Journey

A heritage of Cebu
Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Zaragoza

"I'll wake you up tomorrow at 4:30 in the morning", he said.

"Where are we going?", I asked.

"Out to jog from here to the next town". I smirked and said, okay.

I'm all about keeping my body fit. Although I don't eat the right kinds of food all the time but I do move a lot. I've been exposed to exercising just recently by my guy friends who are health enthusiasts. I've maintained my normal body weight until now, never going over board nor drastically dwindling down my weight.

I woke up, got in my jogging outfit, and went out to stretch. It's different in the province. You can tell by just the cold and wet grass smell of the air. It's better than the smoke from all the cars in the city. The roosters are starting to wake up, the sky just the right hint of purplish blue. I stood and saw the long stretch of road ahead of me. This is going to be an easy run, I told myself as I plugged my earphones and played my favorite song.

Our destination is a town called Sibonga. Later did I know that it was a 5 kilometer jog from where we were.  I've never been to that place and so I was excited to get there as fast as I could. We started to jog from the border. The first 20 minute jog was easy to do. I was concentrating on my steps and my breathing. My eyes were still on that long stretch of road and my mind was thinking about the time we would reach where we were headed. I want to see the place and take pictures.

There was a lot going through my head at that time and then suddenly I turned my head to the left. There I saw the beautiful view of the sun barely shining through the clouds. The green coconut trees dancing with the wind, farm animals grazing, the ocean and its waves. I stopped and was just in awe. I unplugged my earphones and took a picture of the view. All I could utter at that moment was, "wow".

I grew up in the province, yes. But I left when I was 12 and continued my life in the city. I've forgotten the simplicity of life and the beauty of nature because I've been too exposed to buildings, traffic, and all the craziness. My jog turned into brisk walking and finally just ended up into a walk. I took pictures of whatever I saw that ignited my curiosity. I asked questions on how things work there, how the place got its name, and urban legends. I saw old ancestral houses that looked creepy and awesome at the same time. And I even saw modern houses and imagined my own dream house in the future. The sun was at its rightful place in the sky by the time we reached Sibonga. We went to the pier where a few people had this simple rod made out of wood and string with a hook on the end to catch fish. I saw a century old Acacia tree and the old church that stood proud and strong just right across the pier.

As we went home on a tricycle, I felt the cold breeze of the air on my face. It was nice to finally get to live in the moment where I'm not in a hurry to do anything or be anywhere. True enough, it's never reaching the destination that is more important. If I had kept my eye and attention on just reaching where I needed to be then I wouldn't have discovered the magnificent things around me.

To reach the destination is a bonus. To discover about life on the journey is priceless.

~myeviltwin