Last year, I forgot to turn off our lights during Earth Hour.  I remembered about it a day after the event. I kinda felt bad about it.  So this year, I set an alarm on my phone so I wouldn’t forget about it. But, even without setting an reminder about Earth Hour, how could I miss it this time?  It’s everywhere on TV, even on Disney Channel!

So last night, we had our dinner earlier than usual.  We ate at around 6:30pm.  By 7:30pm, Dwyn was done eating.  He is always the last one to finish his food.  By 8pm, all our lights had been switched off.  We stayed in my sister’s ro, watched TV on Earth Hour and waited for everyone else to turn off their lights.

By 8:30pm, I went out of our house and saw the other houses nearby turned their lights off one by one.  Not everyone in our village participated though.  And I’m not sure if Quezon City participated as well, because the street lights weren’t switched off.

I heard some of my neighbors passing by saying they had turned off their lights already.  I kinda felt a sense of pride for those who joined Earth Hour.

We then decided to take a ride and look if others joined the Earth Hour in our area.  I was pretty much surprised and amazed that even establisments dimmed their lights or reduced their light consumption.  I saw Jollibee, Mercury Drug Store, McDonalds, Trinoma, 7-11, Shell, Petron, Greenwich, Red Ribbon, Pancake House, KFC, Caltex turned off some of their lights.

I was pretty much overwhelmed by this event.  It showed that we are concerned about our planet, about saving Mother Earth. I’m sure we can make any hour Earth Hour.

Even my almost 3 year old son was aware about Earth Hour.  My sister heard him talking apparently to someone on the phone, saying “lola, it’s Earth Hour.  Turn off light.”

Tabing Bakod, Sta. Maria, Bulacan:  this is the place where I grew up.  We lived here until I was in grade two.  Honestly, I’ve never seen Tabing Bakod as it is now.  People are walking on the streets as if it’s one big park.  And it’s very enticing to walk because of all the Christmas lights and decorations.

In all those years that I’ve been in that area, I’ve never seen people, not only from our town but from other towns as well, walking on the streets at night.

I was very much captivated by what I saw earlier this evening.  I was inside my cousin’s van when I looked out the window and there it was – a smiley face smiling down on me from the heaven above.  I immediately pointed out the smiley face to everyone in the van.  Needless to say, we were all excited about it.  Honestly, it was the first time I saw that vision in the sky.  If you were out on the streets, it would be really hard to miss.  The first time I saw it, around 7pm I guess, the sky was pretty much empty with stars and clouds.  I thought there were two stars that served as eyes, but it turned out that those were planets, jupiter and venus.  And a crescent moon served as the smiley lips.  It was a pretty good sight!  I wasn’t able to take a photograph of it, but I found this picture at fox news’ website:

the smiley face in the sky

Isn’t it just amazing?  You can check more pictures at http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,5826,00.html#4_0.

Isn’t it amazing that a smiley face appeared when the world is facing so many challenges at the moment, the global financial crisis, the recently ended Mumbai attack, among so many things?

Maybe, it’s God’s way of telling us that life may be hard, but we should never forget to smile.  When I saw that smiley face in the sky, I felt light, as if all the burdens I’ve been carrying just melted away with that big smile on the sky.