When does love grow? By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo DURING the regular meeting of the UrBai, a celebratory movement of leadership and spiritual life, I heard two of the members of the group talking about their husbands who passed away. Both husbands have had affairs, and at the time of their…

Women who run with the wolves By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   I DO not know Marilyn Monroe, whose real name is Norma Jeane Mortenson, as a poet. But she was, and her poetry speaks of “her” truth that may shed light to why she took her own life. Her public…

The smell of green By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   GMA News reported on August 3, that “As many as 31 trees, some decades old, at the landmark Manila Army and Navy Club are being felled in a restoration project, angering heritage advocates and environmentalists who are asking why increasingly rare…

Citizen Clave By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   WHEN I woke up at 2:40 a.m. today, I suddenly looked at the phone. When Manong Jake Clave was a living presence, he used to call me around that time, and he would not let up until 4:00 a.m. He would talk to…

Urduja is alive! By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   NATIONAL women leaders met to craft a framework for the writing of history of women at the Sulo Riviera last 27 June 2015 under the sponsorship of the International Visitor Leadership Program-Philippines Inc., the Women in Development (WID) Foundation and the National Historical Commission of the…

Landing an airplane in a forest of fireflies By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   I LOVE airplanes. As a young child, I would watch airplanes cruising in the blue sky, some quietly, some with cloud-like white tails. My Uncle Opie, who was an Air Force pilot, used to write me letters,…

Digitally Yours By Virginia J. Pasalo   OR how OFWs deal with “homesexness.” In 1990, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the Women in Development (WID) Foundation developed the Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar (PDOS) to prepare departing overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) face the challenges of working overseas. This program was…

Of Flowers and Bluebirds (or how poems birth) By Virginia J. Pasalo   IN the mornings, during my walks at the UP campus grounds, I take time to talk to flowers for their scents, the birds for their songs, the pavement I walk on for cushioning my feet, the air…

It’s not what you think By Virginia J. Pasalo   THIS is not about the G-spot, as conceptualized by gynecologist Ernst Gräfenberg, whose existence continue to be the subject of debate to this day, and declared unproven and subjective by a 2009 British study based on questionnaires and personal experience….