INSIGHTS FROM ATTY. REYES, JR.
Early morning chats with Atty. Domingo Y. Reyes, Jr. (PLM’s President) has been a fixture in my daily morning routine. His personal insights together with my Gospel reflection was a great combination to kick-start the day. During one of my conversations with Atty. Reyes, he shared an article he wrote entitled, “Children have only three days – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”; and such insight was so inspiring that I would like to share them with you all as well. So, here it goes …
I love driving. Driving alone always gives me that serene opportunity to ponder on my own life experiences, and events and hopefully derive insights that I can learn from. One morning, while driving along Roxas Boulevard, near Buendia, during rush hour, I noticed from afar a young boy (around 6 years old) leisurely and playfully crisscrossing the street in the middle of the heavy traffic rush, not even mindful of the danger that faces him. He doesn’t seem to look that there was something not right in him. He was just too oblivious and didn’t even seem to care about what’s happening around him. He just would crisscross with arms raised like superman in the middle of a busy road, happy and enjoying. Despite his nothingness, the boy was able to create his own playground.
I wonder, is it life’s harsh realities that made this boy daring and fearless? Or is just his childlikeness of making the streets world his big playground. As I continued to watch him amidst the non-moving traffic, and as if on cue, the late Fr. Larry Faraon’s morning reflection in his 105.1 radio (Crossover) program “Sounds of the Soul” began to play in my car radio. By meaningful coincidence, his reflections was about the wonderful and magical world of children, which many of us used to be. According him, “children have only three days – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”. Children tell of their past experiences as if the event was so recent and happened only yesterday or just a while ago. They speak about the future as if the same will happen tomorrow or just about to happen. And oftentimes, they live for today at the present moment. By their sheer childlikeness, they seem to not to worry much about life, and less live a much less stressful life. Until the time comes when their eyes are opened by the ways of the world (courtesy of many elders).
After we left our childhood, as we age as elders, we begin to be influenced by a society too pre-occupied of worldly matters that keep us (consciously or unconsciously) from experiencing and appreciating actual life realities of the present day and moment. We pain ourselves remembering and talking about things that were long past. We think and worry much of things that are far beyond tomorrow, forgetting the essentials of just living in the present, missing the joy and magic that every moment brings. While it is good to learn from the past, let not the painful and sorrowful memories of yesteryears stagnate and prevent us from moving on to face a new day with renewed vigor, hope and excitement. While preparation is key for a good future, let it not be too far beyond tomorrow which results us unnecessary stress and anxiety about a future world we are all still unaware of and not within our grasp.
In the solitude of my car I asked, is it unhealthy not to learn from the past and prepare for the future and just live today for what it is? I guess not, the message is about refraining from dealing about the past that prevents us from facing the present, and prepare for the future by doing the best we can today.
As the traffic slowly started to move, I managed to express a faint smile of what that boy taught me that morning. I realized and I regret how much joy and magic I missed of my present days, because of living too much in my past, and my too much pre-occupation about the future. I also remembered what the good old wise Master Oogway in the movie Kung Fu Panda said, “today is a gift, that’s why it’s called present.” Time to open my presents.
POSTSCRIPT: As a rejoinder to Atty. Reyes’ insights on time, let me share to you one my poems from my #kasabihansakamalayan compilation …
There is always TIME for everything …
A TIME to celebrate and a TIME to contemplate.
A TIME to work and a TIME to rest
A TIME to spend and a TIME to save
A TIME to learn and a TIME to execute
A TIME to play and a TIME to pray
A TIME to plant and a TIME to harvest.
A TIME to mingle and a TIME to quietude
A TIME to sleep and a TIME to wake-up.
Everything is in God’s perfect TIME.
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