Missed opportunities (?)

Do we really know if we missed an opportunity? Or letting one to go by because we’re expecting another one to come?

I’m sure everyone of us is now hooked on the news for the past hours of our lives, wasting our time thinking about this “missed opportunity” that our country had for some 24 hours now.

The 11-hour Grandstand bus siege, which took 8 foreign lives and 1 frustrated cop, ended up in a worldwide mourning. Everyone is expecting for a peaceful finish and praying for divine intervention to pacify the angry hostage-taker. What we thought a smooth negotiation turned into a bloody-mess conclusion. We missed the opportunity to save lives and save souls.

Early this morning, all were tuned in to the Ms. Universe 2010 pageant aired in ABS-CBN. Honestly, I was excited to watch this pageant for I know deep in my heart, Venus Raj will be crowned as the 2010 Ms. Universe. And so, I was so happy when she was part of the Top 15, then top 10 and lastly top 5 finalists. She has gone that far and I’m so proud of her. The Q&A came, Venus was the last candidate to answer in the Q&A portion. I guess, in a contest like this, all questions will be considered as tough questions by all contestants– given the circumstances in answering the question. Venus'question was “What is one big mistake you’ve made and what did you do to make it right?”, which she answered, “In my 22 years of existence, I can say that (I haven’t had a major, major problem) because I am very confident with my family and the love that they are giving to me so thank you so much that I am here. Thank you so much.”

Being in the top 5 of Ms. Universe was already a great achievement for the Philippines, although we missed the opportunity of winning the fabulous crown, we should all be proud that Venus has gone that far.

Are these two incidents can be considered missed opportunities? Or God is just preparing us for another one that is more fabulous than this?

The Grandstand bus-siege may be frustrating, but at least now it gave us a clear picture that our government, specifically the PNP, has no enough skills and knowledge (not even little) in handling such crisis. Sadly, most of the times we learn things in the hard and painful way where we get our strength and motivation to make things right next time. It may be unfortunate that our country was placed in a bad light, live, internationally, but pointing fingers can do nothing good either for the Philippines. It’s high time to face the reality that we, the Philippines, need a lot more to learn. For me, the incident opens the door for us to learn, to be more humble and be more cooperative to our government in praying that this event will pass, as fast as the bullet trains and together let’s begin a new start from where we fell. As to Ms. Venus, nothing has missed there, really. God prepared you to be the 4th runner up of that pageant and you are blessed for not missing that opportunity. And when you come back, stand tall for you made the Filipinos proud and divert our grieving hearts to victorious one.

Stop negative talks. Stop pointing fingers. Stop looking for major major mistakes. Let’s all move on and wait for another opportunity that God has prepared for all of us. Let's keep the faith. Let go and let God.

God bless Philippines!