahat, wala kang makakasama sa pagdiriwang ng iyong tagumpay.
Friends are life's treasured gifts and I am rich with good friends. We didn't choose our family so to make up for that oversight, God rewarded us with the freedom to choose our friends. Jacques Delille was right when he said, "Chance makes our parents, but choice makes our friends." And it’s just perfect…because we need people in our lives who believe in us at a time when we stopped believing in ourselves. Life will be unbearable without friends to laugh and cry with, to get drunk with and to celebrate our successes with.
Posted forMore treasured gifts at Litratong Pinoy.
Hours before sunrise, I woke up to an unknown sound---a burp, a yawn, or a heave. As I peered through half-closed eyes, I could hear the gentle buzz of the radio…then I hear Fritz, sprawled at the foot of my bed, make a satisfied sigh and was silent again. Or maybe I mistook the sound. Maybe what I heard were Fritz’ rapid eye movements, murmurs from his own deep secret dreams. And not only dreams---aspirations. Dreams of seeing the ocean. Of meeting his soul mate. Puppies. Grand-puppies. Great-grand-puppies.
And there he was, sighing in his sleep, no worries, not afraid of death. Not even of adulthood.
I scratched his head---he looked up to me, hugged his red pillow, stretched and I felt downright hopeful. This morning, as I watched the light creep into my room, I saw sunbursts of joy and sorrow.
It's humming in my universe, and so is Fritz. Someday, he will see the ocean and his puppies. I'll make it happen.
