Foot and Fire

Each last week of December, it is a tradition of every Filipino home to have 12 fruits and/or 12 eggs on the table in their sala or reception room or dining hall to welcome prosperity for each month of the following year. It could be more than 12, so abundance will overflow. This is the second year that I made another prosperity bowl. One with coins and paper bills, eggs, and oranges. The only ritual I have to perform is to spiritually cleanse the coins with vinegar or salt by putting some in a cup together with the coins. After some time, discard the vinegar or salt somewhere far from home. I preferred salt for cleansing. I just wash the coins with running water, dry them and place them in a cup with salt.  For the bills, I used 12 new bills. Tie them with red or gold as they are the colors of prosperity. This year, I used Viva Magenta to tie each of them as it is 2023's lucky color. For rice, I used Japanese rice this year though I wanted to use sticky rice, to repres...

On 17 December 2022, I was standing as one of the Ten Outstanding Alumni of La Carlota High School, La Carlota City High School and Doña Hortencia Salas Benedicto National high School. I was in awe with the accomplishments of my fellow awardees and as the youngest among them and the one acknowledged for my poetry and writing, I feel I have to sculpt in words my admiration for each of them. This year's awardees are mere representatives of what a public school like Doña Hortencia Salas Benedicto National High School, often dubbed by other schools as having the "longest name" or the "San Juanico bridge" name, can nurture and send out to the various fields of endeavors. This batch of acknowledged men and women are filled with public servants, entrepreneurs, philanthropist, educators, artists and an engineer and a scientist.    Teachers are always our first role models when it comes to careers and this year, it is only apt that two educators m...

DHSBNHS’ 75th Founding Year Revisiting our alma mater through Gabaldon Buildings By Gerlie M. Uy Have you visited your alma mater lately? If so, your eyes had surely feasted on the newly-painted old buildings of the school, and such a visual feast surely turned into walking back to the memory lane. This happened to me twice this year when I requested for my high school diploma in August and saw the main building of Dona Hortencia Salas Benedicto National High School and then later in October when I accompanied my mother who is a current PTA officer to a meeting and saw the HE (Home Economics) building. The latter is located behind the main building so I haven’t noticed it the first time. What are Gabaldon Buildings? The Gabaldon buildings are school buildings built under the authority of Act 1801 of 1907 or what is called as Gabaldon Law as it was authored by then Philippine Assemblyman Isauro Gabaldon. The said law appropriated P1 million for the construction of modern pub...

Gerlie's Lasagna Lasagna is a good pasta to eat but a tedious one to prepare. This is my own take of this favorite pasta dish. I don't use cream and condensed much these days but you can add some to yours. I also love the Clara Ole chunky tomato variant because it is not soury as its Italian variant and not too sweet as their Filipino style, plus of course, I can see some chunks of tomatoes indeed. If not for the words NO BOIL in the Ideal lasagna package, I wouldn't buy this because I know, it is a long procedure to complete a lasagna pan. And I admit, after the first try, that this still needs some boiling. It just didn't work out for me, the no boil texture. But I enjoyed my lasagna batches which I boiled... so im sharing my latest prep with pesto... i so miss the the basil scent!!! 1. PASTA: Boil as per package instruction ( still boiled, though I used Ideal Gourmet No boil) 2. SAUCE: 2T olive oil Garlic, minced Onion, chopped 1/2 kl Beef 1 cup S...

In Part V, it is all about resilience. In education, we have to accept that change is the only constant. Meaning, Life is not a story to be told but to be lived,  it cannot be told or summed up in a simple slogan because it has to be lived along with the uncertainties.  Meanwhile in Meditation, it invites us to just observe how everything progresses so that one can think how to adapt. Just like the recent job lay offs of tech companies. all along tech companies are what we are thinking to be our direction to progress. But through meditation, we can pause and think for creative solutions or alternatives or answers.    (P.S. This is part of the series I was making in 2021. Please check other post for complete picture of what this book offers to us...)

One of the dubbed tourist attractions which I could not bring myself to excitedly go was the Ground Zero or the place where the 9/11 happened. It is now a park complex with museums on the side, the Oculus World Trade Center and the National September 11 Memorial Museum.  Above and below are the photos of the site where the names of the victims were written. Since I visited a week before 9/11, I found many flowers beside the names.  Actually, I was hesitant to really go over the place since the atmosphere is sad, really sad, like in any site where death occurred, and also I felt that the grieving families or the surviving families should be given their own space for privacy despite the fact that 9/11 happened in 2001 or roughly 21 years ago. I felt my presence was an intrusion.  But still i passed by twice without going inside the museum. I also felt that my presence should be a reminder that we are humans with the same aspirations and no one deserved to d...

Having a moment with the DAMBANA SA PASKO (1982) was priceless to think of it now. A Napoleon Abueva inside PICC was a treat given our hectic convention schedule for a week and it was a consolation for me for missing a museum on a Philippine museum month of October. Here, I am sharing with you some photos I took trying to capture the intricate details if this wood carving.  So far, this is the second piece of his that I saw. The first one was in the National Museum, and it was an intricate wall sculpture that deserves a second closer look. This is the transcript that accompanies the sculpture: "Napoleon V. Abueva (born 1930) Dambana ng Pasko 1982 Molave and metal 450 x 479 cm His childhood memories of life in Bohol are realized in his recurring fascination with the carabao, the workhorse of the Filipino farmer. As a child, he would create carabao sculptures in clay. As a man, the sculptor, he would keep on returning to this subject in wood, metal, and stone. In competi...