espinosajouIROG: A Vision of Souls Searching for Meaning and Contentment.
When Joel and Rose Castillo broached to me their plan to put up a foundation several months ago, we were on our way to visit their mother, Rosueta Tuazon, in her new home in a rustic location in Sto. Tomas, Subic, Zambales. When we got there, I was thrown back into those halcyon days in that same town where Ramil Tuazon, Rose's older brother, and his family resettled from Bacolod City to start a new life with their three young children, plus another one coming, in 200?.
Living and working on a farm were my own late grandparents' legacy to my family. Their property in Villasis , Pangasinan is now a vacant lot which has remained almost untilled for many years, waiting for a long-awaited renewal. My late father, an agriculturist, also gave our family a firsthand view into the life tied to the soil when we resided inside a provincial nursery-farm in Negros Oriental for five years – some of the best years of my life.
Sto. Tomas gave me a renewed appreciation for my Lelong Simeon and Lelang Praxedes and their sacrifices as farmers, as well as for my father Emilio who was a 4-H Club pioneer and an all-around farm hand. (He became the national coordinator of Anak Bukid, the Philippines' version of the 4-H Club.) Ramil and I, together with his wife, Christy, and their kids, virtually lived off the land -- and even slept on the floor (we had no beds then and had to borrow mats at the start). When we had no money to buy food, we caught tilapia and mudfish in their fish pond, gathered "escargot" (snails!) and harvested vegetables in the garden. In between our joyful tasks running a printing business, we practiced our music, photography, target-shooting skills and even read Jane Austen, lying in a hammock under the mango tree. It was by far the best way to read Pride and Prejudice! Quite often, we were lulled to sleep by the refreshing sound and coolness of the breeze fanning through the dancing bamboo leaves.
It was those days and moments we had spent living on a farm that nurtured and welded our friendship and fellowship beyond mere business, religious or social connections. Our experiences upon the land and among the people in that part of Luzon formed a bond that will forever be etched in our hearts, our spirits and our lives.
My memories of those days in that Sto. Tomas farm were emblematic of what family life is all about. I was practically raised on a farm and have longed to go back to it all these years. However, my own dysfunctional life's experiences have brought about a "change of plans" that has thrown my career and my vocation – no, my entire life – into wild, unpredictable yet adventurous discoveries of new paradigms.
2015-06-01 05:59:41 +0000