Begin the begin

By Virginia J. Pasalo

 

THE new year is here. What do we do about it? I found my wish list two years ago (2015) and realized nothing much had changed because most of the wishes I made depended on other people and circumstances beyond my control. Here is the list and its status as of today:

Palestine will become an independent country and no more blood will be shed on all sides. It will take longer, longer than Aleppo’s suffering. As i said in my poem,

 

“…swimming in a wave of lies

in an ocean of blood

clutching debris to survive

will you live,

will you die

It is not up to you

It is not up to me”

 

To be happy. Even as we struggle with the corruption in us and in others. As a friend said, “Be happy, don’t sweat the small stuff”. But I also remind myself that the small stuff, when unattended to, becomes big.

To find solutions to seemingly impossible situations, even if we whine, curse and cry. Yes, I found solutions, it cost me allergies.

To love, especially the unlovable, to be part of their lives, and to find ourselves transformed by this love as well. I started this a long time ago, and succeeded in increments. I realized that loving requires time, especially the act of loving.  And I am doing this while loving other people, and loving myself too.

To travel to Bali, enjoy the sunshine, walk on the hot sand. I did not go to Bali but had a lot of sunshine and walked on warm sand.

To hug Uruguay president Jose Mujica. Too expensive to go to Latin America.

For me to finish my book on poetry to be launched in March, to bridge the gaps of my short novel and to help Julia D. Senga remember her mother’s Tinggian dal-ots and stories. I finished “Kiew”, an anthology of tree poems, and launched it in Udaipur, India in October 2016. Kiew included a poem by Julia D. Senga, which I made her do by forcing her to sit down and write a Tinggian poem.

To visit Taj Majal and feel the love that built it. My most hectic so far, because I was in India to launch a book, missed Taj Majal for the Poetry Festival in Morocco. Now, more than ever, I love my feet, they bring me to places. I love the One who built it.

Parents will start teaching their own children how to think, become engaged citizens, to respect older people, to be friendly to their peers, to plant trees and learn to raise their own food, and to respect the food on the table by saying a prayer of gratitude instead of taking a picture and posting it to FB or Twitter. This is a mouthful, and as anything mouthful, there was no room for digestion.

All the trees along Manila North Road will survive their girdle. The trees did not. Necessarily, for 2017, my wish list will be achievable. Something that I can make happen, without much help from anyone. If I achieve it, the success will largely be mine. If I fail, I can try again next year.

 

Girdled Tree

I shall plant you

inside of me

and make you grow big

harder than you will ever be

sturdier than you will ever be

growing, inside my own girdle

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