Voices by the Sea

About the Book

Life, especially the examined life, is always a dialogue whether this is between two persons or between a person and his conscience. It always involves a question and answer, two feet carrying a person on the seashore of life in search of meaning. The book is about a dialogue of two friends, Mel and Ma-isha who started their dialogue by the seashore with a recognition that many people get waylaid in life not so much in the big issues of life which great minds have reflected on but in the ordinary things like eating and drinking, bathing, working, and living with others. And yes, religion! Because they are so common, the ordinary things in life are taken so routinely and for granted that in the process the extraordinary in them is lost. The baby is thrown with the bath water! Mel and Ma-isha, having just gone out of school, engaged in a dialogue not so much to have a final say on the subjects that they discussed but to lead the yearnings in the hearts of people caught in the spreading desert of life to the extraordinary which is a shimmering oasis in the midst of the ordinary for the tired travelers of life to have their fill. They do not need to look beyond the stars to quench their thirst for life. All they have to do is to open their hearts and minds to the extraordinary in the ordinary things in life. The divine is closer to our hearts than we often think!

About the Author

Medardo M. Panlilio is an economic development planner who likes to write and who, just like everyone, has journeyed through the desert and garden of life, literally in the countries he had visited, studied, and lived, and metaphorically, through the hearts and minds of people he meets in life. He is a witness to the best and the bleakest in the human condition for which he hopes to someday contribute even more to the alleviation of unnecessary human sufferings around the world especially those caused by human corruptions and injustice, and iniquitous social structures. He likes to be by the sea and on mountaintops to reconnect to the extraordinary and the source of wonder in life and to take a breather from weariness in the seemingly ceaseless chase for shadows around a circuitous track called the clock. In doing so, he is able to take a glimpse beyond matter to what, at the end, really matters—life lived to the fullest even in apparent emptiness. Currently, Medardo M. Panlilio lives with his wife and son in Surrey, Canada.