Merry Christmas Everyone!

Renaissance

Sometimes when I get up in the morning, I feel very peculiar. I feel like I've just got to bite a cat! I feel like if I don't bite a cat before sundown, I'll go crazy! But then I just take a deep breath and forget about it. That's what is known as real maturity.

(Charles Schulz; Snoopy in Peanuts)

I can't believe I had such a great time during my birthday. I feel so blessed because my family, friends, and even strangers have made me feel as though today is a special day. In spite of having continuous exams and reports yesterday and even today, I'm still relieved that these people have made me feel inspired and enlightened once again. There are even people whom I haven't seen for such a long time but still managed to remember my birthday! Truly God has answered my prayers. I shouldn't take these people for granted and keep on pondering about matters that shouldn't be given importance. Rather, they should be loved, cherished, and treasured because these people have accepted my true self. And that's all that matters.

Mitch Albom's Five People You Meet in Heaven

“…the secret of heaven: That each affects the other and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one.” (quote from “The Five People You Meet in Heaven)

Ever felt that the things that have been happening in your life do not make any sense? I remembered hoping to reach for something that I really want. But when I finally have it, after everything that I worked hard for, there seem to be something missing in it. The potentials, the people, and the relationship that I have with the Lord…I took them for granted. I’ve been too obsessed to look and reach what I thought would make me happy; but, in the end, it made me feel more miserable than ever. But, as everything that’s been happening in one’s life, I let it go and move on.

Mitch Albom’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven is such a wonderful and an inspiring novel about Eddie who is the maintenance of a carnival, Ruby Pier. Mostly, people feel so ordinary that they dream and aspire to become somebody important/famous/wealthy in the future. That what they already have is not enough. Eddie dreamed of becoming an engineer. He despised the idea of being stuck in a carnival for the rest of his life. But, then again, he turned out to become somebody whom he never thought he would be. Fixing the carnival rides, scolding teenagers from hurting themselves, and roaming around Ruby Pier just to make sure everyone is safe. He wasn’t proud of what he was doing. To him, life doesn’t make any sense. Little did he realize that he became the head of the maintenance to make good to someone whom he had hurt. Sometimes, we hurt other people unconsciously. In Eddie’s situation, when he lost himself during the war, he tried destroying everything in the battle field. He didn’t know that, as he was burning one of the nipa huts in the area, a little girl was hiding in there and waiting for her mother to come.

Have you ever thought of people whom you may be closely associated to without realizing it? Sometimes I ask myself if I ever touched other peoples’ lives. Am I just an invisible entity to them, or at least I meant something to them? The five people that Eddie met gave him five lessons:

“That there are no random acts. That we are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind.” –Joseph Corvelzchik

“…Sacrifice is a part of life. It’s supposed to be. It’s not something to regret. It’s something to aspire to. Little sacrifices. Big sacrifices. A mother works so her son can go to school. A daughter moves home to take care of her sick father….Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you’re not really losing it. You’re just passing it on to someone else.” –the Captain

“…Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves.” –Ruby

“Lost love is still love, Eddie. It takes a different form, that’s all. You can’t see their smile or bring them food or trousle their hair or move them around a dance floor. But when those senses weaken, another heightens. Memory. Memory becomes your partner. You nurture it. You hold it. You dance with it.” –Marguerite

“ ‘ I was sad because I didn’t do anything with my life. I was nothing. I accomplished nothing. I was lost. I felt like I wasn’t supposed to be there.’
‘Supposed to be there,’
‘Fixing rides? That was my existence?...Why?’
‘Children, you keep them safe. You make good for me.’”

Accept. Love. Live. Life is not all about making yourself famous or wealthy, or sulking about the things that can never happen to you. But rather, life is all about preparing yourself for what is the best thing that is to come: heaven.