SCENT OF A PRINTED BOOK

Last night, I smelled my high school library!

Holy Week does not only give us time to reflect. It also gives us the time to do some cleaning and clearing, aside from cleansing. So I was cleaning my daughter's rented apartment. When I was on the bookshelves, I wiped off the dust from those volumes of encyclopedia and curiously smelled its pages. Just like that, and I was trapped on a time warp that I found myself sitting on a chair when I first had the chance to use our high school library. It was unbelievable, so I smelled it again. And yes, I was not mistaken. I was back to the late '70s when I was but a greenhorn in the campus. 

Thinking that my readers would appreciate this experience, I sat right in front of the computer and started encoding this little story of how the sense of smell can very well take us to places we never imagined. It could instantly take us to a world of fantasy or to the distant past. The smell of a crisp, unfolded paper bill takes me to those Christmastimes in childhood when godparents and relatives would hand me their cash gift. Passing by the house where aroma of Ilocano cuisine diffuses takes me to Ilocos and summer vacations when I was a teenager. The odor of perfume that I used in my youth could take me back to the time when I was so naive and cute guys were an exciting sight. The smell of a spray net takes me to the '80s when using it before going out of the house was as ordinary as brushing the teeth.  

Before closing this little account I stood up and headed to the bookshelves to smell the pages once again. Eyes closed this time, I fell in love with the moment that I was taken back to that part of my life when I was such a blank page ready to be stamped with all of life's new experiences, to take me to the destination where I should be. Now as I close the encyclopedia, the scent of those printed pages vanished in a snap. I'm back to cleaning, happy that I had this reflection which could also remind my readers how grateful we should be to the Lord who created us. The lives that we live are so unique from one another. At some points, there could be similarities, but no two persons have exactly the same fate. And how many people are there on this planet? Have you imagined how many stories of different lives there are on earth? What kind of artist can do that masterpiece? Altogether now, let us thank The Great Artist who gave us life...

Thank you, Lord, for everything

The journey has been worth it

Everything was not insignificant 

Thanks for making me live

Thank you, my Lord, for this day
That you came to send a message

Thank you for coming tonight
Touching my heart, renewing my faith.

Amen!