Sa nanok kan banggi mapapagimata ka, magios dangan tibaad dai na mapaturog pa. Sa kauntukan kan mga bagay, marurumduman mo an mga nakaagi. Sa daing girong na palibot, mapapanumdum mo an mga dai pa nangyayari. Tibaad dai ka winarasan kaidto nin grasya na masadiri an mga yaon sa palibot mo. Bisan ngonyan mayo ka nin kapas na sadirihon an mga bagay na dai pa naarabot. Ta nganing sa mga oras na arog kaini, magrumdum ka o panumdumon mo sinda dangan ihiras sa iba. An saimong pagrumdom, ining kanigoan na makapanumdom sarong balaog saimo na mayo nin kaagid. Nadudumanan mo an mga lugar na gustong kadtohan. Nabubuweltahan mo idtong mga tiempong inirokan. Nakakaulay mo an mga tawong marayo na, naiistorya mo an mga tinugang maarabot pa sana. Masasabat mo an gabat kan dai napapamugtak na kaisipan, dangan kun kun ini malampasan, kanigoan na gian sa daghan.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Friday, September 09, 2011
In June of that year

In June of that year, you started tutoring Seth, a freshman and Zandro, a sophomore—both were newcomers in the school where you chose to teach.
Seth appeared cool and quiet, but there was much eagerness when he started talking about himself, his participation in class and school activities, and other things he does in school or at home. He was a growing young boy whose parents whom you chanced to meet desired much good for him. Composed, serene, you saw in him a promising young man who will make a name for himself.
Every now and then you would excuse the two boys from their classes to chat with them. To you they always sounded hopeful—in anticipation of the chats with you. You would talk to them about how to help their parents do chores in the house, study harder so they would not flunk any class or be good sons to their parents. You also talked to them about how to gain friends in school. Seth said he had new friends—all of the freshmen were his friends. The playful Zandro confessed how he would participate in the sophomores’ horseplay in between class sessions or even during classes.
In your chats, you approached them like they were your younger brothers. At first you mentally prepared your questions for them. Later, you would just talk to them very casually. Through the days, they had become your friends, so to speak. The chats you had had with them had gone smooth and personal, like they were your younger brothers. Your words would usually end up as friendly pieces of advice for these young boys growing up. And how your words sounded real and convincing to them.
Every time you talked to them, you thought you saw yourself in them. You saw enthusiasm in the things they did or wanted to do. They were struggling to become themselves. Full of hope and anticipation, the boys had a lot to live and to learn. They always appeared as if they had to know a lot of things.
Continually you had told them how to be always good, and would always ask them about how they would fare up to virtues like charity and service, honesty and truthfulness, diligence and stuff. Talking about these virtues with these boys made you aware of your own shortcomings. It made you start to ask your own life question. It made you want to quantify your own sense of achievement.
Though you’d gone that far, you had not really gotten far enough to try to live sensibly—with a definite purpose. You thought you had to have a definite purpose. Just like them, then, you seemed to long to fling your arms wide open to the world and take on what life really had in store for you.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Pag-intindí

Saturday, June 18, 2011
Mánggad
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Pag-antós
Minapoon ini sa baskog na pagtubod na an kada kadipisilan igwang kalutasan; oras sagkod kapas sana an kaipuhan mo ta ngani na mapangyari ini. Naaagód kan ibang tawo ano man na kagabatan, an kada kadipisilan, mantang an iba nariribongan dangan naluluki-luki kan mga bagay na nungka ninda mina’wot o inasahan na mangyari.
Ta ngani kang maka-antos, dai kaipuhan na matali ka, basta igwa kang sentido kumon sana—asin kusog na makagurapay sa mga pangyayari o bagay-bagay na saimo minaparatay. Ta ngani kang makaantós, kaipuhan maisog ka, magian an disposisyon, manginisi, nahihiling an gayon asin oportunidad sa gabos na bagay, pirming igwang diskarteng magpangyari an mga bagay na kaipuhan gibohon. Ta ngani kang makaantós, urog na kaipuhan na maisog ka.
Idtong mga tawong nagtutubód na katabang ninda an Diyos o naggigiya sainda [an ano man na dyinodiyos ninda] mas orog na makakaantós kaysa mga tawong an pagmate ninda garo mayo nang pag-asa o naghuhuna na pinabayaan na sinda. Likayan mo an mga tawong matalaw, o matapo’ sa kasakitan—apwera na sana kun ika doktor, padi o social worker. Dai nanggad paglingawi—an pagturog, an pagdiskanso, an pagkamoot sa ibang tawo, an interes na mabuhay sa kalibutan sagkod an pangamuyo amo an saimong pansagang, iyo an mapahapos sa tiempo nin kadipisilan, sa panahon nin sakit.
Susog sa “Coping” na yaon sa Worldly Virtues: A Catalogue of Reflections ni Johannes Gaertner [1912-1996], Viking Press, 1990.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Extension work
Monday, September 29, 2008
Authorized Personnel Only
Inspired by Uncle Badong,
For some people, retirement from a job is not a welcome change. Others who hardly plan their retirement at all are even prone to deteriorate because they might not be prepared for the day when they will have virtually nothing to do anymore.
People should be encouraged to remain in paid employment for as long as they want. For one, an employee can be efficient if he is driven to do something. If he still wants to work regardless of his age, the company can always bank on his efficiency because more often than not, he or she will deliver the tasks expected of them—or even go beyond it.
Second, employees who have reached a certain length of experience in their work most probably have acquired a distinct level of expertise as well, one that is needed in a company or organization in its fulfillment of successful operations. So instead of taking time to invest in training newcomers who will (have to) learn the needed skills, the company can always entrust its vital tasks to the veteran. The case can be compared to that of wine wherein the older the wine is stored in the barrel, the more suave its taste becomes—hence, the better quality and satisfaction.
Retiring from government service at 60 this year,
Uncle Badong is pictured here in his usual afternoon outfit
in our ancestral libod, perhaps after having swept the yard
of his house and finished the luon which drives away
the noknok and other pestering nocturnal insects,
along with a horde of evil spirits around the yard.
Some 20 meters away from this house is his MARO office,
the workplace where he had helped countless farmers
to properly claim their land titles, and perhaps even
saved a number of them from the paraanab [landgrabbers]
of all kinds. His has been the kind of work, or more aptly,
a sense of commitment that not just any CSSAC graduate
can read into in order to fully deliver.
If people are allowed to work for as long as they want, which would mean that the personnel will be filled by seasoned workers and staff, the company is sure to face challenges in the future headstrong. Its seasoned personnel and human resource will inspire everyone else with the wisdom they (must have) gained from the many years of exposure to the kind of work in the organization.
Indeed, if people are employed in a company so that they serve it in the best sense of the word and, in essence, help build it, keeping them for as much as they want can benefit the organization, enough to sustain itself through the years.
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