Orion

photo by sam-goodgame-437215-unsplash

There! Three distinct stars shining in their timeless row. The identical ones I had been seeing since I was a child. Having forgotten the names of most constellations as well as their individual stars, I can still pick out Orion’s Belt without hesitation wherever I am.

Rula was the one who had taught me about constellations. Orion was her absolute favorite: The Hunter with his Bow and Dogs. Late at night, I used to sit bundled up in the highlands beside her, peering into the universe through telescopes. What I loved most were the fantastic names every object had.

Quasars!

Dwarf Stars!

Nebulae!

Rula could enunciate each name accurately, explaining the meanings and history of a particular star, constellation or other heavenly body. I admired the beauty of the knowledge she possessed. She once said the immenseness of the cosmos was God’s way of reminding us of our true place in creation. She believed that the night sky was to give us perspective whenever our earthly cares overwhelmed us. She was right. Some of us take this merry-go-round called life too seriously. Others treat it much too lightly. All of us are guilty at one time or another of not maintaining a proper perspective and have to live with the consequences of that failure.

Bellatrix.

Betelgeuse.

Rigel.

Stars found only in Orion.

I remember Rula each time I see Orion in the night sky and can’t help thinking of what might have been.

 

photo from unsplash.com by Sam Goodgame

 

 

The Witness

My plan was that I’d be the one surprising them. I hadn’t considered guns or violence. In hindsight, I should have.

I was the one who was going to deliver the surprise. Neither she nor he knew that I had found out about them. Or about this hideaway of theirs. It was an accidental discovery on my part, just as I had accidentally discovered their affair.

Just after Christmas last year, I was leaving to Mindanao for my project. The timing was poor because everybody, including my Filipino colleagues, were on holiday. But I had a deadline and only I could go to the village outside of Surigao, meet the persons I needed to meet, complete my report and have something to present to the renewable energy committee that paid for the project. Despite the hurry to leave and catch my plane, I had noticed the flip-flops in a corner of the garage that I rarely visited. I had been looking for my seldom used safety boots and there, beside the boots, were these blue house-slippers. They were not mine.

Over three hours later, safely on the plane, I had an epiphany looking down from twenty thousand feet at mountainous white clouds that filled my window. There was a guy in her past who had liked the colour blue. He often wore blue-coloured footwear. I remembered when I began dating her and we were introduced, that that habit was the thing that struck me most about him. He owned several pairs of blue footwear. I know because he wore a different one on each occasion we met, including my wedding day. I was sure it wasn’t a sentimental ornament that she – my wife – kept, because the pair looked new. Next to my dried, mud-caked boots, the flip-flops clearly stood out. In my mind, I was sure there was a more current reason for the presence of the slippers.

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The Principle of the Monster Surprise

We all think we’ve met Monsters in our lives. That may or may not be true. But do we know how to deal with one when we do?

God bless the Monster. It’s a decent thing actually. It wants to be loved like every other living thing. It’s appearance can be improved no doubt but I’d say that’s perfectly acceptable considering it’s got a beating heart, like you and me, inside. Which makes it ultimately, lovable. Don’t prejudge a monster. Don’t do that. Walk right up to the Monster. Look it in the eye, kindly. Be respectful. And that’s when the surprise happens.

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