Life is coffee

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It used to be a rule of thumb for my girlfriends and I to put our classmate Jose Allan Garcia on "ignore mode" back in grade school. Allan was voted "unwanted" for being class bully.

After about two decades, Allan is never the same person again. In a class reunion last December, our roads crossed once more, and led to the realization that we all had gone through painful stages to metamorphose into the very beautiful person we are being called for. Allan was apologetic for his so-called "misdeeds and misfits" and explained on his poor class deportment back then. He said his inner struggles and his marriage changed him a lot. And we noticed that some things were never the same again.

Recently, Allan posted a note at our Yahoogroup, and this has come to arrest my attention. The class bully that I once knew had etched across our yahoogroup message box a note on a life of simplicity and contentment, coffee being employed as a metaphor to a purpose-driven life. Read on.

Allan posted: "A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university lecturer. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said: "If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups."

Now, if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, but the quality of life doesn't change.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it.

"Don't let the cups drive you...enjoy the coffee."

Choose coffee, not the cup

Life has remained to be very, very, very beautiful despite the backbreaking round of drudgery. It isn't life that is complicated, as how some would want it to appear. Man has chosen to make it complicated. Life has always offered us serenity and tranquility. Man has chosen not to understand differences. Life has never been that painful. Man has chosen war to settle conflicts. Life is meant to be lived in love. Man has chosen indifference.

The message of the Resurrection is for us to choose coffee, not the cup. Choose to know that there are those who love and that understanding will always be there, even when we feel most alone. Choose to give a kind word, a reassuring touch, a warm smile every day of our lives. Realize that what we feel we lack in one regard may be more than compensated for in another. Choose to see our future as one filled with promises and possibilities by learning to view everything as a worthwhile experience.

Choose to determine one's self-worth, and not be dependent on another's judgment of one's accomplishments. Choose to feel love and be loved! Choose to feel we are blessed, as our souls were already redeemed by amazing grace! Happy Easter, everyone!

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TEXTPRESS URSELF! 6-Apr 15:03:04 "Gud d! As n hafy au ko ng read s Q'A n bre ambungan. (Re: Fast Facts on Bre_Ambungan of Smash FM) il b hs fan na jud! Gwafo mn sd i sha bsan niwang! - Anonymous. For your comments, reactions, suggestions and contributions, crank up my addy: [email protected] or text me at 0921-5323616. Thanks!