Ralf et les prophéties de Mayas pour 2012 - Webbielady

<<Pourquoi es-tu si généreux?>> avais-je l'habitude de lui demander.

<<C'est juste quelque chose de matériel, ce n'est pas grave, le monde prendra fin bientôt>>,  avait-il toujours répondu de cette façon.

C'est mon ami Ralf. Nous sommes allés à l'école secondaire ensemble, de l’ âge de 12 à 17 ans. Chaque fois que nous sommes allés  déjeuner ensemble, il a payé pour tout ce que j'avais commandé. Le Taxi, les transports en commun ou les petits frais de scolarité, il payait aussi tout cela  pour moi. Il avait toujours la même réponse, qu'il n'avait pas besoin de garder des choses matérielles pour lui-même. Il croyait vraiment que le monde devrait se terminer bientôt. Alors, il n'y avait aucun intérêt à  garder quelque chose de matériel pour l'avenir.

Maintenant qu’on parle beaucoup de la prophétie célèbre des Mayas, selon laquelle le monde se termine cette année, j'ai pensé à Ralf. Nous avons des contacts sur facebook et je sais, en discutant avec lui de temps en temps, qu'il n'a pas changé. C'est toujours la même persone généreuse que je connaissais. Je sais que je ne peux jamais battre sa générosité, ni aucune personne que je connais ne pourrait le faire. Sa  générosité est tellement profonde et émane de sa personalité . Si une bonne partie de l'humanité était comme Ralf, le monde serait un meilleur endroit pour vivre.

C'est vrai que le monde peut se terminer cette année. Cependant,  s'il n'y avait aucune cupidité ou avidité  dans le  caractère des humains   et s'il y'avait de la générosité dans l'air, et que tout le monde était autosuffisant , les guerres et les famines disparaitraient et nous serions tous heureux d’affronter  la fin.

The First Snowflake By Webbielady

It’s third week of November. We were trying to hold it together up there. It’s not our time yet. We needed to hold onto each other, trying not to fall down, not to precipitate. We held each other strongly yet our force was futile: we had to fall; we could not stay within the atmosphere any longer. We, as crystalline water ice, had no better choice but to turn from clouds to snowflakes, as the humans call it.

We were told from the very beginning that we have a cycle. We cannot stay in one stage of our life for a long time. Just like today, after a few days of staying as clouds, we have to turn into rain or snow. And here I am, one of the many billions snowflakes drifting down… down…down… and now I landed as a beautiful snowflake, fresh and pure. I landed on a leaf.

Very near where I landed is a lady enjoying the snowfall. She hums as she tries to catch some of us still falling down immensely. She did so for about 10 minutes happily but as time goes by, she eventually got bored and started to feel cold.

“What on earth I forgot those keys for! I hope mom doesn’t get caught in traffic thatlong…. Brrrrr….brrrr…”

Now I knowwhy. She is waiting in the doorway for her mother to arrive home. Anotherquarter an hour passed and her phone rang.

“Where?...What?!... Still in Utrecht? But that’s another at least 30minutes mom. To who? To Helma’s? No..no.. I cannot, I am soaked… I better waityou here… An hour? Why?... Please mom, I’ll just wait you here….brrrr…. takecare, Mom. Love yah!”

Now Istarted to pity her. An hour in cold is a challenge. I feel a bit guilty fornot holding strong enough up there. Now we cause trouble down here, we are muchunexpected as it’s only November! It’s our fault! We were not strong enough toresist falling down.

-Hi Jes! Why are you here in this weather? Youlook cold too!

=Yeah, I’m waiting for Mom. I left my keysinside.

-Oh, that doesn’t sound fun. Mind to come inwith me to have some hot chocolate, tea or coffee?

= No, never mind. Mom will be here in fewminutes. Thanks anyway, Rob.

-A’ight. I’ll wait with you here. It’s a fewminutes as you said anyway.

=No, no! Are you crazy? It’s cold here.

-No, don’t worry. Let’s just chit-chat tillyour mom arrives.

=It’s not really necessary, jot get in. Momwill be here very soon.

-I’ll get inside if you come with me. So, untilyou change your mind, I am stuck here with you.

I am amazedby Rob’s insistence. For another 20 minutes Jessica and Rob talked aboutschool, work, life and everything. I was a happy witness on the leaf abouttheir conversation. They laugh and talk and she almost forgot she’s half-soaked.

Theconversation continued, a dinner date for the Friday evening has been set, atennis match has been set, a Calculus tutorial on Sunday has been fixed and alot of other plans have been discussed. Yet, Jessica’s mother has still notarrived. I assume another 30 minutes. Another phonecall…

Yes Mom. You’re near?... Huh? … Arnhem? Why? Oh,no…. I’mokay Mom, Rob’s here inviting me inside his house but I told him you’re near….Another 30 minutes? That heavy and slow?... Okay…okay… take care, Mom. Bye.

-So?

=Okay, in we go.

-That’s it. I’m starting to freeze here too.Let’s go!

That’s it.I am not sure if I am still here to witness the tennis match and when they goout for dinner. It’s only Monday. I hope not to melt until weekend to witnessmore but my life in each stage is short. I will be in the atmosphere againsoon, during my condensation cycle. It is not a boring and disappointingprecipitation after all. I have a story to tell when I condense back to theatmosphere. I will surely tell the lovely story of Rob and Jessica. I bet theirstory is only starting.

True Lovers' Conversation

“Do you love me?” He asked.

“Sure, I do love you, and forever.” She answers.

“If I die, will you love another?”

“Surely I will!”

“Why do you answer so?”

“Because I don’t want you to die. Think about my answer if you do. Ti amo!”

Tzabilita's Frustrations

Who can blame me? From childhood, as far as I can remember, I was deeply in-love. Yes, deeply in-love with food. I love to eat. I love to munch! I love to have always something wet and filling my mouth. Who’s to blame? I am sure I am not the only one at fault here. I mean, I could’ve controlled my appetite only if those television commercials were not so convincing….or if my parents warned me that being fat is not a beautiful thing, especially when I’d grow into adult… or if the friends I grew with were not fat. Yes, I was also with fat friends all the while so it was very normal to have extra bulges around from when I was a child.

At 38 years old, I can say that I have never lost any weight. I was always I constant increase until now that I am at least 130 kilograms! It’s so difficult. It is such a big burden to flex and sweat. Only to think about it, I feel tired even before I could start!

Is it wrong to be fat? Maybe yes, or maybe not. Yes, it is wrong as I am already nearing 40 and still single, available and never been kissed, never been touched. But on the other hand, it signifies freedom as I am alone and I can go anywhere I want without having to consider anything. But you know what? This freedom is so painful! If you can only imagine what I feel in the middle of the night…. The loneliness… the emptiness.. How I wish I was never this fat.

I still don’t consider it my fault though. Since I was a child, my parents had already emphasized the importance of food, the beauty and pleasure of eating and all of us, my two brothers and I, we all grew fat. “Fat kids from fat parents”, that’s what our neighbors used to tell us when we were only little ones. We did not understand by then that it was already half insult.

When I started working, I tried hard to lost this weight that’s with me ever since but it was so difficult. It is sad to be fat and I regret or hate so many things that are connected to my being fat:

1. My parents: how could they permit being so fat and passing those flabby figures to all us, their children?
2. Myself: I could have been more disciplined when I was a child and tried to limit my food intake to not grow as fat as I am at the moment.
3. My two brothers: If they were good enough in losing weight, we could’ve helped each other in losing weight.
4. My friends: If they’re not as fat as me, they could have motivated me;
5. The food industry: they always convince me to try their new products;
6. The world: They look negatively at fat people!

The whole human race is brain-washed on how to treat their fellow human beings. Why should they look so bad at fat people? This I don’t really understand. But someday, I will have my vengeance against the whole world for being so cruel to us fatter people! Watch out, mean world of slims and thins! I’ll show you!

A Warm Encounter Under the Cold Rain

She hurried to go out of the grocery store. It's her usual midweek grocery purchases. She's in her bicycle like the rest of the people in Netherlands. She was in a hurry. She just saw the clouds closing in and getting heavier right above her zone. 

Netherlands is a place where four seasons can happen many times in a day. In a matter of minutes, the weather can be summer-like, winter-like, spring-like or autumn-like.  Even the weather forecasts, no matter how scientific they can be, most of the time cannot precisely predict what's going to be the weather for a certain day. Difficult. That's it.

She fixed her heavy purchases behind her bike. She put some in a free box picked from free boxes the grocery store offered. The rest, she placed in aplastic bag that she has for groceries and some others inside the empty space in her shoulder bag.


She was so sure that rain would fall in a matter of minutes and her house is still 5 minutes away.  "Darn! I must really hurry!" She murmured to herself. She went cycling so fast as her heavy groceries and small foldable bicycle could allow until she gets to the crossing. Like a bad fate, the light turned yellow-orange and she could not cross. She cursed under her breath but she could not do nothing but to wait. Worse came to worst as the rain pured heavily. She was soaked in a few seconds of heavy and thick drops of rain.

It seemed like forever until the traffic light turned green. She didn't know why but she was there for more than a few minutes. Usually the light changes in amatter of 60 seconds but this time, it took a lot of time. Another biker arrived. He's soaked in the rain too. "Ah Dutch weather", he tried to open a conversation with her. She only smiled at him. She was trying to look attentively at the lights expecting them to turn green.

"You've been here for long? I mean, in this crossing? Seems that the light doesn't work properly?"  He asked her.

"Indeed. Seems that it's broken". 

"Oh not again."

---To be continued...---

A Poor Boy's Memoir: Dimension I

Pardon me If I cannot tell the story perfectly as I only finished Grade 4 of Elementary School in Philippines. But I want to tell my story. --- I was born as the second child of my parents. I am the eldest son though. We are six in all: I have two brothers and three sisters. Maybe you are thinking why my parents did not have family planning tactics. You are right in a way but not correct in another. After my sister who's next to me was born, my mother had the tubal ligation schedule at our local hospital but that very scheduled day, a typhoon hit the Philippines until she could not get another schedule so soon. In short, she get pregnant again for our 4th sibling. He's a boy too.

My childhood was not bad, I can say. My sister, the oldest in the family, she was very responsible as a child, while our younger siblings, we both played with them and we helped a lot in the house chores. We used to fetch water from a very far place, maybe around 3 kilometers away from our house. You can imagine us: I, with my one gallon of water as I move it from my right hand to my left from time to time to ease the pain of the gallon container weight, while my sister, she has each in her hand. When she's tired, or can't bear the weight for quite some time, she puts those two gallon containers to the ground and we both take some minutes of rest.

-- I remember my childhood when I saw that image in the right... that child is carrying a heavier container than what we used to do though... --

Since we are talking about those gallon containers, I tell you that we really considered ourselves to be lucky if we could find those containers to have lid. Because if not, we expect a lot of wasted along the way, maybe 20% of what we initially took from the water well. I can remember that we used to do this water fetching the moment I could walk. Water supply in my town, and many other towns in the Philippines, is such a bitch, you know.

Those gallon containers were a remarkable part of my life. Maybe because I spend almost all my childhood for that: fetching water. When our third sister started to walk, she joined the team of water fetcher for the family. Thus, we always went in teams of three with those gallon containers in our hand. That time however, Sister 2 is the one who's carrying a single gallon container as she was the smallest in the team. Sister 1 and I were both having two gallons containing water in each hand.

The fun of doing this thing was, we do it after school in the afternoon. We arrived at home at around 5:30 after running back home from the elemntary scholl that's around 5 kilometers away from home. The moment we rested our school bags and umbrellas inside the house, we would go right away to the kitchen to take those empty gallons, get them ready, and then we would change our school uniforms to house clothes. After, off we go to the water well a few kilometers away.

Since no hurry is needed when we did those tasks, sometime we played along the way. We were only afraid of the darkness which starts to hit the country at around 6 or 6:30 sometimes or maybe in a very limited number of times at 7 pm. But how could we know anyway? Wrist watches were things of luxury for us so we have none. We relied on our guts and eyes to see if darkness was coming. Thus, when the sun was still up and light was still visible, sometimes we go inside the mini-jungle along the way and climb some fruit tress and eat them. I remember those fruit trees: santol from May to June and guava for various months of the year and pomelo on a few ocassions. There were so many coconuts but it needs a cutting material to be eaten so we have not eaten any fresh cocos along the way that time. We also used to eat sugar canes but those were from sugar cane plantations and not from mini-jungles like the other fruits I mentioned. That's the fun of it! Climbing trees and eating and stealing a few sugar canes.

Despite the fact that we, my two sisters and I, worked more than play, we tried to make good of those moments and enjoy the best way we could. We only played during recess time at school from 9-9:30 in the morning and lunch break, when the sun was not so strong.

The water fetching with gallon containers is only one dimension of my life. You will know me little by little. I find my life interesting, sad, happy and a mix of everything. I will tell you another dimension soon.

Her Garden Has Something

See the story's conclusion...

Her garden is her passion. It's her trophy as well. None of their many friends and acquaintances who became a guest to their home has left without seeing their garden-her garden. Each and every of these guests always exclaim beautiful praises for her gardening works whenever any of them take a look at her garden. It seems that anytime of the year, bulbs and petals are everywhere. The colors are varied and make the viewers' eyes really enjoy.

"I'm not alone in creating this beauty. The butterflies help me", she explains every time and her guests simply smile at this nite of hers.

She has to admit that gardening is not easy. When she started, she could not count the number of dying plants and flowers that passed by her hands but she persevered and continued trying. She knew that gardening has many good things in it. Among these many good things, she thinks of the utmost good side: she is building a playground for butterflies.

She remmebered that not even a single butterfly was present when she was starting and was still in the phase that most plants were dying when she tries to do something with them. But now, she could observe a good number of butterflies flying around anytime of the day as long as it's not raining hard and as long as the sun's light is still out. She loves butterflies. For her, a garden without butterfly seem to defeat the purpose of its existence. Butterflies add color to the existing beautiful colors that her plants and flowers in the garden already have.

Seeing a color combination in motion amazes her- the color of flying butterflies in various colors and shapes. There are around at least seventy butterflies in her garden and when any of those butterfly hops in her hand while she does her gardeing, she tries to pause and converse with the beautiful creature. "Hi beautiful! What made you hop in my skin? I'm not a flower but I assume I'm sweet?" Even her make a wide grin when this situation happens and she would put the butterfly slowly in one of her garden's many blooming petals and off she goes back gardening again.

She continued this routine of talking to the butterflies as if they are humans. One day, while she was very happy doing her usual gardening stuff, as her mode of relaxation after going home from office, one very beautiful and strange looking butterfly hopped in her hand. As usual, she conversed with the beautiful creature. "How are you beautiful? Are you from this garden? I have never seen you before, have I?"

"I am doing great madam, and thanks to you. I'm from this garden of yours but I rarely go out." The butterfly talked back to her in a high pitched voice but just enough for her to hear it. Naturally she was taken aback by this fact.

See the story's conclusion...

Her Garden Has Something (page 2)

The story's beginning...

She was about to scream but she tried to control herself and calm down. She closed her eyes and tried to convince herself that it's only her imagination that plays tricks to her. Then she also told herself that she might be having stress but she knew very well that she is always relaxed and stress is not a good explanation.

When she opened her eyes, the talking butterfly was still there. Now, it seemed that it is magnified. It seems bigger! And she could see the butterfly smiling at her.

"You need not be afraid, madam. I only came here to thank you for all the kindness and beautiful deeds you have done my servants and population. I always hear good report from each of them whenever they try to collect nectars from here. Today, I decided to see you personally." This explanation of the magical talking butterfly made her calm down a bit but she's still scared and felt very strange.

"But you are a butterfly! How can you talk back to me? You make me feel like I'm crazy here making this conversation with you!"

"You are not actually talking to me literally. It's in your mind only. I am also not talking to you literally but it appears to you that I am. We are conversing in our minds. My power allows us to do it."

"Sigh... at least I wont appear stupid. If they see me talking to you, or talking alone, I bet they'd advise me to see a psychiatrist. Thanks to this telepathic communication at least."

"I came here to award you one wish as your kindness is too much for us. Now have your wish and I'll grant it."

"Oh wow! Really!? How many wishes I am entitled to?"

"A single wish my dear."

"Hmmm... Let me see... Let me think. I wish... I wish to have... I wish... I wish that all my family stay in good health which means no sickness, no accidents, stuff like that."

"I understand. That wish is granted. You indeed have a golden heart. You did not ask for money or anything highly material. Because of that, you are entitled to one more wish a year from today. I hope you keep my species stay here and collect nectar."

"That is a pleasure to me. Thanks for granting my wish and am looking forward to my second wish next year. Thanks to your species too as you make my garden more beautiful."

She stood up and see happy butterfllies around her, hopping from one flower to another. She knew good deeds always have good returns. One just don't know when it would come, where it would come and most of all, what would come! She smiled to herself.

The story's beginning...