Sometimes I still miss you

Nelson Fox: I just have to meet someone new, that's all. That's the easy part.
Joe Fox: Oh right, yeah, a snap to find the one single person in the world who fills your heart with joy.

Happy commuter, part deux

So, I found the morning City Link bus!

When I got home last night, I asked my niece's nanny about the City Link bus to Eastwood, and she sort of gave me instructions. Wrong ones. She told me to wait at the Market! Market! bus station where the Bonifacio Global City buses stop.

But while waiting for the bus last night, I did happen to ask one of the people there, and he told me to "go down the bridge to the housing area." In Tagalog, his exact instructions were, "Bumaba ka sa tulay galing Market! Market! papuntang housing."

I had no idea what he meant by "going down." I didn't even know about any bridge, much less any place "down." Lost in translation, word-wise and geography-wise, I suppose.

You know how places don't exist in your mind until you actually navigate through them? It was like that.

I decided to walk to the BGC bus stop, cross the road to the closest thing to a bridge I could see, and voila! I saw the stairs down to the C-5 highway. I had to wait 15 minutes, but there it was, the City Link bus to Eastwood. Twenty minutes later, I was at the office.

I like that the place I live during weekdays is now bigger to me. I have got to stop living in my bubble.

Happy commuter

I finally found the bus from Eastwood to Market! Market! And it was on my first anniversary on the job, too! I was so happy, I just had to celebrate--with dinner and three new secondhand books!

Funny how I completely missed it just because I wasn't really looking. I'm sure I've missed a lot of things for the same reason.

Tomorrow morning, I am looking for the same bus, but from Market! Market! to Eastwood this time. I hope I find it without any trouble.

One year today

It's my first anniversary in the Eastwood City office. What a year!

I still remember how much I hesitated to accept the transfer, and how the pay had initially become my designated excuse. And how, in a split second, I just leapt and said yes, never mind if I hadn't done the math, because I knew if gave it a second thought, I would let the opportunity to step out my door pass me by.

It was all about that, really. Stepping out my door.

***

I was half out of my mind with everything I had to do and the people I had to deal with, both outside and inside work, but I always reminded myself that resistance was futile, and that I just had to keep saying yes to life and life would take care of me.

Some moments, resistance got the best of me. But I had always been a fearful girl, always in the process of learning to be brave.

I'm still learning, but this time, it's no longer just in theory. I keep telling myself to learn in practice.

***

One of the most valuable lessons I learned at 32, I learned from a woman who gave a talk on relationships with the self, with others.

One of the participants said, "I thought I knew myself, because I would always reflect on my actions. I knew why I did things. I understood my motivations. But now, I'm realizing I know myself in the mind, but not in the heart."

The woman replied, "All the reasons to your whys are mental. But the real answers are experiential. You want to know yourself more? Relate."

***

Relating--the most difficult and easiest thing for me to do, in real life. It's a constant, but now conscious stretch.

The rewards have been frightening and lovely.

***

So this is why people step outside their doors.

Oh, the places you'll go

First trip after turning 33 was to Corregidor. The pictures are still in France, like the photographers.

And this is where I am this week: a city with lots of lovely lights and not so much sacred starlight.

My learner Remi sent me the link to this video. :)