A LIFE'S PHILOSOPHY

I would like to begin my reflection “What is my life’s philosophy as a future counselor?” through the song Something More by Lea Salonga.

“Beyond my eyes can see,

There must be something more.

Beneath the surface rush of things

There’s something else in store

Beyond this daily strife, there must be more to life

An underlying rhyme in things

I must have known before

I bear my private pains

I go the extra mile

Will you be there beyond this road,

To meet me with your smile

In search of meaning in the skies?

Before the seasons changed,

Before I grew to wise

I watched the passing clouds

I read between the lines

But the verses lost their rhymes

And though the truth has long been told,

I’m still waiting for a sign

Before my very eyes

You’ll shed your last disguise

And then I’ll realize I need nothing more.”

Keeping in mind my belief about life, there is always something more, something that is beyond my capacity to see, to reach and to understand. But then I realize I am wrong. My belief is convinced, my heart is opened when I have an opportunity to learn and prepare myself to become an effective counselor in the future. And yet, to become an effective future counselor, I must set a goal, a life philosophy in order for me to know clearly of who I am, what I am doing, whom I am encountering with and what are the values I believe that will be my guide to journey with those who are utmost in need of help. It is a great challenge! To confront with this challenge I am invited to look beyond to find the true meaning of counseling and being a counselor. Then to realize that counseling is not just something happens between the two persons; person-to-person, but more than that, it is also relatively with “human service” which I must be an effective instrument in bringing people together and help them to appreciate their goodness and the value of reconciliation with themselves and with one another.

            As a religious woman who will work in the field of counseling, I again ask myself, what my life philosophy is. It is not honest for me to say: I love God, but I do not love people whom I serve. Saint John says “You are a liar if you say you love God and don’t love others.” It disturbs my heart. In my limitation, asking myself, how do I share my love with others as a counselor? Promoting well-being and respect for differences but not manipulate people would be my strategy by joining hand to share my love service in this sensitive field.

To work effectively in this field, I am asked to prepare myself to be ready to welcome whatever would happen in this service, there will be a difficult time when the probability of success is very low or when the possibility of helping someone moving out of his/her life’s tragedy is seen as hopelessness. It is difficult to admit this truth as a counselor. But I realize it does not matter. My goal is to be called to create a future of hope by sharing my effort, belief, trust and confidence with those who entrust their life’s stories to me by sharing to seek for enlightenment, encouragement and hope while they experience life is very fragile and problematic. This takes form of establishing trustful relations before I can listen to their broken-hearted stories.

Then I would ask myself: has all this been a little much for me? Do I feel that the world is filled with problems without any promise of solutions? Do I feel that people are supporting burdens that will crush them? Yes, when people come to the counselor, they must be possessed by their smallness and inadequacy. My empathy will involve people in the greatest challenge to bring them from their fragmentation and sense of isolation, to restore to them as sense of their own dignity and worth, to provide them with room for personal distinction and identity, to find the wellsprings of hope that give them a reason to live joyfully and the reason to die meaningfully.

To prove for what I have shared from above, I would give a concrete example for you to have a clear picture about my desire to become an effective counselor. At this moment, I am entrusted to do a mission that is in line with what I am studying. I am in-charge a group of women called care-givers. Most of them come from different provinces in the poor families with so many problems. Each one has her own stories to tell. My very first attitude is to listen without judging. I respect them as who they are. And I learn from their tragedies. Behind the problems that they are handling, there is a secret place of goodness that needs to be discovered. Behind the smiles just to show “I’m ok!” there are tears that are swallowed bitterly. With all these problems, it seems to me that there is no such thing as a clear-cut pure joy. But I believe there are always goodness and hope behind these when I look beyond these difficulties to define them in these. It is not easy to appreciate this new insight; because there were times I felt into their battlefield and lose my hope when I could only see sufferings all around. Then again I ask myself “How can I be an affective counselor when I have no hope?”

To live with joy in fragile and limiting contexts means to be ready to welcome whatever may come to me and others. I nourish my hope for there is a way-out; there is a hopeful expectation, a meaning to live a life of hope. But the matter is how to have this attitude? Suffering comes to all of us, either directly in our own personal lives or indirectly because of the comparison we feel for suffering relatives, friends, neighbors and people around. As a counselor, I believe suffering is a mystery in which you and I are all personally involved, rather than a problem that stands apart from us. Apart from these, what make me different with others is I am educated and trained for first reason is to be a hopeful and effective counselor; second reason is to share my hope with others so that they may be the hopeful people in the midst of challenges and demands of life and transpire to those who have experienced as they experienced about life.

            Everyone is worthy to live a good life. It is another life philosophy. Behind the tragedy, there is a hidden wisdom that needs to learn. I believe people’s goodness and strength and these are the mean for them to overcome their tragedies. I believe people’s power that is the strength for them to rise up like eagle in the sea of struggles and sufferings to make a choice for life and for the better that they are worthy to receive.

            Things are clear and understood, and for that I would say I need nothing more. What I need now is to fulfill my goal.

            Thanks for this reflection that helps me to really not only reflect on how I will become an effective future counselor, how I look at the people who come to me to seek for help. Moreover it is my life reflection; the reflection of discerning heart. And it touches my heart and changes my point of view about life.

            Life is difficult. It is great truth. I am invited to make life becoming loving and easier. It is a challenge and a demand as a future counselor.