Ibyang
Ibyang

Deep Thoughts

Book: Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Instead of writing how good a read this is, let me tell you my journey towards finding this book and how the story of Elizabeth Gilbert made an impact in my life.
Eat, pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
 

How I found this book. I found this at a time when I felt a little tired of reading fiction books. It was also at that time when I thought, “Since I can’t travel to all the places I want to go to, I will just read about it in books!” I had a phase when I kept buying Lonely Planet guidebooks in order “to travel” but I got tired of it the way I got tired of reading fiction. So I browsed thru some more at Borders and found autobiographies in their Travel section. I was in book haven when I saw tons of travel autobiographies–the answer to what I was looking for. The book “Eat Pray Love” caught my eye because it was about pleasures, spirituality and love. At the time I was craving to read about people’s travels, I also craved for some womanly wisdom on life as I was at a period of transitions (I just got married) and so I bought it because the book is not only about travel in the literal sense of the word but most importantly it was about a woman’s travel to finding her life and being happy again.

How it changed me. Before I read this book: I’m aware of things that give me pleasure, I know how to have fun; I have a strong faith–still growing in terms of my faith but nevertheless, my spirituality is intact; I’m able to manage problems, frustrations and difficulties; I have a stable support of friends and family; I’m content with my career; I’m inlove and have just gotten married to the love of my life; and most of all, given that I enjoy a busy life and I’m always surrounded by people I love, I welcome moments of solitude when I can just sit still and reflect. However, I felt there was a missing link to my everyday living. I’m inspired and blessed but I needed to make all the elements in my life work to the best of me. When I read this book, I found the answer: BALANCE.

Let me share the perfect quote from the book about Balance:

 “To find the balance you want, this is what you must become. You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it’s like you have 4 legs instead of 2. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead. That way, you will know God.”

That’s why every time I’m faced with challenges or I’m having difficulty on the many tasks I juggle, I stop, breathe, clear my head and find the answer/s thru my heart instead. Nowadays, that’s how I figure out what’s REALLY IMPORTANT in that very moment I’m in. With balance, I’m able to find my centre easily when I’m getting out of focus, and able to maintain my equilibrium in my day-to-day living.

I’m very very very excited to see the movie. As in! I can’t wait for it to be shown and see the book come to life. It will be shown on 14 October 2010 here in Australia. For your respective country’s release dates, please check it out here.

If you have read “Eat Pray Love” and want to know what happened in the lives of Elizabeth Gilbert and Felipe (the man she met in Bali), read about their journey to embracing marriage (again) in “Committed“.

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He Can’t Live Without Me

One thing about me and my Husband is that we are not much into words. Yes, we have the occassional letters, notes and we always express simple affection towards each other. However, we never liked talking about promises or saying grand statements like “You complete me!” hahaha. When it comes to our relationship as a couple, we believe that love is not love unless manifested in actions. We are a “less talk, more action” kind of couple. We both don’t make promises to each other and we both don’t mind NOT hearing them.


While writing this, I remember the moment we got engaged. His unique way of saying that he wanted to marry me was to show me a family (parents pushing their baby on a stroller) walking past us in a mall and said “I want something like that”. And he was able to convince me to marry him because he never told me promises, instead, he showed me a clear example of what he wanted our life to be in a few years.

No matter how much I share some cheesy stuff we do or say to each other online, that is just that. Mind you, the surprises and our times together are never intended for romance (we are not romantics) but we do those cheesy stuff only for fun and we just like amusing each other. We just like making each other laugh.

And so if you’ll ask me before if my Husband can’t live without me, I’d reply to you, “I don’t know.” Because I really don’t know…because he never said so…and I had never asked. Thinking about it now, that might be kinda weird ‘no? We’ve been together for seven years now (bf-gf for 4 years and married for 3 years) and I never knew the answer to that question.

Until two weeks ago. We were talking about going home to Manila and we had a couple of “what if?” questions one of which was this:

Me: What if you need to vacation in the Philippines without me? Will you still go?
Him: It depends how long my vacation is
Me: What do you mean?
Him: Kung sandali lang pwede
Me: Eh ano naman kung matagal
Him: It wouldn’t be the same without you vacationing with me
Me: How can it not be the same, eh it’s the Philippines? That’s home! If you vaycay without me, you can go wherever you want and see whomever you like…sky’s the limit coz I won’t be sagabal to your gimiks.
Him: I can’t vacation alone for long without you
Me: Aha! Are you saying you can’t live without me now???? (trying not to laugh)
Him: (looking like an embarrassed school boy) *pauses a bit* Yes
**Laughter**

So that’s how I learned that he can’t live without me. 🙂

To my dearest husband, happy 38th wedding monthsary. Thanks for taking me out today and thank you for days that turn out extraordinary just because I learn about things I never knew before. Our marriage is indeed one big adventure 🙂

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Celebrating Marriage Everyday

Our wedding was three years ago…but my Husband and I celebrate our MARRIAGE everyday.

Yesterday I received a very nice tweet from one of our closest friends in Manila and it said “Just saw your photo on your blog. You look lovely. Chris must be pleased everyday of his life : – )“

To which I replied, “We’re blessed to be together 🙂 Everyday is a gift. 🙂“

It’s nice receving compliments period. However, receiving compliments from friends mean a lot to us because they see the two of us grow together as a couple.

Our married life is far from ideal. We face challenges once in a while and there are frustrations that needed to be managed. But amidst some not-so-good times, we honour our marriage more and we respect each other more than to let the challenging times get the best of us. Yes, tempers (especially mine) sometimes get way out of hand but thank God, we have not made bad tempers a habit inside the home–and we have no plans of doing so. We are both lovers of peace (we are not a fan of fighting) that we’d rather kiss and make-up than let pride get in the way of having fun.

One thing I love about our Marriage is that we never take the small things for granted. We actually believe the opposite–that it’s always the small things that matter. Small things such as the way we greet each other when we arrive at home, how we never seem to get tired of saying “love you, love you!” (yes, we say it twice), how after all these years of being so familiar with each other we say “please” when asking favors from each ther, how we still like holding hands, how we respect each other’s personal space, how until now we still get surprised when we discover some things about each other and how we always say “thank you” for being there for each other.

Everyday is a gift and everyday we celebrate our marriage and togetherness by finding joy in the smallest of small things.

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Believe in Balance

1 March 2010 5 Comments Category: Deep Thoughts

Balance the present against the future and don’t put off all of your dreams and pleasures to another day. There has to be a powerful element of living life in the present in any balanced personal definition of success.
– Mirielle Guiliano

 
Sharing with you one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite authors.  This is my way of sending you happy vibes as we start the third month of 2010 (Was it just me or did January and February really passed by quickly?). 

May each of us have a productive and positive month of March and may we always remember to cherish every moment of everyday as we hope for our dreams to unfold in the future.

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Cafe in the Middle of Somewhere

28 February 2010 8 Comments Category: Deep Thoughts

One of my usual coffee tambayan is Fresco Espresso cafe situated in the middle of QVB’s basement. As much as I appreciate cozy and quiet cafes, I also sometimes enjoy cafes that gives me a chance to people-watch. 

I like seeing people walking past me as I sip my cup of coffee, most of them walking so fast in order to catch their train home. I like watching people and their outfits for the day, hear their laughter as they chitchat with friends, mothers and their bubs in strollers, backpackers with their big bags on their back, tourists trying to catch up with people walking so fast while taking photos–those are some of the things I see.

In the midst of hustle and bustle around me while I have my “me” time with a cup of coffee, I feel a sense of peace and quiet as I appreciate other people’s lives unfold before me.


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