balanced & sustainable

It seems like I have been spending the majority of 2025 and 2026 ranting against the transactionality and commodification, decolonization and better care of human beings - whether we are on home ground or abroad. 

Touristification is a phenomenon that is happening worldwide - in both in the north and the south hemispheres or in both high traffic or far flung areas. 

a working balance between local & tourist needs

Born and raised in the Philippines, I moved to the US right after 9/11, and have returned for almost two years now - after being abroad for 20 years. 

This is a reflection on how touristification can transform a place you love and where once possessed a strong sense of belonging - when you are priced out of it. 

being human

“We are not people anymore. We have been products for a long time, and these are our labels” 

In a world of therapy-speak, Freya India argues we’ve lost the language of character - replacing quirks with conditions. But are we mentally ill, or just human? 

authentic & unapologetic

This is part of a deeper instinct in modern life to explain everything - psychologically, scientifically, evolutionarily. Everything about us is caused, categorized, and can be corrected. 

what we are

In these times of uncertainty - tremulous, touchy, trying periods of violent upheaval and tremendous loss - hatred can all too easily overcome all else.

The curtain rises on a circus run amok - a carnage of vicious and pointed hatred. The quick and instant devastation of murderous violence directed at one another. Or a slow, seething barbarity borne from centuries of inherited bias.

Hell bent annihilation as deadly as blatant disregard for the universe and life. Human and non-human lives with which we share this fragile, irreplaceable planet are at a constant face off.

We are beyond shocked at what human beings are capable of - ambient and pervasive in our daily living and dying.

D'où venons-nous? Que sommes-nous? Où allons-nous? by Paul Gauguin

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? 

The poet Jane Hirshfield is a serene and courageous voice of our time. An ordained Buddhist, humanitarian, planetarian, and advocate for the cosmos - questions how to end this mockery and fatal drama.

Her explorative poetry in Spell to Be Said Against Hatred is a master work of quiet, surefooted insistence, persistence, and perseverance of compassionate consideration.

Until each breath refuses they, those, them.
Until the Dramatis Personae of the book’s first page says “Each one is you.” 

Until hope bows to its hopelessness only as one self bows to another.
Until cruelty bends to its work and sees suddenly “I.”
Until anger and insult know themselves burnable legs of a useless chair.
Until the unsurprised unbidden knees find themselves nonetheless bending.
Until fear bows to its object as a bird’s shadow bows to its bird.
Until the ache of the solitude inside the hands, the ribs, the ankles.
Until the sound the mouse makes inside the mouth of the cat.
Until the inaudible acids bathing the coral.
Until what feels no one’s weighing is no longer weightless.
Until what feels no one’s earning is no longer taken.
Until grief, pity, confusion, laughter, longing see themselves mirrors.
Until by “we” we mean I, them, you, the muskrat, the tiger, the hunger.
Until by “I” we mean as a dog barks, sounding and vanishing and sounding and
         vanishing completely.
Until by “until” we mean I, we, you, them, the muskrat, the tiger, the hunger,

         the lonely barking of the dog before it is answered. 

wisdom & ignorance

The Buddhist scholar monk Bhikkhu Bodhi explains that ignorance is not just an absence of knowledge - “It is an insidious and volatile mental factor incessantly at work inserting itself into every compartment of our inner life. It distorts cognition, dominates volition, and determines the entire tone of our existence.”

Whereas ignorance obscures the true nature of things, wisdom removes the veils of distortion - enabling us to witness a situation in its essential mode of being - through our direct perception and not clouded over by filters and bias. 

burned out utility pole - photo © Igor Podgorny

Training in wisdom is rooted in the development of insight (vipassana-bhavana) - a deep and comprehensive seeing into the nature of existence which fathoms the truth of our being - from our own experience. 

past tipping points

Today's session on the Shaman's Cave discusses the ability to meet our future self. Given the news of the Amazon rainforest having tipped past salvation - we need all the help we can get. 

There is an understanding in many spiritual traditions and sciences like quantum physics that we inhabit multiple realities. On a personal and communal basis how do we make a difference and have the support we need? 

In shamanic journeying different choices offer alternative options that impact a variety of our future possibilities. Let us hold the intention of lightening up and growing less dense - together and collectively. 

Evolution is a worthwhile state of being yet it's not an easy or comfortable place to be in. Tested and challenged to stretch and expand - often when we're resistant or ill prepared. 

sandworm & rider - The Art & Soul of Dune

Like Paul Atreides, the central figure in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Young, displaced, and unsure of himself - his safe Caladan home world lost, moved to the harsh alien world of Arrakis/Dune - all new and unfamiliar, betrayed and left to survive or die. 

Frank Herbert warns about society's tendencies to "give over every decision-making capacity" to a charismatic leader, a hero. Paul himself battles ceaselessly against inner motives and outer driven factors that pull and push at him constantly. 

Any of us today all too easily feel the rub and friction of ceaseless and constant change - epic proportions held over daunting obstacles. All the subtlety seems lost -  along with any clarity or comfort we strive to maintain through these quantum shifts and leaps - in a roller coaster, run amok world. 

What tools would you want for support and help right now? What could aid best in the restoration of our well being? For ourselves, for our world, for our future?

Make your list and let's get this conversation going!

god given gifts

The world is full of pageantry - beauty in infinite forms, outrageously generous gifts - pouring out of the Earth. The planet's bounty and harvest are our best gifts - its canopy of trees, the richness of our soils, the wilderness, its oceans - all creatures and elements of nature.

Mary Pelc on Instagram

The human species is a part of all this, connected and never separate - even if we managed to have grown apart. The separateness, however real it feels - in our concrete cities and boxed up domiciles of convenience and comfort - is a manmade delusion.

lies we lived

I gave myself Friday, Saturday and Sunday to revel in the US election turnout. YAY Biden/Harris team! Good riddance Trump/Pence cabal. 

I gloried in the joy of the Kamala Harris win most of all. As a woman. As a mother of my daughter. As an American. An Asian American. An immigrant. A rebel. A change warrior. 

I had the great satisfaction of being happy and hopeful once again. Not having to self talk or convince myself that things will be alright. Just being immersed in the joy and delight of what if and all its possibilities. 

All of which I was beginning to doubt as highly unlikely in the shadow of a Trumpian world - the all consuming, morally rudderless, egotistical clown bus, careening out of control. 

hopeful & happy

disastrous denial

Watch out world! Trump is just a bloody tick on the Earth's crust. Horrific as COVID-19 is under his inept lack of leadership, this is just the first wave.

Mackay's multi-tsunami cartoon - shared, cropped, and altered

rabble rouser

their world is not our world

conflict and chaos reign supreme
in our current covid-19 crisis
as China sweeps ahead

an unimaginable horror
hidden from us all
exploding beyond belief

invisible and boundless
mutating faster than
our speed of comprehension

in a global stage
occupied by the scared and witless
a big bully projects itself well

be aggressive not passive
protest and persist
be unreasonable

demonstrate and demand
fair trade for you and me
equality for art and science

call a strike
for a bluer planet
for a greener earth

bypass politics
stage a shutdown
united we stand

wealth & poverty | world views

The disparity between rich and poor nowadays is stunning beyond belief.

Basic needs definitions also go beyond money, to include all the things that a person needs in order to survive – including employment and participation in society. Wealth and poverty can be measured in many ways. 

Using the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare, intended to replace the GDP, it can measure ‘quality’ economic activity by making a subtraction for air pollution and an addition for unpaid household labour for example.

Another method is the Human Poverty Index. This is ranked according to three main areas of deprivation - survival, knowledge, and a decent standard of living.

In the industrial world, where the Index also includes social exclusion, the higher the percentage classified as poor, the greater the poverty in that country.

Recently New Internationalist published, "Equality matters in terms of health and happiness, but surprising new data reveals that it is also better for the environment – in the more equal rich countries, people on average consume less, produce less waste and emit less carbon." 

Conscious living is applying our attention more mindfully and respectfully. Progress and urbanization have costs and consequences that would benefit us more to approach with care and honor. 

Thinking and planning beyond personal and individual enrichment for the greater good of more is the better option. For ourselves, our families, our communities, our societies, our countries, and the whole world. 

It is human centered nation building. It is a natural and loving way for humanity to prosper and thrive. We are all in this together. 

Sunday thoughts

This time last year Change Warrior was clear across the world - blogging about earth rumblings and volcanic eruptions. 

Today Change Warrior is reposting some worthy contemplation from Rick Jarow on A Culture of Awakening: The Inner and Outer Revolution. 

The post ignited some thought provoking ideas that shook me to the core and made me erupt at the cosmic joke being played out for us all. 

risk & disaster

October 13 is International Day for Disaster Reduction. This was started in 1989 by the United Nations General Assembly. A day to promote a global culture of risk-awareness and disaster reduction.

The 2018 theme continues as part of the "Sendai Seven" campaign, centered on seven targets of the framework. This year focuses on reducing disaster economic losses in relation to global GDP by 2030.

war of art | Oscars 2018

This is reposted from the wonder | wander | women article on Medium.

Art imitates life and at the Oscars. This year more glaringly so in all the issues raised and celebrated by a select community that the world looks to as its microcosm.

Amidst the hooplah and bright lights of the Oscars both rising and reigning stars raised their voices and bent our focus on issues and concerns that have been troubling us all.

memory in our genes | history on our skin

Commissioned Art by Mahala Urra

The recent uproar over the exploitation of a tribal elder at the recent Manila FAME event has opened a whole can of worms. 

Read a BBC article on it - one of many that have since gone viral. 

Apo Whang Od Oggay herself may well disagree. 

Sleeping figure is celebrated Kalinga tatoo artist, Apo Whang Od

we are the ones that we have been waiting for

Choose love. However challenged we are. No matter how challenging. Stand united in this.

Calling on all change warriors and all of humanity!

What better motivation than world leaders like Trump and Duterte who show us beyond the shred of a doubt what exactly we do not want for our selves and for our world?

Even the most lethargic sedentary sloth feels their heart kindled and ignited today as a result of the unbelievable indignities we are being subjected to.

This is not the time to be passive and invisible. Stand up, awake and arise, be counted and make your life count.

So much anger needs much love. So much pain needs much healing.

Healing not to fix what is broken but heal to preserve our higher nature and protect our world.

We each need to look within ourselves to find true inner peace in order for there to be any hope of peace on earth.

These times bring strong emotions. Use them to motivate and inspire. Not to aggravate and complicate.

Live in the light of wisdom and love. Shine and drive off the darkness of ignorance and lack.

people power

In the Philippines we are now celebrating the 31st Anniversary of the People Power Revolution that ousted former dictator, Ferdinand Marcos.

At the corner of EDSA & Boni

With the current president an avid fan of the Marcos family - who facilitated the burial of this malevolent dictator in our local heroes' cemetery, desecrating sacred ground - sore wounds have opened up and festered once again. 

We have to ask, when will justice be served and can some form of closure be honorably and decently achieved after all these years?

shooting stars & growing pains

Against the dark Jupiter, the brightest star-like object in the predawn sky, rises in the east.

As the orb of the sun creeps into the horizon, the dawn offers up Sirius, the sky’s brightest star.

Consolation for a waning gibbous moon and overcast skies eclipsing the Orionid meteor shower.

“Shot around 1 am. The night was bright because of the full moon.”
Zefri Besar, Brunei, Darussalam

These meteors or shooting stars are vaporizing bits of ice and dust trailing from the famous Haley's Comet, streaking through the night sky.

peace, baby, peace

October 2 was International Day of Non-Violence, celebrated on the birthday of civil disobedience 

pioneer, Gandhi. 

Leader of the Indian independence movement and pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of non-violence and non-cooperation, Gandhi remains a controversial inspiration of global peace 

advocates. 

lives we are a-changing

October had friends from far and wide descending on New York City in unprecedented numbers and overlapping dates.

I found myself juggling times and commitments in a quickly overflowing calendar. Conflicting priorities and agendas only added to the turmoil and fuss.

to live and die in the Anthropocene

“This term, taken up by geologists, pondered by intellectuals and discussed in the pages of publications such as The Economist and the The New York Times, represents the idea that we have entered a new epoch in Earth’s geological history, one characterized by the arrival of the human species as a geological force." - Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene by ROY SCRANTON

There’s a word for this new era we live in - the Anthropocene. 

The first snow of the year fell here in New York City today. While half way around the world the Philippines was just flattened by what we are calling the worst storm known to man - two categories higher in intensity than Sandy and a hundred miles swifter.

Family and friends are safe and sound - not so with my hometown, Bacolod City. Though by no means the hardest hit neither was it spared. It has been declared a disaster area, with 5,000 homes wiped out all along the coast. 

Too many areas remain isolated - even choppers cannot make it to most of the hardest hit places. Too many villages wiped out. People there walk endlessly - in search of food and drinking water - intent to keep dry and bury their dead. 

Now the vigil begins. Challenging to send love and support from so far away and not cave with the rising death counts and horror stories of chaos and corruption. 

Because we live here and love the place we are the most invested.

The challenge the Anthropocene poses is a challenge not just to national security, food and energy markets - or even to our “way of life” - though these challenges are all real, profound, and inescapable.

The greatest challenge the Anthropocene poses may be to our own humanity and our own possible extinction. If homo sapiens (or some genetically modified variant) survives the next millennium/s - it will be survival in a world unrecognizably different from the one we inhabit now. 

The Buddhist Christian in me takes comfort that when we die, we are not bound by the same physical laws of time and place anyway.