"Knowledge cannot replace friendship. I’d rather be an idiot than lose you."
— Patrick to Spongebob
Real Love
Real Love never parades itself outside in the streets, letting everyone know just how real it is. Real Love never needs an agent, a manager or a public relations guy. It doesn’t need an ad campaign or clever salesmen to move its product or drum up business. Real Love rarely sends out flyers to let everyone know it’s in the neighborhood.
Real Love has talent, has a real gift, but it doesn’t orchestrate the camera angles to maximize its potential. And it never has to slip money into an unnoticed hand to get into a gig or sell itself out to slide in through the back door. Real Love is content to wait quietly outside talking to the stage hands.
Real Love never needs a dozen roses and a nice car for the first date, and it doesn’t start out with the lobster and chardonnay. Real Love won’t lie in the heat of the moment to have its way, and it never uses all the right words to get what it wants. Real Love usually takes things slowly and gets better with age.
Real Love smiles even when it’s unfashionable to do so and never holds back tears. It looks good without makeup on and isn’t afraid to go out in public unprepared. Real Love quit rambling on about nothing a long time ago and doesn’t worry that it might not have anything to say right now. Real Love looks you in the eye during the awkward silences.
When it’s treated cruelly or quietly snubbed, Real Love never turns inward or burns spitefully. It never calls up mutual friends to vent in anger or stoops to pettiness to have its revenge.
Real Love is quietly hopeful and devastatingly kind. It’s always on time, and it doesn’t quit just because the shift is over. Real Love is surprising, like a night out under the stars. And though it usually prefers the softest touches, Real Love has strength enough to fend off all other suitors.
Real Love is not a gamble, a ruse or a phase. It’s not faddish or shallow, too young or too old. It’s cross-cultural and counter-cultural and sub-cultural. It doesn’t favor big bank accounts or the most beautiful faces, and it rarely comes around when it’s not called. Real Love likes the lowest voices and shows little respect for the big booming ones, though it doesn’t count them out just because they don’t get it right now.
Real Love is a movement, an affection and an arrow pointing home; it is a peace, a precept and a personality. It knows about forever and ever, and it works just fine in the now and the here. And Real Love doesn’t need a clever tag line at the end to get its point across one last time.— Eric Hurtgen, via Relevant Magazine
So I wonder...
HOW MUCH OF THE WORST OF ME CAN YOU HANDLE?
"Children, please understand us parents. We don’t see you as gentlemen and ladies. We always see you as a little boy and a little girl, walking around without your 2 front teeth. So please understand us a little. For parents, if you want to have a pleasant goodbye, learn to let go without abandoning." — Pastor Arnel Tan
Pag-asa
Kung kailan mo man nararamdaman na nag-iisa ka, isipin mo lang na andito ako. Kahit na hindi mo napapansin, ako ang taong nasa tabi para lang pumalakpak at magsuporta sa’yo. Ako ang nagsasabi sayo ng “Kaya mo yan! Huwag kang sumuko” kasi, kung ano man ang mangyari, di kita iiwan na lumaban ng mag-isa. Andito ako para magbigay ng pasensya at pagpapahalaga. Kaya kung sinasabihan mo ang iyong sarili na hindi mo na talaga kaya, isipin mo lang na may isang tao na sasalo sa lahat ng paghihirap mo. Kung lahat man ay di mo na maaasahan, huwag kang mawalan ng tiwala sa akin dahil andito lang ako para sa’yo. Sabay tayong lumaban dahil, kung ano man ang mangyari, ako ang magbibigay sayo ng iyong natitirang pag-asa.
Hug me.
I wake up every morning after having slept for only 2 hours. I open my eyes and the first feeling I get isn’t the usual expected relief for a brand new day or the exhaustion and terrible headache that come breaking my door down to tell me that I didn’t sleep long enough. Actually and sadly, it’s emptiness i feel. Like my stomach when I don’t have the appetite to eat for days. It’s not because of the fact that I’m alone in my room or because all I hear is the screaming sound of silence. I start thinking about how everyone else is doing. As I go through the invisible list of the friends and family that I have, I realize that I haven’t seen or heard from most of them and it’s crazy. So much has changed since our own last times. Then there’s one that hurts me most thinking about. I’m not really sure why but it does. Something feels different now. As if things changed and not for the better. That or it could just be my weak insecure heart feeding me lies. I look through my phone’s contact list, looking for someone to spill my guts and cry my heart out to. Every time I scroll through the names, I feel more alone than I did with the one before. Then I decide to ask myself how I’m doing just to extinguish the hell of my curiosity and the answer never ceases to leave me speechless. All I really want is a hug that wouldn’t let me go until our arms lose circulation and go numb. The kind of hug that would whisper to my ear telling me I’m an idiot for ever thinking that I’m alone. To put it simply, I just need a hug. That’s really all there is to it.