Power of Two

How do we get there?

I don't know. What matters is

that we're together!

Why do I love you?

I don't know. What matters is

that we're together!

Two when one

is complete!

---<--@

Human

To err is human,

to forgive is divine - but

to know this, sublime.

To need forgiveness,

one receives who forgives first

and realize peace.

Mercy comes

with mercy.

---<--@

Tree of Remembrance

My life touching yours -

living, belonging, reaching,

growing together.

Your life touching mine -

living, belonging, reaching,

growing together.

Forever.

We belong.

---<--@

Excerpted from Planet Annelies, 20100825 -

You know, that chestnut tree of yours, my loveliest Miyang, fell over a couple of days ago.

In spite of efforts to preserve it, my darling, it was toppled by a storm.

The tree was simply too old, my love, but the timeless substance of what it now represents - if we are vigilant at heart and if we ponder about it here within - may only be multiplied by this act of God.

That old chestnut tree represents (yes, in present tense) your hope for better things, you know. And because this is a hope that is shared by all of humanity, it has a definite resonance that can not be toppled by any temporal storm.

So why not plant a new one, my darling, nurture it through the years, and let the generations (of our one family of nations) rally themselves in time through it?

Let us plant a lineage of these trees to stretch to the shores of forever and let our allied generations be fostered by it.

After all, remembrance is forever. Remembrance is what holds vigil over the sheltering wings of our peace as nations. If the tree speaks of remembrance, it can never be toppled.

Update: Apparently, a number of new saplings were taken from the old tree, my darling, and was a thing thought of independent of our suggestion here (which only reinforces our point).

---<--@

Father

O father of mine,

when will I get to know you

when you're never there?

Longing for father

sometimes I really think - God -

gave me a brother.

God is my

true Father.

---<--@

Gray Skies

When dark clouds threaten

and thy prayers seem unheard

carry on blindly.

Fall a million times

in the dark. But don't you stop

longing for light!

God listens,

don't you know?

---<--@

Water

Arrive by the calm

of thy own shining clearly

and disturb it not.

Spirit's like water.

Its depth is a clarity.

Its contents, mystery.

The soul is

like a sea.

---<--@

Shyness

O first base, first base...

What happens after first base?

I have to find out.

I think I am shy.

But I know sometimes I'm not.

It really depends.

A good wife

is from God.

---<--@

Starshine

The stars in the night

wills to shine the more brightly
through adversity.

Darkness is darkness
that does not lead to the light!
Night time too shall pass...

Starshine, be yourself.

Be the image of God in you -

virtue shining through.

Sharp as the sunbeam,

radiant as thy own true self;

a child of the Light.

God bless you,

dear Starshine!

---<--@

The Best Things

The best things in life

are often things we can't see

that the heart perceives.

The best things in life

are often things we can't hear

that our heart receives.

The best things

are not things.

---<--@

Tides of Life

Problems come and go...

What matters is that they do!

What must remain? You.

What matters in life

is not how often the tide

but how we hold on.

So be strong,

or be swift.

---<--@

Truth

What is truth, Starshine?

Is truth a bond or is it...

a sweet, sweet release?

The truth sets free by

holding the soul captive in

the Heart in the heart.

Truth is love.

Love is truth.

---<--@

Arcs in the Sky

The night seems longest

when the darkness is deepest,

and hope is forgot.

Trace upon this night

the light of you lives, Starshine -

thy arcs in the sky.

That morning

may follow.

---<--@

Boredom

Boredom is boring

without the quiet company

of fam'ly and friends!

So be with people.

Or go find something to do.

But remember this -

Boredom are like clouds.

They come in spells. But your mind,

it is like the sky.

Don't focus

on boredom.

---<--@

Father in Heaven, I take everything by Your hand.

I offer you this boredom. For I do not know what to do with it. Help me turn it into patience. AMEN.

Solitude

In my solitude -

I slept. And I dreamed our dream

and I longed for you.

In my loneliness -

I found. And I dreamed our dream

and I was with you.

I have you,

yet I don't.

---<--@

I love you.

The Lie

The Devil whispered -

Why burden thyself? Serve not.

Do not believe it.

To serve not, my friend,

is to undo the freedom

of our communion.

Together,

We prevail.

---<--@

Virtue

Virtue is ascent -

it is a power to act;
a habit of grace...

Virtue opposes
sin, uproots vice, creates good
with God through our hearts.

Virtue builds
and defends.
---<--@

Miyang

Miyang is my friend

and a comfort to my soul...

I love her so much.

Miyang is my friend

and she keeps me company...

I love her so much.

She's my first

contact star.

---<--@

Miyang is a Filipino affectionate name I derived from "miyaw" or "meow".

It sounds sweet because my Anne is sweet.

She inspires me a lot, a lot a lot.

Come & See

Come to God, my child.

And He will make you to shine

like the stars above.

Come and you will see

like a star shining outward

shedding light for all.

To see far,

cling to Him.

---<--@

Peace

Peace is my greeting -

in recognition of You!

Peace, I salute you.

Peace is belonging

in recognition of hope

and humanity.

It is a

state of heart.

---<--@

Pray

In the stillness as

I opened my heart to God -

I got lost. I prayed.

I, in the quiet,

sought in the stillness, the calm

of all things forgot.

And I found

everything.

---<--@

AS A RULE, my precious Starshine,

prayer is always more

than the sum of all that we can see

with our unseeing eyes.

A soul in prayer is a heart present to its thought;

a walk across the vast, empty deserts within;

a reaching out to places beyond self;

a looking above from within.

It is silence contemplating Silence -

alone with the Alone.

It is a growing, persevering,

often times frustrating work

born of great necessity,

out of thy love of God.

Prayer is an ascent to the timeless,

anchored upon ageless truth,

of all the things we love

and of the Love that all created things hope for,

most especially by the truth of thy heart of love,

and of thy faith yearning to God in prayer.

The way to God is a crooked line,

for we are all but human.

But the way of prayer

makes this way certain.

For the soul that perseveres in prayer

shall indeed profit

from the LORD Who rewards all things,

great and small, known and known to God alone,

when done out of love and fear

of the one common Creator

of all common creation, seen and unseen.

It is not only important that we pray,

and persevere in this way, my precious friend,

in private, above all in community with each other,

it is simply necessary for human happiness

and the well-being of the still small truth that lives,

like a mustard seed,

inside of every self

for all things true and everlasting

depend on a heart of prayer.

Prayer is spiritual.

Therefore,

there are seasons within the soul that range

from sweet to dry or empty

but never must thy heart stay still,

you must gather when it needs gathering

and to know also when to look beyond these seasons;

you must be vigilant,

pressing on till you reach the heart of God

to lay your hopes in the LORD.

So prayer may be long

or it may be short

but it must always be timeless,

its substance is the motion

that lives like a love longing for Itself.

And when the Silence shall to your bowed heart speak,

It shall do so swift as light,

being Spoken without words

and instantly manifest to your soul as winged truth -

then you shall seek to forget all other things

but God and God alone.

And in God you shall range far,

self cognizant of self,

intimate with the Intimate,

to dwell in holy remembrance of all things.

For far may your wandering heart be

but to love and in Love

you shall forever remain

when you shall in prayer persevere.

So do so, dearest Starshine,

and say AMEN:

Know for thy own self

why the heart that believes

believes only because it prays.
---<--@

Morning

O glorious sunrise!

Fill my heart, O breaking dawn -

chase the night away.

A salutation

to the dawning of the Day -

hope is here to stay.

Morning comes,

Praise the LORD!

---<--@

Broken Home

"Mom or dad?" They asked.

Does it have to be a choice?

It's not fair, I know.

Those who have the least

to say are often those who

have the most to lose.

Its the kids

who suffer.

---<--@

If home is where the heart is, where is the heart in a broken home?

What nurtures the souls of the young in a place with no love left?

When courage gives way to convenience in any married relationship - many, many dreams die.

Smile

Smiling is giving

and it goes from heart to heart -

if you love, then smile.

God loves cheerful hearts,

hearts made glad by His giving,

if you're thankful, smile.

Let you star

shine, starshine.

---<--@

Tears

Tears are shed for tears

wept not for bitterness' sake

but for better days.

The salt in our tears

like the hope amidst our fears

keep us together.

Drawing near

in good will.

---<--@

Cast off the darkness of despair.

And shed away all thy bitter tears.

The long night has not yet claimed you.

For you are here now.

Let us linger in the shelter of our togetherness.

Weep with us these tears that keep us salty.

And bind thyself to the slavery that keeps us free.

Give of yourself and you will see far into the darkness, our beloved Starshine.

Serve: Learn to love the act of service.

Then go and shine by the light of thy own seeing clearly.

Arrive in peace.

Leave by way of the same peace.