911

If one day, you finally heed the call of your wrist and decided to make a heaven out of your slit.

If one day, you have neated all of your clothes and prepared all your notes.

If one day, you have drown yourself and made tiny bubbles of help

If one day, you have pulled the trigger and finally silenced the voices in your head

If that day comes, 

If it will come,

May your spirit stay and your violet-bruised body be the remnants of an unsaid story.

May you hear cries and laments that will hopefully quench the hunger of your soul.

May you go over the 2am conversations we had and let me know why wasn’t it enough?

May you read the words I have woven as your epitaph.

“To the weary soul I know, I love you. In that great space, may love find you too”

May you forgive me...

Forgive me for sending you gifts instead of asking how are you.

Forgive me for depriving you of the right to be depressed just because I think your problem is less.

Forgive me for trying to fix you when all you wanted was to shred a part of you.

Forgive me for injecting you positivity when all you needed was serenity...

to be calm amidst all qualms

to be at peace while everything else is in pieces

to be accepted while everything else is coated. 

And if one day, if it’s my turn to leave the earth and meet the Creator I have avoided

I’ll ask a favor before He sends me to a hell or a cave full of unsaved.

For the last time, I’d like Him to grant me the favor of meeting you.

so that I can finally ask what I have never ask,

How are you?

What are you feeling today?

I’m glad I met you!

I appreciate you!

We need you!

I Still Have Your Loveletters

I still have your love letters by the way.

Enveloped with the love I can still give until today.

I still read them as if we didn’t mutter our goobyes and curse each other every night.

I tucked them gently closer to my chest and try to reminsce all the memories we thought can outstand the rest.

 I still have your love letters by the way

though I have seen you across the street with somebody,

You changed your status to in a relationship today

You have never bothered greeting me on my birthday 

and have seenzoned all my messages on a Christmas Day.

But who cares?h

I have your love letters anyway. 

I still have your love letters by the way

though you never talked to me 

we never patched things like it should be

we let the wolves howl our longings to the moon

and you never move an inch in your hate throne.

Nevertheless, your loveletters are still at home.

Each night, I read them again and again

mouthing every word as if freshly spoken, 

remembering a shadow who once promised his love never be shaken

and shaming oneself for the desperate waiting.

Until that time when grief has spent itself,

regrets become jokes in private,

pains no longer hide in the closet,

I’ll keep the loveletters waiting for just one final visit.

Work of Love

The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.
                                 -Christian, Moulin Rouge
  
   In our great search of love, we can meet different people. There are people who we vowed to marry someday but we didn't. There are people who promised us to be their bride but ended up keeping other women's girdle. And there are just people who appeared in the story and just made a chapter of you and me. That is Gly-Gly's story!


         I met Glendaleine Obena in Blessed Trinity College. We used to work together and we used to do stuffs together (Not allowed to mention). The chemistry is just so natural that we ended up calling each other "Babes". I have seen her blushed, get hurt and finally get married. Now, to celebrate friendship and also to update this blog, I'm giving you some of the shots during their Prenup Session.
                                                                                                                                                                 

          Our photo locations are mostly in Bien Unido. First location was in Swan Lake located at Liberty, Bien Unido, Bohol and second location was in Tikang-kang Beach Resort, still in Bien Unido. It was not a thoroughly planned Prenup session. On June 11,2016, she informed me that they have crossed off  Prenuptials from the list because there were no available photographers. I was alarmed. Since I'm a maniac when it comes to these stuffs. I volunteered to be their photographer (such confidence) and even told her that I'll look for the location, props and of course, wardrobes. Because of my confidence and undying love for Gly-Gly, I prepared the stuffs to be used.

        And on June 12, 2016, we made these shots....

A woman is like a flower. She will bloom when taken care of.

We are in our happiest state when we are with the person we love and respect
 Credits to Juvelyn Teves for the letters.

The secret of a happy marriage is finding the right person.
You know they're right if you love to be with them all the time. Julia Child

This is my favorite shot in the first location. 

Second Location shots.....

Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.
- Julia Child

Marriage is not about age; it's about finding the right person.
Sophia Bush

No caption Pure Beauty appreciation 

Finding the right person can be so hard that often, when a person finally finds someone she or he is comfortable with, she or he just makes it work.
Chirlane McCray

My favorite shot is......

          I would like to thank Gly-gly for the friendship. To Juvelyn Teves, Thank you for the props and help! To Christian Melencion, Thank you for gearing up for the photoshoot. To my sister, Michelle, Thank you for the wardrobe.

Love is not something we have to work for, search for and worry for. It'll come eventually and it will be the most magical thing in the world.

Love,
Cielo

Pen and Pain

For months, 

I have stopped writing because I don’t want your shadow to linger in my verses. 

I don’t want my pen to shout for your name in the middle of my pages. 

I don’t want your presence to be rejoiced in my lines.

I don’t want to hear your laughter in any of my rhymes

I don’t want my metaphor to be hugged by your assuring arms.

or be enchanted with your manly charms.

I don’t want my punctuations to mark your kisses and trace your edges.

I don’t want my letters to spell itself and reminisce how your eyes calm my senses.

I don’t want my persona to narrate how magical it felt when you kissed me under the stars, in between the walls. 

and

how lost I was when you left and   finally closed the door. 

I don’t know when will I scribble again, or love the smell of the ink in my pen.

But for now, 

Let me smell like beer and coil my self in the room with the silence of my healing and the echoes of your leaving.

Danao x Sea of Clouds x Kaukay Falls

                I thought that it was going to be a typical experience, a normal sight-seeing to this internet famous Sea of Clouds in Danao ,but I was wrong. We were taken to the depths of Danao and somehow found our heaven in there.

     

          5 educators who are undeniably thirsty for new things and new stories ventured to the heights of Danao, Bohol. This is the first time that the five of us decided to take a breather out of the suffocating environment we have ( students’ reckless behaviors and colleagues as well). Since we need a breather, we chose to vent out our angst and unheard arguments to Danao which happens to be the place for extreme adventures and death defying activities. With the wrong reason and the right place, we planned our itinerary.

Sea of Clouds

            

            For us to anticipate problems and prepare ourselves, we read some articles and blogs about the place. If you want to go to a foreign place, just like us , you need to read reviews and recommendations to contact the right people because sometimes a perfect getaway comes from the right tour guide. After reading, we contacted Ma’am Donnie Suter and Sir Ponciano Suter since they welcome travellers in their humble home. For Php 500.00, you can already have a room good for two to three people and its air-conditioned. Reminding everyone that their home is not a hotel so please be responsible! When we we’re there, we talked about the nature of our tour! After we explained to them what we want to see, they offered us to contact a habal-habal driver for Php 100.00 who can take us to the places we mentioned. Luckily we have Kuya Benoy and the gang to accompany us.

         The night before, we prayed so hard for the rain to abstain itself from pouring because you will not see any fogs if it will rain and aside from that, the footpath leading there would be muddy and will be prone to accidents. Fortunately, the universe conspired to our plan and the rain never came. At 4:30 am, we departed from the house and by 4:45 am we arrived at the site. I lost count of the time when we trekked but one thing for sure, the struggle was real. Since there were also other tourists who were checking out the place, Kuya Benoy made us walk to another “Moto”(hill) to separate us from them. It was still dark so, we just waited and did some crazy stuffs.Patience is a virtue and the wait was worth it. When we saw the fogs accumulating up as the sun overcame the darkness, we were in deep silence as we savored the moment and feasted our eyes to God’s majestic creation. I mumbled my first name and thought, Mary Cielo this is your place.

Kaukay Falls

            I will always recount our experience in trekking this falls as perilous since compared to Aguinid Falls, where we are surrounded with people who are very acquainted with the falls already, the Kaukay falls is an untouched paradise with very few people knew about its existence. Kuya Benoy, who guided us there, was very sure that he could take us there but not sure if we could make it unscathed.

            The Kaukay Falls is near to the site of the Sea of Clouds. It will only take about 5 minutes to get to the starting point but it will take you at least an hour to get there depending on the weather. When we were there, it was chilly and it was also drizzling a bit. So, the weather slowed us.

           

         From the starting point, we trailed a very forested footpath surrounded with Cogon grasses and other shrubs. Aside from the footpath was forested, the trail was very muddy as well so slipping and tumbling butt-first was inevitable that time. This kind of trekking was not new to us since we already conquered all 5 level challenges in Aguinid and it was easy for us since the tour guides who accompanied us knew already what to step, how to step and when to step. Now, compared to our Kaukay adventure, Kuya Benoy and the others will instruct you where were you heading but not what stones to step, how to climb up and down and where to hold. So, it was a trial and error for us. the last challenge that really shook us was the almost 13 feet high trail. We need to climb down holding only a root which was sturdy enough. At first Kuya Antonio scratched his head especially when it was Irene and I’s turn to climb down. Eventually with all courage,we were able to climb down. We rewarded ourselves with a good splash of the cold water from the falls. Though we survived the climb but we were not free from leaf cuts, bruises and stone cuts. For the first time in such a long time, I was proud of the scars I got from that trek.

EAT Danao

            “You don’t pay for the rides, you pay for the experience” this is the quote I remembered back to the very first time I went to EAT Danao. I’ve been there for four times already and tried the rides already so I wasn’t pretty excited about it. My coldness towards the activity was pretty much in contrast to my companions’ excitement because it was their first time to be there.  

         

  Circulating rumors like that the place is already not safe or is abandoned already are not true in fact, when we were there we have tried activities like the Zipline, Cable Car and somehow watched some tourists braved the Plunge. In my humble assessment, the rides, the place and the activities are all packed for a rough and tough experience.

Gypsy’s Tips

• ·         Always contact the right people. For example, make bookings ahead of time and contact tour guides to help you wander in there.

We stayed in Hon. Ponciano Suter's humble home. You can also make your reservation one day before the stay. You can contact him or his wife through this number #09995170510

For the ride, you can also contact Kuya Benoy, who can be your driver, photographer and tour guide, through this number #09487799629

• ·         Check the weather since the sea of clouds rely heavily on the temperature

• ·         Travel with people you like.

• ·         Know the itinerary like in our case we thought that we are just going to hike but turned out we had a river trekking in our list.

• ·          From Tagbilaran, you can ride a van to Danao or buses.

• If you also have your own car, you can visit there conveniently. There are signages that are going to guide you.

• There are so many things you can do in Danao and it is a wise decision to visit the place.

  Note:

  To Irene V. De Claro, Jasmine Torrejas, Juvelyn Teves and Anabilla Siason, thank you for the friendship, love, care, jokes and comfort. I will always cherish those. Now that we are going in different directions, I hope that we will always remember that there will be always an "US". Kudos!

White handkerchief

I’m standing in the dark old wooden dock

Closing my eyes to see clearly

I’m just listening

To the sound of splashes slapping the stones below

To the harsh hum of the wind in my ear

To the distant laughters of people nearby

to the creaking of the woods

to the faint crittering of creatures

to my own heavy breathing

it’s when you see nothing when you feel everything

When I opened my eyes I saw you in that scene

I saw everything from that moment the Captain said “All aboard!”

You waved your white handkerchief

And then the sea  swayed you away forever.

Tug of Stares

  He used to stick his face in the window trying his best to glue his eyes on me while I was busy reading my book. He would stay there in a lapse of time looking at me like a painter looking at the ornate details of his subject. At first, I didn’t mind the nameless phantom that was lurking in the corner but seeing him looking at me as if I am the most beautiful thing in the world, made me decide to say “Hi” the next time. The next day, the same thing happened but this time, I acknowledged his presence and smiled at him. It was a casual smile and his reaction was priceless. He shouted “yes” and ran somewhere in the dark realm of anonymity. Deep within me, something was forming. A formation which I can’t fully comprehend but yet I suffered the symptom. I just want to see him again by the window sticking his face while eyes were fixed on me.  Finally, the next day, he said something his eyes can’t and it was his name. We talked for hours over things that weren’t matter and definitely not important and beyond the logical woman that I claimed to be, I can’t understand why I’m dying to talk to him. The next day, with all excruciating excitement and thrill, my eyes searched for his eyes and found a familiar built standing to the next room. With all curiosity, I went out and found him eyeing to the new girl in the next room. I went back to my room and wished I didn’t look back when those eyes were on me.