20111010

Salutation # 55

"Saints and Addicts are the same -

both are born of great loves;

one is a love born of things below,

the other a love of all things above.

And freedom is to know.

(13 Responses to the Evil of Drug Addiction: A Salutation to Recovery and Personal Transformation)

These 13 Responses I write

for all who suffer from drug addiction,

the victims and their victims.

To those who prayed for me,

my thanks and appreciation -

I send you all my love.

I write this primarily for those

who are suffering as I am

from the scourge of drug addiction.

For your inspiration...

(1) To the Addict Soul -

So may Peace be unto your heart

- as pristine as the dew of the early morning -

my heart speaking unto your heart, O my precious beloved,

about the evils inherent to the global problem of drug addiction,

addressed to relevant segments of our suffering humanity,

as an aid to our one whole understanding

in behalf of those who still suffer in the darkness -

for the danger of drug abuse affects all human beings.

I do not blame you

nor do I pretend to judge you

for I am to you as I really am,

a peer and an equal in common creation.

I am here not for your sins but for your hope.

Do not empower the past.

Whatever the cause of your addiction to drugs,

it belongs - Now - to the past.

Let the past go and accept it as it is, gone.

It shall never serve you to dwell on things

- that have already moved on -

for there is nothing to be found by looking back,

we stand only to lose ourselves in the attempt.

Never forsake the choice that leads out of the darkness

even though it is difficult to see where the darkness ends.

Believe in your recovery and your recovery will believe in you.

Never believe in your addiction,

however deeply you find yourself mired in it,

it is an illusion that will rob you of your chance to be truly happy.

Look deeply into the present

and you will find hope where you once had none.

For many people in this world suffer - as we do -

and from various ills and pains

but it is not the severity of their suffering

nor the degrees that we are better off than others

that should console us - it is their common hope;

a hope all human beings may meaningfully understand.

For in the hope of our family and friends

we are empowered - despite ourselves -

to give remedy to the evil that plague our soul

making us blind to our own need to recover.

Believe in the person who believes in your recovery.

For hope empowers hope,

hope being the very language of the human spirit,

it is communicated freely among our souls

as a network of common relief

that save against despair

the truth that lives in other people's lives.

As our ability to accept help from others grow,

we witness our own hopes begin to grow.

There is a certain solidarity in human suffering

but there can never be any consolation to be had

from every and all forms of human suffering

whether one suffers more or less than others.

Suffering does not serve to empower

those who are outside it's fold of experience - as a matter of fact,

it is a cause of much of our complacency.

Those who do nothing in the name of anything

- in the face of human suffering -

do not understand what it means to be human.

For to be human is to be defined by common needs.

- selah -

What then is above you

and what is there below you, O Man,

that you should forsake yourself?

Shall you be what you are not

and relinquish the hope of your existence?

Drugs are an evil,

commit that this evil shall meet it's end with you,

never introduce this evil to other souls.

Pray and then pray for each other.

As human beings,

we are powerless against the overwhelming evil of drug addiction,

let us humbly admit to this powerlessness

and willingly relinquish control of this part of our lives over to God -

to the LORD Who knows

- when and how -

to deliver Man from every evil.

And commit to do this sooner than later.

(2) To the Unconcerned world of empty promises -

The world at large is a vast and empty wilderness,

- it is a desolation of war -

dangerous for our isolation

as wild and as rugged as the tracts of our inhabited earth

and made even more dangerous by the predatory malignancy

of the cognizant evil that intelligently prowl

the darkness of this open landscape

for those souls - who -

with complete disregard for it's own safety

have wandered too far away from the LORD

and the shelter of our communities.

Will the world show concern

- for those unhappy souls -

who have wandered too close

to the gaping maw of the beast?

Perhaps it will

- but often -

with a certain flimsiness that betray it's true colors.

For in principle,

- the world at large -

will never side with the weak.

There is a kind of superiority

in the world at large

that with much thunder and noise

hide the cowardly will

behind the shallow action and token gestures

that does so little for the Sacred Life

of the very least of our one family of humanity.

It will be foolhardy to place our sacred trust

onto the unproven conventions of the Unconcerned world;

a world that without us, become empty of it's own promise.

Until we have regained a sovereign majority

- under this greater season of heaven -

until we have reclaimed those vast tracts of the human spirit

that we have in the past been compelled to abandon

- to the ravages of war as a whole -

we will never be sure about this world and it's conventions.

Therefore,

the world as it is today - will never understand -

that the evil that is endemic to drug addiction

- is not the human being -

of whose hopes we wish to redeem;

it will see the evil, condemn it, stigmatize and ridicule the victim

and push it out of way and out of sight.

(3) To the Broken Family about the aftermath -

Those so-called modern trends

the degrade and devalue the synergistic strength

of the complementary unity between male and female

- are just that - they are trends,

an indication of the fickle nature of the world at large.

Those who are deceived by the easy convenience

of these so-called modern trends

resort to bargain away

the infinitely precious calling of the human family

in exchange for an uncertain future that one perceives to be happiness

- all because of a failure to meet the Beloved -

in those private precincts of the timeless heart

within those specific places where it really matters.

As a result,

these families will never attain to their greatest potency.

And the children will suffer through what in these evil days

are called social sins and will be weeded out

not according to our common spirit of humanity

that believes not in depriving them of their dignity and promise

but according to the law of the jungle.

This failure of the family - will then -

become transmitted onto the greater communities

as a certain subtle belligerence pervades

like a hidden, festering, spreading rot

borne by the greater body of any society

of whose significant potential for the future

that it entrusts to the human family

has already been effectively precluded

from the reality of our common human hopes.

The stronger the trend, the greater the effect.

Indeed, to sum it all up,

divorce trends are nothing more than failures

that are enabled to perpetuate itself.

Who bears the burdens?

(4) To the Family who is concerned about drug abuse -

Indeed,

this is an evil that all concerned human families

must be able to effectively defend from

and completely repel right at the very threshold of the family home.

(I have significantly dealt with this subject in my previous work.)

(5) To the Youth who questions the evil of drug abuse -

Hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil.

Have your parents ever told you

that this saying goes for a particular form of evil?

This is the evil of drug abuse;

an evil whose allure is it's greatest peril!

Of the many evils in this day,

this one is dealt with specifically by our ignoring it's presence

where it directly concerns our lives.

Hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil.

However to ignore this in the lives of others

without even connecting to - even a glimmer - of their hope

is inhuman.

(6) To the Addict who still doesn't know -

If you give in to the void of illusion

and accede - in your will -

to the slavery - of the lie -

at the core of every evil,

specifically the evil of drug abuse,

- you effectively commit -

one of the greatest crimes you may inflict

- against your own humanity -

for you will stand to lose yourself

within the confines of the darkness

within your own self.

You will become the lie within the lie.

The void of illusion

- once the choice waxes absolute -

is a hellish existence;

completely empty of any glimmer

of a meaningfulness that assure the soul

and gives breath to the body.

Amidst even the deepest of darkness

where the grace of God is greatest

thou shalt be unmindful of thy salvation

being unable to reach out with thy own power

- to the freedom of the truth -

that there is a wonderful reason for thy being;

that thy life is meant to fulfill thy purpose of happiness

- upon our native earth and sky -

and that this purpose has our good in Mind

because the LORD is God!

What have led you to betray your own self;

what have caused you to commit this treason?

Admit to the problem

and acknowledge thy own confusion

and let yourself be grounded upon the truth

before your own realities turn into those falsities

that will imprison you and throw away the keys.

No one will be cognizant enough

to know where you really stand

- within your own heart -

to be able to help your soul.

(7) To the Addict who is still suffering -

Do not empower the habit.

Let go of your own rational control

and admit that you are powerless against this evil.

This habit responds by degrees

that we draw near to this evil

- it has great allure -

but at it's core is an emptiness

- which is actually the body of the lie itself -

commensurate in size

to the greatness of it's temptation.

(8) To the Addict who admits to the problem -

Admit to Almighty God the problem.

Admit to Almighty God all of the problem.

Surrender control of this part of your life

to the care of the Divine Will and cling to this trust,

taking it day by day, moment by moment,

rebuilding and regenerating your integral whole,

with hope upon hope, grace upon grace,

and strength upon strength.

Prepare yourself.

It will be difficult - before it gets even close -

to getting any better.

Speak to a safe person.

(9) To the Addict who seeks for solutions -

This evil escapes the power of reason

- and eludes faith -

do not seek for answers

- by searching for it -

for in so doing you empower

- it's temptation -

to cast it's adulterous stench upon your soul.

Admit to the problem

and forgo all understanding of this evil.

Make it an integral part of your necessary surrender

to the will of the Almighty Who knows

when and how to deliver all men from evil.

Repair all relationships -

vertical and then horizontal.

(10) To the Addict who aspires to greater evil -

Do not become the illusion that you pretend to be -

we are real human beings

who live in a real world

with real concerns

and a real potential with God's grace

for doing an infinite amount of good.

Have We become your own illusion

or have the tiny confines of the lie

become your one absolute reality?

Never be compatible with evil - actively resist it,

even where your are in the very thick of it all,

even when it seems you have exhausted all ways and means,

until your realize the truth,

you must never cease to struggle against

the evil in all evil things.

(11) To the Addict who deceives the innocent into drugs -

A murderer who deceives his or her victims

- into the snare -

in order to take away their lives

is about the same in terms of gravity

to one who deceives others into losing

the completeness of their integrity,

for it is an integrity you can never bring back.

A human being has three lives,

one is the life in the soul,

the other is the life of the body

and the third is the life of his or her name;

the honor of a person's reputation

- that enable and empower -

every person's connection with other persons.

All three once taken away,

as one does who recklessly murder the innocence of our youth

and plunder the integrity of our brothers and sisters in Creation,

only an act of God, can ever restore.

Think about your own incompatibility with evil

and where you are deceived into thinking that you are

one of those who are compatible with evil,

think about your own incompatibility with death

for that is the permanent destination of all evil things.

(12) To the Pusher who deceives the innocent into drugs -

Why do you forsake your own nobility?

Or have you already lost your own sense of humanity?

You pretend to speak in the tongue of the truth

while the intentions within your own heart

contain something else completely!

Have you two hearts to contain your double mindedness?

Or a forked tongue that is sundered like the peace within yourself?

- selah -

Ponder your own thoughts

and return to your own sense of honorable remembrance,

DO NOT disturb the waters of our common community.

(13) To the Dealer who profits from dangerous drugs -

Everything turns to ashes eventually - but as for evil,

it has been a decree from Eternity,

your Satan will turn into ashes from the inside,

and the Devil who is your defeated lord

will stand as your own tormentor after he leads you

and all the reprobate angels and men into very bowels of hell.

For the wages of thy sin is thus - unless thou repent -

you will die an everlasting death.

- selah -

Glory to God the Father in the highest

Adoration to Jesus Christ

may the LORD restore - all addict souls -

to sanity and may the Spirit of God

bring us back to the hard and narrow way of salvation;

a way that though - as hard and as narrow -

as the old way of our active addiction

is the only way that leads away from the past

into to the life and the happiness

that we all desire - and desire so intensely -

so as to burn with the overwhelming power of our addictions.

May we learn to love the right things -

may we learn to be truly free

and to find happiness and security

- in the knowledge of the Truth -

that to love the LORD is to forsake the idolatry of drugs.

Ultimately,

after our convictions are proven in time

- by the grace of God -

and the help of family, friends, community and nation

we shall become who we must be...

---<--@

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Patron Saint of the Suffering Addict and Refuge of the Recovering Addict, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

---<--@

A Bruised Wing

I saw half an angel wing once...

glimmering in the quiet of a corner;

I sought to fight off the vision -

or I thought I could for I was an ignorant fool

now I know what the vision was for.

God gave me a bruised wing

that I may be able to more sweetly sing

of His great love for me.

He fettered me with pain

to see me through the storm

and limited my powers of flight

to see me through the night.

God gave me a bruised wing

that I may be able to more sweetly sing

of His great love for me.

---<--@

If my recovery is the only gift I can give, then let it be the greatest gift I can give.

---<--@

Mabuhay ka kapatid ko, at mabuhay ang Pilipinas nating lahat. God bless us all!

Hope Taking wing

NOTE: For more on this particular issue (addiction and recovery) please refer to my secondary blog: My Recovery First Journal

My Miyang believed in my recovery long before I ever did.

20110316

Mga mahal kong kapwa Pilipino, huwag po tayong magpapadala sa labis na takot. Tunay ngang maraming nangyayari sa ating mundo sa mga araw na ito. Pero wala ni kahit isa sa mga ito ang pinapayagang mangyari ng Diyos ng walang pahintulot.

Siya po ay ang PANGINOON, ang Diyos nating lahat.

Lahat po ng bagay sa ating mundo na binibigyang pahintulot ng Diyos ay ayon lagi sa kagustuhan Niyang tuparin ng lubos ang Kanyang mga pangakong binitiwan Niya para sa lahat ng ating mga henerasyon patungo sa ikabubuti ng ating pagkatao at ikagagaling ng ating sangkatauhan.

Huwag po nating pangunahan ang Diyos ng labis at nakabubulag na takot sa mga kalamidad na nangyayari sa paligid natin at sa paligid ng bansa natin. Kapayapaan lang po ng ating loob at kapayapaan na rin ng ating mga bansa ang nais Niyang subukan at patatagin dito.

Manalig ka, kapwa ko Pilipino! Naniniwala ka ba ng buong puso na mahal ng Diyos ang Pilipinas? Datapwa't matakot ka sa Diyos na ating Tagapagligtas higit sa lahat, ikaw na nagmamahal sa Kanya.

Manalig ka, kapwa ko kapatid sa pangako! Maniwala ka na kung mahal ng Diyos ang Pilipinas, mahal ka ng Diyos, Pilipino.

Sapagka't mapalad ang Bayan na ang Diyos ay ang PANGINOON.

Bakit ka pa natatakot?

Fear of Calamities

I have a healthy aversion to chain letters of whatever form - email, social media messages, text, or the traditional paper versions. I do not believe that compulsion is an aid to free will. To me, as regards to free and human choices, what holds water is faith and reason.

Whatever transmits and advances faith, whatever fortifies and completes reason, these things in turn effectively aid the freedom of the will of Man to choose rightly the things that belong to his or her human dignity and therefore, has the potential to actually fulfill (in time and in eternity) the human promise that the LORD, our God, had planted as a seed in the soul of each person.

I've friends and family who send me chain messages and I love every single one of them. It is love however, and not blind chance, my beloved friends, truth and not random compulsion that feed that hunger from within our souls - that restless desire to grow out from inside the self into God.

Choice is not blind to the heart that has chosen to become in love alive - we all walk in this exile darkness guided accordingly by the love in our hearts...

Now please, a lot of our everyday people here in the Philippines are presently being affected by needless fears arising from rumors reportedly spread by text messages of a lethal degree of radiation from Japan reaching the Philippines.

This is something which has absolutely no factual merit. It is just NOT TRUE. The current radiation levels here in our own Country remain at levels that are considered safe.

The spreading of this misinformation reminds me of those more devious forms of chain letters that prey on the legitimate fears of the common people.

It does not increase my faith in God to believe with any conviction of heart in any of those things. Nor the fleeting quality of any random compulsion serve to intensify the presence of the love I must hold and I must have in myself for people as myself - human, mortal, vulnerable and fallible - a love commanded by Christ, my Savior.

But the fostering of an authentic human citizenship, the responsible collective ownership of the life of living creation, the love of nature and the dignity of the natural world, holy friendships, an ordered love of family, a strong sense of duty empowered by love of God and Country, active civic participation partnered with effective civic education, an ethical and diligent observance of one's state of life, a willing and generous response to the call of vocations, a life that is well-lived in loving service of the truth and of the good of others - all of these work together to transmit, whether explicitly or implicitly, the qualitative force of both reason and faith. In all its various gifts and benevolent guises it speaks of a certain love; that of freedom; of liberty in the service of human community.

And none of these are served by that reckless compulsion which as far as I am concerned, is spread by that same rationale of domination that seeks only to disturb the waters of our peace.

Does the spread of those above mentioned rumors aid anybody's love of God and Country?

Then whether through ignorance or malice, the person/s behind it must also be one who is devoid of that same love. For the means employed and the ends achieved are both driven and derived from the inward inclinations present in the human heart.

---<--@

The Quake in Japan: A Personal Retrospective

Deep within my soul, I hold a proper sense of pride for the great (ancient as well as modern) cities of our Mother Asia - Tokyo, Chiba, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Seoul, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Mumbai, Bangkok, Manila of course, etc.

I was decisively reminded of this as it rose plainly into my awareness the day after the disaster in Japan - I realized that I felt sad and outraged.

This is my Asian spirit - a sense of a belonging to a greater whole. If you ask me, all Asian nations share one thing in common - one thing alone: a deep and profound longing for peace: A desire to belong.

I realize and understand that I have this desire and required neither validation nor permission from any other being other than myself to accept the fact that being Asian is part of my identity; that I belong with as well as to Mother Asia.

If a similar disaster had afflicted Germany, would France not be just as concerned? If a similar disaster had afflicted France, would not Italy not be just as concerned? In the same way, I am concerned for Japan. Because Japan is of Asia as I am of Asia.

But most of all, I am likewise just as presently concerned about what these events bode for my own Philippines, my own Republic undertaking of Country. Because as regards to earthquake preparedness, Japan is the most prepared Country in our corner of Mother Asia if not all of Asia. Is this not a worry?

Shall we not listen intently to her advice? JICA prepared a recent report as regards to our own preparedness in a similar context - specifically that of Manila. It had revealed that we have much to do.

Now please, let me add my own two cents worth to the growing national conversation about civil defense: I am of the conviction that national endeavors such as these must be seen and understood as a duty that is to be performed by every present generation in the context of the lifespan of the nation.

It must, in the spirit of greater civic participation, be something that is done with diligence and vigilance of heart even for the sake of those generations who are yet to come. It must also be felt in the heart as something every Filipino generation must continuously be doing; as something that is worked by all our citizenry, something that must be accomplished even if it lies far away from the notice of others, far away from any praise or recognition; something that is generally understood to even be beyond the reach of each of our lifetimes to completely accomplish.

In this way, we are never lulled into a false sense of complacency.

Indeed, my fellow countrymen, the common defense of the nation against natural and man-made disasters is the concern of all Filipinos. Each of us who draw their citizenship from our eternal belongings together bears a responsibility to act responsibly and decisively to secure the national good according to the freedom of each our gifts.

Japan understands this - so must we.

Let us continue to pray for Japan...

---<--@

Soccer Diplomacy

Our Marines are doing something new in the Spratlys - soccer diplomacy. If you think about it, they are initiating a work of peace-building. They might not be aware about it but they are - and so what they are doing is very important.

It is no small and insignificant thing that adds up to become a great thing and there is nothing of greater importance to the life of a nation than peace. Of this truth we must all become aware of because as regards to peace, every little thing counts.

Soccer connects individual citizens and individual nations together in very much the same way that peace does. It certainly has the potential to connect us to as well as with the Americas (most especially the nations of South and Central America with whom we have deep historical trade and cultural connections) and the greater regions of our Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, Oceania - and to the rest of the soccer world.

Aren't we glad we have our own national soccer team? Go the mighty Azkals!

---<--@

National Peace Building Initiatives

Here are some examples of national peace-building initiatives: Light a Candle for Peace, Peace Runs, Peace Councils, Community Consultations, Interfaith Dialogues, Sports meets, etc.

These national initiatives are distinct but not apart from the governmental initiatives set by our Responsible State e.g. the AFP IPSP - Oplan Bayanihan. All of these work toward the same end of a peace that prospers the national good. Even the Common Market has its own innate ability to form its own peace-building initiatives with the nation and alongside the Responsible State.

Truly, we all have a part in obtaining from God, the peace of our Philippines.

---<--@

Preserve Palawan

If we are wise, O my people, if we are far-seeing enough, we will realize what we are losing by our indecision to preserve Palawan as a National Sanctuary.

In Palawan is a vestige of our former innocence - something the Filipino soul would always want to return into, something we should like to bestow to our generations even to the very last of our generations.

The frontiers of our world shall be as green oases in the midst of urban deserts. For the world will turn to our cities for hope. People will flock away from these rural areas. But most shall not quench their thirst for living life in the gray of these urban sprawls. Hope shall not be found in concrete jungles. For hope is a thing held in the garden of the heart: In these present times, a kind of innocence lost; something we presently stand to lose forever in Palawan.

Because for us Filipinos, Palawan represents our last frontier, something we must leave untamed and unconquered, something we must leave to be free - for our own good sakes'.

If we lose it now, we will lose it forever.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

It is no small and insignificant thing that adds up to become a great thing and there is nothing of greater importance to the life of a nation than peace.

Be present for peace.