I had half a day to spend with Pau and Gayle. It was so fun to just hang around. We went to Rob, and ate lots and lots of food. We also went to Toys ‘R Us, it was so exciting to be around so many toys.
Anyway, I just have to write about our conversation earlier. We were talking about our beliefs and faith. As it is, our crowd is a melting pot of different religions and various beliefs. I am a Christian. I believe in God and in the bible. Pau is a Catholic and he believes in God, the bible and the traditions of Catholicism. Gayle is an agnostic. She “doubts” that there is a God. She believes in multiple lifetimes and karma.
All throughout the discussion I kept on repeating that I think religion is pathetic. And I really think it is. I believe religion does nothing but impose do’s and don’ts, trigger division and debates and it veers us away from really focusing on what’s important, and that is a relationship with God.
I hate all the halfhearted rituals and all the hypocrite personalities in religious organizations. But what I really hate about religion is that it causes division among people who believe in one Supreme Being, and that is God.
I get deeply injured as I hear people criticize the bible, what I believe in. But I don’t feel the need to justify, explain or defend my stand. I have come to believe what I believe because I have experienced it in my own life and I have been witness to the countless lives that have been changed.
If only religion was not invented at all. If only people could have a relationship with God without having to be identified with a certain group. Then maybe faith wouldn’t lead to feud.
Oh pero don't worry, we're still friends.. and they love me.. haha..
7.9.10
Refusing to be Cynical
These past few days, I have been hearing a lot about marriage. And most of what I hear are daunting and disheartening. There were numerous marriages broken up because of affairs others because of personal differences and still a few because of other reasons such as relatives, finances.
Whenever I hear stories like these a lot of emotions bathe me. Confusion sweeps past me as I try to figure out how a couple, who started out as two people who were deeply in love with each other, who vowed to love and care for each other; end up with a relationship with hurts, pains and bitterness. I mean, look around, a lot of young couples are publicly displaying their affection for each other. Who’s to say that they would not end up like the characters in the numerous stories I have heard? Who’s to say I’m not going to end up like that as well?
That’s when fear sets in. Each one of these couples fell in love. They were happy and hopeful. Does the love fade away? What went wrong? Is it really possible to be completely happy in a marriage? I could be deeply in love now, but no one could really guarantee that situations would not change in the future. What is it in marriage that somehow lifts the enchantment of love?
Because of the things that happened to me in the past, I became cynical about love. Eventually though, I have learned to love “love” again. But doubt slowly creeps in as I question the authenticity and sincerity of it all.
Love in itself is doubtful as no one could really define what it is. Some say it’s an emotion that takes you to places you’ve never been to (hopeless romantics), others say it’s a commitment that you have to stick with no matter what. But I guess love, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. We define it differently because we experience it differently. And maybe within the deepest confines of my brain and my heart I have a lot of definitions of love as well. But what ties all our definitions together is that, love makes us happy. I don’t believe love’s supposed to hurt.
Love is a commitment to take care of a solitary person, to always seek his good, to always understand, to always give and not expect anything in return, to always be truthful and loyal, to always trust, and to be blissful in each others companionship.
This is my current definition of love.
I refuse to be cynical about love. I maybe wearing rose-stained glasses but I choose to view love in its truest sense. I know it’s not supposed to be all glittery glamour but I am hopeful that the bliss would take away the pains of the blisters.
Whenever I hear stories like these a lot of emotions bathe me. Confusion sweeps past me as I try to figure out how a couple, who started out as two people who were deeply in love with each other, who vowed to love and care for each other; end up with a relationship with hurts, pains and bitterness. I mean, look around, a lot of young couples are publicly displaying their affection for each other. Who’s to say that they would not end up like the characters in the numerous stories I have heard? Who’s to say I’m not going to end up like that as well?
That’s when fear sets in. Each one of these couples fell in love. They were happy and hopeful. Does the love fade away? What went wrong? Is it really possible to be completely happy in a marriage? I could be deeply in love now, but no one could really guarantee that situations would not change in the future. What is it in marriage that somehow lifts the enchantment of love?
Because of the things that happened to me in the past, I became cynical about love. Eventually though, I have learned to love “love” again. But doubt slowly creeps in as I question the authenticity and sincerity of it all.
Love in itself is doubtful as no one could really define what it is. Some say it’s an emotion that takes you to places you’ve never been to (hopeless romantics), others say it’s a commitment that you have to stick with no matter what. But I guess love, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. We define it differently because we experience it differently. And maybe within the deepest confines of my brain and my heart I have a lot of definitions of love as well. But what ties all our definitions together is that, love makes us happy. I don’t believe love’s supposed to hurt.
Love is a commitment to take care of a solitary person, to always seek his good, to always understand, to always give and not expect anything in return, to always be truthful and loyal, to always trust, and to be blissful in each others companionship.
This is my current definition of love.
I refuse to be cynical about love. I maybe wearing rose-stained glasses but I choose to view love in its truest sense. I know it’s not supposed to be all glittery glamour but I am hopeful that the bliss would take away the pains of the blisters.
A World Outside Mine
My world is usually composed of all things wonderful. I have been sheltered since I was a child, and twenty so years later I still am within the comfortable bounds of my parents. Some people say I have been “too sheltered”, that I don’t know what it is like in the real world, and that I’ve had it easy while others are worrying and struggling all throughout their lives.
I’ve been exposed to different environments and I have learned to deal with different kinds of people. But one doesn’t have to actually look for poverty, it’s all over. In fact majority of the population consider themselves poor. The pressing fact about me and about most of the people in our society is, we choose to look the other way.
How can I live in comfort, sometimes even grumbling about how some things are not just the way I like them, while other people do not even have a home to go to at night? How could I refuse to eat just because I don’t feel like eating while others are dying because of lack and hunger? How could I complain of going to school for another semester while millions of youth do not have the means for a college education? And how could I so easily forget how blessed I am and how I need to be a blessing? As soon as I finish writing this, pick up the PSP or a book, I’d shut myself within my world, where all things are wonderful. And just like that, people in need, poverty, and problems, all of them are kept outside. I chose to look the other way.
I’m rambling. But I just realized how I could be so indifferent to the world, to the real world. Here I am worrying about my chipped nails, about getting my hair done, about my patients in the clinics next sem, about what book to read next, while almost 50,000 people in China died because of the earthquake. I’m not saying I’d pack my bags and go to China to help. But through all these I realized how my worries are petty, it’s shameful, I know. I also realized that instead of exhausting my brain cells trying to think of a way to lose weight, maybe I need to focus on things that are of more value. People have died in China, but as I write, people are still “dying”, people are in need and they’re not in China, they are just an arms reach.
I really wish I would learn to keep my eyes and my heart open so that my compassion for people wouldn’t be a random bursts phenomenon. And I wish that my all – things – wonderful world wouldn’t keep me from reaching out and lending a hand, to anyone… to everyone.
I’ve been exposed to different environments and I have learned to deal with different kinds of people. But one doesn’t have to actually look for poverty, it’s all over. In fact majority of the population consider themselves poor. The pressing fact about me and about most of the people in our society is, we choose to look the other way.
How can I live in comfort, sometimes even grumbling about how some things are not just the way I like them, while other people do not even have a home to go to at night? How could I refuse to eat just because I don’t feel like eating while others are dying because of lack and hunger? How could I complain of going to school for another semester while millions of youth do not have the means for a college education? And how could I so easily forget how blessed I am and how I need to be a blessing? As soon as I finish writing this, pick up the PSP or a book, I’d shut myself within my world, where all things are wonderful. And just like that, people in need, poverty, and problems, all of them are kept outside. I chose to look the other way.
I’m rambling. But I just realized how I could be so indifferent to the world, to the real world. Here I am worrying about my chipped nails, about getting my hair done, about my patients in the clinics next sem, about what book to read next, while almost 50,000 people in China died because of the earthquake. I’m not saying I’d pack my bags and go to China to help. But through all these I realized how my worries are petty, it’s shameful, I know. I also realized that instead of exhausting my brain cells trying to think of a way to lose weight, maybe I need to focus on things that are of more value. People have died in China, but as I write, people are still “dying”, people are in need and they’re not in China, they are just an arms reach.
I really wish I would learn to keep my eyes and my heart open so that my compassion for people wouldn’t be a random bursts phenomenon. And I wish that my all – things – wonderful world wouldn’t keep me from reaching out and lending a hand, to anyone… to everyone.
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