The Pendulum Always Swings

Wow, what a busy time the holidays are. In between all the family gatherings and reunions as well as the dine outs and late night gimmicks with balikbayan friends and relatives, there's hardly any chance to follow one's normal daily routine. That's why the Christmas holidays are the most enjoyable yet stressful times of the year. For most people even the diet goes on vacation, so much so that getting rid of that bulging waistline often becomes one of the top resolutions of the new year.

The fact that I'm writing this of course means that the "end of the world as we know it" didn't happen last December 21, 2012. I went through that day as I pretty much did any normal day. My wife and I even went out with a few friends that night. My philosophy is that if it's your time, you're going to go no matter where you are, so might as well try to make the most of the time you have right now. This is pretty much what I said in one of my previous articles that touched upon the December 21 date.

Not that the end of 2012 was entirely quiet. We had some natural disasters like typhoon Pablo and then Quinta that slammed through both the Visayas and Mindanao, and then we had man made disasters in the form of mass shootings both in the U.S. and here in the Philippines, as well as that brutal gang rape in India. For the people affected by these tragedies, the world seemingly comes to an end for them. Nothing underscores the reality of sudden change like disasters and tragedies can.

The saying goes that you never truly appreciate what you have until you lose it. Being a victim of typhoon Ondoy, I feel for those who have suffered similarly and suffered some form of loss. I experienced, first hand, how one's life can literally change overnight. Everything that was familiar for most of one's life at this point, turned upside down and never to be the same again. The experience always reminds me to appreciate even the little things and blessings that surround me, because I know that any situation can change in an instant. "Situation normal" is no excuse to slack off.

Just as good things can be temporary, so can bad things. And that's the beauty of life, because everything is subject to change. Esoterically, this is called the Law of Cycles. The recent end of the great Mayan cycle may not have produced the change that a lot of people expected, but change is not always tied to one big event. Life calls to us every day and every moment, and life is simply the experience of change in action. And if those signals just fly over our heads we miss out on some of the best things that life has to offer. The samurai of feudal Japan were not only warriors but also poets and artists. They savored every moment because they knew they could die in combat anytime. The life of a samurai was extreme, but their attitude towards life is something worth emulating.

Speaking of cycles coming to an end, yesterday was the Feast of Three Kings that officially ended the Christmas season. We've started taking down our Christmas decorations and soon enough, no physical trace of Christmas will remain. But hopefully, the same spirit that made us shower love and generosity to our fellows won't disappear along with those decorations.

So while everything is subject to change, there are some things that are definitely worth keeping. In a nutshell, that's the overall message of 2012.