Is it worth the squeeze?

Jabs give us extra protection from the risk of getting seriously ill due to covid while strictly following the MPHS is still the best recommended protection.

Friday night, I could hardly breath dahil sa sipon at konting ubo. Wala na yatang na-diagnose ngayon ng sipon at ubo, lahat na yata covid. I was alarmed, and this morning I did my way out to find some vitamin C, and all I could get was a bunch of lemons.

I have no juicer, so I have no choice other than sliced them and squeezed off, so I could extract its juice. Mahirap mag squeeze. But after all the squ

eezings the byproduct was a lemonade. Nilagyan ko ng konting asukal. Ang sarap ng natural juice…I did all these every after meal through the weekend, at ngayon medyo nawawala na sipon at ubo ko. Yes, these lemons is worth the squeeze to boost my immune system and get rid of covid and its virulent variants.

Lesson in life: Patience + hardwork = success. When life throws you lemons, make a lemonade… and, lemonade needs all the squeezings.

#Worththesqueeze

In the beginning was a bat . . .

 

19 July 2019 BC (Before Covid)

*The bat depicted in the photo is only a toy.

In the beginning was a bat. And the bat was with covid ...and covid broke loose and became a pandemic.  Eh, What happened to the bat?

Boracay's Fruits Bats have declined rapidly the last three years, from 2,976 in 2016 to 418 in 2019, a more than 86% decline! One of the reasons for the decline being that people hunt them for food, which occurred specially during the island closure in 2018 for lack of food. It is not only illegal to hunt, catch or kill Fruit Bats, but it also not good for humans to be in contact with them.

The Fruit Bats of Boracay is the reason Boracay island is so green as they stand for 90% of reforestation on cleared land, planting most of the trees, so let them be the reforesters they are, and do their job to keep Boracay island green. Stop eating or hunting Bats!

No bats= No Trees

No Bats = increase in mosquito = increase in mosquito related diseases like dengue

On Teen Suicide

Done reading the fourth novel that deals with the sensitive topic on teen suicide. It is sad to note that all the teens in these books suffered pain and depression because of bullying. Depression is a mental disorder that when left undiagnosed and untreated, the teen tends to end his or her life which seemed like the only way to relieve it.

Meanwhile, their best friends or families were left raw and grieving, full of sadness and anger and regret and questions that will never be answered.

There's only one thing that bothered me: the guidance counsellors in all of the four books seemed not at all helpful, (before and at the time of death), even if they got hints that a teen has suicidal tendencies.

Self

 

Four fur paws

siblings, playmates

yet unique

each burning with inner fires

of laudable ambitions

each seeking to shine

above the rest

seeking individuality ever forward

one entirely lose,

lengthen the distance behind

unbind and set free

towards self –

the supreme quest of all!

Stairway

 Poetic License Collection #4

STAIRWAY

by: Alvin E. Lauran

I have climbed

to the top of the greasy pole

but I will do more

up to and beyond

the limit of prudent sanity

a very pulpable hit.

Bondage of Innocence

 Poetic License Collection #3

BONDAGE OF INNOCENCE

by: Alvin E. Lauran

a tale to tell

blindly scattered by virtues of old

dead memories merit perpetuity

power corrupts innocence

plunge in reckless reckoning

deeply steeped into the quagmire of truth

perpetually delved to wanton forgetfulness

not a flame flickers in a pasty crest

oh yoke of thy youth

trustees of posterity

still bent in false obscurity

denunciation of the young

like a summer morn

leaping from place to place

over oblivion.

Never walk alone

I thought I was the first person who walked through this trail. Turns out, there’s someone who came before me.

Someone who walked this path and knew the sacrifices that came with it. That, even if we get lost, it’s never too late to find our way back . .

And when we do, we often appreciate it even more. In the end, we know we’re on the right path when the people we love choose to walk it with us.

But what happens when we find ourselves on a path someone has walked before and warns us of the dangers that lie ahead? I have to believe when that happens that we can choose to walk it differently.

And not walk it alone.

Discovering Ourselves

 

It was in my fourth year in college when my instructor Prof. Gualberto G. Montecillo introduced to me the JOHARI WINDOW, as part of the lesson in the subject, Introduction to Administration and Supervision.

My young mind was so amazed with these four quadrants. Minus the blind area where you and others may not otherwise know you, this quadrant of how others know us, yet ourselves know nothing about is quite relevant. So we tend to discover more of ourselves.

There are some things in us that we don’t want them to be exposed in public. We just keep it in ourselves. It may include personal experiences and feelings that we hide and keep it in private, even to our family and closest friends. Others call that – skeleton in the closet. Fear of not being accepted and the fear of not being “in” may sometimes cause why we don’t like others to tell them how we think, and what we have done.

We sometimes feel ashamed and fear of being left out if they would know the truth about our real personality. We tend to hide our emotions, cry in private, and choose to be left alone, rather than broadcast those feelings in fear of what our friends may think about us. Some people are afraid of being called as weird, nerd, geek, or being different from all the rest. People choose to cry in private to hide their deepest feelings and emotions. We wear the mask everyday, looking radiant and joyful, where in fact, we are hurt deep inside. All these are just to hide our real us, afraid that the accusing world around us will judge indifferently our feelings and emotions.

Somehow we discover more of ourselves, our strengths and the things we are capable of doing; principles and values that we care most; tough and difficult decisions to pursue – through other people. Listed here are some of fictional characters who ultimately find and discover themselves through other people. Though these are lifted from a fiction literature, yet I find these insights helpful in our quest of discovering ourselves too – in real life.

American girl Allyson in the books JUST ONE DAY and JUST ONE NIGHT, both by Gayle Forman, discovered herself in the process of looking laid-back Dutch actor Wilhem, a year of self-discovery that embarks her into a journey to break herself free from a lifetime of limits in order to find her true passions and even true love.

Cody discovers more of herself when she tried to uncover the mystery why her best friend Meg committed suicide, from the book I WAS HERE, also by Gayle Forman.

Luke and Sophia in the book THE LONGEST RIDE by Nicholas Sparks were able to battle difficult decisions in life through Ira and Ruth Levinson.

Q discovers more of himself, the value of friendship and family while in a road trip to find the missing Margo, in the book PAPER TOWNS by John Green.

All these and more, can also be relevant in our quest to discover who we are. As Luke puts it in book, THE LONGEST RIDE, “Even an accident has purpose and direction.”