The Next Big Thing--Shekinah Starts To Rock!

My daughter is the next genius in the neighborhood!

Can you blame me for that loud announcement? For one thing, I am a proud mother of only one--a miracle of sort in my 37th year. Second, I am a teacher who is used to monitoring an individual's learning developments and deficiencies for 13 years or so. Third, most of our neighborhood children now are engrossed with other things except school stuff. Thus, they learned their school things when they like to go to school--as to when, the parents are not intent on pushing them to, which tells you, my baby stands out (haahh, forgive the audacity)since she stays with her books and blocks all day.

And so, here goes my story.

Just two weeks after my little girl turned two, she amazed me when she brandished her new passion lately--learning her alphabets in matter of 2 weeks only. At first I thought she could only read 17 letters in the alphabet. But in matter of a few days after, she managed to even memorize the sequence of all the 26 letters, all because of one book I borrowed from a very good preschool nearby. It did her wonders.

But really, little did I know that it started even before I showed her the book, I was using it to tutor his five-year old cousin Vinry, who at the time, was having difficulty identifying each letter from the others. She was just right there paying attention to every curve and corner of each letter I was pushing into Vinry's consciousness and esophagus so to speak.

Seeing her digging her hands into my bags looking for that book everyday makes me decide to give her 2 hours every week just to give her a little lesson here and there--enough for a little toddler like her. And man, it was like a dream teaching her! She just absorbed everything. I bought educational tapes and toys which includes blocks, numbers, speaking lines for her. And she watches every DVD and builds her own blocks (which started when she was around 5 months yet).

For now, she glues herself to me every time I'm home for her books and DVDs. Ah, thank God, I am her mother!

PALASYO TA SA BUNBON

Usahay
Didto sa wa
Nasirhing bintana
Mutambo
Ang gitukod tang
Palasyo sa bunbon,
Mangamay nako
Dinhi
Sa nagtuya-tuya tang
Lantay.

Usahay
Mutultol
Ang akong panan-aw
Nianang bintana,
Mamasin
Makita pa unta
Ang gakang-a nga
Gangha-an
Sa atong palasyo
Sa bunbon.

Usahay,
Buot kong
Agdahon ka
Nga lalinon ta na lang
Unta
Kining atong
Lantay
Lapos nianang
Bintana padung
Didto
Sa atong palasyo
Sa bunbon.

Apan
Matag lingi nako
Ning lantay,
Mamugong,
Mangapyot ang mga
Agik-ik,
Laylay,
Ug pyait
Nga mipilit
Sa mga gingi
Ug giwang

Sa lantay tang
Kawayan.

Kang Vincent

Asa na gani tong
Nagliyok-liyok nga
Mga silaw sa asul
Mong langit?

Mao ba kadtong
Mga silawa
Ang mga bulak
Nga imong gibilin--
Mga bulak nga
Hangtod karon
Wa malarag?

Hain na man diay
Tong mga nagyamiid
Sa imong mga bulak?--
Mga bulak nga
Kaluha sa bulok sa mga
Nangumbitay sa
Kalangitan sa
Imong kagabhion.

Kanus-a ko
Kaha mahibalag
Ang imong kagabhion
Nga way kalainan
Sa bag-ong
Naulanang
Kabuntagon?

AROUND HIS FINGERS

How can today be smothered with blackness when God himself wrapped today and even the coldest yesterdays around His finger? It's amazing to be seemingly ambivalent today despite the biggest answered prayer being slapped right into my unbelieving face. I feel numbed by the many smudges of tragedies on my sleeves lately. I could have jumped up and down in a couch as melodramatically as Tom Cruise did in Oprah. Yes, it would have been more fitting to publish to the nosy public I am the new Cinderella. The fates have noticed my humble cries finally. But there are no "fates." They are but mythological creatures created by the human culture who would rather prefer to be scared or to be swept away by myths and romances. In all these things, it is God.

It is God indeed, all the more it would be fitting to pick up a megaphone and use it while I do my testimony plus the unceasing tears of joy coupled with lots of amens and praise the Lords. But unexpectedly, I have stayed silent. My mouth is heavy with praise, that's what seems to be the nearest explanation I can offer. There's too much to say. But the fact that finally God answers my prayers is too overwhelming for someone who has stayed in a desert. It's water at last. Right here in front of me, so crystal clear, shouting at me. THIS IS IT! Much like the first time, when I saw my daughter's nostril flared and mouth flew wide open gasping for air for the first time outside her comfort zone after 9 months. Hah, such a moment. It felt like I was the one who was in need of more oxygen. Until now, breathing is a miracle. My God is indeed my father. He has made me wait. The waiting was real. It was rough and stormy while I sat still. It was long. But now, I have stopped waiting. And it feels like all the pain in the waiting days have seemed to disappear. All of a sudden it feels like pain and waiting never took place at all.

God indeed is wise. How could I ever miss that. At the most perfect time, He kept his promise.

I am a regular teacher again!

REVISITING COLON

Revisiting an old place not only brings healing, but it also tunes you to the right frequency so to speak. I bumped into this realization lately. It happened when I came to smell the busy air once again in what used to be the hub of Cebuano shoppers and business, perhaps the oldest there is in the Visayas-- Colon.

Right now, the business there is not as promising as during my college days. In those days, Colon was the place to be to the bored and to the shopping freaks alike. These days, it has become the home of "ukay-ukay" industry. Call it the sunset of Colon if you please. I call it the dump site of Pinoy salvation. It's not meant to ridicule the hopeless state of affairs of Filipinos nowadays. It's both a comfort and a fixation of sort. It's a salvation to those who could not wade through department store racks of brand new clothes. It becomes a fixation, sort of like an addiction really, for men and women who are hooked in the blinding twirl of fashion and market brand names at a very affordable price. And yes, I should count myself in in this addiction. What with finding crispy Giordano shirt for just a matter of less than two hundred box or a pair of Nike shoes for my Kiny for just 80 pesos. Ahh, Colon and all its perks ( and don't forget the snatching spree every now and then, which definitely adds color to its history, I suppose).

But a few days ago, I was there and found something else. Or should I say "someone." I saw what looked like a two-year-old girl. She was there, in tattered dress with her family in the same fashion state. I guess they have made the hallway of that establishment as their bed space for their nightly rest and the murky ditch nearby as their bath tub. I watched the mother for a full half-hour feeding and then bathing her girl, obviously the youngest of her four under the rain while having her dip her toes in the ditch once in a while. I heard the oldest boy said, "Ma, I thought baby has a fever. Why bathe her?" And that question brought me into a momentary trance where I saw series of deaths of two-year-olds in our place due to dengue just days ago. I'd say, it has become a deadly epidemic in my neighborhood these days. And that fear and anxiety that wracked me up that instant made me stop and want to grab that girl from her seemingly uncaring mother. But what could I do, instead of doing that or even moving on to dig for another rare find, I went home, slumped myself, tear-drenched beside my sleeping 23-month old daughter.


I watched her sleeping soundlessly unmindful of what was happening with the other kids like her. I watched her. I still am. And I am resolved to stay that way.

WHEN YOU PASS THROUGH THE MUDDY PIT

Silence can become my shield. It used to be my sword when the enemy is too much. The world is mean. While it is true that it is a privilege to exist, it is a war here--a war, bruises and all, I am bent to conquer and win. As of yet, the fog has not cleared. The sky up there has not hinted a win. And it hss taken a long time. IT IS a long crawl here. And I'm dying with anxiety and fear. The survival instinct of a frail human being is starting to get too itchy inside, it's hard to sit still. Needlessly, I'd say, Job and Hannah were incredible saints. How could they wait that long and trust the God who said He exists (regardless of time and distance) so tenaciously?

Of course, who am I to ask too many questions? Who am I to question God his ways? I don't see what he sees. But often I also use this kind of reasoning to him when I attempt to pull the string of that heaven door for him to listen to me or at least if words are too heavy, for him to feel the urgency of the tugs I manage to muster just for him to bend his ear towards me. I often hear myself say, "Lord, what am I to comprehend what you have in mind. Who am I to understand all these things I'm anxious about? I am the smallest of all worms. Listen to the cries of this worm who doesn't know much, who is not equipped of understanding what greatness it is that wraps your heart. I often forget how good you have been. I miss many times what you want me to hit. I am too slow and hard of hearing. Remind me again, O Father, of your great intention. I am the dullest student there is. This hardship I'm wallowing now is causing this system failure. Teach me again. Show me. Answer me. Rescue me. Hold out your hands before my marrows surrender to the mud."

I am surviving and trying to pull up my chin as the mean mud around is now right up to my neck. I am fighting the flow of mud now pulling my weight. But I am still here. I am holding on to the greater weight that's pushing me onward.

And what's giving me strength to write this after a month or so of solid silence is his promise in Isaiah 43:2. "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you." What a promise! What comfort!

Am I glad to have found solace in the God who reigns even in the solid quietness!

ABOG, TIPAKA, AKO

Ang mga tipaka

Nga imong gipamunit

Karun

Mao ako--

Ang abog

Nga imong gipamapha

Kanhi.