11 Valuable Lessons from 2011

It's that time of the year again. Instead of posting about my resolutions for the new year, I'm posting instead 11 valuable lessons that I learned this incredible year. 2011 will be, forevermore, a special year for me. Semper et in aeternum.

• Work smarter not harder.


• Kindness is not always a kindness and severity at times, is a kind of kindness.


• Assert yourself and do not let the fear of confrontation censor you. This is especially true on issues of great importance. Holding your silence when you should have spoken your mind forfeits any right to complain afterwards.


• The best defense to have against people who like to stand on other people's shoulders and take credit for other people's hard work is to know your self-worth.


• Some people love to portray themselves as the victim because it's their way of coping with realities they can't accept. Give them sympathy therefore because that is what they want to elicit but give them nothing else.


• If you don't change something about yourself, nothing around you ever will.


• All great changes are preceded by turmoil. Have the courage to embrace it however unknown. You can not grasp something better if you don't let go of what is currently in your grip.


• Everyone has their version of the truth. It is after all everyone's prerogative. Some truths however, hold more true than others.


• Do not call it YOUR dream if you are waiting for other people to realize it for you.


• Let go and believe. It. Will. Be. Alright.


• Love is love is love is love. It is not something that you should ever apologize for.

いま羽をもらうの　この窓から飛び立つわ
雲の上まで上ってまた地上に降り立つの
そして映画観に行って　洋服も買って　アイス食べながらメトロ乗るの
ピアス開けて　たまには学校も行って　夜にはあなたの腕に抱かれて
最高の眠りにつきたいの

"I'm gonna get my wings now and fly through this window
I'll fly up above the clouds and then come back down to Earth
Then I'll go to the movies and buy new clothes
And I'll eat ice cream and ride the metro
I'll get my ears pierced and go to school once in a while
And at night I want to have the best sleep ever
Held tight in your arms"

Every sunday afternoon~

A Song for Emma

I don't really know you Emma
But I might have an idea of you
You fell in love, lost it all
and since then haven't convalesced

Well don't you know Emma
that it's been years?
Don't you know that
while you've been holding on,
the world hasn't stopped
turning on its gears?

Yet I can't really blame you
if you are still paralyzed.
If a wound is all that's left,
then I'd understand why you
wouldn't want it to heal.

All I can say is Emma,
that maybe your melancholy
would be more admirable
if you but had the courage
to smile a little bit more.

All I can say Emma,
is that tug-of-war has long ceased.
I've long given you freely,
every inch you want to conquer.

Blame me, blame yourself.
Don't you realize that you
come on your own?
Every time you fall into
that same rabbit hole?

Blame me, blame yourself.
To me it's all the same.
I don't need your absolution,
I just need you to move on.

Blame me, blame yourself.
To me it's all the same.
Emma, your bitter reality
is my very same love story.

Someday.

Image not my own.

Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale.

Words not my own.

Image not my own.

Will be moving virtual addresses soon. :)

My Own Mr. Darcy

"You must know... surely, you must know it was all for you....you have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love, I love, I love you."

I never thought I'd hear that from the one I love while he's down on one knee.

It was the most romantic moment of my life.

During that quiet moment, that golden sunset, a short eternity was born.

I am happy.
And so are
my friends
and family for me.
For us.

I have never felt
more blessed.

Semper Et In Aeternum

7 Years. 7 8 Stones.

Closer

Image not my own.

Finally, Brava!

Rhetorical

Courage to you on your pursuit.

May it not abandon you in that moment where your very happiness relies on whether you can take a chance or not.

The Anatomy of My Desk

1. Zen Garden - a memento of Cy's Japanese Garden Surprise on our 7th Anniversary

2. Format lamp from IKEA - Cy and I bought matching ones. For those long nights of hacking away.

3. Bottled Water - Hydrate! Hydrate! Hydrate!

4. Thingamajig from IKEA - Holds my pens, post-its, pennies and nickels and whatnot.

5. Hikari my iPad - Valentine's gift from Cy. For my casual browsing and ebooks.

6. External Monitor - This with SizeUp makes for a wicked productivity boost. Top-down configuration works best for me.

7. Trinity - MBP. Twin to Cy's Morpheus.

8. Hungy. Foolish. - Bluetooth wireless keyboard. As to the name, I bought it at the 5th Ave. Applestore the day after Steve Jobs died.

9. Pot of Lightning - Magic mouse. Twin to Cy's Pot of Fire.

10. Straw hat - Bought at Sta. Monica. Shields me from the sun and reminds me of weekends with Cy at the Promenade. Tells me that there is always something to look forward to.

A flight of fancy

Today is another beautiful day in LA. Apart from the usual sun and infinitely blue sky, there is also a strong, cool breeze that might just be one of the last this fall. It dances about, rustling the leaves in the yard and making noises like a mischievous, happy child would during play. It runs here and there, picking up the fallen orange leaves of autumn and hurtles them uncaringly into the pool. First, one then another until it has created a whole armada. Then, like a fickle Poseidon, it breaks the stillness of the usually calm pool by making ripples that reverberate to the edges and undulates back to collide with the oncoming ones creating shaky diamonds in the water - a miniature sea-storm for the doomed fleet of leaves in the pool.

Transfixed, I open the large sliding door and invite the wind to come in, not caring if it sends the post-its and pieces of paper I stack neatly on my desk in a disarray when it does. True to form however, it remains distant and skittish, preferring to play its unrehearsed games alone leaving me envious and crestfallen.

Because of all this, a memory jostles itself from the recesses. The initially subtle glow it makes brightens ever so faintly with every step closer to recollection until I finally reminisce about how, as I sat within the confines of my highschool classroom, I daydreamed of traveling the world by transfiguring myself into the wind.

Beloved.

Yesterday, for our 7th Anniversary, Cy took me to the すいほえん (which means The Garden of Water and Fragrance) as a surprise. It was his way of bringing me to Japan, if only for a few hours, knowing how badly I've been wanting to go. Words fail to express how special I felt to be the one chosen, to be the companion of and to be loved every day as if it were the first by this amazing man who is and will always be, the better part of me.

7 Years. 7 Stones.

Victor's Magnanimity

I hope that one day soon, you'll wake up and find past inflictions healed, albeit not in its entirety.

May you muster the strength to shatter that fragment of the past which cripples you, alarmingly still so, in the present.

Happy

Perhaps I am the happiest
to know that this was the day
you came into the world.

And that in 20 years,
you'll find me and
we'll share
a love
that rivals
any other great love.