MY SINCERE condolences to the bereaved family of the late legal eagle: Atty. Dominador A. Lagare, Sr. and my friend Dommellette Lagare-Odtohan, medical technologist and real estate broker, daughter, my first friend in the family while I was a young and rash individual who just relocated to General Santos City.
My first interview with Atty. Domslags Lagare was in late March 2020 before my column came out on March 27, 2020. I was planning to do a follow-up story, but COVID-19 hit the country, and everybody had to keep safe. He shared several papers that I photographed for a follow-up story.
Even then, I’m grateful for that shared afternoon of boisterous laughter, sentimental recollection of his young life, and his Bohol adventures as a young student in Cebu City.
Farewell Sir Domslag, farewell Dommellette, enjoy God’s loving embrace.
***
Our house is adjacent a vast rice field that witnesses the changing of the seasons and the birth, growth, and departure of residents. We have lived here for twenty-five years. We witness the seasons of planting and harvesting and whatever comes in-between. Carabaos are a daily scene as well as different colors of egrets, and the noisy but adorable ducks! I couldn’t complain!
Before the pandemic hit our shores, when houses were empty from time to time, robbers and thieves had a field day ransacking homes. However, with the health crisis and people locked at home, houses become more formidable and protected from unwanted and stealthy predators.
Occasionally we are also flooded. In late May, this year, an evening downpour lasting until dawn caused massive flooding on streets, and worse, finding its way inside houses. It was a long and exhausting day. But thank God, by late afternoon until early evening, the water subsided. We prayed that rains will not return that night for relief. It did not. God answers prayers!
Curiously or perhaps because of this pandemic, people resort to a healthy lifestyle. Early mornings and late afternoons, I see neighbors jogging, brisk walking, and cycling on the recently paved dirt road at the back of our subdivision. The place became a haven for health buffs. It’s a good sight! Daily activities happen there.
I do my exercise in the house but last week, the daughter and I drove through the one-lane road from the city back to the house and I was just awed by the beautiful scenery that I decided that I will join the rest of the neighborhood.
So, Wednesday afternoon, together with Arya (the quirky dog) held by the daughter, and Hazel, granddaughter of our long-time dependable and faithful neighbor Marilyn Arbilo, I decided on strolling the lush greenery. Such a beauty! Truly a work of art!
Having received a special gift from the son over the weekend, I started taking photos. I remember my college days and sometime during my power industry days when I was a photo enthusiast wasting on films, haha! It felt good capturing sceneries.
Thursday morning, we walked the whole stretch of the one-lane road by the rice field, found more hidden charms, photographed, and sweated. So good!
Upon seeing my first forwarded photo, a friend uttered, “Sana ganyan lang buhay natin. Simple lang.” Indeed! For some, life is a simple choice. They leave high-paying jobs for the comforts of simple living while others thrive in cutthroat competitions. But after many summers, I would say people do really have a choice. For some a limited window, for others vast, but there is still a choice.
That’s why we celebrate the successes of those who are determined to optimize that very narrow window. We do so because we see the prize of their struggles.
Now, back to the great walks by the rice field. I have written way back in my first column as a writer in The Mindanao Bulletin how lucky I am to have the best of both worlds: I live in the city, but I have a rustic view of farm life; of farmers tilling the soil, sowing, planting, harvesting, and threshing. Of the rituals they do before another planting season.
These repeated cycles will keep you grounded and connected to mother earth.
***
Writer can be reached at belindabelsales@gmail.com. Twitter @ShilohRuthie./PN
