When I was younger, I had this weird hobby. I was fond of collecting insects and arachnids (thanks to my Biology subject). These include some pitiful dragonflies, beetles, spiders and some species of butterflies (though I really do not know the exact order and class to which these insects belonged). If they catch my attention, I follow them and try to catch them with my bare hands. If they are swift enough to escape my fury, I use some sort of net to increase my field of attack. If they were still fast enough to get themselves away from me, I use brute force: get them dead or alive (Okay, please do not judge me for behaving that way, I was too young back then).
And alas, the poor insect would find themselves spending the rest of their lives inside a bottle, or a box, or any container that I could get. I was not merciless though, after some time, I give them pardon and release them depending on their condition (if they were about to die out of starvation or loneliness) or depending on the guilt that was harnessed within me.
Some of these mediocre animals did not let themselves be captured without fighting for their lives of course. Some of them bit me as hard as they can. Then I felt the sudden burst of my cells within me, my genes reaarranged themselves in some sort of alien-ish order, my senses became stronger, then I woke up (I was just daydreaming). Luckily they were not mutated, thus I was spared of finding my own costume as soon as I felt the mutation in my genes. I was spared of that difficulty in creating my own code name and tag line. Spiderman (of course it would be pirated), Tutubi Man (Eeker?), Beetle Boy, Butterflyhero (alright, this doesn't sound good at all), etc. Good thing I did not include flies and mosquitoes in my "to-capture" list. I cannot imagine myself wearing a mosquito or a fly costume.
One thing got my interest suddenly when I was on my search. I have noticed a cocoon hanging on a branch of a mango tree. I knew what was inside that cocoon, of course, though I did not know how it will look like as soon as it emerges from the pod. Out of my wild curiosity, I picked the cocoon and held it gently with my hands. I tried to open the pod to let the insect out. Though I was very careful on opening it, I was still not careful enough to avoid rupturing it. I succeeded in unwrapping the cocoon after a couple of minutes, but to my surprise, I failed to see the wings. They were not yet developed, I suppose. Sadness filled my heart, and regret started to build in my mind. I laid the lifeless corpse of the insect on the table. Its life was a pity; it was not able to spread its wings. I felt that I robbed from it the fulfillment of being a flying insect.
After that incident, I realized one good thing; we cannot force things to happen in our own time. Each has its own time line that it has to undergo, small and big things alike. There is a perfect time for everything. Things go odd if we try to make it happen as we wanted it to be. We should just let things be. Butterflies will emerge from their cocoons as soon as they are ready. Everything, all things will happen as God planned it to be.
There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.
A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away. A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak.
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
(Ecc 3:1-8)
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
When Angels Visit
After almost four hours of waiting in line, my name was called by the cashier.
“Quilloy, Erwin. Andyan ba?”
“Opo.”, I replied.
I sprang to my feet and happily, or should I say, excitingly I quickly went to the cashier’s window. I paid the fee for the renewal of my driver’s license, excluding the application fee, the card case, and the test drive fee which did not have a real car driving test (“pitik” in other word, or let’s just call it a fund raising activity of the office, no receipts, no complaints allowed).
Anyway, I almost forgot about that test drive fee, because I was too happy that I will be having my professional license after a short while. And as I expected, my name was again called from the ID releasing window. I felt blessed, and surely, I was happy. I logged my name and signed the paper for releasing and then left the licensing office.
I then made my way back my town. I rode a jeepney, a quite spacious one; luckily, there were only a few passengers. It was past twelve noon. I estimated the time that I will arrive at Los Baños, and thought of having a quick lunch, then go to my office for work, though half a day work. The jeep was traveling so fast, it was Vin Diesel driving the ten-second jeep. Of course I was exaggerating that one. But it was really traveling fast, taking advantage of the light traffic in that area of Pila to Bay. It took only a couple of minutes before we arrive at the boundary of Los Baños. Some passengers alighted the jeep upon arriving the town. Again, the jeep went on its way.
It was almost 12:30pm, and I was almost reaching my destination when I heard the manong driver saying to his “pahinante” (Filipino term for a driver’s co-pilot), “Pare nawawalan ata ng preno..”
“Bombahin mo nang maigi!”, the manong pahinante shouted.
I was staring at manong driver’s face through the rear view mirror. I saw his thin eyes giving some bizarre expression. Maybe he was panicking too.
Everyone in the jeep panicked upon hearing these very exciting, heart pumping, jaw dropping conversation of the manong driver and manong pahinante, except for me. Alright, alright, I panicked too. Now the jeep was suddenly in autopilot mode, no one knows if it will stop moving forward.
At that moment, I was able to prove (and experience too) Newton's First Law of Motion. It says, "Any object in motion will continue moving in that straight line unless acted upon by some external force." The jeepney was moving in that straight line (I think we have the same velocity too since I was inside it), and it won’t stop if nothing will hinder it from moving forward. Though, i still think it will soon stop as soon as we hit something along the way, or due to the gravitational pull of our dying planet (not an ideal scenario.. hehehe).
Back to the story: I heard the engine chuckling while the jeep was moving. “May engine break effect naman.”, I thought to myself. The engine's actuation will have its effect on the jeepney's speed. And as expected, the jeep slowed down and soon the engine was shut, leading to a full stop after a couple of seconds. I was able to breathe deeply at that instant. “Yehey! Buhay pa me!” (Nope, I did not say this, it was just at the back of my mind). It was really weird that it happened when I was almost about to disembark.
But thank God, nobody got hurt, thank God the traffic was light when it happened, thank God we were traveling slower as compared earlier. I was thankful; I guess it was not yet my time to leave. Maybe an angel of death came there to reap some poor souls, but apparently, God too sent His angels of light to protect us, causing some delays in the plan of sabotage of the evil one. If the malfunction occurred earlier when we were traveling ala “Fast and Furious”, I would not be able to use my newly acquired license. Sad… more than that, maybe this would mean goodbye cruel world, or I-mode forever and beyond.
As I left the jeep, I thought of my family, my loved ones, and those special to me. I realized that God has just given me another chance to see these people, to thank them and to give love to them. It was not my luck that saved me; nor I am one of those “masamang damo na ‘di mamatay-matay…”. I knew that it was God’s grace that extended my lifeline. And He has some reasons why He did that, maybe because, I have not yet fulfilled my mission here, that’s why. This was not the first time though.
So great, it was not yet my time to leave today, maybe tomorrow, perhaps, or some other day. Only God knows. Right now, I do feel blessed and loved by God. AMDG
“Quilloy, Erwin. Andyan ba?”
“Opo.”, I replied.
I sprang to my feet and happily, or should I say, excitingly I quickly went to the cashier’s window. I paid the fee for the renewal of my driver’s license, excluding the application fee, the card case, and the test drive fee which did not have a real car driving test (“pitik” in other word, or let’s just call it a fund raising activity of the office, no receipts, no complaints allowed).
Anyway, I almost forgot about that test drive fee, because I was too happy that I will be having my professional license after a short while. And as I expected, my name was again called from the ID releasing window. I felt blessed, and surely, I was happy. I logged my name and signed the paper for releasing and then left the licensing office.
I then made my way back my town. I rode a jeepney, a quite spacious one; luckily, there were only a few passengers. It was past twelve noon. I estimated the time that I will arrive at Los Baños, and thought of having a quick lunch, then go to my office for work, though half a day work. The jeep was traveling so fast, it was Vin Diesel driving the ten-second jeep. Of course I was exaggerating that one. But it was really traveling fast, taking advantage of the light traffic in that area of Pila to Bay. It took only a couple of minutes before we arrive at the boundary of Los Baños. Some passengers alighted the jeep upon arriving the town. Again, the jeep went on its way.
It was almost 12:30pm, and I was almost reaching my destination when I heard the manong driver saying to his “pahinante” (Filipino term for a driver’s co-pilot), “Pare nawawalan ata ng preno..”
“Bombahin mo nang maigi!”, the manong pahinante shouted.
I was staring at manong driver’s face through the rear view mirror. I saw his thin eyes giving some bizarre expression. Maybe he was panicking too.
Everyone in the jeep panicked upon hearing these very exciting, heart pumping, jaw dropping conversation of the manong driver and manong pahinante, except for me. Alright, alright, I panicked too. Now the jeep was suddenly in autopilot mode, no one knows if it will stop moving forward.
At that moment, I was able to prove (and experience too) Newton's First Law of Motion. It says, "Any object in motion will continue moving in that straight line unless acted upon by some external force." The jeepney was moving in that straight line (I think we have the same velocity too since I was inside it), and it won’t stop if nothing will hinder it from moving forward. Though, i still think it will soon stop as soon as we hit something along the way, or due to the gravitational pull of our dying planet (not an ideal scenario.. hehehe).
Back to the story: I heard the engine chuckling while the jeep was moving. “May engine break effect naman.”, I thought to myself. The engine's actuation will have its effect on the jeepney's speed. And as expected, the jeep slowed down and soon the engine was shut, leading to a full stop after a couple of seconds. I was able to breathe deeply at that instant. “Yehey! Buhay pa me!” (Nope, I did not say this, it was just at the back of my mind). It was really weird that it happened when I was almost about to disembark.
But thank God, nobody got hurt, thank God the traffic was light when it happened, thank God we were traveling slower as compared earlier. I was thankful; I guess it was not yet my time to leave. Maybe an angel of death came there to reap some poor souls, but apparently, God too sent His angels of light to protect us, causing some delays in the plan of sabotage of the evil one. If the malfunction occurred earlier when we were traveling ala “Fast and Furious”, I would not be able to use my newly acquired license. Sad… more than that, maybe this would mean goodbye cruel world, or I-mode forever and beyond.
As I left the jeep, I thought of my family, my loved ones, and those special to me. I realized that God has just given me another chance to see these people, to thank them and to give love to them. It was not my luck that saved me; nor I am one of those “masamang damo na ‘di mamatay-matay…”. I knew that it was God’s grace that extended my lifeline. And He has some reasons why He did that, maybe because, I have not yet fulfilled my mission here, that’s why. This was not the first time though.
So great, it was not yet my time to leave today, maybe tomorrow, perhaps, or some other day. Only God knows. Right now, I do feel blessed and loved by God. AMDG
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Virtues - Faith
In a battle, he uses his weapons, not to hurt the enemies, but to keep the battle going. He fights and struggles until he sees that his enemy is exhausted. If his sword breaks, he will use that broken sword to continue the fight. If He loses his right arm, he will use his other arm to stay in the game. If he loses both of them, he will use his legs to thrive for survival. He believes that his enemies will soon reach their limits, and things will be clearer to them. He believes that they will see his persistence, his faith on them. He knows that he can lead his enemies to see things right without putting scratch on their foreheads.
Virtues - Obedience
He is chosen by God to be His servant, it is not him who chose God to be served. And he knows his mandate as a servant. He is to be obedient to his Master, although there are times that he falters. He has faith that his Master knows the best for him. And when his Master commands him to follow, he obeys it. When his Master asks him to surrender, he holds on to his faith and willingly yields to the will of the Master. When his Master asks him to let go of his strongholds, he lets go of these with the thought that the Master has something bigger for him, He has plans for him, plans of peace and prosperity.
Virtues - Persistence
He knows that he has to move, and grow. Regardless of the situation or obstructions along his way, he knows he has to achieve his objective. Surrender is not an option, unless commanded by the Great One. But as long as the drums are rolling, he knows that he has to continue the fight until he has won it, or until he is facing the ground. Nevertheless, he has to use the strength that was given to him wisely to last until the very end.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Virtues - Existence
Everyone is created for a purpose. They say that their life is going according to the purpose that was given to them. For some, they are still in the vicious process of seeking their own paths. Sometimes, or even most of the times, a knight has this struggle, his search for his purpose in life- the purpose of his existence.
Sometimes, he does not believe that he really exists. He too asks himself if his existence has an impact on this busy world. If the day would come that he needs to depart from this place, would anyone care? Though he has this dilemma, he does not stop seeking his objective. He has faith that the day would come that everything would fall into its proper place, according to the great mind of the Creator, then he would see his purpose fulfilled.
Sometimes, he does not believe that he really exists. He too asks himself if his existence has an impact on this busy world. If the day would come that he needs to depart from this place, would anyone care? Though he has this dilemma, he does not stop seeking his objective. He has faith that the day would come that everything would fall into its proper place, according to the great mind of the Creator, then he would see his purpose fulfilled.
Virtues - Pain
Pain is part of life. Pain is an opportunity for growth. Pain is always there, it is real. A knight knows that pain is real. He knows the suffering caused by pain. He knows how hard it is to rise after taking a deep plunge into the painful realm. And so he does not want his friends to experience the same pain that he had gone through. He does not want them to feel the painful blows of the world. But he can only mend just a little bit of it. He believes that the best way that he can relieve the pain from his fellowmen is to help them carry their burdens, to share their pain.
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