By Cleofe Uy Catuday
It’s only the sixth week of the year, and so much seems to have transpired. The changing customer behavior is a top consideration for companies, and the composition of various generations in our workforce has made us revisit our company practices and even the way we have molded our culture. We are in constant need to be fluid and agile. It’s not just going where the wind blows us but taking hold of ourselves wherever we may be taken.
Just as we were thinking that the back-to-back celebrations of the Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day were giving us commercial gains on the business side, given all the hype and preparations, here is another once-in-many-years circumstance of having to celebrate Valentine’s Day at the same time as the church’s commemoration of Ash Wednesday. As fluidity is the name of the game, what could have been a blast of steak and wine date nights, outlets, restaurants, and hotels had to adjust by offering seafood and gourmet fish offerings to ensure people could observe both celebrating the day of love and respecting the abstinence that goes with Ash Wednesday observance.
As explained by the church, Ash Wednesday is tied to the scheduled Easter Sunday, thus it can move. This year just made it even more memorable for both celebrations and commemorations. So much hype and noise were made because of the unusual timing, making 2024 another uniquely special year for all of us blessed to experience it.
Ash Wednesday reminds us of humble beginnings and our inevitable end. From dust, we come, and to dust, we shall return. It reminds us that our earthly stay is temporary and our lives are borrowed from God. No matter what situations we are in, economy we stand on, or what season of life we live, all of us will eventually meet our creator at some point. It also reminds us to live our lives according to His will to prepare us for the life after this one.
Valentine’s Day, on the other hand, reminds us of the various forms of love that we can celebrate among loved ones like husbands and wives, love for partners, for our children, friends, and for the company we work for. Moreover, our love for God. It teaches us to celebrate our continuous choice to keep loving, to be grateful for the people who also choose to love us, and to be in an attitude of thanksgiving for the shared beautiful relationships we have across the ecosystems we revolve in and our respective spheres of influence. Love is the ultimate gift we can give ourselves and others, being the great equalizer between people and the catalyst for better understanding, compassion, and even peace.
Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day represent our life’s full circle, from our beginning to our end, and the love that fills our lives in between. How utterly wise God teaches us His lessons even across celebrations we have while here on earth, like the one we just celebrated this week. A meeting of widely observed celebrations reconciled in one date, made even more special this year. Whether we are observing the day in its modern-day and commercial celebration means or declaring it a day of observance in respect of our faith and spirituality, one thing is for sure: the start of our lives here on earth has been God’s gift to our parents and our loved ones. The end is our gift to God, giving Him ourselves based on how we have lived our lives, and the love in between is our gift to ourselves as we live a life filled with purpose and meaning.
