This is a tag originally from Leap of Faith but I kinda took this from Brother Utoy. I decided to do this because 1) It’s been quite a while since I did a tag like this, 2) I have no in between for my Ka Pepe harhar. So let me answer point by point these very interesting questions:

Question One: Recall a period of time in your life when you felt protected.

• Except of course when I use that little bubble, wrapped in a tin foil during emergency situations, I always feel protected whenever I’m in my own familiar territory. I’m a little bit OC that’s why whenever I’m in a weird place or a situation that I haven’t experienced before, I’m so cautious and conscious to the point that I check every 5 minutes if all my stuff is with me or everything is in its proper place. Having the animal archetype of a tiger, I am very territorial. Which means you don’t go to my lair unless you are invited or have been there before. Sometimes when visitors who I do not know from Adam starts roaming around my territory and going beyond their limits as a visitor, my spider sense keeps on buzzing as if something or someone is telling me to go over there and devour the visitor. Haha yeah ganun ako ka OC at Praning! Even in my personal life, I just don’t let anyone pry on me or probe me. When you talk to me personally, and this is 99% proven, I can read hearts. That’s why some of my closest friend doesn’t lie to me because I’m a biological lie detector. I hate it when people stalk me or hack my private life because I always see to it that my private life only belongs to the people I love or close to me. Hehe You should hear me psyche people around whenever I sense that they are forcing me to cough up some informations that are not anymore intended for their nosy ears. Masyado ako protective at protected haha that it takes a lifetime before you finally find my vulnerability. Some says it’s insecurity, but for me it’s prudence. Putting things and people in perspective and in their proper places.

Question Two: Recall a period of time in your life when you feel unprotected.

• Yeah. Whenever I am with my mentor in the seminary, I always feel unprotected in a sense that “this guy knows me more than I know myself”. He is my superior in the seminary and he has become one of my heroes in life. I should have written here that I feel protected when I am with him but I’m not. I always feel vulnerable when this guy is around precisely because he can also read hearts, he can read minds, he can sense souls, he knows everything. I use to label him in my journal as the “omnipotent one” because he has this gift to sense the deepest desires and problems of your heart as if he is actually reading your mind. He is a graduate of BS Psychology in UST (Magna Cum Laude) and I tell you, this guy i not just a shrink but an honest to goodness magic mirror. There was this one time that we had our weekly confession and there are no priest available except him. So I have no choice but to confess my sins to him lest i will risk my soul burning after I receive communion. When I finished telling him my sins, he then told me that I forgot something… then he made me remember that little sin that I was keeping in my heart. I was stupefied because I never told anyone about that venial sin. From then on I never hid any secret from that priest because it’s useless. He knows me that well that even before I make some lame excuse (of not attending his class), he already knew what it was. Brilliant. Utterly brilliant guy! And yes, I managed to rub myself with his gift, which I only noticed when I left the seminary. Try me!

Question Three: When was the first time you discovered power?

• When my classmates in the 6th grade started to smell like jack fruits (ay sorry, anghit pala yun, ibang power pala yun)… LOL Seriously, when I entered the seminary, I began to realize the meaning of power. The power to change lives just by listening to their heartaches. The power to change hearts just by caring. The power to influence people just by being sincere and true in whatever you do. And the power to change the world starting with your self and doing simple and small things in extraordinary ways. Power cannot be gauge through arrogance, fame and fortune. Power resides on the will of the person to change himself for the better, and in the process the world around him.

Question Four: Name a person who?s life affected you most.

• hmmm there are three people who affected my life the most. A female bestfriend in High school, A priest in the Capuchin order and a student nurse who I befriended during my stint as a college professor. These three people are the only citizens in the entire planet who entered my psyche without my knowledge and resistance and were able to relate themselves to my uber mysterious personality. Sila lang yung nakapasok sa uber guarded ko na personality hehe. Even our PHD’s in psychology (resident seminary psychologists) proved impotent when they tried to probe me. Even the rorschach test was no match for me hehe. Try mo baka sakali mapasok mo utak ko…

Question Five: Give the title of the book that has affected you most.

• “Tuesdays with Morrie“. You know I read a lot of books and somehow, their messages just fly through in my mind like a sparrow entering and leaving its bird’s nest. But this book really made an indelible mark on my being and existence that I can’t seem to stop reading it over and over again. The message of the book is so simple yet profound that I was able to apply it in my daily life. This blog exist because of that book. I won’t give you the gist or even the kernels of its wisdom. I’ll just try to intrigue you so that you’ll be enthused to buy the book and read it for yourself.

Question Six: A piece of music or song/s that affected you the most.

• Cool Change by the Little River Band, Awit ng Paghahangad by Arnel Aquino SJ and Pilgrim’s Theme by Manoling Francisco SJ. These three songs sum up what I want in life and who I really am without the deceiving masks of pretensions. I first heard Cool Change in a toothpaste commercial when I was in the 6th Grade. I thought it was just a jingle until I heard the full track of that song over the radio. And since then it has become one of my most favorite songs that I even have the guts to sing it on bars when bands have open mic sessions. This song also reflects my personality as an INFJ in which Dolphins is its most closest archetype. Awit ng Paghahangad is actually a song based fully in Psalm 63. This psalm is considered a love song by King David to God. The first time I heard it from voices of the Capuchin seminarians (I was an aspirant then), I felt something inside me that until now I can’t explain. And during those times when the seminary needed a psalmist, I was often tasked to sing this song especially during feast days wherein the liturgy assigns psalm 63 as its main psalm. This has been my love song to God ever since. Lastly, Pilgrims theme is about one’s journey in life searching for his place in the grand scheme of things. I even used one of its line as my tag line in this blog. All of these three songs affected me so much that they all became an instrument for me to face boldly the hardships of the present life and the whiplash of my past history.

Question Seven: A Movie or a film that affected you the most.

• hmmmm madami eh.. pero eto talaga mga the best.. “Brother Sun, Sister Moon“, “The Good Son“, “Goodwill hunting“, “Frequency“, “Finding Forrester“, “Men of Honor“, “Antwone Fisher“, “The Guardian“, “Gladiator“, Big Daddy” and “John Q“. Sometimes it’s so strange when you see yourself being portrayed in that movie… If you’ve already seen all of this films, then you can guess why it has affected me so much. Least to say, I see myself as the prodigal son in the light of the Fatherhood of the Almighty and Omnipotent God. No need to explain, just watch these movies and look for my personality in the Characters portrayed as sons, protagonist and antagonists alike.. ako lahat yun!

Question Eight: Who or what influenced you to start blogging?

• No one influenced me to blog. It’s actually my passion to write. But the situation that really led me to blog my life and humiliate myself in front of the entire planet is when I resigned from my Job because of the uncertainties that it brought to my professional life and of course I was all alone here in our house (my mom and dad went to the US), so it’s really hard to live all by yourself. Walang makausap at walang makaaway haha. So I started blogging just to have a repository of my thoughts and journey. Little did I know that there are people reading my stuff so I decided to make my blogging habit as a career haha. O tingnan nyo, kumikita pa ako from what started as a passion…