The Pursuit of Happiness

The many ways we travel," a writer friend once wrote to me. I notice how we greet each other with the words ending in "...on your journey,' when one is about to embark in another phase of his or her life, the beginning salutations varying between "Good luck" to "Congratulations". We view life as a road to travel or a map of worlds to conquer. For the last 14 years that I have lived in this city, mainstream opportunities have been far and few between. Friends and family with all good intentions have often wondered whether, I, who was born and grew up in a bigger city will ever "survive" in a place where no malls exist, where common sources of entertainment were amiss. If there is one thing I ever learned over the years, it is that in my pursuit of happiness, I never once considered my "survival" to be hinged on what the bigger cities had to offer.  Instead, during that fateful time, my definition of joy was to be with the man I chose to spend the rest of my life with, to "travel" with. And it did not matter where we lived and what malls exist or failed to exist or whether entertainment avenues where absent. (Ah, the things we do for love!) At the time, how naive it must have sounded.   And yet, now, almost a decade and a half later, I realize and know in my heart that as naive as it sounded, it spoke volumes of truths.

On September 8th of this year, Human Nature opened its doors to the city I have called home. On September 22, 2017, Human Nature's chairman and co-founder, Dylan Wilk graced the advocates, students, teachers, invited guests with his presence, imbued our hearts with his life story and the history of the company which is quite frankly, a love story in all its essence.  If I were to relay what he so openly shared with us during the Meet-and-Greet session in the morning of September 22nd, then you would know the entire story. Suffice it to know that here was a man who saw a great need, heeded the call to go outside of himself and serve a calling much bigger than the wealth and success he has achieved.  And then of course as with all stories, love intervened. He met his wife, left his country of belonging and built a new life in the Philippines. But as I listened to him tell his story, I realize, the greater love story here is the strength of his belief in the Filipino people. Likening us to gold is perhaps the clearest proof of how much he has faith in our people, how much he loves our country.  I may have made it sound so simple, yet obviously it isn't. What is simple though was the question he had asked himself one day as he was in his Beverly Hills Hotel room. "What has become the definition of my life? That of pleasure or of happiness?" As the conversation ensued, I looked around and saw 14  people in the store. But the 14 people that were there were rapt with attention, soaking in every word that everybody in the room had spoken. The advocacy of Pro- Philippines, Pro- Poor and Pro-environment enveloped and energized the entire room. It was beautiful as it was rare- everybody being fully present in the moment, wanting to learn, teaching, inspiring, learning and collaborating ideas. We were all there, I knew, not for entertainment or pleasure. We were there for a pursuit of something much deeper than that. We were a small but very compelling gathering of people who believed in goodness finally permeating our city and celebrating and reiterating the restorative belief of the innate capacity of the Filipino to be world-class.

In our various  ways and means to search for success, happiness and truth, we come across significant experiences that allow us to constantly redefine or reaffirm these. On this particular moment, as Human Nature opened its doors, as their chairman and co-founder blessed us with his own truth, one reality has been affirmed for me once again. And it is that  happiness has never and will never be about mainstream opportunities, malls, material wealth and entertainment. "The many ways we travel," a writer friend once wrote. I know now more than ever in this eternally naive heart of mine that happiness is a road we tread on and a map of worlds we conquer that has been and always will be about a strong and passionate belief in a cause greater than ourselves, rooted always in love, the relationships we have nurtured along the way that is built on that cause and the lives, ours and others we have made better and constantly strive to be changed for the better. 

Jovit Larrazabal, Monic Rizarri-Veloso and Jenniffer Larrazabal-Quilang, thank you for bringing an affirmation of goodness and truth to the place I now call home.