Category: pretending

Kunwari lang?

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-19 ng Nobyembre 2019

Larawan kuha ni G. Jim Marpa sa Carigara, Leyte, Setyembre 2019.
Kunwa-kunwari lang
mga salitang madalas mapakinggan 
nung tayo'y musmos pa lamang.
Walang katotohanan
sapagkat laru-laro lamang
kaya't huwag kabahan.
Sige-sige lang
parang Sputnik Gang
lahat ng kalokohan at harutan pinagbibigyan.
Ngunit hanggang sa pagtanda ba naman
tayo'y magkukunwa-kunwarian
na tila baga ang lahat ay laro lamang o biruan?
Larawan kuha pa rin ni G. Jim Marpa sa Carigara, Setyembre 2019.
Noong aking kabataan
ako'y natigilan sa aming inuman
sa paksa na di ko malimutan:
Sabi ba naman sa aming umpukan
ngayon ang buhay natin ay totohanan
at hindi na kunwa-kunwari lang.
Kampai! sabay taas ng kamay 
at tagay pero tila sablay
na totohanan lang ang buhay kapag naghahanap-buhay?
Paano mga pinagdaanan sa buhay
mga sakripisyong tiniis at inalay 
walang saysay dahil hindi tunay?
Larawan kuha ni G. Jim Marpa, 2017.
Hindi ba laging totohanan itong buhay
sa oras liwanag sa atin ay sumilay
kahit wala pa tayong ka-malay malay?
Kunwa-kunwarian ba ang buhay
gayong natikman hapdi ng masaktan o masugatan 
na tila di na huhupa pagluha?
Sabihin sa nagsusunog ng kilay
o maging sa istambay kunwari lang ang buhay
baka ikaw ay mapa-away!
Bawat saglit, totoo ang buhay
tigilan na malimit nating pagpipilit
ito'y kunwari upang mamuhay nang tunay.
Ang taong turing sa buhay
kunwa-kunwarian, dinadaan lahat sa biru-biruan
asahang walang pagpapahalaga sa buhay niya at ng iba.

The problem with “pretending”

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Tuesday, Week XXXIII, Year I, 19 November 2019

2 Maccabees 6:18-31 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 19:1-10

Sunrise at Camp John Hay, Baguio City, November 2018.

While praying over today’s first reading, Lord, I wondered what if you were just pretending to be good? What if everything going on in our lives is a big act of pretending so as not to destroy the flow of life or throw everything off balance?

No, it cannot be, dear loving Father!

We are so sure you are real! And this life, our very selves are real.

The problem is with us when we always pretend, when we are afraid to show what is true, what is real, what we believe and what we feel.

So often we pretend you are not real, that you do not exist even if we are convinced of your love and presence.

The problem with pretending is that it is not true, it is a lie.

The problem with pretending is we never realize our true value.

Unfortunately, we still keep on pretending that pretending can work, that pretending is good.

Let us stop pretending, Lord, because we can never escape you, the Ultimate Truth.

Eleazar said: “Should I thus pretend for the sake of a brief moment of life, they would be led astray by me, while I would bring shame and dishonor on my old age. Even if, for the time being, I avoid the punishment of men, I shall never, whether alive or dead, escape the hands of the Almighty.”

2 Maccabees 6:25-26

Give us the courage to be truthful like the 90 year-old Eleazar and chief tax collector Zacchaeus of Jericho who never pretended about who they really were, of the truth about you, O God, that eventually they experienced your saving power in Christ. Amen.