Rise Above the Pain

Too many things happened that I have yet to come to terms with fully: Loved ones suffering, close friends dying, friendships severed, confidences betrayed, accidents happening one after the other, lives lost, dreams shattered.


There was just too much of it.

There are no words. Even the most jaded heart will bleed at the plight of the victims. Reeling from disbelief at a tragedy that should happen only in the grandest of movies, 8 Hong Kong national lives have been lost. In its wake, the images haunt and will continue to do so.

Tragedy, after all, is relative. So is sadness. So, too, is pain. I cannot begin to imagine where and how the victims of all these tragedies can start picking up the fragments of their lives, much less take the baby steps towards moving on. Will they ever be whole again?

I have been hurt deeply a few times – by friends, loved ones and strangers alike. Perhaps I am not as wounded as others and I admit my troubles may not be as great as that of others. But I have been acquainted with pain enough times for me to know what it really feels like.

Only then did it become so apparent that like many other things, forgiving is always easier said than done. It sounds nice, so ideal and serene, but in the midst of deep pain, heck, it is almost always the last thing you would think of doing.

We all relate to the experience personally, in measures that may differ like night and day, but looking forward hopefully we can rise above pain. Please, dear God, let us be wiser, let this experience be enough to wake us all up from deep sleep, and pretend sleep.

Meanwhile, let us all be one as President Aquino has declared a day of national mourning today. In all things big and small, in the midst of muddle, God help us all.