OK na Ok in OKC

Monday, January 1, 2024

Thanksgiving week! It's my first Thanksgiving day. I was looking forward to it. One week break for our Thanksgiving day here in our place. A break we all deserve!

It took us 6 to 7 hours to reach Oklahama City. It was long yet fun and exciting drive. We visited a lot of beautiful, historic, and artsy places around the city.

A two-day trip from Texas to Oklahama was something we can afford from the one week Thanksgiving break. We weren't able to visit places with entrance fee. We tried to limit our expenses on this trip.

Oklahama is the second state I got to visit among the fifty in the United States of America. It's still feel surreal sometimes that I am already here. It wasn't an easy journey and I am grateful to God for sustaining me every single day, every hour, every minute, and every second of every moment.

Okay na okay sa Oklahama City!

We Are Heavenly Bodies, Are We?

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

What if the governing entities of this NASA are heavenly bodies who want to return home? And they have been doing it since humans barely learned how to get out there, in outer space. They have been trying to put themselves back in the heavenly realms yet until now they haven't fully discovered the most efficient and effective way to return where they originally come from.

Or maybe, we as humans always have that intense desire to return home, to the heavenly realms. We, ourselves, are heavenly bodies and we're just trying to make it back home in our own way, in our own time, in our own effort.

These were just a few of the many thoughts I had when we visited NASA Space Center in Houston, Texas.

I was excited and so looking forward when there was a plan to go there, well, except for the unexpected expenses that might go beyond my budget but I had no choice but to take risk or else I wouldn't be able to visit it on my own because I had no car and the more the merrier.

All I could see were pictures and realia and souvenirs, and I was not enjoying it. I was looking for something that could make me experience what it was like to be in outer space. My expectations were too high.

We continued to roam around the Space Center and finally something caught my attention. I saw people sitting comfortably on a makeshift chair for astronauts. The two persons were looking on their own monitor as they felt how it was like to be seated on a skyrocket that was about to take off. The vibration added to the experience of the take off. There was a short line waiting to experience the same and we also did wait for our turn. I liked it. I enjoyed it.

We got to tour the facilities while riding a tram of the actual working area where they practice the astronauts and develop equipment and machines that would help the human race to further have access to outer space. A life size skyrocket ship amazed by how huge it was.

So what if humans really are heavenly bodies? What if we're originally from outerspace and we so desire to go back where we belong, to return back home? Just think about it, we might be the aliens of this world and the native dwellers are the animals we rule over with. What are odds!

A Time To Be Lonely

Monday, November 6, 2023

Her eyes were filled with water from the heavy rain drops of life's joy and pain. Overwhelmed, she tried to hold up the tears in the corners of her eyes. Wishing time would stop and save her from the rush of emotions that was about to trample her defenses. But instead of fighting back the tears, she surrendered and let the rain fall down on her cheeks, on her face.

As the tears poured out, shame and guilt were nowhere to be found. Instead, she was freed, she was at peace, she had joy.

Tears persistently trailed down on her cheeks as she stood up in front of her class. Shocked, her students asked, "Are you okay, miss? Why miss?" Concern was evident on their faces. She was too stunned to even give them a response.

"Please, give me a minute." She pleaded and turned her back from them.

Inside the room safe from the eyes of the young ones, she wept and wept as she completely surrendered to the raging time of loneliness. As if that loneliness demanded to be felt, to be released. She thought to herself now was not the right time, "Damn it!"

Yet, it was the perfect time, not according to her, but according to the One greater than anyone. "Probably, now is the time to be lonely," she thought to herself again.

A few moments passed, she returned to where the young ones were.

"Are you okay, miss?" They asked again, once she made it to where they were.

She replied, "Yes. I'm okay, maybe I just missed home."

"Aww, miss..." Some gently interjected, as they group and side hugged her.

"You okay, miss?" Some asked again.

"Yes. I just missed home." Sincerely with a smile on her face, she replied.

Little Woman in a Little Forest with a Little Dream

Saturday, October 21, 2023

It was the long weekend I so looked forward to. I did not plan to be grand. Staying at home was the first thing I had in mind when I learned that there would be a long weekend in our district this October. Giddy and excited, the meaningful and purposeful days passed by in almost three weeks. I listed down in my journal the things I needed to accomplish. I started my to-do list and was successful with some of them.

Watching movies and series is one of the hobbies I get to enjoy ever since I was a child, yet that joy seems nowhere to be found now. I have been wandering and looking for a movie or series that can bring back the spark and joy in watching cinematic art.

My wandering in the land of streaming and binging brought me to Tubi, an on demand video streaming app. The shows on Tubi appeal to my interest.

The South Korean movie 'Little Forest' caught my attention and awakened the dormant joy I had whenever I watch a movie.

The female lead was a familiar sight. Cute was the first word I would describe her. Her whole demeanor was a breath of fresh air.

The changing season in a small rural area in South Korea is like bringing colors to the black and white scenery of life.

The cold winter comes with sadness whereas a blooming spring brings hues of hope to the loneliness of the little woman. The summer heat pricks the skin of ignorance from the fickle-minded little woman. The falling autumn journeys with the wind as it goes along to the course of life and suffering.

Time makes the seasons change. Time makes little dreams come true. How time works is simple, yet the most difficult to understand with just our feeble human minds, without wisdom it is impossible.

The Little Forest is me, or maybe you.

arlena manosot

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