Of Chicken Pesto Pasta and Advent

I told myself I would wake up at 5 in the morning. I woke up at 7:30. I didn’t realize it was 7:30 because it was a cloudy day outside, and so when I opened my eyes, I thought it was probably early in the morning. I thought I could afford myself an extra 5 minutes more of sleep. I slept for a good 45 minutes. I woke up with a jolt, looked at the clock on my phone, and panicked. It was almost 8:30 in the morning, I had yet to take a bath, and it was a Friday, which means Manila traffic. I was surely going to be late for work. I rushed to the shower. As I was about to shampoo my hair when I picked up the bottle of shampoo and realized it was empty. I had to get out of the shower, walk a few feet to the cabinet, braving the cold air that was assaulting me as I stepped out of the hot water stream, and took out a full bottle of shampoo. I ran back to the shower and finished my bath. I left the house at 8:50. Work is supposed to be at 9. I boarded the car and proceeded to head to work. The car made a turn to Roxas Boulevard. Traffic, 5 minutes. The car made a left to EDSA. Traffic, one hour. I don’t what happened after that first hour along EDSA because I fell asleep. I awoke in Bonifacio Global City. It was 10:20 in the morning. And I was definitely late for work. I entered my team’s cubicle. There was nobody there. It was only my third day in my new assignment, and I was supposed to be oriented on the tasks assigned to the team. But they were all deployed to various meetings, and I was left alone with nothing to do. I opened my laptop, the one I really owned. I had yet to be issued a new company laptop for my new assignment, and I could not do any work with my own laptop because it was a closed network and I had no access. Lunch time. My baon was delicious, chicken pesto pasta, but I could not shake the uneasiness I was feeling not being able to do anything at work. I felt unproductive and useless. The rest of the day, I organized files on my old company laptop, tried to improve on my turnover notes, and mostly thought about what else I could do to help. No one came back from, their meetings. It was 7 in the evening. I decided to pack my stuff and head home. I should have expected the traffic. I arrived home at 10 in the evening. Three hours on the road. I could have already arrived in Singapore, I thought. I dressed up and got ready for bed. I lied down at 11 in the evening. I finally fell asleep at 2 in the morning. What an absolutely lousy day. Completely. Nothing went right. Except for that chicken pesto pasta over lunch. That was the redeeming factor.

Today is the Sunday after that debacle, December 3, the first Sunday of Advent. The Gospel was this:

Being the first Sunday of Advent, the priest decided to talk about what Advent really meant. He said that Advent really meant preparation for the coming of Christ, but that we should not take the Gospel so literally either. While we do not know when He exactly comes, the fact of the matter is that, He does come, and whatever the time of day, we must be ready to recognize his arrival. It’s true. Christmas is a commemoration of the birth of Jesus about 2017 years ago, in a little town called Bethlehem. But, that’s just it, isn’t it? He already HAS come, and that only means His presence has never left. Everyday, therefore is a preparation and anticipation for His making His presence known in our lives. And it is our readiness and response to His arrival that we celebrate every day. And it is how we use this blessing that matters in how we conduct ourselves, and whether we can, in turn, become a blessing to others. The priest went on tell a story that was exactly just like how my day went, except this time, the person in his story had just eaten the most glorious piece of leche flan in his life, and still went home miserable. He asked the question, “where was God in your day?” The answer, most obviously but still funnily enough, was that God was in the leche flan. In my case, God was in the chicken pesto pasta.

There are days that are just down right miserable, more miserable than just waking up late on a work day. Even on the best days, things still turn out a bit too miserable to call it the best day of your life. But, in whatever occasion, and whenever the day, there is always a redeeming factor, a silver lining, that one good thing that’s happened, that we only need to focus on to turn our day around. Therein lies God, and it is His arrival and presence in our lives that we celebrate. It is here that we can feel that we are never alone, and that despite everything, we are truly blessed.

I hope however your day has been going, you find the time to think about what it was that made you smile today. And I hope that you recognize that whatever it was, God was with you at that time. God IS with you, all the time. Take comfort in the fact that you are not alone. You are blessed beyond your imagination. So, be strong. Be happy. And get yourself some chicken pesto pasta.

21 days left ’til Christmas! I hope you have yourself a very Merry Christmas!