By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   IT was about ten o’clock in the evening and we were told that The Patio operates only until eleven. We had the option to go home, but his mother wanted to treat him to a good meal at the University Hotel where dining was recently expanded outdoors, among…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   EVEN under the extreme heat of the summer sun, the trees were smiling. It is a smile made brighter by the red flowers of the fire trees and the yellow flowers of the narra trees that overwhelmed the green leaves, firmly holding on, with the…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   IT was just another one of the regular visits. After six months, he was no longer crying like a lost child. He is becoming more and more, relaxed, forgiving of those who wronged him. After a while, he was used to the uncertainty of his…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   THE morning smells of newly-cut grass. Maybe it is the scent of rebellion, or the agony of being cut. Or maybe it is the scent of hope, the kind we cling to, when we are about to lose it. I breathe in the scent slowly,…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   MIRA was the kid, who, along with another nephew, Nico, experimented with the matches and burned the wooden floor in one of the bedrooms. The smoke escaped through the small space of the door, so I knocked. It was all quiet so I took the…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   A MUSEUM embodies the soul of a people. In order to fully comprehend the identity of a people, a museum depends on two important components. Firstly, the people who curate, gather, preserve, interpret and tell the stories. Secondly, the depth, the breath and the quality…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   THE absence of loved ones, for any reason, does not negate their presence in our daily lives. We hear them, we can feel their touch, they encroach in our dreams. Their presence sticks, glued to our consciousness. Memory is a good thing, It could also…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   IS there life after death? Some believe that after death, the essential part of an individual’s stream of consciousness or identity continues to live, a belief that derives itself from various religions, esotericism and metaphysics. What lives after the physical body expires depends on which belief…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   HAVE you ever felt uneasy without a reason, and suddenly thought of a specific person? That kind of feeling occurred to me three times within the first quarter of 2023, and every time, that person is in a kind of fix or in a hospital,…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   LOVE could be many things, comforting at times, dislocating too. It can upset equilibrium as well as balance the point where our very center rests. It is beautiful in its own chaos. You and Me Yes, you listen to reason as you said, reason keeps…