This is our beach in Darigayos, Luna, La Union located North of the Philippines.

Jose Mari Chan Lyrics

From the very title of this song, one could do nothing but agree with its concept. As they say: "Change is the only permanent thing in this world."

This song reminds me so much of my father's siblings (paternal siblings) who were just my age. When we were younger, we got the chance to spend a very long vacation with them. We went to the beach, climbed the Grotto, went fishing, diving and all. We really "moved from place to place". From Pangasinan, then to La Union then to Manila. They were from Tuguegarao, by the way. (All of the places I mentioned, except Manila, are provinces from the North of the country.)

As kids, we truly enjoyed that time together. Now, I was reminded of this song again because we already seldom see each other. We gathered together once in 2006 when their youngest, PJ, got married. Now they are all linving in America albeit the three of them living in different states. We are now living apart from each other but that vacation we spent together in 1989 was so memorable! I am not sure if I can produce photos from that day but it sure is very vivid in my memory.

Through the internet, we still communicate with each other and we get to share our own accomplishments, our heart aches and how we miss the old days. It's always nice to be young, to be like Peter Pan and to always cherish the childishness in our hearts. This song asked: "Have we outgrown our Peter Pan's and wings?" It's a troubling question for me but I want to convince myself that sometimes I see myself as an adult but when bombarded with so much pressure already, I think of a happy thought. I think of my childhood -the good ones of course.

And life is a constant change, oh no!

To Jose Mari Chan: I have always loved this song and the others you've recorded.

My last post was about my best friend. This current song is about my high school friends because they were the ones who welcomed me into high school life and they accompanied me there. Unfortunately, they did not stay long.

I am talking about my big brother (we fondly call him "Bacon") who was in his Senior year when I was a freshman in high school. The three of us, me and my big sister and brother went to the same school although I must admit, I was closer with my brother back then. I had a classmate, maybe I could name her Chu, who became my friend and while I was close to my brother, she also developed this closeness to him. All these happened when we, Chu and I, were in still in the first year level.

The three of us go to church together, and if we had free time, we eat out and talk a lot. We fell in love with this song because we thought about being good friends for life.I learned later on that this song was used in the animated movie: The Land Before Time. I loved the song even more.

But things changed my brother graduated and had to go to college in the city. I began having my own set of friends, she did likewise.

Almost 20 years since then, I still remember our song and when I hear it (which I seldom do this age), I remember Chu.

This is the lyrics and the song:



If We Hold On TogetherDon’t lose your way
With each passing day
You’ve come so far
Don’t throw it away
Live believing
Dreams are for weaving
Wonders are waiting to start
Live your story
Faith, hope & glory
Hold to the truth in your heart

If we hold on together
I know our dreams will never die
Dreams see us through to forever
Where clouds roll by
For you and i

Souls in the wind
Must learn how to bend
Seek out a star
Hold on to the end
Valley, mountain
There is a fountain
Washes our tears all away
Words are swaying
Somebody is praying
Please let us come home to stay

If we hold on together
I know our dreams will never die
Dreams see us through to forever
Where clouds roll by
For you and i

When we are out there in the dark
We’ll dream about the sun
In the dark we’ll feel the light
Warm our hearts, everyone

If we hold on together
I know our dreams will never die
Dreams see us through to forever
As high as souls can fly
The clouds roll by
For you and i

This article is about me and my best friend and this is our song!

(N.B. These are just a few recollection of the good and bad events that challenged our friendship and our being.)

We have different ways of categorizing our best friends, why we chose them and what circumstances that brought us together. Ours was a product of some series of painful events. I'd like to reiterate that I am not normally an emotional person, but this is the "softest" spot of my life -those series of tragic events we, me and my cousin, shared together.

In high school, I had nothing to be proud of and I was always shying away because I knew back then that I am not one of those normal high school girls. (Stop there.) I was always misunderstood then I found this person -whom I can be just me when I'm with her. She's the daughter of my father's cousin (in legal terms: consanguinity on the fourth degree:)

Both our families lived in one shelter when they needed cover from the ash falls of a volcano that erupted. This was the event in 1991 when the Mount Pinatubo in Central Luzon (Philippines) erupted, thus changed the lives of the people there, and it also changed mine. It was during their stay in our house that their elder sister died caused by H-fever or dengue. I was not really sure. All I know is that we were all too young to be faced with such tragic event so we had to pull strength from each other. In less than a month, at our early age, we've experienced one of life's most painful part -losing a loved one!

Then there we were, stuck together: a person who has lost self-esteem and no-sense of self-worth; she (and her family) lost a house, stopped school and lost a sister.

These and all other depressions, life's pressures, peer and family-related problems and the likes that we shared. But my best friend and I, we survived. We always helped each other. I was the practical side, she was the spiritual side. We had a very good chemistry. I could say, I was the head, she was the heart. But of course, like all other friendship stories out there, we argued a lot and argued some more until our communication grew lesser and the distance between us was more than 100 miles. We had a fight because of conflicting outlook in life. We realized we had different lives and we thought nothing seemed to click between us anymore. But I remember, before we actullay parted ways, we still sang this song not knowing it might be our last duet together.

But after all those years, we were able to work things out. We knew something in this song drew us again to each other. Now we are over-my-dead-body-ready-to-protect each other just like we used to. And despite our extreme ideals, we are still ready to support each other because that's what friendship is all about. That's what the previous pains of life had taught us at our tender years. "Through all the good and bad... we'd always work things out". That's why we always believed in this song.


Lyrics | Through The Years lyrics

Despite the pains we've caused to each other, we still love each other. In our lives, we will always have issues, concerns, problems but I will always be proud to say that I am ready to face them all because we got each other.

Through the Years - Kenny Rogers

Hi again! It's been a while... many things happened and for some reason, I had no access to the internet. It is now October and here in the Philippines, the Spirit of Christmas is already around the corner. And when we talk about Christmas, the center of the celebration is the family. This is the reason why I remember this song.

I was not familiar with this one, neither the artists who sang it until I heard it as a soundtrack in one of my favorite movies, "My Girl". Each time I hear it played, I remember our own house. The part that says "you placed the flowers in the vase..." because we only had one flower vase back then. I remember it was placed on top of our TV set and since we have a small garden, I gather flowers from there, different kinds on diferent days. My sister and I even place a very common flower/grass called "baby's breath". It was so cute and a beautiful ornament for roses.

"Our house is a very, very funny house... with 2 cats in the yard..." We had 2 cats, persian descent. They were my pets from a good friend of mine back in college. I loved them! People in our place say you'll get allergies and asthma when you sleep with cats but not with me. I slept with my cats. I placed them on my chest while I lie down. They say cats hate water but I shower them then afterwards place them under the sun. Now, they're gone but I still had funny memories with them.

I hope you'll find this song interesting too. Til next entry!

I'll light the fire
You put the flowers in the vase
That you bought today

Staring at the fire
For hours and hours
While I listen to you
Play your love songs
All night long for me
Only for me

Come to me now
And rest your head for just five minutes
Everything is good
Such a cosy room
The windows are illuminated
By the sunshine through them
Fiery gems for you
Only for you

Our house is a very, very fine house
With two cats in the yard
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy
'Cause of you
And our la,la,la, la,la etc

And our

I'll light the fire
And you place the flowers in the jar
That you bought today