Soar

“A man found an eagle’s nest and put it in a nest of barnyard hen. The eagle hatches with the brood of chicks and grew with them. All his life, the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking he was a barnyard chicken. He scratches the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled. And he would thrash his wings and fly a few feet in the air. Years passed by and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent bird above him in the cloudless sky. It glided in graceful majesty among powerful wind currents, with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings. The old eagle looked up in awe. “Who’s that?” he asked. “That’s the eagle, the king of the birds,” said his neighbor. “He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth – we’re chickens.” So the eagle lived and died a chicken, for that’s what he thought he was.” (Anthony Demello, Song of the Birds)

“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up the wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not grow faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)

“What did Isaiah mean by “to mount up with wings like eagles? To soar on eagles’ wings?” How is an eagle different from other birds? Consider this: “Most birds fly by flapping their wings. But not eagles. They are built for soaring, not flapping; that allows them to travel much farther on less energy. It seems that God build our planet invisible columns of hot air called thermals which rise up here and there from the earth surface. Eagles know where to find thermals. They fly into these invisible updrafts, stretch out their wings, and are lifted higher and higher into the sky as though ascending on an elevator. They may rise as high as 14,000 feet, so high they cannot be seen from earth with the naked eye. When they reach those heights, they emerge from the draft, their wings still spread, and they soar this way and that way, downward and sideward, travelling for miles with very little exertion of strength.” (Bob Morgan)

Heath

The second text I received this morning was from my friend and it said, “YO [my nickname], sad news: Heath Ledger was found dead this morning. Dili pa clear kung suicide pero may sleeping pills found beside him.”So, I went on-line to check it out. Sadly, it was true. Heath was found dead in his apartment.

Last night in our dinner party, we have spoken about him. We were deciding which movies are we going to watch next and I said that batman movie will be showing this summer. The friend who text me this news, said that Heath will be playing the character Joker. And he further said that he was very excited to watch it because Heath is really great actor. Then his girlfriend, who is also my friend, said that she wants to watch movies within this week or the next.

My favorite Heath Ledger movie is Four Feathers.

pasaporte

No, I’m going not going abroad. It’s my sister. She’s going to Papua New Guinea. She just got her passport today. I’m happy that her dream to work abroad has come true. I’m a bit worried though because she’s going to be so far away from us.

Proudly Bisaya

I watched our local news and it was reported that a group of lawyers is going to sue a movie production company because of what was said against the Bisaya, Filipinos who speak Visayan dialect. It was said that a line, which demeans the Visayan speaking Filipinos in a movie, was uttered by an actress and the line goes like this, “gagawin mong Bisaya ang apo ko.” English translation: You’re going to make my grandchild into a Bisaya.

I haven’t seen the movie but I’m still saddened by this issue. People should start to be more sensitive on what they are trying to say in movies. Even if it is just a joke, it is still hurtful.

It is not really a bad thing to be Bisaya. It’s actually great. I can speak in Bisaya, Tagalog and English.

I’m also proud to be Filipino. I’m proud of my cute nose, my short height, my brown skin, and my language.

I remembered the time when an American show about housewives uttered derogatory words against Filipino medical professionals and we all reacted because it was racist or something. This was basically the same issue.

River Rafting Story

The raft rammed directly into a rock and we were thrown all over the raft.

Then my friend shouted to the guide, “Did you did that on purpose?!”

The guide replied to him, “That’s part of the package sir.”

He’s right we were there to be thrown all over the raft and to ride the rapids.

One of my friends even said that the experience will not be complete if no one of will be thrown out of the raft. I guess he was a bit envious to the other rafters because when our raft collided with another raft, two of the rafters in the other raft fell into the water. However, no one really wants to be thrown into the water that’s why we hold on whatever we can hold on to and lock our feet on the side of the raft when we were approaching a rapid.

But when we were in the rapid called, “Surprise,” one of my friends fell into the water because of the unexpected drop. To think, the guides already told us the name of the rapid before we went into it. The great thing about it though is that our guide told us that if he had not fallen off the raft, the raft might have flipped over.

“You took one for the team,” my other friend said playfully to the guy who fell.

Plus, the other team didn’t notice it at all. We had to tell them about it on our way back to the city. At least we had something to talk about after our rafting adventure. We all remembered the bloopers.

That was a great reunion. People were fatter, more experienced, married to each other but we were like teenagers when we were in the rapids. We were just laughing, having fun, teasing each other, having a race, and playing around. The guide might even think that we were still in college by the way we were behaving. But when my friend shared his marriage proposal idea, by hanging a huge “Will you marry me?” banner on the side of the mountain, they might have realized that we are not teenagers.

I was glad that I went to this reunion.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

raft trip

Christmas 2007

The new decor.

Caroling plus gift giving.

The Way of Love. But I shall show you a still more excellent way.

If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrong doing but rejoice with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)

The Christmas gift.