People with grievances: are you one of them? Are you already in despair or are you redeemable?

For those who have been through a lot in life, it is not a guarantee that one day you will not feel so lost and in despair. Your view of life becomes myopic and anyone who gets in the way becomes a prospective enemy. Before long you begin accounting what people have not done well with you. Then you consider these people the culprits of your dissatisfaction. From your end, you consider these people answerable to you and so sooner or later they must pay.

We witnessed this scenario. Every time this person comes along, there seems to be a veil that covers the space and to our surprise, oozing sense of black energy. To our consternation, we found out that this fellow does not care and does not even know the bad vibration being put out by just mere presence.

Then while in the midst of this negative part of existence, news reached us. One of the employees just could not make it and lost sanity. Another just lost a life partner at a time when the children are so young and a young dynamic personality just died. Someone felt so happy and healthy then one moment felt no longer as fine as before - the future seems uncertain.

So those who seem to feel that people have done an injustice to them: think again: one moment you are here, next moment you are here no more. It is time to let go and let God be the judge and only Him. Desiderata reminds us: With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world: Be happy!

"Life begins when one lives meaningfully..."

There are many realizations that we keep in our hearts. There are even more scenarios that really bother us in the course of opening our eyes and ears yet for the sake of keeping the peace, we prefer to keep mum about it. Yet some just make our sanity unbearable and the "beast" in us wants to let loose. Allow us to mention some:

* Torture or murder of a criminal suspect in a Manila precinct - have you seen the tape? 14 policemen involved! Binayug and company: how can you ever come to terms with your consciences? Certainly, this hair-raising show of inhumanity is not an isolated case. As one senator has aptly said: "How can you justify such a thing like that?"

* The "Ampatuan Massacre" - how is the case?

* Brown outs in Malaybalay - who will explain clearly why brown outs and/or black outs happen regularly? Even if once in a while we hear that electric posts have been hit accidentally or this and that happened, still some kind of communication is due to customers. BUSECO - may we expect better service?

* Teen-age pregnancies - what can parents, guardians and teachers do to this fast becoming regular cases, especially when the teens are barely 16! We notice lady-college students become pregnant at 19 because they are lodgers and are away from home. They go on with their schooling now that a law has protected their rights - their pregnancies do not become enough ground for expulsion.

Back to sanity . . . back to the insight: "Life begins when one lives meaningfully . . ." The filipino trait is worth noting for amidst the many problems that beset our society, we go on. We keep the faith.