After 'Ondoy': Looking for the silver lining

Initially I wanted to rant about 'Ondoy' through my blog, but i decided not to since i know I we weren't the only ones affected. If you must know, our family lives in Vista Verde in Cainta, Rizal, one of the severely hit areas in the country by 'Ondoy'. It was really the worst typhoon experience I've ever had in my whole 25 years of existence. In a nutshell, half our house was submerged in water, all our appliances, clothes, bags, shoes, sack of rice, food, pictures, letters, memorabilias and other things you'll find inside the house of sentimental people got soaked in water that's even higher than I am for a day. We had to stay at our neighbors house to get through the 2 days of 'Ondoy'. We didn't lose everything, but it feels like we're starting over.

But despite all the not-so-good things that happened, I shall cling to the cliche that 'there's always a silver lining'. The recent storm that took so much from our country and people brought about a lot of good things too. Benevolence, generosity, gratefulness and many more were put into play during this so-called onslaught of 'Ondoy'. Allow me to elaborate:

Benevolence - This came after the storm wherein so many groups - private and public were mobilized to do all sorts of relief operations. Even the company I work in gave so many special considerations for those employees severely affected by the typhoon.

Generosity - In our village alone, homeowners with houses with two or more storeys didn't hesitate to take in neighbors whose houses were completely flooded. Our own neighbors even provided us with our own room to stay in - we had the playroom to ourselves. We had good food, drinking water and dry clothes.

Gratefulness - After the storm, news about the losses were balanced out by news of gratefulness. People with houses submerged in water were still very much thankful that their families are complete and that their losses are just material. I may have lost my laptop, digicams, ipod, speakers and other gadgets, but we're all safe and dry. That's more than enough to be thankful for.

Spirit of family and community - The storm has brought neighbors closer who earlier didn't bother to get to know each other but now consider themselves close friends. Families also bonded because of the disaster, hoping to mend whatever material things were broken with the hope and happiness family brings. I got to see my titas and relatives from Malabon and I got to talk to my cousins more often too.

These are just some of the positive things I got out of 'Ondoy', I won't thank the blasted storm (sheesh), but I'll thank the Lord and remember what I got out of it and what I gained despite my loss.