Unang Sulyap

Unang Sulyap
By Rosalina Reyes-Ferraris


Sa tuwing ako'y malulumbay aking binabalikan
Ang ating unang pagtatagpo na nakaukit sa aking kaisipan
Mistulang panaginip na ubod tamis at anong inam
Matamis na kahapon siyang gamot sa aking agam-agam.

Isang araw ng kahapon anong tulin na dumaan
Isang matipunong lalaki na sa aking harapan ay namataan
Sabay sambit, ”Kumusta ka!” itong aking naulinigan
Siya pala ay bumabati't naghihintay na aking tugunan.

Sa aking pagkabigla naumid ang aking dila
Di ko maalala ang sagot na siyang tama
Tila tumigil bigla ang oras na para bang sinadya
Damang-dama ko noon ang magkahalong hiya at tuwa.

Ikaw nga ba ginoo ay totoong nasa harapan
Di ka kaya isang pangitain ng bukas na daraan
Isa ka bang babala sa aking pusong naghihintay
Ng darating na pag-irog na anong sakdal at anong tunay.

Sa pagtatama ng ating mga mata na para bang nangungusap
Ikaw kaya ang lalaking hinihintay at pinapangarap?
Na sa aking dasal ay hinihiling na ibigay ng Maykapal
Upang makapiling at makasama habang buhay.

Makalipas ang maraming taon aking binalikan
Ang tanong ng puso kong noo’y nalulumbay
Ngayong tatlo na ang supling ng ating pagsusuyuan
Isang pahiwatig ng kaganapan ng aking dasal sa Maykapal.

Sa pag-usad ng mga araw na ating pinagdaanan
Sa bawat hakbang sa pagharap sa hamon ng buhay
Tayo ay magkasama matibay na hinihimay
Ang hiwaga at kaganapan na hinabi ng Maykapal.

Sa Kanya tayo umaasa, humihiling at nagdarasal
Nawa'y tayo ay pagtibayin sa paghanap sa kahit anuman
Di Niya tayo binigo sa ating hinahangad at inaasam
Kalakip ng pag-ibig ay aral anong dalisay.

INNOCENCE

A child's psyche is a refreshing perception of how the world should be viewed or experienced. To a child, there is a clear distinction between what is good and bad, of pure and tainted, of right and wrong. Unlike adults, a child perceives things around him, as it is, pure and simple. To him an apple is just an apple and nothing else. He may notice the imperfections of the apple on the outside and blurt it out almost spontaneously without restraint or reservation. That is why a child's view is always perceived as fair and frank. Whereas to us adults, we dilly-dally with so many random thoughts before we speak. We analyze first where the apple is from (origin), of what variety it came from (type), of how it was tended (organic or genetically modified). In the process of these uncalled for questions, we miss the moment to savor its taste, its freshness, and its essence. The more we learn and experience life, the more we set ourselves apart from what is essential and in the process we lose touch of what is pure and simple.

We tend to put color on almost everything around us, including our feelings. A stranger's smile may be misconstrued as malicious or flirtatious, whereas it is just a friendly smile in fact. A friend's offer of advice may be mistaken as interfering or domineering, whereas it is a plain and simple concern for your well being. A colleague's witty comment may be taken as insulting or with double meaning whereas it is just an outburst of emotion over a joyous moment. We mask our happiness with forced humility for fear that others would think we are being boastful to express our sheer gladness over a major success. The only dividing line between humility and pure arrogance is our admission and acknowledgement that behind our every success there are people who gave us a helping hand at one point in time.

Why can we not be like children again? We were young once and yet we had quickly forgotten how it was. Before, we look at life as a world of opportunities and adventures. We dreamed of things we thought would be the trend of the future. We never shied away from a challenge over a great adventure. Whenever we fail, we stand up and face it head on, knowing that in the end we will succeed with wisdom on our side. We were the dreamers of dreams, the masters of our imagination! We never feared to think of the unthinkable because we do not know the learner's implied limitations. The making of an inventor have a common trait with a child and that is he always thinks of how to overcome a given limitation.

There is so much to learn from a child, the virtues of humility for accepting our limitations, of perseverance for trying again and again to learn how to do it, of patience for accepting our weakness and striving for perfection knowing too well that we need time, of hope that our situation is not hopeless, of expectant faith that we will achieve what we aim for, of harmonious coexistence with other children with no sense of envy, greed and malice.

The painting(s) to be aims to capture visually these virtues children possess which we adults need to emulate and draw inspiration from. Portraits of children at different stages in their growing up will be attempted to express their joys, their sorrow, their simplicity, their complexity, their refreshing insights to the world we have made ready for them. In the process, may this be an eye-opener for most of us who too often than not have forgotten how it was when we were growing up.

FLOWCHART OF LIFE

Life is a complex execution of events that unravel before our eyes depending on the quality of decision-making that people make. It can be summed up as a series of programmed commands designed to process a given input depending on the parameters set for a given task. The choices we make as we experience life will have an impact on our goals and ambitions in life. People say that we are the authors of our future. This is true to some extent, for we make decisions depending on the priorities we choose. In the end, we are the only person to answer the ultimate question, "Have we accomplished our purpose here on earth? Are we now prepared to die?” It would be a waste of life, if we cannot answer these questions at our time of death, for we were given the chance to correct our erring ways for so many years.

In our early years of life, our parents were there to guide us depending on the state of their moral values. They were the ones who molded us to who we are today with a set rules they saw fit for us to follow. We pay dearly later in life for the mistakes they've made when we were growing up. We then realize that their mistakes take up root on how they themselves were raised by our grandparents. Therefore, it depends on us to stop this cycle of blind 'passing on' of ill-founded values and traditions. We must strive to strengthen our spiritual foundation to maintain a balance over the material lure of this world.

We can find solace in the Holy Bible on how to lead a purpose-driven life in this temporal world. The signs and directions are clearly and explicitly laid down for easy reference. It's just like a manual of information and instructions you can find in the box of a newly bought appliance or electronics. Meaning to say that the product had passed the quality assurance test before it was released into the market. In spite of all these preconceived set of instructions, many of us do not bother to read them at all. We rush to use these products without a proper orientation of its capabilities and limitations. We get the high on accomplishing the impossible (that is domination and rule). In the end, when the product succumbs to our misuse and ignorance, we ask ourselves what went wrong. Had we read the manual we would have been able to extend the lifespan of the product and the benefits we derive from it.

In life, we also tend to choose the shortcuts rather than equipped ourselves first with the knowledge of how to live life wisely and fully. Had we known this early on in life, we would have taken the long road to maturity and take time to digest and discern the many choices presented before us at each stops and crossroads we arrive to. Because of our impetuous nature we find ourselves in tight situations wherein our moral values are almost always compromised. The gravity of such a situation is a result of our own doing, that is, in our haste and blind pursuit of our ambitions we fail to notice the telltale signs of impending danger upfront. Before we know it, it's already there before our very nose and there is no way to retract but to go forward and face it head-on. If we are ill equipped with strong spiritual and moral foundation, then we are doomed to make disastrous decisions where some of us would go to the extent of selling their very souls.

The only sure way to go is follow the example set by the holy men and women before us who believed and lived the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. Life is a religion per se. There are no gray areas, it's either we live our beliefs or not. It is not tailor-made to our whims and wishes.

Life is a blueprint of what life would be in the world beyond. If we fail in this lifetime, then we will surely fail in the afterlife. As we are given only one chance in our lifetime, let us not waste our time with unnecessary detours and face life with wisdom and faith in our pockets. Let us discern and endure till the very end.

THE ISLAND

I watched a movie last night with the thought that I would be entertained and relaxed. To my surprise it was so engrossing and thought provoking that you have to really concentrate not only on the stunts and special effects but also on the dialogs and the actions of the actors themselves.

It was about human nature …of the purity of children, of self-preservation, arrogance and greed.

I can't help but think of a saying "what can be imagined can be achieved", then it follows that if man does not put a limitation to what he can do, he would go as far as aiming to be at par with God. This is pure arrogance on the part of man! God the Father Almighty has hidden from man the most important factor to the complete blueprint of man's make-up. his soul. Had God done so, man's arrogance over his capacity to rationalize, analyze and discover will go unchecked. God the Father Almighty humbles man by man's inability to uncover the mystery of the human body and his soul.

The movie was about the advancement of science to a critical point that man has the ability to "create" like GOD. If man has this technology at his disposal, what will he do? Will he expose himself again to the weakness of the first "ADAM" who was enticed by Eve and the serpent to eat the apple of the Tree of Knowledge on the pretext of making him a god? Will he be able to hang on to his sanity and the dictates of his conscience reminding him that he is accountable for all his actions and that his so called "power" is limited, that he will not be able to control the catastrophic effect of his actions?

The goal of the initial scientific research was to use the stem cells of a human being to clone healthy organs for transplant to prolong the donor's life. What a noble cause! In the process, the technological know-how came to the hands of some callous men, who would stop at nothing to further their gains. This is in fact the face of pure GREED! Man would reach a point of looking at another human being as a number or statistic or a product, which is expendable. What sort of a man who would nurture a woman to conceive a child and kill her after the baby was delivered? Or operating on a conscious, innocent and confused healthy man to remove his heart, which is the vital source of his very existence? And in the process, denying him the compassion of giving him an explanation why he has to die?

These so-called clones of the medically impaired wealthy clients were 'created' from their DNA samples to be cultured for their subsequent much needed medical operations. The initial attempts of cloning the impaired organ were futile which led the company to shift their direction to cloning the stem cells to a fully-grown human being. Imagine the chaos it would cause if these clones would escape to the outside world!

It did happen in the movie, when a batch of clones was contaminated which enabled them to be curious and recall the early memories of their donors. These "insurance policies" were thought to possess no soul so they were treated like expendable goods. To a certain point, murder was necessary to dispose of these "damaged" goods. Those who were still in incubation were murdered systematically by being injected with poison in their life-support tubes. Those who were deceived to wait for their turn to go to the island via lottery were escorted to an enclosed room to be gassed to death. There were two clones who escaped to the outside world but were hunted by mercenaries to stop them from divulging to the outside world how evil and inhumane the company has become.

In history, Hitler was an all time example of how callous man can be. Because of his bias against the so-called "inferior race" overrunning their supremacy in the economic circle of German society, he engineered the systematic killings of millions of German Jews. His loyal Nazi officers believed in his cause and were blind followers of his evil whim. Were they not bothered by their conscience, to be able to execute such a sinister act? Were they systematically preconditioned to be detached from their humanity and emotions?

Those of us who continue to experience racism at varying degrees; we could sympathize with these poor innocent human beings. We know too well that we have our dignity and self-worth to protect from such callous, heartless so called fellowmen.

One cannot ignore the grim reality that is happening around us, wherein with the advancement of technology people are considered expendable and replaceable goods.

Life in the city is being transformed to a market place of risks and opportunities. You learn not to trust anybody to protect yourself. This hinders us to express our compassion for fear that it will be mistaken as a glimpse of weakness on our personality. We mask our innermost feelings with rudeness or even worse apathy! People who are most likely to succeed are callous, confrontational, simply a pain in the neck! As you climb up the social ladder, the bloodier the fight for survival becomes. Ironic isn't it? Poor people are more likely to exercise composure and generosity over life-threatening situations, whereas those who are cultured, educated, learned outwit even plot to kill each other to preserve his precious life.

There are less and less interaction between people because everyone is always in a rush to keep up with the demands of society. They say that life in the city is like a rat race! There is no time for chitchat for fear to miss out an opportunity! What has happened to the family-centered traditions of not so long ago? Back then people were more courteous, warm and understanding. Nowadays, family members only mingle in emails, phone-calls or video conference on important occasions, say once or twice a year? Even the spoken language is slowly evolving turning the once eloquent and graceful language into telegraphic mumbles so as to evoke one's thoughts as fast as possible. We are slowly losing the art of writing and penmanship over the impersonal and cold tickling sound of the computer keyboard or whatever gadgets you may have. What have we become? We are first and foremost social beings; we need each other to further our existence! We hone our talents and form our views and ideals as we continuously integrate in society hoping to find our rightful place and sense of belonging.

One cannot deny the innermost hunger for communing with other fellowmen. As we retreat to our make-believe world of solitude, our perception of life becomes restricted or confined to our personal experiences thus we fail to see ourselves as a minute speck of a bigger picture. Our ignorance limits our senses to experience fully the richness of life! One cannot gain wisdom by reading books.! It is only when trials come our way then we understand the deeper meaning of things or persons we take for granted. When we lose someone dear, only then do we realize how inutile we have been when time was at our disposal to make him or her feel special and loved.

The Purpose

I have been silent over the years on many things that are happening around me simply because I didn't have time to pause and reflect. I have been busy minding my family to preserve the harmony within. I simply set aside my thoughts and feelings over issues that affect me because I was already exhausted with the demands and pressures of daily life.

I have reached a point wherein being passive is not an option considering the path our future generation is heading to. I cannot be silent over my opinion and perceptions on issues that bombard us day in and day out. I have a voice...and that voice need to be heard...even if only my children would care to listen....