Monthly Archives: October 2017

Daily Prompt: Prefer 

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“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” — Friedrich Nietszche

The other day I was talking with best friend number 3 who asked what’s up with me  reading about philosophy now when it’s dead. I told him I’ve been interested in philosophy since I was 19, I just don’t talk about it much except with my husband (best friend number 1.) And as for philosophy being dead, I think for as long as human beings can think and feel the way we do now, there will always be philosophy.

I have three best friends whom I enjoy spending time with — and two of them almost always disagree with what I say. I’ve known M. who is best friend number 2, for 20 years now, and he is still sarcastic when he talks with me and always tries to makes me see that my arguments are either weak or  “stoopi” (he still can’t pronounce stupid correctly. Lol ) Best friend number 3 is more or less the same — mocking me for my interests and telling me I’m wasting my time reading about these things.

Yet I prefer spending time and talking with any of my three best friends any time than with any other acquaintance. With some people I easily get upset when I am judged for my ideas. I can say I don’t care what they think, but their words can really hurt me. But with these three, they can be brutally honest with me, and they have, and I can still laugh and be grateful to them for being themselves with me and for accepting me for what I am.

We each have our preferences, our own ways of seeing things,but these have not stopped us from being friends.

Prefer

Daily Prompt: Surreal 

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It would take a Kafka

To make this charade of yours

Pass for reality.

Surreal are your words

That seem to come naturally

From those lying lips.

Surreal are your thoughts

That seem original

Yet hard to accept.

Surreal is the life you live

That only you

Can ever make sense of.

Daily Prompt:
Surreal

Daily Prompt: Cacophony 

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Xiamen City


The cacophony of sounds in the city 

Makes one yearn for the music 

Of the waves 

As they hit the rocks,

Or the crackle of dead leaves 

Under oner’s feet,

Or the whisper of the wind 

As the trees sway 

When it blows. 


Daily Prompt: 

Cacophony

Daily Prompt: Enlighten 

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Life can sometimes feel like

A big joke — a practical joke

Played on you

Which you don’t find

Funny at all.

And if you’re a believer,

You just feel like asking,

“Really, God? Are you f-ing kidding me?” 

But you go on

Living.

Smiling.

As if everything’s all right

With your world.

Yet deep down you’re yearning

To understand what the hell is going on.

Your heart is screaming —

“Enlighten me or just put an end to it.”



Daily Prompt:
Enlighten

Daily Prompt: Expect 

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Prince Albert National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada

She was told not to wait, 

Not to expect and just live 

As if the things that had happened 

Never happened. 

But was that even possible? 

How could one forget — 

Those eyes that smiled

Even when the lips didn’t? 

The embrace that seemed 

To promise to never let go? 

The words that should only be uttered 

By those who mean them?

She couldn’t. 

So she waits. 

And expects 

As she remembers

Everything that happened. 
Daily Prompt: Expect 

Daily Prompt: Release 

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I watched you walk away, 

I called your name out loud, 

But my voice just echoed in this room. 

You said I’d be safe in this place, 

And I believed you. 

But why do I feel, 

Like I’m not free

To even say goodbye to you?

Why is my heart crying out 

For release? 
Daily Prompt: Release 

Big clouds, tiny houses 

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Scale 


I took these photos yesterday flying from Mindanao to Manila. Everything below looks small when you’re thousands of feet above the land. But sometimes you see clouds that look gigantic right outside your plane window. 

Have a lovely week! 💕
T. 

Daily Prompt: Exceptional

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There’s nothing exceptional about you,

Nothing that anyone will ever notice. 

You can go in and out of any place,

And people wouldn’t even know you were there. 

You may even laugh, but your laughter 

Is always drowned by others’ louder laughter. 

Your tears are yours alone, 

The world never bothers to ask

What bring them to your sad eyes. 
So now that your back is bent,

And your feet hurt when you walk, 

You think no one will miss you 

When you simply disappear. 

No one will come runnning 

To stop you from jumping 

From that bridge 

You walk every day 

Of your lonely adult life. 

But you have to know — you’re not exceptional. 

Not even in this. 
Daily Prompt: Exceptional 

Weekly Photo Challenge : Pedestrian 

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The first time I came across the word “pedestrian” as an adjective was in an article by a literary critic describing a writer’s use of language as such. “Pedestrian” — ordinary, uninteresting, lacking imagination. 

Pedestrian, as an adjective,  is subjective. What is ordinary isn’t necessarily uninteresting to some. 

Just look at this lotus leaf …

An old decaying leaf. 

While people were eager to take photos of the flowers nearby, hardly anybody noticed this leaf except for some (perhaps equally pedestrian beings) like me who see something interesting in this old leaf, with droplets of rain on it. (My husband who saw this photo just now said it’s nice. “It’s dirty but nice.” Hmmm. OK.)

There’s nothing pedestrian about this leaf from my perspective. But then again pedestrian IS subjective. 
Weekly Photo Challenge: Pedestrian 

Daily Prompt: Superficial

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Why can’t we be

As pure as a flower

Growing naturally, artlessly?

Why do we have to pretend

To care when we don’t,

To feel when our hearts are empty,

To believe when we’re full of doubts,

To love when there’s only contempt?

They say if you live in society,

You need to socialize,

Be friendly, smile.

But what if society’s superficiality

Is killing you?

And you’re dying a slow, painful death

With your fake smile, and your fake laugh

And your equally fake concern

For your fake friends.

 
Perhaps this is part of living.

Perhaps life itself is superficial.

Daily Prompt: Elastic 

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To be elastic is to be flexible, tolerant, resilient, to easily recover from depression or exhaustion.   

To be elastic should be everyone’s goal. 

I easily get angry, but I also easily get over the anger which sometimes annoys me because I think people shouldn’t just be allowed to readily forget the hurt they caused you. But that’s me. 

I also get depressed so easily, but let me walk around a quiet park and give me solitude and let me have a good cry, then I’ll be fine. 

Fuzhou Normal University

Jimei University

I like to think I’m “elastic,” but my husband doesn’t think so. He always tells me I’m stubborn, and maybe he’s right. But there’s one thing I’m 100% certain of — that both us have some “elasticity” within us or we wouldn’t still be happily married after 11 years! 

Have a lovely weekend! 💕
T. 

Daily Prompt: Elastic 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Pedestrian (-less)

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This week’s photo challenge is to interpret “pedestrian.” I’m choosing to interpret the noun form of this word in that the bridge, the road, the sidewalk, and the campus are devoid of pedestrians.

These photos were taken yesterday on the campus of Fuzhou Normal University in Fuzhou, China. This city is an hour-and-a-half by fast train away from Xiamen and is the capital of Fujian Province.

Even though it was cloudy, hubby and I had a nice walk with my cousin (who teaches at a neighboring uni.)

Have a wonderful Thursday!

 

T.

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Pedestrian 

Daily Prompt: Popular 

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I think most of us, in our childhood, have dreamed of becoming popular. We wanted to be liked, to have the most number of friends, but as we grow older, most of us realize, we do not need that many people in our lives. We just need our real friends, and they are usually fewer than what we originally thought.

These days people, young and old alike, gauge their popularity by the number of “likes,” “comments,” or “shares” they get for their post in whatever social media platform they are using. I was genuinely perplexed one time when a student asked another student in my class, “How would you feel if you find out your best friend ‘liked’ the post of one of your friends, but didn’t ‘like’ yours?” I really didn’t think it should matter. But then again I’m “old.”

If you’re popular, you will never have peace. People will always want to get your attention or get something from you. (I heard about Ed Sheeran refusing to use a celllphone, so he can get away from people who are always asking something from him.)

If you’re popular, you’re an easy target for criticism from people who do not like your popularity. And there are always that kind of people. And if you’re the type who value popularity, most likely you wouldn’t like criticism.

The desire for popularity, like any other form of desire, causes suffering. If you want to be popular, better be ready to suffer.
Daily Prompt: Popular