Cadena de Amor | because love keeps us afloat

Cadena de Amor (\ Antigonon leptopus \) is a philippine herbal plant. The name is of spanish decent, which translates to 'Chain of Love/Hearts' in english.

The struggle in trying to even start this post is unforgiving...X_x This is the last reflection paper I have to submit before I can finally slack all day and wait for graduation to happen. *must fight lazyness* @_@!!

It sucks that I can't yet feel the confidence to post status updates about graduating from Uni... For some reason, I feel hesitant because I haven't yet submitted the hardbound copy of my senior project to my adviser. *insert lazy college senior meme here*. But first things first.. This reflection paper.. *focus neith...focus, you can reply to all the messages in your inbox when you're done with this*

COP - Community Outreach Program

UNDERSTANDING THE JOURNEY

The most striking realization during the Basic Orientation Seminar was that (1) I co-exist with the poor and (2) if my 12 year old self would have been exposed to this reality, he would've already killed himself out of the depressing truth. *exaggeration added*

It bothers me to think that while I am living my childhood days watching television, kids my age are working to feed themselves. However, as I will explain in depth in the succeeding paragraphs, the COP affirms the mission that I set for myself years ago; "Make my part of the world better, since aiming to fix the whole of it isn't possible".

THE ROADS I HAVE TAKEN

I was honestly expecting that what would propel me to work come the time when we'd be at the outreach site would be the thought of planting the mangroves as fast as possible in order not to be under the sun for too long.

Halfway during the jeepney ride i noticed that my mindset transitioned into a somewhat unfamiliar state. I recall that this transition, during the jeepney ride, regarding my sentiments toward the outreach activity happened when I noticed that what's around me are not anymore concrete buildings but huge trees that shaded us as we traveled. The familiar noise of car horns and downtown generators were replaced by the deafening bird chirps and soothing rhythms of the cool morning breeze hitting my ears. The odor of livestock animals grazing through the grasslands made me somehow, for a time, forget the scent of processed meat I was accustomed to smelling when in the city.




It was a humbling experience. Being a student whose life mainly revolves around befriending his laptop to meet the demands of the course Information Technology, I found it very refreshing that the COP experience reminded me of the life outside of one's and zero's. The there is this wonderful world apart from that consumed with circuits and motherboards. That there are parts of the world that can do without electrical sockets and power supplies. I was reminded that there exists nature, and that nature is beautiful.

The mere thought of how beautiful nature is and how I was privileged  to witness it's beauty sparks up the drive to work hard during the activity. The sight of the sea was amazing as it was overwhelming. Every time I was thrusting a mangrove seedling into the sands of the shoreline as the waves caressed my feet, I knew that I wasn't doing it for myself. It's even evident in my group mates' faces that they as well weren't doing it just for themselves.

The crystalline blue skies and the vast sea that fades into the horizon were enough to make me realize we all are connected. That even if we do not have a straightforward answer as to why we are here, life offers us the chance to be exposed to people, places, events and circumstances that makes us feel it's worth living... and it indeed is. 

THE ROADS I HAVE NOT TAKEN

It always pains me when I cannot spare change whenever homeless kids on the street would be reaching their palms toward me. It depresses me actually, that such suffering is witnessed on a daily basis and has now become customary.

When I tried thinking about how I could fix the world. I literally became sick, I fell into a rare kind of depression, a depression that haunts the self because it was able to conceptualize something that isn't possible. It took me i guess 6 whole months before I finally accepted that I can't be the general manager of the universe and therefore I trimmed down my goal to a more realistic one. That is, to make my part of the world better/awesome.

The regret in knowing that I cannot fix the world became the inspiration to make good the parts of it that I can. This metanoia included a heightened value for people I meet, a boosted sense of appreciation for the common things, a rearrangement regarding my hierarchy of values, in particular putting abstract things such as love, respect and charity above those which are tangible like money, achievement and power.

THE ROADS I WANNA TAKE

In my world, family should be the first community that anyone should try to help. Guided by this, and guided by the drive to make my part of the world better, I plan to immerse myself well in my career so much so that when the time comes that I am already able to provide sufficiently for the people i love (my immediate community) I can now move towards providing beyond my immediate circle.

I embrace being of this Chain of Hearts, and I wish shake my part of the chain well...

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**m-m-must have some kind of un-serious ending.,x.x*

FATA MORGANA (f'a'ta as in n'ei'than)
During the outreach activity I was able to witness one of nature's coolest optical illusions, the 'Fata Morgana'... it blew my mind

Good Day Angels! Have a good one...

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