When the sun shines next

We hope the sun’s gentle rays embrace the victims of disasters and warm their hearts enough to ignite hope for a better tomorrow.

We hope the sun comes out when there are no longer painful reminders of the strong rains and winds, the floods and mud, the damage and destruction.

We pray the sun appears after hunger has been satisfied, lives rebuilt, sturdier houses reconstructed, other basic needs met.

We look forward to the sun shining next when guns have been stilled and justice rendered, no one imprisoned/ silenced without truthful testimonies of honest, God-fearing witnesses.

When the sun shines next, we hope food is sufficient for all, farms, the seas and the forests proud of their sustainable produce for all, especially the needy.

When the sun shines next, may this country finally wake up to genuine public servants committed in words and in deeds to the welfare of the people and for the glory of God.

May the sun come next when finally, brothers and sisters, think and practice “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable…”

When the sun shines next, may the cries and acts of gratitude from all brighten not only one day, but many more unending sunny days of thanksgiving.

When the sun shines next, may the whole world wake up with COVID completely gone from our midst.

Finally, when the sun shines next, families are reunited, hugs and embraces back, everyone, like children, free to run and roam to their hearts’ content.

With the virus gone, when the sun shines next, people will celebrate without fear in the streets, up the mountains, down by the seas.

Two recent documentaries on Discovery Channel inspired me to write this nostalgic piece about what we are missing, what we are unable to experience, to behold directly, before our very own eyes because we are kept in the dark by this pandemic.

Oh, if only the sun shines next and we are free of COVID, then we can excitedly prepare well and rush to join others explore and appreciate the “Tubbataha Natural Park also known as Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park, a protected area of the Philippines located in the middle of the Sulu Sea. The marine and bird sanctuary consists of two huge atolls and the smaller Jessie Beazley Reef covering a total area of 97,030 hectares. It is located 150 kilometres southeast of Puerto Princesa City, the capital of Palawan province.”

When the sun shines next, imagine being among the divers near “coral walls where the shallow coral reef abruptly ends giving way to great depths and among manta rays, lionfish, sea turtles, clownfish, and sharks!”

Or how would you like to be guided by the light of the full moon so that you can reach the highest peak in this country (2,954 meters above sea level) when the sun rises next?

Like the Manobos, Bagobos, and Klata who consider Mt. Apo a sacred mountain and the burial ground of Apo Sandawa, their great forefather, be awed by Mt.Apo’s spectacular panoramic view and its rich biodiversity (over272 bird species, 111 of which are endemic including one of the world’s largest eagles, the critically endangered Philippine Eagle).

When the sun shines next, what would you wish for?

That the needy “shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.” (Revelation 7:16) “For the glory of God lightens it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”

That there be peace on earth always, that all will celebrate love and Christmas daily, this year and thereafter, without COVID, conflict, calamities and needless challenges.