Tuesday, January 31, 2012

W.B. Yeats - A Prayer For My Daughter

A Prayer For My Daughter

Once more the storm is howling, and half hid
Under this cradle-hood and coverlid
My child sleeps on. There is no obstacle
But Gregory's wood and one bare hill
Whereby the haystack- and roof-levelling wind,
Bred on the Atlantic, can be stayed;
And for an hour I have walked and prayed
Because of the great gloom that is in my mind.

I have walked and prayed for this young child an hour
And heard the sea-wind scream upon the tower,
And under the arches of the bridge, and scream
In the elms above the flooded stream;
Imagining in excited reverie
That the future years had come,
Dancing to a frenzied drum,
Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.

May she be granted beauty and yet not
Beauty to make a stranger's eye distraught,
Or hers before a looking-glass, for such,
Being made beautiful overmuch,
Consider beauty a sufficient end,
Lose natural kindness and maybe
The heart-revealing intimacy
That chooses right, and never find a friend.

Helen being chosen found life flat and dull
And later had much trouble from a fool,
While that great Queen, that rose out of the spray,
Being fatherless could have her way
Yet chose a bandy-leggèd smith for man.
It's certain that fine women eat
A crazy salad with their meat
Whereby the Horn of Plenty is undone.

In courtesy I'd have her chiefly learned;
Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned
By those that are not entirely beautiful;
Yet many, that have played the fool
For beauty's very self, has charm made wise,
And many a poor man that has roved,
Loved and thought himself beloved,
From a glad kindness cannot take his eyes.

May she become a flourishing hidden tree
That all her thoughts may like the linnet be,
And have no business but dispensing round
Their magnanimities of sound,
Nor but in merriment begin a chase,
Nor but in merriment a quarrel.
O may she live like some green laurel
Rooted in one dear perpetual place.

My mind, because the minds that I have loved,
The sort of beauty that I have approved,
Prosper but little, has dried up of late,
Yet knows that to be choked with hate
May well be of all evil chances chief.
If there's no hatred in a mind
Assault and battery of the wind
Can never tear the linnet from the leaf.

An intellectual hatred is the worst,
So let her think opinions are accursed.
Have I not seen the loveliest woman born
Out of the mouth of Plenty's horn,
Because of her opinionated mind
Barter that horn and every good
By quiet natures understood
For an old bellows full of angry wind?

Considering that, all hatred driven hence,
The soul recovers radical innocence
And learns at last that it is self-delighting,
Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,
And that its own sweet will is Heaven's will;
She can, though every face should scowl
And every windy quarter howl
Or every bellows burst, be happy still.

And may her bridegroom bring her to a house
Where all's accustomed, ceremonious;
For arrogance and hatred are the wares
Peddled in the thoroughfares.
How but in custom and in ceremony
Are innocence and beauty born?
Ceremony's a name for the rich horn,
And custom for the spreading laurel tree.


~William Butler Yeats

Monday, January 30, 2012

Random

photo by julienne

photo by julienne

photo by julienne

photo by julienne

Mier - Jing Wedding










Thank you Prep for this gig.
Location: Malagos Garden Resort
January 18, 2012

Friday, January 6, 2012

Jamie Libera

This is me making fun of my sister and her obsession with anything choral. =p

jamie libera

Her name's Jamie and she was part of the University of Mindanao Chorale when it won the NAMCYA 2009 competition. Anyone here sings in the shower? I do and I sing songs with lyrics. My sister does, too, but you'll only hear ooohs and aaahs from her.

This idea came while we were sorting through CDs in a store. We got hold of Libera's Christmas album and I started making fun of her, telling that I could make her an album cover. But in all fairness, she was very game.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Crochet for Gifts

Instead of money, I spent time and effort to make gifts for friends and family last Christmas. All patterns, except for the bracelets, are from Japanese crochet books in original or modified form.

crochet purple flower brooch and broomstick lace bracelet
a purple flower brooch to match my mother's office uniform and bracelets for friends

amigurumi strawberry keychain crochet
An amigurumi strawberry keychain. 
First time to make one.
The sewing part is rather difficult because of its tiny size.

crochet glass/bottle holder
glass/bottle holder for my father, to be used at work.

crochet house keychain
house keychain for my brother. He's into real estate :)

Sunday, January 1, 2012

2012

"Today is the beginning of the end."

LOL I got that from a status update of a friend.

New year's day is a perfect time to talk about beginnings. It's the time most people make resolutions, to do or not to do certain things, which most also tend to forget a month after. I used to make new year's resolutions, then it became middle-of-the-year resolutions, until I stopped altogether. I believe every day is a beginning, or a chance to begin, to have a fresh start. But I don't want to start all the time. What I'm trying to say is, if one's following my line of thought, that I'm a slacker. If I had a vice, it would be sleep. That's what I want to change badly. God help me.

This year I pray for new beginnings for my friend and his family who lost their house in the recent Magallanes fire; also for all those victims of all floods in Mindanao, from Iligan and to Cagayan, Bukidnon and Carmen, Davao del Norte. May all the lost souls find peace, and the ones left recover quickly.

Happy New Year!