Farm Log No. 1

After trips to two inspiring farms, Joy and Kerry’s in Bulacan and Toby and Marissa’s in La Union, I finally made my way to Calatagan last Saturday with my Mom, maximizing the use of the last days my boys are still in China.  

To jump start this year-long hiatus from active involvement in the land, my last project being the mobile beach house, Ben a local contractor introduced me to some people.  First we met Resty, the prawn farm technician from another barangay to see what can be done with our unused fishpond.  Second, we went to a dealer of trees coming from Talisay.  Third, we checked out some vegetable farms on the other side of the mountain passing through some gorgeous views of Balayan Bay.

I returned to my Mom’s farm with ideas ready to be put into action.

This is the initial list of trees we’d like to plant: narra, acacia, caballero, lauan, molave, kakawate, eucalyptus, mahogany, gmelina, yakal, kamagong, anahaw, santol, langka, suha, calamansi, duhat, kasoy, guyabano, bayabas, rambutan, mangosteen, kaimito, sineguelas, chico, sampaloc, atis, yellowbell, gumamela, kupang, passion fruit, bignay, pili, antipolo, apitong, papaya, aratilis, banana, lemon, cacao, flame tree, rubber tree, balete, calachuchi, kaimito, banaba, agoho, lumbang, tanguile, bagtikan, sampaloc, balimbing, kamias, bignay, bagras, champaca, malunggay, dayap, ad infinitum, to be continued, etc.

This is the draft plan that I intend to show Toby and ask for his advice and suggestions:

January

1. Tree nursery – collect seedlings from the farm and nearby areas
2. Start composting to make our own fertilizer (continuous throughout the year)
3. Charcoal making (continuous throughout the year)
4. Repair and revival of fishpond – experiment first with tilapia and bangus
5. Study what are the good vegetables to plant – decide on 3 to 5 types of vegetables to plant
6. Make a plan for the trees for lumber area – what trees and which areas
7. Prepare for the harvesting of mangoes

 February

1. Harvest and sell the mangoes
2. Study prawn farming
3. Study vermicomposting and using enzymes to make fertilizer

 March

1. Continue harvest and selling of mangoes
2. Introduce vermicomposting and use enzymes to make fertilizer
3. Study raising goats and free range organic chicken
4. Prepare the designated area for planting vegetables

 April - May

1. If prawn farming is viable to get into and there is already electricity, prepare the ponds for prawn farming
2. Prepare the designated areas for tree planting
3. Prepare area for raising goats and free range organic chicken
4. Plant the vegetables

 June

1.  Plant the collected tree seedlings at the start of the rainy season

How I'd Like to Eat

Barbs became my friend because she was a VSO volunteer and I applied to become one but ended up in a corporate job in China instead of my choices, Africa and Afghanistan.  It's fun to visit homes of friends from the NGO world because they have this multi-cultural richness, artistic vibe but the best thing is sharing a meal with them because they tend to prepare and eat healthy food.   

Barbs' ref door has always been filled with postcards from the world over and her bookshelves caving in from the weight makes me wish for a split second I was still collecting physical books and not kindle-dependent.  

This is the yummiest, healthiest meal I've had in a while.  Jozef prepared lentils while Barbs did a red rice version of the tabouleh, home-made hummus and fish.  Barbs and Jozef keep a food log of their weekend meals and I'm lucky and grateful Barbs emailed me the word file of recipes.  If Jozef had his way, he would have it published and given out to friends but Barbs would have none of that.

This is the view from Barbs' home at the fifth floor -- expansive and you get your fill of sky, clouds and green with bonus mountains.  Mother pigs with their babies walk below and Barbs refers to them as her own.  Only Barbs would be such a beautiful soul to see.

So following Barbs' inspiring example, I get off my cushy ass and expand my cooking repertoire.  I get discouraged whenever I cook and it doesn't taste the way I want it so I avoid the task for a while, make all sorts of excuses until the next urge arises. Since friends from high school were visiting, I thought I'd give the tabouleh a try because of Barbs and because three years ago, I fell in love with this salad in a park in China when a middle-eastern friend prepared it for our picnic.

I've also always wanted to pick leaves from the herb garden where we live.  Funny how you have these things you want to do and there's no reason for you not to do it but it still takes some time before you actually do it.  Isn't that called procrastination?  But procrastination is such an ugly word.  

I'm happy and not discouraged with the meal I made although I didn't get the tabouleh exactly right.  Right means going OMG that is SO good after biting into it.  I kinda got the salmon pesto pasta right.  The ingredients of tabouleh took too much time to cut, it pushed back the time for the other dishes so in the future I'd like to try out the quicker recipes.

But thanks to Barbs and Jozef, I'm open to cooking again.

Intersections

Lola must have arranged everything from heaven because it was one serendipitous thing after another on our weekend trip to La Union with my dad and brother.  Papa kept saying that it was Lola’s joy to make the yearly trip to pay taxes for a beach front property, but when she passed away, nobody has made that long ride since.

The ruin of an old Spanish tower stands on the back portion of the lot, a part of which my dad donated to the municipality of San Juan because of its heritage value.  The mayor said that they were using it for their pawikan conservation project.  True enough, when we drove there, a sign pointed to the protected pawikan site but when we got to the tower, there was nothing except some young people hanging out in the shade, whiling away their time.   We wondered where the pawikans could be.

That night, we met Papa’s friend who invited us to have lunch at their beach home the following day.  That led us to solving the mystery of the endangered species we were searching for. 

I had a long lost friend who built a beautiful house in San Juan, La Union.  It was a house that would make you fall in love with design and architecture as pure art.  I was hoping my dad’s friend might know their family since they both had homes by the same beach.  It turns out that my dad’s friend’s neighbor is my long lost friend’s niece who was looking for my dad because my long lost friend told her my dad owned the beach property with the tower ruin which she wanted to use for their pawikan conservation project.  If that sounds confusing, the bottom line is, we finally saw the baby pawikans in a blue pail kept in the room of Sachi, my long lost friend’s niece.  They were going to be released that afternoon into the sea. 

Meeting Sachi and hearing her talk passionately about the NGO she started called CURMA – Coastal Underwater Resource Management Actions - made me think of how I was when I was her age, full of idealism, living like the world was our oyster which held out endless possibilities.  Then age creeps in and circumstances happen and that idealism dims, slides some notches down.  We become realistic and then jaded.  We settle and then rationalize settling.  We let some dreams go only to find them knocking again during unguarded moments, threatening to break the door with incessant pounding. 

Finding Sachi was like finding the missing piece of the puzzle that Lola wanted us to assemble.  She not only led us to the turtles, she also led us to the farm dream.  Our talk meanders to the topic of agriculture and it turns out that Sachi’s parents have an organic farm in a nearby town called Dasay. 

Although I never met him, I knew Sachi’s dad from stories told by my long, lost friend who was always proud of her brother, Toby, the beekeeper.  He had been based in Baguio for many years where he nurtured and expanded his honey business but having become disenchanted with the city’s unstoppable, insensitive development, he decided four years ago to move to La Union.   

He and his wife were on their way to visit Sachi so we immediately grabbed the chance to see their farm which was in line with my recently-figured “what to do next in life.”  When Sachi introduced her parents to us, I whispered to my dad, that’s how I wish Jason, my hubby and I would be when we’re older – two funky farmers of the earth. 

Their farm embodied all their ideals of self-sustainability, bio-diversity, eco-friendliness – tags that are not meaningless marketing words but daily creed.  They’ve filled once barren mountains with different types of trees and plants that change the micro-climate of the place, making it degrees cooler.  They grow red rice and hardly need to go to market because they raise their own food and even make fertilizer from enzymes.  When they started out, they lived in a nipa hut, used a solar cooker and had no electricity.  Now, they have solar panels on the roof of their more conventional house oriented to catch the breeze and shaded from the harsh afternoon sun.  

Toby said that a lot of people think that farming costs a lot of money but he doesn’t think it should if you know how to utilize the resources.  I’d like to study in detail how they do things and I could listen to Toby talk the whole day about trees but we had to head back to Manila. 

   

Farm Joy

When you send out your request to the universe, the results can be instantaneous and astounding.  Dizzy tizzy from spinning around trying to figure out what I want to do in the next phase of life, I contemplated getting a ride to anywhere provincial and I got a text confirmation that my friend, Joy was visiting their farm in Bulacan so I could go along with her.

Over ten years ago, I went to my Mom’s farm in Batangas regularly on weekends and loved the soothing sea.  It was my dream to develop it since it was an idle resource – empty fishponds and gorgeous nearly empty land sitting under sun and sky.  Excited at the prospects, I clipped articles on sustainable farming, researched organic methods, visited model farms, talked with agriculturists and showed experts the property to see what can be done.  Except for planting a variety of trees, nothing happened after that nebulous planning stage since I got a job after graduation, worked in one office after another, eventually ended up in China, got married, had kids and came full circle back to the Philippines.

My husband has been dreaming of farming as well.  His vision is to plant vegetables and raise animals to be served at our dining table which means good health for us all.  But it won’t just be a hobby farm since there’s good profit to be made as well.

Joy says her husband, Kerry dreamt of farming “dahil nagmi-mid-life siya.”  Perhaps a number of people feel this way after working themselves to the bone, as if farming isn’t a lot of hard work.  But farming is more than hard work.  It restores our connection to earth and in turn, ourselves.  For people who have visions of the ideal society, there is the paramount of dealing with issues of food security and sustainable practices.  Farming is technical, scientific and it’s also an art.  It’s an attractive enterprise that has its risks and rewards.

Joy is a public servant, architect, urban planner, LEED consultant, mother of three.  Superwoman for short.  (They also have four dogs.)  Kerry is into HR training, team building, outdoor and recreational technologies.  You want a zipline installed so you can sail above treetops, he’s the guy to call.  When Kerry broached the topic of buying a farm, Joy nodded in support so Kerry scoured Luzon for something they could afford and last year in July, chose and closed the deal on a four hectare lot in San Miguel, Bulacan that has since expanded to nine.

In November, they started planting preparations and since then have gone through three cycles growing tomatoes, ampalaya, corn, eggplant, melon, sili, upo and rice.  They’ve gotten their seeds from the East West company who provided technicians to help out.  They’ve sold their produce in the “bagsakan sa Balintawak.”   They’ve used crop rotation so that the soil regenerates itself and on a smaller, trial basis scale, they’ve made broccoli, cauliflower, French beans, cabbage and cherry tomatoes bloom.  Kerry is proud of the vermicompost tea brew that he put together whereby the brewing action multiplies the potency of the fertilizer.  Joy and Kerry plan to have a 100% organic farm someday, but for now, it’s a hybrid.

Mistakes have been made and lessons learned the expensive way.  The corn project taught them to be more discerning of who they bring into the team.  The next time they cultivate broccoli and cauliflower, they have to put a protective net over them. They learned how to time their crops or else they lose their investment if the market catches them at a low price.  But most of all, they learned not to give up despite the losses and trials.

They only started to build a bahay kubo for their family after a year of operations. 

Before that, they’ve bought a tractor, bedder, truck and other farm implements.  They’ve put tilapia fingerlings in the natural pond and free-range chicken will soon be clucking away in the landscape.

What I admire about Joy and Kerry is their sheer chutzpah at starting this enterprise.  They did their homework and research but there’s no analysis paralysis.  They went straight to implementation after every germ of idea released and it’s amazing what could be done within one year.

The farm of my dream is merely a drawing in my head, "nilangaw na sa tagal ng panahon."  The articles I’ve put in binders have yellowed with age while the land that has been in our family for at least three decades is still barren and unproductive.  Maybe there is complacency because the land will always be there.  There’s frustration over lost opportunities and fear of what the investment entails.  My husband has more courage in initiating efforts.  He’s purchased a tractor, brought seeds from China and had sacks filled with soil to make a dam to store the water.

And that’s the other major inspiring lesson I got from Joy and Kerry – it’s their united stance as a couple committed to this endeavour.  Joy is a totally supportive wife.  I, on the other hand, am not and was filled with hesitations, vexations, scepticisms and anxieties despite the fact that this too is my personal dream, not just my husband’s.  I said, “Bahala ka.  I’ll stay here in Manila to take care of the children.” 

I suppose I’m more fearful now because it was different as a single person toying with those farm fantasies.  Back then, there was no financial responsibility of raising two kids.  Through the years, the baggage from the family’s past has accumulated and there’s my stubborn, nagging preference for the sea – yet unavailable Batangas over available Bulacan.  There’s a deep background not worth getting into.  Suffice it to say that Joy and Kerry’s story made me examine my motives and trepidations.

If Joy and Kerry can do it, why can’t I drop all the damned pesky, bulky overweight luggage, support my husband 100% and create our dream farm together?  Drop to my knees and get dirty.

                            Ang bahay kubo ni Mang Kerry at Aling Joy:

Zee Bucket List

Santa Claus and our parents are often our earliest wish granters till we grow up to be our own realizer-implementer and eventually, we in turn, become wish granters to our children and parents.   It’s still an unfulfilled wish of mine to be able to give my mom and dad something substantial in their hope list but they keep trumping me at this game.  My mom has made it possible for my husband, sons and I to live in a dream home while my dad recently surprised me with a meal at the Rainmaker’s Lounge.

I’ve been following food bloggers and reviews for two years, making mental notes of restaurants to visit and casually mentioned the Rainmaker’s Lounge to my dad who got us not only an invitation from the man behind The Firm but the much-lauded lawyer joined us at the exclusive table together with his partners.   

The unforgettable meal of wagyu burger with foie gras prompted me to finally write my long-overdue bucket list. 

1. climb the Tepuis in South America
2. ski in Switzerland and in Canada
3. visit Pakistan and Afghanistan
4. bungee jump from across Victoria Falls
5. visit friends in different countries
6. learn from excellent mentors
7. design things I’m happy with
8. develop a farm
9. have a successful business that employs a lot of people
10. help people become successful
11. pioneer something environmental
12. be a successful investor
13. choose restaurants and not look at the price column
14. have an exhibit
15. publish a children’s book
16. improve my Chinese
17. clean up the Pasig River together with friends who carry the same dream
18. do something for the Philippines
19. do volunteer work in Africa
20. attend a TED talk
21. speak at a TED talk
22. go on a food trip to Japan
23. see my favorite architectural works
24. build a tree house

I’ve made lists of dreams and goals before and reviewing them, it strikes me that details move in and out as desires shift, so I opted to keep certain items ambiguous and open.   

There are some “stunts” that I have done in the past that have a bucket list-like quality such as travel to Tibet and Mongolia on my own, hitch a ride, pose nude for an artist, hop on a bus to nowhere, do something absurdly stupid for love – and I guess the purpose of these daring-do list is to continuously resurrect in us the courage to do what it is we want to do even if it seems impossible, even if it leads to falling on our faces.  Sometimes, courage hides and we have to coax it out of dark.    

Roraima Tepui. Parque Nacional Canaima, Venezuela

Crossroads 2.0

I look back at the periods of life crossroads and marvel at how the “next thing” came along and I’m hoping it would be the same this time.  “It” would magically appear like an “aha” moment, like a suddenly turned-on light bulb or a “ting” would ring in my ear.  However, those moments only look easy in hindsight and they were probably borne of more anxious introspection than I could remember. 

I remember doing decision matrices, lists, a lot of walks, some talks with key people and now I have available the full use of you tube and the internet.  It could get confusing.  Last night for instance, fishing from the web, I was deeply bothered by these lines by Olivier Blanchard:

“No matter what our choice of profession is – CEO, auto mechanic, surgeon, soldier, EMT, assembly line worker, politician, restaurant manager, samurai, etc. – we’re all artists. All of us. You leave the art bottled up inside you, and your career will never reach its full potential. In life and love outside of work, you’ll always wonder why you feel stalled, why you feel alone, why you can’t connect with people the way you wish you could. You’ll always be a fraction of who you should be, of who you would like to be. But if you can find a way to let it out, to give it form, to embrace it, to let it permeate into every aspect of your life – professional and otherwise, – you will grow into a much happier, more fulfilled person. I don’t think that’s true. I know that’s true. I see it every single day.”

It’s been one year since I was diagnosed with cancer, one year in and out of hospitals, getting IV infusions and the most surgeries I’ve had ever.  I signed up for a cancer support group only to realize that I’d like to get on with the next part of my life not as a cancer patient or survivor but as Joei.  And what does Joei want?  I panicked when I drew a blank.  I had to calm myself that it’s probably okay not to know as long as I keep moving forward even in question marks.

I have over a month to find what it is I’m looking for but what if I don’t find it?  Why am I even putting a deadline on this complex endeavour in the first place?  My husband and two boys are in China so I surmised that the period that they’re gone, I can spend to leisurely look for what it is I want to do.  Pass the half-way mark, there is a sense that “it” may not appear when they land in Manila.  Again, calm down.  Don’t exaggerate the situation.  Don’t over-dramatize the time element.  Olivier Blanchard is not holding, I repeat, not holding a Damocles sword over your head just because you don’t know what the hell art you're going to let loose in the world. 

I recalled the things I enjoyed – writing, painting, movies, poetry, books, architecture, mountain climbing, outdoors, travel, biking, having mentors, community, food . . . . . I’d have to do the rounds again and see.  Meantime, there is only an urge to update my blog and join my friend who’s going to their vegetable farm tomorrow.  

So I think that’s the trick, just follow the urge.  It’s like an invite from the universe.  Just RSVP a yes and it’s only a matter of time when the right dots connect.  

But before they connect, nothing should deter us from our dreams.  They are connecting surreptitiously, silently in our sleep, under our radar, slithering like a snake, waiting for the day that they can creep up and surprise us.  They are probably already connected only we don’t know it.   

     

The Unblogged

Almost six months have passed since my last blog entry.  Within that time I wanted to write about things I have not blogged about including the joy and miracle of giving birth to my second baby, updates on my cancer treatment, a long-overdue bucket list and other stuff.  But something stopped me, this cloud hanging over my head despite the happy news, despite the enormity of blessings, because I wanted this blog to be more cheery than not. 

My stepfather passed away last August 8 and I find myself walking in the mall wanting to cry, asking God if he could give him back to us because he was taken way before it was time.  There must be some mistake.  It’s unreal and yet here we are simply missing him.  He and I had more differences than similarities in the way we lived our lives but he loved me and was overly-generous to a fault, spoiled as I am by all that he has given me.

Who do I run to now for advice?  Oddly, I created a system that I hope is guided by him.  Some late nights, I watched him enjoy trading and he always said that if he can do anything, he’d rather trade currencies, stocks, futures and options for a living.  It’s a field most unlikely for me to enter because I wanted my life to be about saving the world only to realize I had to save myself first.  I spent seven years striving to be someone my stepdad could be proud of but failed rather miserably working in his company, my attempt at going corporate.  I’d get advice from well-meaning friends that I shouldn’t live under the shadow of somebody else’s expectations, but there’s something in me that is genuinely piqued by how my stepdad lived.

I’ve now attended my third FOREX seminar and although, I’m mentally challenged with technical and fundamental analysis whizzing past my head, it's intriguingly worth studying but not something I would do full-time.  However, I’d like to set in place the means by which I could still benefit from it.  I created a Yahoo group for my classmates and me so we’d have a community where we can share lessons.  I got fund managers so that I’d learn from them while I’m stress-and-worry-free to continue learning the ropes.  So that’s one ongoing project for my stepdad and me to work on while he’s in heaven and I’m here typing this with the sound of flowing water behind me.

The other blistering barnacle of unbloggable entry is the realization of just how hard these past two years have been, leading me to seek professional help in the nick of time.  The internal demons have settled down a bit and I've had my head slowly screwed back on so it’s all systems go for the next adventures. 

Patience

My dad's been receiving the brunt of my impatience.  I tend to express my litany of complaints to him because he takes them well.  I can't do that to any other person in the world because other people won't understand and may even get impatient and angry as well.  My dad, on the other hand, tries to calm me down, inject humor into the situation and make me sit patiently like a little child squirming in her seat.  Which reminds me, I try to do the same thing to Joshua, try to make him more patient by distracting him with sketching, creating a toy from used boxes or opening his favorite book.  Although, my dad doesn't distract me.  He tells it to me straight that things don't happen within the time I want.

So I read up a lot on patience to build up this lacking trait in me and one of my favorite sources of inspiration has been Joyce Meyer.  Following are quotes from her book, Battlefield of the Mind.

". . . patience is not my ability to wait, but my ability to keep a good attitude while I wait."


". . . busy trying to make something happen, instead of waiting patiently for God to bring things to pass in His own time and His own way."


". . . impatience is a sign of pride, and the only answer to pride is humility."


"It is not suffering that glorifies God, but a godly attitude in suffering that pleases Him and brings glory to Him . . . The thing that pleases Him is our patient attitude - not our suffering."

It's not that we have to become miserable martyrs suffering in silence but we are grace-filled, joy-filled, grateful children of God.  Living it is the daily challenge.

People talk of a dying to self as a way to deliverance.  It turns out it is not just dying to our own ways but dying to our own timing, completely letting go of the time frame we've set for ourselves, a kind of deadline we've foolishly handed God and instead, totally lean on faith and God's perfect time.  It's hard because you count the years the prayer hasn't been answered and you want to throw a tantrum but you know that would be useless.  You have no choice but develop patience slowly, tentatively and then maybe it catches momentum and before you know it, you're more patient than before.  Yahoo!  Hooray for small victories!   Then a storm swoops down and you feel like complaining again and the exercise in control starts all over again with help from patience gurus like my dad, Joyce Meyer and others.

In a way, I think I've been cheating patience by complaining to my dad because I put up a front, showing good behavior to others but am so seething inside that I need to vent and the only person I can vent to is my dad.  Poor dad.  But he's used to it and he likes it that way.  His attitude is always, "You've got problems?  Bring 'em on!"   He loves helping people with problems.  To get his attention, you have to tell him, "Pa, I've got a problem," otherwise he'll just be busy with texting, reading tweets or fiddling with his iPad.  The last time he visited me, I deliberately practiced grace under anxiety, withheld griping and whining and let him enjoy his quiet time with Steve Jobs' legacy to mankind -- the tablet.

My theory is that if I feed myself enough on these patience nuggets then I'll eventually graduate to higher  and higher levels.  No way but up, right?

My friend Bea wrote to me after reading this blog entry and wanted to add it to the collection:  

I'll leave you with this simple sentence that keeps me at bay, still and patient. " Whatever you are waiting for, remember that I am the Lord" Wait. He makes us wait to build us, improve us, help us learn and unlearn things and to know our hearts... in the same manner it is also the ground where we get to know God's heart. His purpose for us.

Trust. Whoever puts his trust on God will never be disappointed. Another promise and consider it fulfilled, everytime.

Just for Fun: Translation Project

Last weekend by destiny sitting on a random pile in a public library, a children's book fell into my hands that though I couldn't fully understand because it was in Chinese, I was compelled to take photos of each page knowing it offered a way through philosophical conundrums that have been troubling me.  Written by Oscar Brenefier and illustrated by Jacques Despres, the book is originally in French (Le Sens de la Vie) and has been translated into twenty languages except in English which is quite perplexing.  

I don't want to run into copyright issues putting this out in my blog, but this translation is just for fun and for cathartic purposes.  Also remember that this is a translation of a translation so you can imagine what must have gotten lost on the convoluted way to English from French to Chinese.  Hopefully, there'd be readers adept at both languages who can help smoothen it out further.  Despite the imperfections, it's still an eye-opening, sleep-depriving exercise.  

The Meaning of Life 

Regarding the meaning of life, different people have different or even completely opposing ideas.

Some people believe that life only has meaning when it is rich in significance.

But others believe that life is more meaningful when it is not as rich in significance.

Some people believe that life is interesting when we are busy and there are many things to do.

But others believe that life makes sense only when we do nothing, enjoying quietly the passage of time.

Some people believe that the meaning of life is to accept, accept painful experiences and all the difficulties we face.

But others believe that the meaning of life is to escape, to avoid pain and suffering and to find lasting happiness.

Some people believe that the meaning of life is to work hard, earn money and find their own place in society.
But others believe that exerting too much effort is a waste of life and work is entirely a waste of time. 

Some people believe that the purpose of life is to be happy and satisfied with what one has.  

But others believe that the meaning of life is to be constantly in pursuit of something and that this is the only way to be happy.

Some people believe that life should always be fun and one can always be happy. 

But others believe that the meaning of life is to value time which is a serious matter. 

Some people believe that we live for others, that we live to love them and be concerned about their well-being.

But others believe that the meaning of life is to live for oneself and that other people disturb and bother one’s life. 

Some people believe that life is so precious so we must do everything possible to live a good life. 

But others believe that life is very far from important ideals like freedom and truth.   

Some people think that our life is only meaningful if we forget death and everything that is sad.  

But others believe that to better grasp the meaning of life, we must always be aware that life is fragile and doesn’t last forever. 

Some people believe that the meaning of life is to strive to realize their dreams no matter how crazy those dreams may be.

But others believe that the meaning of life is to accept reality and calmly go through life in peace.

Some people believe that the meaning of life is to do what we want as long as we think it’s good. 

But others believe that the meaning of life is to follow rules and bear responsibilities. 

Some people believe that life is tiring since day after day, we always do the same thing. 

But others believe that life is exciting and from time to time, there are surprises and we can always create what we want. 

How about you?  What do you think? 

It’s a spectrum of beliefs about the meaning of life disguised in a children’s book that’s attractive to adults as well.  Indeed, it’s the author’s passionate advocacy to bring philosophy to children and adults.  It made me think where I stood in the spectrum of opposing beliefs.  While I would stand firmly on some ends, there were others where I vacillated between poles, creating tension and confusion.  Then there are beliefs held by people close to me that are completely different from mine which are sources of conflict and pain.  This book reminds me that it shouldn’t because it’s just a variation in perception and thinking that one ought to respect, no matter how inconvenient. 

  

What if you believe in being busy, exerting effort and doing many things but you live with somebody who has a much more relaxed stance, who could watch tv all day and simply enjoy life without effort?  What if you thought money wasn’t important before but then everything changed when you became a parent and you realize you have a lot of catching up to do to be able to support your child responsibly?  What if you’d like to be happy and satisfied with what you have but you'd also like to be in constant pursuit of something that keeps evolving in front of you?  What if you lived your life before believing you didn’t need others only to realize that this concept was borne of hurt and you want to live for others instead?   What if you want to strive to attain your crazy, seemingly unreachable dreams but it seems too late in the game so why not just surrender and calmly go through life, tranquil and content?  What if those dreams gnaw at the back of your mind but there are practical realities to think of?  

All those questions bugged me through the night after translating that darned kiddie book.  Darn!  The book doesn’t have the answers, only more questions for me to burn.