Sorry, guys, but it's beyond my tech powers to enlarge this poster so please just click on it to view. :)Monday, January 26, 2009
CHECK THIS OUT AND SIGN-UP NOW!
Sorry, guys, but it's beyond my tech powers to enlarge this poster so please just click on it to view. :)
Monday, January 12, 2009
No Shortcuts
What will it finally take to make change happen in our country? Will it take something tragic or inspiring? Will it take the emergence of that ideal leader--the "alternative" we have all been dreaming of? Will it take jobs, food, shelter and education for all? Clean elections? What will it really take for change to take root and flourish? There is only one clear and sure answer and it points right at you. None of the above would truly address what ails us. Change is you. This realization makes too many scurry to the hills, away from anything that might force them to do something about it. That is the tragic reality. We keep talking about it, praying and chanting it, yet are we truly ready to birth, and perpetuate change?
Isn't it easier to point at the politician, the rotten system, corruption, our parents, substandard education, past trauma--anything that is outside and beyond our control, than to acknowledge that it is in our hands and so we must act on it? And exactly what does this entail that frightens us all?
Change in us: that scares the hell out of everyone. And with that, the painful process of realizing what it is we need to change, then going through many more death processes and saying goodbye to the many parts of ourselves we need to let go, so that we can bring in the new. Then the constant work of renewing ourselves, the adjusting and re-adjusting of our views and lifestyles, as we become able bearers of authentic change. Change was never meant to be easy and there is no less demanding path; there are no shortcuts.
Inner work towards any kind of transformation is a lifelong commitment. It is a turbulent path rather than a decided and fixed destination. It is difficult and unpleasant. The only compass is your determination and will to keep the course. It means loss--of worlds and friends. It entails truth in every form. Who wants to look into the dark crevices of one's own life, to shine a light on those muddy corners we've created that we can't even bear to peek at? It is easier to say that corruption is outside and must therefore be fixed there, and please, let me not look at what goes wrong in my own backyard, at my own relationships and ways of being in the world. Let me spend the rest of my days pointing a finger but never lifting it.
Yet in my experience each time we turn away from doing what we know in our hearts we ought to, the call simply becomes louder and the universe creates situations that make it ever more impossible to ignore the call of that part of us that we know is True. Circumstances seem to connive until everything becomes up close, personal, and difficult to ignore. It is change pressing itself upon us. Every hardship in life is a call for change; it is an invitation to take a different route. If we took change by its horns and rode it valiantly, perhaps we wouldn't have to deal with such complicated situations in our lives. No, life wouldn't be easier, but I'm willing to bet it wouldn't be so complicated. If we stopped running away from the work we need to do on ourselves today, we would be able to handle life's surprises with grace and equanimity. Change would simply be our guide.
I feel that the very essence of every human being is to use his biography--yes, with all its inherent pain and seeming ugliness--towards transforming humanity and the world--everywhere he lands, no matter where that is, he is called upon to create change, just like the Christ did. And if His journey is the gauge, where did we get the idea that life shouldn't be as painful and difficult as it is? We turn away from change because it is inconvenient. It is demanding. It's such a long and tedious process. It's painful. It is hurtful. And yet running away from it only makes the journey more difficult in the long run.
This is why Andres Bonifacio is remembered and revered as "Liwanag" and Emilio Aguinaldo "Ningning". Bonifacio believed in completing the process of inner purification towards greater transformation. He believed in the importance of one's inner condition because that is what inevitably manifests in the world. Any change, without a thorough inner cleansing, will only be superficial. Aguinaldo was all bells and whistles, but his inner condition left much to be desired. He glittered and was shiny and promising, but the integrity--the rich and conscious inner life-- was not there. In human history, many have died fighting to complete, redeem and claim this inner journey towards change and it is them we remember and admire because we know their lives were about this universal truth: that change in the world cannot happen if we haven't done the work of changing ourselves first.
So, yes, point the finger at those who must be reminded of what it means to lead humanely and justly, but also look with grace, courage and resolve into the mirror and decide at last to be that change. No amount of fist-raising and indignant shouting at rallies will bring the change. The anger won't do it. Showing people, time and again, in ever more creative ways, about the wrong we continue to do, won't do it either. The relentless call for "Ibagsak" whatever is just clawing at the outer skin of our ailments. To get to what we need to raise and bring forth instead, is a call for inner reflection and work, because it will inevitably point to the need for every individual to pledge his life to truth and integrity. Everyone is accountable. No change will hold if we are not able to receive and bear it, and make it live and thrive in our society.
Inner work is invisible. Its legacy manifests only over time. You cannot market it, yet it is the cornerstone of any kind of awakening and transformation. There is simply no cutting corners. Creating new initiatives that address only the outer realities will not bring about the change we all dream of. It happens inside and it is in our hands.
I sound like a broken record, I know, but lately I've been getting comments here and there that bring this topic home again. It's not in the hands of politicians. The solutions are not somewhere out there, but in us already. People tend to disappear when I say that, as if they are overwhelmed by adding yet another task to the many each of us already carries, but I like to see it as the net that holds everything. It isn't one more thing you need to do that is separate from the rest; it is the thread that binds everything you do together to contain the whole.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
VIOLENCE AT THE VALLEY GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB
If you don't already know this story, check it out here:
If you do, then you must be as angry and appalled as the rest of us. Yesterday, I went out for the first time since the Christmas holidays and found myself watching everyone extra carefully. That middle-aged man in shorts perusing the fruit could have been Mr. dela Paz. The bunch of men converging around the steaks could have been the culprits. I found myself looking at everyone with a different eye, thinking how up close and personal everything really is. What happened to the dela Paz family could happen to any of us. I could rub someone the wrong way at the check-out counter and, just like that, become the topic of the next blog. And what then?
When terrible things happen, I always try to understand why by asking what the entire event really means in the largest possible picture. Clearly, it means something for the dela Paz family because their lives are forever changed. It ought to mean something to the Pangandaman family because their lives should and must be forever changed as well. But to the rest of us, all citizens who are currently acting and reacting in rage and sadness, it means something as well. And I feel the significance of this goes very deep into the relationship between individual and society. This is the question that plagues us all. This is the question of our country.
After we have written, texted and blogged about this horror, what? How do we move the sadness and anger into actions for change? It is a major wake-up call, but the end result--waking up and actually getting up--lies in our hands. Are we going to just blab about it, or are we going to make CHANGE move and animate us? How?
In our PAGASA workshops we do our darndest to establish first the very real connection between the individual and society. After all, society is nothing more than individuals together forming institutions, each one bigger than the other, each reflecting shared or dissonant values and worldviews. But most of us feel, in our day-to-day life, only the boundaries of what we see--our school, office or home--and thus become ever more disconnected to the larger reality of society and how our every thought and action actually contributes to that great whole, making us very much a part of it, whether we acknowledge the connection or not. Because we see only our separateness, we are able to live in apathy. We are able to say, "I will just do my own little thing in my own little corner and let everyone else take care of politics". We don't think about the big picture. We don't engage in it. We simply disassociate, severing any link or tie to that mud-and-gore drenched abyss. We continue to think small because we allow our sense of what we don't see to overwhelm us. And it is overwhelming. But it is not insurmountable if we all begin to move today in our lives, carrying the picture of how we must be bearers and agents of change.
Then we hear about the dela Paz family and everything comes home. Suddenly we feel the full weight of helplessness on our shoulders --and anger and fear and rage. All of it. Suddenly the tragedy connects us again. But it isn't just the rage and anger that connect us, but our shared destiny as a people. We must revel in that and have the power of that reality live in us. It is the thing that will move us into productive action again. It gives us the goal we so need--not one more thing to fight against. Our shared destiny as Filipinos is the thing to fight for.
Our destiny as a people is not to be bullied by people in office who shouldn't even be there to begin with. It is not just their country; it is ours. But until we take that possiblity right back into our hands, we are effectively giving it up again and allowing these monsters to take control. That Pangandaman Sr. motored (or maybe even flew) to Baguio to join the Arroyo party and was, by his telling, simply asked by Mrs. Arroyo about the incident, speaks volumes. This brand of bullying has not just become par for the course under her administration; it has become blatant. Because we have allowed every scandal to go unchecked, allowed her to stay in office, allowed our rage to peter out, every bully feels superhuman and supremely untouchable. They all feel completely immune to the law. They feel they are the law and they will do what they will with it.
When terrible things happen, I always try to understand why by asking what the entire event really means in the largest possible picture. Clearly, it means something for the dela Paz family because their lives are forever changed. It ought to mean something to the Pangandaman family because their lives should and must be forever changed as well. But to the rest of us, all citizens who are currently acting and reacting in rage and sadness, it means something as well. And I feel the significance of this goes very deep into the relationship between individual and society. This is the question that plagues us all. This is the question of our country.
After we have written, texted and blogged about this horror, what? How do we move the sadness and anger into actions for change? It is a major wake-up call, but the end result--waking up and actually getting up--lies in our hands. Are we going to just blab about it, or are we going to make CHANGE move and animate us? How?
In our PAGASA workshops we do our darndest to establish first the very real connection between the individual and society. After all, society is nothing more than individuals together forming institutions, each one bigger than the other, each reflecting shared or dissonant values and worldviews. But most of us feel, in our day-to-day life, only the boundaries of what we see--our school, office or home--and thus become ever more disconnected to the larger reality of society and how our every thought and action actually contributes to that great whole, making us very much a part of it, whether we acknowledge the connection or not. Because we see only our separateness, we are able to live in apathy. We are able to say, "I will just do my own little thing in my own little corner and let everyone else take care of politics". We don't think about the big picture. We don't engage in it. We simply disassociate, severing any link or tie to that mud-and-gore drenched abyss. We continue to think small because we allow our sense of what we don't see to overwhelm us. And it is overwhelming. But it is not insurmountable if we all begin to move today in our lives, carrying the picture of how we must be bearers and agents of change.
Then we hear about the dela Paz family and everything comes home. Suddenly we feel the full weight of helplessness on our shoulders --and anger and fear and rage. All of it. Suddenly the tragedy connects us again. But it isn't just the rage and anger that connect us, but our shared destiny as a people. We must revel in that and have the power of that reality live in us. It is the thing that will move us into productive action again. It gives us the goal we so need--not one more thing to fight against. Our shared destiny as Filipinos is the thing to fight for.
Our destiny as a people is not to be bullied by people in office who shouldn't even be there to begin with. It is not just their country; it is ours. But until we take that possiblity right back into our hands, we are effectively giving it up again and allowing these monsters to take control. That Pangandaman Sr. motored (or maybe even flew) to Baguio to join the Arroyo party and was, by his telling, simply asked by Mrs. Arroyo about the incident, speaks volumes. This brand of bullying has not just become par for the course under her administration; it has become blatant. Because we have allowed every scandal to go unchecked, allowed her to stay in office, allowed our rage to peter out, every bully feels superhuman and supremely untouchable. They all feel completely immune to the law. They feel they are the law and they will do what they will with it.
"When will it be enough?" This has been asked in so many of the threads on this latest trapo display of injustice. It will only be enough when we say it is. When we start connecting the daily things we say and do to the larger concerns of our country and stop saying "E, wala naman akong magagawa at wala namang magbabago." The truth is, so much can be done once we've all decided to be the change we want to see. If everyone stopped being morally lazy, our country would change. If we simply take a moment, right now, to see what in our lives we ought to change that mirrors the greater corruption in our society, so much would already move. What part of our lives need to be made straight? Which areas are a reflection of the Valley Golf incident? In what ways have we mimicked or contributed to the same energy? Is corruption, in any form, living in your home and what are you doing about it?
The world is at a turning point. Obama won. We are at the beginning of what could be the worst global recession yet. Everywhere, things are coming to a head. What is really being asked of us as human beings who inhabit and co-create this world? The Valley Golf incident is but one wake-up call and it is coming closer and closer to home. Unless we start living in full recognition of how each of us is a major player in the destiny of our people and our country, these stories will only get worse.
Each time we look to the world for answers, we need to look into ourselves with questions. This is one way of making sure we behave responsibly and actively wherever we are, never falling into the trap of finger-pointing, but situating ourselves first and determining how we can create and co-create a better future.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Good Work
I started doing our laundry after my helpers broke our washing machine for the nth time several years ago. I haven't stopped and our washer hasn't conked out since. When I built my house, I made sure the laundry room was upstairs, right next to my study. I have to say it is one of my most-used spaces! Since I've taken over this task, our clothes are lasting longer, nothing turns pink, shrinks or is damaged. Everything lasts longer, my whites don't ever turn gray, and the delicates are always nicely cared for.
My friends laugh at my thing for laundry but to me it's one of the most therapeutic household chores! I love putting a load in and waiting for the dirt to rise, knowing everything will come out clean, renewed and ready for another round of living. It is truly one of my joys.
Folding laundry is another zen experience for me and is a sort of review of my life. I can tell so much about the week just from the clothes I fold. I remember with a pang of relief that a child was sick (and is well at last), because of the unusual amount of pajamas I had to wash. I can sense how roughly my children played in school by the pile of extra shirts and clothes I am taking extra time to fold. I also feel that I am putting my touch on their clothes, getting in there in ways that will hold them when they are not with me. It is a quiet time full of stories told and untold--yet another way of holding my family close.
Some people have looked at my laundry room and me in awe, as if it were such an impossible tandem, but my household chores ground and calm me. They put me right at the center of my family, so that no matter how badly the day goes, how imperfect or short-tempered I was, I know that I am there still, right where I need to be. I know that my children will feel my care everywhere--there in the food they eat, there in the clean clothes they wear.
Housework is good work. I am happy that my hands are able to care for my boys and I know that they will grow up with a fuller sense of what it means to have a family.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)