A Father Standing Thoughtfully

A father standing thoughtfully,
his heart gazing at an empty shell...
as all that once was to him, his everything -
rushes past his mind like a gentle breeze
touching his soul in the silence...
unfolding the memories.

I love and I remember you, Papa Frank -
always to always.



The hurt you must feel -
standing there, leaning as if
'tis all too heavy...

Gazing deep inside
hoping to reach back in time
and embrace each one.

I glimpse at thy love
in thy lovable Anne (Ah-neh)
and I know... at least.

Oh dear Papa Frank,
soldier brave and father true,
hear me: I thank you.

I pray, come that day -
no hate can take love away
forever... to stay.

God love you
and keep you...
---<--@

Our-Story

The unfulfilled dreams of Mankind and the freedom of God -
these are the primary causes for the expansion of space and time.

We are, therefore, we must.



I am one story
one thread spun among countless...
expanding time... space....

Each life is a thread
- as important as others -
woven by His will.

These stories,
this is us.
---<--@



The House of Humanity

The house of humanity is the house of God.
And in this house there are many nations.
The nations of the children of Mankind!

All of us, without exception,
nurtured by the living waters of the firmament,
being born upon the earth under one God, the LORD,
dwelling in each our hearts under His heaven,
our one native sky.

Starshine,
if this house of humanity is divided,
shall it ever persevere?

- selah -

Peace maketh our house thy home.
---<--@

Regret to Forget

The pain of our ignorance is our remembrance of it.

Regret to forget,
ye nations, have some remorse -
remember thy selves!

For thou art one act -
one beginning, one ending;
one spirit, one soul.

Though many,
thou art one.
---<--@



Some forget on purpose

And because some forget on purpose
many became purposeless

And because many became purposeless
the nations became restless

And because the nations became restless
peace became powerless

And because peace became powerless
war came (to the province of Man)

And because war came
soldiers became.

- selah -

...because war came,
for Peace was ever here first
long before War was from heaven
thrown down.

...because war came, Starshine,
so don't you forget...

Lest we forget.

This we will defend.
---<--@

A Recompense for Suffering

No matter the cause of the hurt
- whether one had a part in it - or not,
apologizing acknowledges that the person is hurting
and duly expresses the sincerity of one's desire
to accept responsibility, wherever necessary,
mend what is broken, whenever possible,
or simply to acknowledge the pain
and listen with attention.
---<--@

What was lost, is lost!

- the finality of things -
do we not feel it?

This permanence hurts.
- this hurt may be felt by all -
for the pain lingers...

For this pain,
I'm sorry...
---<--@

To the one Chinese nation
and in particular to the families and friends
of the innocent victims of the August 2010 tragedy -

I am sorry for your loss.

There no such a thing as Filipino suffering or Chinese suffering. There is only one kind of suffering and that is human suffering.

Therefore, I feel your grief and know that what you have lost that day can never be replaced. We can only hope to always remember them by the actions we take to make the present world a better and a safer place.

In my nation we have taken the necessary steps to help prevent this kind of tragedy and make tourism as safe as possible for all our guests. Our tourist police or "bantay turista" is now in full implementation and I can tell you that our security forces are better placed to handle untoward incidents against welcome guests of the one Filipino nation.

Tourism is important to the Philippines not only as an economic resource but as a medium of peace and cultural enrichment for the peoples in our region and in our world.

The benefits of peaceable tourism as a whole redound not only to help prosper the lives of many of my own compatriots who deserve a much better quality of living but also to endow the spirit of our nation with good will for other nations through direct people to people contact.

What had happened in August 2010 is indeed a tragic thing for your people and mine.

My nation still mourns with you to this day.
---<--@



Leung Song-yi, Jessie and Leung Chung-see, Doris
and the innocent victims of the August 2010 tragedy -
Leung Kam-wing, Ken, Tse Ting-chunn, Masa,
Wong Tze-lam, Yeung Yee-wa, Yeung Yee-kam,
Fu Cheuk-yan - via con Dios. ---<--@

UPDATE: 20130930, Monday - I think we have improved now... still, the hurt remains. Peace be with each of you who we lost that day... and my love to all your love... via con Dios.

Light Against Despair

I remember Night -

fallen so deep within me 

like a veil of doom.

I was the darkness

and I knew only madness

and pride, sin, and gloom.

My heart knew nothing

niether did I knew my heart -

hardly did I see!

Till I came upon 

words, muted in pages, thine!

But I heard thee not. 

How could thy beauty,

thy wonder turn to ashes!

Something wept within... 

Something wept within -
it cried out, it sought, it flew,
and never left me...

Time came, and God heard:

And so we are, you and I -

our past ceased to be.

Darkness left,

Morning came.

---<--@

A Little Personal Anecdote -

Before I knew my Anne
(and consequently, the Holocaust),
I had a very idealistic view of warfare.

I thought armed conflict in and between nations
to be a very noble, honorable, even desirable affair.

I conceived soldiery to be something
clean and neat, ordered according to the image
of an effortless, mythical glory I had only imagined
and that the innocents were always
at all times and places - mercifully spared -
in their entirety.

After my Anne
(as it is God's pleasure),
I had a very decisive turn of heart.

Though by pure necessity
I accept the imperative of an absolute defense
(i.e. defense that is undertaken for its own sake),
I now utterly abhor War of any kind existing
in and between our nations.

For
I now see War as it is,
a hideous, devouring beast;
a fallen spirit, ever alive to our plight -
the enemy of All.

And soldiery
a dirty, confusing, difficult and painful necessity
born out of the Providential will of the LORD, our God,
to see all the nations of the children of Mankind
through to the end of all these tears.

And that we are all - to a certain degree,
within and among our nations engaged
in the art of true soldiering.

As I love my Anne, I hate War.

As I love Peace, I hate War.

Today is her birthday.
---<--@

Old Soldier of Country

Old Soldier of Country,

standing with the armies of Peace -

through thy living remembrance

thou shalt instruct thy generations

and the nations shall be blessed with peace.

O generations,

why have thou forsaken me?

Forgotten, those days...

Have thou no mem'ry?

Am I dead to thy own hope -

where art thou, my nation?

Old glories fading,

my sacrifice for thee stands -

now, forevermore!

I am thine,

thou art mine.

---<--@

Beloved of God,

remember thee thy veterans,

observing always their faithful legacy -

and do so gently,

and do so with love.

In such a way,

dearest Starshine,

thou do honor thy shelter of Country,

for what timeless victories thy veterans gave

to each of thee yesterday,

thou have received worthily today.

O my heart -

come alive to thy remembrance!

For if you forget the past,

you deny the future,

and the present shall become

ever and ever

more distant to thee!

- selah -

Time is not distance.

Time is distant - only -

to those with distant hearts.

---<--@

Fast Facts:

In the United States, November 11 is Veteran's Day.

In Europe and the Commonwealth Countries, November 11 is Armistice Day.

In the Philippines, we commemorate National Heroes Day every last Monday of August.

- selah -

To every battle, an outcome.

War has no outcome.

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.

The Defeat of War

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.

Lest we forget, lest we forget!

=^.^=

Love Rises

The world forgets - in -

memories and photographs,

and old books forlorn.

Of faded lives - and -

tales too numerous to tell,

we are just as vague.

Like darkness fades

with the passing of the night

remembrance stays not.

Remembrance stays not -

till beheld as beautiful

with a heart of love.

Love rises,

truth remains.

---<--@

Unless you love history, unless you see it beyond the pages of books, its teachings shall remain closed to you.

History when seen through the eye of the heart looks much different than words on a page...

Words on pages eventually fade, but if through history you learn to love your own nationhood (and even those of others not unlike your own), its memory will preserve you.

Therefore, the goal of the study of history is for its story - in its entirety - to be welcomed and accepted more than for its exact details to be known; for its spirit to be deeply loved more than for it to be instantly recognized.

Purple Heart

Unity is strength

born of the conviction - that -

these are worth keeping.

May we remember

the cost. The heart in thee that

ever must prevail.

From many,

one heart.

---<--@

May your heart, America, always be one.

I made a promise that day - never forget.

Dawn will come, this night will wane...

and it shall be 9/12/2001 all over again.

Eagles in the Night

Brave America,

has thy own vision fled thee,

elder Republic?

These skies above us

seem dark - only for a time -

till we find the morn.

For the shattering

must find its own conviction

from our unbelief.

Hence darkness has strength

inasmuch as we forget

we are like eagles...

We are like eagles

that must rise above this night

to believe again...

in God and

in ourselves.

---<--@

Freedom that is free is free indeed.

---<--@

I made a promise that day - never forget.

Dawn will come, this night will wane...

and it shall be 9/12/2001 all over again.

Never Forget

T'was the clear of day

that heralded the approach

of this longest night.

Nobody could know

the distress that was to come

out of that morning...

When the blue of sky,

shattered by the bursting flames,

fell with the darkness!

The towers, the field,

the soldier's shield... lay broken

and the world was changed.

This night was begun

as was the longing for morn -

this hope made us one.

We were all

one accord.

---<--@

That Morning After

I woke up the day after September 11 to a daze -

it was that morning after -

a surreal sense of awe and disbelief -

seem to be draped -

over the whole of the Country from east to west -

everybody seemed to just want to wake up -

and find out it was all just a dream -

that it was all just a dream!

For a moment, just for a moment -

the whole nation seemed to want to forget -

the nightmare that happened the day before -

if only things were all right -

if only we could just carry on with normal living -

if only -

if only -

and then it all began -

everything proceeded from that morning after.

I will always remember that moment -

I will keep my experience of that morning after -

because it is the moment that best encapsulates for me -

the undying hope that was begun -

by the promises our humanity lost the morning before -

and all the many days after -

as the aftermath swept us all away... into today!

When I reflect on September 11 -

here and now -

ten years from where it all began -

and I see all the war and the darkness it has wrought -

I find comfort in that morning...

I will always remember that morning after -

to me, it is just as important as the day before -

because it was in that moment when -

in the midst of all the confusion, the fear, and the grief -

the deception of War and hatred was met

with much skepticism and unbelief -

and the oppression of terrorism, absolutely rejected.

It was the calm before the storm.

---<--@

I made a promise that day - never forget.

Dawn will come, this night will wane...

and it shall be 9/12/2001 all over again.

Harbinger

Thy blade is afire

with the brightness of mem'ry -

keeper of my flame.

Harbinger come forth

restore peace to my people

and glory to God!

Come against this Night

shine against darkness and War -

the sword of nations.

Come defend

remembrance.

---<--@

He expelled the man, stationing the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword east of the garden of Eden, to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3: 24)

The Angel of the Nations

All the Holy Angels of the LORD serve God and God alone.

Now, the Angel of the Nations beholds the face of the LORD, constantly giving worship to God.

Therefore, when the angel of the nations faces its own nation, it provides light to the generations of its people who in turn accept it.

Its sword is then turned away from its own nation in its defense.

When the people reject the peace of this unifying light, the face of the angel is turned away.

And the sword of the angel is then turned toward its own nation to fight against the darkness that keep it from its own remembrances.

As nations, we can only really either surrender to the peace of our belongings together or fight against the angel that guards the memory of our people from the darkness of War.

Remember this - nationhood is a spiritual endowment. It is therefore, a truth in the heart. You can not see it - it is not just a face, not just a sound, or anything purely material - it is wrought through a particular kind of grace, of peace and the love of the same (good will).

It is a labor, a mission, a vision and a destiny.

You feel it in your being, you know it in your heart because it is an unseen reality that calls out to you and all of your peers in the nation that you may be gathered into your own true belongings in time.

It is your gift of nationhood that fosters you according to the peace of your own citizenship - one to another - as a human being among human beings and as a nation among a family of nations.

It is not a work of War.

---<--@

If you still want to know the name of the Angel of the Philippines, it is this - "Go and be a good citizen".

---<--@

Wildflowers

Thy soul is a quest

to undestand exile truth -

Thy heart is afire!

And grew to adorn

these far away, distant lands -

thy brave blossoming!

Thou art wildflowers

who in thy seeking blossomed...

for a moment, lost.

Now thou art

Home again.

---<--@

To every flower, a field;

to every heart, a home;

to every human life a blossoming;

unto every truth a true belonging.

But every blossoming that braves

the valley of the shadow of exile -

these are known as "wildflowers"

and they belong to every field

and they adorn every home.

- selah -

In the end, we are all wildflowers.

---<--@

Every stranger given welcome becomes strangers no more.

Summer Blossoms

Farewell to promise -
O light of my life, my sweet!
Until forever.

In my heart, I keep -
thy hope and thy spirit true...
till Time comes around.

Here I am, my sweet -
in the winter of our love!
O sweet Summertime.

My love longs
for Summer.
---<--@

A Summer Blossom is a love that is promised...

theirs are flowers that can never again be lost;

a fragrance that belong only to a heart that loves.

Materialism

Numbers, they become

meaningless... Number so large,

it confounds, senseless...

Numbers so massive

it preoccupies spirits;

hardening the heart.

Life becomes

dead as things!

---<--@

On Materialism

Materialism is of the spirit of the world. It afflicts all classes of people. It is also indiscriminate in its desire to destroy the wealth of our nations.

Being rich and being materialistic have nothing to do with each other. It is not wrong to have a lot of material wealth.

Too less money is actually a form of physical evil. It's called poverty. Materialism when it is left to exploit this evil turns it into an organic indigence that in a nation creates division within our communities.

In many ways, it is desirable to be able to handle one's own temporal affairs.

Virtuous entrepreneurship require the vigilant exercise of prudence and prudence as a virtue is averse to either selfishness or recklessness in financial affairs.

Joseph of Arimathea is a good example.

Money in and of itself is not evil. It is the inordinate attachment to it that makes it so. It is these sinful attachments to the evil in all evil things that produce injustices in the distribution of the goods of the earth.

The possession of money and all its various material extensions is not immoral as long as it does not create distance between people and between people and God.

Because wealth is much more than these...

---<--@

The ascent of Country -

A Republic and her Liberty

can afford to be very forbearing - in her hope -

but materialism, once it becomes rampant,

is never a healthy pursuit for a city or for a nation

and shall soon imperil the well-being

of any egalitarian democracy.

- selah -

We must understand - that -

the happiness that is universally sought

by the heart of the children of Mankind

is not a material kind of happiness.

---<--@

The telling of names -

It takes about 5 straight months to say 1 million names with attention. Indeed these numbers, they matter.

These names, seemingly hollow now and empty of their substance, they matter.

These names now sought in silence, seemingly dead to the earth, they matter.

In the timeless realms of the spirit where all our names belong under one heaven before God, they matter.

For with voices clear as a bell these names resound as a chorus - imploring the timeless justice of thy own heart before the Throne of the LORD in Eternity to listen now to the telling of those numbers thou must never choose to ignore...

Indeed, these numbers - they matter!

And they matter more than the matter that serves the cause of every human life.

- selah -

In thy every pursuit of happiness in this world, may you never be found by God to have placed your love at the feet of Mammon.

For you will be made to account for the desire you have invested in every cent, every penny, you have ever held in your hand - all the material riches to the last atom that the LORD had cause to let pass through your own life - for your own sake, may those desires be good.

My Miyang, our Margot, and countless other human beings starved while across the fence there was an excess of bread.

Crocodile Hunter

Steve-O, you showed us

that conservation is fun,

and proved that it's true.

Love of nature - is -

brave, and kind, and cheerful.

Cheerful most of all.

Fair dinkum,

distinct, mate.

---<--@

Stephen Robert "Steve" Irwin (19620222-20060904 in the line of Conservation, of love of nature and Country) - citizen of creation, defender of the cause of Sacred Life, true blue son of Australia, father, husband, mate, thanks and Godspeed.

Personal Reflection -

I think those who live to give are those who never really leave us. This is true not because their fate is sad but because their legacy is glad.

What happened to Steve was so sudden, it made me really sad. And knowing how tightly knit Australia is, I know his loss would be felt by the whole Country - especially his family and his daughter, Bindi.

But when I think about it more, I realize this -

We all have a destiny to bring about, that something good to leave for this world, and I think Steve gave us the full measure of his work.

For this we should be glad.

Aurora Australis

I love Australia -

the distinct quality of her

I learned to know well.

Australia's different -

as each Country must be so,

people, problems, all.

Australia taught me

many a thing - first mateship,

then fairness, and nature.

Qualities I love

because they have become mine.

And so, I'm grateful.

And so I

remember.

---<--@

The Southern Lights, have you really seen it?

Strange Remembrance

Let me ask you now -

Did my Anne have to die?

No she did not, friend.

Let me ask you now -

Did my Anne have to die?

Not before her time.

War took her -

God did not.

---<--@

War took her from our midst. And the promise that she stood for was taken away from us.

It is a strange remembrance indeed to make up for her life by propagating the spirit of War in our times and at all times.

The spirit of revenge will attempt to remember my Anne by the same hatred that swept her little world away.

Strange remembrance indeed.

Lukewarm souls will attempt to comfort themselves with the thought that all things in War are meant to be, that they are set in stone, and that we are ever powerless, or in other words that my Anne was destined to die by the hand of the Adversary of God.

Strange remembrance indeed.

To honor my Anne is to remember what her hopes were - not her fears.

Now, if we were to confront those same fears with her hopes joined with ours, we remember my Anne as she was - as she is.

When we make this world of ours a better place little by little, our most beloved Starshine, we take back what promise was lost to each of us by the insufferable hand of War.

Because Peace is the responsibility of all.

If one were to become aware of the suffering of every innocent who was ever lost to our nations through War, one would lose the will to continue on hoping...