What is love?

Only recently, I came across someone who confessed that he doesn't really know how to love.
I was a bit stunned upon hearing that.
To pinoys, love comes like a second skin. We are exposed to puppy love at an early age of six or seven. We get into serious relationships even at age 15.
Sometimes, we raise families at an early age of 21 all because of love.
We dream big and we lose it all to love.

But maybe he was right.
We would often hear Iloveyous and yet when you asked them to elaborate it, they wouldn't be able to really distinguish what they love about the person that it sometimes mixes up to attraction or desire and not really love.

Then it hit me.
Love cannot be defined always. At times, you need to share it to an individual to explain it.
It is part listening, and then part understanding without judging.
Hear the stories they have to tell. Understand what they're trying to tell you and then right before you open your mouth to judge, zip it.

You may also do ala Mother Theresa. Give and give and give...without expecting to get anything of it. That maybe tiring, especially in this materialistic world. But look at where Mother Theresa is.

In the end, love will always prove to be the actions amidst all those flowery words you say. Or the gestures you show when it is all unguarded as against to those that you do when you hope to score. Or maybe that genuine concern you have for the person even if he will not be able to reciprocate it to you.

Don't take my word for the definition of love. Find it out for yourself dear. Who knows, you will be able to define it in better words.

Or maybe you can just start sharing it.

New beginning.

As a child, I always looked forward to Easter sundays because I would see a show at the end of the Salubong.

An angel coming from a building glides down to meet the image of Mary in her black dress. As the angel glides down, everyone would take pictures of it. Everyone waits for the angel to reach Mary's black dress because it needs to remove the black dress to signal the end of Mary's lament over Jesus' death as proclamation that Jesus has indeed risen.

After the pulling off of the black dress, doves will be flying around the image of Mary and one of them needs to pull off the black veil. And after the dove has clinched that black veil, Mary's image will see Jesus' risen image and all the balloons will fly in the air.

As a child, this whole event was magical, and it really fills my heart with joy.

As an adult however, I got exposed to the different facts of life that sometimes it makes it hard for me to feel joy over the painful emotion. Being more exposed to life, it also showed me that sometimes, you will encounter people who suffer from so many pains being brought about by their parents as well.

I'm not yet a parent, so I cannot speak for them yet. But I have always been a son to my parents, and yes, it is never a perfect road for all of us.

And this Holy week, I fell witness again to atleast two fathers who have brought pain to their kids, emotionally. As their friend, I told them to try to be patient and continue loving their dads. At the back of my mind, I'm thinking, how on earth will I be able to convince them to continue loving their dads, if their dads are hurting them inside and out.

I'm sure these dads have reason why they are doing these to their kids...there must be a good reason for all of these, otherwise, we can all just be parents and have the justification to hurt our kids as long as we want them to.

I know I'm never gonna be in a position good enough to approximate how fathers are made of, but I sure know that Jesus never got this much pain from His Father who has given birth to Him and who sent Him to deliver us.

I know that God may have been tough on Jesus for wanting Him to do something that He may have yet to understand, but in the end Jesus did understand what was the task all about and the purpose of the sufferings and sacrifices was revealed...for man's salvation.

I hope that these fathers will soon reveal their good intentions to their sons so that these sons will stop hurting and that all the sacrifices and emotional sufferings they have endured for more than a decade will somehow be understood.

And as they say, Easters are new beginnings, I pray that these strained relationships of Fathers and Sons will have a new beginning, not only for their sons, but also for their fathers who may have been so blinded to see how much hurt they are causing their loved ones.