prelature assembly

@ d assembly, we listened to p.bert,sj talk about the ongoing project: konsultmindanaw. it aims to consolidate what natives of mindanaw feel, think and hope about their place. the idea is quite succinct and very common sense: why ask experts 1. who were not even from mindanaw; 2/ talk about social analysis 3. when they haven't really lived with its people?

coming here a year ago opened to me the pain of a 'langyaw'-- a stramger, a learner who keeps on learning from the hard news... thank God, it's just the news.

i am amazed at the sight of empowered laity in our prelature. it is fortifying to witness these ordinary people committing themselves to the church and giving their best to respond to their social obligations without, as they say, counting the cost. suscipe indeed.

let us see what happens in the coming months ahead.

i was playing with our kitten last night. i got a koala tissue holder that i wrapped around the pet until she looks like a clown. how she struggled to fight and get out of her costume until she got tired, kept still, and started her "kitten-meditation" i was observing how she can possibly get off that koala thing. to my surprise she very softly jumped off the table walked slowly -- and off the costume went! i repeated the saga...she fought, and fought real hard, she got tired, she kept still and got lost in her "thoughts" again. she stood up and walked slowly, jumped and off went the costume!

i was thinking, hey, even peace and calmness worked for animals! unwanted struggles just slip by silently eventually, in a quiet heart.

clarity

i keep on waking up just before three in the morning.

and in those instances, always, always, i notice
my heart responding to certain realities in my life
where i am most uncomfortable, or contented.

i have learned to listen to these
not so oblivious murmurs of my heart.

i am not sure if this is true for most of humanity,
but in this waking up, i have found
if i did a stupid mistake, if i have been found wanting
in charity, if a decision i made is ill-thought or ill-advised.

and i begin to see that early morning
the dawn, is where my consciousness is
freed from the garbage
of my mind.

stunning....

it is the first word that came to me as i read
about ancient China's rule of gallantry.

wow. i honestly think they had the new heaven and new earth in their midst.
but then, some emperor thought the wall was sine qua non.

today is everyday

just begun with the gutter repair which piqued me---well, several days ago.

hay... i was wondering why i slept like sleeping beauty...waiting for one hundred years of solitude before realizing how stupid it is to trust words spoken by "powers that be."

i'm almost forty and i am just realizing how much i can contribute if i only became more assertive and courageous.

damn if you're good, damn if you're bad.