Rich because…
Last year I moved to Manila thinking that the city will liberate me. It gave me freedom alright. I was free from the tight grip I always had around my neck; I was free from the laser-sharp eyes that always dictated my every step; I was free from the constraints I had made myself. However, the city did not afford me something I never realized I wanted — slow days.
Manila moved, and moved, and moved. They do not pause to take a break, nor will it ever stop to wait for you to be ready. It just keeps moving, faster, that I even came up with a crazy theory; that perhaps I became a faster runner because of how fast life is there.
I hated the city for its stench with the smoke from the cars and sewers. I hated the city for the performative trees and streets that are perfectly placed in the middle of the park. Nothing was organically fresh. It didn’t make me feel anything other than sad and poor. Because the truly beautiful things came with a cost.
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After spending months in the city, working at night for a pay that would afford me to live the life I believed to “free” me. I was feeling suffocated once again. So, in an attempt to breathe fresh air I found myself aboard a bus going back home.
Here, everything is rich and everyone is poor. But glass half full right?
The people are captives of the rat race. Bound to always be running and never having the chance of ever seeing the end of the route. It’s never hard to explain the saying “isang kahig, isang tuka” because literally everyone is living from pay cheque to pay cheque. Despite that, the people stay. Not out of fear of the life in the capital. But because the roots they have laid on the land are strong enough to build a home — and we are privileged to have the land.
We are poor as people, but we are rich in land, air, and water. We are rich in life and in nature. The richness of our land is never ending; like our stories that flows from the top of our mountains that will never run dry. Trees are always proof of tenacity and resilience amidst the confusion of the wind’s blows. It is a privilege to be home and I am lucky that this is mine.
