Philline

patuloy na lakbay mula

dito

Tahan Na

tapusin ko ang pagbahagi ng mga huling lakbay ng 2025 nang pa-tula

Nakapunta sa ibang bansa pagkatapos ng 20 taon na hindi lumalabas ng Pinas

Nagpaalala agad si Maya.

Nilakbay mag-isa, malawak at malaking mga gubat atbp.

Dati akong takot sa matataas, pero kahit na

kahit na

Pagdating sa tuktok

Napakasaya

Saya

Nilakbay ang nilakbay nila

Tahanan sa mata nila

Kung ano katumbas ng Maya at Tahan Na

Ng iba

I told a local man who drove me from one location to another that I was feeling nervous and excited being in a new country, a different place overseas after 20 years. And from my experience in Aotearoa, what was clear to me is that regardless of my joys in expanding and learning what Home is through other peoples and learning by the beauty of listening and living with them… I get homesick easy. “Bakit walang Jollibee?! Bakit walang nagTatagalog!” and I sob. That was me in Aotearoa at 7-8 years old when it sunk in we were going to stay there longer than the moments of my feeling excited about the newness.

We exchange stories, and I feel the history of the place speak through his stories… of the way the years were different 60 years ago and he felt like because he lived through it even as a kid. I tell him my favorite word in Tagalog.

Mahal.

brcause it could be how I call “Love”, say it’s “expensive”, but really it’s generally connected to saying… what matters most/what is worth a lot.

I, of course, made him laugh with more stories in exchange to his serious ones. What stuck with me though is how much grace he speaks about his country with without letting go of the ground.

Too much joy I want to keep to myself for now. For now, I’ll offer them to the Earth like these leaves ready to make new virths rich.

I dreamt of this island, asking me to come back and retrieve what I left there just so I can… take care of my sick biological mother. A real version of me that was full and at rest in herself… purposefully wild.