adventures in neverland

"all goes back to the earth, and so i do not desire price of excess or power, but the contentments made by men who have had little: the fisherman's silence receiving the river's grace, the gardener's musing on rows.."                          - the want of peace by wendell berry

pardon for another very emily post post. this week, my friends at the economic journalists association of the philippines had another seminar that taught the new reporters (and served as a refresher course for the old ones) the rigours of business journalism. in my younger days as a new business reporter, i looked forward to this as i didn't study journalism in college. i finished business management. the seminar is very helpful not only in sharpening our journalism tools, but also in establishing a strong camaraderie among practitioners in a rather fragmented industry, where every member is assigned to different beats and thus reporters rarely see or meet each other. but i wish the seminar would also have a session on humility and gratitude. you see, journalism exposes reporters to the most powerful people in and out of the country. and this can be very dangerous, especially for the new, vulnerable ones who might go home and think that just because they rub elbows with

"time will come when my body will no longer be able to travel. but in my heart and mind, i will revisit those little corners of the earth where a part of my soul rested, a portion of my heart stayed, and in my mind, they will always be alive." -- mahatma gandah. what is it about summer that inspires wanderlust? is it because of the heat and the sunshine that penetrate even the coldest and darkest places inside our souls? i leave you to ponder on these questions on this bright but late sunday morning, when i just had my favourite breakfast of vaghnet salad (the sinful meat from ilocos mixed with fresh, red, plump tomatoes and swimming in fish sauce and cane vinegar also from ilocos) and steamed rice. anyway, i promised you my dearies in my last post that i will have part two of my favourite summer places. actually, there isn't much more because every nook of the earth is a place to remember as long as you are with love ones, or if you happen to be alone (as in my

if i were to have an equation about summer, it would be like this: summer + scorching heat = wanderlust; where wanderlust is equal to beaches and mountains; and where beaches are greater than mountains. easy enough to remember, right, even for math haters like myself. but seriously, i always equate summer with the beach. not really swimming, no, just sitting on the sandy shore, sleeping probably, or staring at the blue seas and wondering what's underneath them, or where do those waters end. it's because i grew up near the beach. you see, our family used to live inside a military camp and just across it was one of samar's unspoiled beaches teeming with life. i remember endless summers as a child playing there all day long. i love it when it was high tide, usually during lunch time, and i and my friends, all children of military men, would play any game that we can think of, chasing each other on top of motorized boats that were parked near the shore, then jumping on the