Growing in Faith

    It is in the actual encounters of living that we discover the many realities and thousand possibilities there are. In life, we are being taught by others, by our experiences and then by our own self how to journey with whatever we have and whoever we are--- our resources, our skills, the significant people in our lives, and then most of all, our faith so that we can keep on going no matter what.

    Plants have beautiful stories of growing.Their needs must be sufficiently met but even though we left them behind at times, they just have natural way of growing. The sunlight, the wind and the rain are God’s ways of taking care of them. When we look around us, we see their beauty and then a grand showcase of how God would support so many lives.

Cebu City, Philippines

    Whether the plants don’t get enough or they get too much, they still continue to give in something to the earth even though they consume so little space-in a piece of land or in a clay pot or in a tin can, they just keep on growing.

    It is in a more exciting and amazing way that we, human beings grow too. We are faced with many changes and challenges. Some are nurtured well by our parents, our caretakers, our friends,our mentors and other significant people around us. Some experienced neglect,abandonment and betrayal and it would take real experiences of love for healing to take place. Love has special way of making people care and give. It has a special way of making people understand things, even if it seems to be confusing or hard to digest. It has a special way of making people share some sunlight, or some water or some space. It has a special way of nurturing our faith.

    Our story of growing is also a story of our relationship with God. There may be many distractions or frustrations that we have to bear in life, but if we never turn our path away from God we will successfully overcome anything and everything. Our faith grows when we recognize the fact that we have never been through any battle alone. God is always there for us, in every step of our growth. It is because of Him that we find joy in serving our purpose. It is through Him and with Him that we learn how to care, co-exist, and then love one another. It is through Him that we can blossom like plants.

Misgivings

Here's another beautifully crafted poem written by Anonymous Ken. 

In your silence I speak my mind

What you've lost I can find

Shut me out and you can hear me

Close your eyes, it is I you see.

In your thoughts hear me shout

What your life is all about

Of real hearts, all can lie

Painful sobs, your lullaby.

In your mind you betray

Your loyal self, your dismay

Have you gone off the edge

Broken self, broken pledge.

Hear me laugh in the night

As you close your eyes tight

In the dark, you're not spared

For your sins are all bared.

With yourself, you argue

Why great things they've left you

Barren, fertile hearts can go

Deserts even may soon snow.

Misgivings!

Damned misgivings!

Misgivings hurt the soul

The body takes the toll.

When will slaves be freed

From their hearts of greed?

Court yourself bring it to justice

Change your deeds, what you practise

Leave the pack and find your head

For with them you are dead.

Misgivings!

Burnt misgivings!

Take a break from your hell

Even you, you can tell

How you hide from the truth

Mask yourself with your youth!

Misgivings!

Sly misgivings!

Die tonight in your mask

To yourself you shall ask:

Have I led a decent life

Was sin ever my sole wife?

Did I leave a friend to hang

Did I push him to a tang?

Did I fail to shine my light

With a friend who was my might?

Misgivings!

Shrewd misgivings!

In Water

     It is a joy to feature this poem of a brilliant man, whose works never fails to amaze me. His metaphors and ways of connecting words and ideas would always make me reflect more. Works such as this shows one special and irrefutable thing - that there is soul in writing...

 In Water
By: Anonymous Ken

In lakes it can be still, in rivers the water falls
My hopes all surge from springs, the water sends some calls
I am a little cloud by lagoons I'm softly cradled
I'm running with the wind, all free, untamed, unbridled.

I am a little brook tiptoeing in the forest
A silent shrill my voice declaring love so earnest
But I can be a pond and peaceful I can be
Be glad to have some ripples, the ones that all can see.

And I can be a harbor with boats and ships in sight
Adorned by architecture and crowned with kinds of light.
Yes I can be a marsh, quite graceful but mysterious
Unsure what evil lurks, quite eerie, even vicious.

I'll be an oasis, in deserts I shall quench you
Or I can be a swamp, in forests you shall run through.
Shall I just be a stream which hopes to meet the sea
In deltas I can scream, so happy I can be!

I can be an inlet, so humble and obscure
Of waters I quiet, so simple and demure.
But I think I shall ask, this one important question
Can I just be a sea in the middle of an ocean?

Taken at Bangui, Ilocos Norte

Water above me
Water below me
Water around me
Water inside me.

Even my sorrows are washed away with water
As they escape from the windows of my soul
As I am cleansed when I do falter
My brokenness to be made whole.

Engulfed I was in sacred womb
In water I attained this life
Engulfed I'd be, my holy tomb
When water ends my strife.

Water above me, water below me
All goodness it shall rain
Water around me, water inside me
I vow to drown disdain.

Water above me, water below me
I cast my beating heart
Water around me, water inside me
Death is one holy art.

For love is but a series of deaths we don't imagine
And deaths are all beginnings of love, one pure contagion
In love we die each day, reborn to forge our death
In water can't take, the glory of one breath.

But water all we are, around us we are found
Convoluted and bizarre so funny it may sound
In water we shall live, in water we shall die
In water we decay, in water we shall fly!

Water above me
Water below me
Water around me
Water inside me. — in Bangui.