I want to see Milo

It's been a really long time since I spent that much time with Milo. One recent Sunday, I spent an afternoon in my parent's house. As soon as Milo heard my voice, my lola said his tail wagged eagerly and he kept on barking, seemingly asking the people around him to let him out his cage. When I finally saw him, he barked even louder and never stopped until I let him out his cage. As soon as he is out, he sat beside me. He licked my hand as I scatch his neck (gross, I know).

For the rest of the afternoon, he was my constant companion. HE NEVER LEFT MY SIDE. He sat beside me as I spoke with my relatives. He sat by my feet as I ate lunch. He followed me where ever I go. He slept near me as I took my afternoon nap. And when it was time for me to go home, my heart broke as I look at his sad face. He was barking non-stop as I leave.

Dogs are amazing creatures. They love their masters unconditionally. Even if I have left him with my in-laws or my parents and have not seen him for a very long time, he still knows my voice. He could even recognize my voice on the phone. And every time I go see him, he treats me as if I've never left him.

I am currently reading the book Cat and Dog Theology by Bob Sjogren and Gerald Robison. And I thought, I want to be excited about my Lord, as Milo is excited about seeing me. I want to have that same desire to not leave His side. I want to follow where ever He goes. I want to recognize Him as He speaks. I want to not question Him when He seems distant. I want to see what He is doing. I want to be part of what he is doing. I want to be right in the center of His will.

Right now, I want to see Milo. More importantly, I want to fall in love with the Lord.

We can start with our Baranggay!

Learned something from the news (Bawal ang Pasaway kay Mareng Winnie) today that I think would be useful for the passionate people I know. Did you know that every Baranggay Unit of our country have at least 100M Peso allotment per year? Did you know that we can actually influence how the Baranggay should use the annual budget allotment? One way I distinctively noticed is the creation of the referendum. Of course the initial step is to attend the monthly Baranggay meeting and make the Baranggay Officials aware of this great idea that you have that will be beneficial for the community. (Which reminds me, Pastors and Leaders, it would be good if we could engage here.) There are several other steps that you can take but I wasn’t able to catch it. Anyway, after you’ve done all that, whatever that is, but your great idea is still not noticed, you can tap COMELEC and have them issue a referendum. Say for example, what you want is for the Baranggay to issue funds for a certain project you have that will benefit the entire Baranggay. You can have the COMELEC issue a referendum for that. Once issued, you now need to get the votes of 10% of the entire baranggay voting public. If achieved, COMELEC then requires the Baranggay to implement it. Cool huh? :)

There are a lot of holes to this idea, especially since I didn’t capture the entire information. Plus the episode was not able to provide all the tiny details included in this procedure. But I think this is sufficient to get our brains working into including the Baranggay in our goal to Transform Communities.

Micah 6:8 (NIV)
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
     And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
     and to walk humbly with your God.

Doon Mag-Ingat Ka

Huwag kang mag-alala

Nakaukit na sa isip ko

Nakatitig sa 'yong mata

Nasa langit na ba ako

Sayang din talaga

Pag kausap ka’y sarap sa tenga

Ngiti mong kay ganda

Siguradong mami-miss kita

Minsan lang nagsama

At bukas aalis ka na

Sayang sana ay nagtagal ka pa

Doon mag-ingat ka

Matulog maaga

Huwag masyadong magpupuyat

Inom gamot pag nilalagnat

Hinay-hinay lang sa kape

Lalung-lalo na sa tanghali

-Excerpts from Ingat Ka by Silent Sanctuary

First heard the song a few weeks after Aaron left for Saudi. For some weird reason my eyes moistened when I heard it. Most likely because I can relate to it.

We were together for about 3 months then he had to leave for a long term assignment. Since then, our relationship has been a series of time zone synchronizations, long distance phone calls, skype dates, gigabytes of instant messaging, facebook updates, frequent email exchanges and cramped weeks of catching up when he's home.

When he's not on assignment somewhere, we would still make the most of our time together in anticipation of another assignment that will bring us back to a virtual relationship again.

Now we're married and the situation is even more complicated because now, I travel too. There was a time he's at home & I'm out somewhere then he had to be deployed someplace else. He made sure to stopover to where I am for a day for us to have a chance to properly say our "goodbye, i love you and see you soon". We're just grateful for God's blessings that we never had to spend Christmas and New Year apart.

As I frequently say now a days, traveling, even if it is for work, is fun if you're not married. One can always find a way to explore the sites once you're already there. Of course, it's different if you travel with your partner. Traveling will always be fun then. Otherwise, there will be times that the pang of loneliness is difficult to resist and if you are not on your guard, you will begin to question yourself, "why on earth are you doing this?"

Today, I saw him post a mushy picture that just broke my resolve. And I found myself listening to this song for the nth time. I pray with all my heart that God will bring us into a situation where we can both excel in what we are good at and see each other everyday IN PERSON most of the time.

Until then, we will be 'miles apart but close at heart'.

Doon mag-ingat ka, Mahal. See you soon.