i saw my egret again...

i felt her smile...
i felt she was happy.
yes, she was walking and
occasionally flying low...
but also confused.
something was lost...



there was food, i think
she was pecking
on something i could not identify.
this is the city
and in its midst...
the estero de mendiola
attracts an egret.

i see her almost everyday at about
after 5pm...rush hour becomes
a delight...
i don't know if others have noticed
her beauty.
indeed nature's beauty expressed
in a most pure form.

i texted cielo and she says
it must be an imprint.
must have been a former
nesting place, but alas...
nothing to be found but
murky water, and other
living beings floating...
insect larva, tadpoles...


estuaries are supposed to be places for
mating
and nesting...
but we do have a few of them now...
in the city they have vanished...
gone to make way for high rise structures,
bridges, light rail commuter trains,
highways...
i lament its demise...and
people's disconnection to nature..


and yet i celebrate its "original good"
and the capacity for nature
to heal...to restore its beauty..
i take some time now for
quiet and solitude...time for
reflection...

“I am going to plant a heart in the earth
water it with love from a vein
I am going to praise it with the push of muscle
And care for it in the sound of all dimensions.
I am going to leave a heart in the earth
So it may grow and flower
A heart that throbs with longing
That adores everything green
That will be strength and nourishment for birds
That will be the sap of plants and mountains!”
(Rosario Murillo)


go gently now, my friend...

a peace of life...

each day, going to work, i pass through a little community
of informal settlers...
there are are many of them here in Manila...
this is the life they live.

little children play in the space
that is theirs...milk cans become toy cars,
tattered clothes become kings' and queens'
costumes, sticks become magic wands...
all sorts of ways, they help themselves
all kinds of things they sell...




i occasionally buy their cold drinks...
buko (young coconut) juice, pineapple,
sago and gulaman (a concoction of flavored
gelatin)...my walk invites thirst...and a
little help for the old lady...

life may be tough and difficultbut
there are no beggars
all are working it looks like...
and well-organized.

today they have organized the
basketball team, the skateboard team,
and the volleyball team...there are
sponsors who lent out their balls,
and skateboards...




everyone is busy in this
community.
no one is idle, it looks like...
at the end of the day in the office,
i smell the aroma of garlic and onions
sauteeing in some of the houses...
i wonder what food is cooking...

there is wisdom here...but...
i still wonder at this peace of life...

(thanks to Al, for the "ambulant vendor" photo)