-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taken at Liloan, Cebu.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taken at Cubao, Quezon City.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rise and retreat of the sun and airports are two different things preaching the same gospel: that of leaving and that of arriving. And somehow, they are intertwined.

Imagine this: In a hospital somewhere, an old man is dying, his life draining as he struggles to hold on to his dear memories. Of love? I do not know. But it is said that at the moment of death, the memories of your love are the ones that will struggle most to survive and will fight to be remembered, until your very last breath.

Now imagine that somewhere in the maternity room, a woman is giving birth. A child is being brought into this universe.

How hard is it to believe that in that time in between the old man's soul departing and a new child's soul arriving, that they somehow met in soul-space and had coffee, a little conversation and perhaps, the departing soul giving an advice or two.

How hard is it to believe that somehow, we are all connected like a circle, where all souls departing imparts a part of themselves to all those new souls arriving.

Maybe that kid she was holding had coffee with your lolo before he was born and moments after he died.

Strange, strange thoughts.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taken at the Mactan International Airport, Mactan, Cebu.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taken beneath the Shaw Boulevard Station of MRT.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sometimes, a series of misfortunes will allow us to see the world from a different perspective.

Like when you have to shoot a landscape with a slightly telephoto lens ( 50mm on a cropped camera ) or when your tripod is broken and it can only deliver portrait style shots, or when you brush your teeth with a hair gel.

Then we try our best to make do with what we have,.. most of those times, we will fail, but sometimes,.. just sometimes,.. heaven's window will open and we create miracles we can never do in a thousand lifetimes.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taken at top of the Parc Royale Condominium, Ortigas.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"they walked so fast as if chased,
 do they even have the time to dream?"

said the beggar.

"they walk so fast to chase a dream,
but time walks faster than their dreams."

said the thief.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taken in a pedestrian overpass near the EDSA Shrine.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

do not stand at her grave and weep,
she is not there,.. she does not sleep.

she is a thousand winds that blow,
on EDSA's street she flows.

she is the spirit of our rally's noise,
she is the gentleness of a mother's voice.

she is the strength of our battlecry!
a Makati yellow confetti, she flies.

So,

Do not stand on her grave and cry ,..
She is not there, she will never die.

---------------------------------------------
Adapted from a Mary Frye poem.

This river flows from Laguna,
He said.
I noticed tears in his eyes when he said those words.
His wrinkled eyelids betrayed
Memories.
Of childhood? perhaps,...
Of a long, lost love? maybe.
His far gaze penetrated the horizon,
Somewhere in those iris he was
Lost in time and space,
As if looking,
Waiting,
Dreaming,
Of someone,
Something.

I decided to quit asking.
Some secrets are better left unsaid.

forgive me,..
I didn't shed tears then.
I cannot feel what they felt,
and I was mesmerized by the
january sunshine that I
forgot how to feel pain.

then years passed.
many bought cages
to imprison themselves in.
january was so long ago
that I've forgotten
that somewhere in those
white blocks of
hurriedly-stacked cements
lies a smile so beautiful
it bloomed only briefly, then faded.

but last night, among the stars,
I remembered.

someday.

someday,
I'll write you a letter,
write you some poetry,..
light you a candle ,..

and bring this flowers to your grave.

Black you are ,..
Rubbery and smooth ,..
But I love you still.

You tied my hands,
And you tied my time ,..
But I love you still.

I see light in you,
I see colors in you,
I see the world through you,...
And I love you still.

My 1000D.