The best way to plan a road trip is when you didn't plan it at all. A last minute preparation is all you need to keep the excitement on the high level. A fifteen to 30 minutes preparation was long enough to pack my Jansport bag for the weekend getaway. It was supposed to be a one day swim in a pool, a resort just around the city was the original plan. But due to the impulsiveness and the thought of just taking a two days vacation from work plus the weekend to make it four and not being able to get out of the city was so lame, me and my partner decided to take the road and headed north.
I would consider it as an overdue getaway. We’d been planning for a Couple’s Retreat for like more than a year now and all of those itineraries were dispensed due to our incoherency to come up with the same goal, not until this unplanned trip happened. I always have the habit of following the leads and going where the river flows but if the leader doesn't have a concrete destination in mind, I am not the type of a person who makes the decision for everybody, I go where the majority goes. In this case, it’s just between me and my partner for five years. It was actually his birthday celebration and I didn't want to spoil the adventure he had in mind. So at the last minute he changed his mind and decided to go for a road trip instead of splashing in the pool which is more appropriate to counterpart the burning weather of the summer, I hit the sack and pulled some clothes that would approximately last for two days.
Back packing? I thought; this might be an interesting idea, I mean, why not right? It reminded me of western campers and back packers in Europe who’ll just woke up and decided to go to the country side with just a back pack and a pair of snickers. I always wanted to do that ever since, pull down all the guards and just relax and follow where the wind blows. Over thinking will kill the fun, over preparation will also kill the adventure. You just have to go with it, take as much as you can carry and go with it.
There’s no time to relax. After work on a Thursday morning I went home and prepared my stuff, freshen up a bit and took off. My birthday boy was already waiting at the nearest Seven-Eleven store beside the Victory Liner Bus Terminal along Edsa, Cubao. I wasn’t really informed about our destination but I already have a hint. Then later on I found myself smirking in the corner as I was skeptical about the long travel that we were going to embark.
Yes we will be heading north. But we will be having a stop over to the town of Manaoag in the province of Pangasinan to visit the shrine of Our Lady of Manaoag that is known to be miraculous all over the country. I’ve never been to Manaoag and I am very excited to see the place but nevertheless to see the Shrine and experience it firsthand.
I was skeptical if I have enough strength to uphold me for this trip as I have been awake since last night. Thinking that we still have a long way ahead of us and I doubt if I would be able to take a nap in the bus. But then I realized something, – a driven person will not question the strength the body could sustain but the only thing that matters the most, is what the heart is willing to give to survive. My heart was telling me that I could do it, that it would be worth it at the end. All of a sudden it occurred to me that this would not just be a simple journey mixed with pleasures but a spiritual pilgrimage of adventure.
While the bus was trailing the Edsa highway, the normally traffic infested road was yielding and smooth at the moment. The bus hasted freely and saved us the time from the usual bumper to bumper scene. We were seated at the second row, on the right corner while I was preparing for my Kate Winslet moment in the window side of the bus. I was thinking; this was not only for my own benefit but for the deeper meaning of the relationship that we build together for five years. I think every relationship needs to do this once in a while, to detach themselves in their daily routine and discover each other outside the comfort of their own nutshell. I think it would be easier to get to know more about your partner when you are both strangers in a different place and learn more of each other’s personality. This will be the best time to fuel the flame and to be reminded the reason why after all of these years, you still choose to hold this person’s hand.
No wonder a lot of long term relationship ceased after spending years and years together. Many of these lovebirds forgot that relationship needs to be constantly tilted and watered like the soil in the garden to avoid being stiffened and stagnant and dry. They are swallowed by the daily routine that they created in their own world and later realized that each is too bored enough to continue. When the flame stop burning and when the spark isn't there anymore, is there any reason to stay? Does love is enough? I guess both partners have a responsibility to take the rain check before it’s too late.
As we were getting farther, the chaotic scene of the city life was fading in the picture and the echoes of contemporary humming was etiolating into oblivion. I felt like a sheep stripped down by its coat, naked without the customary modern frenzy of my everyday life in a big city. There was silence, relief and stillness in my mood that I never felt for a very long time. I know this feeling, I felt this before…
When I opened my eyes I saw the trees, the meadows, subdivision houses and a silhouette of mountain in the far end. There were road widening, constructions of a new subdivision and factory. Trucks carrying import land to cover up an area that used to be a hectare of rice plantation. Modernizing must have cause much in terms of severing the ways of nature to give way to the brilliance of human engineering. I wonder if this will be worth it in the end.
The bus was already speeding up in tempo along the North Luzon Expressway. In this wide array of a road, from where I was seated the shade of green was beckoning outside my window and all of these reminded me of home, my beautiful province in the South.
The feeling of calmness, every time I traveled from Cagayan de Oro to my province in Bukidnon, when the bus started to ascend in the mountain road and the city harbor at my back became the backdrop scenery of a life size painting while the sea was endless mirroring the immense blue sky. It was one of the many reasons I looked forward to every time I went home as it was breath taking. I couldn't help it, I was a sentimental kid.
The views outside made me feel homesick. It reminded me of my back and forth travels in the winding highways of Mindanao. But I had to ignore this emotion that was building up inside me. I couldn't ruin our trip with my sentiments.
We passed through the city of Tarlac, where the way to the Hacienda Luisita is at the right side from the quaint town piazza. I was thrilled when I saw the Starbucks Café but we didn't have a chance to quench our thirst for sugar and caffeine since our stop over was a few minutes away.
I could see the excitement in his eyes as he looked like a kid again. I know the stress that consumed him at work and believed that he also needed this vacation as much as I do. We deserved this vacation. When you work so hard, it is not worth for guilt to spend and treat yourself sometimes. It’s why you earn for a living anyway, to afford the temporary pleasures of vanity like traveling, food and beautiful material things that this world can offer.
We chatted our way for almost six hours on the road. From town to town I send him laughing out loud with my funny monologues. We talked about anything that we didn't normally talk about in our normal weekend frenzy, as we were more occupied with the cinematic distraction that the city could offer. It’s amazing what a few hours bounding could do when you’re both in a bus and you don’t have much anything to do but talk and laugh and giggles and joke about.
We reached the town of Manaoag. Upon entering, the magnificent Shrine of Our Lady marveling in a glorious structure on my right. I was awed on how huge the church was. Its filmic ambience of quaint solemnity in every corner of the church is magnifying compared to the regular cathedral in the city. Outside, the rays of the mid-afternoon Sun was a hot metal penetrating my skin. But my mind was focused in the heaven’s gate in front of me, I didn't have the chance to linger my attention in the bazaar stores on my left and right selling religious relics and miraculous water. But I took a few glances of some stall. I was appalled with what I saw, miraculous water for sale in a plastic bottle of mineral water in front of a Shrine? Oh how sacrilegious attempt of livelihood. But they must have their reason for doing this, coz if not, then what is conscience for this people. You just can’t deceive your customers using the name of the divine or anything that is connected to it and stand your stall in front of the Shrine? Insanely unacceptable!
Maybe it was just me. My conscience was telling me while I was pondering this obscurity before I reach the church door that this was all wrong. Miraculous water cannot be paid by any amount like normal merchandise, that doesn't work that way. I think miraculous objects, relics, water or any medium work its wonder because we believe that it would, the faith of the people, the yearning of our heart; the chain of prayers willed the divine to manifest in this forms. People are healed miraculously, because at that very moment, the faith of that person to his God could will the mountain to move. I think Faith is the bridge to all miracles, piercing to the window of our heart by the language of prayers as it penetrated to the soul before it manifested to the body. Then you’re healed.
We entered the Shrine. I stripped every inhibition of my body and let the soul lead the way. We seated at the middle row and I lingered my mind in the vast arched formation of the roof, the huge chandelier hanged magnificently on the top. There were people inside buried in deep conversation with God. The sight of people praying inside a church sends me to the transcending feeling that pushed out all the grudges inside my body. This scene is my little personal miracle as it always brings humility and gratitude to my heart. It always reminds me that I am not the only person who has a problem in this world, these people or some of them are carrying the weight of the world behind their back. The feeling of frustration and desperation of their everyday life and thinking that there is no way out of their sufferings. But then they realized that there is the simplest act that we called prayer. When the most desperate person began to pray, it’s the highest act of humility.
I almost choke with my own contemplation while teardrops fell from my cheek. I wiped it right away as I didn't want him to see that I was crying. It was a personal thing for me. I was pulled back to reality when he begun to kneel and took out his rosary beads and booklet. He started his own novena and so I gave him his silent moment. The sight of him in deep prayer is an answered prayer for me and I was inspired by it. I look forward to the front, the Lady stand in the highest spectacles in glistering garbs. She was beautiful. She is the symbol statue of The Lady who performed the miracles. She is the one who forges the faith of the people who devoted their heart to her mercy. How could I deny a conversation with her? When every hymn I heard from the small chapel next to the Shrine were songs of devotion to her. I succumbed to the calling and listen to the whispers in my heart. So I knelt three feet beside him and begun my own silent prayer.
When I open my eyes he was already finished. The sight I beheld was magnified in colors, radiant colors. It felt like nothing in the world today that would ruin our mood or this vacation. We were blessed. I could feel it. And so we navigated the whole surrounding and found our way back to light a candle. We took pictures in every corner of the Church and I pulled out my inner Julie Andrews persona and pouted my way every click like the check will bounce tomorrow.
It was already four in the afternoon when we decided to find the breadcrumbs on the road to our journey. We bought a bottle of water first and drunk it in a gulp as we were very thirsty from that long emotional and spiritual reflection. We didn't waste time searching for a transportation to send us to the summer capital of Baguio city. We tried waiting for the bus but a lot of the locals told us we will be wasting our time as the chance was minimal. So we proceeded and took the Van.
My first trip to Manaoag was a memorable visit, though it was short but the memory that we created together was bonded by the presence of the Lady made it worth while. I am looking forward to see this town again in the future. We’ll never know, I will probably stay for awhile and walk the narrow alleyway and experience the hospitality of the people. But for that moment I was ready to bid my farewell and focused my mind to the next stop
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