Category: Essays

The first sin of humanity was driven by love.  When God created Adam and Eve, He told them they could eat from every tree in the garden except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.   The first humans to exist in a world made by God, their first breath, their first touch, their…

There’s talk of a rising religion built out of silicon and copper.

Layout by Zean Albert Cua Ang mundo ay isang silid-aklatan; ang bawat tao ay isang libro. Naniniwala ako na ang bawat pangalan ay pamagat ng isang kuwentong nagsisimula sa sandaling isinilang ito. Iba-iba ang tauhan, tagpuan, at banghay, ngunit pare-parehong may lalim at kahalagahan. Hindi ba’t kay gandang isipin na ang bawat kaluluwang nakasasalubong mo…

Isa sa mga unang natututuhan ng mga paslit ang pagpapares ng mga kulay o mga hugis. Noong ako ay musmos pa lamang, paborito ko ang ganitong uri ng laro. Hilig kong pagtularin ang iba’t ibang hugis sa pamamagitan ng pagsusuot ng mga ito sa akmang butas. Subalit aaminin ko, madalas kong ipinipilit ang parisukat, tatsulok, at bituin sa butas para sa bilog. Batid kong hindi ito tama, ngunit ang aking dahilan: “kasya naman.” Hindi ko inaasahan na dadalhin ko rin pala hanggang sa aking pagtanda ang kasanayang ito.

A little girl should be out playing in her home’s backyard.

She should be making friends, laughing without restraint and studying in school. Instead, somewhere in the world, a little girl who has barely had the chance to dream of the woman she wants to become is exchanged for a family’s ticket out of poverty.

Not all miracles arrive with celestial trumpets and radiant light.

Some arrive quietly, disguised as ordinary days, steady footsteps, and hands that never seem to tire.

We seldom recognize them as they unfold. It is only when we look back that we begin to see how grace had been walking beside us all along.

As I’m waiting for the Mass to begin, the words of my grade 10 Christian Living teacher echo in my mind. The moment she uttered these words to us, I was skeptical.

I have always believed that the world, the universe, could be answered by formulas—that everything has a solution rooted in the predictability of precise numbers. Foolishly, I’ve tried using this logic to solve you, to understand you the way mathematicians understand the universe—with patience and proof.

The shoreline is like the earth’s longest conversation with the sea. Every wave that reaches the coast asks a question, every retreat leaves behind an answer half-erased in the sand.