ESL Blogs

Dear Philippines,

You are called the Pearl of the Orient seas as you are like a gem in the midst of the vast Pacific Ocean.  An archipelago of 7000 islands stringed together by lush tropical waters that on first view may seem so still and yet so dynamically pregnant with marine life.   Tropical green pastures and flora blanket every inch of your ground like tinsel wrapping for your fertile earth.  Your horizon gives way to an expanse of clear blue skies and shifting clouds that sometimes dip down into the river valleys. 

You are the bearer of a people of brown Kayumanggi skin recording their voices of pride, toil and industry.  You are the gatherer of their joys, their laughter unraveling in the wind, noting down their dreams , listening to the silence of their despair and dogged hopes, and bleed them all into one triumphant resurrection.  To your people, you are what the sun feels like for the earth.  You are life and the giver of life.

May you wear your colors bright and despite your tiny frame inscribe your mark upon the earth that no force, no war, no violence may ever obscure your land and water from its legitimate berth.  May you dwell fast and true, the bones of generation upon generation of your inhabitants standing witness to the bold consummation of your God-given right to this corner of the world.  My Philippines… thus is my prayer for thee today, tomorrow and till my life is outnumbered by time.

 With Love,

  Your Alice