the Earth-bound adventures of the Lost and Found

Wonder Woman Sitting Under the Talisay Tree in Paradise She is three or four, sitting on a lounge chair under the shade of a talisay tree. She wears her favorite bright yellow, red and blue bathing suit, just like Wonder Woman’s on TV. The sand beneath her is white. No one else is around. Paradise Island. That’s what they named one of the very first white sand beach resorts in Davao. Or more accurately, on Samal Island. Up until then, I had only seen beaches of volcanic black sand spewed from Mount Apo’s long-ago eruptions. Eager to explore a new beach, my young family—both my parents barely 25, my younger brother less than a year old, and I not even in kindergarten—set out in my grandparents’ orange Opel car all the way to where the airport used to be in Sasa district, to take the five-minute pump boat ride across the channel to Samal. “ Pambot” the boat captain would call his vessel. It was the first of countless times in the years that followed. Paradise Island in the e...

I really did it this time. I had spent yesterday in solitude practicing yoga poses by Satchidananda Saraswati himself, founder of the ashram where I was doing a five-day yoga retreat. Finally, I was learning the RIGHT poses. Not just believing what some DC hack said. Yet here I was with the worst neck and back ache of my life. But no time to dwell on pain. I was almost late for early morning group yoga. Because yoga was good for me...right? And I had spent the entire past year--really, my entire life--doing what was good and right for mind and body, like any self-respecting, well-educated, almost-40 single person in the DMV area.   Intermittent fasting? Check. Plant-based diet? Check. Mindfulness meditation? Just weeks ago I had completed a 10-day silent meditation retreat with no eye contact and no dinners–not even writing, reading nor exercise–allowed. Triple check! No reason I should miss this yoga class. I stormed into the studio and set my mat on the floor with hardly a breath...