All My Life

Saturday Stories

November 25, 2017

A friend and I saw a Japanese girl in the elevator who was so cute she looked like an anime character. Her features were so delicate she seemed more like a porcelain doll than a living person. We were impressed.

"She's pretty," I told my friend when he teased me about her. "But she's too young for me."

All my life, I've always been attracted to older women, I said to him. Almost all of the relationships I had were with people older than me.

My "type" are women of substance and elegance like Senator Loren Legarda and the actress Pilar Pilapil.

I first had a crush on Loren in the 90s and I always watched "The Inside Story," her awardwinning weekly documentary. That was when there were a lot of intelligent public affairs programs on TV including "Assignment" with Teddy Boy Locsin, "Dong Puno Live" with Dong Puno, and "The World Tonight" with Loren and Angelo Castro Jr.

By coincidence, I just came across a classic episode "The Inside Story." It was Loren's exclusive one-on-one interview with the great Nelson Mandela.

By another coincidence, last week, I wrote about Mandela and played my recording of his favorite poem, "Invictus."

Now I'm inspired to make a list of my poetry readings, and here they are:

"May Mga Tugtuging Hindi Ko Malimot" By Jose Corazon De Jesus

https://www.facebook.com/jonathanhuggybear/posts/1666188366730200

"Pagtatapat" By Lope K. Santos

https://www.facebook.com/jonathanhuggybear/posts/1678503698832000

"Isang Punungkahoy" By Jose Corazon De Jesus

https://www.facebook.com/jonathanhuggybear/posts/1677372458945124

"Sa Pamilihan Ng Puso" By Jose Corazon De Jesus

https://www.facebook.com/jonathanhuggybear/posts/1685205971495106

"Verbo" By Jonathan Aquino

https://www.facebook.com/jonathanhuggybear/posts/1685941961421507

"Sonnet XVII" By Pablo Neruda

https://www.facebook.com/jonathanhuggybear/posts/1691661487516221

"Ang Ningning at Ang Liwanag" By Emilio Jacinto

https://www.facebook.com/jonathanhuggybear/posts/1694616673887369

"Ang Aking Unang Salamisim" By Jose Rizal

https://www.facebook.com/jonathanhuggybear/posts/1700154273333609

"Payo Sa Bumabasa Ng Tula" By Rolando Tinio

https://www.facebook.com/jonathanhuggybear/posts/1701311339884569

"Kundiman" By Jose Rizal

https://www.facebook.com/jonathanhuggybear/posts/1755929124422790

"The Eternal Light" By Jose Rizal

https://www.facebook.com/jonathanhuggybear/posts/1737313156284387

"Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" By William Butler Yeats

https://www.facebook.com/jonathanhuggybear/posts/1835480469800988

"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" By Dylan Thomas

https://www.facebook.com/jonathanhuggybear/posts/1842046195811082

"How Do I Love Thee" By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

https://www.facebook.com/jonathanhuggybear/posts/1848707948478240

"The Rhodora" By Ralph Waldo Emerson

https://www.facebook.com/jonathanhuggybear/posts/1855527111129657

"Endymion" By John Keats

https://www.facebook.com/jonathanhuggybear/posts/1862699590412409

"Invictus" By William Ernest Henley

https://www.facebook.com/jonathanhuggybear/posts/1893696013979433

Unconquerable Souls

Saturday Stories

November 18, 2017

I'm forever grateful to the writers who have touched my life. There are books, such as Trevanian's Shibumi and Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull, that are now a part of me.

I find great inspiration in poetry, like in Rudyard Kipling's "If" and Max Erhmann's "Desiderata."

And then there is "Invictus" by  William Ernest Henley which is special to me on a deeply personal level.

"Invictus" is also the favorite poem of Nelson Mandela whom I admire for his moral courage.

I still remember where I was while watching the live broadcast of Mandela's death over CNN.

I also remember thinking that it was a privilege to be living in the age of great world leaders like him and Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar, Jose Ramos-Horta of East Timor, and our very own Cory Aquino of the Philippines – whom Mandela held in great esteem.

I have such profound respect for people like Nelson Mandela and Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. who survived years of deep solitary confinement as political prisoners, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn who survived the Gulag death camp in Siberia, Elie Wiesel and Viktor Frankl who survived the Nazi Holocaust, and the many brave men and women throughout history who survived "the bludgeonings of chance" with their principles still intact, with their heads "bloody but unbowed."

They are the masters of their fate, and they are the captains of their souls.

 Photo courtesy of WallPaperrs.com

Everyday Magic

Saturday Stories

November 11, 2017

Photo of Jonathan Aquino (seated) taken in Cebu, Philippines

Somebody asked me some years back what my favorite word was.

I said "Magic" – and it still is.

I used to think that magic is something extraordinary, like when David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear.

As time goes by, I began to realize that magic comes in many forms.

There is magic in the simple things we take for granted, like a smile from someone you love, or an act of kindness from a complete stranger.

There is magic in unexpected surprises, like when I found a quiet boardinghouse and a laundromat within walking distance from where I work.

There is magic in finding a job that you enjoy, in a company you where you feel at home, with people you really like.

As I thought about the things I like about where I work, I realize more and more how lucky I am because it is so unlike the other companies I've been in.

I like my team-mates (in photo), the American co-owner, our HR officers, the people from other departments, and of course, our clients in Silicon Valley with whom we communicate through Slack.

"I love the culture here," I said to prospective clients when I was asked to join the meeting a few weeks ago, "because I thrive in a creative environment."

There is magic in enjoying the moment, and in knowing that moments don't always last. Magic is when life continues to surprise and delight you even when your road begins to take you somewhere else. 

There is magic everywhere, all day, everyday – if we just allow ourselves to see it.

Magic

Saturday Stories

November 4, 2017

I found a witch hat in the office the day after the Halloween party last Tuesday. I also found all the food gone but that's a different kind of sorcery.

I tried it on (in photo), waiting if it will say "Gryffindor!" like in the Harry Potter movies. It didn't. But it didn't say "Slytherin" either so that's a good sign. Nothing. Not even "Ravenclaw" or "Hufflepuff."

Then I realized: you don't have to be in Hogwarts to have magic in your life.