IT'S A PANDAN LIFE ...!

by Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) I don't love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz, or arrow of carnations that propagate fire: I love you as one loves certain dark things, secretly, between the shadow and the soul. I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself, and thanks to your love the tight aroma that rose from the earth lives in my body in darkness. I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where I love you directly without problems or pride: I love you like this because I don't know any other way to love except in this form in which I am not nor are you, so close that your hand upon my chest is mine, so close that your eyes close with my dreams. This is a poem by my favourite Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda. Known for his love poems, I like the central idea of this poem that it is just so hard to put into words why you love someone. Irony is at play when the speaker actually describes how, ignoring and oppos

The power inside you is energy amplified. ~Claire Todae I box I kick I lash At best, I unleash I don't know when I can stop.

by Margaret Atwood (b. 1939) I would like to watch you sleeping, which may not happen. I would like to watch you, sleeping. I would like to sleep with you, to enter your sleep as its smooth dark wave slides over my head and walk with you through that lucent wavering forest of bluegreen leaves with its watery sun & three moons towards the cave where you must descend, towards your worst fear I would like to give you the silver branch, the small white flower, the one word that will protect you from the grief at the center of your dream, from the grief at the center I would like to follow you up the long stairway again & become the boat that would row you back carefully, a flame in two cupped hands to where your body lies beside me, and as you enter it as easily as breathing in I would like to be the air that inhabits you for a moment only. I would like to be that unnoticed & that necessary. This is a poem by my favourite author, Margaret Atwood. It speaks of the need to be wit

by Robert Frost (1874-1963) Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. This is one of my favourite poems. Often, we have choices laid in front of us. At some point in time, we have to choose one out of those options, which is not easy and requires careful deliberation. What compounds it is that we know that this

The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning. ~ Mitch Albom My life's not big of a mess but it's still a mess I should be depressed but I hang on. I hang on by loving I'm exhausted from loving so well I should resign but I can't.

No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference. It is that from which all date their time, and count upon what is left. It is the nativity of our common Adam. ~Charles Lamb Another year whizzed past! Looking back, I’m proud of some the things I managed to accomplish despite being Bath-deprived. Those who know me well would know that this deprivation has got nothing to do with a bath. The damage to my ego was incalculable. However, I managed to accomplish a few things this past year, which served as balm to my long-suffering, bruised ego: 1. I managed to publish in an international journal! It was really a feat considering I never dreamed I’d be able to publish in an international journal. I've published here and there, but never in an international journal. I’m so grateful to have a mentor at work who’s always willing to guide and share. I owe this to her, really. 2. I got a better score for my teaching evaluation, it’s gone up a few notches, thanks to my kids. It real