In any way, however, this does not mean that we be dismayed by the turning tides of these events in life. We should value the glorious times of youth as much as we should treasure the deteriorating effects of old age. We all need to know that life is one eternal round.
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| KayAn Betita Palma |
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou own’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
KayAn’s high points in life, or what the poet described as “eternal summer,” is still to be unearthed in an ongoing flight far into the verdant landscape of future prospects and on to the realms of success. She may have magnificently survived the harrowing encounters with trials and adversities early in her vulnerable youthful life, but such was only a short chapter of her long story. This march that we witnessed today is not of success, but a commencement of her yet long unfolding journey far afield the domains of life’s real battlefield. As she enters the world’s competitive amphitheater, there will still be more defeats and wins, failures and successes, battles and victories, but as in her study of the Old Testament in the Seminary she knew as did the preacher in the Book of Ecclesiastes, “...that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11). Yes, there will be sorrows in defeats and joys in winnings; there will be despairs attendant to failures and laurels that come of success; there will still be more Goliaths to battle, and she knows that she needs to be a David in order to win the most coveted victories.
In this inauguration and unveiling of the new and more challenging episode of her life, she needs to understand, that goals and objective are the links that will connect her best efforts to her desired achievements. She needs to know that one could not attain a wish to study in a premier university if the effort is only equivalent for a local college. One could not progress to the highest attainable degree if the toil and slog is only for an average vocational attainment. One could not achieve the glory and wonder of success if the sweat of labor is measly and inadequate. One could not obtain the full blessings from God with superficial obedience to His Commandments. It is only in rising from every fall; overcoming daunting failures; and swimming against the heaving waves of life’s stormy seas that one could find greatest delight in the glory of triumph and victory. It is only by obedience to God’s unenforceable laws that predicated blessings are poured out in bountiful abundance. As Julie Andrews, in the movie The Sound of Music, most brilliantly put it, “I will do better than my best.” I am sure that KayAn will have these truths always kept in the cellar of her mind and written in the tablet of her heart.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck.” These immeasurable gates of opportunities, however, are not just closed by strings of tensions as to be easily opened by striking. But the best of these opportunities are locked and bolted as to need a refined and sophisticated key to access. And that superior key is education.
She is young and is an easy target of the lure and wheedling of the world and her youthful vulnerability is generally exposed to the mad rush of worldly indulgence. Her life’s wandering may still cover more of life’s stormy seas and a ride on life’s titanic in the vast ocean of survival. She knew that this life is a probationary state, a tryout of an enduring race, a contest of persistence and fortitude, a test of faith and courage. She needs to be brave and valiant as she now faces the escalating challenges and mounting adversities as she takes every demanding lap all along the race through the circle of life. Elton John described this tough and defying trials in a song from the popular animated movie Lion King, thus:
From the day we arrive on the planet And blinking, step into the Sun
There's more to be seen than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done…
In the circle of life
It's the wheel of fortune
It's the leap of faith
It's the band of hope
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the circle of life
Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with the scars
There's far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the Sun rolling high through the sapphire sky
Keeps great and small on the endless round
Indeed, in the circle of life, KayAn will have to experience defeat, she may be downed by failure, and she may often feel frustrated and drained as she scuffle and wrestle with setbacks. Yet these are all necessary for her to develop the muscles to hurdle impediments and negative forces along the way to her goals and aspirations. Ezra Taft Benzon once said, “It is not in the pinnacle of success or ease where men and women grow most. It is down the valley of heartaches and disappointments and reverses, where men and women grow into strong characters.” And she needs to understand that her character will shape her destiny.
KayAn, however, should be consoled, that in all her failings and shortcomings, she is promised that there will come the joy of trying again and again; until shadows turns into sunshine; until the storm eventually calms; until sorrow transforms to gladness.
Yet beyond and above all that she can achieve in this life, there is nothing comparable to Heavenly Father’s indisputable promise of eternal life and mansions of glory in His Celestial Kingdom. This belief stands as the enduring foundation of her reason to be faithful and fearless of the seemingly insurmountable but equally luxuriant future. The Lord reminds: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” I know as she also believes that if she remains faithful and true to her covenants, God will be at the helm of her voyage to the blissful eternal shore.
To my ever dearest granddaughter KayAn, the debutant, as you now enter formally for the first time in the society of single adults, on this your 18th birthday, it is my earnest wish and hope that as you scale the sloping hills of your dreams, you will be able to see in perfect view the magnified contrast between the dark valleys below and the gleaming rays of a promising sunshine decorated with marvelously colored rainbow above the mount. I pray in humility that each dawning day of your continuing journey through the circle of life may provide you with constant renewal of strength to move on no matter the barriers; that you will be able to harness the spiritual gifts which the Lord has so abundantly blessed you for your best interest and that of your loved ones; and that you may have the needed faith and courage to endure the uphill route to the apex of success and to the zenith of a glorious victory.
I earnestly pray, that you will always remember the undeniable truth that while it is true that you and your siblings and we your ancestors have a common everlasting beginnings and you were born on earth with the same parentage; that the blood pumped by the heart into your system is from the same source; that our divine and genetic DNAs are the same; we all have our personal differences. That such an evident reality is to help us better understand the true purpose of life and the reason for living. That it is apparently made part of our lives to help us to support each other in our weaknesses and imperfections; bear each other’s burdens; and binding ourselves with love that extends into the wonders of the glorious eternity.
HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY OUR DEARLY BELOVED FIRSTBORN GRANDDAUGHTER KAYAN BETITA PALMA! We love you very much!
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