“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
~ Luke 11:14-23
I often wonder who did and how the algorithm for the posts on my timeline on Facebook was designed. One can almost tell the personality of someone by just looking at and scanning through the ‘stream of consciousness’ that his/her timeline is. A person interested in style and fashion will often get the latest in what is the latest chic. A sports-minded person will get a continuous feed on sporting events and data. I get a lot of postings about religion and spirituality, nature and the outdoors, the arts and philosophy. I also get to meet people I like and love and to read about their daily activities.
So it is in life. What I do very often, I become and I am. If I persist in my writing, I find my writing skills becoming better and my thoughts clearer and more nuanced. If I keep on giving, even when it hurts or there seems nothing more to give, I become and am a more generous person. When I indulge my senses, I become more sensual and even too pleasure-seeking. When I give it to anger and hating, I start becoming more short-tempered and even violent.
What I am, it is what I do. I have come to love nature and her treasures. And wherever I am, I seek her out. One of the gladsome discoveries of our trip to the Philippines this time is finding the La Mesa Nature Reserve, a green haven for nature-lovers just at the immediate outskirts of a dirty and grimy city. There is enough sadness and sorrow in the world for me to still add to it. Instead, I do little things to relieve or take away even just a little of that pain. Anabelle and I have been visiting old and sickly friends and relatives, spending time with those to whom life may have been unfair, calling on children with chronic and terminal illnesses, seeing long-lost friends and relatives.
In the process, we have seen beauty even in the midst of pain and suffering. We have learned the true meaning of life even in the tiny fingers of a new-born. We have seen goodness even in the most squalid of surroundings. We gather in all that beauty and truth and goodness and scatter it anew in the fertile ground of living, loving and laughing hearts of people who are dear to us.