Originally posted on WeStrive.org. Published in LILIPOH, Winter 2011, Vol. 16 Issue 62, p44-45, a PDF of which is downloadable here. (Or here: LILIPOH_Initiative_and_Initiation)

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“Freedom is the capacity to begin–and to begin again.”

These are words spoken by Orland Bishop barely an hour ago, words which I find myself meditating upon as I sit on a window ledge in Stuttgart, Germany–more than ten thousand kilometers from the Philippines, the land of my heart and birth. They say that distance lends one a deeper level of understanding, and each experience of beauty on this continent leads to thoughts of the work back home, where initiatives are sprouting in rapid succession, mostly in response to the intensity of need. Each whiff of cold, crisp air brings to mind Manila’s ecological and societal pollution; each conversation (oft-accompanied by biodynamic bread) with Europe’s initiative-takers reminds me of friends in the budding social threefolding movement in the Philippines, of other young people who are equally hungry for a better world.

Not to encourage some romanticized dichotomy between the developed world and the global south, but it seems that on the physical plane, third-world activists have a distinct advantage. As opposed to a society where everything “works” and the spiritual crisis is comparatively invisible, for the most part, having in-your-face corruption and degradation makes for a tangible sense of task. A task to begin anew; to start the process of building a better world. After all, when you’re at the absolute rock bottom—as the Philippines seems to be—there’s nowhere to go but up.

Hence, our involvement in MISSION.

Continue reading “Initiative and Initiation: Beginning a MISSION in the Philippines.” →