The Complexity of the Simple Life



As we were rowing down the stretch of the Jal-o River one summer morning, I intimated to my friend, Laurence, that all I aspire for is to lead a quiet simple life away from the hassle and bustle of the urban civilization. Looking up around the lush green, the serene surroundings and a solitary hut abutting the bank of the river as our boat passed by, she innocently assured me that I can achieve my dream as it is bereft of any competition. I smiled at her lovingly yet at the back of my mind I concluded that her Occidental Weltanschauung had conditioned her to assume that leading the simple life is just a cakewalk.

More than 15 years have elapsed since our tete-a-tete aboard that nameless boat and Laurence and I have parted ways. She has dedicated her life to caring for street children and Filipina girls who have been sexually and psychologically abused in some depressed community in Iloilo while from time to time travel back home rallying the European communities to lend her a hand for the logistical needs of her ward. When she happened to visit Anao some years later and our paths crossed again incidentally, she readily invited me to help the girls establish some micro projects. But I sadly declined, claiming that I was too busy to travel that far (as if Passi is at the end of the world--it's only less than 100 miles from my place) or to be involved in charitable works as my post demands full time and attention.

That was my excuse.

Looking back to that serene scenery by the Jal-o vis-a-vis the complexities of the life I have at this point in time, I realize that Laurence has shown me that dreams do come true, only if you have the will to make it happen and the resolve to follow the path to simple life. She realized though along the way that it is not a cakewalk but a Via Crucis. Yet like Jesus, she keeps getting up every time she falls, embracing and carrying her cross toward her desired end.

Au revoir, Laurence! Happy International Women's Month to you and to your kind.


N.B.
To help the cause of Laurence, please contact Association Cameleon at this links: http://www.cameleon-association.org/


Get her book, Princesses of the Streets: 15 years of Service to the Filipino Children at http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1927073.Laurence_Ligier

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