Life is a grand symphony of instrumental masterpieces weaved through the many wonders of the world. The musical score changes if a note is missed or altered, yet miraculously a new rhythm is found when we take notice of the conductor: our soul guides. People whom we meet by mere coincidence, a random stranger or perhaps someone introduced through a mutual connection. Whichever the case, they come into our lives to guide us, teach us, nudging us on the right path. And through this, we in turn unknowingly serve them. American mythological guru, Joseph Campbell once referred to this as the "universal will of nature".
A wise, old Filipino sage, Romy-one of my soul guides-taught me many life lessons. Not too long ago, he challenged me to rise each morning with the same joyful accord as the birds singing in the trees. This challenging harmonic feat put me in touch with the peaceful tunes of nature.
And soon after, I found another life-changing tune in a wind beaten orchard: a cold, sick bay.
Of all days, Valentine's Day, a nurse rolled me on a bed from the emergency unit, to a room on the respiratory floor. Upon entering my room, my eyes fell on a bouquet of pink roses, beside the sink.
The flowers belonged to my hospital roommate, an elderly woman in bed A. I would later learn her friend, Helen had brought the roses, snipped from Doris' own garden. Gifted without a vase, six pink roses bloomed in an unpleasant, yet practical container-a men's plastic urinal. Leaning in closer, the rosebuds opened, unlocking a mandala of rose petals. As I brushed my teeth in front of the vanity mirror, I inhaled the fragrant winds of destiny. The image birthed a novel. Far away from Cupid's arrows, heart-shaped chocolates or swanky dinner reservations, I answered the call to adventure like Luke Skywalker in search of the Force. Ironically, Campbell's writing inspired George Lucas to write Star Wars.
And, like the roses in the urinal, I found my bloom in the most unexpected places...
Roses In the Urinal, a novel in progress.
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