A FRESH MORNING REFLECTION

Nobody, not even God, begrudges a reasonable desire to  freshen our lagging spirit with a change in scenery.   We are simply cautioned against their too free use for it is easy for them to lead one astray

What is needed more for our own good is really a renewal of good intentions and noble motives for serving higher causes.

What is the lasting good for continually seeking new sights?  Doesn’t that pursuit simply distract us from our nobler purposes?

Desire only enough to improve the quality of our lasting good works and our lives.

Worthy thoughts to have as we wake up each morning of the rest of our lives.

This reflection is about something more direct and straight forward.

The temporal nature of man is a big burden he carries all his life, seeping into the very marrows of his existence.

Thus when he begins to address his impending mortality, he initiates the process of accepting and preparing for it. One then finds in most instances that man continues to cater to this fleeting nature with the plans and resolutions he makes.

Thus he is wont to declare, that because he is close to the end of the road, he needs to take life easy, enjoy new sights and experiences, take leisurely trips, bond more with friends and relations, etc. A common thread in all this is that they all partake of the temporal nature of man.

Remember what the Scriptural admonition for death is? Remember the incident about the man who wanted salvation and so asked Christ what he needed to do with his life knowing it would be taken away from him at an undetermined time?  The answer was curt and succinct. Live your life like you would live the last day of your life.

Implying that the inevitability and urgency require that one focuses on spiritual matters that lead to eternal salvation.

Our late father was one person who was gifted with unique insights into the higher purposes of man. Thus, years prior to his passing he had tried as much as he could to shed himself of the trappings and frailties of this life. Devoting instead his efforts to things that transcended this temporal existence.

But he was also a frustrated man. Having wished and worked so much for more of life, he felt that fortune and ease had escaped him.

The lesson left behind for us to learn is the delicate balance we need to put between spiritual matters and the  alluring things that this life dangles before and offers us. As man, we need to steadily straddle between the two. Except that after this life, only the other remains.

This will be a constant struggle throughout our entire lives.

Observing The World About Us

During bouts of sleeplessness or idle times, one scans through social media groups to pass the time.

And invariably one inherits the feelings of helplessness and depression.

For what we read are mostly a litany of the things that are observed as being wrong, most everywhere our heads are turned.

Do we need to be constantly and incessantly reminded?

Do we really need to know all the wrinkles we can observe in and around our surroundings?

Isn’t it sufficient especially after all these times to keep those in mind and accept them as there?

But then start unobtrusively doing whatever little things we may be able to do both individually and collectively.

In our lifetime and beyond, most of these things observed will still be with us.

There is nothing humanly possible to remove all of them.

As one problem is resolved, another one pops up. Life is meant to be like this.

So judge rather the efforts expended than the problems solved.

There is no going around that.

Much like we are admonished, lighting that solitary candle rather than loudly cursing the darkness may be more cleansing.

KEEPING THE MALLS OF CAGAYAN DE ORO DRY

Re our own insular issue of how to keep the LKKS area and environs dry, we simply need to heed nature, and keep away from the paths it has chosen.

Growing up in the 50’s we had more respect for nature and its ways then.  The old Lapasan road from its intersection with Corrales Avenue all the way to the Camp Alagar intersection had always been elevated in relation to the land on both sides.  The trade school campus, now MUST, was traversed by Bitan-ag Creek, and a little bridge allowed the creek to pass through the highway.  And the lazy creek meandered all the way to Camama-an I believe.

And we had expected or took for granted that even without rain when the tide was high, water would fill the areas around the trade school and into the other side of the road which was largely and definitely low-lying and marshy.  Some coconut trees co-existed with other plant life like tangkong and kumpay.  Owners pretty much left the areas alone treating them like estuaries on occasions.

And humans co-existed with the lay of the land that nature gave, adapted their living and nary a word of complaint was muttered from their lips.

And with the patience of Job, everybody waited for either the tide to recede or the rain to abate.  And like clockwork, the waters squatting on land simply returned from whence they came.  And everybody was contented. People harvested the tangkong and fed their horses with the kumpay which flourished.

But after many years, and after the topography and landscape have been inexorably changed by humans, now we encounter a multiple of problems.   And public officials, businessmen, and young folks cannot understand why or worse, cannot even begin to resolve the issues.  Of course, many stop-gap measures are cranked out from the government mill.  To no avail.

Unless we want to do battle with formidable nature, I believe the solution is simple.  Keep away from its path.  Thus, decongest the areas affected. And that most likely include also the smallish poblacion area the city has, which now feels too big for its britches.

 Somber Thoughts On A New Year

Lingering hope gives impetus to continue with life.

It proffers clarity of vision to see through hazy veil

that shrouds our real purposes here on this earth.

That lowly man is here only as itinerant traveler,

preordained to begin his real life in the spirit

devoid of the constrictive trappings of the flesh.

Still, while the mind and spirit share a clear 

and unstinting grasp of our real goals in life,

keeping this frame of mind is mostly difficult.

And calamitous lapses in judgment are typical,

making it necessary to be always reminded 

of guiding principles that should rule daily living

CONVERSATIONS WITH SELF

Understandably these twilight years bring diminished capabilities and mobility, resulting in almost bunker-like existence.  Shrinking one's world and ken even more as days are piled under, with attention laser-focused on eternity in general, but day-to-day living in particular. 

Thus, we are not even in the midst of family life.  We are simply alone, an old man with his wife by his side eking out solitary existence.  The rest of the family now on their own with their own families and concerns. 

Moments like these when one begins to converse with one self rather than with other people. They are our Says-I-To-Me moments, with your consciousness on one side and your still-thriving mind on the other.

In these instances you quickly learn introspection and reflection if you have not already.  One begins to ask profound questions about oneself.  In the shortened drive to eternity, what are your purposes in life?  However late-term they may be, what are they and how may they be pursued and accomplished?

Though short and straightforward the question may be, no easy answers can be deduced.  Best then to just go through all the things one does and see where they lead if they make sense at all.  Brainstorming is always a good start.

In the rush to eternity, what have I been doing and for what reasons?

In no particular order then, here are the things and chores that had occupied my time as we speak.

With great preparation and financial effort, I have been able to publish a book of almost 500 pages.  So much so that a second volume is in the works.  Is my purpose as an author then?  Anyway, I am now a registered author and my book now has a unique  ISBN number  assigned to it.

During my grade school I had always had a predilection for doing sketches, starting early with imitating caricatures in comic books, newspapers, and magazines.  I can recall the first time I did it and felt proud of my sketchy work.  I had imitated the caricature of then Phil. President Elpidio Quirino whose default caricature was that of a big-nosed and heavy-set man sitting on a padded seat with one heavily bandaged foot raised on an ottoman.  The guy suffered from a bad case of gout.  I imitated that sketch and even got an admiring nod from my taciturn mother who in turn relayed such joyful discovery to relatives.  And to this day in some kind of compulsion, I continue to do sketches, this time specializing in busts of famous and notable personalities.  I probably have accumulated a collection of about 400 pieces.  Am I an illustrator then, slavishly pursuing that path till the end? In this regard, I also am both a numismatist and philately collector, accumulating about 2000 pieces of coins from various countries.  Being an avid Elvis Presley fan, I can also boast of a modest collection of memorabilia comprising mostly of books and MP3 files.

I was an employee for about 37 years, and earned my essential living being one.  Was able to raise family and provide for our retirement years.  In hindsight,  I do put value on what I did as such and am grateful for what it afforded us as a family.  Clearly it was pursued with earnest as a necessity, and not because I liked doing it.  As a matter fact, I can confess that I was only too eager and happy when employment stopped.  Now it is regarded simply as a past phase of my life.  Nothing less, nothing more.

Indeed, right after employment I wasted no time looking for the path to self-employment or entrepreneurship.  Commenced earlier even before retirement by getting license as a real estate agent.  And engaging formally in the business for at least 3 years, the initial validity period of my license as i recall.  And after that, secured another state license as personal financial analyst which served me well personally.  Then in a very serious way, the IT bug got me, and I could not help myself learning as much as I could digest about it.  So did a lot of serious self-study to secure license as a network and sysadmin technician.  Our eventual return to the old homeland cut short any attempt  of securing that license, though with regard to subject knowledge I had gone through the wringer of learning and researching.  And I considered myself as ready as I could get.

It was back to the old homeland when the entrepreneurship bug caught me.  Started with planting high-value crops on rented agricultural  land.  And eventually buying some plots with agriculture in mind.  Also went into real estate investments, with residential apartments and commercial spaces for rent. Established 2 bakery sites, and a water-refilling station.  And even tried a piggery fattening business. 

And now in a tad grandiose way, established a resort/retreat patterned as a farmhouse model with lodgings available and spaces and structures available also for functions and events.  And in the works will be an inn for more accommodations.  And by the way, we also had much earlier started a coffee orchard with about 2000 trees, which are now fruit-bearing.  At least two harvest seasons have been had.  We also have little fishpond, seeded with tilapia and catfish. We also plant flowers for show and for sale, too. So is entrepreneurship the purpose for this existence?  Definitely, we are in the thick of it with construction projects still ongoing.  So indeed we are into entrepreneurship.

On another front, this time using social media as tool, I have engaged in what I call my truth-telling advocacy, especially because nowadays fake news and deliberate misinformation are so prevalent in the institutions we have long regarded as trustworthy and reliable.  But have now gone to the dark side.  So I spend considerable time, disseminating and dispensing truth where I find it, and assist to make known the emerging personalities who are also committed to the same task.  And for this, I consider myself a citizen journalist, tasked with a very noble and admirable purpose worthy of effort and maybe, worth dying for.

With all these confusing choices, what reasonable deduction can one draw in reply to the initial question?

I can't say.  So maybe best to just let things slide.  Let the chips fall where they may.

But then even holy books warn that one cannot run away from oneself.  So always best to confront and resolve.

So if that be the case then let me pursue all of the above for all men.  And continue on with what are being done.

Amen.