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whathowhy 
11:58am, May 30, 2009
July 18, 2009 If to a great poet the world is a stage, for me, it too is a great school being governed by a powerful, ultimate Administrator of everything - God. This educational institution caters for the necessities of life including every individual’s infinite craving for comfort, success, and all that is perceived as good and pleasurable. In here, people or the students for that matter, interact with each other along with other creatures as they spend their whole life time. With these interactions, we experience life’s challenges, and through these experiences, we learn. The process of learning is exceptionally different from person to person because God’s teaching/ training programs are individually, distinctly designed for everybody just as how He made us unique. There is no exact formula in life, only principles, characters, and faith. The world liberates our individuality. This magnificently designed school lets us exercise freedom to choose and decide which way to turn, when to go further, and how to do it. Our conscience guides us to be morally right and keep us grounded with values. Remember that Adam and Eve started out perfect but were destined to fail the choice test and made the wrong choice. We are born already condemned for sin. But we have a better choice because we can choose to make the choice that Adam didn't, to follow the light of conscience and leave behind our own ego. We are afloat in a vacuum of endless possibilities with all the potentials and limitless sources of wisdom. Free as we are, we are just as prone to make mistakes, sometimes causing regrettable pain and destruction. As such, we are bound to follow rules and regulations. The government and the law are to establish norm and put order to an otherwise chaotic world. We also have our leaders, our teachers, even our parents, and religion to help us mature, learn, and become though through life’s struggles. I believe that time, space, religion, science, politics, society, technology, money, laws, rules, and other human inventions only have essence if we consider them as teaching aids in our quest for knowledge and wisdom. Yet, to live in this world we have to take the middle road... respect the needs of the body and give to Caesar what is Caesar's. Avoid the extremes of worldly excesses. Make everything in moderation. Stay in the present moment, the now. This should be our pattern of living. All these are within the curriculum of life; all for the betterment of human nature. I believe we are all born with an inborn potential, a small "seed" or soul. We innately know the difference between right and wrong. However, in order to develop properly, this "seed" must be exposed to good examples on the outside, akin to the way a plant seed must be exposed to the right environmental conditions in order to begin to sprout and grow into a plant. Life’s curriculum also aims to produce better, productive individuals who are expected to pass on their leanings to their children and younger generation by example. In that teaching-learning process we make the world a better, safer, more conducive to life for those who come behind us. Our children are to squeeze something good out of the remnants of today, and the future is not supposed to be repeating the same mistakes we had; if not, everything reflects back at us. I believe that there is a balance of good and evil, positive and negative, light and dark. The brighter the light, the darker is darkness. Everything happens for a reason, all has purpose; and with all these, learning remains a choice. And by applying these learning with an intention of pure goodness and love, we become a blessing to others. That this school, this one world we have will continuously nest our dreams and there will always be a space for each one of us to realize the mere essence of life itself. I believe that God, the master educator is everywhere at all times. His presence is within every creature, every galaxy and every universe. The ultimate energy that keeps everything animated is love and the source of love is God. I believe everything everywhere is connected by that energy in a web of loving, joyful consciousness. These alone fuel the complex diversity of life, and keep balance to blend everything for the right proportion. God never promised life would be easy, but He did promise us life, full and abundant up until our time is finished, up until we graduate from His school. .
I’ve been trying to organize my thoughts for over an hour already trying to figure out what to write. Ideas keep firing in my mind-- I don’t know if it’s the coffee that’s kicking in but it was just overwhelming. To the irony of it, I couldn’t come up with something of substance to start pondering on for this paper. By midnight, I was still literary unproductive so I decided to call it a day but then, the electricity suddenly went off. I kept still on my seat as I was alone in the middle of darkness, trapped and helpless for a while. I think it took only 5 minutes till the lights were back, but that was just enough time I needed to finally realize how peculiar life’s way of teaching us invaluable lessons is. During those empty few minutes of silence in the dark, when I could almost hear my own heartbeat, did I able to feel that I was never alone. God was always with me after all. He lives in me through the beating of my heart. When I thought everything else is gone, He remains. That, if I would only take a little time to just close my eyes and listen to voice within me which almost always left unheard, I could possibly find meaning to everything I tend to complain about. We communicate to God through prayer, and for me, I believe He connects to us when we reflect on our experiences. I have a strong conviction that the universe is a perfect balance of everything. I believe that each creature down from the microscopic to the huge ones does play a unique individual role as integral part of a bigger, more complex functioning unit of basically everything. Therefore, if all has purpose, then it’s true that all happens for a reason. When lights were out and all my senses went numb, I experienced God’s presence because it is only in the dark could I see the light. Beggars in the street are reminder for me to contend with whatever I have. Their presence is a message that even if I may not have everything I want, at least I have something. Maybe for a dying patient with cancer, she has all the reason to consider her suffering as a curse from heaven, but for me who takes care of her do realize that having faith would not make her live but it would totally change the way she experience death. Living is indeed in itself a struggle and this world is a battleground. My daily strife of overcoming pain and defeat prepares me for the uncertainties of tomorrow. Though how tough I thought I am, it is in the midst of sorrow that I feel how badly I am in need of true friends. When I’m down and hurting, when nobody can console me, all I need is just the most soothing, warmest embrace of a mother’s. I learn the most valuable lessons in life during these times when everything does not turn out the way I want to; and as I go for short-cuts or as I insist on my selfish way of getting through it, the more I fail. Stubborn that I am, sometimes I think I really deserve the beating because blow after blow, I mature. It is by devouring pain and taking some time with myself that I understood how perfectly God planned everything about me. He made me according to His image but He wanted me to experience being human—weak, vulnerable, sinful—so He gave me free-will and placed it in my head so I can think as I make choices and take responsibility for the consequences of whatever I do. The beauty of it all, by being human is having a soul and conscience to guide me in overcoming the difficulties in life. I am not a devoted catholic and I don’t fully understand everything about being one. In as much as I am unworthy, I am still so much blessed; for each time I fall, I learn from the experience, I get stronger, become better individual in the process. I’m just sure God loves me. He takes control of everything His way, His time.
