The Youth are Alive!

They changed the lyrics to songs from The Sound of Music to serenade Fr. Steve on his birthday and the members of YOUTH ALIVE, the youth ministry of the Missionaries of God's Love in Manila, got their message across with choreography and pizzaz. He needs someone "cuter and nicer", and they are the charming kids for the job of, as they put it, taking care of their spiritual father. At the same time they need him, someone "older and wiser" to tell them what to do, for they are admittedly naive.

Thanks, Posh. It is a pleasure looking at the world with your eyes.

Even I, audience, critic and cameraman, was touched by their energy and enthusiasm. For they, unknowingly, are helping me out of my spiritual drowsiness, the one that is obviously being warned against by today's Gospel. They don't give me talks or preach to me, they just express love freely and share their talents and time generously. They remind me that I was once like them. And maybe I could be, again. Youth is relative. :)

I could go to the hills, that is, Batasan Hills (where most of them live), when my heart is lonely. And when I am sad, I could think of my favorite things!

Speaking of sad, I was watching Miko shoot baskets at our backyard when he stared at me and asked, "Tita, are you sad? You look sad." Awww. He's perceptive. Or I'm just plain transparent! I should get my act together.

I had forgotten that I made that list of favorite things before, to help me on a rainy day. Well this is not just a rainy day or a storm cloud I'm going through, but a super-typhoony year (for the country as well...). As the theme song from the TV show "Friends" goes, "It's like you're always stuck in second gear/ And it hasn't been your day, your week, your month, or even your year..." I can't wait for my first sunshine-y day, and actually the whole country's. We all need a break from all these cha-cha-changes in our lives!

This is a season that the usual therapeutic things I seek can't heal. I seem to have read all the books, listened to all the songs, and talked to all the people, that used to make things right immediately. Instead, morning after morning, I still wake up with a cloud of sadness.

Now that it's Advent, it's the season of waiting for our Saviour. I have my recollection point clearly spelled out already: How can I say yes and give birth to Jesus in my life? I was identified as a resource person for this question. Thank goodness that they haven't asked for my response yet.

Surely the Holy Spirit can rekindle the fire in my heart and give a new, and positive, perspective. People are already planning my life for me, as they think that my waiting period is the best time to strike. If I intend to enjoy living independently, I should tell them I'm still here and they don't have to take over under emergency powers. I have a say on these things like how I spend my day, I seem to recall.

I really hope to wake up soon. Some dreams are turning into nightmares because I had been oversleeping.