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MOTHERLINE by Rica Bolipata Santos
2 COMMENTS
January 03, 2011

Remembering

110103_remembrance_fireworks_831331.jpgThis will begin with a memory. It is 1998 on New Year’s Eve and we are outside my in-law’s house lighting fireworks to welcome the new year. A stray firework zings past us and hits my sister-in-law. It is painful, of course and then and there we vow to never use fireworks again.

This is a bit bittersweet for me. Every year, for as far back as my memory can go, my father and I have had a crazy ritual. We would go to Cubao and buy fireworks, crazy hats and torotots. The game we set up was that buying fireworks was an illegal act (which it was if I remember correctly) and it took a bit of derring-do. Fireworks were never on display. You had to be approached by someone and a deal would be made. My father always made this fun, and even when I had grown up, and considered the whole exercise corny, I did not have it in me to not play the game. MORE >>
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MOTHERLINE by Rica Bolipata Santos
1 COMMENT
December 09, 2010

I Give Up!

101208_i_give_up_stars_223763.jpgMy son said something strange to me last week: “Mom, for Christmas I’m thinking of a really good sacrifice.” (Wasn’t I just thinking of “astonishment” in my last entry? Well, here I was once again, astonished by my son!)

My mother, who lives with me, was quick to confirm his sentiment. “Yes, Antonio. Christmas is tied to Lent, and both require sacrifice and celebration.” I thought it was a wonderful way to manage the season, what with its ability to make children crazy with gifts galore.

Like the Little Drummer Boy, what will my present be to Christ this Christmas? What am I willing to give up? Here you go then, my own list–and I do hope that there is time, in the craziness of the season, to make yours. MORE >>
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MOTHERLINE by Rica Bolipata Santos
52 COMMENTS
November 24, 2010

Astonishment

101124_astonishment_ocean_361362.jpgAstonishment. This is my new favorite word.

I can imagine my First Astonishment. Perhaps it was when I saw the ocean: big, blue, massive. It had no arms but looked like it stretched to reach an endlessness that lay just beyond. I must have thought they were brother and sister, forever tied through an expanse of sky.

At three years old, finally conscious, my father led me to the ocean and let me go. How I so wanted to embrace the ocean back. I can blurrily remember my father running after me, astonished too, at my affinity for the water. He assumed I would be afraid. I astonished him. MORE >>
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PINAY IN HOLLYWOOD by Janet R. Nepales
1 COMMENT
November 17, 2010

Filipina dancing champion Cheryl Burke receives Voice Over Violence Award

101117_pinay_in_hollywood_cheryl_burke_dance.jpgLOS ANGELES --- The lovely and talented Cheryl Burke of Dancing With the Stars (DWTS) recently received the Voice Over Violence award from Peace Over Violence (POV) during its 39th Annual Humanitarian Awards Dinner held at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Dressed in a sexy black tube dress, the Filipina two-time DWTS champion said in an exclusive interview, “I am so honored to receive this award. Domestic violence is so near and dear to my heart. As a teenager, I was a victim of teen dating violence. I have come out and talked about it because I think it is very important to be open about it since it is a very serious matter.”

Cheryl, 26, who is of Filipino, Russian, and Irish descent, also brought along her Filipino mom, Sherrie Bautista-Burke, a businesswoman who first instilled in Cheryl the love for dancing when she was a youngster. MORE >>
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MOTHERLINE by Rica Bolipata Santos
3 COMMENTS
November 09, 2010

Angel of God, My Guardian Dear

101109_angel_of_god_angel.jpgFinally, after a grueling 72 hours taking care of Teodoro, my special son, I feel a little bit like myself again.

Many broken things yet again (I make a mental note to buy new drinking glasses) and all the pieces have finally been put away. Some items remained un-fixable, and we threw those away, a heaviness in our hearts. The doctor tells me all the time to change to plastic, and I tell him I cannot. To stick to glass is my last form of denial.

I turn to Dino and tell him that I might be brave enough to leave the house. I need to see something else. But still, I cannot be gone for anything long and complicated--a place where I can still be in pajamas without anyone noticing. For us, that can only be the bookstore in a small mall near where we live.
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