G-OD, generous with His mercy and blessings
R-emembering not that we rejected Him.
A Creator full only for us of love
T-o which His only Son from above
E-ndured pain, sorrow, our indifference
F-or us created in His image to be saved, hence
U-nite us back, become merciful and generous like Him
L-oving Him thru our brethren.
One Saturday morning, a little girl, a preschooler, was playing with her toys in the home office of her grandfather who happened to be a judge assigned in the province. Grandpa Judge was still resting at this time.
It was pretty quiet around the house when suddenly the telephone rang. The preschooler still didn’t know how to use the telephone but had seen how the elders in the house were using it. She knew though that when the telephone rang, the first word uttered was “Hello.” Third, fourth ring, no elder came to answer the phone. So on the fifth ring, the preschooler set aside her toys, stood up on tiptoe, reached for the handset and said, “Hello.”
The person on the other line was taken aback by the high-pitched voice of obviously a child. Just to make sure, after the caller said “Hello” back, a follow up question of, “Is this 8-472987?” To which the preschooler answered, “No. It’s 771.” The preschooler corrected the caller by giving the house number.
By this time Grandpa Judge had rushed down to his home office and asked his granddaughter for the telephone handset which the preschooler handed without hesitation.
The caller was a client of Grandpa Judge who wanted to meet up with him. Grandpa Judge was very apologetic about his preschooler answering the telephone but the caller said it was amazing that the child already knew how to answer the telephone, just that she really wasn’t aware about phone numbers yet, but got the house number correct. Both the caller and Grandpa Judge had a good laugh about it and Grandpa Judge truly felt proud of his granddaughter.
Meanwhile, our preschooler had left the home office and went to be with her grandmother who asked her, “So who was on the telephone?” The little girl replied, “Oh, it was somebody Grandpa knew but who didn’t know that our house number is 771. Maybe that’s why he called.”, to which Grandma laughed bringing tears to her eyes.
It was the fall term and our freshie is a freshie no more, but for consistency, let’s just continue to call him Freshie. So Freshie is a sophie – short for sophomore, and now has a constant friend aside from his other friends – that being his roommate in the university dorm. He has moved out of his aunt’s residence as he has to put in more time to do his research papers requiring him to be closer to the library.
It is the second weekend after school started and he and his roommate had nothing else to do and they both didn’t like to lounge around the university premises nor at the bars around the area. Freshie decided to call up his aunt and asked if he could drop by for a visit to which his aunt excitedly said “Of course.” He also asked if he could bring along his roommate to which she said it wasn’t a problem. She told Freshie that his little cousin misses him and kept on asking why Freshie wasn’t staying with them anymore. Well, Freshie supposed it would be really cool to see his cousin again, though tiresome, and he missed him too. “Have dinner with us and sleep over tonight. Return to your dorm tomorrow.” An invite which Freshie accepted without hesitation.
It took Freshie and his roommate an hour-and-a-half to get to his aunt’s place. The door was opened by his little cousin, no longer that little anymore as he reached to almost Freshie’s chest, and he was only 7 years old. Little cousin bumped fists with Freshie and his roommate and then talked endlessly about his school and his new video games while leading both of them to the dining area. Freshie introduced his roommate to his aunt and uncle and his little cousin, and then all of them sat down to eat. Little cousin was still talking to Freshie asking him over and over why he was not living with them anymore.
Over dinner, still not answering his little cousin, Freshie and his roommate talked about their classes while his aunt and uncle asked about the new eating places in the area to which the family would, in the near future, be trying out.
Little cousin kept mumbling about not being part of Freshie’s life anymore and this time Freshie gave the little boy all of his attention. He and his roommate volunteered to clear and clean up after dinner and promised his little cousin that they will be spending the rest of the night together talking their voices out. Little cousin just nodded and went to the living room, picked up the visitors’ backpacks and brought these up to Freshie’s former room. “I expect a game after you two are finished in there.” demanded the little boy. The two visitors looked at each other and his roommate answered, “Sure, no problem.” “Great!” his little cousin replied.
Up to his former room Freshie and his roommate went and then after choosing who sleeps where, Freshie’s aunt came into the room to say that if they needed anything to just holler. At her heels little cousin came bounding into the room bringing with him all of his favorite and new video games to show Freshie and his roommate. “You can play solo on all of those.” Freshie told his cousin. “We’re not gonna play those.” he added. “I’d like you both to tell me stories about your dorm.” said the little boy. “What’s your interest in our dorm anyhow?” asked Freshie’s roommate. “Well,” answered the little boy, “Daddy said he had a classmate who lived there and he said that the whole building was haunted. His classmate told him a story about seeing a woman wearing a white dress walking past his dorm window. He first wondered how tall that woman was and then remembered that his room was at the second floor.” Freshie and his roommate were quiet for several minutes taking in this story from a kid who has not yet seen their dorm building. “So is it true? Have you seen the woman in white? Dad even told mom the story of his classmate about hearing somebody running down the hallway outside his room in the middle of the night and when he opened his door, nobody was there and all the lights were out. Isn’t that exciting? You could probably play ghost hunting there, right? Especially this Halloween.” Still the two friends were quiet. Freshie finally finding his voice changed the subject and asked “So how is it being a first grader?” His little cousin then talked endlessly about having a new friend, his experience of a fight – this with a girl, him bringing home the class pet turtle and then losing it in the yard. The little boy filled the entire night with his first-grade stories – playing games entirely forgotten.
The night of Sunday, Freshie and his roommate decided to buy two six-packs, one each, to drink themselves to sleep. Both wouldn’t want to admit that the little boy’s stories about their dorm scared them to death. They also weren’t looking forward to a visit from a woman in a white dress.
Freshie – 0, little boy – 3.
Remember our college freshman and his little cousin? This story is Part II to Cowboys and Indians.
Okay then. Freshie had a down time from school as exams were nearing. He already finished most of his written assignments and had already prepared for his orals.
Needless to say, our freshie was bored and had nothing else to do. So he started fixing up his room. As he did this, his young cousin came into his bedroom, without any invitation, as usual.
Lille Boy: “I’m bored. There’s nothing new on TV.
Freshie: “Don’t you have video games?”
Little Boy: “Mom hid them ’cause I didn’t do my homework the other day. What you doing, anyhow?”
Freshie:”I’m just fixing up.
Little Boy: “Yeesh. Maybe you could do my room too.”
Freshie: “Ha ha. That will be the day. Why don’t you do it yourself?”
Little Boy: “Why don’t I what?”
Freshie: “Fix up your room?”
Little Boy: “See, if I did that mom’s not going to do anything this weekend and we won’t have anything to fight about.”
Freshie: “Wow. I didn’t realize that’s a game you and Auntie are playing. Anyway, since you’re bored and I don’t have anything to do today, why don”t we play my game. It’s called Find Me.”
Little Boy: “Okay. Is that some kind of a ball game?”
Freshie: “Nope. It’s like an alphabet game.”
Little Boy: “Oh, I don’t want that. Sounds like it’s for babies.”
Freshie: “Heck no! We play that in our group dynamics class.”
Little Boy: “You still play in your school? What are you? Aren’t you supposed to be in college already?”
Freshie:”Hey, hey, hey, even college students have play time too.”
Little Boy: “Really?”
Freshie: “Yes, depends on what subject you have, though.”
Little Boy: “Whatever. So tell me how you play this Find Me.”
Freshie: “Sure?”
Little Boy: “Yes, sounds lame, but okay. Better than just sitting around watching you.”
Freshie: “Ha ha. My, you really are bored.” Our freshie was now thinking that at last he could score one after being tied up by his little cousin. “This is how it works … first letter in the alphabet is?”
Little Boy: “Are we playing the game now?” Interrupted the little boy.
Freshie: “Not until you answer my question.”
Little Boy: “Everybody knows it’s the letter A.” answered the little boy bored to his wits.
Freshie: “Very good! I see you know your alphabet.” Okay, this is how it works. ‘ll be giving you some clues about something that starts with the letter A, and then you find that something.”
Little Boy: “Okay. Seems easy enough.
Freshie:” Alright then. I’ll start. You don’t mind now do you?”
Little Boy: “Well, you should start since you called the game. Shoot.” Said the little boy shrugging his shoulders.
Freshie: “Let’s practice first so I would know if you understood the game.” His little cousin nodded and looked at the clock on the wall near the bedroom window.
Freshie: “I”m thinking of something in the kitchen, that’s a protection from oil spattering when frying. Now you go find it.”
Little Boy: “But I don’t even know what that is.”
Freshie: “There are two clues in there. How much more do you need? One, it’s in the kitchen and two, it’s a protection for cooking.”
Little Boy: “Yeah, but you said something else. You said spatring or whatever that word is. It’s a big word.”
Freshie: “Well, at least you’re learning new words.”
Little Boy: “That’s not fair! I’m just a kid. I don’t know any big words yet! I don’t like to play your game anymore. I’ll just watch those crime shows on TV.” Said the little boy and stormed out of his room.
Freshie: “Hey, okay. Sorry kid.” Was all that our freshie said and happened to look at the clock. It’s 11:00 am and Thomas and Friends are on at this time. Our freshie thought, my, my, did my young cousin had one up on me again?
A college freshman decided to live with her maternal aunt who resides near his university. He hails from the midwest and was still adjusting to college life. He was given his own room by his aunt and treated short of being the oldest child in his aunt’s household.
The catch though in his home away from home was he has a cousin, the only child of his aunt, a boy of five, very playful, very inquisitive, a handful if one gives in to the boy’s whims. Often, this little boy would just enter his room and would demand that they play. Because he would not want to disappoint his aunt, he would give in to the child’s wishes and would oftentimes end up enjoying playtime with his cousin, which pleased his aunt.
One fine morning, our college freshman woke up early and with nothing else to do, prepared for school. He may have been making some noise which prompted his cousin to enter his room and again demanded that they play. It was early so he succumbed to the child’s demand. The little boy said, “Let’s play cowboys and Indians today. I’ll be the Indian and you, the cowboy. I caught you so I’ll tie you up.” “Okay.” was all our freshie said. So the little boy sat our freshie down, took the nylon rope he brought with him and tied our freshie to the chair. Our freshie thought that he would be able to release himself very easily as a little boy couldn’t really tie him up that tight.
Anyway, now our freshie was all tied up and the little boy began prancing around him shouting, “Woo, woo, woo, woo. Woo, woo, woo, woo.” But, after some rounds of shooting our freshie with his plastic bow and arrows, the little boy got tired of the game and left our freshie’s room without a word.
One, two hours passed with no sign of the little boy returning. At half an hour before lunch, his aunt called out saying food had been laid out. He shouted back, “Okay, I’ll be right down, but I need help Auntie.” His aunt came up to his room and as soon as she saw our freshie, shook her head and began untying him. “My, my. Our little boy has really done you well.” “I’ll just go get changed Auntie then I’ll follow you down.”
Once our freshie was ready with all his things packed, he went down to the dining room. He passed the recreation area and found his little cousin in front of the TV watching cartoons with no care in the world. “Watch out the next time we play.” whispered our freshie to himself.
Mother informed her little boy that they would be attending mass as it was a Sunday. With all tenderness, she asked him if he could behave while the mass was going on and the little boy agreed – typical of kids because it meant going out and usually with an unexpected promise of a treat or two. With much excitement, the little boy bathed, dressed up with the clothes Mother had already laid out, combed his hair, and put on his socks and shoes, all these he did so by himself. After a while, his mother called out to him and they went on their way to church.
It so happened that the mass that they were to attend was the “community mass” which meant the church was jampacked. Though Mother and the little boy heard what the priest was saying and what the choir was singing, they couldn’t see exactly what was going on at the altar. The little boy then became bored and restless.
To amuse himself, the little boy watched the other kids and began imitating them – going round and round Mother, jumping up and down, and swaying and singing to the top of his voice. This irritated Mother and reminded the little boy about his promise to behave. This he did but just for a while and then began to amuse himself once again.
Finally, short of getting infuriated, Mother whispered to the little boy, “Son, Jesus told me that if you’re not going to behave I have to pinch you.” The little boy stopped what he was doing and put on his best behavior once again. However, after a few minutes, he tugged at his mother’s hand and said, “Mom?” Mother answered, “Yes son?” “Jesus told me that you have to bring me home because I am bored and you are getting angry.”
This is a story given by a priest during a seminar that I attended. My thanks to Fr. Bel San Luis, SVD for sharing this story to our group.
One day, a priest, Fr. Vic had some free time on his hands. He looked around the church yard to see what needed fixing and found a broken down fence on the outer side of the church yard, several meters away from the refectory. It was a simple task really, just adding two panels of wood to the posts. It didn’t even need to be painted as the rest of the fence just had plain unpainted wooden panels.
While he began measuring, cutting out the panels and starting to adjust the panels to the posts, a young boy came and watched him work. The boy started conversing with him, asking him so many questions about almost anything. Trying not to lose his concentration on the task at hand, the priest began to ask the boy instead, “Arent’ you going to assist me?” The boy had a ready answer to the question, it seemed, and he said, “Oh no, Father. I wouldn’t want to do that. You see, I have another question for you.” “And what would that be?” Father Vic asked. “Well, I want to know if it is a sin to say bad words.” “Ah, hmm, it’s not really nice to say bad words especially if you say it to somebody.” At that point, Fr. Vic accidentally hit his thumb with the hammer and whispered a curse.
There is a household composed of three sisters and two brothers, aside from their parents, of course. There are two older sisters addressed as Ate (the eldest) and Ditse (second to her), a third sibling, a brother addressed as Kuya, followed by another sister, simply addressed as Sanse by the youngest brother, who is addressed by everybody as Bunso. Typical of families, Ate and Ditse exemplify sibling rivalry with Ate ready to pounce on the younger siblings who will be brave enough to side with Ditse whenever they fought.
Ate and Ditse fight over the simplest of things – like Ditse not waking up early enough to leave for school 30 minutes before the first bell; or Ditse eating Ate’s favorite chips; or Ditse wearing Ate’s hairclips without asking permission before using these.
One day in school, a small group of Ate’s friends converged in her absence. It so happened that Kuya and Bunso were eating at a table very close to the group so they overheard what they were talking about, even without meaning to listen. However, hearing their Ate’s name and she being the topic of the conversation, both brothers now intentionally eavesdropped on the group’s conversation. They were talking about Ate having a crush on the boyfriend of another friend of theirs with their Ate planning on enticing him and winning him over to become his girlfriend instead.
Kuya and Bunso knew that their Ate was not that kind of a girl as she has an ardent admirer herself from another school courting her. He in fact has met their parents and they approve of him because of his congenial personality and proper behavior – a glimpse of having a proper upbringing. It therefore won’t be surprising if this guy would eventually become their Ate’s boyfriend.
Ate’s group of friends’ meeting came to an end and left the eating area. Kuya and Bunso decided to tell the rest of their siblings the conversation they overheard. Needless to say, Ate was so hurt and wept. She decided that she will no longer join her group of friends as they have preconceived notions about her.
Ditse gave Ate a piece of her mind saying how despicable Ate’s friends were. Ikaapat seconded everthing that Ditse was saying and she was ready to fight Ate’s friends because of what these so-called friends said about her. Kuya and Bunso also supported Ditse and said that they will give evidence if Ate’s friends deny what they said about her. Ate stayed quiet and was surprised, but at the same time, relieved at her siblings’ reaction to the situation. Ate never realized that her sisters and brothers would defend her at any given circumstance after the way she has treated them. All the more courageous that Ate felt when Ditse said, “Let us give them a taste of the Fabulous Four!!!”
What do you think happened the next day in school?
Like everybody else in this life,
I go through joys and strife;
ups, downs, and then around I go
but the latter shouldn’t be so.
When I experience the same things
at different times with different beings,
these may be a process of me learning
that my approach needs changing.
There are moments of hurt, of pain;
asking whatever did I gain
from an experience that seems familiar
knowing now that I never did go far.
That reality is I just turned around
comforted that I know where I’m bound;
and then everything happens again
exactly how the previous one has end.
I’m always afraid to try anything new
but then that’s what I need to do.
I weigh my options and do what’s best
with God’s guidance I’ll pass the tests.
The round-a-bouts have so far, lessened;
but what mighty expensive lessons learned.
There were though, crossroads faced
and these too were ruled over with God’s grace.
I still have a lot to go through,
the ups and downs are not few;
For I still have to mingle with people
and that challenge is more than triple.
To know, to act, to discern
that opened my mind, and I learned
that life is difficult, too true
as I go through each day anew.
But acceptance with peace of soul and mind,
and hope and trust in the Lord, I will find
that path though, with its ups and downs
but straight it will be from now and hereon.
From the sky water falls
drenching the earth, filling potholes;
while greens dance happily
no longer dry or thirsty.
And children playing noisily
bathing in the rain, their cooling dose
for warm bodies, not using the water hose.
This is nature’s cleansing spree;
washing away parched land, dry debris.
Once more a polished earth made ready
to hope, to sow, to reap anew steadfastly.
paj071018 