The "Taxi Ride " Commune

I often feel uneasy taking taxi rides: the fare is hiking until I reach my destination, thus I always distrust the driver. I also often lose my sense of navigating directions, which I use in many jeepney rides. And the worse thing possible is to be mugged. But, this one taxi ride I had 2 nights ago was something more profound than the rest. If not for being 2 hours late, I won't be able to experience this very special ride.

I was trapped in a heavy traffic along Imus, Cavite on my way to Manila. A friend was waiting, and he had been there for 2 hours. I was uncontrollably worried, as if I squeezed out all my calmness that moment. We were about to attend a special event in Quezon City where both of us participated for the past 5 months. It was scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m., and right at that time, I was still on the bus. We need another 2 hours to make our way out of the heavily entangled traffic to reach the venue. That was the reason why I worry. When I met my friend, he was very composed, happily caught my attention in the middle of the crowd. I was really sorry, but he said it was OK. Still, we were clueless how to get to our destination in the fastest way possible. Taxi ride was the only option left.

After hailing 3 taxis bound with passengers, a heaven-sent taxi arrived like it was ready to pick us up. I asked the driver if he can bring us to our venue where we would come for the first time. He asked us a small tip and then we're all set. Without any second thoughts and past judgments, I gave all my trust to the driver to lead us to the fastest route. I think that the attitude of trusting became a fertile ground for us to talk about Love.

Of course, the driver can overhear any conversation from his passengers and it made us welcome him to join. I mentioned to the driver that my friend and I are both from Batangas, and in a surprising coincidence, the driver's wife is likewise. Then a chain of topics sprung up, overlapping one after the other. One of them was about the Communes.

I shared them my endeavor of holding the Communes in Laguna. Communes are held to give way to talk about the most neglected essence we have in our lives: LOVE. I had drawn some of my most favorite and inspiring verses in the Bible, referring to the Love that is all inside us, the Love that we are. In Matthew 6:33 Jesus tells us to seek first the Kingdom of God. To find where the Kingdom of God is, Luke 17:21 says that it is all within us. Because God, according to 1 John 4:8, is Love. And all the qualities of Love are in 1 Cor 13:4-7.

The driver then asked me: "Sinasabi mo ba na magiging Diyos na rin ang tao?" (So are you telling me that humans can become God?") It was an unprecedented question from someone whose every day only loops around the busy city roads. All I had in mind was to answer our true nature: WE are all Love. And if we are Love then we are God. It is a very simple logic.

He would have disagreed me at one point, but as he stressed that we become "like God" for we embody God's quality, I couldn't agree more. He shared from his own understanding what God and Love are, and this heartfelt thought is what moved our conversation to become a Commune in its own right.

Kuya Boy, the driver, told us a story of one of his passenger. A guy in his thirties who just came from a hospital somewhere in Manila was enraged as he get in the taxi. He was very angry on how the hospital staff treated him, something that concerns with his qualifying documents to accommodate him in the hospital. As he was raging, his blood pressure shoots up. He crumpled the documents, cursing the hospital that rejected him. With calm demeanor, Kuya Boy appeased his passenger's anger. "Relax lang." ("Just relax.") He told him that nothing can be done except to accept things as they are; the more he gets angry, the more he can endanger his life of possibly dying on hypertension. Minutes later, the guy calmed down, breathed deeply, smoothed his crumpled documents and then thanked Kuya Boy. He felt OK, his anger appeased, and went on well that day.

This story is a perfect example of how Kuya Boy shared Love. And through it, I learned that he is a percentage of thousands of people living and sharing Love silently, in their simplest yet most profound ways. I began to recall my worrisome thoughts just an hour ago before this taxi ride, and made me appreciate that those prior events caused me to experience this commune on the road. Kuya Boy told us that I must continue the Communes, which he thought is an important undertaking to spread the message of Love--the message that WE are LOVE.

We arrived one hour late with all the worries shed out. Kuya Boy was near home, so he decided to cancel the tip he previously asked. We were very thankful, and sent intentions of blessings to him as he left.

It was funny that Love really make things a lot possible. It turned out that we were not really late at all. Our fellows were still waiting for our special guest to arrive. The guest arrived 10 minutes later and then the event officially started.

Things happen for a reason. And that reason is LOVE.