Morning Walks With My Mother

Getting out of bed in the morning has ceased to become an ordeal and a race against the clock to beat the rush hour going to work. Now, I wake up before my phone alarm sounds off, and instead of getting out of the house onto the perennially traffic-congested Ortigas Extension, I go the opposite way, up to the mountains, to Antipolo.

Unless it rains, I start my weekday mornings brisk walking up and down these asphalted, gentle slopes, between these rich vegetation...

and underneath the overlapping canopies. 

With my mother as my walking buddy, the experience has been something to look forward to each morning.

I have been posting on Instagram photos I have taken using my phone of this same place, with blah-blah captions that kind of tell a story or a lesson, which I hash-tag “morningwalkthoughts.” This morning, I decided to take my Canon EOS M (just telling, not bragging, hehe) and play with it.

I mentioned in a previous post that I would need to skill myself a bit on photography so I could post decent photos, worthy of internet space. I am such a lousy learner especially when I need to teach myself aided only by a manual. The camera came with instructional CDs, but I have not gotten around to opening them yet (understandably :-)). I have not really fully read the manual (even if I always have them in my bag, just in case). And so I just try exploring the camera’s features by pressing the functions (touch screen, btw). Amateur that I am, I am happy with the photos I took. These are far from a professional’s material, but, hey, they look pretty enough, and I am excited to share them with you with some bylines.

Nature touches the soul, reaches down deep within, taps into one’s natural desire for peace, beauty, and simplicity. It inspires. It rejuvenates. It makes one look up to the heavens, feeling thankful and blessed.

What inspires me to come to this place, walk this path, is not really the calories I get to burn, but more than that, it is experiencing nature - the lush greenery, the gentle breeze, the sightings of butterflies and spiders. It’s the beauty of it. I am one lucky mommy I know. I got a car pass to this lovely subdivision because my son’s school is located right here.

Awed by the details of this little creature...

the pretty little flowers that spring in spite of the seeming chaos,

the butterfly that nurtures itself and propagates beautiful little flowers,

 and the wonders of how life starts.

Sometimes, we go past pretty little things because we are too busy to stop, get down, and peer closely...

We tend to see the obvious...

and try hard to fit ourselves in.

Often, we blindly follow a path...

but have we stopped to check our bearings, where we are, and ask what we are looking for?

 Do we miss out on some details of our lives?

 (Did you see the pretty pink flowers?)

Going astray can get lonely...

We all follow a cycle.

It is a struggle to exist and be noticed... for each one competes for attention...

but in the end, we are our own selves...

 and it is our choice to live as beautiful as we can be.