“Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinangalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan.” - Jose Rizal
There was a time when I never missed Philippines while being overseas.
Yet as the years go by, I start missing the country, the people, the food, the music, the drama, the passion, as well as the kababawan. I especially miss the humor and the lighthearted way that Filipinos deal with life despite the seemingly endless challenges and tragedies of our nation.
Jose Rizal once said, one who does not know how to look back to where he came from, won’t get to where he’s going.
I think it’s not so much a matter of having to look back to be able to know where I’m going… it’s a pull that simply happens.
There is something strengthening in framing my life, my present and future in light of being a Filipina, and remembering what Filipino is being about — our heroes and leaders, what they fought for, liberating us from the Spanish, the Japanese, the Americans, remembering the generations before me who stood against dictatorship and martial law from the First Quarter Storm to People Power… I once heard that our constitution is one of the best in the world in protecting freedom and human rights.
I’ve read dozens of motivational and inspirational books from Og Mandino to Paullo Coehllo, Andrew Matthews, etc. But now I realise, what really moved me forward the most in life were inspirations from Jose Rizal’s biography I read when I was a young girl, and his novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo which I read as a teenager.
Maybe it’s time to revisit them…
