WRITING ANYTHING THAT COMES TO MIND

Julia Campbell, the American writer, said that if one wants to become a writer (or something to the effect, or probably how to hone the writing skill)he or she must write non-stop whatever comes to his or her mind. For 15 minutes, that is, filling three ruled pads in the process. Whatever comes to mind like Jack Kerouac who used to travel from a place in America to another and described what he saw, touched and felt and voila he had a story? I am now before my laptop my son and daughter -in- law purchased from a California store in 2011 and what should I write? There is a big white space below and I have to fill it? I rose from the bed in the sala before three in the morning and it's no 12 minutes to five. I had boiled water, had a cup of tepid water before I fixed my coffee and now the white cup is empty. I hear cocks crow, from near and far, the whir of a motorcycle on the road going north. Should I go to Laoag via Cagayan unto the Patapat road, which is on a mountainside in Pagudpud town. Patapat is the Iluko word for wrap around which aptly describes the road.Let me pause, Julian for a minute and let me think. But this is a violation of the 15-minute rule, but honestly nothing comes to mind right now except for the old, old memory of an old, love, who died of I know not what except that when we parted he married a government employee in the town where he taught high school and became an alcoholic like her husband. They had a daughter name Vanessa, now a military nurse in Metro Manila. That was a long long time ago when my carpenter father was still alive. Is there closure to this part of my life? We remember and there is always that feeling of loss. I don't know. Hey, let me pause, Julia. When was the last time I saw her?

Photo captions: A view of Pasaleng Bay from Patapat and the entrance to the seaside town of Pagudpud in Ilocos Norte. Inside the St. William Cathedral in Laoag (top photo). Photos by the blogger, former correspondent of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the country's most read newspaper in the Philippines.