The Journey

I took this photo early this year. This is on the road that cuts through Tarlac or Pangasinan. I remember looking at the moon, and to me it seemed like it was watching us until we were out of sight.  It may seem a bit eerie, but riding on the back seat of the car with a long road ahead of home, it kept me still and calm.

For this Baguio trip with other members of our clan,  my younger sister flew in from Boracay to join us for the long weekend. We all had the best time ever. My cousins and I went out to a jazz bar named Overtones. The band playing that night was amazing! After that, we walked around Session Road looking for a midnight snack. I think we ended up in Volante (?), this sort of 24-hour pizza place.

I will always love Baguio. I have a lot of amazing memories there.

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With news of Baguio and other places in northern Luzon submerged because of the recent typhoon, please please, I hope that more people survive and are carried out to safety. People can only take so much pain. I pray that spirits are not broken.

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Here is a poem by Mary Oliver that I’ve been meaning to post for a long time. Nothing feels as great as knowing yourself and being true to that.

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do–
determined to save
the only life you could save.

by Mary Oliver