Such Love and Some Gifts to Share this Christmas

Paskwa sa Banwa. It's Christmas time in Balete. And every morning starting last Monday, people wake up early for the Dawn Mass at the parish church. It is a panaad, a personal devotion and a pledge to fulfill with the hope of getting something in return come Christmas Day when such sacrifice finds its culmination.

It has been ingrained in us. Gifts to receive on Christmas Day or during its long season. We expect to at least receive one from our one of our elusive godparents. This expectation is extended to our doing the Misa de Gallo and the Aguinaldo Mass. It is us and our loved ones that should receive Christmas presents.

We often forget that Christmas Day is the birthday of our Lord, or at least, the day we commemorate his "pitching his tent to dwell among us".

We often appropriate to ourselves the attention that is rightfully of the Lord laying on the manger. It is us that should receive comfort this Christmas while Jesus remains languishing in cold and dirt in some obscure pigsty in the periphery of our communities. Since when did we greet Him "Happy Birthday, my Lord?". Since when did we manage to bring him gifts on his birthday?

Despite that, he continues to love us. He love us notwithstanding our selfishness and flaws. Such love that does not end in his taking our human form and experiencing our poverty. His love absorbs our betrayals and unfaithfulness. His love endures every temptation. He loves us even to the point of dying on the cross and experiencing and conquering hell to bring us up back into the bosom of his merciful Father.

He showed us the example. Let us not forget it. He loves us. We must return such love to him through our neighbors. Christmas is the perfect occasion to start that off. We have the choice. Mine is the little way.

Over the years, and considering the limited resources available vis-a-vis the values I find in them. I have endeavored to sharing the spirit of Christmas through simple gifts to my circle of friends and loved ones:

• giving off saplings of fruit trees -- the kids receiving them might initially not be excited as receiving expensive and sophisticated toys but with the guidance of their parents, planting them in their backyard may give them the thrill with the prospect of watching it grow to bear fruit in the near future. Plus, you can tell them that by such small gesture, they are caring for the environment;
• giving off old classic books or buying some, if the funds are available -- such as this ten titles: Hope for the Flower by +Trina Paulus; The Little Prince by Antoine de St. Exupery; The Alchemist by +Paulo Coelho; A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens; Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by Richard Bach; All I Really Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum; First You Have to Row a Little Boat by Richard Bode; Why I Am Afraid to Tell You Who I Am by Fr.  John Powell as well as its sequel, Why I Am Afraid to Love; and  Watership Down by Richard Adams. 
• inviting them to bird watching or hiking in the countryside -- as part of your advocacy for the environment while at the same time sharing them the spiritual benefits of communing with nature. For some practical guides to bird watching and hiking, you might find this site worth visiting: Birding Adventure Philippines. 

Steere's Pitta, Photo courtesy of Nicky Icarangal @ www.birdingphilippines.com 

Christmas is Still Merry even without a Party

Grupo Oeonungan is the political organization that has been ruling the Municipality of Balete since 1998. It has consistently won every political battle from its inception up to the present.  It is composed of all the incumbent municipal officials, all the punong barangays, SK Chairpersons and 98% of all elected barangay kagawads in the entire constituency of the municipality.

On Sunday, December 16, 2012, the group is supposed to having its Christmas party together with its supporters and allies. It had planned out all the details about the event as early as November in anticipation of a heavy turnout. In an emergency meeting, the Mayor informed the rest that the core group has suggested and agreed to forego with the party and instead donate its budget to the victims of Typhoon Pablo through the Sagip Kapamilya of the ABS-CBN Foundation, Inc.  

This notable gesture on the part of the group attracted the attention of the municipal employees who have been preparing for their customary Year-end Activity and Christmas Party scheduled on the 21st of December. A meeting was readily organized. Someone in the crowd commented that the joy brought about by a Christmas party will never be complete if it is not shared with those who are robbed of hope following the wreckage caused by Typhoon Pablo. It turned out that everyone was of the same sentiment: to let go of such party so as to be true to the Spirit of Christmas; to share and reach out to the least and to those who suffer.

So a consensus was reached: the contributions intended for the 2012 Christmas Party will now be donated to the victims of the super typhoon. This time, with the humor still intact, an employee suggested that the donation will be coursed through the GMA Kapuso Foundation. "Para Kapamilya na, Kapuso pa ro Balete", he added. "But how about being Kapatid?", a lady quipped from the crowd. The suggester replied, "Kon may calamidad eon man don." to which the crowd chorused  "Ayaw man!" 

While the meeting adjourned and the attendees scurried back to their place, the public address operator was humming to himself the tune, Obladi Oblada. Yes, Mar, you are right. Indeed, life goes on, no matter what. As for us in Balete, our Christmas will remain merry even without that party. There are still those nights of Paskwa sa Banwa to attend to where we have to reach out to the least amongst us here in our town. For it will be Pharisaical to show compassion to those in far-off place as the lens are focused on them while ignoring those poor brethren of us right here in our midst. They too have to experience the true essence of Christmas and such happens not in a party. 

Into the Woods

My life as a ghostwriter keep me grounded on my cubicle for more than eight hours a day for the entire weekdays. In that chamber, only my mind and the fingers do the hard work and yet unable to push out the stale water out of my tired body. Precisely that on weekend, I see to it that I am geared up for the orchard to commune with nature, to rest my weary mind and to stretch out my physique in the hope of regaining its youthfulness. Wishful thinking, that is. Even then, now that my body is perspiring, my creativity is awakened by the visions I was framing along my path into the woods:

 As I wandered into the woods, a song played in my mind, "Let thy love play upon my voice and rest on my silence." (R. Tagore)

The voice seems to say, "Be still and know that I am God." (Ps. 46:10)

Then, it seems that it is morning again in my life...

My eyes are opened and beheld the wonders He has made.

So I went on, following an old trail trodden by venerable men.

Only to find myself in some quagmire...

 I bathed on the free flowing water and wondered why the city dwellers keep on nagging men to save it but then belabored in selling it.

I wandered in the clearing to be treated by a scene of some fowl laying eggs in the thickets...

 On and on, I journeyed inner to find the ripening rambutan--a produce of my unremembered efforts years ago of planting fruit trees in this part of my wife's property.

There are those saplings competing for the sun...

 ...while the rice are privileged to enjoy it all day long.

 I wandered in the woods on weekends and contemplated on your beauty, ever ancient and yet so new.