Three People

I got into a conversation with a friend a few weeks ago and the main topic is about living people you want to meet. It's not the kind of wanting to meet someone because they're famous or something but people who made an impact in our lives. There are many people who made an impact in my life and somewhere at the plateau top of my list are these three:

Joshua Harris

I want to meet him and personally give my thanks on how God used his books to spur me into actively knowing more about God. I read I Kissed Dating Goodbye when I was 14 and it made me start thinking a lot. I thought I was smart enough and knew so many things but then I didn't. I guess if I have not read IKDG at that time, I would have been in a romantic relationship/s and jeopardized my walk with Jesus.

Seven years later he came up with another book entitled Dug Down Deep. It gave a similar impact on me but this time it's deeper and more significant. I don't know who this man is and it surprises me that I clearly understood what he wrote and could relate to it very much. Maybe because I've been a Sunday School achiever back then and lived a similar life except that I think his exploits were quite unacceptable in a goody-two shoes standards. See here, I'm your Miss Goody Two-Shoes in action.

Francis Chan

This bald Chinese-American pastor is one of my heroes. My flesh hate him for saying things that make me feel bad but my spirit would just love him say things that nail me down and cause me to grieve over my sins. He's like an uncle who chastises his niece for not sharing her candies to other cousins--that's why I often call him Uncle Francis. God literally used him to make me obey His command (Jeremiah 1:4-10) and learn more of Christ's sovereignty in everything. I am a disobedient child you know and often have an opinion on how I want things to go.

Francis Chan isn't perfect as much as I am disobedient, stubborn, indomitable, and prideful but it's humbling how God can use people like him to influence and inspire people while molding his character into Christ-likeness.

Adam Young
How do I say this? His music draws me closer and drowns me into the richness and beauty of music's Creator. His music doesn't end in music itself but it draws me to appreciate the creation and praise its Creator. A lot of people think his music and lyrics are weird but I find them totally creative and brilliant, like someone writing a novel expensively embellished with imagery--only through the unseen art of music.

When I first heard Meteor Shower, especially the instrumental part in the beginning, I was like, "Lord, this is so beautiful. How could this have entered Adam's mind? You must have put such brilliance there. Thanks so much!"

Another thing about Adam too is that he's like a friend. He expresses himself in such a way as if I've already met him and he's already met me. Simply amazing.

The Sunbeams They Scatter

For a woman
whose beauty and grace 
scatter like sunbeams...

Mrs. Sono Harris.
October 17, 1954 - July 4, 2010 

It's Korean and Persistence Bug

I am persistent but not that persistent in ALL things. But there are times if I'm bitten by a persistence bug that I do not stop until I achieve something--especially that of solving memory puzzles. I will not be able to sleep until I have remembered the name of someone I recently met. I rack my brain until I remember. I make my head hurt to figure the title of a tune stuck in my head. And it's not just a tune to a song but a tune of an instrumental music--which makes my brain really squashed off its fluids.

Such are the activities of a teeny weeny brain of a slave driver. Haha.

But my teeny weeny brain garnered some success the past few days in solving memory puzzles of tunes and names. One of it is the title of Track II Sound in Yiruma's website. I can finally listen to it without scolding my brain for not knowing the title. Track II is Love (with lyrics) from his P.N.O.N.I (Piano and I) album. I wonder why have I not thought of Love as its title when it's so obvious with his music?

********************************************

It's Korean. I will learn to speak, read and write in Korean. I've been hopping from one language to another for the past years. At first I made up my mind that I will learn French until I can write and speak it fluently. But it proved harder than I've imagined. The availability of French learning tools are hard to come by like good French films, French native speakers etc. As for Korean, I have a wide array of good Korean dramas to watch where I can learn conversational Korean and most of all, I have a bigger chance of meeting Koreans around here. I'm not giving up on French. It's just that Korean/Hangul is more practical to learn right now.

I'm finding Hangul chincha yeppuda now. It's melody in my ears when I hear Koreans talk.

한국은 대단한 나라입니다. I will learn 한글! 앚아! 밷잉! ^_^

Departures

Today, the laptop I was using departed. Gateway has been a faithful servant and has lived a long fruitful life. A man in the computer repair shop asked what country I’m from. I gave him a puzzled look and he asked further, “Philippines or USA?” Of course, I am from the Philippines and have never been near the US. He said I talk like American.  Really.

Also, the front desk computer has mood issues. The Internet browser just crashes whenever it wants to. I was reading a news article and before I could finish a paragraph, it crashes. I finished reading the article after six crashes. I must really be a slow reader.

Mrs. Harris just went to be with Jesus. 30 minutes ago, that is. 12:30 here and probably 12MN in their place. I had to let people in my Facebook friend list know about Mrs. Harris meeting with Jesus today and ironically a status post above Sarah Harris’ (Sono Sato Harris October 17, 1954 – July 4, 2010) says: The fireworks are starting.

Well, it’s not really ironic. I think it’s beautiful that on the day/night she left earth to be with Jesus, there were colorful fireworks and some thunderstorms (according to another status of a friend). I’d say that’s quite a rare and exquisite exit.

More than Joshua Harris and the twins, I’d say for the past six months, I was more excited to meet Mrs. Harris than any of them. She’s been on the phone with Kuya Derek and he told us everything that they’ve talked about and it felt like she’s a very wonderful woman to be with. Someday though, I’ll surely meet her.

Sarang

Sarang is the Korean word for love.

Two days ago, I finally finished the last season of love in the Korean series Endless Love: Spring Waltz. I can no longer pick a favorite season after Autumn, Winter, Summer and Spring. Like real love, each series is beautiful in its own. The word beautiful is even an understatement. They're all different yet chincha yeppuda (really beautiful).

Autumn ended with a mark of tragedy. Winter ended with glint of hope. Summer ended with a beautiful assurance. Spring... well, spring ended with a mark of eternity. Love. Forgiveness. Hope.

As if the ending of Spring Waltz wasn't enough to make me feel in love, I found a video that has clips not found in the series. It's a video showing what happened after Spring Waltz ended; how the characters lived their life. In short, it's the epilogue of the epilogue.

Someday, I will waltz in spring.

Very Much In Love

www.yiruma.com

Yiruma must have been very much in love when he wrote his compositions. And he must love his wife so much. For years, Yiruma was so elusive online. I've been looking for his website but to no avail... that is until today. I clicked a link to his site and was almost disappointed that no Error Page greeted me! This is what greeted me and what would greet you when you visit his site: ......................

Apparently, the site is still under construction due to unorganized pages but still it's one of the most beautiful pages I've come across.

I dislike it when a smile tries to escape out of the corner of my mouth when there are people around me. But sometimes it can't be helped not to smile when you remember something tender and lovely as Spring Waltz. Or hear something beautiful like winds that chime. Or wordless music that makes you clutch your heart.

I've had so many things to blog for the past months but I never blogged them. There isn't really much time to babble online since there are already a lot to babble, I mean to talk, in real life. But that does not mean I don't like and would not blog anymore. Just saying.

This clip from the Joseph movie, in so many ways is a summary of the past months of my life. I hope you find it lovely and wonderful as I did.

Hot Air Balloon

A hot air balloon landed in the Metrobank parking area to fetch me. As soon as I climbed into it, the rainbow ball flew up into the air. Past the city skyline and the setting sun it carried me over oceans and continents. The night sky drew down its curtains of stars as we approached the Northern Americas. I was alone in the rainbow ball but was very happy. It felt so light in the air. I soon grew tired in ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the stars and the lights below me so I decided it's time to turn in.

As I breathed heavily in my sleep, the rainbow ball gently drifted over the warm Pacific. It visited some leviathan friends namely the blue whale. Of course I didn't see any of it. But I just know that for a while the rainbow balloon rested on the blue whale's back until that leviathan squirted water and shot us back to the sky.

Dawnbreak found me dozing in the hot air balloon at the front yard  of our house. I scrambled off the huge basket and shoved the rainbow ball to move and fly away. I gleefully waved as it drifted back to the sky meeting the vanishing stars and the milky morning sky.

I mentioned in my previous post that I've been conjuring wild thoughts of rest. Well, this post is about one.

Rest

Today's the first rest day I ever had from months that seemed years. I don't exactly know when was the last time I woke up past ten in the morning but today is the day after a very long time. And this is just so real. Not some wild thoughts of rest that I've conjured.

I've kinda forgotten for the past months how light it felt to wake up without a schedule. Everything just seemed so strange. I ate, cleaned some, slept, cleaned some, ate again and slept. I felt like I was in a different world. Maybe.

Firebird

Firebird is not a favorite character of mine but I like her anyway. It's probably because we are similar in some ways and I could relate to her character and her struggles. I found and have proven that we're both willful, proud and impatient. It's not a good example of character but primarily that's where we both struggle. Well, she at least in the fiction world and I, in the non-fiction world.

Willfulness, pride and impatience. This is going to be a lifelong war until it's time to come Home.

Why Owl City

Because Owl City songs makes me happy, light and bouncy.

It has been quite a while since I've been fascinated by Owl City music. I was never a fan of Electronica/Techno Pop due to my classical background in music but Owl City changed that. It wasn't just music that drew me to Owl City music but the clever rhyming and message of his songs. Oh yeah, Owl City is just a one-man act, if you don't know yet, by Adam Young.

Add to the fact the unique story of Adam Young's rise in the music industry despite knowing nothing of it. I recently came across a half-year old post in Plugged In Online about the song Fireflies which made me smile deeply.

"I can remember sleeping out on a dock on the edge of this lake and looking up at the sky. There was a meteor shower that night. I remember thinking, What a cool idea of shooting stars being fireflies, and trying to translate that into music. That’s what spurred it on."

In a world where chart-topping tracks often trade in edgy or deliberately controversial imagery, "Fireflies" is an amazingly unique expression of one young artist’s wide-eyed wonder at the world. John Keats would be proud. (read full article in Plugged In Online)

It's just uplifting to know that God chooses the unlikely people to make a difference even in the most unlikely places.

Down from the door where I began

Down from the door where I began I lost track of the time when I missed writing in this blog. I lost my quill somewhere along the way because of so much excitement in the hills yonder.

So many interesting things have happened in January and are happening in February as well. I will update as soon as I can. Though I am not sure what my SOON means. :)