A decade or so ago, I bundled up my brood and went to Tarlac. Our destination: a house on top of a hill with my good friend Myra Salvosa’s arms wide open in welcome. While the kids went swimming and chasing after farm animals, us adults breathed in the fresh air, stared out to the mountains, and did absolutely nothing!

On weekends, Myra, her husband Bong, and their sons Joseph and David would make the trip from Manila to Tarlac to spend time in Bale Mi, their quiet place. They would eventually transform their Balinese-inspired weekend home into a retreat house with a chapel. The land surrounding it they converted into a working farm. But because they were only there on weekends, their attempts at farming were erratic, and then Covid-19 happened.

Saying that the global pandemic changed the world is an understatement. In the case of Myra and her family, the shift was seismic. Locked down in Balanti, Tarlac, they were forced to do on a 24/7 basis what they had only been doing on weekends – work the farm, till the earth, and feel the soil with their bare hands.

Myra says, “The lockdown made me live in the farm and not just be a weekend guest in my own farm.”

It proved to be the most auspicious of blessings.

A corporate creature, Myra was soon practicing her management savvy on the farm. One of her first initiatives: Go organic.

“Here in the farm, it’s only organic, simply organic. We make fertilizers from our own fruits and vegetables. What we can’t consume, we bring back to the soil. Nothing is wasted.”

She started planting herbs and vegetables alongside flowering plants, eggplants growing besides sunflowers. She would grow beds of lemongrass, research on adding value, and develop an all-natural, organic soap with no chemicals and preservatives.

At the farm, life is simple with the slow passage of time felt with every seed that sprouts and every flower that blooms.

Myra gained a greater appreciation of the life-giving force of the sun. She remembers her Mom telling her to catch the sun from six to seven in the morning for her daily supply of Vitamin D, to put out their laundry to dry under the sun, and to lay out their pillows and mattress outside “para mamatay ang germs.”

“When one is pale and dull, they’ll say kulang ka sa araw. So I’ve always looked up to the sun as some kind of wonder worker.”

The sense of community at the farm is also very much evident. She says, “I’ve been often asked how we were able to build Bale Mi. There were no roads and bridge then, and Bale Mi is on top of a hill. Everything was labor-intensive and it was tough terrain. My answer has always been: through my neighbors. We could not have made it without our neighbors. We have made it a point not to import workers from other places, and we try to live in harmony with them. There is room for improvement but so far, so good.”

“I’ve found a fourth wind in farming. I realized that I can keep on learning, changing, adapting, and being happy even in midlife, going to my senior years.”

One of Myra’s aunt observed of her: “Your hands have turned into working hands. You will grow old and well.”

Once adorned with rings and bracelets, Myra’s hands now carry seeds, tools, and bags of soil. They sew, cook, plant, and make soaps and furniture. She says, “It’s like I am a child again, playing with the earth. Being in the farm has renewed and recreated me. My hands have become His.”

P.S. Myra’s lemongrass soap was named Best Organic Product 2020 by Department of Agriculture. Congratulations, my friend!