A Haven for Books: A Niche for Communion

In the morning of June 27, 1998, due to a storm, the New Haven River overran its bank and pummeled the small village of Vermont. For the villagers, it was really a disaster. But what really put the villagers of Vermont into the deep abyss of loneliness, according to Chris Bohjalian, a resident of Vermont village and a contributor in Reader’s Digest, was the lost of their village library—a library that used to be the haven most especially for Vermont literature. The loss of their library, according to Bohjalian, had also become the loss of one of their niche for communion.

With the villagers of Vermont, I also believe that library is a treasure. It is a resository of knowledge, wisdom, history, culture, belief, way of life, and most especially, of relationship—be it a reader-book relationship or reader-reader relationship. In connection with this, in our ‘age of internet,’ library still remains as one of the few places that can bring us together.

Given this reality, as readers, how much do we love our libraries? Do we really hunger and thirst for the gift of library to us?

TB: Out of Control

In the article “TB: Out of Control,” of Tan Suat Lian in the Reader’s Digest dated October 1999, he stated that Asia is considered as the tuberculosis (TB) capital of the world. More than a million Asians were diagnosed and were killed by it. It is really an epidemic in most poor countries, e.g. India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan, and Philippines. Considered as the number one infectious-disease killer in the world, Lian said that it is caused by a bacterium—the mycobacterium tuberculosis—that is common in poor social environment due to malnutrition and poor ventilation. And though it is curable, Lian wrote that doctors find it out of control due to inadequate health facilities and poor patient compliance.

Put in the Philippine context, I agree that TB is really out of control in our country. It is now considered as one of the country’s worst silent-infectious-disease killers. With my observation, in line with Lian’s thoughts, I really find it hard to control this problem especially with our present situation. First, we have inadequate health facilities. I agree with Lian’s suggestion that we should start upgrading our clinics, equipment and laboratories, and to conduct proper staff training.

The second reason why it’s hard to control TB is poor patient’s compliance. Discipline is also needed in our advocacy against TB. Thus, the patients must also be faithful to their medication.
The advocacy against TB is not only a responsibility of medicine, or a project of the government, or the duty of the patients. The advocacy against TB is a call for consensus. We are all invited to give our share—to battle against it, to control it.

The Beauty of Reading

Television, VCD, DVD, youtube…most of us are very much addicted in watching that we tend to forget and to neglect the beauty of reading. Many of us love instants that we find reading books boring and a waste of time. But what is really there that makes reading beautiful?

Reading is one of the best roads towards learning. It is very much informative and at the same time refreshing and enjoyable. Reading is also a good teacher in a way that it could widen our horizon in terms of insights, vocabulary, grammar, techniques in writing, and the likes. It is also a good tool in harnessing our imagination. Unlike watching, where we are just absorbing images, in reading we will be enhanced and be trained to transform words into flesh in our mind. These are just some of the factors that make reading beautiful, enjoyable, and powerful.

Reading is not a waste of time. It is not a burden. Reading is a journey into the world named LEARNING.

Pray Without Ceasing

Jesus loves us and He is always longing to be with us. He always wants to be in contact with us. He is a God of relationship. Because of this, He gives us means and ways to be in touch with Him and it is through prayer.

To pray is to have an encounter or a date with Jesus for prayer, basically, is relationship. It is the expression of our deep and wonderful love story with the Lord. All of us are invited to enter into this intimate relationship with Him and to submerge ourselves into a meaningful dialogue with Him.

If we also long, hunger, and thirst for His presence, His invitation for us is to pray without ceasing. If we really want to have an encounter with Him, we must learn to stop, to silence ourselves, and to ask for His grace.

Dealing with Depression

Depression or the state of being sad or gloomy is inevitable. It is part of life and it excuses no one.

Each person has his own way of dealing with depression. Some view it as a challenge, an opportunity, while others see it as mere burden. As for me, I view depression as a room for learning. But I cannot also hide the fact that there are times that I just take it as mere burden. During these times, I usually prefer to sleep with it thinking that it would fade when I wake. But, most of the times, it is not that effective. But it somehow helps me control my emotion. Everytime I reach this state, I usually look for someone to talk to. I found this one as my best remedy for depression. It is also through others’ counsel that I find the beauty of depression.

Depression can either be a specter or a blessing. Its shape will very much depend from the point of view of the person who is dealing with it.

The Future of OFWs

Due to poverty, unemployment, underemployment, low wage, etc., many Filipino people choose to go abroad to look for a better job. But, could working abroad really salvage the OFW's family from hunger or would it just be another ghost and burden for their family?

To be an OFW is to be away from one's family. Just for the sake of earning money, a good and deep family relationship is sacrificed. Just imagine a little child whose both parents are working abroad. Yes, they can meet their material needs but, more than that, the child also needs love and affection. Thus, being an OFW cannot guarantee a healthy family. Money cannot buy love, care, affection, and unity. It is still love and presence that solidify a family. Togetherness is still the key for happiness.

In this regard, the government needs to play an important role. They have to offer more job opportunities. For me, this would be the best way to salvage the sacredness of the Filipino family --specially those families of the OFWs.

DAWN - A POEM BY THOMAS BERRY

Look up at the sky--

The heavens so blue, the sun so radiant,

The clouds so playful, the soaring raptors,

The meadows in bloom, the woodland creatures,

The rivers singing their way to the sea,

Wolf song on the land, whale song in the sea,

Celebration everywhere, wild, riotous,

Immense as a monsoon lifting an ocean of joy

And spilling it down over the Appalachian landscape,

Drenching us all with a deluge of delight

As we open our arms and rush toward each other,

You and I and all of us,

Moved by that vast compassionate Presence

that brings all things together in intimate celebration,

celebration that's the universe itself.

WINNING ATTITUDE

“…are defeats necessary? Well necessary or not, they happen. When we first begin fighting for our dream, we have no experience and make many mistakes. The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.”—Paulo Coelho

Many of us fail to live life fully because of fear—fear of defeats in particular. This specter is haunting us from inside and out making us acquire losing attitude. From the inside, we are ravaged by our fear of failure, dread of discouragement, struggle of sin, and the likes. Furthermore, outside forces uplift our losing attitude more with the existence of problems, criticisms, and the likes.
But, are these ghosts really necessary? Well, necessary or not, they come and the happen. The problem lies only on how we confront them.

We can’t have any other way to get rid of these problems but to face them—by having a winning attitude. In this context, problems must be viewed as part of life and as an avenue for success. Problem is just a further impetus, a stimulus, a compelling force. It is not something that will prevent us from moving forward. Rather, it is a learning experience—an opportunity in disguise.

Changing losing attitude to winning attitude is a personal choice. This will truly depend on how we see and value things around us. Faith, having good world perspective before us, developing the desire to change for the better, developing good habits, and the likes can help us win a winning attitude. With this in mind, we must also remember that, “failure will never overtake [us] if [our] determination to succeed is strong enough.” (Og Mandino)

(a reflection on John Maxwell's "A Winning Attitude")

GENTLE PRESENCE

“If I can help people, I will do it by giving them a chance to help themselves; and if I can uplift or inspire, let it be by example, inference and suggestion, rather than injunction and dictation.”—Og Mandino

Living life fully is a call but to extend gentle presence to others is a mission. Life is not just a matter of winning or having private victory but of public victory as well for being and living as a fully human person entails sharing this fullness to others—i.e. being a gentle presence to and for others.

Gentle presence comes not by inheritance. Gentle presence is learned. We basically accumulated it from our experiences from childhood up to present. But acquiring gentle presence is not the end in itself. We have to live it up and let others experience it. And through our actions and examples of gentle presence, may we be able to uplift and inspire others to become a gentle presence as well.

(a reflection on Earnest Tan's "Gentle Presence")

LIVING LIFE FULLY

“Man is made and unmade by himself; in the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself; he also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace.”—Og Mandino

Man is made and unmade by himself. No one can change us unless we want to. It is always our responsibility to take over on our own lives. Thus, it is not rational to blame others for our misfortunes. At the same time, we should not let outside forces determine our personality. To grow or not is (and must be) a personal decision.

In the armory of thought, we forge the weapons by which we destroy ourselves. If we will be enveloped by fear and if we will just choose to stay within the comfort of a shell, we will just end up lonely and desperate. Thus, to live life fully, we must have the courage to take risk, not to limit ourselves, and to explore. Also, we must be open to be stretched. We also have to de-label ourselves from the negative energies that haunt us and to be true to ourselves. In doing so, a discerning attitude is also needed. We must also have a time to reflect on how our past experiences could help us live the present life fully.

Lastly, we human beings must always bear in mind that we always have the choice and the capacity to fashion the tools with which we build for ourselves heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace.

(a reflection on Earnest Tan's inspirational novel "Living Life Fully")

BAHALA NA

The ‘bahala na’ concept has so much to do with Filipino attitudes, ethics, and performances. It has a big influence in our way of life and thinking. In this regard, many commentaries, both positive and negative, have been written about it. At present, many Filipinos view the ‘bahala na’ concept negatively. Many of us are just aware of its academic and historical definition—i.e. ‘bahala na’ as somewhat similar to fatalism, resignation, avoidance of responsibilities, and reliance on fate. Thus, most of the times, we blame ‘bahala na’ for Filipino’s lack of initiative, creativity to move, and the drive to progress. Most of the times, we make it an alibi for our inefficiency—as one of the major causes of poverty.

However, is ‘bahala na’ the cause of our dilemma? Or does the real problem only reside on our misconception of the term ‘bahala na?’ Landa Jocano, author of the book ‘Management by Culture,’ firmly believes the ‘bahala na’ is not the one responsible for our inefficiency. It is the actors, according to him, that should be blamed. In this regard, he posits the traditional definition of ‘bahala na’—i.e. a moral-spiritual strength to dare, to take risks, to initiate a move, to take up challenge, to assume responsibility, and to be ready to accept the consequences of an act. Thus, viewed positively, ‘bahala na’ can serve as a ‘spark plug’ that can boost us to dare, to risk, and to have courage. And as it uplifts our willingness and readiness to accept and to respond to any situation, ‘bahala na’ also turns our disadvantages into opportunities. Therefore, if we can only appreciate this deeper meaning of ‘bahala na,’ it is only there that we can use it to sustain us in times of crises and adversities in life.

‘Bahala na’ is a personality trait share by the members of Filipino family—a part of Filipino’s basic personality structure. As with other cultural traits, we basically acquired the ‘bahala na’ trait from our family. Our way of living and thinking may also depend on the perception shared by our family members. Thus, it is advisable to look at it positively. It is a good source of courage that should not be exploited just to make alibis.

BODY AND SOUL

In Adam’s quest for the spring of salvation,

He accidentally drank a Cartesian potion;

Thus he forgot the story of creation,

That he is a composite of body and soul.




In the deepest abyss of Adam’s being,

A specter is continuously haunting him;

Being poisoned by Descartes’ idealism,

His niche and beliefs were distorted and shaken.




Being convinced that soul and body are different entities,

He only seeks answers on how to uplift his inner being;

Thus, he forgot that bodily existence is on the same footing,

That it also needs equal care and understanding.




Everyone’s existence is truly a call,

An invitation, a conviction to tend not just only the soul;

For one cannot exist without the other,

For body and soul is in union with each other.