360 Degrees and Rising

Just finished reading Anderson Cooper's coup de grace Dispatches from The Edge. It spoke about desolation in the midst of much devastation and sorrow and how sadness can be a storm inside and outside...

It's a good read and I highly recommend it. It is far from P.J. o'Rourkes "Holidays In Hell" (Of which the Philippines was also featured) twisted sense of humour and irony but Anderson's book gave a 360degree overview of his world. (Sign that the Philippines is in serious schnitt : Christiane Amanpour or Anderson Cooper setting up camp in Manila. Once this happens, I am outta here.)

Also reading " Under the Tuscan Sun" which is a both ebullient and luminous. I'd like to spend a holiday there. Or two. Or forever. Away from the madding crowd, vino in picturesque villas, bitter olives falling from trees and all that.

The Woman In White is pending in my MRT to-read list. That's the nice thing about long commutes, given that you are not seated next to a drunken buffoon or random babbling old lady. The world is erased into a forgotten blur as you fully immerse yourself in the latest book to catch your fancy. As good as reading a shallow but amusing tome by the beach without that unreachable itch in your throat sense of urgency.

I am bit beat from the pressures that my current life has piled on my slightly empty head. Work has encompassed all aspects now. I just have to remember that work and being the best version (or at least closest approximation) of yourself is one of way of giving back.

Lessons learned from the past fortnight:
1. Drop people when they have ceased to be real. If they cannot figure it out after you have told them, they are not worth your time.
2. Read books not because they are popular but because they have that indefinable spark.
3. Patience is more than a virtue. It is an exercise on tenacity.
4. Bus preachers will exist forever. Stop praying that they will cease to exist.

and 5. Take pleasure in the small things.

Luci, wipe that smirk of your face. I can hear your mind working.

To listen :

1. Once Soundtrack
2. Hum by The Sheila Divine
3. The Holiday Soundtrack
4. Can't Love, Can't Hurt by Augustana.