Why Christmas?

It's been 2 years since I lost that (super) excitement for Christmas. What gifts to buy? What clothes to wear? Party here, party there. I get frustrated with the christmas rush -- the traffic, the mall, the noise. Everything has been so commercialized. (Or does it come with age. 😝)

This morning I woke up early for work... Left the house while the sky was still deep blue dark, the cool breeze softly blowing, the streets so quiet. Waited for almost an hour only to catch an SRO bus that looked more like a service bus for children's excursion. A 50+-km bus ride, me standing, with only 4 hours of sleep (for the 4th straight day). Yeah. It's Christmas.

And so before this Christmas day ends, before I say "another day had passed," I asked myself what makes Christmas so special. I don't want to wrap up today as another day. I asked God to make me feel how special Christmas really is and He reminded me this song....

EMMANUEL HAS COME (Don Moen)

Christmas is about His glory
Christmas is about His grace
Christmas is a gift of love
Our father gave us
More than just another story
About a special time and place
Christmas is a time to lift
A song of praise

For God with us
And we celebrate
The glory of His presence
Christ has come
To fill our hearts with love
He came to save us
King of kings and Lord of lords
His Name is Jesus
God with us
Emmanuel has come

Angels fill the night with singing
God is reaching out to man
Bringing us a gift of hope
In Christ the Saviour
More than just a time of giving
This is God’s eternal plan
And Christmas is the reason
We can sing again

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Remembering Glenda

July 16.

It has been a year since we had an unwanted visitor --Glenda! It's a tropical cyclone with a 37-km wide eye (as big as Manila City?) and powerful winds that hit gusts of around 213 kph.

I remember I was on duty the day it landed on the eastern part of the archipelago. Everyone's panicky. I understand. Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) devastated Visayas just 8 months earlier. I wasn't that worried, I'm used to so many of these tropical depressions, habagat, storms, typhoons -- 20+ each year! Besides, Batangas is not usually on the typhoon path. But Glenda was different. Night came and it started to whistle. Glenda made its presence felt. Later on I heard violent winds playing with the roofs. Our house was vibrating and I was shaking. Glenda kept me awake that night.

The next morning, we were shocked with the scene. We've never seen roofless houses and toppled trees in the neighborhood before.

Well, at least the typhoon stopped.. and so we thought. After an hour of silence, the winds were freaking out again. Water came rushing inside the whole house, and one of our windows was slammed down... As if Glenda had just been recharged for a much wretched comeback!

Our whole morning was crazy as we attempted to prevent the flood from coming in. The rest of the day was crazier as we find ourselves roaming the house wading through the water, even dining with our feet soaked in flood.

Well the rest of the week was the craziest. We had no electricity for the next 4 days. Candles and batteries were like precious jewels you can't easily find. Water was also scarce. Even fastfoods don't have them. Not to mention of course the damage done to the whole Southern Luzon and Bicol Region.

Glenda's damage was said to be the 7th costliest Pacific typhoon, 3rd in the Philippines.

Yeah, Glenda is unforgettable.
Thank God we survived.