By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   IN the beginning, we walked together, some walking ahead, some taking time for conversations. Sundays were intended for bonding with family members, those who live in the Philippines, with the exception of Lydia, who was busy with her grandchildren, the renovation of her house, or…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   WRITTEN eight years ago, on April 27 2016, under circumstances of remembrance. Some memories recede in the backwater of our mind, whether we accept it or not, and when we remember them, it is not always with the accuracy with which we first remembered them…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   I finally reached my destination at Sky Villas thirty minutes after the appointed time. I know I will be late, given the traffic situation, but the driver told me, “Di na ho tayo mag-Waze, waste of time. May alam po akong short cut!” I learned…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   THIS poem was written in 22 May 2022. It was not Women’s Day. They say we need not remember women because they are present at every moment, every peaceful encounter, everywhere, especially in places of conflict. They are mostly remembered carrying, nurturing children, the sick,…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   AMONG the commissioners of the Pangasinan Historical and Cultural Commission (PHCC), Arabela “Bel” Arcinue, Santiago “Sonny” Villafania and myself share a most curious discussion: the Anunnaki. In the earliest Sumerian writings about the Anunnaki, which come from the Post-Akkadian period, the Anunnaki are gods born…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   WHAT are you to me? I have no answers for you.  You are sometimes my joy, my inspiration, my anchor, my pain. Sometimes you are the wind, the air I breathe. You are  the undefined principle, maybe even, my core.   THE FLOW OF THE…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   The Ordinary You it’s in the way you flip your hair that half-drawn smile the way you bite on fresh watermelon the way you swagger and stammer and paralyze your tongue the plainness of your conversation your lack of conversation the choice of your words…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   IN Morocco, I watched a man walk quietly, his steps without the slightest sound, the lightness of a cat, through a small reflecting pool, a very still water that mirrored everything and everyone who passed. In this stillness, nothing seemed to move, not a leaf,…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   IF you have not seen it, watch Alexander: The Making of a God, a six-part docuseries that explores Alexander the Great’s conquests using contemporary accounts and fact-based archaeology, based mainly on ongoing excavations being undertaken by Greek archeologist Calliope Limneos-Papakosta in Alexandria, Egypt, the city that Alexander…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   YESTERDAY, I was surprised to find a lizard (skink) approximately one foot in length, inside the plastic tank where I stored water for the garden. It was not moving until I poked its head, so I thought of filling the tank to the brim so…