I was still in the university when Mt. Pinatubo in the northern island of Luzon erupted but the memory is still fresh, that disbelief seeing the azotea of our old house in Batangas City inundated with ash like heavy snowfall in a winter which the Philippines was not even acquainted with. Now, history repeats itself and it hits closer to home. I grew up knowing Taal volcano’s fury only from my lola who was a little child when it erupted and killed thousands in 1911. I remember vaguely about the scarlet sky and the ashes from her story. These were erased as we grew up visiting Taal for more pleasant things: sightseeing, the famous Tapang Taal, the old church, burda, barongs and balisongs, having our piano recitals in a school hall in the quaint, sleepy town (at least once or twice in my life), and a memorable medical/dental mission by the Taal lake where a young local kid trusted only me, a non-dentist, to pull out her loose baby tooth. Then came Tagaytay food trips, more sightseeing, drinking in the serenity of the view, photo ops overlooking the lake with the calm and dormant volcano in the backdrop (or what we thought was the actual volcano). For most of us who did not question what was showed in class (or who innocently believed in hearsay, jumping into conclusions) it had always been that small crater in the foreground when viewed from Tagaytay. After all, school taught us that it’s the smallest volcano in the world, sitting within a lake within an island, aaaah! Looking back, we have always heard other things but maybe it was convenient and more comforting to think that it was the smaller, less intimidating one. Upon seeing all the current photos in social media in the wake of its eruption, I am now convinced and I must say officially educated that the real volcano had always stayed hidden from our awareness all our lives, letting the tiny crater in the foreground take the tourist limelight but perhaps not without holding it all in, perhaps rather bitterly, begrudgingly. After being invisible and seething for so long, it has now awakened to unleash its power and correct the misinformation. “Surprise! It’s been me, the unassuming one lurking behind yet present under your noses all along.”
The photos I’ve seen thus far are so frightening but forgive me when I admit that they are also beautifully so. The kind of mystic beauty that will drive you into tears in so much awe but curl up in fear at the same time. Mother Earth has risen to show us this regal and majestic higher power standing behind nature that is no longer impossible to ignore and not respect.
I am terrified from afar and worried sick about my family and friends back home. So I pray that it doesn’t cause any further devastation. Whether she is sad or angry, or simply being mother nature following her own course to give the earth a facelift, I understand and respect that she needs to relieve herself, but I am praying fervently for God’s mercy for this to be over soon.
This too shall pass. We see you now, my Taal. We see you now. Tahan na, Inang Bulkan.
🌱Clarisse Pastor-Medina
[ The lower picture was taken when I visited Tagaytay on August 2019, my ignorant self focused only on the cute and harmless baby crater in the front, of course ]
