I was sitting many mornings ago by my front window. A luminous, beautiful African American woman with a neat hairdo passed by. My heart wanted to ask her the secret of her luminosity.
I ran out of my front door and, huffing and puffing, approached her. With audacity and asking for an apology for stopping her, I asked her my question: I sense your bright aura and contentment. What is your secret?
She responded: “I try to leave the place wherever I am or work at, better than I found it.” It became my theme, and to remember, I had it printed on the back of my business card.
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One Sunday, at the Farmer’s Market, with temperate weather and sun at its peak rise, I met a nine yo Iranian girl, quite pensive. She was drawing and coloring. I asked her why she looked so sad.
She said: “I was staying at my friend’s house, a mansion. We were crying. We could hear her parents shouting. We could not play.”
I then asked her what her drawing was about. She has a dream “to be Mayor of Los Angeles and to build homes for those living in the streets.” I hugged her after asking permission from her mom. The Mayor then was Antonio Villaraigosa, in 2004. That was 19 years ago when LA City residents were already concerned about homelessness.
I am sharing this post with Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Karen Bass – may your influential powers be positive forces for good!
Humanity has to care more for others instead of accumulating more numerical digits in our bank accounts.
Photos of breakfast and dinner for my family, my other mother, and my workers, finishing a project, with other inspiring images for me.-@Prosy Delacruz, 2023.
“The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation. The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.”- Kate Chopin
Imagine reading this after our breakfast at Beachside Inn – I was at once giddy and excited despite the heavy rains. I once encountered a security guard who told me not to worry about the coffee I spilled. He said that connects me to Mother Earth. From that mindset, I saw the rains as blessings of #graceupongrace. Why? This month of January 2023, my daughter is expected to give birth, and the rains were pouring on the night of our anniversary.
We took a road trip where the rains met us not while traveling but when we had already checked in. There was no rain while we did our sightseeing.
Hubby took me on a drive up to Hope Ranch. What a beautiful drive even with the rains, the orange flowers from the aloe plant were symbolic that our mutual love is still alive.
Having this celebration made me look back that our enduring marriage was due to several factors: honesty in communication despite difficulties, road trips to enjoy each other’s company, celebrating each year of our anniversary, date nights, doing thoughtful things for each other, friends validating our personal strengths and common social causes of activism we both support, and serving others.
With that aspect of service and mentoring others – we mature, we grow, we are open to feedback, and we keep improving ourselves to be our best selves to each other.
Hubby and I dined at the #1 restaurant in Santa Barbara, Toma, and walked a few steps to it. I did not plan it to be that close, but given the reviews, it was my choice: fresh halibut, octopus salad, salmon with crispy skin, and gnocchi with Argentinian shrimp capped with a chocolate oozing dessert/tart. Yummy!
The next day, we met Rina for mass at the Monastery of Poor Clares. After, she took us to Alessia, the #1 breakfast place in Montecito. It was yummy to my tummy, to say the least, but also presented well.
Rina gave me a tour of Montecito, where I saw Meghan and Harry’s front gate and Oprah’s front gate. To protect their security, I am not posting, given the British tabloid press’s insatiable appetite to create false news.
We then went to Rosewood Miramar Hotel, developed by Rick Caruso, a former LA City Mayor candidate. We sat looking at the beach and talked for hours, exchanging soul-to-soul stories and acquiring wisdom from transcending our challenges. The Manor House, the railroad tracks, the cottages by the sea, and the gardens were all well-manicured and developed well.
From Rina’s stories, she shared Fr. Virgil Cordano’s homeless day center. I requested to visit it, and we met her daughter. In that center, I found nuns and lay volunteers helping marginalized homeless residents with two meals a day, a recliner to take a nap, an art and computer center, a chapel, a place for haircuts, and four appliances to do laundry. Respect and Community and Compassion. The Center is a project of both Daughters of Charity Nuns and Franciscan priests. I venture to say it is a best practice center where unhoused folks are treated with respect. Showers Blessings is a partner to help homeless folks get their personal grooming needs met. Funds are donated.
In the evening, we dined at the #1 sushi place patronized by the locals of Montecito, where the likes of Stedman Graham, Oprah’s fiancee, eat. It truly was the best dinner we had, as well as Toma’s. We had Tower, merry-go-round, sashimi, bass, salad, and more. For ice cream, we walked several yards to Rotis. I noticed that walking and short travel distances contribute to a better quality of life: longer playground hours, longer bike rides, long walks, and even longer kayaking and surfing times.
On our last day, we traveled via Malibu and appreciated the voice of the sea once more. The voice of the sea was prominent in both our outbound and inbound travel.
Backstory:
This year marks our 44th wedding anniversary. We were married on Jan.4, 1979, with only 25 folks which included my family and my stepson, Keith.
All photos of our wedding were taken by Van Lim, a UPI photographer chosen by my husband. Van captured the emotional peak of the moments.
We renewed our vows with Fr. Camilo Pacanza at St. Lucy’s Church a decade and some years back. He persuaded Enrique that three decades have passed. We got our vows renewed, with God and God’s steward with us.
Do I still get excited about celebrating it? I do, and now that we are less in youth and more in age, the year goes fast, and I stretch the celebration to days.
Happy 44th anniversary, Enrique de la Cruz – my dad did not bet on us lasting this long, and you thought we would last only five years? God certainly has a better plan than even my dad or you, or I can conceive. Here’s to more Caminos!!
P.S. Thank you to my dear family and friends for helping us get here
Welcoming 2023 with good longtime friends is a plus! It is even more treasured when conversations can flow back and forth, we can all share, and we can all grow together as loving spirits.
Thank you for hosting Mon David Ann David and Nicole David Yalong. The dishes were all good, and the best soups of beef sinigang and mongo with bittermelon are my five stars!
Thank you, Miko Zuñiga and Don Martin Sagarbarria – the desserts were amazing, and I savored every bite.
I have been dreaming big and sharing the wishes of my heart with the Universe and Facebook.
First – to just see Oprah in person. I got that wish through Janet Susan Rodriguez Nepales and Ruben V. Nepales and even got invited to see the film, Precious and a gift, an orange scarf with Precious to remember.
Second wish was to see American Idol’s Filipina singer named Jessica Sanchez who we actively rooted for. Would you believe I got that wish through Jenni Kuida who casually invited me? The Universe heard me again.
Fourth wish was to cover Pope Francis at the White House headed then by President Barack Obama? Would you believe I got invited as one of the 500 journalists to the White House?
One more wish, to have a meal at the White House cooked by Executive Chef Cristeta Cris Comerford with talented Filipino chefs like Romy Dorotan, Kuya Lord and TatangLA’s chef.
Another wish is to live to be worthy to be St. Prosy, that when I die, I am welcomed to join you all as saints in heaven. Just imagine all we interact with have the same goals on earth? Would we then create heaven on earth and ultimately enter our eternal home in heaven? Such lofty goals!
Please, let my wish come true! Salamat po Panginoon! You have granted my wishes through these #earthangels
It was the year 431 A.D. when the Council of Fathers proclaimed Mary, the Mother of the Lord Jesus as the Mother of the Church, such that her humanity is our humanity – Sister Bernadette.
This is Pope Francis’ homily, excerpted in part here. I attended the livestreamed mass in the Vatican in Rome on January 1, 2023.
By incarnation, he united with us humans and loved us with as human heart. That is what God did, being born of Mary. God does not love in words, but in deeds, from within the human flesh.
In Mary, the Word became flesh, a heart that beats for each of us. Many tomes have been written and accompanied the rhythm of our days. For me, it was #iylagranola making, walking and supporting a neighborhood coffee shop.
During the day, draws God into our lives, in all languages. [Over 300 spoken in Los Angeles alone]. The Mother of God hears us and responds to our petitions. In a word, Mary gives us hope, just like this earth needs rain. [So, it did in LA].The key to hope is Mary. In how we pray Holy Mother of God, pray for us sinners – a prayer sounded all over the world several times a day in different languages.
May the Lord lift up His countenance in you and peace be yours. God wants to enter our hearts and our world, guided by the shepherds, perhaps poor and uncouth, the first to recognize God in us. They went and they saw – to go and to see.
To go – the gospel says they went with haste. They could have waited till dawn, or sunrise, but went with haste. First important things, no delay, work with haste. If we are to invite God – recognize the moment, take the risk! Where do I want to go? Who is it that I can help? They are waiting for your help. The shepherds are summoning us to get involved, to dirty our hands, the humility of service, the acts of courage in caring for others.
To see. What is important they saw him. They saw the Child – to adore, to welcome, to contemplate and to see.
Let us dedicate and see what matters – God, our brothers and our sisters, our neighbors. Are we attracted in awe to others or to the keyboard in false tranquility? To take time to listen to our elders, discover our roots – capable to see folks next door, visit our neighbors?
Let’s learn to see and understand with our hearts to see others – to conquer the tiredness, the false peace of seduction to materialism, let us invoke her, the Madonna – the Holy Mother of God!
Reflections: it sounded beautiful to hear the prayers of the faithful in French, Chinese, Ukrainian, Russian, and African languages.
To go and to see, to hear another is what I strive to be, and more consistently for my #princess2015la to fill up her love tank.
To be fully present for family, friends and neighbors. Happy New Year 2023 – may we love more and act righteously!
Why righteous – to engage our hearts and brains and Spirit to connect more, without offending another. To be conscious of every word uttered and act in haste to go and to see!
God harvested the cream of the crop to end 2022, symbolic of love, truth, joy, and masterful performance. I take that as the virtue to live by in 2023.
First, let me pay homage to Pele with a 97.5% efficacy and performance score. Wikipedia describes it more:”Pelé is the joint-top goalscorer for Brazil with 77 goals in 92 games. At the club level, he was Santos’ all-time top goalscorer with 643 goals in 659 games.”
Next is my aunt in law who passed 2 days after Christmas. I described her life’s currency and lifestyle as embodying love and giving love to her children, grandchildren, other folks children and her great grandchildren. She is love and joy, embodied.
Third is Barbara Walters, a media professional who was a guardian of truth and democracy. She asked the unvarnished questions to get at the truth and facts.
Fourth is Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI who sought the face of Jesus, wrote his trilogy on faith and anchored his life on his philosophy as cooperators of truth. Theoretically, his intellectual pursuits are of high caliber. He has the foresight to resign in 2005 to hand over the governance to Pope Francis who took actions to reform the Church of decades of sexual abuse. He introduced a policy of referring a priest or bishop to civil authorities when accused of crimes of sexual abuse and financial abuse.
