CULTURAL GAP

There really is an existing cultural gap…BUT in the matters of the heart it is NON-EXISTENT!

Benetton always comes to mind whenever this cultural gap is mentioned. Benetton really have a high end when it comes to their trademark of different races joined together in their products. I can probably say LOVE IS BENETTON. That love is possible even in different colors, because I see couples of differing colors make it to the altar.

As they say…”Love conquers all!” Obviously, even the gaps!

HEART TICKLER: DON'T LET IT START IN BED...

Marriage is more than four bare legs in a bed
~ by Hoshang N. Akhta

More often than not, a marriage, or a relationship that started in bed (or because of "it") ~ do not survive the long lasting commitment and responsibility connected to it.

We cannot just jump into marriage because we are sexually compatible. Well in the true sense of the word, we should not actually know that until AFTER we are married. But speaking of the general population's state..."it" is just a small part of it.

Yes there's the sizzle, there's the sparkle...but is there friendship? Is there mutual understanding or compatibility outside the bedroom? Though there were instances that it develops and blossoms to love, but as per common occurrence, it is the reason for separation and divorces that seems to be as getting more and more frequent among our circle of friends. Celebrities being on top of the list of the most number of broken homes and families.

We have to remember always that s-- is too sacred to be played upon, yet too simple a reason to take the vows to being together forever.

SEAMAN FOR A HUSBAND

More and more acquaintance get married to a "seaman"...and according to them, it is both fulfilling and being left empty.

Practically, they get to live a comfortable life, being provided for. But having them gone for more than a month makes you cry for more time with him. A family without the head is like a wobbly boat. A child growing up without the constant supervision of a father makes them incomplete.

BUT a partner to stay and be "the you" the family needs for a time is suffice to make it all worthwhile. Because admit it or not, life on earth is pretty hard and the offer given you being at sea will keep the family afloat. A strong bond to that love you have for each other will help you both go on. And in the end, the benefits of it all can surpass the lost time. JUST KEEP HOLDING ON.

Or...not? You know best being there...what can you say about this?

A POEM OF A FRIEND

I see you smile

I see you smile, and it haunts me forever.
I hold on to you as the lights fill my eyes.
A fleeting moment that we’re together,
You fade away as the morning cries.

I can only try to remember,
All the things we we’re happy for.
I miss us so bad it’s like a frozen ember.
Longing for the time we could have more.

A friend have created this personal poem. I am caught in between the lines thinking of the sadness or of the rapture being revealed in here.

What brings to mind though...is the shortness of the happiness we have here on earth. That each and everything have it's end. And as always, we're always hoping for more, if only it will be given.

MARRIAGE FOR CONVINIENCE…DOES IT WORK?

Filipino’s used to be traditionalists, old-fashioned to others. BUT come 20th century...it almost had been pure history. "Almost" because there are still a few who goes with what their families have passed on from generation to generation.

Still, I am not saying that this “marriage for convenience” is not old-fashioned; because even in the past decades, it has been going on. The “family arrangement” where parents have agreed upon another family friend of their offspring’s marriage that is to be held a decade or so after; or of a certain custom like that of the royalties centuries ago where in they cannot have the vows if not within the family or clan. Likewise, the Chinese custom which I believe to be practiced to this day though not everyone is another example of which.

TODAY, “marriage for convenience” includes political reason, or for financial stability. Some says it works and some doesn’t. There is this certain hold you have for each other due to common or interlacing goal. It can work but not necessarily fulfilling. Love may blossom, or the differences may eat up your individuality. It may continue on with easy friendship or romantic love; but it can also little by little rot your insides up, resort to violence, constant emotional attack or end up with separation. It is also common to see 2 different races bound together in a marriage. It is not easy needing to fill in the cultural gap in addition to common adjustments in a newly wed, and differently-raised individuals. Then again, life is full of surprises…either we end up smiling or crying.

What do you think?

RINGS: BAND OR BOND?

In a couple, these rings signify something deeper than it being a band. With it creates a lasting bond that both hopes to surpass earthy life.

A reason why we give much importance to it, especially that very ring declaring our belongingness to each other: the wedding ring. This ring that can never be excluded in a marriage unlike an engagement ring that some may not deem necessary anymore, though if able the man would want the world to know that his girl is already his though still awaiting the wedding bells.

Still, women gives greater importance to it than men does. That is why it is us mostly choosing the rings. What is the best that suits you? There’s so much to choose from actually. Some prefers it plain and smooth hoping the relationship to run as smooth as it is.

Others are more able and extravagant in choosing, and prefer to have nothing other than the sparkling eternity hoping for the love to sparkle for eternity as it does. The fact that it truly is beautiful that I myself would want to have such as my knight in shining armor slips it on me. And no matter the style, the inscriptions inside is a prerequisite.

Just be sure that it does not have the ones written in that famous ring created in Mordor that Mr. Frodo have to guard from greedy men in the Lord of the rings!

HOW DO YOU WANT YOUR WEDDING DONE?

It is a year of fantasizing a wedding of my own after seeing that supposedly secret dream-come-true wedding of the year between a famous Filipino celebrity couple Judy Ann Santos and Ryan Agoncillo. They were hoping for it to be as private as possible and so decided for it to come out as a surprise to the general public if incase it will. It sure did but not until the wedding is about to take place. It even was televised hours after. Remarkable!

Them starting off at a church the bride’s parents wed decades ba

ck and ended with a beach reception obviously connotes well planning. Everything the couple is can be seen in their choices of invitation which is a box with one flipflop to which you will find the other half in the wedding reception itself; the guest singers that have made the ceremonies more memorable; the breakfast, the boat ride and the dinner. Every event in the whole day affair is as special as each other. It is the perfect wedding…simply because they were able to do what they both love.

Another famous couple chose a different way of doing their wedding. Well known anchor woman Korina Sanchez and Senator running for presidency Mar Roxas chose to do it in the simplest of weddings preferring only that it

be witnessed by every Filipino. It was aired except for the private reception that followed which includes close family and friends. They revealed that the supposed millions of peso cost of reception will be donated instead to calamity victims.

Weddings differ as each of us differs. Our preferences counts, but our status still is the main reason as to how it will turn out.

SHOUT TO THE WORLD

Nothing surpasses anything to make the heart plumper than to have someone shout to the world of how lucky he is to have you, of how much you mean to him. This simple thing is in fact a great big deal to women in love. It is close to a proof that it is genuine love almost the same to an engagement ring…which is next to the wedding itself.



Sweeter than sweet for a woman to do this, but what more of a man doing this? One may call it “cheesy”, “emo”, or “possessive”, “overacting”…but to women in love, it’s pure and simple LOVE EXPRESSION.

I don’t know with you, but I will feel pretty special if it was me…just as my best bud Mimi being loved by her Badong.

LOVE VITAMIN

You don’t have to start looking for this in your vitamin cases, because you can’t find it written as such, but as Phenylethylamine (PEA). In fact you can even have it in a nearby store and not in the drug stores…because it is in the most common form of chocolates.

Yes, yes you heard me right ~ plain and simple chocolates. Well, that’s aside from it being released from the emotional part of the brain when we fall in love. Right again, when we feel all mushy and cheesy; the reason why you receive them from your suitors is simply them hoping that whatever lacks in the natural release in the body will be compensated by what chocolates can do.

So all you men out there, don’t be overly worried of us losing those curves…in exchange to obtaining our love ;)

LAST BREATH

“if i has to choose between loving you, and breathing.
I would use my last breath to say I
LOVE YOU” ~ by Dani B.

This is easy enough to understand than quotes like "Beneath the coupled gold faints the painless catalog" or “The teeming Autumn big with rich increase, bearing the wanton burden of the prime like widowed wombs after their lords decease”.

“If I has to choose between loving you, and breathing. I would use my last breath to say I
LOVE YOU”…and this I believe has been done unaccountable times through the years even before this very quote has been written because love brings out the poets in us. We become even more deserving of such write-ups at that very moment of uttering them because it is coming from the inner recesses of our hearts and souls.

And it is the hardest part in all of our lives, letting go of our love one to the painful separation of death. AND SO, LET US NOT AWAIT FOR OUR LAST BREATH TO SAY THOSE MAGICAL WORDS, “I love you”!