Among all the punctuation marks in English, the most unused, misused and abused is the period. In this confused era of text messaging, Twi...

A car cut right in front of ours and my driver slammed on the brakes. He muttered, “Women drivers!” I looked at the other car's driver...

Must do: change my header now, just 21 days after I had it up: It's because my heart is all lined up with thanksgiving: The worst is ove...

My quiet time today centered on the life of Jacob, the man from whom the 12 tribes of Israel came. He certainly had a dramatic, tele-novela ...

One can't have too many Bibles—not if they come in different translations.  The reported numbers vary, but it is safe to say that ther...

This extraordinary woman of faith breastfed me when I was a baby.   And from now I will talk about her in the past tense with both sadness...

Everything on earth will end when the Lord comes again. This is what the Scriptures tell us, but some cousins and I discussed a different ...

2012 was another year of the Lord. Reviewing my past 100 posts, I see all the hills and valleys that gripped our lives in this country. I...

Am I dreaming? The Eddie Garcia, best actor of the 55th Asia Pacific Festival and the only hall-of-fame Famas awardee for three categorie...

Innocent children slaughtered.  This gruesome news shook the world in recent days. A lone gunman massacred 20 schoolchildren in the afflue...

The first Christmas was the beginning of a world saved from sin. Hope was born, and every man—no matter how deeply mired in sin—can now rece...

The rumor had been rife; it persisted for days. Many people believed it—to their peril and embarrassment. It occupied huge spaces and freq...

The greatest Gift—and the only one that should matter on Christmas—is the birth of Grace. God made Himself poor so that we may be rich and h...

The phrase “four-letter word” refers to words with four letters that are considered profane or vulgar. It is a euphemism for the many Englis...

Unlike my friend Malou who can echo, word for word, other people's speeches just by listening to them, and knows all her friends' ce...

To escape the horrifying headline news on the deadliest calamity that ever hit Mindanao wrought by Typhoon Pablo (over 500 deaths to date), ...

A blogger's all-time natural high is caused by her number of hits, even if the hitters miss reading a word of her blog. I've been ...

Not too many people know this fact: AIDS has reached epidemic proportions in this country. I was shocked when my physician friend, Luis, who...

To someone whose blood sugar is always precariously at high-normal levels, ice-cream is taboo. There are sugar-free flavors, but they're...

The blank line in a document stares at me. I stare back and wonder how to fill it up properly.  Religion:_______________ In a world that...

Consider the following numbers: • 2,191 days • 189,302,400 seconds • 3,155,040 minutes • 52,584 hours • 313 weeks They define six ...

They came and went, courtesy of the HR department, who evaluated employees' performance and screened applicants. "Hilarious,...

When Attorney, our dog, was put to sleep by the Vet a month ago, we didn't give ourselves a period of mourning. Illness came to her ea...

It was too late for me to say, "Don't!" The painters had already wrecked and taken down a bird nest from our roof. The once aw...

On Halloween last week, I saw many children on the streets for “Trick or Treat”dressed and made-up like devils, ghosts, evil spirits, witc...

Insomnia was a malady I couldn't understand. I had absolutely no idea about tossing and turning in bed.  I could sleep through any cri...

There are very few afternoons like this. My bi-monthly luncheon friends and I had just wolfed down a tableful of unlimited dimsum at the C...

The eternal challenge (and joy) in writing for children is painting with words. Authors like kids to actually see and feel the excitement,...

Photo 1: by Rey Torres Photo 2: by Jay Ignacio Cartel Photo 3: httpmusicfromspeakers.com/page/3

“Is that you, Grace?!” she asked, gaping as though she just saw a specter from under the ground.   “Is that you, Irma?!” I asked, duplicat...

Papaya rhymes with Eia, my niece (a well-loved chef in a restaurant in the US), who posted this photo on her FB wall.  Eia is not really...

One of my friends shared the link of my blog, “ How Old Are You? ” on his FB wall. That post is an abridged version of my talk on how it is ...

Over coffee and croissants, my balikbayan friend shared with me her recent problem with her adult son. His 15-year marriage was on the ro...

"Teachers… ultimately determine our collective ability to innovate, to invent, to find solutions for tomorrow. Nothing will ever replac...

Counting out our common love for food, my family and I have disparate likes—especially in TV shows and books. When Tony watches TV, I sleep....

It's only September but carols are already playing on the air, and now I suddenly remember that Christmas. My Auntie Pat was still liv...

The excitement of winning an award always comes in two huge waves—like tsunami invasions. First, you drown and can't immediately come ...

What I love most about book signing is interacting with readers. They say the nicest, and often, the funniest things. From morn till night...

(In line with my newly launched book, What, Me Retire ? I was invited to the OMF Literature Authors' Fellowship at the MIBF "to e...

A measly 5% of all entries.   That's how few there were from writers my age to the Palanca Awards this year. Of the 1077 manuscripts i...

These two books, published by Church Strengthening Ministry ( CSM ), will be formally launched today at the Manila International Book Fair (...

If you've visited this blog at least once, you must have glanced at my books on the right. You haven't? Please look closely and woul...

This book took 12 years to write.  The actual writing was a little over a year, but my thoughts and feelings—validated through friends an...

Fretting over the most horrific traffic that mid morning, I forgot to check my mobile phone. When I finally did, I was surprised to find it ...

A funny thing happened on my way to speak before a crowd of 800, mostly students, in a big Rotary function. I was to be the second speaker o...

The single most important principle I learned from my long stint in advertising is KISS.  Just a bit of a background: KISS is an acronym f...

She was one of my most outstanding students in Business English. Her prose was clear and well crafted, with careful attention to good gramma...

I thought I had beaten this topic (Mommy) to a pulp, but something just keeps popping up and I keep falling for it.  Okay, so I am now res...

Eons ago, I cried buckets in this church—tears of fear and joy. As a 14-year-old college freshman, a promdi (from the province), uniniti...