annamanila's: Here's One for Rachel

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Here's One for Rachel

Rachel is a biblical character who personifies filial love and devotion of the highest order.

In Heart of Rachel, the blog, the reader can follow the everyday life of a modern
Rachel, but one whose family is intact. This is the life that revolves around Yohan (Rachel's one and still only child) and her loving husband. I haven't seen Yohan but I am privy to his sweetness, pranks, and wisdom, prodigious for his age -- including what Rachel has called 'yohanisms.' I guess I am one of hundreds who have followed Yohan's growing up with much delight and anticipation, through the blog. It is for me like having a virtual grandson. :)

The blog brims over with the simple and complicated pleasures and challenges of motherhood. A feel- good blog, through and through.

I vote for Heart of Rachel for bloggers' choice in the Philippine Blog Awards.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...: i, too, voted for Rachel--for her creativity, love for Yohan, and care for us, her blog and real life friends. She posts interesting and relevant articles regularly, taking time to keep her blog pleasant with pictures, caricatures and nice things. Whenever she can, she leaves loving messages in our blogs and sees to it that she attends EBs and blog meets even if she lives in far away Batangas. Good luck, Rach!; September 20, 2008 at 5:54 PM
Anonymous said...: mommy blogs are always cool :); September 21, 2008 at 11:09 AM
Abaniko said...: Werz d link, madam?; September 21, 2008 at 11:56 AM
Hailey's Beats and Bits said...: i think i should vote for her too! thanks for this, tita anna.; September 21, 2008 at 11:42 PM
Princess said...: This is such a sweet vote of confidence!
Nakakainggit naman ang style mo, Anna. BTW, I may sound stupid, pero, do you have anything published? I am interested to own one.; September 22, 2008 at 5:57 AM
Heart of Rachel said...: I would like to apologize for not being able to read this sooner. I don't know why this did not reflect on my technorati blog updates. I really look up to you and this heartfelt post means so much to me. I'm so grateful for your support. I did not win that night but people like you made me feel like a winner.

I had a wonderful evening with our fellow blog friends at the Phil Blog Awards night. I was hoping to see you there but Chats said you weren't coming. I hope I will have the privilege to meet you in person soon.

Take care and God bless.; September 28, 2008 at 10:05 PM

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UKAY-OKAY TIPS

I am unabashedly an ukay fan. It's not just because I love bargains, though I love bargains. I like my stuff with character and history, just as I like my books dog-eared, highlighted, musty-smelling, and chockful of marginal notes. When I get ukay garments, I imagine them hand-me-downs from some Viriginia Woolf character who has led a life as colorful as mine is dull.

I got interviewed for an ukay article (see Sunday Inquirer Magazine, August 5, pages 6 and 14) and I promised more ukay tips here in my blogsite.

So here goes: (1) Wear your lightest and easy to get into and out of clothes if you're thinking of fitting. (2)It's handy to have a plastic supot hanging on a wrist ... for putting in your tentative choices. (3) Don't look too cono nor too jologs. Conos can't haggle and don't have a business being inside an ukay shop. (4) But dress and behave respectably and friendly enough. As a result, I am able to reserve items, bring items home to fit, and arrange a deal to return/exchange. (5) Leave your number with the sales clerk if you want to know when a new stock arrives. (6) Get to know the owner -- she's the one who can give you the heftest discounts. She may even give you tips on how to put up your own ukay-ukay store. (7) Be ready to get barked at by your dog when you get home. The ukay stuff can really leave some strange scents on you. (8) Launder thorougly, then marinate the stuff overnight in heavily -sudded water. If you're fussier than me, pour hot water on the stuff before laundering, but not if the material is silky-sheer.

Senior Laughs

"Now that you're older," I once asked my friend Irene, 68, "don't you miss the men who used to look at you lustfully?"

She stared at me for a moment and then responded indignantly: "Used to? What do you mean used to?" - From Necessary Losses by Judith Viorst

Inside every 70-year-old is a 35-year-old asking, "what happened?" - Ann Landers

The trouble with class reunions is that old flames have become even older. - Doug Larsen

Laughter doesn't require teeth. - Willy Newton

I see lines all over my face and call them laugh lines. And why oh why don't they go away when I have stopped laughing?

There is a lot to be thankful for if you take time to look for it. For example, I am sitting here thinking how nice it is wrinkles don't hurt.

Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.

You are getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair you once got from a roller coaster. (from Suddenly Senior)

Age does not matter if the matter does not age. - Carlos P. Romulo

QUOTES2SWEETLY GROW OLD BY

I haven't discovered the secret to being old and happy. Nor am I that absolutely convinced the best is yet to be. But I know now without doubt that if I loved myself, I shouldn't care how old I get. - Anna Manila

In youth we learn, in age we understand. - Marie von Ebner Eschenbach

For age is an opportunity, no less than youth itself, though in another dress. And as the evening twilight fades away, the sky is filled with stars invisible by day. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, revent -- that is to triumph over old age. - Thomas Aldrich

Getting old does not take away our capacity to laugh (or cry), to get involved (or keep detached), to grow (or atrophy). And it does not disenfranchise us from making the usual life choices. We can grow old and hopeful. Sometimes, I still forget. - Annamanila

Come grow old with me, the best is yet to be.

The spirit never grows old.

The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it. - Jean Paul

My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky ... So was it when my life began, so is it now I am a man .... So be it when I shall grow old or let me die. ... The child is father of man and how I wish my days to be bound each to each in natural piety. - William Wordsworth

Although nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory of the flower ... we will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind ... in the primal sympathy which having been must ever be. - William Wordsworth

When I get older losing my hair many years from now ... will you still be sending me a valentine, birthday greeting, bottle of wine ... Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I'm 64 - from a song by the Beatles.

WRITING TIPSYTIPS

Doubtless the most common writing mistake is "taken cared of." You don't say "paid attentioned to," do you? No, because "care" and "attention" in the examples are used as nouns, not as verbs.
Another common error is "irregardless." This is often regarded as redundant and incorrect usage. Some grammarians would say bluntly there is no such word.
When you are at a loss what to write, think of the truest thing you can think of -- then write about it.
Read, read read. Write, write, write.
Respect your reader. Don't spell out everything. Leave something for his imagination.

Avoid cliches (e.g. cut and dried, hard and fast, ready, willing and able, last but not least). Go for idioms (e.g. take a crack at, put up with, make out with).

Blog-locked? Worry not. You have blogged before, you can blog again.

In spite of what our grammar teachers (used to) say, a sentence can begin with "But," "And," or "Or." By the same token, a sentence can end with a preposition.

Split long paragraphs -- they intimidate the reader. In general -- KISS (Keep it short and sweet). And no, there's no law against one-sentence paragraphs.

Keep sentences short and crisp. But sneak in a longish sentence every now and then to avoid the unpleasant "choppy" effect.

Try reading your piece aloud. If it reads good, it must be good.

When posting a response:
Try to be not so much interesting as
INTERESTED!

Post-retirement Options

Do something you've never dared to do before (e.g., sing in public, drink one too many, go the moviehouse by your lonesome)
Do volunteer work
Go back to school (finish your undergrad, go for an MA (check out UP Open University)
Join an advocacy group (think green movement, anti-gun, women's lib)
Learn a new language
Learn to go online - email, chat, play, blog
Organize/join a book club, a poetry writing/reading club
See the Philippines -- explore its islands, nooks and crannies; think Bohol, Palawan, Basilan, Kalinga-Apayao
Start a small business (enrol at UP ISSI, TLRC, AIM, etc.)
Teach others (young people, other senior citizens) your craft

WORDS TO CHEW ON

What do we live for but to make life less difficult for each other? - anon.
And then some broken heart will kneel before the crucifix to find the sweetest of all sweet messages ... that we must be worth something since the God-man died on the cross for love of us.
All life is but an exploration ... and we won't cease from our exploring till we go back to where we started and know the place for the first time. - T. S. Eliot
"And so they were married to be more together .. and found they were never again so much together ... divided by the morning coffee, by evening television, by children, and by credit card bills." -- adapted by anna from Judith Vorst.

annamanila's

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Here's One for Rachel

6 comments:

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UKAY-OKAY TIPS

Senior Laughs

QUOTES2SWEETLY GROW OLD BY

WRITING TIPSYTIPS

Post-retirement Options

MY BLOGGING BERKS

Bloggers over 50

VITAL LINKS

Categories

WORDS TO CHEW ON

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Loving, Hurting, Coping, Healing (Stories of Women Betrayed as told to Anna))