The Good Life

I love the good life and I admit I know no shame in living it, not flaunting it, whenever and wherever I can afford it.

Back in Zamboanga City, the good life is pretty much accessible and affordable. A favorite spot by the river is just a 5-minute drive from my grandparents' house in Pasonanca. The city has more than 10 beaches to choose from, the most famous of which is the Great Sta. Cruz island with its rare pink sand. Food is affordable (mmm, curacha!) and night life is good enough for fun.

It is true that security is a problem which affects the inflow of investments in spite of the city's great potential. For example, the city's economic zone can accommodate BPO companies. After all, chavacanos are easily hired to support Spanish-speaking clients in most call centers in Manila. Also, Sta. Cruz island can be developed for tourism. These days, the city is thriving primarily from the enterprising spirit of Tsinoys and Muslims, who come from Jolo. Don't get me wrong- we, chavacanos, are very proud of our heritage but we have learned to live well with Muslims, Tsinoys, and Visayans.

On the other hand, I fear that too much development can bring about the end of the good rustic life. By then, will I still have that favorite spot by the river?

Sta. Cruz island below. I hate it that I do not have pictures I took of my own city. It's been quite a while since I have gone back home and when I was younger, unfortunately, I took a lot of things for granted. But I digress.

I had musings about mi ciudad de Zamboanga after visiting one of my favorite blog sites, My Castle in Spain by Lala Ema. Lala is French with Malagasy origins who now lives in Granada with her moncherie. The site is filled with pictures of her art (also her work), the terraces of Alhambra, her passions, the majestic views of Granada-- the good life!

I've been following her blog since early 2009 and I was excited about her new site, Un Mariage au Soleil (A Wedding Under the Sun). Her creativity is just all over the page. With Lala taking the helm as wedding planner, Granada could be a perfect wedding getaway.

Check out Lala Ema's blog sites:

http://www.mycastleinspain.blogspot.com/

http://mariageausoleil.blogspot.com/

** For more travels the backpacker way, check out www.ironwulf.net

Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example,'The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me sometimes, and I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.
Her voide. Her bright body. Her inifinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my sould is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

- Pablo Neruda, Nobel prize laureate for Literature in 1971