Soulful Musings

I am trying to look for a very important thing inside this wonderland lit by many colorful spectacles from a myriad of merchandise. Many eyes feast, and that includes mine, though the difference is that I am in the verge of search for something unseen. Yes, it might be right before my eyes, I wonder. Nevertheless, what I see is a group of friends, some are wearing funky outfits and kooky hairstyles, while some are students on their uniforms laughing around and taking pictures. I see lovers, holding hands or arms wrapping on each other. I see tykes playing around, some with a balloon on their chobby little hands. and I see a mother unhurriedly pushing a carriage of her baby. I also see a lolo with a warm smile sitting on a wheelchair; a lola holding her walker tightly, while slowly strolling along the tiled hallway glittered with different lights from glass-windowed stores. I see a  police officer following his buddy, a leashed German shepherd. I see a salesperson playing a toy she sells in a kiosk. I see a huggable mascot gently ambling with several kids, whose parents aim their digital cameras. I see them all, yet there is something more.

Maybe it's the magic. There's magic in every color that appears, from many clothes hanged or modeled by mannequins. Equally magical are those countless pair of shoes, appearing in leather, rubber, with straps or heels, enticing many feet to try and wear them. Perhaps the magic of those toys in many different kinds and sizes, calling more kids to play them. Or watching glass elevators and escalators easing up and down on many floors. Maybe some magic inside an arcade glowing video game machines or glass-enclosed tokens and stuff toys. And adding those restaurants offering luscious meals in a cozy interior, or ready to eat, scrumptious fast food. Perhaps the magic of bright-light gadgets, and computers, or the latest cellphones. Or those of paper bags of apparels and shopping carts of groceries. Yes, they can be something that I'm looking - or dreaming - for. Still, I have to look for that something.

Amid these people, who relieve their tired weekdays in this weekend spree, I nonchalantly walk towards a famous bookstore. Tracing back my memory, it is in this wonderland - found in many parts of the country - that I met some of the books that changed my life. It may sound too dramatic, but these book seemed to appear like they longed to find me, rather than I longed to find them. I have read them thoroughly, since that very day, and I am still in the state of awe, having a wow feeling that seeped under my skin and throughout my body. It appears that I have been looking for them, for books are those I often buy whenever I loiter around this wonderland. But, in the course of my search, there is something more. 

Perhaps, that something cannot be found behind the glasses, nor it has a price tag and a barcode. It must be appearing in many ways, all the while thinking it might be a singular object, yet it is not. I still bother for this something unseen, yearning to grasp this elusive, indefinable subtle thing. It has drowned - or floated sometimes - on the sea of people and commodities. I feel clueless, but certain, that this thing is just around. 

Certainly, it might have something to do with a childhood memory: as a kid of overseas parents, I was excited to celebrate in this wonderland once my parents came back home. There again, a bunch of bulky blue plastic bags filled with surprises, from where my new experiences would come. Yes, I'm quite sure of this, I just need more hints to remind myself of finding that something, while trying to figure out if I'm really looking for it, or if that thing I look really exist.

Funny, for I have begun to figure it out. This something has been there, I just forgot to see it. Because it is among the people who enjoy themselves inside this wonderland, or the appetizing food that satisfy tired and hungry shopping hours. It is what makes the hands and arms of the lovers stick to each other. It is the laughter itself, and the smiles saved in digital cameras. It is the glow from the child playing freely, or the subtle radiance from an elderly whose sweet dreams are in this place.  It must be the unspoken wishes within those who mans the store and kiosk, those cleaning the public restrooms, and those security guards inspecting bags. My visit to this wonderland has reminded me once and for all, that all beings inside are different souls with personal longings, forgetting their problems and becoming one with any tangible joys. 

Again, I recall a memory of mine as a little kid, on a bus on my way home; how nice to see those huge blue and white S and M letters on the facade of a windowless building. I thank the magic this wonderland brings, for in at least ordinary way, I have defined this something soulfully, like a nostalgia. Now, as I come back again and again, I only see the Love that fills much wonder in the memories and experiences of those people I come across - and similarly fills mine. 




Thanks to SM City Lipa and http://www.wowbatangas.com/