I found myself walking through Manila Chinatown searching for a tofu maker to purchase a kilo of tofu. I felt like having some tofu that evening with some batchoy, a Chinese vegetable that goes very well over steamed rice. It's been a long time since I had that dish, tofu and batchoy over steam rice, so I didn't mind walking all over Chinatown to find the tofu maker.
My walk reminded me of a dream I had once in which I didn't want to wake up from, because the dream seemed so real and something good was about to happen to me and suddenly the alarm clock went off and I struggled within the dream to ignore the alarm to no avail, I awakened.
Since "dreams are a reflection of the active mind when awake," according to The Book of Curthom, "it's not so important that we don't remember all the details of the dream, the importance is that we dream. Dreams are the pleasures of our desires that we inhibit during our waking hours, so when we dream, we should rejoice. Even the mind needs time to play and to explore and this happens when we dream." Walking all about Chinatown, was like a surreal experience of sorts with so many fascinating things to draw your attention to. Yep, I eventually found the tofu maker in an alleyway with a host of tofu makers. It was a tough choice to pick from the many tofu makers, but I'm grateful I can read the prices in Chinese, because my Tagalog needs nurturing. I'll conclude with a short poem from Curthom.
"Life is an endless dream between waking and being awake. Love brings forth life and life extends to man and woman. Love is a journey that wears with time, but true love is a trip that never ends and the scenery along the way is nothing but the blessed ambiance, that sustains the reasons two people commit to one another. With this commitment to stay together, the night becomes the day and the day becomes the night and each eagerly anticipate its arrival with pleasure." Excerpt from The Book of Curthom.
