Celebrating Friendship - Nov 29, 2007

Treasure the friendship you receive above all. It will survive long after your gold and good health have vanished."
— Og Mandino


Let me dedicate this post to a dear friend. I have not met her personally but she became as dear and as close to my heart as any bestfriends would ever be. Ours is a unique story. Each living a world apart, met through the world wide web and together began a journey of sharing and caring worthy of telenovelas and the likes. Today marks our first chika, the commencement of a long line of letters, emails, calls and chats. The beginning of a great friendship oblivious of time and space.

I have a box I call “jules box” filled with goodies from her. Whenever I am lonely or sad… I go to my jules box to find something that would lift my spirit up. It works everytime… until now I can still pick up one thing inside the box that would bring me to smile and bring me inspirations. It gives me countless ideas of what to do or what to write about. She is everything a friend is about and if Ibegin to describe her, I would not be able to finish my post. :) Hopefully ... i'm not promising anything ..hehe... that I would beable to bring her out in some of the future post I make.

She knows me enough to write my life story. And I hope I know her enough to write hers. A lot of times I long to hold her hands and to feel her warmth beside me. To share a cup of coffee and talk about anything endlessly. I wish I could always run to her house just to see her and say hi. But I guess that could wait.

I hope to meet her someday. Give her a huge embrace enough to catch up on those times we are apart. Until then.....

Thank you for being my friend Jules!!

The Lost Symbol – by Dan Brown

To live in the world without becoming
aware of the meaning of the world is
like wandering about in a great library
without touching the books.

The Secret Teachings
Of All Ages


How will I start my story of Dan Browns new novel? Hmmm… The Lost Symbol somehow .. lost me. Well, compared to The Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, this last sequel didn’t come up with something new. When I say new, it’s not just new, I was kind of expecting big and spectacular. It did however kept up with the usual suspense and fast phase thrills of the two previous novels. There was a moment there that I thought Dan Brown has killed the character of Robert Langdon. I was saying to myself… the lead character is dead already and I still have several chapters to go through. Don’t be alarmed… Robert Langdon is not dead. Surely another sequel is in the process.

Robert Langdon has found himself involved in another adventure (traumatic in the most frightening way). He was summoned to Washington DC presumably to be a guest speaker when he found himself in the middle of a severed hand and an annoying assistant director of the CIA. In one night, he was tricked, harassed, fled, kidnapped, tortured, killed, re-born, and found the lost symbol. If I was in his shoes…I would be catatonic by the time I was re-born. How can one person go through those experiences in one single night? The trauma is just too great.

Anyway, the story is about the obsession of one man to find the lost word of the Ancient mysteries that is guarded by the brotherhood of masons. It was written that it was buried somewhere in Washington DC. It was complicated by the involvement of CIA claiming some sort of national security. As expected, only Robert Langdon has the capability to decode the many secret code that protects the treasure. With the involvement of Masonic brothers, he unravelled the truths behind the secret codes which some were really hard for him to accept being a non-mason himself. There were new technologies added to the story like the Noetic science, the breathable liquid, the thermal imprint thingy…hehe.

What is the lost symbol??? Should I reveal it? Nah… I will only ruin the suspense to those who are reading it or about to read it.

Laus Deo – praise God

Cast your burdens upon me.. and I will give you rest.

This song has always inspired many. The many I mentioned includes me of course. But never in my life have I really felt its meaning than during my recent moments of crisis. A crisis so overwhelming, so tragic that like a heavy boat in the midst of torrent waves, I must unload some of the weight to stay afloat. I have to cast my burdens so I can focus on living. So, I did. One night, I prayed to God and asked Him if He could take these lumbers off my shoulder. I don’t want to think and worry about them from now on and He may do whatever he pleases with them.

Little do I know that He not only took the burden and carry them on His own shoulder but He is also working on them. One day, He sent me a note saying… “Your burden No. 1 has been taken cared of”. It’s that easy… the burden that I’ve been carrying for years have been taken cared of. I am a testament to His grace, wonders and blessings. Praise the Lord!