Sounds of December

I am really saddened of how December is not the way I hear it many years ago. I have as many fixations about things of the past and I really feel nostalgic about the lively sounds that I used to hear as a kid every time this once dubbed merry season came. 

Instead of cheerful jingles and loud fireworks, my ears are recently fed most of reports about hapless situations of people crying for help. But with this, I realized that we need more than just a pair of ears to truly hear the real essence of this season.

We witnessed the horrible siege of the whole City of Zamboanga for over a month by the armed rebels. The system of the city was paralyzed and so was life in this Chabacano speaking community. Many people were trapped in hunger and others were also held hostage, and the scare it caused to the entire city was immeasurably traumatic.

After that siege, we then saw how the massive earthquake wrecked havoc to the entire island of Bohol and some parts of Cebu. It caused large damage not only to the lives of our countrymen there but it also ruined the once glories of our century old churches that are treasures to the world.

And as if those were not enough, just recently we mourn together for all the lost dreams and hopes of our brothers in Leyte who were devastated by the dubbed super typhoon Yolanda. What came more disappointing were the rifts and fights between our politicians who must have been helping out instead of slinging mud to each other amidst the social crisis in the province.

With all these threats of both human and nature, I am conscience stricken to think of my personal desires while other people out there cannot even afford to be happy in this joyous time. I realize I must be double grateful for I am still one lucky dog in life after all.

In this miserable moment of our life as a country, all we ever need to find the real meaning of happiness is a heart that can hear the most profound sorrows of other people and ready to sympathize with them in any humble means it can.