Gulo-gulo isip

OKAY, you wake up excited about a trip you were taking the following day. You look forward to a dinner later. You saunter off to work, looking forward to an easy day, with the brain teeming with things to write.

You sit down and start work, and then you get a text from your sister. Mom’s in the hospital, not feeling well, “heart attack” is being mentioned.

Everything freezes. Work is snapping at your heels, at your nape, and everything else it can snap at, but you’re frozen.

You take a deep breath, let automatic pilot take over, and you finish what you can in the shortest time possible. There’s no reason to panic, you tell yourself. But you are. You’re not a doctor, you can’t rush anything up. But you’d want to.

Okay, still on automatic pilot. You type your thoughts fast because you need a 3,500-character article out to- morrow. The quickest way will be to ramble and mumble, while telling your fingers to type fast and your brain to run in stride. Or is it the other way around? Who knows when minutes are zipping by; no time to ponder on chicken and eggs.

Another deep breath, you ponder. You can’t write trash. You have to impart some- thing. Okaayyy, think, think, think. Pablo!

Like all of us, we have to deal with emergencies, many even losses. We will never be prepared for it, but will just have to cope. That is what life is all about. We just have to keep going, make sure everything’s wrapped up properly and laid out in perspective and then you R-U-N!

I think that’s enough wisdom for the day. I have to go, bye!

In the meantime, we pray.

“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:29-31)

And with this, I will not run, I will skip my way to the hospital.