CJ Faderogao

View of Sierra Madre from Tanay, Rizal I am not much of a traveler. The places I've been to are not, in so far to say, as grand as those dreamed about by many. I've spent most of my life in the city where I was born-but I make time to go someplace new, in order relish on the fact that the world is larger than me-to see that beyond the confines of my life, there lies a vastitude that I can only hope to imagine. Travel comes in two ways: there is a journey within and a journey without. Both of them, as I now see, leads to a convergence; a point where the journey and destination come as one. Through travel, I realize that every experience I come across are but facets of the eternal, glossing over the fact of my mortality. I learn not to cling to anything; for I recognize that all will come to pass, like the fading views in a car window or the distant island that merges with the horizon. The world mak...

Photo by Thao Lee on unsplash There are no shortcuts in life. This is a fact that I think everyone of us should understand early. No matter how much we desire life to be easy, it just won't be the case. We have to work our way up.  Our aspirations and ambitions won't land on our lap magically. We have to put in work, get on the rough roads, and learn to cope with the challenges that life brings. We have to practice living, and there's no other way around it. Every effort to trespass being competent either by cheating or letting others do the work for us, will forever rest on fragile foundations. Life is like a big practice mat: every inadequacy and weakness that we have will be exposed and made known. The only thing that we have to do is to practice, even if its hard. Even if our emotions are telling us not to. Because our unwillingness to accept what life brings us won't stop it from testing us. Challenges will come whether we like it or not. The best thing that we can...

Floras at Las Piñas Botanical Garden In the pace of our society right now, it's easy to lose track of our life's progress. Tasks, events, and relationships can press on us simultaneously, leaving us frantic and overwhelmed. Such moments may leave us wondering if we're really advancing towards our goals or if we're just running around in circles. With no breathing room to pause or headspace to think, our life becomes shrouded in a vagueness that blurs our path forward. We become susceptible to burnouts and at worst, we lose our flair with living. We become disinterested, dispassionate, jaded. Shall we continue living in such a dispirited state?  It is counter-intuitive given our fast-paced society but it would be helpful for us to learn to slow down. To give ourselves a breather, and remind ourselves of our life's priorities. * * *  Taking a step back from our work may seem unproductive, especially when we have accustomed ourselves to our routines but it is helpful t...

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash There is, within us, an unspoken obligation. An obligation to be informed. An obligation to be familiar with things beyond the borders of our conformity. Out into things foreign, and into the subjects of our misconceptions and wrong judgments. We have an unspoken obligation to be educated. In whatever form, as long as it helps us in expanding our perspective. As long as it makes us see more sameness rather than differences. In subjects like race, nation or politics; what are the source of conflicts in all these but differences? Differences brought about by our biases, prejudices, and closed-mindedness.  Education's role to serve as a cure for these things. It is education's purpose to open minds; to break the metaphorical prison walls that separates, divides, and keep us in conflict. Through education, the way for inclusion, connectedness, and synergy opens.  By fulfilling our responsibility to be educated, we are committing ourselves to be part...

Photo by Linus Sandvide on Unsplash The subject of truth is not as simple as it ought to be. As we grow and learn more about the world, it seems that our path, or at least our conception of what reality is, tends to get more hazy. We tend to experience confusion; we become doubtful in distinguishing right from wrong; hesitant on what to put our trust; and we can lose our touch with what once we consider as a "solid" foundation that we use to make sense of our reality.  It is of my realization that this inner dilemma arises because the world presents us with diverse and often contradictory ideas and beliefs. We get confused because we experience that the world-the real world-is filled with other beliefs, challenging the ones that we hold dear during our younger years. We realize that it is not only our belief that matters, but that every perspective by every other people contains within them a sliver of truth-even if it may seem opposite to what we believe. It becomes then ted...

 Men suffer more often in imagination than in reality. -Seneca We are bounded in imaginary chains. We find security in our properties, status or organizations but do they really provide lasting satisfaction? Do they really give us freedom or do they make us servants trapped in a cycle of pursuit? For anyone who have thought about these same concerns, I would say that they would also come to the same conclusion: we're forgetting that much of the things we chase are  means, not ends in themselves, and we become willing slaves if we don't know the difference.  This is why it is important that we become careful stewards of our minds. As we become chained externally to material things, false ideologies, or social pressures-things that conditions us to mindlessly pursue them-we can regain our sense of control by taking responsibility of our judgments. This implies that we educate ourselves liberally: acquainting ourselves with diverse perspectives, thinking independently, and s...

Photo by Lukas on Pexels Freedom to me is not my being free from physical restraints. It is not my being free as a citizen, an employee or as a member of any organized institution. And it is especially not my being free from material or financial limitations. I strive not to cling to all these things because I am realizing each passing day how fragile and temporary they are. I am coming to terms with the thought that I will forever be chasing mere phantoms if I continue to pursue such things for their own sake. For I am realizing that e xternal gratifications can never satisfy the yearnings of my inner world. It is by looking within that I knew what freedom is. It is by realizing the vastness that I have inside me. A part of myself that I fail to tap into each time I focus my gaze outwards, into the impermanence of the material world. Within me is a pure place, free of judgments, beliefs, and conditionings. A sanctuary where there's no need to play pretend, manipulate or lie.  With...

Photo by Anete Lusina on Pexels It has been a week since I was able to go outside and jog. Usually, I would be able to do it as part of my exercise routine but it was raining at noon these past few days. Due to this, I've been doing home workouts instead.  Today was the day I've been waiting all week. The sky was clear and after waiting a few more moments to see if there will be a chance of rain, I soon determined that there won't be any. So I went outside to jog. The cold breeze of December has not settled but it was apparent that it was disappearing. I remember jogging last month without drenching in sweat because of the cold weather but today was different. The cold breeze has lessened and all there is to feel is the humidity caused by the rain which is neither cold nor warm. The parking area where I jog was wet due to rain, but this was no problem. I will still be able to do my jogging laps.  I arrived noticing the glance of a fellow jogger. A curious glance that looke...