Here today, gone tomorrow

Just arrived yesterday from the coast of beautiful, quiet, verdant Aurora, where we traversed rugged roads, crossed creeks and rivers, swam in isolated beaches, skipped stones in swimming holes fed by towering waterfalls (remembering to say kayo-kayo! And tabi-tabi po!), peed in bushes (kayo-kayo, again), slept with bedbugs in sparsely furnished travellers' inns, and shared a lot of laughter and love and gratefulness (and a few complaints and gripes) for road trips and life companions.

When I woke up and got out of my own bed this morning, and Number 1 Biker Boy and the Artist-in-residence were already gone for the day, my heart sank for a moment. But only for a moment, because tomorrow another journey begins.

More soon!

Comments

wilfredo pascual said…

wow. i heart your blog too! thank you for the links and the entry on sylvia and lagalag. hope you don't mind if i add you in my blogroll. and i love aurora! spent my childhood summers in dinggalan. last time i visited aurora was 2005 on my way to palanan where i spent time in dinapigue and dilasag. best to your papers.

wilfredo

11 April 2007 at 00:14

Mayumi Masaya said…

are you in baler?!! may alon?

15 April 2007 at 01:04

padma said…

Hi rj! According to my traveling companions who had much better visual-spatial skills than I do, the waves were about 4 or 5 feet high, and breaking far from the shore. Closer to the shore my daughter was boogey boarding and having the time of her life! We were there all of one day, and spent most of our unholy week exploring the northern coasts! Gandaaaa!

20 April 2007 at 18:33

Cordillera Folktales and Story-telling

It was cold and wet outside on the day of the launching of The Golden Arrow of Mt. Makilkilang and other Cordillera Folktales . But inside Mt. Cloud Bookshop we were warmed by stories read and performed by the Aanak di Kabiligan community theater group. Storytelling on a stormy afternoon. Paco Paco. A Benguet story from the book, published by the Cordillera Green Network. Aanak di Kabiligan means children of the mountains. The theater group was born out of the Cordillera Green Network's eleven years of conducting workshops in which children transform their grandparents' stories into theater productions. Here they perform the title story of the Golden Arrow of Mt. Makilkilang and Other Cordillera Folktales.

Lola of Maipon

It's all too easy to fall asleep under the blanket of everyday life and to smother dreams with the mundane things I surround myself with. But once in a while, along comes a sparkling vision that jolts me out of my daily sleep and reminds me of the existence of convictions and worlds so different from my own. "Our beloved LOLA of Guinubatan, Maipon, Albay is the last true messenger of God. So, let us follow her holy teachings so that we will gain TRUE SALVATION without sufferings and without death." In another story I, the intrepid heroine, the adventurer seduced by mysteries, the pilgrim in search of truth, would follow them back to Guinubatan from Session Road, thirsting to see and hear their Lola for myself. However, it's all too easy -- much safer! -- to fall back asleep under the blanket of everyday life, and to smother dreams with the mundane things I surround myself with. Then along comes 9 a.m., and really, it's time to down the dregs of coffee at the bott

Ritual for all Occasions

Attended a talk delivered by Dr. Albert Bacdayan, UP Baguio. Feb. 20, 2013. "Ritual for All Occasions: The significance and persistence of the 'Senga' in Northern Sagada." The senga is a ritual in which at least one chicken and one pig -- sometimes more -- are sacrificed. The senga is usually performed for milestones such as the completion of a house, the opening of a new business, a wedding, a funeral, when someone is ill, when someone is leaving on a journey. He spoke of how Cordillerans have a ritual for almost every occasion or ailment. Indeed, the word he used was not ritual but "remedy."Dr. Bacdayan described this as a "healthy agnosticism."He mused that the abundance or such remedies and rituals is the reason there are rarely feelings of helplessness among Cordillerans. He described ritual as a bundle of activities that assures people and anchors identity. When one calls the old men and is the principal of a senga, you are perceived t

Now/here no/where woman

Search This Blog