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")