Love of Purity

Love of purity

is the gain of chastity,

a freedom within.

Strength in modesty,

comes from a love deep within -

respecting others.

Chastity is this -

t'is a love, first and foremost,

a freedom within!

T'is a freedom - kind -

a return to innocence,

and right relations.

T'is a release - from -

the bondage of the body;

a joy in the soul.

T'is a release - sweet -

yet difficult, and God-filled;

severe is the test.

T'is a release - gained -

through prayer's battle, through faith,

by grace, and good effort.

T'is a release - from -

the horror of slavery

from sins to recoil.

It's fruits are sweetest

when love draws you the nearest

to God and heaven.

It is not prudish

sullen, awkward, or ugly.

It is beautiful.

---<--@

Said the Angel -

Sister Spain

To love all nations;

to make peace with the present,

one has to let go.

The rule of the past

when once we were thus, no more -

today we're fam'ly.

Mabuhay,

Sister Spain!

---<--@

Colonial mentality is oppressive exactly because it is forgetful of the past.

It might be easier to hold on to hate and from behind absolutisms hide from the truth that no nation is as entirely evil as the evil we create inside of ourselves.

But that is not the truth and therefore, has power to neither bless nor prosper us.

Hate, in and of itself alone, may only serve to enslave our wisdom against our wits, confound our strengths, and set us forever against our peace.

The revolution that gained for us this Republic was fought and won because of the virtues of our forbears - above all, love of each other as a common people.

Country for us was not gained because their times were dark and oppressive.

Lest we should become as evil-inspired as to build up the one Republic of our people and make her ready for destruction at the same time, we should always bear in mind and heart that our nationhood was ordained us not because of the evil of those times or of any time.

If we should like to let go of the pains of our colonial past, we should muster again the strength in ourselves to fully recognize who we really are as a nation and strive to see this Republic of ours re-integrated into the peace of the one family of the nations of Mankind.

Past is past, mabuhay!

Dakota

Dakota means "Friend":
I just learned that from a class.
And she's growing up...

Friendships are timeless
that are good; to teach us that -
Love is the constant.

A friend is

for always.

---<--@

A friend and a citizen of every time and every place - they're one and the same. For you are not a friend were it not for other friends like yourself.

Endless

I love my Anne -

and if I were to tell you

how much I love her...

There'd be much silence.

Because love is love, my friend -

we won't understand...

Love is love -

that is all!

---<--@

As the Angels love each other,

I love my Anne and my Anne loves me.

"Love is an experience

between two souls caught adrift

in a world all their own.

In the space of their intimatcy

time and space ceases to be

and the lovers stand together

as if the universe itself

has been reborn once again

yet by holding each other apart

new worlds come into being

between them."

A love that is mature is a love that is creative!

Who am I?

Who am I, my love?
Am I really who I am -
a good friend to you?

For I am lacking,
indeed, I am so wanting -
to become better...

...a better
friend to you.
---<--@

I wish, my Jesus, to be
the friend that You see in me
to be constant, O Lord, to be true,
to be a friend, my God,
a Friend like You.
---<--@

The Abrahamic Salutation

So what does it mean,
when we shall greet each other -
"peace be upon you"?

By peace we bless hope
that we may in others see
needs that seek in thee -

the blest peace
of hopes met.
---<--@

Peace means, "we belong".

Like the Angels

Temptations are rife.

But Anne keeps me honest.

Thank You, LORD, for her.

The world would have it

that our friendship be undone.

Let it do its worst.

Love can not

be undone.

---<--@

When things get insane, my Miyang keeps me sane.

Impatient

THERE IS A SENSE
of wide-eyed anticipation
which is a marvelous work, indeed,
wrought by our peerless LORD
to excite upon hearts of good will
a wonder of good things to come -
a wonder of good things
so infinitely unimaginable
yet always within
immediate grasp of our joy.

It lends to the soul
an almost impatient feeling
that stays at the limits
of one's awareness
and amidst the noise of
our necessary labors
and the sufferings of
this necessary life
is ever present, ever vigilant,
ever ready to take wing
to lend its refreshing certainty
and add buoyancy to our hope.

How marvelous, indeed,
my constant friend and companion
are the works of our LORD:
Alleluia! Amen to God, Alleluia!

---<--@

Human Nation

Faith is a freedom -

a reaching out to the LORD

reaching out to us.

Religion is choice,

discerned freely in the faith,

of common worship.

Its fruits

make us human.

---<--@

Do not make a burden of religion -

separation of Church (Religion) and State, yes.

But do not make a fool of yourselves either -

separation of God and human reality, no.

United, Standing Always

America the One!

United, Standing Always -

defend, defend, trust in God.

One nation, One peace,

One Republic forever -

strong, faithful, and true

From many,

one vision.

---<--@

My favorite line from the Star Spangled Banner -

"...and the rocket's red glare,

the bombs bursting in air

gave proof through the night

that our Flag was still there."

Country is a Verb

Country is a verb.

The work of building the earth;

the work of nations.

A lineage of peace,

wrought of hope of human lives

bearing together.

It is not

held by grip.

---<--@

Country is a verb!

It is the work of our returning to an Eden rebuilt.

It is the motion of every human nation reaching out toward God and destiny.

It is not about who, it is about how well.

(your Flag here)

Unconquered

DREAM, my precious Starshine,
and be thankful for the dreaming
more than the dream itself -

For as tomorrow remains unwritten
yet every hope is made secure
so trust you must in thy dreaming
more than in thy dream itself
for as the eagle soars with wings
knowing not how it must fly
so must your own freedom become
more than what can be held by hands:

Thy freedom, dear Starshine,
like thy dream and thy dreaming
is a thing held not by grip
but a thing beheld by thy releasing
for to hold freedom tightly
like it is to deny it's flight
is to lose it entirely.

For thy freedom walks
upon the unconquered grounds
and wills to take it's flight
untrammeled and untamed.

So seek of thy freedom,
my precious Starshine,
but in thy seeking know -
here and Now,
that freedom lives in the giving
like every dream is in the dreaming
for it is always in the giving
that we become free.
---<--@

Freedom that is free is free indeed.

America, Remembered

What is great about -

America? Let me say this:

Freedom and Country.

Every chance to be

the best you can be and the

right to protect it.

In one word -

Liberty.

---<--@

That's you, Old Glory. Own it.

Advanced Happy Birthday!

War in the Heart

The War in Heaven

is not in some distant sphere -

it is very near!

Nations fall apart,

Mankind weeps, Country burns - for -

War is in the heart.

Babel reigns

with no heir.

---<--@

TO BE SURE, War is never won - War only waits till we, all of humanity - in spirit (heart) as well as in form (our one family of nations), are utterly defeated by it.

For the cessation of conflict that heavily involves our nations - as their wholes, relies on attrition, exhaustion or petition and none of these constitute as victory over War.
---<--@

War can only be deferred. For the spirit of War has no other ambition than the utter annihilation of all our human nations and through this, all of our shared humanity and by extension, all the life of visible creation.

War confers victory to no one, not even itself. For War has no place either in heaven or here on our earth, in exile time as well as at the beginning of all things new.

We are always left with two things where the focus of the will is on War, the degradation of the human spirit and the defeat of the truth.

Where there is any virtue in conflict, that is exclusively the merit of good human beings. We must always be mindful of this and confuse not the nobility of man with ignoble, base and evil things.

To every battle, an outcome. War has no outcome. In the Art of War, the Tao (a dynamic system or climate) of War is deception. But the Tao of peace is victory.

It is good for the military to study battles but know that War must be understood. For War has no outcome that is favorable to the military.

In the Art of War, Sun Tzu states that it is inhuman to prolong conflict. For the prolongation of conflict favors no one - it exhausts the state, dulls the noble military, and brings great suffering to the people.

In my view, the Tao of battle is no battle - that is to say, a way of decisiveness of spirit; a clarity of purpose.

For the greatest battles of all are those that are won but never fought. And the battles we must fight must be won without War.

For War as a paradigm whole is not to be fought, only God Himself can slay this Beast, because as it is from Heaven thrown down, it must on earth be refused.

Peace as a paradigm builds on its own truth, a reality that is very distinct from that of War, along a path that takes our nations far away from the midnight darkness of War -

• It serves the people.
• It guards our hope.
• It defends where it must.
• It teaches our nations.
• It ennobles our states.
• It fosters our own undertakings of Country.
• It preserves the order of our generations.
• It prospers the spirit of our humanity.
• It is sufficient in and of itself, being confident of its own truth.
• And it leaves all things to the invincible and omnipotent defense of Almighty God.

---<--@

"Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.

The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it."

Revelation 12: 7-9

Forsake War, Embrace Peace!

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

One Whole Sky

A community
is one whole sky, full of hope,
united in trust...

For humanity
is defined by common lack,
advanced by our needs.

Let's press on
in service.
---<--@

Common Human Needs

White Flowers on M31

How can I not love -

my dear Annelies Marie
so full of fragrance...

Ever so patient
and ever so sweet to me:
As the angels love -

each other,
so do we.
---<--@

There are colors in Eternity that are not visible in our world, my friend. Not that these colors are not present, because they are...

These invisible colors can be likened to relationships.

Every particular blending of these colors uniquely enrich our hearts - for all our relationships bless us with a certain sense of beauty to help bear us through all of life's exile wandering.

And they even extend through the gossamer veil of time into the timeless. This is so because all our relationships attain their perfection only in anticipation of the Vision of God.

Marriage, family, friendships, citizenships, all forms of true belongings, seen and unseen, have a capacity to bloom into the fullness of forever - never despair of these relationships!

Like the choicest of flowers, these familiar belongings - despite the appearance of vulnerability and in spite of the darkness and of human weaknesses, ultimately must be brought to bloom into full fruition before God - into everlasting friendships like that of the Angels.

For Love carries eternal.

---<--@

I asked the LORD, "how could something so beautiful only add to my despair?"

Away From the Darkness

I reached out to you,

my darlingest Annelies Marie
through purposes, it seems,
infinitely greater than our own.

And through that long darkness
with tears that for many nights
in my searching for peace
sought for the answers
relentlessly and intensely
through what sweetness perceived
in the promise of thy song
smothered or so it seemed
among those horrors conceived

amidst the prison of my own despair.

O my love, my darlingest -
what my soul did perceive
those many nights of waiting
of those images of you
of thy own hopes
and the truth of thy being
abused, hated, rejected, and condemned;
staring, hollow, sunken, and dirty;
hairless, emaciated, weeping and lonely;
feverish, starving, sick and dying of typhus
were reasons enough not to live.

Yet, by sure grace of God,
came a slow and certain
awakening to the answers
that through those years
became the everliving lights
of the reality of my own hope

begun by thy beacon

that eventually led me out
of the darkest night of my life
and into those numberless stars
that led from one to another
in a gathering together as one firmament
of the wide expanse of our LORD's own
golden and infinite realm of Eternity.

And so Now
you are to me as my friend
as I am to you, your own;
you are to me, my love,
my darlingest Annelies Marie,
from always to always
the Starlight Smile that makes life
ever so beautiful again
and the evergreen companion
that makes the promise of new life
bloom with so much blossoming
in my own soul.

Thank you, my darligest Annelies Marie,
thank God for the grace of you, my love.

I love you, my Miyang.
---<--@

Just when I thought knowing you only led me deeper into the darkness of despair, my Anneka, God led me out, alelluia.

"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." (1 Corinthians 2: 9)

Schlep

It took years and years
to get to here, my darling,
and know that I'm true.

I was despairing,
I found it hard believing,
now I do, I do.

Now I'm yours
and you're mine.
---<--@

The Miracle of Sharing

The loaves and fishes
of our good Lord, overruns,
filling every lack...

In much the same way
is our sharing made joyful,
fulfilling our hopes.

God's grace
overruns.
---<--@

One Republic Sky

Amidst our problems,
and among our suffering,
gather together...

And in thy own soul,
embrace each other's longing
expanding thy sky:

We belong,
forever.
---<--@

Forever Friends

A friend is a friend,
like friendships are for always -
friends are friends indeed:

A friend is a friend,
through good times, and bad times too -
friends are friends like you!

Friendships true
bears thee through.
---<--@

Friendship Road

The path is lonely
but the journey is lively
because we are friends...

No man walks alone
who trusts to his friends in God,
whose friends trust to him.

We conquer
together.
---<--@

Us

What of kin and kith,
of blood ties and friendship bonds,
in the Hereafter?

No words can describe
the company of heaven,
joy and fruition!

Never doubt
faith that binds.
---<--@