Of Plan A and Contingencies

I assume that most of you have heard of friendster.com. The first time I heard of it, I thought it was so corny. But just to satisfy my curiosity, I joined up. After a while, I started to find old friends or vice versa…friends I haven’t seen or heard from in AGES. And it brought about this inexplicably giddy feeling. It’s like getting to eat Tamtanco’s or Good Shepherd’s ube jam again after being away from home for 4 years! (If you’re not a Filipino, or you’re not from Baguio City, and you’ve never had ube, disregard the last statement!) So it got addictive (although I’m past that stage now, thank God!). But anyway, the next bit is what I had on my profile page, and then some…

I read this passage once, and it just explains why I do many of the things that I do...and why I do them with so much passion and energy: "Whatever state of life we are in, we are all called to selfless committed love: whether it be one's wife/husband and children, religious community, or pastoral ministry...vocation in life is what propels all of the others." (~Fr. Bernard Collera, SVD)

That is reflected in the way I deal with my family, John (my life!), my friends, my teaching, my career...and anything and everything that I put my heart into. My friends would probably say that I’m rather obsessive compulsive when it comes to having a life plan. I actually have one written…it’s like a feasibility study, except it’s for my life! I have a Plan A that I focus on, and contingency plans B, C, D…n just in case that Plan A does not work. I like to think that I live each day with a purpose. Granted sometimes that’s really difficult to do, but I try with the knowledge that each day brings me closer to my goal. And if at the end of the day, I can cross even just one thing (big or small) off my list, then I feel I’ve accomplished something.

This constant push to achieve can be tiring. But then again, I always remember something that my professor shared, “For one to burn out, you must first be on fire.” [sorry, didn’t catch the source of that quote. But the message stuck well enough.]