My favorite poem...

-Love Song-

I cannot love you

Only with my head

Or only with my heart

Or only with my belly button

Or with fingers and toes

I may fall in love

With one or more parts

Like swimming among lilacs

Or squirming in dung

Again and again

And again

But if I love you

We have to rise

And chase butterflies

Or follow a bird

To the end of a rainbow

Though we won't find answers

To never-ending questions

If you wish to love me

Do, not only with your eyes

That blaze like sunrise

And turn from coal to ashes

Not only with your palms

That knead the sweat from my hips

But do not touch my soul

Not only with your belly button

That mirrors nothing

Not even the masks you don

For your superiors and enemies

Not with bended knees

To worship me

That crackle at the whim of youth

At the whip of age

If you love me

Know me, too

And do, with all of you

And yourselves you

Have yet to meet

And yourselves you still

Have to embrace

For I am not only cistern

But also lake, river, rain

The sea of life

I am not a vase

Or just a piece of land

But earth that floods

And quivers at the spine

To reject or accept

Anything foreign

To my soil

I am not a canvas

Not mere paper

But the story and the substance

Without which you cannot

Paint or write or sing

If you learn to love me

With or without the monotone

Of always and forever

Then I won't need

Others in fragments

Others who tear me

To pieces to match me

Part by body part

Then shall we know

Loving is not falling

Or being caged or strangled

Or winning a race

But opening, sharing

Little by little

As flower unfolds

Naturally, curls into fruit

Or fades into another bud

Yes

Rising, flying

Soaring, changing

Being reborn

Being whole

Becoming

Being...

-by Marra P.L. Lanot-

Zipline Experience at Sabros Camp, Digos, Davao del Sur, Philippines

August 30, 2008, a Saturday… the day I conquered one of my fears-- my fear of heights. Initially, it was a mixed feeling. I was so nervous... so afraid... Yet deep inside me there was this desire to try it. Yeah, try it. And I thought, it's now or never. Then there was this other side of me, which was saying, "Nah, it's too scary"... So I was enveloped in seconds of life-changing decision. Do I really have to do it? In the end, I finally gave in to my desire to conquer, if not all of my fears, at least some of them. And that moment was an opportunity that I need to take. So I finally did it, and it was so great! The experience, the adventure, the fun, the adrenalin rush--it was indescribable! My nervousness? It was nowhere to be found just seconds after we took off! It was replaced by sheer thrill and joy of sweet victory. So, I am now a conqueror...