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THE POWER TO FLY, THE WILL TO DREAM

I can’t get enough of this song of Jeffrey Osborneand later revived by Martin Nievera and Regine Velasquez. That’s why I wrote a follow up my previous entry below which I just recently posted last night. There are so many levels of this song that I cannot ignore the realizations I gain just by listening to it. For starters, let me tell you why I like this song very much. It was in 1998 when Martin Nievera and Pops Fernandez separated. That was also the time when I was having our intensification program for the seminary.

Before I used to watch martin in his Martin After Dark show devotedly (and later in his Martin Late @ Night show) but after I entered the seminary, the habit stopped because we were not allowed to watch TV in our own time. We always have the schedule to do so and in a communal manner. So since then I never heard anymore about Martin until when we were in the middle of Nowhere in Rivotorto, Pangasinan (which me and my batchmates spent 2 months without electricity and water as part of our training) did I only hear Martin’s unfortunate separation with pops. Actually my mom called through our formator’s cell phone (remember those giant phones from smart which resembles “pangkaskas ng yelo” Ice Shavers) to greet me on my birthday and told me the bad news. Well I was quite disappointed because I use to idolize him as a family man and expected that he would never do such a thing. But that’s a different story. What I’m going to tell you right now is how a simple song can be so powerful as to inspire a person to pursue life’s most difficult challenges.

After that “separation” incident, he released his “Journeys” album, which contains this song including “Forever” and “You”. When we came to the seminary from Rivotorto, that is when I met our new formator who is eventually also a fan of Martin Nievera. He has collections of Martin albums, which I envied then, until he lent me the “Journeys” album. When I listened to it, what struck me most is the message of this song. Coincidentally at that time, my mom was a victim of political harassment. She was removed from the Budget office as its head together with 20 other department heads because the New Mayor stepped in. It was crazy because they were floated and exiled in another office and freezing their salaries. That is the time when my trial came inside the seminary. My family was financially red while I was having the lifestyle and comfort of a secured seminarian behind the four walls of the seminary. I wanted to go out and help my family but my Postulant Director (who lent me his tapes of Martin) talked me out of it, so I stayed in the seminary and decided to pursue my vocation with his help.

With all of the trials that I’ve been through, my brother capuchins and my director were the ones who taught me how to rise from my wallowing in despair and hopelessness. You see it is very hard to focus inside the formation while at the back of your mind; your family was suffering terribly in poverty and psychological stress. But the weak wings I had then was strengthened by bouts of struggles and trials. My Director taught me how to fly, to face the reality, to be human and to be able to stand on my own.

I discovered so many things about myself and the potentials that you now see in me. Back then, I was an eaglet, very dependent, very vulnerable, very naïve, very idealistic. But everything changed. From being an eaglet, I was formed to flap my wings to try to fly and reach my dreams. After some years, finally I went out of the formation. But it was not the end of my story. It was actually the beginning. My Formator who previously won’t let me go, finally decided to release me from the seminary after so many persuasions from me. He believes in me so much that he was very confident that I could make it own my own.

The challenge for me was how to live the life outside with my new wings. At first, I was afraid to face my new life outside the walls of my seminary home, because I felt so alone. I faced the usual challenge of a seminarian: being questioned about the nature of my leave in the seminary. It was stressful I tell you. Everywhere I go people would always ask me why I left the formation. But I held on to what my Capuchin Heritage taught me and faced the secular world with new heights.

For the span of two months of my stay outside the formation I failed to find a job precisely because I have no degree yet at that time (I was on the last year of my Physical Therapy course when I entered the formation). But like I said before it was a challenge. Rejections from different companies did not stop me from pursuing my dream. Until that faithful day of March 10 when I was called in the Nestle office for my first ever job and was instantly hired as one of the HRD personnel. I was not a degree graduate but my interviewer saw in me the efficiency, the capacity, the brilliance and the eloquence of a degree holder (modesty aside and at least from what she told me after). As unbelievable as it may seem, I worked under my very supportive boss and officemates and had the job description of interviewing applicants and pre-approving their hiring on the basis of my interview and the results of the exams that I gave them. That was when I proved to everyone that my formator was right: you can fly high no matter what the obstacle is and no matter how hard people tell you that you can’t.

Since then my journey in reaching my dreams was outstanding… all because of the God whom I trusted, the people who believed in me and the powerful will to fly high brought by this song. My mom won in the Civilservice against the tyranny of our mayor (he lasted only for a year because the people called for a re-call elections), I graduated in nursing with flying colors, took the boards and passed with a high rating, became one of the University’s pool of Professors, studied my masters degree and now trying to take the NCLEX exam.

The possibilities one can do is endless provided you believe in yourself, you have faith and you have the guts to ride the strong winds with your wings, even if it is going against your direction, even if it seems that you are not ready to glide the winds.

Haven’t you noticed that all of the songs I love, use to sing and listen to are song with the word “wings” or “fly” in them? Awit ng paghahangad (Psalm 63) is very much my favorite as well as the song “On Eagles Wings”. Not to mention “I believe I can Fly” and the current theme song of my blog “Nothing’s gonna stop me now” by David Pomeranz.

The words “wings” and “fly” in them is actually enough to explain why I love them. The significance of “On the wings of love” in my life is as mysterious as the song itself. I use to refer the song as the love song of God to me (Read the lyrics):

Yes you belong to me!
I’m yours exclusively
Right now we live and breathe each other,
Inseperable it seems
We’re flowing like a stream, running free travling on the Wings of Love
On the Wings of Love up and above the clouds, the only way to fly
Is on the Wings of Love
On the Wings of Love, only the two of us,
Together flyin’ high
Flyin’ high upon the Wings of Love

Sentimental fool as I am, just as most of my fellow musicians and artist are, nevertheless I leave you this experience of mine as a testimony of how a song becomes part of one’s life as an inspiration, shape our niche in the greatest scheme of things and how I was able to fly with my own wings and reach my dreams. It started with a song… and I ended up singing it through my lifetime. Our life here on earth is like music: the notes are our decisions. We sing it as our history. And together the song becomes who we are.

Writing this before I go to the review center, I want to leave you a poem of mine, which I wrote in the seminary (together with my 9 original songs) during the lowest point of my life inside those four walls. As the power of the song “On The Wings of Love” swept me, I hope that this poem might sweep you as well, to go on with life, trod the obstacles and fly high on the wings of your every dream.

WINGS

I spread my wings on winds above
to fly to the horizon of unknown
to set afloat in the vast wide space
to reach the goal I groan

With wings of eagle I take flight
above the hardships of terrestrial life
yet in store for me; I was surprised
to find it hard to soar the heights

The winds blew strong in different direction
thrown and tossed; to and fro
yet with decision and determination
I mastered the ways the winds blow

to glide every current tossing
to soar in every force so strong
to rise in every inch of falling
to swoop when everything goes wrong

I take flight to new heights
though human and not an angel
yet powerful as the king of the air
and with wings strong as an eagle

My wings carry me wherever I go
dare to go against the greater things
and through life’s most difficult challenges
I face them all with my mighty wings

(Click here to read the original post of this poem).

You see my brothers and siters, my friends and family, in times of trials, only God is the sole force that lifts you up higher and higher. The more you get closer to Him, the more you love Him, the more you believe in Him and the more you hold on to Him, the higher he takes you in fulfilling your dreams. In our flight we are not alone. we have wings for our flight, but without the wind, we cant launch ourselves into the vast sky of possibilities. God is the sole Wind Beneath Our Wings. Without Him we are just a bunch of fowls: with wings but cannot fly. In him, With Him and Through Him, we are Eagles, ready to take flight on our personal journeys on the wings of our respective dreams.

An inspiration knows no boundaries. Hum. Strum. Sing. Then you will come around and be inspired just from a simple song… because some aspects in our life, started with a song.

PS: A little trivia. The title of my blog was very much influenced by the song, “On The Wings Of Love”. The Poem above became so inspiring that a friend of mine copied it in cursive (I disabled right click here on my site), and posted it on her fridge in her New York apartment. Later her officemates in NY read the poem, which was also posted at her desk and became the hottest poem to be copied that day.