To have and to hold are not permanent states of existence.

Do not retrieve souvenirs from a building that burned down.

Glowering skies over Cubao.

Turned on the incandescent lamps. House looking cozy.

Went jalan-jalan, and glad it didn't rain both ways, to and from the center. Checked out something and was so let down when I discovered it was made of resin. Passed, of course. I want our house to be a resin-less house.

Bought three useful items and also phone cards for the granddaughters.

To divide your year into two, manageable time frames, celebrate the New Year twice--on December 31 and on July 1.

Haven't you noticed that some of the world even divides the year into quarters and therefore celebrates the New Year four times? January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1.

Half the year is over.

Should write _Cubao Ilalim: Ikalawang Aklat_ sometime soon and do a portrait of Keng Sen, for starters.

The June leaf falls off my planner.

Watch your art.

To be clever and to be creative are two different things.

Only after you have settled your obligations can you begin a major work of art.

There are two, big sails on the ship of your good karma--your life dream and your career. While they cannot always be one and the same, they can comfortably exist parallel to each other.

The secret to individuality is to not emulate the persons you would like to be. It is to be content with yourself IN RELATION to those persons.

If it's something you don't see yourself wearing everyday, don't buy it.

Be silent and observe, for your stardom relies on your self-effacement.

Your power animals do not remain the same throughout your life. Some of them move on and others come in, depending on the major changes and your needs as you go through your life journey. That is why you have to keep attuning to them in order to identify them.

The sun is a bangle of white gold.

Good morning, Cubao!

Angelique and J. are off to a basketball game.

Dinner at home with Angelique, Aubrey, and J.

Caught the American Ninja Warrior replay and it was about time someone won--and someone who could use a million USD.

Hold a pink, glass ball in your left hand whenever you need to be gentle, affectionate, and appreciative of others.

I do because I can.

Cool night, cool day.

Angelique and J. went to pay for a bag Aubrey wants for school.

Now Aubrey is at gym.

Read more pages from The Dream Spheres.

Some examples of Philippine power animals:

Bat
Cat
Carabao, Water Buffalo
Cobra
Cow
Crow
Deer
Dog
Dove
Dugong
Eagle
Fish (specify)
Goat
Hawk
Horse
Lizard, Gecko, Salamander
Martinez
Pig
Python
Rat
Rice Bird
Rooster, Hen
Philippine sea creatures, such as Eel
Tamaraw
Tarsier
Turtle
Wild Boar
Wild Cat

All animals in the Chinese zodiac may be included.

I have also observed cases in which insects manifested as power animals.

Numbers of the power animals:

In front: 3

Behind: 1

On your right: 6

On your left: 7

Above: 8

Below: 9

Within: 5

Colors of the power animals:

In front: Red

Behind: Yellow

On your right: Blue

On your left: Orange

Above: White

Below: Maroon

Within: Green

The power animal in front of you leads, and paves the way before you. It is the persona of all your power animals, and is that which people see and by which they form an impression of you.

The power animal behind you follows and protects you. It is your Shadow Animal.

The power animal on your right works with you and helps you get things done.

The power animal on your left nourishes your wishes, dreams, and secret desires, and helps make them become reality.

The power animal above you should have wings, and guides you through your life journey and your careers.

The power animal below you helps you keep stealthy and well grounded.

The power animal within you is your medicine animal. It harnesses all your power animals, heals you when you are ill, and prevents you from psychosis. (Sociopaths are said to have power animals within them that are injured, dying, or dead.) Note that, in many cases, a person always moves like the power animal within him/her and even takes on the eyes and gaze of that animal.

Be careful whom you flirt with--it might be someone who takes you seriously.

Every student mage should be able to tell between real magical items and magical junk, which is comprised merely of cheap trinkets and souvenirs.

You know when pre-adolescents move to adolescence when they think of changing their clothes and their hairstyles.

It is Lizard (or Salamander) who keeps you potent.

Tony Perez's Art of War: You don't need to adjust to the world as long as you believe that the world will need to adjust to you.

When atchays want to get to know a person better, one of the first things they want to know is that person's sexual preference. They cannot proceed anywhere without that knowledge.

To empower a framed taladro with your own essence, hang it in your bedroom or bathroom, where you are frequently naked.

It pays to keep a folded taladro in every notebook and wallet. You will see the results in seven days.

We cannot turn back time but we can change the way we think and feel about it.

A day that unwinds can be rewound.

Lunch at home with the granddaughters.

After yesterday's sojourn, so happy to be spending the entire day at home again today.

You are Square One. That is why you keep going back to it.

You are the drawing board.

You are the coal or salt or opal mine.

You are the clean slate.

You are Ground Zero.

Saw something in a display window that I MUST have! NOW!

Loving rubies that remind me of dark strawberry jam and deep-red cherries.

Good morning, Cubao!

The clouds are treasure chests filled with white sapphires.

Came home with the granddaughters to a dark house and two hungry pet dogs.

The evening torrent brought some water into the house.

Dream only for yourself, never for other people, for you will discover that the dreams and fantasies and fugues of love they have for themselves are very far from yours.

From 2018 - 2021 do not give any baby the name of Roger. He will grow up to be a loser if you do. If you must name anyone Roger, do it from 2022 onward.

On weekday afternoons the Cubao Hogwarts Espresso Station is full of retired, old men like myself. They sit at tables discussing private business deals while I sit alone writing magical spells.

Before we left for the center our compound tenant informed me that he successfully nurtured and nourished the kitten we rescued to normal health. It ran off from his ground-floor unit, though, and joined the other cats on the building roof.

When the rain let up the first time today, I brought my granddaughters to the family dentist's, sat with them awhile, then went window-shopping for glass cloches and lanterns. Afterward I sat in the smoking area of the Cubao Hogwarts Espresso Station with a slice of lemon praline and a glass of pink guava juice. Went back to the dentist's to pick up my granddaughters afterward. Dinner and dessert.

Your lover's battles are his own. Do not fight them for him.

Your spirit guides seldom allow you to witness the suffering of your enemies.

Try mix-matching dinnerware.

You are either waiting for the rain to start or waiting for the rain to stop. Either way you are waiting.

When you're bored, unable to travel, and have nothing on hand to keep you entertained, just sit down and write a novel.

Never take for your own a gift that was not intended for you. It will keep bringing you bad luck.

Every person has something useful to teach, if only you will see it.

There must be something deeper behind the fact that every creature has its own, particular food.

A barangay is like a religious group when it values you not for your mind but for the potential, financial assistance they expect you to give.

When he can find nothing to laugh at, he laughs at other people's clothes.

Every group of employees has a female busybody who meddles in everyone's affairs, presses unsolicited advice, and clucks like a mother hen to compensate for all her personal problems. For many other employees, it is always a pleasure to put her down.

Never resent the success, edge, and advantage of a co-employee. You have no idea how he must viciously toil to keep that position.

Diamonds always sparkle in the sun like a thousand fireworks set in gold.

A nation founded on cheap entertainment will have nothing but hollow laughter after disaster strikes.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is a choker of gray pearls.

One of you will be designing a tree house dollhouse.

Consider having a beach-resort-motif porch, bathroom, or bedroom. It will be relaxing even on rainy days.

Fill a small box, pouch, or dish with ten, shiny, ten-peso coins and place that on your altar table. Ten is the number of the head of the household.

Always treat your daughters like ladies and your sons like gentlemen.

You must have at least one power animal that flies. (And an image of it.) The most common are Eagle and its Shadow, Condor.

Differences between friends are best settled earlier than later.

Boredom brings about the desire to play or the desire to destroy.

Don't fight it. Don't hide it. Man up and match up to it.

Today's fashion is tomorrow's period costume.

As you are beset with problems at work and at home, so are your children beset with problems at school and at home.

Tuesday Madness

B.L. helps me take care of the K.T.

The motif is there, a son who died.

Back from John's.

Organized all my Asian spirituality books in a book case.

"But all is changed with time/

The future no one can see/

The road you leave behind/

Ahead lies mystery/

But all is fair in love/

I had to go away/

A writer takes his pen/

To write the words again/

That all in love is fair/"

--Stevie Wonder

Waiting for the Cubao rain to stop.

Ask yourself what something means other than what it means.

There are times when the embrace of another human being is not enough. There is the love of the divine within you and the love of the divine within the other. Yet, you yearn even more strongly for the actual and physical touch of the divine, and are terrified with the possibility that you could spend an entire lifetime waiting for it.

How many moments are you one not with your lover but with the universe?

Thunder rolls to the east of Cubao.

Whenever the sky sends signals, the primordial man within me looks upward or out the window, and my consciousness rises above the rooftops to scan the neighborhood and the city beyond it. I think of loved ones far and near. I wonder whether the gods and goddesses are displeased about someone or something.

I light a scented candle and take consolation in its steady and unwavering flame.

A man or a woman, though bonded by commitment to another, must also view himself/herself in a unique relationship with the cosmos, for that is how he/she will attain a sense of completion.

A mage obsessed with magnifying lenses discovers many worlds within worlds.

When you think of cycles, think not in terms of circles but in terms of ascending spirals. That way even your times of sadness will be in an upward direction, and will elevate you.

Home alone.

The granddaughters went to university to pick up a copy of Angelique's transcript, after which they are having lunch in a restaurant in San Juan City.

Quite glad that Chito is out of hospital now.

Having lunch alone later, most probably at John's townhouse stand.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is the blank screen on which your spirit guides project your day.

Night Classes

Every house must satisfy not its designers but its residents, whether those residents have good taste or not.

A child who is frequently oppressed and tormented by his siblings will grow up to be a sociopath without a clue that his crimes are not attempts to get back at society but at his own family.

It is distasteful (pun intended) to announce your pride in food that brings you back to your childhood, considering that billions of other people never had a decent meal when they were children (and in many cases all the way through their adulthood).

Do not chuck out withered chili. Dry them out some more in the sun. They will actually taste hotter than fresh chili.

One of the most wonderful effects that Masterchef Australia has on its contestants is that they start out awkward and camera shy and then end up being veteran TV performers who know how to control their hair, their facial expressions, and their body movements, so that they jump right out of the TV screens and unto your lap.

Never think in terms of destiny. It prevents you from being realistic, down to earth, and well grounded.

There will always be war someplace or other as long as primitive man remains the Shadow of civilized man.

Envy prevents people from helping others.

It is envy, therefore, that is the true opposite of compassion.

You never cause other people's karma. They cause it themselves.

To every hermit, it is heaven to be left alone.

You may break a promise to an adult, but never do that to a child.

You need to give your children:

--Love
--Security
--A house/home
--Nutritious food
--Good food
--Education and career opportunities
--The development of their talents
--Religious and moral values
--Avenues to express themselves

All of this they may need to provide themselves after you have gone. And provide their own children as you provided for them.

They will find the box before this year is over.

And then they will visit Venus.

We greet the day and we greet the night. We should also learn to greet midnight and high noon.

Know your neighborhood. It is the context your house is in.