Light my life
Enlightenment empowers. Today, rising to the Aslagan (sunrise) morning, we are renewed by the Sunday dawn of energy, thereafter, stirring you and me to wade into this July month flowing with our devotion, dedication and development to our blessed journey.
Reminding me of yesteryears when our sisters and brothers inspired us with their voyages. Rock ages have arisen and melted; seasons have mellowed and ripened; hauntingly, the lighthouse of early civilization stands strong and mighty on the seashore of shifting sands.
Like the lone sentinel in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the lighthouse beckons each one of us to come home. Stirring boats and ships towards the light, passing through the green and blue sea, the lighthouse inspire us to travel overflowing with serenity and sacredness. Come, you lonely voyager! Discover, uncover and free this noble light of your quest of the world. The dark hours will soon transform into a golden morning. Whoa! Dawn creeps upon the horizon. Whoosh! Throbbing, beating and striking a thousand lights in amyriad of direction. What an amazing new morning, thereto, bearing the icon of new beginnings and dreams. YEAH! We climb the heights of wisdom ultimately, soaring high up to the azure skies where we spin into winds of sacred truth.
Pharos Lighthouse Focusing our sights across the seas we see lighthouses come into view. Verily, a light house is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses marked the waters of dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals, reefs, safe entries to harbors, and can also assist in aerial navigation. Once widely used, the number of operational light houses has declined due to the expense of maintenance and replacement by modern electronic navigational systems. The earliest Pharos Lighthouse stood on the eastern point of Pharos Island some distance from the city center of Alexandria. Constructed at the beginning of the third century BC over a period of about twelve years and at an enormous cost and using considerable slave labor, Pharos. This lighthouse was completed and inaugurated by the first Ptolemy’s son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, in 283 (some say 279 BC), when Ptolemy Philadelphus held a festival to honor his parents.
The architect was Sostratos, a Greek from the Asia Minor city of Cnidus, whose name also appears on the sanctuary of Appolo at Delphi and on Delos. The consecration in honor of Ptolemy was then carved into the plaster, which over time peeled away leaving only Sostratos dedication, which provides, “Sostratos of Cnidus, son of Dexiphanes, to the savior gods, for sailors”.
Fast forward to this 21st century, I realize that lighthouses are guiding posts since their creation. Akinto checkpoints directing travelers with its radiance, they are sources of wisdom. Inspiring us to crossover the dark night of restlessness, thereafter, into the light of wisdom.
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is not the first president to declare martial law after former dictator Ferdinand Marcos did it via Proclamation 1081 on September 21, 1972. Former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Proclamation No. 1959 imposing military rule and suspending the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus not nationwide but only in the province of Maguindanao on Dec. 4, 2009.
Prior to this, on Nov. 24, 2009, Arroyo declared a state of emergency in Maguindanao following the massacre of 57 people, mostly journalists in what is now known as the Ampatuan Massacre. The government claimed, however, that heavily armed groups in the province resisted efforts to restore order in the area. The declaration allowed the military to arrest without warrant