Of simple shelters and dragonflies

Although usually experienced in an open field amid throngs of children imitating their flight, dragonflies are quite the mythical creatures. Called “light bearers” because of their ability to reflect light through their wings, they are highly adaptable creatures that can move across three planes seamlessly: from water to land and then to air. They are symbols of illumination, change, and transformation, and are known in Native American mythology as full of spiritual energy. 

This perhaps is what wellness is about: light, change, and transformation. Whether physical health, emotional health or spiritual being — growth and expansion are always woven into the wellness “script.” The part we play may not always be comfortable, but all roles leave us different from when we first began. This column intends to share exactly that — to shed light where it can, to change perspectives where allowed, and to transform when possible — and hopefully, all for the better.

As the weeks move on, Dragonfly hopes to offer you things that may bring clarity and maybe even courage, stories of fearlessness and flight and maybe, if it is lucky it may even bring pieces of wellness, of light.

In the meantime, know that the power of dragons does not exist only in dreams and that we were all meant to fly fearlessly, joyfully with abandon.

Nothing changes a person like bad news — a calamity, a disaster, a prognosis. That being the case, we as a country should be completely transformed by now and yet, here we remain.

We’ve seen almost everything, felt almost everything, and still some things are unchanged. There was Typhoon Ondoy, then Sendong and then now Pablo. Strange how quickly rainwater washes away memories of disaster no matter how horrible. Fortunately for us, there are those who have decided to be different.

Challenged by “The Pablo Collective”(a group of like-minded organizations to aid in disaster relief), the United Architects of the Philippines Diliman Chapter(UAPD) decided to take matters into their own hands by creating a design for temporary shelters kits for victims of last year’s devastating typhoon. A collaboration among members, as well as president Carlos Bustos (UAPD) and the Espina family of architects — the UAPD — launched its prototype last Monday, Feb. 4 at the Diliman campus.

Similar to the Filipino concept of bayanihan, the prototype home was literally built piece by piece by its members and volunteers. Designed using the barest possible materials to allow dislocated families to find protection from the elements as quickly as possible, the structure hoped to address the needs of overpopulated evacuation centers. A simple design made from beer cases, plyboards, wire, tarpaulin, and coco-lumber  — each unit was meant to act as transitional shelters while waiting for the erection of permanent structures. As if staging a challenge, Seryoso is a truly worthwhile project. If you feel you would like to help, whether through time or resources, funding and production is ongoing. 

However, if you notice, what also seems to be ongoing is perhaps the Filipino’s “unbearable lightness of being.” What exactly do I mean by this? Aren’t you amazed by our sense of humor? How in the most dire of scenarios, we will still find something to laugh about? The ability to accept and adapt, and to make light of almost any situation with that absolute certainty, together with the same undying faith in happy endings, can drive someone equally crazy! 

Not that optimism is bad … not at all. Only that sometimes, as we’re busy laughing and thinking about how tomorrow will take care of itself — some things do need to be done, do need to be focused on and changed — that is, much like the shelter project quips — if we’re serious. 

They say change happens from the inside, so although relief work, medical missions, and building homes for those who have lost everything are absolutely noble and in our case necessary, somehow, wouldn’t it be so much more effective if the desire to make things genuinely better comes from inside? And not just from organized groups or foundations, but from within each of us. Let’s try to do our share, in whatever way we can. Let’s try to make better choices about the products we buy, about the things we support knowing that everything is connected. Somehow we contribute to all that happens around us. What we do, big or small, does matter. 

So the next time we are plagued with another calamity or you find yourself stuffing water bottles in a relief bag or even joining the mad rush to the supermarkets to buy rice for feeding centers, pause and as your Filipino faith whispers in your ear that “all will be well” —  smile with all seriousness and decide to help create our own positive endings.