Maybe You've Answered This Already

But I'd still like to ask about your ideal date anyway. 8)

For the hopeless romantics, perhaps it should include burning candles and their smiling ideal partners. For the still hesitant types (ahem, ahem), ideal dates could also involve laughing family and friends.

Well, I can already see the delightful parade of your thought bubbles so I'm joining in. Mine would have something to do with being my loved ones and...

riding a hot air balloon (just look at that cute ladybug!)

seeing white fences amid wild flowers (because the wild ones are usually prettier)










spending the autumn season (who wouldn't fall for fall?)











milking lovable cows (so that cheese would taste much more delicious)












lying on the grass (barefoot would've been so much better)











dancing in the rain (there. barefoot happiness)












having picnic under cherry blossom trees (diet? what diet? 8D)













riding the bike (even when I don't know how)












swimming with dolphins (altogether now: under the sea! under the sea!)












sleeping altogether on the roof (top of the world)











There. These activities complete the puzzle that is my ideal date. Even though it currently remains ideal at least to me (financial constraints, these-should-also-happen-every-weekend mindset, etc.), I shall always look forward to the ideal situation where it'll no longer be.

Well, what about yours? 8)

From Rambo to Bunny

"What's in a name?" asked the Romeo-smitten Juliet.

Plenty, my dear. The following story says so:

When war started in his homeland, Milanko, who lives in the Balkans, joined the army. Because of his courageous exploits, he was nicknamed Rambo, after a violent movie hero. In time, though, Milanko became disillusioned with the military because of the corruption and hypocrisy he saw. “That,” he writes, “led to many vices—alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, gambling, and promiscuity. I was heading for the bottom and could not see a way out.”

At that critical time in his life, Milanko began to read the Bible. Later, while visiting a relative, he saw a copy of the Watchtower magazine, published by Jehovah’s Witnesses. He liked what he read and soon began to study the Bible with the Witnesses. Bible truth put him on the path to happiness and real success. “It gave me new strength,” he says. “I gave up all my vices, became a new person, and was baptized as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. People who knew me before no longer call me Rambo, but Bunny—my childhood nickname—because of my now gentle nature.”

http://www.watchtower.org/

 

Fall in Love

I could sit under this lovely, lovely tree all day. 

Wanna join? 8)

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/financialaidpodcast/2955603509/)


You see, my love affair with autumn began when I first read my all-time favorite novel A Walk to Remember. I fell even harder upon watching my most beloved Korean drama Autumn in My Heart [a.k.a. Endless Love 1].

Both are surprisingly tragic, though (not to mention the movie Autumn in New York which I have yet to watch) - which gets most people to think that falling leaves suggest sorrow. 

But I digress. For several reasons, autumn is a happy season :

1) It makes us wanna hug our loved ones, our pets -- even ourselves!

2) It convinces us that 'idleness during autumn' is actually 'productiveness.'

3) It teaches us about the beauty of our complicated life's simplicity.

Funny how I could easily make these assumptions in my vicarious-living-loving-mind. Haha. Of course, I'll never experience autumn in the Philippines. And at present, traveling abroad seems as unlikely as having the season here. 

Nonetheless, I wouldn't be surprised if I found a lot of smiling people already sitting down that tree before I could even make a move. And we'd be talking about how delightful autumn is.

All day. 8)   

Say Cheese, Fretful Mouse

Ever since my favorite high school teacher said that frowning involves more muscles than smiling does, I've been convinced that happiness requires little effort. Like smiling is the most natural thing in the world.

But it isn't.

After all, smiles do not always radiate happiness. Despite the universality of this fact, I have to learn it over and over again. This afternoon, I had to relearn it once more. My friends were showing their pearly whites but my mouth could barely even move. Drowned by all the grinning, I finally managed to smile. I don't think that was insincere, though. And even if it didn't feel right - lack of good mood, you see - it felt better than not smiling at all. Halfway through our conversation, I was already laughing with them.

Smiling may not always reflect happy thoughts, alright. There are times when we smile because we are already happy. There are instances when we do to become happy. No matter the purpose, we will always look forward to moving less muscles and moving forward with life. Won't we? 8)