Celebrating Creation in This Planet
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By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
Eleven
years ago, on July 16, 1990, a great earthquake shook
Baguio City and a great part of Luzon. Much of Baguio
was reduced to a rubble and the once proud City of
Pines, the country's summer capital, was brought to
its knees.
Nature had spoken. It cut a destructive swath on the jewel city of the mountains, claimed lives and millions in properties. Many landmarks were levelled to the ground and for a while, it looked like Baguio would never be the same again.
Well, Baguio, since then, has not been the same. It rose again and is now leading a new life, having learned lessons from the disaster that turned the bowels of the earth inside out and Baguio's soul as well.
A disaster area was the Maryknoll Sisters' Convent in Campo Sioco. No lives were lost there, but many important structures and irreplaceable objects were crushed to the ground, and with them, several decades of memories and accomplishments. What else could one do if not grieve and weep over the ruins?
But grief and tears have a way of shaking one's mindset and outlook, and of turning the soul inside out. And of stirring something in the ground. Something did indeed rise from the ruins of the 1990 earthquake. It was new and different. It was something that had long lay dormant and only needed coaxing, if not quaking, from Mother Nature.
The Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary is a place to be if one needs to draw close to home. Home being Planet Earth and everything therein and the universe where it is one of the zillions of jewels.
"We thought this house was indestructibe," says Sister Anne Braudis as she leads the visitor to see a portion of what used to be the convent kitchen. "The whole structure was so damaged we had to remove the whole thing."
Save for the part that would serve as the reminder. There begins the story of the earth, the "cosmic journey" of a several hundred meters. Here in the Sanctuary one could take to the past even while seizing the present and ogling the future of this planet. Here one is seized with the realization that everything on earth -- time, place, space, creatures -- is interconnected, that one is never home alone.
Sr. Anne or any of the Sanctuary staff acts as guide for the journey and stopovers in earth stations. Inanimate art and living things serve as props and help situate the sojourner in one cosmic time and place, or more particularly, in one chapter in the earth's life.
Baguio artists, it has to be mentioned, helped create the Sanctuary.
By the way, how much time have you got? If you have only 30 minutes for the journey, you better come to the Sanctuary another time. One must not hurry.
The Rock of the Earth is Formed, says the sign on the first station. One goes through a low and narrow cosmic gate on bended knees. The arch is made of stones from the ruins, and is, by itself, a piece of sculpture. Crawling, one emerges on the floor of a circular arena that is laid out with river stones that form a swirling sun-like design. Around it are four gate-like stone pieces that look like the ones in the Stonehenge in England. Why, the ones who made this did not even know about the Stonehenge, Sr. Ann says. The four gates, one is told, honor the four directions--north, south, east and west.
The Salt of the Earth Develops. One stands on a "beach" strewn with seashells. "Have your ever cried?" Sr. Ann asks. "What is the taste of your tears?" We have the ocean in us, she reminds. Suddenly one feels the ebb and flow of the sea inside oneself, the rush of the river of life in one's veins. Aren't we 70, 80 percent water?
The Mammals Emerge. Without being reminded, one realizes that human beings came to be in this planet rather late. A reproduction of the Philippine eagle is perched on a pine tree branch, its eyes surveying the landscape. "The eagles have the most powerful eyes," the guide says. "We need a vision like the eagle's, a new vision for our people."
The Flowers Appear on the Earth. Sounds like a line from the Song of Solomon: the tryst of spring. "The song of the dove is heard in our land...Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come!" One is greeted by a burst of wild blooms. After all, Baguio has bloomed again, "For see, the (earthquake) is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come."
The flowers in the Sanctuary are mostly the endemic variety, Sr. Ann explains. They are excellent stuff for studies in biodiversity. And did you know that they hold in them a lot of potential protein needed by the body?
The Cave. We are approximately 10,000 years out of the cave. A replica of a portion of the Tabon Cave in Palawan (where the earliest evidence of human beings in these islands was found) provides a "prehistoric" experience. Here is a replica of life as lived 40,000 years ago. Here people observed cosmological patterns and started rituals. Here they followed the life-death-resurrection cycle.
Then one emerges from that womb of a cave and crosses a swaying hanging bridge. The bridge was built with the specifications of actual bridges in the Cordillera, only this one is smaller and has some iron materials to ensure durability.
One steps into a the village era. In the Kalinga village one imagines the sound of the flute and the pounding of grain. "The Igorots built bridges thousands of years ago," says the guide. And then she speaks of them in another plane. "They learned about cosmic order even without factual knowledge. How wonderful to recover earth wisdom which our ancestors had and combine it with factual knowledge."
In a while one steps out into the present. One feels a little mournful over what civilization has lost, and also challenged that there is something that could be done to recover what had been lost. There is a lot to celebrate about because of what remains.
One of the important stations is the Hermitage where one could be alone and "not be quite alone" to contemplate the wonder of creation, to find oneself and one's connection with the grass, the trees and the seeds falling to the ground. To listen to the sound of the wind and the groan of wounded creation and the laughter of the flowers.
In the three-hectare Maryknoll property is also a bioshelter and a farm where food is grown using only the natural method. No chemical pesticides and fertilizers. The place also serves as a "classroom" where people could come to stay and learn by doing.
The Maryknoll Sisters used to run a regular school in the place, but now the last of it is being phased out. This year they will graduate the last class. Then they will do full-time earth work. "From elementary education we go into earth education," Sr. Ann quips.
The sisters have built for themselves a new home designed by University of the Philippines dean of architecture Geronimo Manahan. It is a beautiful structure, with a chapel ("sacred space," it is called) that is unlike anything one has seen. It is cylindrical, the size of a small room. But it rises about two stories high. It is like a well, a vertical tunnel suffused with light.
"Our grieving unleashed creative energy," Sr. Ann says of the earthquake experience. "We told ourselves, we should not rebuild unless we rebuild with meaning."
At the Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary, rebuilding from the ruins meant not so much putting up new structures as rediscovering, renewing and celebrating creation in this great planet. After all, says Sr. Anne, "the unfolding of creation is the context in which Christ came." - Courtesy of Sunday Inquirer Magazine
Ma. Ceres P. Doyo is a Special Reports writer and columnist of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. She has received awards and citations for her feature articles and investigative stories. Many of Doyo's stories are in her book "Journalist in Her Country: Articles, Essays and Photographs."
