Fred at 70

"Perfection and purity are not the goals of a soul-centered life. The soul craves ordinary pleasures, depth of feeling and relatedness, worldly delight that is not inimical to a spiritual practice, human scale in the making of culture, and exposure to the magic that lies just beneath the surface of familiar things." - Thomas Moore, The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life

Fred Liongoren just joined the "At 70 Club" which is better than lotto winnings because that means added years of grace. Fred has become a sep·tu·a·ge·nar·i·an (that's how the syllables are broken up). It's not that I'm rubbing it in, Fred, but last night's welcome to the 70 club was a hoot. And the way he looked last night, he could pass for an Old Testament patriarch.

Pastor Stephen Sunil's message on that happy occasion was based on Good Man Luke's Book (chapter 2, verse 52). Applied to ourselves, it was a lesson on how each of us could grow fully human and perhaps Christ-like not just physically (those days are past as we move increasingly closer to the sundown of our lives) but socially, intellectually and spiritually, too. Lest I sound like a theological school student who failed to make the grade, I will close today's entry for the day right here.

Happy 70 again, Fred Old Boy, and continue to keep calm by keeping the faith.

An American poet (forgive the lapse in memory regarding his name) once wrote this beautiful line: "Blow out the candles of your cake, they will not leave you in the dark."

Fred surrounded by his immediate and extended families. Among those in picture are his daughter Hanna, Julie Lluch, wife Norma, Alma Cruz Miclat, Imelda Cajipe Endaya, Mila Aguilar, painter Pablo Baens Santos.

Simoun Balboa opens a bottle of fizz to celebrate the good times past, present and future.
Photos, including blurred ones, by Babeth Lolarga

To begin another week

"In a garden the soul finds its needed escape from life and its entry into a space where eternity is more evident than time and where the ritual arrangement of life is more important than the business of surviving and making progress. Time stands still or at least moves more slowly in the garden..."--Thomas Moore, The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life

Photo by Babeth Lolarga

The daily business of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and so on sometimes blinds the eyes and the soul to the very things that replenish and restore them. 

Last night after I turned off the computer, the last image that imprinted itself in my mind was a picture I took two years ago. It was a view from a car park in downtown Baguio of a bougainvillea bush that had run wild and climbed upwards, using a leafless tree, its trunk and its branches as a trellis and garbing them with lively clumps of dark pink flowers. 

That day, stark in my memory, was my grandchild's first birthday. It fell on a Holy Wednesday. Only now have I thought of that glorious vine as heralds of Easter, of a summer spent keeping in step with a child just learning to toddle. Many times I paused to shoot photos of blooms by the wayside that became subjects for this blog.

The momentary stillness granted me this Monday I need to fully grasp before resuming the routine that assures where the next piece of bread, the next slice of butter, the next bowl of rice and serving of fish will come from. 

God grant us in this new week more servings of both ordinary and more-than-ordinary pleasures.