I'm Quoting Quotations

Hello Readers :) I created a new blog where I write about my favorite quotations and just random quotes I come across during the day that just trigger some emotions and so make me feel the need to blab about my feelings. I hope you'd like it too. :) Here are my first three posts.

The Wish-Granting Factory

background photo from http://thecassandra.files.wordpress.com

Luckily, the world is not a wish-granting factory.

It is good to know that dreams do not depend on nickels falling down the bottom of a wishing well or meteors crossing in the night sky. If they did, the finish line where happiness awaits would be as distant as the meeting point of two parallel lines… You would never get there.

Read more at http://imquotingquotations.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/wish-granting-factory/

Your Best Self

Have you ever reached the point when you feel like you’re not doing anything right? When your best efforts turn out to be futile attempts leading you nowhere? When the good in you seems to be oblivious even to  yourself? If your answer is yes, then good. You’re on the right track.

Read more at http://imquotingquotations.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/your-best-self/

Feelings and Confessions

It is almost never the right time to confess your feelings for someone. But who cares? Your words and sincerity could make it right, even perfect. How do you trust a moment if timing’s a bitch? You don’t. You shouldn’t. Instead, you trust yourself; you trust your feelings. And you go from there.

Read more at: http://imquotingquotations.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/feelings-and-confessions/

What Love Isn't About

photo from http://www.jasapple.co.za/2011/08/pic-wishing-upon-this.html

LOVE is a word we have long been acquainted to but its meaning remains ever-elusive. I do not really know and understand much of what it is about, but I do have an idea of what it is not about.

Love isn’t about ‘chemistry.’

Love is not a science or a branch of it. Love isn’t simply about two different elements put together to form either a positive or negative reaction.

Oftentimes, you meet a person and you just click. You find someone who loves the same things you love—  someone who wouldn’t get tired of listening to the same song over and over; You find someone who you can share a comfortable banter with— someone  who you can call an ugly flirt or a stupid bastard and can also call you words to that effect, knowing all the mockery is just an expression of love; You find someone who handles your mood swings— someone who manages to bear the world on his/her shoulders when you’re having a crappy day.  Oftentimes you find a person who does all these and know he/she is not “the one.”

Maybe you can have all the other people say “You look good together.” Or “You look happy together,” or the extreme “Why not be together?” And in a spur of the moment, those simple statements seem unfathomable because both of you are aware that what you share is not what others see or what others expect it to be.

On the contrary, some people are like North Pole and South Pole who, after a lot of  argumentations, agreed to meet halfway at the equator, flattening out bulges of differences.  Sometimes, you find someone who seem to be your exact opposite and yet know he/she is your person.  Maybe one prefers ballad while the other prefers rock; Maybe one is too loud and outspoken while the other is shy and oversensitive; Maybe one is too optimistic while the other is very skeptic and pessimistic.  Sometimes you find someone who doesn’t seem to be the type of person you would want to share an eternity with but you vow to stick together forever anyway.

Perhaps people would see no spark.  Perhaps the world guffaws at the idea of you being together. But does that matter? Not as much as what both of you think. Maybe it’s about believing that what you have is right even when others dictate you it’s wrong.

Love isn’t about compatibility.

Love isn’t about the right timing.

There is no perfect magical moment. When you keep on waiting for it, you’ll most probably end up not having any moment at all. As it has been said in the  film Ever After (A Cinderella Story) and I quote: “You cannot leave everything to Fate, boy. She's got a lot to do. Sometimes you must give her a hand.”

You are not the knight in shining armor or damsel in distress in your very own fairy tale who’d surely get a happily ever after in the end. It is important to remember that you are just one of the billion people hoping to find their true love in a messed up world.

In the first place, who’s in the position to say when it’s the right time and when it’s not? Maybe your person is still with the wrong person, just waiting for you to save him/her. Maybe it would be really nice to casually admit feelings in the middle of answering a Math quiz (provided you won’t be accused of cheating). Maybe by the time your person finishes college he/she have shunned the idea of love and you’ll regret not saying  that you’ve always liked him/her since first grade.

Maybe the wrong timing is the perfect timing.

Love isn’t about keeping the object of affection.

Not all love leads to commitment and marriage. But does that make it any less real? Not all who had loved won. But does that really make one a loser?

Love is not about possession or reciprocity of the same and equal affection. As Mr. David Cain said in one of his articles in Thought Catalog:

“Love reveals itself when you release your need to have the object of your affection, and see that there’s no reason to make it yours. That it exists at all is enough. To love something is to disappear in its favor — to die to your own interests so that it can be what it is.”

Love does not obligate.

If I am to be asked what love is, I would say it’s about acceptance and change, courage and fear, bliss and suffering. It isn’t about chemistry or right timing or keeping the object of affection. It is not about any of the three but possibly all of these combined.

Connection

If plagiarism is to be defined as basically the failure to recognize someone for his or her original idea, then perhaps, the whole of life is an act of plagiarism.

Whatever you’ve said, somebody had most probably thought of that too. Maybe that person existed a decade or a century ago. Maybe that person lived in Los Angeles or in France or in Central Africa.  Maybe that somebody expressed the same idea in a different language, in a different tone, and in a different context. But really. Whatever you’ve said, somebody, somewhere had most probably said that too.

I mean, Shakespeare is not the only one who can think of the concept that heart  and  mind are not in the business of being friends. He is not the only person capable of understanding that love is blind. But he’s written about it many times over. And we credit him for that.

Emotions are universal. Nobody owns it. We all know of happiness and grief and love. And we all have reactions towards them. And there are how many billions of people are in the world? It is very much possible in the realm of reality that at two of them have the same perception of one thing.

And it’s just so unfair that you can’t write what you think about and claim it as your own just because another person have already written about it and had it published. Somehow the words become their possession. And now nothing is ever original.  NOTHING.

Whatever you are writing, or saying, or simply thinking about, it’s just a product of all that you’ve encountered. It’s not solely yours.

But come to think of it, it's not really bad  after all. In fact it’s pretty nice to think that we are all connected. It’s kind of amazing to realize that we think alike cause our emotions become bridges to different minds. It's beautiful to arrive at a conclusion that though time and distance separate us, we have a common ground. Somehow in the grand scheme of things, different circles overlap.

You Know How to Shut Me Up

photo from  http://s2.favim.com/orig/35/books-heart-love-photography-pink-Favim.com-282215.jpg

You know how to shut me up.
And because of that,
I want to master the art
Of shutting you up as well.

As much as you cringe
At my futile attempts
to crack a joke
(that wouldn't even pass as a joke),
I wanna rub in your face
the fact that you also sound stupid
whenever you share something
you think is funny.
But I can't.
I'd laugh anyway.

You know how to shut me up.
And because of that,
I want to master the art
Of shutting you up as well.

Every time I talk about
a new guy I'm eyeing on,
you never fail to tell me
how amazed you are
that though I am such a skeptic
in terms of love and romance,
I kinda know attraction and "flirtationship" after all.
And though the words may sound
like clanging cymbals
when they come from other people,
it's music in my ears
when they come from you.

And I hope you know
that every time you tell me
about your new eye candy,
and how you think that the someone you like
is liking you back,
at the back of my mind I'm thinking:
My friend here has a very, very
severe case of erotomania.
I want to tell you  that you have
excessive self-esteem.
But I don't. And I won't.
I'll always prefer saying
"YES, he/she definitely likes you back!"
Cause in the first place,
it's hard not to love you anyway.

You know how to shut me up.
And because of that,
I want to master the art
Of shutting you up as well.

I've always had a knack for denying.
I've got used to people
taking my "No" as a "No."
But then there was you.
And  I hate you. I really do.
I hate it when you sit beside me
and tell me about things I would not admit.
And then I end up blabbing and spazzing,
as if under the influence of alcohol.

You frustrate me.
Oftentimes, I want to tell you to shut up
And just let me be.
But I can't. I feel like I shouldn't
For what are the chances of finding
other kindred souls
who probably know me a lot better
than I could ever know myself?

And even if there are gazillions
who can do the things you do--
from dinosaur times,
to the imagined robot times,
and countless lifetimes in between,
know that you are still one of a kind.

You know how to shut me up,
turning my pursed or puckered lips into a grin.
You know how to shut me up,
And for that reason,
I love you most.

The Man Who Has Loved

photo from http://cdnimg.visualizeus.com

The Man Who Has Loved

by Christine Magpayo

This is a poem--
A poem without a rhyme--
A poem about a man--
About a man who has loved--
Who has loved with all his heart.

This is a story.
Yes, a story never told--
A story never known--
Never known  even to them--
Even to  them who shared the love.

And so once upon a time...
Yes, something happened once upon a time--
Something that ended so quick--
'Twas so quick that it didn't seem real.
It didn't seem real but it was.

Now you ask what happened--
What happened to  the man?
Well all I know of is...
He is still that man--
That man who has loved--
Who has loved with all his heart.

---

The poem represents LOVE.

NATURE OF THE POEM

It had  no rhyme;

It had no measure.

Lines do not match but they do connect.

The poem tells us that there is a story but tells us nothing about the story.

Its brevity immortalizes its existence.

The endless questions stretch out and explore on different possibilities

even when the story itself deals with oblivion.

NATURE OF LOVE

Love does not require a certain degree of similarity and compatibility.

Love isn’t a science; it is immeasurable.

People do not necessarily have to be a perfect match;
what matters is they make both ends  meet.

Love tells us of stories but the profundity is exclusive to the two who are part of the stories.

There’s a kind of love that ends but lasts.

As long as there are what if’s and could have been’s lurking  in the mind,

A love that’s over… isn’t really over yet.

Twenty Days (The Wedding)

            White orchids crowned the golden flower stands poised on each side of the aisle. Music filled the small dome illuminated by natural sunlight passing through the stained glass windows. The people wearing satin dresses and suits started walking on the red carpet leading to the altar where vows were to be made

Marianne, the bride, was fidgeting at the back of the line. She was playing with the silver heart-shaped pendant of her favorite necklace and was slightly but constantly stomping her feet.  Beside her stood her escort, Ryan, a good friend since college. He noticed that she was so restless. He placed his hands on his pockets and motioned his head towards hers.

“You have a very beautiful necklace.” He whispered and stood upright, smirking.
A grin formed in her face. “You mean your birthday gift? Self-righteous.” She chuckled.
Marianne beamed as she fixed her eyes on her groom.
He nudged her elbow with his.  “It could have been me.” He joked.
She looked up and faced him.  “It could have been anyone else.”
He raised his left brow and tilted his head on the side.
She pinched his nose. “Well, it could have been you.”
He forced a smile.
“I could make a scene and stop the wedding.”  He playfully said.
“You won’t.” She sneered. 
“Why not? You know I love you.” Both of them were looking at the altar.
“Exactly the reason I know you won’t.”

To that, he had no response.
She put her hand on his arm and they started walking down the aisle.

Of Wanting and Waiting and Winning

video clip  from HIMYM S04E23

Song by  Michelle  Featherstone  (Careful)

Love is a cliche we never get tired of. Maybe that's because we never really understand it. Or maybe it's ourselves that we don't understand after all. Maybe we are constantly in search of what kind of love we want, of how we plan to get it, and why we plan to keep it. Perhaps some have found the answers through the act of loving or maybe they're like me and a million others: simply hypothesizing. 

Love always deals with well-deserved happily ever afters. Maybe that's where it all gets confusing. Cause love starts not with a couple finding each other, but with an individual finding himself. Love is a good story. And just like every story, it has a prologue-- something that explains and causes the main events. And these two, for me, are of equal importance.

Wanting.

To want something is to realize that you don't have it but you would like to have it. Maybe not now, maybe not soon, but surely one day you would like to take a hold of it and own it. 

To acknowledge that you want something is to be brave enough to accept the fact that you feel  incomplete, that something is missing. And you feel it day after day til a simple want becomes  a necessity. Constantly wanting something leads to needing it. And to need something is to understand that though you might never have it, you still want it.

You can go your whole life convincing yourself you don't want or need love. Or you can risk getting hurt and be open to the idea that maybe, just maybe, love (no matter  how insignificant you think it is), is the missing piece of  jigsaw puzzle that would  complete your life.

Waiting.

To wait is to believe that not everyone is worth the risk. It means being patient for the arrival of someone you deserve. Sure there are a lot of fish in the sea.  But you can't catch them all just because they're there. When you keep on filling your boat, there might be no more room for the right fish when it arrives. I'm not saying believe in the whole "The One" thing.  Some people get it right the first time  around. Maybe you're one of the lucky "some." But if you're not, nothing's bad with the classic trial and error. Just make sure that the wrong ones, though they are not IT, they are a lot like it. 

Secondly, to wait does not only mean to wait for the "right person" but to wait for the "right time" as well. So many people get this concept wrong. By right time, I do not mean wait til you finish college, find a work, invest on some properties (though that would be ideal). What I mean is that before you go and search for your person, make sure you, yourself, is a person worth searching for. Make sure that the person you think you deserve.. deserves you as well.

Winning.

To win is to work hard. And hard work entails sacrifices which adds more value to the thing being desired. The more you work hard for something, the higher your degree of satisfaction is when the thing desired is already at hand.

Nonetheless, it is important to note that to win is not simply to have what you've wanted and waited for. Sure, we all deserve what we've worked hard for,  but the thing is, what we've worked hard for should be worth all our time, efforts, and sacrifices. It should make us happy in the end. 

Love is about wanting it, waiting for it, and winning it. You go from there.

Where Heaven Meets Earth

photo from http://www.visualphotos.com/image/2x3402686/chairs_on_a_sunset_beach

Where Heaven Meets Earth

by Christine Magpayo

I watch the sun kiss the sea;

The waters embrace its fading light.

They seem to come together

Even if they're really far apart.

Illusions...  Oh, how beautiful!

I remember you sharing

Your dreams of being able to fly,

Of wanting to see the world.

And now you can with a bird's eye view.

Realities... Oh, how painful!

What are you doing up there?

Maybe you're jumping from cloud to cloud.

Maybe you're dancing, gliding,

Laughing and playing with the angels.

I guess you're in a better place.

Will you come and visit me?

Will you please let the wind bring you back

To the  place where you said "Yes--"

The place where I had you and lost you?

The grains of sand witnessed it all.

Were you that conservative?

The priest said: "You may now kiss the bride."

I kissed you and you fainted,

Never opening your eyes again.

T'was wonderful, our first and last.

Are you still in your white dress?

And...  were you allowed to keep the ring?

Oh God you looked alluring

Even with a few strands of hair left.

Do they call you Mrs. up there?

Do you know that you're my wife?

Can you remember all that we had--
Courting you, rejecting me,
Not giving up in pursuing you,
And finally accepting me?

Images of me, of us,

Of  worthwhile memories that have passed,
Do you still have them with you?
Do you still hold them close like I do?

Does death require one to forget?

Even if you've forgotten,

I swear that I'll always remember,

Cause though you cry like a kid,

Nag like my mom, demand like my boss,

You are and will always be loved.

Forever can start with loss
But I know ours is perpetuity,
Love that's immeasurable.
For me, our eternity goes on.
The story of us continues.

In my mind you are alive.

That's where I'll love you and you'll love me back.

Love makes Heaven and Earth meet.

That's why even though you're gone,

You're still my lady and I'm your man.

Maybe Today

photo from deviantart.com

Maybe Today

by Christine Magpayo

Maybe today you'll find the one...
Maybe today is the day you'd meet your man.
If so then, what do you do?
Would you rush and tell him:
"Hey! Would you believe me if I say I think we look perfect together?"
"Do you believe in love at first sight? I just did."
"Is it okay if I get your number and we go out? I'm harmless."
Maybe today you'll bump  into a stranger you feel is right for you...
And you'll choose to  keep silent
And end  up not having your long-waited once upon a time.

Maybe today you'll realize that "the one"
has been there all  along--
a  classmate offering you his pen each time you forget yours,
an orgmate bossing you around but ends up  helping you out,
or a friend constantly teasing you how fat and ugly and GC you are.
If so then what do you do?
Would you wait for the right time and say
"Hey! maybe we can go to the next level?"
Or maybe"I would just like to  confirm...
Do you like me? I just might like you too."
Maybe today you'll feel a different feeling for someone..
And you'll choose to ignore it and let things be the way they've always been.
Maybe you're a "once upon a time" person but not a "happily ever after"  type.

Maybe today... maybe until today
You still believe that destiny will work things out for you.
Maybe up until now you're thinking that your man
is finding his way to you.
What if you're wrong?
What if he has arrived and you just haven't recognize him?
What if he's still trapped in the wrong relationship?
What if your man doesn't believe in love?
And you're there waiting for him to perform all  the  "signs."
Say what? Fate is like tooth fairy or Santa Claus...
Doesn't exist!
Sometimes, you really have to work things out for yourself.

Maybe today, you have someone
And you know he's the one...
And you can have him love you until tomorrow...
And the next day... and the next day...
And the day after that... and so on.
Maybe you can't do the same thing for him.
Maybe you'll choose to let him go.
Maybe it's fine; maybe it's not;
maybe it's better that way.

Maybe today you'll realize that love is beautiful
but you don't need it.
Maybe today you'll make it clear that you want love for other people
but not for yourself.
Maybe today you'll watch someone watch over you.
Maybe today you'll feel loved
and part of you will desperately want to love back,
But you can't...
You feel like you shouldn't.
Maybe it's painful; maybe it'll be less painful this way.

Maybe today you'll encounter love
and you'll leave it behind.
And maybe tomorrow you'll feel the loss
and you'll break your heart.

Random Thoughts on a Rainy Day

photo from http://www.unesourisetmoi.info/minimal/index.php?c=home&s=y&id=home__a_marilyn_monroe_gallery

When we were asked to read the biography of Marilyn Monroe which included some of her written works  like poems and diary entries (for Creative Writing class), I came across this line and I must admit that somehow, it hit me.

Love comes in so many contexts. In here she was definitely referring to romantic love. "One cannot love another, ever,  really." This statement deals with love as  something absolute. Either it's perfect or it's not love at all, either it  lasts forever or it is  not love at all. False dichotomies. Life and love involve not only the extremes.

As of the moment I'm not sure if I have or if I ever will love at all.  What if random people come? Shall I keep my eyes and ears closed even when "the moment screams for IT." Maybe. The whole connection thing portrayed in the movies...  I hope it works for me. Or else I'm dead. Well, not really.  I  just want to get it right the first time around...as much as possible. I'm too fragile to take chances. I just want to believe that when he comes, he comes, and I shall know. IF he does come. I'm the waiting type rather than the searching type.

And the whole marriage thing? I can clearly remember what I heard from a TV show (though I forgot the title of the TV show). In marriage, you don't  necessarily have to love each other all the time. I  mean,  you're cooking food and you're loving your passion; You're doing office works and you're loving your job; You're bringing your kids to school and you're loving the family you have. All  these time, you do  not possess the feeling of being in love with your partner YET at the end of the day, you know you love your partner.

I guess the bottom line is, love does not require two people to make their lives revolve around each other. Marriage does not force couples to stay sweet and  in love til they grow white hair. Maybe commitment just asks of one  thing: companionship. Feelings change.  And for this reason, you cannot be forever in love with one person BUT you can truly, unconditionally love a person until you die...  because love is not just an emotion, but a decision as well.

Make the right choice! :)

Learning and Unlearning Love

background photo from syntetyc.deviantart.com |  text by tine magpayo

          Some people believe that love is a decision, not an emotion. I beg to disagree. For me, love is both a decision and an emotion. To fully grasp what it means to learn and to unlearn love, it is important to focus on love as a feeling.

        We all  learn to love but we cannot learn to unlove. Learning is a process of absorbing; unlearning is a process of forgetting. To learn requires one to take something in; to unlearn requires one to take something out of one's system. To make the premise more simple, let's compare it with the idea of solving complex Math problems. Once you have learned how to solve, you cannot learn to not to be able to solve. Nonetheless you can unlearn to be a good Math problem solver if you don't use your skills for some time. I think same goes with love. If you stop practicing what you often did, you'll end up not having what you often had. If you want someone out of your life, you don't learn to unlove that person; you try to unlearn to love that person.

         Honestly, I'm not really sure of what I am saying or if I was able to express my ideas clearly. In the first place, love is too complex to be understood. But then again, if we shall look at love as an emotion,  then it is meant to felt, not to be understood. Ohhhhh how I love contrasts!!! :)