Home » Archives » 01. November 2006
Friendships
November 1, 2006I’ve been here in Manila for a couple of days already. Been running to and fro — meeting old friends here and there, trying to reconnect old ties. It always makes me happy seeing them, catching up just like the old times, updating with news of what we’ve been doing since we separated ways.
I admit that if there is one thing to cherish having worked in the metro right after I graduated back then, it would be the friendship that I have built with everyone in the office. How can I forget our night out gimmicks, the one week straight at starbucks and the many dinner during overtime. And Yup, the escapades in the remote areas of Batanggas, Tagaytay, Laguna up to the North reaching as far as Sagada, Banaue, Baguio and Vigan. I’ve reached as far as Mindanao and was blessed to have stepped into the shores of Cebu because I have friends who wre equally adventurous in journeying with me. I loved the thrill of island hopping in Anilao and the taste of victory of conquering Taal by stepping into its very crater.
I loved camping with them on mountains or sharing poses inside caves whenever we go spelunking. I wouldn’t forget the mummies of Ifugao or the hanging coffins, or the night just watching the sky while we were on a hill under the stars. I would always cherish waking up in the morning hearing the rush of flowing water at the many falls we’ve visited. I loved the smell of grass while lying atop them or the sight of sunrise while clouds were just at eye level. Those were the wonderful times I would never dare trade. Those were happiest moments I am just grateful to have been part of.
However, as all journeys end, my friends and I had to separte ways to discover new thrills, to venture into different fields, to meet new friends, to trust again, to be cared for by others and make memories with them, too. Friends are life’s best gifts… If we have found the best kind, life becomes bearable despite its oddities. There is security in knowing we have the kind of people who will stick with us through and through.
In life, to find two or three people whose friendships have been tested by time and streghtened by shared experiences is worth a smile. This is always a good reason to come together for a while and sustain that beautiful relationship.
Kindness
True kindness does not end in good thoughts about people alone. Any good thought should manifest in a good act. It should show in open hands ready to grab another one helplessly needing a pull from the pit of his own misfortunes. True enough that good deed is not merely praying for people but of doing something to people. It is the deed which is the culmination of a good thought and noble desire. A good heart does not rest on good intentions alone, but is the foundation of a rightful act of touching people’s lives by example.
You touch not merely by the person that you are, but who they are or what they become because of you. Did they realize the need to respond to others more sensitively, did you inspire them to do an act of service that improved the situation of others, where by your example they likewise desire to share their blessings? Touching lives is planting in them the same seed that grew in you, the seed of humble and noble desire to love others, even in the littlest way you know.
Kindness, therefore, is a prayer that culminates in a deed. It is loving a stranger by filling his stomach that hasn’t received food for days; it is picking up a bum on a restless street to feel the comfort of a nursing home; it is cleaning the wounds of people in their worse physical condition; it is healing brokenness of a restless heart eager for recovery. Kindness is listening to someone even in his silence.. for there are silent anguishes, there is a loud cry in the heart that could not break even into feeble into uttering.
Kindness is seeing people — seeing their need to be loved and to feel belonged. And upon seeing comes responding…That is my idea. That is the seed that keeps growing in me. Exactly, I do not know if it’s a sprout or a growing tree, I am just thankful it was planted there.