Give Thanks

When I was about two years old, I had a bad accident. I enjoyed exploring our house in Marawi, Mindanao - where my parents were teaching at the then newly established Mindanao State University. This was not always a good thing, especially when it came to going into the kitchen. So my father made some low tables to prevent me from getting close to the stove.

One day, while my mother was cooking, it seems that I decided to make it to the stove area by going under the tables my father had deliberately set up to prevent me from getting there. Like an athlete trying to get through an obstacle course, I evidently crawled under the tables and made it to Ibu, who had not noticed my great feat! To get her attention, I waved up my arms and managed to hit a frying pan with hot oil in it, causing it to pour down my left arm.

In a moment, my joyful squeal of delight turned into a blood curdling scream as the hot oil burned my skin.

Just as quickly, Ibu snatched me up and put me into the kitchen sink, running cold water on the area that had oil on it. I am so lucky she did. For this prevented the burns from swelling up with liquid in them. Except for a small part that was closest to my body. This part bears the scars of that incident till today, but barely. Other than that, there is no evidence left behind.

For several weeks after the incident, every morning I would have to be taken to the clinic to get my bandages changed. This was an extremely painful procedure, and understandably, I dreaded it. Ibu and Bapak tell me that I would cry the whole way, knowing what was to come.

Everyday, though, as the nurses were changing the dressing and putting new ones on, I would also thank them while sobbing..."Kakam..." - Budhsi-speak for "thank you", derived from "Welcome."

Ibu says that this would get the nurses to start crying too..."We're causing her so much pain, and yet she still says thank you!" But of course. My parents brought me up well!

At mass today, the visiting priest, Father Sylvester from Timor Lorosae spoke of how often we forget to say thank you. I have always noticed this and been surprised when others are surprised by how I frequently thank people for something...the toll booth person for giving me a ticket stub, the parking attendant for finding me a space, and other occasions.

Father Sylvester gave a very moving sermon, ending it with a call for us to be more willing to thank others and to show our gratitude. To anyone, indiscriminately. For God can be found in all people, he said. "And it would be a shame if we were to let God pass us by," he ended.

"We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us," says Marianne Williamson, in the famous poem read by Nelson Mandela at his inauguration. If we open our eyes and truly see this in our fellow human beings, we will feel compassion and it will come naturally to then both verbally say thank you as well as show our gratitude to others.

It's easy. Really. We just need to become better at it, so that it is something we do naturally and with meaning. You will be amazed at the effect it has on the person you have thanked, whom you have acknowledged with gratitude.

Kakam.