Two Poohs

Piglet: "How do you spell love?"
Winnie the Pooh: "You don't spell it, you feel it."

Somewhere in Pangasinan, as the Baguio-bound bus slowed down along MacArthur Highway due to one of several road cuts, this sight I captured from my window.

The Pooh toy must be so loved to be washed and dried in the sun this way.

I remembered a smaller version of Pooh that still has pride of place in our house. It was never given away or passed on to another child. The thought of throwing it away never crossed anyone's mind. It looks bedraggled from years of being loved too much.

Kai, the new Wee One in the family, has also learned how dear it is, as dear as the newer stuffed toys in her entourage. Two Poohs that have known love--that is what they are.

Photos by Babeth Lolarga

When doing nothing means something

Just before we all boarded a rowboat at Burnham Lake yesterday, I captured the look of my three girls under the noontime sun. We were about to spend an afternoon of doing nothing that concluded with something of meaning. Huh?

Remember what doing nothing was all about? This was how author A.A. Milne defined it in the book Winnie the Pooh:

“What I like doing best is Nothing."

"How do you do Nothing," asked Pooh after he had wondered for a long time.

"Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, 'What are you going to do, Christopher Robin?' and you say, 'Oh, Nothing,' and then you go and do it. It means just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering."

"Oh!" said Pooh.”

The wee one earlier begged, "Sige na, boating na tayo!" So we all did.                          Photo by Babeth Lolarga

Life and love at Cafe Serendipitous

Isn't there a famous coffee shop in NYC called Serendipity? Immortalized, too,  in a John Cusack movie--Cusack I always remember for his performances; can't quite recall his leading ladies though. Maybe somewhere in my subconscious I pretend I'm she. Har har de har there. 

The cafe was also where Andy Warhol ate his meals and he paid for them with doodles, maybe on the paper napkins. I tried that at one 10A Alabama art fair in Cubao a few years ago when I was the weight I still am but famished--swapping a gouache painting for a cold chocolate drink (it was summer) and cookies. Jethro Rafael of Van Gogh Is Bipolar fame, who then had the run of the chow corner in the Alabama house, told me I was shortchanged, but I didn't mind. That a small work could feed me for an afternoon and that I didn't have to wait long for my hunger pangs to be quieted down--I found that, well, instant gratification.

I live in Cafe Serendipitous when I'm in Baguio. In between writing deadlines, I scroll through the images in my Google+ account. I found this yesterday:

I saved it immediately because it reminded me of the time when my girls did a lot of pretend play as children while I did my share of housework in my full-time hausfrau years. I now have a grandchild, Butones, who inherited my children's old Winnie the Pooh.A bit worn out but its beat-up look makes it more alive like The Velveteen Rabbit.

From Art.com, I found out that that this painting was a collaboration of married couple Michael and Inessa Garmash, "born in Ukraine and Russia, respectively," and who "both exhibited artistic talents from a young age. As a boy, Michael entered and won many youth art competitions, and ultimately studied fine art in college. Inessa studied art, dance, and gymnastics during her youth, and in her late teens she attended the same fine art school as Michael. The two had success as painters prior to working together, each with an interest in Romantic Impressionism.

"The Garmashes artistic collaboration began by accident. Michael Garmash was very fond of painting their two-year-old daughter, and composed a portrait of her for a competition. During his absence, the young girl found Michael’s painting and decided to make her own additions. Inessa saw her daughter’s work and did not want her husband to be upset, so she fixed the painting using her own training. She packed up the work and submitted it for the competition, where it was heavily praised as Michael’s best work. Mr. Garmash was both surprised and pleased to see the 'new' painting, and the couple has painted together ever since."

Well, yesterday evening, as we waited for Grumpa/Tats to return home from work, I turned on the TV to the Fox Family Channel and happened upon a Disney movie. And what do you know? It was The Pooh and his friends looking for the monster they called "Besoon" who they thought had kidnapped their friend Christopher Robin.  

Much later near the end, it turned out that Christopher Robin had left his forest friends a note that said he was off to school and he'd be back soon. Har de har har again there, but the humor was lost on Butones who just liked to hum The Pooh bear's song when he made an appearance. When the credits rolled up, she turned to me and said matter-of-factly, "Wala na!"

So here's to my Valentine, the old soul in a young body, Butones. I took these shots while she was busy and not too far from the computer station where I work in the morning. I asked her to also keep busy with crayons and paper, and she did, even climbing onto the bed and continuing her work. 

When her Mamay, my daughter Kimi, saw the shots, she laughed so much because Butones seemed to copy my own position on the bed when I'm handwriting something, complete with feet rubbing against each other.

Photos by Booboo

Morning glorious

“Awake, my glory! Awake, O my harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn!”—Psalm 57:8

The Pooh shows my morning glorious attitude in Baguio. 

It comes with the surety that if one takes a terrible fall, one will be helped in rising or one will be awarded a set of wings so one can fly. Not an original thought, that one. Yes, it's all about faith, P. So this is for you, too, and my 21 other followers.

A day without you

Kai/Butones amidst hydrangeas turning pink in a flower farm outside Baguio City's limits. Photo by Booboo Babeth

As Soon as I Saw You

& as you grow,
miss a for adorable,
don't forget rule nos. 8, 9 & 10
but especially 10,
in the tenets
of positively pooh

8. keep an eye on your friends' welfare
9. don't question others' fashion faux pas
10. you need never stop learning

consider me, a family elder,
your friend as you move rapidly
from helpless babyhood
to determined crawler
to toddler etcetera etcetera

mamay kimi will also shift
from a hovering protective mom
to a friend who seeks, looks out
for, the best in you

the way your booboo
your utterly imperfect babushka
continues to be to her

meantime,
continue to also ignore
the soft stuffed immoveable
toy fauna freshly escaped
from noah's ark & with whom
you have to share space even
if you're not into cuddly cuties

continue also to seek out
the tambourine
& the piano-xylophone
that break the silence of our mornings
& with which you make a joyful noise

i bring your natural music
your gurgling brook giggles
the sounds your formerly toothless
mouth make everywhere i go
wherever whenever i have
to sidestep landslides & land mines
as i venture out each day

those sounds are to me sweeter
than my choking cracking soprano

innocence must never be
a commodity people can trade
for gold for silver for gewgaws
to ease their bottomless pit
their tummy tum tums
yet there are meanies out there
who do traffic
& sully young lives

you will find that booboo's
crimes in fashion sense are minor
& they make for enchanting entertainment
as years & tears go by

& that the true secret to
staying youthful while
father chronos metes out the punishment
of cruel time on all of us
is rule number 10

so consider learning limitless
taller than the
tallest tree is
that's how it's gotta be

outside your nursery window
buzz lightyear will assure you
is infinity & beyond

so hush hush butones
cala wala wash wash
booboo about to shush
the bellowing elephant
beside you

& you can continue once more
to tinkle the chimes
& bang the tambourines
of joy

--Babeth Lolarga

photo of Kai Mykonos (a.k.a. Butones) by Kimi Fernandez