RAINY PILGRIMAGE

What to do, what to do on a rainy, electric-powerless day...definitely not clean up the wicked mess Typhoon Basyang left on our front yard. My brother had a brilliant idea: hit the road to Lucban, Quezon!

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Kamay Ni Hesus Retreat Center

And what a road it was! Cavite and Laguna flew by quite nicely, but in Luisiana, Quezon, the road snaked upward like a bad Prozac dream. If I looked to the left,tree trunks were dangerously leaning toward the ground; on my right, if I dared to look, was a tangle of forest and "bangin". I munched my fears away with sandwiches and buko pie, and chatted with Mama, who by now, was feeling not so chipper with all those twists and turns.

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Road clearing operations delayed our trip

Our real destination was Kamay Ni Hesus, a young shrine famous for two things: the mountainside journey through Jesus' Stations of the Cross towards the Risen Christ, whose hands reach out to the weary pilgrims, and the Church where Fr. Joey Faller celebrates healing masses. We thoroughly missed the Wednesday mass by 8 hours, but the church felt so warm and inviting, that we went in anyway, said our prayers, and took several pose-y pictures. We looked longingly at the pilgrims' mountain,hoping to trudge to the top, but the non-stop drizzle and enveloping fog prevented us from doing so.

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A Pilgrim's Dream

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Healing Hands

Several photo-ops later, we decided to head back to the car and hit the road again. Because I was such a whiny baby, my brother took a longer, but less winding route back to Paranaque, which was still wallowing in darkness.

Definitely, this pilgrim is coming back in better weather.

NEW YEAR'S AT POTTER'S RIDGE-TAGAYTAY

I like my New Year's quiet and foggy, not loud and smoggy. So the family and I trooped to Tagaytay on the 31st, the sound of early bursts of firecrackers fading out as we exited Sucat.

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What I wasn't expecting was the icy air blowing in from two huge picture windows of our suite room. Spectacular views from both windows (one was a carabao indulging on grass) kept us entertained for hours until the fireworks started to light up the horizon.

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The best part was Mama's unbridled joy at the cool wind on her face, the sumptuous pancakes and sausage-bacon breakfast and the incessant teasing from all of us. It's a shame that her eyesight isn't too keen anymore, so she missed a lot of the heart-stopping scenery. But she was having a really happy new year, and that's all that matters.

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(Note: Mama has Parkinson's Disease, which, doctors believe developed from depression. It has affected her mobility, her eyesight, and in severe bouts of nervous tension and panic--her speech. She is our family's Baby, so we do everything in our power to make her happy and comfortable.)

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