after 26 hours of no sleep on the plane en route to Florida, i arrived safe, tired and hungry in Fort Lauderdale International Airport at 5:35pm Friday (Saturday in Manila). it was a comfortable flight but a very long one. i was expecting that i will be traveling alone and lonely as i normally would, but unexpectedly got to travel with some friends i bumped in the airport.
for my flight from Manila to Japan to Minneapolis I was on the same flight with Bill Snider, AP-Media Director and a friend of Book of Hope's and Ptr. Rey Calusay, PGCAG General Superintendent and a friend of ICS's. we had a chance to share about life and ministry and family and other things.
for my flight from Japan to Minneapolis to Florida, i was on the same flight with Esther Budiyano, our Book of Hope Indonesia National Coordinator and a good friend.
after long hours of flight and long-overs we finally got to Florida and was met at the airport by Ty, Cina, Grammie and Grampie (Cina's parents). we were immediately taken to a nice restaurant near the place we will be staying. I had Asian Glazed Salmon Steak and a Raspnerry Iced Tea. to say the least, it was a very good dinner with friends.
after eating we went directly to the Book of Hope's office building called the Forum, where the whole 3rd floor was converted to look like a hotel...well, it actually looks better than some of the hotels i've stayed in the past.
after taking a nice hot shower i hit the bed and was sleeping like a log. woke up around 7:30am.
today is Saturday morning here and we're just going to be touring the city the whole day. i've seen most part of the city before but it's going to be fun doing it again today.
i just woke up, so i'm still incoherent. but i'm just glad i'm here, ready and willing to do what God has asked me to do.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Friday, February 08, 2008
the choice that we make
I had to make a choice between two airlines – Cathay Pacific and Northwest, going to the US. I definitely would love to fly Cathay, for a good number of reasons. One, they have really nice planes, with individual in-flight screens even in economy class. For an almost a day’s flight, you need your screen to while away your time. It’s also a good occasion to catch the movies you missed in the theaters. Two, they serve really good food. And I mean, good food. Hot and fresh and delicious. Three, although I’m not sure, their seats seem wider than most airlines have.
The problem is, the fare is way too expensive to be within my budget. So, I have to make a choice. I am flying Northwest. Not that it’s a bad airline, but choosing between the two, I’d always choose Cathay but I had to settle for Norhtwest. I can’t say I had no choice, because I did. I just had to decide which choice to make.
We make decisions everyday. We make choices-- some are easy to make and some are difficult. It could be as easy as choosing an airline or it could be as difficult as choosing between life and death. Each choice we make has a consequence. We ALWAYS give up something in return for the choice we make-- great or small. We sacrifice something to get what we want and we never win both ways. We never can. On rare occasions, we do win on both occasions, but sometimes WHILE WE WIN, SOMEONE ELSE or SOMETHING ELSE is sacrificed for the choice we made. I first learned about the concept of "trade-off" from my class in college. That's what trade-off is all about-- when we choose something, we give up something else.
It seems pretty trivial but when you apply it to the concept of life, it gets frustrating. Why can't we just win both ways so that everyone's happy and nobody loses? But that's life, I guess. We need to make choices and sometimes in the process of making choices, we hurt people along the way. I'm sure it is not our intention to hurt them. Sometimes hurting someone is inevitable. Sometimes we just need to set our priorities straight and priority no.1 always loses over no.2.
That's why the phrase "I have no choice" is not acceptable. We all have choices and it's just that we can never win both ways. One way or the other you have to sacrifice something. One of the saddest realities of life: WE CANNOT HAVE IT ALL.
The problem is, the fare is way too expensive to be within my budget. So, I have to make a choice. I am flying Northwest. Not that it’s a bad airline, but choosing between the two, I’d always choose Cathay but I had to settle for Norhtwest. I can’t say I had no choice, because I did. I just had to decide which choice to make.
We make decisions everyday. We make choices-- some are easy to make and some are difficult. It could be as easy as choosing an airline or it could be as difficult as choosing between life and death. Each choice we make has a consequence. We ALWAYS give up something in return for the choice we make-- great or small. We sacrifice something to get what we want and we never win both ways. We never can. On rare occasions, we do win on both occasions, but sometimes WHILE WE WIN, SOMEONE ELSE or SOMETHING ELSE is sacrificed for the choice we made. I first learned about the concept of "trade-off" from my class in college. That's what trade-off is all about-- when we choose something, we give up something else.
It seems pretty trivial but when you apply it to the concept of life, it gets frustrating. Why can't we just win both ways so that everyone's happy and nobody loses? But that's life, I guess. We need to make choices and sometimes in the process of making choices, we hurt people along the way. I'm sure it is not our intention to hurt them. Sometimes hurting someone is inevitable. Sometimes we just need to set our priorities straight and priority no.1 always loses over no.2.
That's why the phrase "I have no choice" is not acceptable. We all have choices and it's just that we can never win both ways. One way or the other you have to sacrifice something. One of the saddest realities of life: WE CANNOT HAVE IT ALL.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Forty one and still counting and growing...
In a few days' time, i will be celebrating my 41st year of existence. they said that i should have stopped counting my years when i turned 35. but when you have so much to thank God for in the years that He has blessed you with, you just wouldn't stop counting because you know that there's still so much ahead that God has for you.
there’s an old cliché that goes “life begins at 40”. i guess it does when you don’t want to remember the years that came before you reached 40. but when the years that passed were years of bliss and harvest, then we can all say that life began the moment we decided to live it fully. biologically, we all grow old each year, each day, each hour... it's inevitable that we grow older in time.
a lot of people have been afraid of growing old. maybe because growing old leads to other health complications or maybe because we link it to inescapable death (which can actually strike at any point in our lives) or maybe because it leads to "looking old" which others dread so much. but I think that what we should actually fear is not growing old. i think more than that, we should be fearful of not growing up.
we might have different views about growing up. i think, as most things, growing up exists in a continuum with two extreme ends. there's Peter Pan who will always remain the boy who never grows up. and then there are others who are too serious in life who consider themselves all grown-up for being square about everything. for me, those who can balance enjoying life and still be matured enough to face the responsibilities that life holds for them are those who have truly grown. as always, it is a matter of balancing. and I for one, have to keep on telling myself that.
even if I’ve grown older, there's still a child in me that keeps on coming out. i still don't consider myself all grown-up... maybe because I still haven't truly balanced everything in my life. i still have my own questions about where I want to be, who I am, and how I can contribute something to society in my lifetime.
but I think that we all grow up, in one way or another... maybe not in the same pace as to how we grow old. sometimes we grow up slowly but other times, we experience "growth spurts" as well. if biology and time make us grow old, i think our experiences and our reactions to them are what make us grow up. it is no wonder that we could be stagnant for a year and even grow so much more in just a month or sometimes even a weekend.
i guess this is why I love experiencing new things. discovering life's beauty is a way of growing up along with discovering pain and fear. i don't have a perfect life but I have a happy one. :)
life is all good, it is just a matter of how we live it. :)
there’s an old cliché that goes “life begins at 40”. i guess it does when you don’t want to remember the years that came before you reached 40. but when the years that passed were years of bliss and harvest, then we can all say that life began the moment we decided to live it fully. biologically, we all grow old each year, each day, each hour... it's inevitable that we grow older in time.
a lot of people have been afraid of growing old. maybe because growing old leads to other health complications or maybe because we link it to inescapable death (which can actually strike at any point in our lives) or maybe because it leads to "looking old" which others dread so much. but I think that what we should actually fear is not growing old. i think more than that, we should be fearful of not growing up.
we might have different views about growing up. i think, as most things, growing up exists in a continuum with two extreme ends. there's Peter Pan who will always remain the boy who never grows up. and then there are others who are too serious in life who consider themselves all grown-up for being square about everything. for me, those who can balance enjoying life and still be matured enough to face the responsibilities that life holds for them are those who have truly grown. as always, it is a matter of balancing. and I for one, have to keep on telling myself that.
even if I’ve grown older, there's still a child in me that keeps on coming out. i still don't consider myself all grown-up... maybe because I still haven't truly balanced everything in my life. i still have my own questions about where I want to be, who I am, and how I can contribute something to society in my lifetime.
but I think that we all grow up, in one way or another... maybe not in the same pace as to how we grow old. sometimes we grow up slowly but other times, we experience "growth spurts" as well. if biology and time make us grow old, i think our experiences and our reactions to them are what make us grow up. it is no wonder that we could be stagnant for a year and even grow so much more in just a month or sometimes even a weekend.
i guess this is why I love experiencing new things. discovering life's beauty is a way of growing up along with discovering pain and fear. i don't have a perfect life but I have a happy one. :)
life is all good, it is just a matter of how we live it. :)
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