Flying?! Try Swimming

Poring over the photos of my just-launched book, Flying on Broken Wings, after the Ondoy typhoon, I see swimming instead of flying.     
  

I am trying to crack a joke here. In the aftermath of the deathly deluge, which has maimed and crippled many parts of the country, one has to find some humor and take things with a bit of levity.

My publisher, New Day, was one of the countless victims. I need not describe what happened. The photos show how computers, sales invoices, important records, manuscripts, documents, telephones, furnishings were rendered totally useless. Somewhere in the debris and mud are copies of my book, swimming on wings not only broken but soaking and dripping.


It’s as though New Day Publishers has been wiped clean and has to start all over again. I couldn’t find good enough words to say to Bezalie, Executive Director of the publishing house.

It’s heartbreaking, and in these scenes, it is difficult to find grace. It feels like it has been withheld, and nothing is forthcoming. Especially when we read that shuddering part of the Bible when God said to the sinful people of the earth—“For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die.” (Genesis 6:17)

We have not died, we have not joined the doom of the people in olden times, and above the great flood of waters, we see an overflow of goodness and acts of kindness all around. I have never seen such an outpouring of help from many quarters—young and old people alike—and on such a massive scale. As of this writing, the avalanche of relief operations has not abated.

It is my belief that grace flies in, or swims with us, when we ask for it.

As for New Day Publishers—like its name, there will be a dawning of a new day, more beautiful and more promising than the last.