Blog | SUZETTE MARTINEZ STANDRING

Thanksgiving 2019: Dealing with hot button issues. Just don’t

Posted on November 18, 2019 by Suzette Standring

(Photo by Suzette Martinez Standring, Houghton’s Pond, Milton, MA) Thanksgiving celebrates togetherness and family feasting, and perhaps, it also calls for restraint. I am not talking about the groaning buffet and ten desserts. I am talking about not talking about hot button issues. Live for the greater good and show mercy to the poor cook who has shopped, peeled, trussed,…

Appreciating Veterans Day from Manila, Philippines

Posted on November 8, 2019 by Suzette Standring

On Veterans Day, the enormity of war speaks. Acres of marble crosses face modern Manila in the Philippines, forever recalling the sacrifices made by American soldiers and Filipino allies during World War II. I was born in the U.S. of Filipino ancestry, and this is a “roots” trip for me. One powerful stop was the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial,…

Philippines: A Visit to one of the Seven New Wonders of Nature

Posted on October 31, 2019 by Suzette Standring

From Cebu, we flew to Palawan, where outrigger hopping to nearby unspoiled beaches on other islands is easy. But when it comes to Eden, the island of Palawan is no slouch. Here in Palawan, in 2012 the Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National Park was ranked one of “The Seven New Wonders of Nature.” We’re set to…

Philippines: A visit to a haunted war site

Posted on October 30, 2019 by Suzette Standring

In the town of Carcar in the province of Cebu in the Philippines, we visited The Carcar City Museum, formerly, “The Philippine Health Service Dispensary,” where horrific tortures took place on Filipinos by the Japanese during World War II. That’s not what the two-storied site suggests at first glance. The building is painted white and dressed in light green filigreed…

Magellan’s Cross, Cebu, Philippines

Posted on October 27, 2019 by Suzette Standring

Now we are in Cebu, the largest city second to Manila. The wooden cross planted in the Philippines in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan is displayed at the Basilica of Santo Nino in Cebu City. We had a look-see and it’s a cross within a cross since the original is encased in tigala wood for protection. Mark the moment 500 years…