Let’s start with a prayer for victory over struggles: “Oh God, my heart groans as I face this new day. I’m not sure I can stand upright let alone take another step. But You, oh God, are my rock and my refuge. You say I am more than a conqueror and I’m choosing to believe that in faith. I need Your victory in my situation. I can’t see my way out or if there’s even an end. Let me fall into You and let You win the battle for faith in my heart. With You there is victory and I trust You.”
Here’s “Baguio Day” by my poetic twin Gabriel Baban Keith: “Happy birthday, Baguio./ Land of my birth./ Land of my brave Ibaloy forefathers/ now lost in the mist of memory/ amidst progress and/ modernity./ A proud race forgotten, erased/ from modern textbooks/ and tourist maps:/ A people defaced./ Happy birthday, Baguio./ You were Kafagway, Bag-iw, Baguio/ long before outsiders proclaimed you born/ on the first of September/ and claimed you/ as their own./ Happy birthday, Baguio.”
Complacency is a state of self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by the lack of awareness of actual dangers or deficiencies.
If there is a time when we should not be complacent or caught unaware, it is in these days of the Covid-19 despite the wonderful news that cases are declining in several countries abroad and in our beautiful archipelago of smiling carabaos and delicious coconuts.
This near-sighted Ibaloy writer agrees with medical professionals who are urging the public to not let their guards down but be ever-vigilant against this invisible enemy from Wuhan, China. They pointed out that while Covid-19 infections are decreasing the past days, these could still increase or spike at any moment if we become complacent and not adhere strictly to health protocol standards.
While the decrease in infections or “flattening of the curve” is certainly great news and we pray that this Covid-19 nightmare will finally be over, the reality is the virus is still with us just waiting for an opportunity to attack. We really do hope an effective and affordable vaccine will be found, most probably by China. As of now, it’s better to be safe and alive than sorry and dead.
