What is Mother Nature Trying to Tell Us?

A few weeks after the Taal Volcano eruption I went back to Singapore. It was right about the time when the coronavirus situation in China blew up and the government started rolling out stricter policies to prevent the spread. I knew right away that all my 2020 plans needed to be adjusted. Stress level escalated and I had slight fever every other week. I was really concerned about getting sick because I know I'm high risk.

What really helped me was when my director advised me to work from home. He said he was concerned about me getting infected. I really appreciated the gesture and it helped ease the stress. It's been two weeks since I started working from home. Stress level has gone down, but it's been busier at work. I only get to go out twice a week when I have physiotherapy. My PT has given me a list of exercises I can do at home since my movement is limited (Sweetie hasn't allowed me to swim for awhile now).

We hurt Mother Nature :'( 

After Pope Francis' urbi et orbi blessing last night (yes we stayed up) I realized that I need to process the situation better. Kuya taught me that for you to move on from a situation you need to learn from it. Papa Pope said in his meditation, “Because this is God’s strength: turning to the good everything that happens to us, even the bad things. He brings serenity into our storms, because with God life never dies.”

What lesson are we supposed to learn?

(Angelus with Pope Francis, October 2018 when we went to Rome.)

I fell asleep thinking about what Pope Francis said. I realized this morning that Mother Nature released this virus that affects the lungs because she is sending a message to us. I've been seeing reports that due to lockdowns/community quarantines the air has been cleaner. In Manila it's been reported that you could see the Sierra Madre mountains and Corregidor Island clearly. Manila Bay's water turned turquoise. In China it was reported they finally saw blue skies. Mother Nature's lungs was very sick. She couldn't breathe anymore.

When Mother Nature is happy.

And that's exactly what pneumonia makes you feel. I think that's what Papa Pope is trying to have us meditate on. History shows that mankind has experienced a number of pandemics. I think it happens when things just become too much. For the coming days I'm going to think about how I could be a better earthling, a better person and better appreciate all the blessings that's given to us.

What about you? What are your thoughts why this is happening to us? 

Earth Hour

I was a bit disappointed last year that we were the only house on our street to turn off our lights for an hour. Anyway, I hope it would be different this year (will remind our homeowners association and parish council to push for it).

Anyway, just wanted to remind everyone that Earth Hour is on Saturday, March 26, 8:30-9:30 p.m.! For more information please visit there website at http://www.earthhour.org.

My Earth Hour Experience

Last Saturday after picking up Miguel from school we just hung out at BF Homes and had snacks at Serenitea and Miggy's. When we got home we planned what to do for Earth Hour.

A year ago Sweetie and I were just newly engaged and was in transit from a wedding expo at World Trade Center. Lights went off as we traversed Buendia Avenue. During that time I called my Mom to remind her to turn the lights off at home.

For Earth Hour 2010 we planned to finish dinner by 8:30 p.m., but we were a bit delayed because I took more time to cook. We managed to turn off our lights and unplugged all appliances (except for the ref) by 8:40 p.m. Sweetie set up chairs at our tiny garden and we just enjoyed each others company under the moonlight. Miguel eventually joined us and we talked about Plants vs. Zombies (haha).

I was sorely disappointed though that we were the only household in our street that participated in Earth Hour. I expected that our famous SEO neighbor would've participated since Earth Hour is all over the net. Our neighbors either forgot about it or were out and didn't leave instructions with their maids.

Next year I'll take Earth Hour a step further and work on placing a poster on our gate and give out leaflets in our neighborhood. I'll also try to get some organizations in my neighborhood to advocate it and hopefully the next Earth Hour our locality won't be shamefully all lighted up.