Have you ever sat very quietly in a corner and listened to a voice within? Have you ever closed your eyes and imagined that there must be something more fulfilling, more provocative and more challenging than the present journey you are traversing? Some of us probably made a list of New Year’s resolutions, those unending list of to-do-things and priorities that you promised yourself to follow year after year but when December comes, you ask yourself, where have all the days gone?
At times, life seems to be just that, you will really never know what the days will bring, you will never know what the future holds because as they always say, tomorrow is not promised us. I’ve always said time and again, that life is what we make it. Our connectivity to other people is enhanced if we make the move to reach out and inspire, even in the littlest way possible. Our relationship with other people may not be as rosy as we want to but what comes between a hello and goodbye is all that matters. Friends come and go, it’s a common fact of life but there are people who stay longer. They are those whom we can pour our hearts out without a thought of not being accepted or rejected.
A few days ago, I met three of my best friends during my college years. One has become a nun, another is a successful business woman and the third one has migrated to another country. After all these years, more than three decades to be exact, we are still here. We don’t see much of each other actually, only sometimes, just a few texts and phone calls in between, but it seems there is never a gap and no awkward moments every time we see each other again. We visited our alma mater and retraced our steps from the University’s Chapel to the Main Library where we used to work as student librarians. Life would not be the same without people you can truly call friends. It is not easy to find someone whom you can be the way you are, not worrying about the little details, the mistakes you have made in life, the faux pas you have done. It’s not easy to admit that one is not perfect and between friends, it’s the imperfections that make the friendship worth-keeping. I remember Precy telling me once that we even had the same kind of illness. Precy and St. Thea are also cancer survivors like me.
We spent lunch at Max’s. We were all craving for spring chicken so we went to SM San Lazaro to look for a place not noisy enough but not that too formal either to have more sharing and lively conversations. Precy was not able to make it though so we set another date to see each other. Last January 6, we met in Ateneo where Grace was temporarily staying. It seems that Sweet Sensation is a favorite because we ended up having lunch there, a simple meal of pancit canton, pancit palabok, and pancit bihon with puto bongbong and bibingka on the side. It may take a while , years maybe before we see each other again but our meeting more than made up for the lost days.
Gosh, I am scheduled to have my laboratory tests, ultrasound and colonoscopy anytime this January. I am getting tired of going back to the doctor but it is a necessity that I can’t avoid. Did I remember to greet you Happy New Year? Today, the Lord’s Baptism officially marks the end of the Christmas season. Let us just remember this, let everyday be Christmas in our hearts.
Dreams And Escapes 
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