I LOOK INTENTLY at the man in the mirror this morning and I saw quite a strange guy. His short, razed haircut has streaks of white here and there, most notably near the temples; his face is a little thinner and "fresher" than last year's; the stubbles in his chin are a little longer; the beer belly is still there, although now it is not really from the beer, but from eating too much 'biryani' rice, beef 'masala', and 'sarooq' lately; the guy has a darker complexion now which is primarily the fault of the scorching desert heat this time of summer... what I saw is a guy that surely looks a little bit stranger than last year... and it makes me wonder why, for the life of us, we always tend to examine ourselves like this when the day is our birthday...
When it's your birthday, everything - the past year, the years before, the "kodak" moments, both the important and not so important activities, life's successes, frustrations, happiness and disappointments - all of your life's memories and treasures, become an afterthought. Everything passes like a seamless, vivid movie in your mind... It is both amazing and funny how these memories come as flood of thoughts in that brief moment when you look at the mirror at the start of the day - the graduation from grade school, the high school gimmicks and the "barkada", the anxieties of going to the big city and into college, getting a degree, finding your dream job and raising a family. It is not about forcing yourself to think of these things... they just come like the sunlight opens up a new day to greet you on your birthday...
When it's your birthday, you tend to examine "transformations". In that brief moment of looking at the man in the mirror this morning, I saw transformations that happened to him all these years. From short pants, to "stretched" jeans, to "stone-washed" to cargo khakis; from blue jeans to chinos to slacks; from tees to shirts, to "barongs" - which incidentally is the most popular garment of those government salaried-employees - and back to shirts again - this time with ties. Birthdays are also about examining these transformations. Today, what I saw from the man in the mirror is the transformation of a skinny boy several decades ago - 38 years to be exact - to a shy teenager, to an active campus editor and student leader, to a dedicated and commited employee, to a father homesick about his kids. It's overwhelming how life sometimes makes a 180 degree turn and you start thinking about it on your birthday...
As I look at the man in the mirror, I started contemplating on life - its purpose... its priorities... its values. I learned not so long ago that these things drastically change... and these changes create an important turn in every man's life... Today, I ask the man in the mirror: "What should these changes now be?"... Again an avalanche of thoughts and memories engulfed him. Maybe it has something to do when a man nears his mid-life... right now, everything is taken as they come, sort of enjoying and savoring each moment given by the Creator... this may or may not change... I guess we just have to wait...
Looking at the man in the mirror this morning stirred within me an emotion that I don't usually feel... in one brief instant, it seems like everything froze and all my life flashed to me again... I've seen strange things looking at him today. Things really change a lot in a year... physical, emotional, spiritual... another year passed, and from the way I look at it, the man in the mirror is happy with the changes he had made and the strides he'd done in the past year. Life is about hope... and constantly wishing... when one nears mid-life and important things are happening in a fast pace, hoping becomes all the more important...for the man in the mirror, it is there where everything starts happening...and there's no better time to start hoping again and doing better still than today.
Postscript...
They said life begins at 40. I still have two more years to prepare for that life. In any case, these 38 years of 'pre-life' I'm having right now provide me with ample memories, lessons, and experiences to make that life one hell of a ride, and to make me look forward to it. This early, I'm bracing for it.
When it's your birthday, everything - the past year, the years before, the "kodak" moments, both the important and not so important activities, life's successes, frustrations, happiness and disappointments - all of your life's memories and treasures, become an afterthought. Everything passes like a seamless, vivid movie in your mind... It is both amazing and funny how these memories come as flood of thoughts in that brief moment when you look at the mirror at the start of the day - the graduation from grade school, the high school gimmicks and the "barkada", the anxieties of going to the big city and into college, getting a degree, finding your dream job and raising a family. It is not about forcing yourself to think of these things... they just come like the sunlight opens up a new day to greet you on your birthday...
When it's your birthday, you tend to examine "transformations". In that brief moment of looking at the man in the mirror this morning, I saw transformations that happened to him all these years. From short pants, to "stretched" jeans, to "stone-washed" to cargo khakis; from blue jeans to chinos to slacks; from tees to shirts, to "barongs" - which incidentally is the most popular garment of those government salaried-employees - and back to shirts again - this time with ties. Birthdays are also about examining these transformations. Today, what I saw from the man in the mirror is the transformation of a skinny boy several decades ago - 38 years to be exact - to a shy teenager, to an active campus editor and student leader, to a dedicated and commited employee, to a father homesick about his kids. It's overwhelming how life sometimes makes a 180 degree turn and you start thinking about it on your birthday...
As I look at the man in the mirror, I started contemplating on life - its purpose... its priorities... its values. I learned not so long ago that these things drastically change... and these changes create an important turn in every man's life... Today, I ask the man in the mirror: "What should these changes now be?"... Again an avalanche of thoughts and memories engulfed him. Maybe it has something to do when a man nears his mid-life... right now, everything is taken as they come, sort of enjoying and savoring each moment given by the Creator... this may or may not change... I guess we just have to wait...
Looking at the man in the mirror this morning stirred within me an emotion that I don't usually feel... in one brief instant, it seems like everything froze and all my life flashed to me again... I've seen strange things looking at him today. Things really change a lot in a year... physical, emotional, spiritual... another year passed, and from the way I look at it, the man in the mirror is happy with the changes he had made and the strides he'd done in the past year. Life is about hope... and constantly wishing... when one nears mid-life and important things are happening in a fast pace, hoping becomes all the more important...for the man in the mirror, it is there where everything starts happening...and there's no better time to start hoping again and doing better still than today.
Postscript...
They said life begins at 40. I still have two more years to prepare for that life. In any case, these 38 years of 'pre-life' I'm having right now provide me with ample memories, lessons, and experiences to make that life one hell of a ride, and to make me look forward to it. This early, I'm bracing for it.
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