stories

29Sep09

While Metro Manila’s streets were being turned into raging, deathly rivers by non-stop torrential rains last Saturday, I was with forty-plus co-workers on board a tourist bus somewhere in Batangas. We were heading back to Manila following an exhilarating and spiritually enriching company retreat at a Batangas resort.

News of the unfolding calamity in Manila reached us in trickles. An officemate got a text (or was it a call?)  from her brother about “rubber boats” on EDSA. I couldn’t believe my ears, and so I clarified: “Did you say ‘rubber boats’ or ‘rubber boots’?”

It didn’t take long before we all began to appreciate the gravity of the situation in the metropolis. One of us gravely reported that the flood had reached their house; a co-worker received a text report that their car had been displaced by the current; flood waters had risen to second-story heights.

We were at a crossroads: to continue our journey home via an alternate route that avoided the express way, or make a U-turn and make good on a co-worker’s offer to house all of us for the night. Some of us were anxious to get home and be with loved ones despite the risks, while some felt that the best course of action was to wait it out away from Metro Manila and then resume the journey when the situation improved.

Before entering the express way our bus driver discovered a problem with our brakes, a setback that proved to be our biggest blessing. After the brakes were fixed (which was nothing short of a miracle!), it became clear to everyone that the wisest decision was to spend the night in Batangas and continue the journey in the morning, hoping that by then the rains have stopped and the floods have been drained out of the major thoroughfares.

Thankfully, everyone in our group was calm, patient, and cooperative. With a few others, I helped lead our pack of marooned travelers—silently pleading for God’s mercy and guidance at every turn, helping to lighten up the mood with a few jokes, updating the group of whatever progress or new setback we were facing…. By God’s grace—and I mean that with all my heart—we were able to make it back to Manila the following morning without any further incident.

Our story is just one of many in the tapestry of stories that last weekend’s calamity has woven all throughout Metro Manila and its neighboring areas. Surely, our story is among the least grave, if at all. The media, the Internet included, tell of harrowing tales of families trapped on rooftops, shivering in the rain for many hours while desperately praying for help that usually came belatedly. Photographs and video clips, both amateur and journalistic, show ghastly images of men, women, and children being subjected to Nature’s stormy wrath. The fatality toll continues to rise, not to mention the cost of damaged properties and displaced lives.

But the stories do not end there. For me and my officemates, the story continued with thanksgiving and praise during the weekly company meeting this morning, followed by an earnest petition on behalf of the calamity victims. In the afternoon, just outside my office room, the conference table was filled with donated clothes, sorted according to their intended wearers. On the floor, next to the steel cabinets, canned goods were neatly arranged, waiting to be packed tomorrow with other relief items. Earlier we were trying to compose a list of more things to buy for inclusion in the relief packs.

The pile of goods doesn’t look a lot. But we pray it will make a difference in the stories of some people in our community.

Filed under: my life, trips, work   |  1 Comment

retreat

23Sep09

It’s just Wednesday, but we’ve been wrapping up the week’s work here at the office like it was Friday. That’s because tomorrow we all troop to Batangas for the annual staff retreat. Call time for the bus ride is 6AM. Although I live 10 minutes away by foot, I dread not making it on time. Must set the alarm — multiple times, at 15-minute intervals.

Tonight I load my backpack with three days’ worth of clothes and stuff, anticipating a great time by the beach with co-workers, most of whom have become dear friends, even family, through the years. Tonight I also start unloading my heart and my mind of clutter wrought by the past weeks’ busyness, and prepare the inner self to retreat — to actually zoom out, come away, reflect on the ‘big’ issues above the minutiae. And, hopefully, encounter God afresh in whatever way He chooses to reveal Himself to me, to us.

One more task before I go on full retreat mode: set my email’s auto-response.

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the question

21Sep09

“You don’t blog anymore, do you?”

The question was posed with a kind smile by Ate Grace last Thursday at the Book Fair. “Ate Grace” is actually Grace D. Chong, multiple Palanca award-winner and among our prized authors at OMF Lit. We were chatting during downtime at our booth where she was doing media interviews and graciously signing copies of her children’s books (much to the delight of awestruck young readers and their parents).

Ate Grace’s question lent voice to a feeling inside of me that has been silently bugging me these past months. I replied with a sheepish grin and mumbled something unremarkable about being too busy with work to blog.

Truth is, I feel guilty about neglecting personal creative pursuits, blogging included. I do enjoy my marketing work at the publishing house. It keeps me on my toes and presents enough creative and leadership challenges to keep middle-brained me engaged. Plus I am blessed with a great staff who work as hard as they laugh.

Without realizing it, or perhaps taking time to acknowledge it, I have let busyness with work take me away from the things that I love doing on my own. And that includes blogging. I have all but ignored the creative “itch” these past months with very sparse writing (it gets sparser if you discount writing status messages on Facebook).

I’m not making any promises with this post. No blog marathons to be launched here either. But it does feel good to be blogging again — just because. There is something invigorating when you submit to the call to create no matter how small the output is. I believe this is divine joy gifted by a loving Creator.

Now I wonder when I will start drawing again.

Filed under: blogging   |  4 Comments

places

12Jul09

There are places so different and aloof that no matter how hard you try to blend in you just can’t shake off feeling like a stranger. And you realize that regardless of how long you stay or how often you visit, they will never feel familiar, or at least comfortable. That’s just the way things are between you and these places.

And perhaps the same can be said of people.

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  2 Comments

confessions of apathy

04Jun09

There are ways to cope with frustration over a government that has done nothing but drag this country deeper into the pit of poverty and shame. The most popular one has been to pack and find a better life in a foreign land. Who can blame those who have taken this road? I know I don’t. Although I have thus far chosen to stay put, there is nothing noble about how I cope.

Apathy.

I’m not proud of it. And maybe writing about it is my way of finding absolution. It’s not that I woke up one day and decided I would stop caring about how the Philippines’ shameless, thick-faced leaders are ever tightening their grip around the neck of a very sick nation, choking the very life out of her for personal gain. But one can only take so much exposés by whistle-blowers, blatant self-service of so-called public servants, assassinations left and right—all assaulting the public psyche one after the other, and none finding resolution or even a semblance of justice.

Imagine the numbing effect on a citizen like myself.

But give it to our politicians to make even the most apathetic and numb flinch in disgusted awe of their ever-growing shamelessness. The other night I was enjoying my dinner of sisig when the news on TV reported that the lower house had approved House Resolution 1109  in a glaringly unconstitutional and anti-democratic move that would eventually allow the extension of the present administration’s term.

I do not claim to understand the intricacies of this political maneuver. The Palace-dwelling beneficiary of the move by administration congressmen has denied involvement. (It is disgusting how stupid they must think the public is!)  But I have to thank the House of Representatives for thawing my apathy, and for making me realize that I have, in the first place, grown apathetic.

Now I am outraged. But outrage, in itself, is unproductive. That’s why I write. That’s why I’m thankful that yesterday during our office prayer time we had the chance to pray for the issues of this country, the controversial HR 1109 and its implications included.

One cannot pray and remain indifferent. Faith and apathy cannot occupy the same space.

Filed under: being pinoy   |  6 Comments

moving to adulthood

26May09

My sister Liza once said that you know you’re already a grown-up when you start spending more time in the home and grocery sections rather than the clothes section of the department store.

That made little sense to me in my twenties. After all, I never really spent a lot of time in the clothes section. Clothes shopping was—and still is—a chore, something I must do because I am not a nudist. I’d rather tarry where the shiny cool gadgets are, drooling over the latest electronic wonders and coveting high-priced technology.

For the life of me, I couldn’t imagine being torn between a microwave and an oven toaster; a pre-packed bag of mixed greens and a naked ball of lettuce; a blanket and a comforter. I had been content being fed by McDo, Jollibee, and Pizza Hut delivery. A homemade salad meant red egg and my housemate’s extra tomatoes. And my greatest sleep luxury was keeping company with two pillows whose cases seldom matched the bed sheet.

That was then.

Last weekend I finally made the great move—from sharing an apartment with housemates to living by myself in a small space just a stone’s throw away from work. Don’t get me wrong; I lived with great housemates, and we got along fine. (We had an unspoken rule about cleaning the house: he who can’t stand it should clean it. And, oh boy, the things we could stand!) But I just felt it was my time to move on. Besides, the overloaded MRT commute and the taxi rides had become a daily assault on my sanity (the former) and on my wallet (the latter). I longed for solitude, and I was getting weary of traversing EDSA.

The rent at the new place is quite challenging. But my Excel worksheet tells me I could pull it off if I cut down on gimik (mostly eating out) and other little luxuries. That means I will have to learn to manipulate edible matter, also know as “cooking.” Gulp.

These days I roam the home and grocery sections more often. And I’m finding it quite an adventure. Being a grown-up isn’t so bad after all.

Filed under: my life   |  14 Comments

(cpr)

24Feb09

I sit here at a coffee shop corner, satisfied with my plate of pasta and water in a plastic cup—no more coffee for me; I had too much of it earlier today. Around me strangers talk and sip coffee. I wonder at the wealth of stories and lives being shared all around me at this moment…

I feel tired from negotiating two train lines from the Manila hospital where I visited an aunt who just had a hysterectomy. The LRT was not as crowded as I had expected, and the clean and airconditioned train car I hopped on was… nice. How long has it been since I last boarded the LRT line? For a moment during the ride, I thought I wasn’t in Manila, but in some foreign city. The trip was actually pleasant, including the part where I got lost for a moment but quickly regained my bearings, thanks to signage. (I know.)

Maybe this little snippet from my day will help resuscitate this blog?

Filed under: blogging, daily life   |  3 Comments

tagged: the big four

23Nov08

Gypsy has tagged me! Goodie. I’m in the mood for lists…

4 Things Meme

Here’s the rule:

Click copy/paste, type in your answers and tag four people in your blogroll! Don’t forget to change my answers to the questions with that of yours.

Question # 1. Four places I go to over and over:
Gloria Jean’s at Araneta, the string of fast food places at Philcoa, SM North EDSA, gadget stores.

Question # 2. Four people who e-mail me regularly
My staff (we’re in the same area, but email seems more convenient sometimes), Martin (missionary friend), my brother Arnel (I’m on the list of people he sends his “Lunch Break Devotions” to), and myself (I back-up important files by emailing them to another addy of mine.)

Question # 3. Four of my favorite places to eat?
Som’s (amazing Thai food–Beng’s discovery!), Sisig House (really good bad stuff ), Chocolate Kiss (memories!), Meals-to-go (really cheap food packs for the budgetarian)

Question # 4. Four places you’d rather be?
Boracay, the tidy version of my room, on a cruise, Europe

Question #5. Four TV shows I could watch over and over.
24 (I wanna be Jack Bauer when I grow up!), Battlestar Galactica (cool marries geek!), Heroes (who doesn’t like it?), Grey’s Anatomy (minus the sleeping around)

Now I’m tagging… Bijoi, Gladys, Misha, Ruben. (Click on their names on my blogroll–I’m too sleepy to do the hyperlinks! Hehe.)

Filed under: meme   |  4 Comments

quote from jim elliot

09Nov08

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.

-Jim Elliot, Christian martyr

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why

31Oct08

“What would you ask God if you were face to face with Him now?”

I threw the question to an all-female audience of National Book Store staff. It was my little ice breaker during our publishing company’s product presentation to them. Anyone who would come forward to answer the question would win a copy of Philip Yancey’s Where is God When it Hurts?, one of several products we were promoting.

I was being the chirpy presenter who unleashed punch lines incessantly to sustain the audience’s interest. But the mood would change dramatically as some brave ladies shared their questions for God with misty eyes:

“Why did You take my mother away?”

“Why aren’t You granting our desire to have another child? My husband and I want one so bad…”

“Why did my premature baby have to die? If he had been born a day later he would have stood a chance…”

After they shared their very personal stories, many in the audience were dabbing their eyes with tissue. I confess, there was a growing lump in my throat too.

It’s interesting how our questions for God often begin with why. We want explanations, reasons, justifications. We long to understand. And yet, many times there are no clear answers from Him. We don’t hear a booming voice that enumerates the reasons for our circumstances. There’s no bright vision to enlighten us so we can make perfect sense of our pain.

I think of Job’s experience. He wanted answers to his why-am-I-suffering questions. Although God responded to Him audibly, He did not dish out point-blank answers. Instead God drew Job’s attention to His identity and heart, as if to say, “You do not see the whole picture. Even if I explained, you wouldn’t understand. All you need is Me. I am God, and I am with you in your pain.”

Maybe that’s not the answer we want, but the one we need.

Filed under: faith thoughts, work   |  6 Comments