Christian the Lion.

Christian was a lion purchased in 1969 by two Australians living in London, John Rendall and Anthony 'Ace' Bourke (sometimes erroneously cited as Ace Berg) — from Harrods department store.

Rendall, his girlfriend Jennifer Mary, Bourke and Unity Jones cared for the lion as it grew too large to remain their pet. After meeting Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, who starred in the film Born Free, Rendall and Bourke agreed to have Christian sent to Kenya with the assistance of conservationist George Adamson — in order that Christian be rehabilitated into the wild at Kora National Reserve.

After Christian had been in Kenya a year, Rendall and Bourke returned and visited their former pet. The animal recognized them, reared up, grasped and nuzzled both Randell and Bourke. The following video of the event received widespread dissemination around 2007-2008, more than 35 years later.

A movie titled Christian the Lion at World's End documented the relocation of Christian from England to Kenya and his successful reintroduction to the wild. After serious problems in the 1980s, Adamson and two of his assistants were murdered by poachers in 1989.

A Song of Waiting

Today, I ate numbness for breakfast,
the daze digested
inside my stomach.

The blur of sunrise seized me as I wakened
of the melancholia that held me captive in
the crumpled sheets of my now unfamiliar bed.

You are not there
when I looked for that sigh
everytime our gazes met, even furtively.

This longing that haunts
me every single time the long hands tick
on the clock on my pallid wall.

The world is now overcast.
For I missed you like the rivers rushing to meet the waiting sea,
and I missed your shadow that falls on the wooden floor,
the silent breathing of your somnolence,
and the singing crystals that fall from your mouth everytime you speak.

My heart is an uneasy silence- and the world has lost its song,
albeit temporarily,
I will wait and I will wait
until I am back in the tightness of your embrace.

And then the world around me will finally wake up with me
once again.

I finally found the One.

I am in love with the One. Finally. Thanks SMA for the best 15 hours of my life and I cant wait that we will be finally be together for the rest of our lives.

Thanks for the unconditional love, I may not be be able to give you the world but I will try my damn best.

Thanks for changing me when I thought all hope is lost in finding the one but the moment you stepped out of that elevator, you stepped into my life.

I love you. With my life. With my soul. With my entire being. And I love you for who you are, for what you are not, and for what you will become.

Thank you. Remember that I would walk 1631 miles to see you...

(photo below was taken in Korea where my love is currently based, our initials written in snow...)

The Tragedy of Being Roy Cleveland Sullivan.

Roy Cleveland Sullivan was an interesting man. I have not met him but I will always remember his story. He died when I was almost three years old, and no he doesn't know me but his story was something I will never forget. Roy Cleveland Sullivan was a different man. He was called the "Human Lightning Rod" having the outrageous misfortune of being struck by lightning a record 7 times and lived through each ordeal.

He was a US park ranger at the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. In 1942, Sullivan was hit for the first time when he was at the fire lookout tower.The lightning bolt struck him in a leg and he lost a nail on his big toe. The year was 1969 when he got struck again while he was driving his truck in a mountain road. It knocked him unconscious and burned his eyebrows. The following year wasn't exactly luckier for him either as he was struck again burning his left shoulder while he was on his front yard.

1972 came and he got struck again at the ranger station, burning his hair. This was a sudden turning point for him - he started carrying a bucket of water with him. August 7th of the following year, the bucket of water didn't come in handy as he was blasted out of his car by another strike and set his hair on fire once again.

While on a campground in June 5th of 1974, he noticed a cloud who seemed to follow him, tried to run away but he got struck by another bolt again injuring his ankle. On June 25th 1977, his last and final lightning strike occured while he was fishing - hospitalizing him for burns on his chest and stomach.

It may be hilarious and all to think that getting hit 7 times by a lightning is weird and amusing- after all according to the National Geographic's Flash Facts about Lightning, the odds of being struck in a lifetime is three-thousand to one. If the different events of "being struck by lightning" were statistically independent the chances of being struck seven times in a lifetime are about sixteen-septillion to one.

But the real tragedy of Roy Cleveland Sullivan was not because he got hit 7 times by a lightning. Less than two months before my 3rd birthday, on September 28, 1983 - Roy Cleveland Sullivan died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound reportedly distraught over unrequited love.

Roy Cleveland Sullivan proved that indeed, love was the strongest force of nature.