By: Iyo Embong

We all know that pain has never been embraced or welcomed in life, yet it is the very thing that will quicken us. What hinders you today will be your strength tomorrow for what is light without dark? Good without evil? If either did not exist, would we learn?

Your life is a test that only you can pass, a lesson that only you can learn. When having been patient waiting for your dream and burdened by the passing hour, you began to understand the cause and cure for your pain. Through that pain you will have been made better and when you obtain your prize, you will be that much happier…I know.

Don’t compare yourself to what others are, but to what you could be. Love yourself for who you are, not for whom someone wants you to be or who you wish you were. Be yourself and appreciate who you are. Even if you don’t look like the way you’d like to look or act the way other people want you to act, you are who you are. Don’t let anyone tell you that you aren’t smart and intelligent, because you are as long as you believe you are.

Don’t let anyone tell you that you aren’t pretty or cute, because the beauty you have on the inside will shine so bright that it will shine through to the image you have on the outside and make you 100% beautiful. Be yourself and love yourself for you and people will love you too.

There always be times like this when you’re tired, confused, and times when you don’t believe in yourself. That’s when you have to stick it out, and draw on the confidence that you have deep down beneath all the doubts and worries. “Never be afraid to trust a future you don’t know to a God you do know.” You must know that life is ‘like a wave…. some people will catch it, and others will just bail out’.

Never think your life is over when you’re feeling down. I promise you it’ll go on and you can’t help it. You just have to take it, day by day by day. Never give up. There’s always a way.

There is a final reckoning for everything. I realized this once again when my cousin Terry Ocampo passed away 2 weeks ago. Death is the great opener of truth. Our real selves and our deepest feelings come out when we come face to face with death. We don’t have to wait for that final moment before we bring out our true selves.

“The biggest tragedy of life is not death, but what dies in us while we are still living.”

I wasn’t there at the funeral last Saturday but I heard that it was some kind of a reunion for everyone who attended. There were many realizations and many revelations. It can happen that in our busy lives we tend to forget and take for granted what and who are really important in our existence. For all of us losing him was painful especially to his wife and his two young children. He was not perfect by any means like all of us, but with all humility I am sure that he can say that he has no regrets because he have done his very best!

God is good and God is a God of surprises. The Lord turned our tears and fears into laughter and our previous anxiety into joy! I’m sure his passing made us get in touch with our real selves and come home to our deepest truths once again. Yes, we all must live in such a way that when our last moments or our last moments come, we will have no regrets that we loved too little, too late.

We love you and will always miss you Jacob!

By: Iyo Embong