This was the constant mantra of Mr. Mendejar yesterday during the second session of Life Internship Talks (LIT). Organized by Lauan University Center, along with other study centers around the Philippines, LIT involves group mentoring meetings with an impressive lineup of 10 successful young professionals coming from various fields — four of them based abroad — who will share lessons and insights drawn from their own experiences, as former university students and now accomplished professionals.
Going back — make TIME, make MORE time, and make the MOST out of time. Kagaya ng sinabi ng kaibigan ko sa podcast namin: ang daming learnings!? Yeah, actually it was no coincidence (because there have been coincidences all my life — I should start saying that it was “no coincidence” rather than “always have been”). The first thing that hit me was when he quoted, “The day we born is the day we begin to die.”
No coincidence that I was focusing on the meditation of our chaplain which was about transfiguration, a recent feast day. How have we transfigured in the last two weeks — time really flies too quickly. Just the other week, most of us were lamenting the fact that we are going into a hard lockdown once more, and now, we are already in the midst of a surging number of cases along with the possibility of extending it. But again, as a wise priest said, this is truly a corona retreat, a time of purification and healing. Well, adding on to that was the exhortation of Lingayen-Dagupan’s archbishop that focuses on “What is this you have done?”
I’m not gonna spend time blabbering on what the speaker has said, rather I’d focus on some priceless jewels from the talk, such as the following: “The paradox of success — success leads to more opportunities and we often get tempted to grab on all the opportunities (FOMO), leading us to make minimal impact on each of the new opportunities we get ourselves in.” So many things, really good things, are presented to us each and every day. But there, wisdom exists in choosing what is really good for our circumstance, for our limitation, for our shortcoming, singular or plural man ‘yan. The fear of missing out is real, but we can use it to our advantage of minimizing ourselves to what is true and good for each of us, while the results may be varied and be different.
One example I really loved hearing from Mr. Mendejar was “this time, I’ll choose health.” I’ll choose to declutter, to focus on the essentials. It’s important to dream, to dream of His dream; but it’s also important at the same time to discern, what kind of dream is in store for me? What is that dream that will unfold? What dream does reality promise, that He wants me to fulfill? It’s only a matter of time, the most time, more time and time itself, well spent time.
And time merits less words, more silence, more space for the reader to breathe. Thus I end with a model of well spent time, of intelligence, love and care — Don Fernando. In honor of his 50th anniversary, I give you this: “An intelligence worth our time. / A shepherd of our flock. / A love, gifted to give. / Our spirit lived, cherished and imbued. / The Father, that is you.”
