It has been a month and 2 days since Baguio City declared an Enhanced Community Quarantine as part

of the effort to combat the spread of COVID19. Like every other place, each household was assigned a
quarantine pass, and we had to follow the assigned market days for our barangay. The kids and adults in
the house are going stir crazy, so we try and find ways to occupy ourselves during this crisis.

Compassion should come first. We are all in this. Everyone is experiencing this quarantine and all the
emotions that come with it, some more intense than others depending on your situation. Since we are
not able see each other and catch up face to face, we have to make use of what we have to check in
with family and friends.

We have daily video calls with my parents in Quezon City, who are missing their grandchildren dearly.
When I am on Facebook, I prioritize catching up with friends in and outside of Baguio. A simple check in
with someone who you haven’t heard from in a while can make a big difference. You may just be
reaching out at a time when they need someone to talk to the most. All of this is a practice in
compassion and genuine concern. I am hopeful that at the end of this crisis, we will emerge capable of
more kindness and compassion.

Many people complaining about feeling bored and aimless. Some might even feel that it’s a breach of
their individual right, being made to stay home. However, when it comes to the greater good, one
should always be willing to sacrifice a little bit of that freedom. A balance between individual rights and
public safety is an ever changing thing. Trade a little bit of your freedom for the greater good of the
public.

COVID-19 is much more than a health crisis. By stressing every one of the countries it touches, it has the
potential to create devastating social, economic and political crises that will leave deep scars.

Life is short. We seem to think that we’ll live forever. We spend time and money as though we’ll always
be here. We buy shiny things as though they matter and are worth the debt and stress of attachment.
We put off the so-called “trip of a lifetime” for another year, because we all assume we have another
year. We don’t tell the ones we love how much we love them often enough because we assume there’s
always tomorrow.

It remains the most important thing that we need God because he will give us safety, tranquility and
reassurance that he will not strike us except God’s office and that whatever power we have reached we
will still need God to help us and remove from calamity and we have to believe in God Almighty and
without his mercy we would be in a situation worse than this a thousand times