By Karen Galarpe
And just like that, it is November. November 11 to be exact. 😀
It now seems a lifetime away when things were more hurried and fast-paced, when workweeks meant going through EDSA traffic and trying your best to arrive in time for your shift, no matter if it starts at 5 a.m. when most countrymen are still fast asleep.
My OB said the COVID-19 pandemic has given us a gift -- the gift of slowing down and appreciating the passage of time.
I agree. The past 20 months saw us slowing down, working from home, spending more time with family, counting our blessings, and simplifying life. While others may have been itching to resume normal lives, I think I am one of the few who enjoyed the community quarantine and thrived in this setup. I've had more time to read books, declutter (an ongoing lifelong process), meet friends though not in real life but online, sing (hello, WeSing classmates 🎤), and ahem, shopping online -- for needs like groceries, furniture, and clothes, and wants like books...and more books.
One of the books I bought on Shopee recently is Heart On My Sleeve by Em Guevara (yup, one r). I know Em, as she was my classmate in grad school in UP. I would also see her around during press conferences and media trips as we both covered the lifestyle beat for years. So I know how deep and fun she could both be. She had the best jump shot in Thunderbird Resort by the way when we were there a long time ago.
Anyway, back to Em's book which she published herself. It's a collection of her columns for various publications. I like how Em takes us through the phases of her life, from EMerging to EMphatic, EMboldened to EMpowered. Reading it, I feel like she's just in front of me making chika about her precious fur babies Matilda and Shakira, or her crummy date with that guy who wanted to put popcorn in her mouth on their first date. 😝 It took me awhile to finish the book, even though it's just a slim one, because I would read only a chapter a day after work or during lunch break. It was good to just listen to someone making kuwento about anything and everything after my mind has been processing hard news all day. But yes, just one chapter a day, so there would be Em again the next day making kuwento, this time about heavy stuff like grief and why choosing not to forgive will eventually let someone hold power over us.
Another book I got this pandemic season is Where Is God In a Coronavirus World? by John C. Lennox, published this year by Church Strengthening Ministry. What a timely book, right? To date, over 250 million worldwide have contracted COVID-19, and more than 5 million have died of it. These statistics make you wonder indeed -- why is God allowing this, and where is he?
Lennox, a math professor at the University of Oxford, does not lecture in the book, but with the reader asks the same questions. And then he puts a name to our feelings, looks at past pandemics and disasters, talks about what pain does, and why things are the way they are. He then says that as a mathematician, he knows some questions may never be solved, and maybe we should be better off asking a different question. There is more to this little book (just 67 pages including endnotes) and I highly recommend this for reading.
Anyway, so what have you been thinking about and reading lately?
VERSE OF THE WEEK: Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad. Proverbs 12:25
