THEY call it the poverty mindset, of only looking at difficulties and the hard day ahead.
It starts in the morning upon waking up when we can't even wake up with a big smile and be perky and bushy-tailed about it.
Instead, we squint through sleepy eyes before snuggling deep under the comforter and shoo whoever us out there greeting you to rise and shine.
“Go away!” we'd growl.
“Don't talk to me until I've had my first cup of coffee,” others would say.
And then the problems of the day will be run through even before breakfast is done.
Before, those were my mornings until I decided I can be better than that, and I became better. Mornings became better too, and miracles become part of everything and not the once in a lifetime events many regard them to be because the people surrounding you become angels.
Like the books I helped edit. I wanted to do it the regular way, design the book, edit, then wait for your international standard book number (ISBN). Except that in the Philippines, applying for ISBN is no joke. It's a wait for forever.
So I waited after the application was sent in October 2018. No word at all, and it was already December. We couldn't even plan anything while we wait. I couldn't give updates to the printer.
January 2019, I thought, maybe I can ask my publisher in the US for help. There's nothing wrong in asking.
So I did. And Joy of T'boli Publishing & Distribution Inc. in Washington State asked: How many do you need?
Stunned is too mild a word to describe how I felt. Two days later, I had two ISBNs for the two volumes I was publishing, and that was only because they were out of town over the weekend.
The book now published and being shipped to Davao, the next step was to plan the launch.
I arrived five minutes late because of traffic. Ten minutes later, the meeting was done and I walked out with a big grin and an even more stunned look. I have been booked for a 12-day exhibit of Davao City birds at Abreeza for the launch. I was like, “Let's do this!”
Things like these have become common fare. That is how God designed life to be from us who were made in His image and likeness. But many still have to accept that, preferring to live the hard way.
Thus, the book author who knew I was going to a meeting for the book launch was more than stunned. He was asking for beer at Shakey's inside Abreeza. We went to his house instead to break the news to his sons and gave me a bottle of wine to myself because he dud not intend to share his whole bottle with me.
But we have been told over and over again: Why worry?
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” (Matthew 6:25)
It starts with a smile as you wake up. Cheers! I'm drinking a bottle of wine now. Free.