yesterday

yesterday made me think twice about happiness. It's always been a cliche how people define happiness in the simplest of things. simple things such as eating your favorite ice cream flavor, dancing in the rain, getting a long sweet sleep after a tiring week, watching the sunset, lying on the field with your friends while you do cloud-watching, and a bunch of other "sweet nothings". But they're merely trivialities. They're no doubt the simple things you get in life, but life is not just a bunch of sweet nothings. Life is mostly composed of the little and ordinary things in life.

How do we make the most out of our ordinary day? we can't just fill the day with mostly sweet nothings. doing nothing but lie around and watch the clouds.. and wait for the bugs to take a bite from you. or doing nothing but eat ice cream all day, unless you really want to get a big fat ass. or doing nothing but sleep all day while your friends and family are having fun outside under the sun. Life is just too ordinary for us.

Yesterday was yet another happy day for me. It was my ordinary saturday. I woke up early for the second day of the talk series i'm attending (Humanly Speaking), got there on time and spent about 3 hours of my morning there. Just a talk that really got me listening the whole time. after the talk i went to katipunan with a friend. we were supposed to eat at KFC but there were too many people so we decided to eat elsewhere. we had to walk the long and hot avenue of katipunan just to get to 'wok this way'. so we "woked" because we were both cutting on our expenses.. we could not afford a trike fare. upon arriving the place, i headed to the ladies/gents room because i really really need to go. opened the door and a guy was inside. whoops. i swear the door was opened! okay so the lock was not working fine, but i didn't intend to see someone inside, much less to see a guy! i guess that was the sole thing that was out of my ordinary routine. nonetheless, i had to get on with the day. went on with my storytelling with the kids. (it would have been the fun fun fun lesson i imagined it would be if clauds were with us.) then attended the recollection for the month of december. then ended the day by hearing His word during the mass.

after such an ordinary day, it was every moment with Him that made all the difference. From the very minute i woke up and saw the sun rising, until the day ended with the Eucharistic celebration, everything was directed to Him --- and this made the ordinary, nothing but the ordinary things we look over. There is so much more with these ordinary things we consider as merely tasks, "things to do", or even burden. They'd never need to be that burdensome if done with a little love. how? like "Lord, this long walk, i offer up for my friend who needs help in her love life" or "Lord i offer up the shame from seeing the guy inside the comfort room for the safety of this particular friend on a trip" or simply "Lord, this one hour of study is for my special someone who hasn't found me yet" haha o diba. be creative. be loving. be prayerful :)

"An hour of study, is an hour of prayer" -- St. Josemaria Escriva.