Sunday, August 19, 2007 Gueco: Pax et lux By Malu T. Gueco Aslagan
THIS is a Latin phrase meaning peace and light.
Needing to find peace away from the maddening crowd and looking for the light to know one’s highest good, I quietly walked around the verdant, green grounds of the UP campus in Diliman, Quezon City yesterday.
Wheew! What a week that passed for my cousins and me. The storm of sadness befell my family with the death of Auntie Ester. We strode across the dark, misty and veiled woodlands of losing a loved one.
Rugged pathway
How about you, dear reader?
Do you also know of sorrowful events that sliced through your life?
Are you in pain now?
Times come when the strain, stress and sojourn of existence seem to blast away your peace of mind. Like in the case of Sophiam, 48-year-old banker, who is coping with the old age, sickness and senility of her father. Fighting the pressures of hospital bills and the psychological burden of seeing her beloved waste away in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit), she is at her wit’s end.
“I have difficulty sleeping at night, my appetite has deteriorated and at work I burst into tears in the middle of the morning work schedule. How can I cope?”
Alas, Sophiam and many other sisters like her are going through the rugged
Pathway. Their struggles seem endless. Carrying a ton of bricks on their hands; lugging the backpack of anxiety on their back muscles; bearing the weight on their fatigued feet as if they are ascending the peak of Mount Everest, they call out for help.
Map of Coping
Yes, yes, definitely, there is available assistance, aid and alleviation to this crisis and or challenge. A smoother byway which is printed on the map of response, resolution and revelation.
Know what? A coping style I use in these times of tension is the art of reading.
Turning to the guiding light of pages and pages of poetry, prose and peace-filled Bible verses, I am able to reenergize my spirits. Like the thirsty came in the desert wanting to drink from the cool waters of an oasis, I try to understand the works of authors and fill my heart with their quietude to plunge into the rivers of paradise.
Together, let us link arms, give each other a smile and fall in the silent cadence of swimming across the sea of peace. Let us open our selves to the goodness, greatness and grand magnificence of words to ease our worries. Luxuriate in the scents of tranquility and open the waterway to rest, repose and relaxation.
Herein are some lines that helped me.
A Time for Everything
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. -- Ecclesiastes
How about opening the book of poetry by Percy Bysshe Shelley:
Love’s Philosophy
“…And the sunlight clasps the earth,
and the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?
Finale
You and I are one.
United in our yearning for serenity, connected in our desire to attain happiness and bonded in our longing to comfort our restless spirits, we are all sisters and brothers traveling on the journey.
Today, take time out to discover a quotation from your favorite book or writer. Like the Ecclesiastes, Jane Austen or Filipina Gilda Cordero-Fernando. Or maybe listen to the calming lines of your cassette or Cd. Better yet, hold the hand of a loved one and flow with the soft beat of the passing moment and gently whisper, “ Blessings for all times.”
Have a good day and may you always receive the gifts of peace and light… pax et lux!
