Ninety days after “Yolanda,” Ormoc is slowly coming back to life.

 

I ended the workweek with a quick trip to the seaside sitio of Lawis in Albuera, which is 40 minutes away from Ormoc. Our company donated the first 10 of 20 boats that we had committed to the fisherfolk in our adopted community.

 

Words cannot quite describe the quiet gratitude in the eyes of the fishermen as they posed beside their shiny and new yellow boats that glistened in the afternoon sun.

 

Their faces were a mix of joy and disbelief. In a week, they would be able to head out to sea again.

 

Three reminders

 

Three important reminders came to focus for me this past week.

 

First, it is so important to slow down every now and then, just to catch your breath, and be still.

 

The three-hour ferry ride from Cebu to Ormoc gave me that experience. Barring waves, the Visayan sea gives one the chance to just stare out into the waters, and quiet the heart and mind.

 

For some in our party, it was time to catch up on badly needed sleep.

 

Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote that the sea always bears gifts; you need only to be open to it. For me, the gift came in the framework of a book that had been gestating for months. In those three quiet hours on the journey to Ormoc, the inspiration and the outline came to be.

 

On the trip home, the subjects of the new book began to appear.

 

Second, given the time in this quiet province and while sitting and chatting with the people of Lawis, I was reminded of how beautiful life could be, no matter how simple, and that contentment is the key.

 

I’ve downsized in a lot of areas in my life, and have gotten rid of the baggage that used to weigh down my heart and my spirit.

 

In purging and cleansing myself of the nonessentials, I have never been happier. Once more, it really all depends on what you choose to focus on.

 

Perspective

 

This reality was pointed out to me as our party of five walked the barren and dusty road a few meters from the shoreline. Looking at the sea, I overheard two of my companions remark, “Imagine waking up and falling asleep to this every day!”

 

I quickly replied, “Oh yes, what a fabulous view!”

 

Then both of them said in unison, “Huh?!”

 

I told them I wouldn’t mind catching a glorious sunset like the one before us every day. They said that they were referring to the mangled trees by the roadside.

 

Perspective. Sometimes life is really all about perspective. Change your focus, and your heart changes as well.

 

Lastly, watching the fishermen carefully cradle the brand-new motors of their bancas (they were yet to be installed) as they walked home with their wives and children, and hearing them say, “Maraming salamat” or “Daghang salamat!” each time they passed us on the road, brought home to me the certainty of being able to begin again at any point of life’s journey.

 

Battered and beaten, but not broken, here was a community now slowly picking up the pieces, ready to start anew.

 

Terrible news

 

The week for me began with terrible news about the early passing of a college friend and former colleague in Philippine Airlines. I ran into her a few months earlier at a party; I did not even know she was sick. Nobody knew.

 

When the cancer returned with a vengeance, she opted to fight it out, quietly surrounded only by immediate family.

 

I went to her wake with a heavy heart, regretting the years we had lost touch and feeling awful. When a friend of the same age dies, your sense of mortality slaps you so hard, you have no option but to stop and think hard of your own life.

 

Looking at the photographs her daughters had lovingly put together, I was so comforted in the knowledge that her life was filled with joy, and that she had been so loved right to the very end.

 

Stay in the now

 

Life is so short, and the gift my friend left me with was a reminder to stay in the now, and to stay in touch with the people who matter.

 

And kindness—I was gifted with so much kindness this week by people I did not expect it from. Perhaps, because of these encounters, I found myself expressing even more kindness than I usually do.

 

After all, it’s been said that kindness melts defenses, clears debris and opens hearts. Kindness always, without fail, inspires kindness as well.

 

As Kathleen Norris put it: “Prayer is not asking for what you think you want, but asking to be changed in ways you can’t imagine.”

 

E-mail the author at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @cathybabao.