More than a writer's whim

Back in the days when we enjoyed reading leisurely and all knowledge we had were gained through reading countless of books,

back in the days when one would have to walk through the seemingly quiet library while stealthily making your footsteps lighter and avoiding even a single little gaze,

when the familiar sound of the keyboard or the click of the mouse is nowhere to be heard, but rather the rattling of the crisp old paper being scanned through…

Ok, I’m just joking, alright?! Not, so way back there!

Just back to the days where I freely hold a book and indulge myself in it, willing to be transported to a whole new world where the author leads me. When I can hold a book for hours, and finish the whole novel in one sitting. Then and there I also dreamt of becoming an author and bringing the readers a chance of escape.

I remembered having titles such as “The Courageous Frederick”, “The 13th Generation”, “The Candlelight”, “Samantha” (or was it “Suzette”?) and many others which I failed to make a title for and tons of poems which popped in my head during my sleepless night or in the midst of the outpouring rain.

In short, I aspired, like many of you, to be a writer.

You bet I can write? Yes, I can and I have drafted a number of articles, minutes of meeting, technical reports, summaries and many others. But those don’t account to the essence of being the writer I wanted to be.

That resulted in me being here in writing to tell you what happened and what I really wanted to do.

So mars, ito na nga ang kwento…

After many attempts of putting up a blog, here I am, finally navigating through my unintentionally abandoned blog site. Blogs were the hype during my time, when there was only Friendster and MySpace and people just started to know about video blogging on Youtube. To put up a blog was phenomenal, that was what I thought before. And it will require tremendous creativity and masterful writing skills. (Have you heard of a grammar nazi? My friend is one, and I may also be one?) So putting the ideas in my head to the paper made me feel dizzy, reading a paragraph over and over again before I could move on to the next. And at that time, the ideas were already lost so I had to make up another idea but that just led me to ruin the original. So I had to stop. On rare occasions that I could finish my writeup, I would find too many errors and critique myself: “Who in the world would want to read this thing?”

But I have to try at least once and keep on doing it until I reach my conclusion. So, I squeezed my wits out and thought of the contents I wanted to do. I wish to share stories of beauty and inspirations, articles of hope, discoveries of goodness and wonders of the LORD as I travel and be with nature.

But then, the COVID19 pandemic happened, and literally…

At tumigil ang mundo

We were faced with both personal and financial problems. Being vulnerable was common and we became aware of our own shortcomings.

What hope could I offer during that time?

Nowadays, who would have thought? People began to be content creators on their own and experts of anything that they could simply criticize anyone, anything and whatsoever. As someone who grew up reading worthwhile literature and with passion for the arts, I perceived these things as significant challenges to the literature and arts. And if these things keep up, who knows what will happen?

So the challenge for me is to put up creative and substantive contents that people might think about. No, even if they don’t, I will. I will think about it and express my thoughts. I also wanted to be heard, especially that I know my cause.

Aside from my concerns, my main point here is 1) you can start again, 2) you can be you and 3) spread God's goodness.

Let’s talk more about it in my next article. Until then, let’s meditate on this verse about God declaring that He will do something new:

Isaiah 43:18-19 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.