A LETTER TO PITOGO, now that the election has come to pass.

I am mourning for my herd in the Philippines. My father did not get the position as Mayor of the town called Pitogo. Let me tell you a little bit about him, he is a true leader, he has the gift of empowering the people, he is brilliant, he is kind, he is generous, he is a visionary and a creator. The only thing he did not do in this election is to play the game that the others played.

I am sad. I am sad, because the last time I was there I saw how bad things were. I saw that they only need one mistake and a couple of storms to completely sink that whole town into the abyss.

My sadness is for the people whose livelihood now lies in the hands of a man who is not a leader but a gambler with no ability to make a difference.

I am dumbfounded by the naivety of the people in Pitogo. They wanted instant gratification, and the man who won the election gave them just that buy buying their votes for a small amount of money. How do I know this? I listen to the birds who are watching these people play their games.

Would you sell your vote for $1XX.XX? I wouldn’t.

This is what the election in our town looks like. The positions have a price tag.

For the residents of Pitogo, if you are reading this, now is the time to wake up and start helping each other instead of bringing each other down, because WE ALL KNOW and God knows that your newly elected Mayor can not help you. Gamblers will always BE TAKERS.

If you are reading this and you are one of those people who sold your vote, I hope you enjoy every cent of that money, because it won’t last forever.

And if you’re the newly elected mayor and you are reading this, let this be a challenge to you.

Thank you to those who supported my family in all of this.

My friends, do not despair, this is only the beginning.

Divine Dreaming with the Plants

The dream that I had this weekend which I will share with you on this post has changed my relationship with life and my perception of what life is. I saw myself as a tiny particle of a gigantic mystery that is Life.

The plants remind me of who I really am, where I came from, and what I am.

In my recent dream, I had the pleasure of dancing with a spirit in the form of a goddess.

Confronted by my own trust and control issues in the beginning, I did not want to come with her. She waits and waits with her hand extended patiently, inches away from my own.

In the end, I chose to let go and I surrendered to her beauty.

In her arms, I found solace.

She was a sultry, seductive, otherworldly creature who took my hand in all her gracefulness and majesty. She had a long, black, curly hair. Her eyes were big and brown. Her skin was pale and her lips were blood red. She had a white flower on her head. Her dress was long, burgundy, and hugging every curve of her body.

She took me to the galaxy where the music changed several times until I felt at ease in my own skin. I started dancing like nobody’s watching.

And we danced and danced.

We played with the stars using the tips of our fingers, swirling them into our own version of the milky way.

And for a moment in time, we played together. Here.

I used my hands to mold shapes of different kinds and I threw it in the air while the goddess continued to dance and watch me play.

I am floating in the most welcoming, loving, and nurturing element of all which is “space”.

The space spoke to me and said, “mold me, move through me, do whatever you want with me.”

The goddess and I danced until the music began to fade…and slowly, slowly, a force pulled us away from each other.

She was gone.

Once again, I am traveling.

I felt my feet slowly touching the ground.

Suddenly, I was in the forest…mesmerized and curious. My senses were so heightened that I could hear sounds coming from afar, and I could smell everything. I could see life coursing through the ground, pumping life on each blade of grass, up to the tallest of trees and the unseen illumination of “space” in the dark of night.

I was a wild animal walking on all fours. And I could see and feel each pore of my body breathing and corresponding with the Earth. As if we were shouting, “I’m ALIVE” with each other.

Let me be you again.

I enjoyed walking and running with life in my animal form where I was blissfully driven by such powerful instinct. I climbed the trees and I reached for the brightest stars in the sky.

I am in love and aroused by life, and once again reminded of who I am in the depth of my being, beyond the many layers I wear in my day to day existence.

When I woke up the feeling of awe, loss, and sadness immediately washed through me. Once again realizing that I am living in a concrete jungle, living amongst the dominions.

I am still silently going through the grieving process on the loss of the world that I saw, the world that once was and the world we are avoiding to meet eye to eye. We can bring it back here in the now, but it will take a lot of work.

It won’t be easy but it will be worth it.

I will never see the trees, the plants, the animals, the space, and especially us the same way again.

I Want To Go to Pitogo

Life in Pitogo waters.

The hardest part of being away from my family is missing them.

I want to go to the Philippines and support my father in his career shift as a politician. He is running for Mayor in a small town called Pitogo.

I want to go to Pitogo and help my mother de-stress.
I want to go to Pitogo and help in the campaign for hope and change. I want to see history happen in our small town.

I want to go to Pitogo and dance with my father. Yes, I want to dance with my father and tell him how proud of him I am. And that I am proud to be his daughter. And I am proud to have his blood coursing through my veins.

But life is happening here for me in Los Angeles. I am undergoing through some major changes in myself, my career, and my environment.

Everywhere life is happening. And as it is happening, I am missing my family.

Spring is Rebirth, what are you birthing this year?

Spring is here.

I like being with the flowers. They are a symbol of life, beauty, truth, and goodness. They are a divine co-creation between the sun, the earth, the water, and the love of a gardener.

When my friends ask me what I did on the weekend and I tell them that I went to a garden, they look at me funny and ask me why? or what did you do there? or what’s there? It is because I like being with the flowers, I say.

When you walk in to a garden and you start seeing the vibrant greens and array of colors, you start to feel good about life. The air is crisp where nature lies (man made or not)–the quality of the air is noticeably better where the trees are than the air we breathe in industrial areas.

That is why it’s easier to achieve mental clarity in the forests and in the garden…and that is why many people do their pilgrimage in the mountains where there is vastness of beauty to seek truth from.

CLEAN AIR = MENTAL CLARITY

The bees are actively working here. That is a good sign.

For me, personally, what it does is that it allows me to see that apart from the things that I think about in my daily routine (the good and the bad, my work, other people’s work, the doubting, the jealousy, love, the longing for more, the longing for truth in my life, food, lust, etc.), there is beauty and healing that is happening in this wonderful patch of land and I am reminded where we all came from: truth, beauty, goodness, and divinity just like the flowers. And if I came from that, I am not an illusion, my thoughts are the illusion.

Witnessing the abundance of life and unfolding of beauty in the garden reboots the brain and floods it with euphoria–and this sends a message of healing to our body and our soul. (And if you ever think about ingesting the herbs and flowers, do your research first because that’s a completely different journey.)

I leave the garden with renewed feelings for my life, content, and ambitious to do good.

Spring symbolizes rebirth. What are you birthing this year?

Visit your local garden and let the healing begin!

PS. If you live in Southwestern Los Angeles County, visit my favorite garden: South Coast Botanic Garden. There is a contribution of $8.00 for an adult and $3.00 for a child.

Pitogo

This is a photograph of Pitogo, my hometown where life is full of stillness and spectacular sunsets.