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OPENING UP...



There are so many demands in life as on grows up. It seems that age multiplies exponentially one's concern. We always cherish the times bygone when our sole concern as children was to enjoy playing with our peers. Yet, there were rare moments when one experiences them... When one truly becomes like a child again and leave all the worries of adulthood.

I am right now entertaining the thought that growing up is a curse. But the curse I believe is not in aging per se but in our ability to open up that fabled box. This is the box that contains in itself a host of curses as it were. It was said that the primal box was already opened and that we on our part cannot resist opening ours. Pandora's box has been opened and all hell was let loose.

It was also said, that there was not one box only. There were actually two. Yes, the first one was opened and the second one was also opened simultaneously. Now the second box contains all the virtues and goodness one may imagine. These are anti-dotes to the evils wrought about by the first box. The good thing is that once we open one box, we are also opening the other. This is what it means to open up.

When I was young, I heard from one of my wise "lolas" a very short yet sensible phrase. All life begins and flourishes through openings. It then goes without saying that closing these openings would mean eventual and inevitable death. Simple and true. Nature provides openings through our nose that we may breathe. Close any openings of our external organs and they are rendered useless. Close your eyes you do not see. Close your ears you can hardly hear. Close your mouth and communication would be hard at least verbally.

And so we are born into this world because our parents allowed their hearts to open up to the possibility of bringing life. And as we grow old, we see in the future's horizon that we will someday be close to death. Morbid as it may seem death closes in whether we like it or not. 

But if life means opening up and death closing in, what is there to fear. Who is he/she that truly is alive and is dead. We should have only one fear, and that is not opening up. Yes, opening up may bring many misfortunes and even tragic accidents in life, and yet it is only through this that we as children of God refuse death to have the last word. We do not succumb to death's trap, because we were courageous in opening up ourselves to God our loving Father. Amen.
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