Not my brother but...

A little boy carries in his tiny arms a younger child as they line up for food in an evacuation center in Tacloban City, Leyte. As one looks at the poignant picture, questions come to mind. "Were they the only ones in their family spared by the typhoon? " "Where are their parents and how did these children survive?"

The older child, however, clarifies, "Hindi ko po siya kapatid. Baka po siya mawala o masaktan kasi madaming tao sa linya. Kukuha na lang po ako ng para sa kanya. (He is not my brother yet I will carry him and get food for him so he will not be hurt or stepped on by the hungry crowd.)"    

Wow, that is as pure as pure can get. From the innocent heart of a child springs love, the purest of all qualities.    

Then, we see pictures of a group of survivors - fisherfolks returning from the sea. Together, they pull their banca back ashore. Their grief is still with them, the stench of the dead all over, so much destruction and damage surrounding them. Yet, together, they have decided to sail out into the sea, return ashore together, and move on in life together.

More touching pictures and stories of survivors are now circulating, serving as beautiful testimonies to the real Filipino spirit: resilience amidst pain and grief and loss, and the will and gratitude to move on with life, together, with God, quietly, and with love and concern for others.

The young survivors have even started to play basketball together. Hungry and battered, a number of survivors also still remembered the hospitality that Filipinos have been noted for, offering coconut drink and their gratitude to foreign and local relief workers.

Left literally with nothing, a number of survivors gathered what they could from the typhoon debris and have started to rebuild their houses, and moving on, together, and, for and with others.

We still have to be told the extent of loss and damage and soon, we pray. So much still has yet to be done for the victims in various provinces and towns, so much more to feed, to provide water for, and medicines as well.

Yet, now we know that somehow, gratefully, the survivors are taking care of themselves.  More than that, they are teaching us to stay in hope, to remember and cherish the past, to note and learn the lessons from this tragedy, and to stay in faith and hope, with God, and to move on together, for and with others.

No time to linger in the painful past, no time to shout and cry out for help forever. Where and when one can move on, even without outside help, our survivors are showing us how precious life is, how precious time is, how valuable "now" is and how crucial it is to seize this present moment in time.

The survivors are coming out as our inspiring heroes and models of who the real Filipinos are: grateful, hospitable, selfless, silent yet strong, resilient, ever hopeful and determined to move on, with love and concern, together.

Shall we all join our survivors move on together, united, selflessly working hard and responsibly sharing what we can do where we are from here on?

Let us always remember that little boy who carried another tinier smaller boy in his arms. "He is not my brother but I will carry him as my brother."

So much errors and abuse to correct, yes. All of these will have their proper time and forum. However, now is the moment for us all to move together with and for our survivors and for our nation. Like the little boy, let us carry the survivors, our brothers and sisters, back to life, back to rebuild their lives together, with the real Filipino spirit in us all.

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