One year after Yolanda

It has been a year and a day since the pain — that heartache we called typhoon Yolanda. There are no more words left to be said about it.

To commemorate that page in our history as a people, kindly allow me to let this space carry no more than a message of thanks to all that opened their hearts and hands to us.

In my capacity as Representative of Leyte IV, which was one of the hardest hit, I saw and experienced God’s abiding and provident grace. For every door that was shut, countless windows opened up for us. The need was great, but the goodness innate in people proved to be even greater.  Something of that magnitude comes into life not only to shake but also reshape it. We will never be the same. But we can rise stronger, be better. We are Filipinos, after all.

Typhoon Yolanda was a test of character and faith. There were many lessons to be had, primary among them, lessons of compassion, courage and humility.

Allow me to share with you one of my favorite quotes, author unknown. It reads:

Humility is perpetual quietness of the heart.

It is to have no trouble.

It is never to be fretted or vexed, irritable or sore.

To wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me.

It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised,

It is to have a blessed home in myself

Where I can go in and shut the door

And kneel to my Father secret and be at peace,

as in a deep sea of calmness,

when all around and about is seeming trouble.

And as my Tita Inday told me just a few days back “God makes use of every good/bad thing that happens. That is the divine economy of grace.” One year and one day after the pain, I know for sure that the same could not be truer.