Garage War

In a sudden turn of events, I was reassigned from my much loved garden assignment to our garage which is the point and summit of all confusion. I had a heavy heart saying goodbye to the plants that I cared for for the past two months. Good thing the rains are still at it these weeks and they could survive. But, according to St. Thomas of Aquinas, "obedience is the surest way to moral perfection", so I have to follow the new assignments that got posted out at the beginning of the year.

This afternoon was the first battle with the garage room. Spider webs were roundabout and dust particles fight their way through my nostrils. The musky smell tell me that this room has been left untouched for a long time. This fight is not for the faint of heart. This fight is a fight to the finish.

All the things that lay there remind me of how much content our lives has. We think that our own experiences arrange themselves nicely in our subconscious. I believe the subconscious is much like the garage room. It just receives and receives and receives until the time when you would access a memory, all other things pour in and heap on top of you.

What I am saying is that we need to have a habit of processing our experiences: keep the junk out and keep the tools in. Each human life is a long story in the process of writing. Not all chapters are feel good but it doesn't mean they don't have value. Healing memories and facing truths are the most useful ways we can straighten up and clarify that wonderful novel that we are still writing everyday.

As for me, I am still writing the story of Keith versus the garage. Fight to the finish!

Christmas Season Still

The rain caught us off guard this morning. We forgot to bring umbrellas today. It seems the season of cold and chills is still hanging around. It is still Christmas!

Filipinos often mistake the start as the end. Just when Christmas begins on the birth of Christ, most of us end the yuletide season. Our culture has shifted the calendar a few clicks back. Advent for us is Christmas and Christmas week has become ordinary.

In today's feast of the Epiphany, we are reminded that God has just begun. Let us not put off our lights for God has just begun lighting His. He begins with the star of Bethlehem, and now sheds His light on the whole world through his manifestation to the wise men. The dawn of Christ is still breaking out. There is much more promise to unfold.

As I sit here watching our barrio chapel's Christmas decorations, my mind wanders to how we could easily shelve the spirit of Christmas together with our Christmas decors. If Christmas was truly life changing with its loving and sharing, then it would live on throughout the year.

Life Begins the Day

The distant echo of thunder
Fading far behind me race
Retreat against the downpour
Of golden sunlight on my face

I smell the fresh new birth
Of buds and dew and spring
Dance light to the chirps
Of bobbing birds on wing

Life begins the day
When night has made it sleep
Arising to embrace the morrow
Out of past purple deep

Alight on soft feathers
With leaves and wind and breeze
I take a step yonder
Upwards the sky's sweet kiss

Down and up above, within
Life is born anew
In every bough and branch
In every drop of dew

The moon to rest this morning
And sun to rise and play
Across the blue dome of heaven
As life begins the day