Leaving an Era Behind...

This Saturday, October 27, 2012, as we turn off the lights at the Museum , I can not help but feel so heart broken. Maybe Odhe feels it too…. Maybe because there are only 2 of us manning the GSIS Museum, the deafening silence  enforces that melancholic feeling…….

From the Upper Gallery down to the lower galley , we turn off the lights of the Museum. I am startled by the seeming emptiness of the place yet there are still artworks hanging on the walls……I feel I am going to a familiar place with   unfamiliar sights, sounds and feel.…..

Gone are the rural scenes and the light and shadows  from the works of Fernando Amorsolo ,  gone are the religious icons seen from the works of Botong Francisco , the long ago scenes from the Jose Blanco’s  paintings and gone is the Bayanihan and  its  spirit by Vicente Manansala that  greets us at the lower gallery. No more are the shapes and colors of the   HR Ocampo abstracts. It feels strange…. 

The sadness becomes deeper as we gaze at the murals by Fernando Amorsolo and  Roger San Miguel , knowing that soon they might be leaving the GSIS Museum…It is an eerie feeling  looking at the museum from the Upper Gallery bereft of its long time occupants and now the walls that have cradled the works of the masters , are now cradling new artworks , as if the babies that these walls have cradled have grown up and left the nest …now the Museum will be cradling new woks , new babies that we hope to see grow up and join the long list of Filipino masters…..

We close the doors of the Luna room , feeling we are closing the door to an era, to a time when a Parisian Lady  use to sit and gaze at visitors coming in……On Monday , we are preparing to open the doors of the Luna Room …….and see another world , another time?  Ha ha ha….it would still have the time period we have been so familiar coming in, with one big difference, no more Parisian Lady …….

For now , I am, we are, struggling to familiarize ourselves with  our new occupants, our new  babies and dealing with missing the old masters …. But life goes on..the Museum  staff  will be  meeting, exploring and embracing  new artists, events and exhibits…….because we believe……J  

Taken Down...

As they are taken down, a tinge of sadness  passes through the staff of the GSIS Museum…they are taking down, one by one the artworks of the masters!

First the Amorsolos, then the Manansalas, then maybe the HR Ocampos and now the Alcuaz’s ….then the old Churches of  Ragodon…..

We wait with bitterness, yes that bitterness that we are trying so very hard to fight…we are succeeding but we feel it…we wait , we anticipate….the Parisian Life is next…….

We are busy, we try to keep ourselves busy not to see how they are packing, boxing the lights that had kept our museum bright…..

We go to the storage room , the  sound of sadness greets us, as plastic bubbles , as boxes are folded and taped ..as titles are written on top of each box, inside its precious cargo, the works of the masters…just some of the 90 or so artworks to go…

It is true , we have grown attached, maybe in love with those artworks but can you blame us? We have tried preparing ourselves when this day is supposed to come, we did but as the day  nears , we lose our nerves….. this has been their house, and we have been their caretakers….we know we are loosing them and yet we can not help miss them already.

We now look forward to reinventing our place in the GSIS…in discovering and being  of service to our members and public alike as we look forward to  seeing them back in the Museum …soon… until then we bid our bitter-sweet goodbye for now!!!   

Travelers

Travelers

People come in and out of our lives…no matter how much we pray for some people to stay in our lives, forever is not a popular word in our relationships.

Friends , families only stay in our lives for some reason and when their time with us is up, they fade away. Some times the circumstances when they leave are painful…we remember them with bitterness in our hearts …we struggle to forget but they come back, haunting us , making forgetting harder and harder….other times they leave when we least expect them to leave, but most of the times   people in our lives leave without us knowing , without us feeling they have left. We only realize they have left us when we are confronted with situations and our need for their presence become real….

Most of the times we are left with just the lessons, we forget who taught us, ghostly memories of people who touched our lives and like the clouds, they just pass us by ….

And then there are people whose spirit remains with us for a long time ……they have left us and yet their spirit lingers boosted  by the feeling they have made us feel, by the tenderness we feel when they were still here and places , sights and sounds make us remember……

People , places can also make us forget…..we become heady, drunk with the here and now and we forget.. we forget the lessons of the past….we head out to the future oblivious of the lessons which arm us , prepare us for the future…the unknown future….Not knowing makes us afraid………

Afraid of what could be ….afraid we have no one to turn to…..no memories to draw our strength   from…we must remember for remembering  brings us back to where we are before, who we were and in turn strengthens who have become now!! Let us remember the people who has traveled in and out of our lives...together with the lessons they have imparted..

Partners..Happiness..Options

Partners…..Happiness….Options

For those of us who are married , happily or otherwise,  seldom do we  think that we are part of this happiness or unhappiness?  Or that in a marriage equation , we are as  guilty as our partners for our unhappiness and as responsible for our  real or maybe unreal happiness!

Just like when we play we play to win but this relationship is not one of up- manship. It is not even a game.! This relationship is about each other , of family , of children ! So let us stop playing but let us enjoy the ride, the company !!!

Our husbands are not the enemies, or are they ! No,  husbands and wives are teams   , partners!

Husbands and wives complement each other, when one is down , the other is up ha ha ha like a seesaw but a seesaw comes down after a while and that is how the relationship works.

This time the wife is up , she nags and nags, the husband chills out , hear her out and let it pass. Then the husband ef’s up, the wife  is there  to support and stand by him…I am talking about some other things here not effing up as in shacking up with another woman …infidelity has no place in the marriage and yet it happens.. men and women alike wander  away, get in that situation and most of the times succumbs to that temptation. But hey, if the will is strong, infidelity has no hold , if the commitment is there  .

Happiness in marriage is a shared responsibility, a shared  experience…marriage is a commitment.. just like being happy in a marriage is a decision.

What do you do if you are no longer happy in a marriage.. is leaving the first or the only option? 

Maybe you can ask yourself first? Why are you no longer happy? Is the love gone? No way to rekindle the love? Or maybe you just need  more romance? Maybe it’s just the romance?

When one is no longer happy  it does not mean , one can not be happy again in the marriage? Maybe a little work on the romance department is needed ? Maybe  love is not gone , just dormant  and a little fire might be enough to awaken the passion….

But whatever it is, unhappiness in a marriage does not always mean  parting ways,  separation  is not the first option  but  remember  it is an option ..  when love is no longer there, when  respect and caring has flown away and happiness can not be rekindled , the wife or the husband can start checking out his or her options….  factor in the children, if there are. After all  a marriage maybe between a husband and a wife but in between , the children…..  

But life is not black and white , what works for me might not work for you or it might...but whatever it is...our decisions make our lives go on and on and on....the sooner we make our decisions , the sooner we can start over again...