A Hero

“Trust thyself.”

Those were the last words I heard before we parted ways. A mental line of strings connected me to him through those words. As if we met in another world imparting the words about believing in my potentials.

It was dawn and the sun didn’t show up yet. Today is going to be a big busy day. Being an earnest student of him, I did what I had to do to absorb every bit of knowledge his mouth could unleash the night. His passion to teach was the legacy he had imprinted in me.

His attempt to inundate wisdom to a young leader to be what he could be by following the calling of the heart was his ultimate passion. The thought hit me and paused for a while before leaving bed to straighten up.

I keep thinking about those words. His eyes met mine as his last words skyrocketed to meet an empty glass who thirsts to learn. In a simple nod of him I silently recognized what he meant with those words. His nod was ultimate, definitely a language louder than any word spoken by mouth. I look at him in disbelief of what those words to me in reality. It was sudden.

A message I could not believe enough to awaken a sleeping force deeply inside. A man I know whose enormous belief in me had me overcome of the disbeliefs in myself. It was deep and piercing.

For years, I had been slave to the opinions of others.

While most of the world is asleep by this moment, I stand on my feet and reflect for the meantime the beauty a teacher had given, with his will, by all his time and effort for the sake of learning. I bow to a teacher and mentor for his willingness to help paved a way the rise of a new era with vanguard of skills and knowledge enough to leverage the generations to come. As the thought hit me, I realized I’d been not enough a good student. But I don’t feel shame for it. My flaws as a learner had been a tough struggle for him but never forgot what he had done for me in order to define the meaning of life and live it.

I consider up to this time the moment I lived my life was the time I bowed to the wisdom of a teacher. His tongue sharp enough to cut the pieces of a material world in order to introduce a better world unseen by eyes, lays a sublime beauty, every man’s dream and wish.

I went to the table to write from my mental list the goal for the week. Instead of writing the goal for the week, I found myself writing a note.

I don’t write this because I owe him, I write because I thank him for the kind of footprint he left in me. With the tough roads and challenges I have had with him in those times, I feel compelled to share here what my little mind had become because of him. And absolutely, none of them I regret.

As I clear the table, I went outside to see the great morning and wait in a little the rise of the sun. It’s the first day of Summer.

There came a time when I was given no choice but to battle against myself due to crankiness and sloppiness, and his intervention in an attempt to aid me was one I considered a spark of miracle. However, it didn’t end there. His constant supervision made me realize I was never alone. He keeps telling humility and humor will give support when I begin to set my dream in motion. I was making a morning coffee when the idea dawned on me.

He always was correct when he said the lines. I was halfway finishing my coffee when I entertained those words again. I pondered what that might be. “Believing in self,” I reckon.  For a moment I sailed into recollection to find what the words are, and his nod. Remembering the days I had no faith in my being and was controlled totally by the words of others.

It was a language I couldn’t much explain, but I know the meaning. I needed the wisdom of my heart for some explanation. What came out of his mouth was never an educated guess but the truth. It was until I imagined my life in abundance when I fully recognize what the words are.

It’s a new day but the spirit of his words last night was fresh still and driving the thoughts of mine paralyzed to his.

After finishing seeing the great morning and meeting the sunrise and having coffee, I went to the community chapel and faced the altar and asked for enlightenment. Up to this moment I feel the spirit of his words wrapping me when I needed them. Real. Definite. It was liberating. What a learner can tell a guru, put me in the position of the learner, I shall say he is a hero. Never will my tongue disagree to his last words, and his nod definitely the last piece of symbol of belief.

The mentoring and teaching I had with him will be the basis of my principle-centered decisions. Forever I will stand to that point where I will choose between my will and other’s opinion, then in a little notice, recall those words, and finally say “I trust my will and unlimited potentials”. Those words of him, ultimate and fierce, now immortal in my vocabulary, will be the words I shall cling upon until my death.

After having a rebuttal on the thought with myself I went to carry the appointment I had with the local doctor. On my way, I remembered the words of philosopher Seneca taken from his writings some two thousand years ago that said: “As long as you live, keep learning how to live.”

Love and Care.