A Different Beat

  ALCINA’s Historia de las islas... (1668) (Part I, book II, Chapter 29)   We come now to the tempests of the winds, when they are all unleashed with immeasurable force, this happens quite often in these islands, it seems that they want to swallow them up with such silence and fury that it seems the whole universe will be dissolved in the wind. The seas, driven by it, do not stay in their proper limits and they take large over areas of land, penetrating it with great devastation and destroying everything. The natives here call this kind of hurricane, bagyo , which in other regions and in India Oriental are called ‘typhoons’ and all of it means a ‘violent tempest.’ They are accustomed to occur in these islands so often and so fierce that neither Virgil in his Aenid , nor Ovid in his Pontus of any if the poets I have read, come within a thousand leagues of relating their intensity of expending half of their impetus. We see then here very often and we suffer in them so m...

  Y OLANDA:  A Decade After             It was a decade ago, that Haiyan (international name of the locally named typhoon, Yolanda) ruined our islands. We may exclaim, tempus fugit. Certainly the passing of time has made a lot of difference in the ravaged places. And yet, there are things which time and space has not affected. And that is a realization of God’s goodness and providence that is always there all along.             This piece of reflection, certainly would not do justice to what God has done. Indeed, I cannot think of any tribute that would do it justice, lest I would not do anything to offer some form of an homage to God. And so, with fear and trembling, I offer some few reflections. The Salvation of the Just Comes from the Lord!             The more I think about this verse, the more it beco...