#PlanTito #PlanTita

by Jully Cabahug

During this time of pandemic, many of us learned a new skill or two. Some learn how to bake, do crafts, sew clothes, play musical instruments or go into gardening. We call them planTitas for women and planTitos for men.

In social media, I see my planTita and planTito friends and relatives, who for the longest time I knew did not see holding a gardening trowel nor fork, yet I see their smiles and the genuine happiness in their eyes while holding their plants with pride.

In our homes, the original planTitos and planTitas are my father and my mother in law. Even before this plant or gardening craze spread like vine, I always saw how they would tend to their plants with patience and love. So, they would carefully prepare the soil, mixing some fertilizers, coco peat, carbonized rice hulls, cow or chicken’s manure and other things that they say makes a good soil bed ready for planting.

In my six months of quarantine, I noticed that my mom-in-law does not just prepare a good soil and plant, but tends to them everyday, giving them the right amount of water, checking if there are no insects and adding a bit of fertilizer from time to time. Seeing how she gives time, patience and love to her plants enticed me to try my hands at planting too. However, the plants that I wanted to grow all wilted and died and I was discouraged for a while. Yet, there are days that I would take my coffee in my mother-in-law's little vegetable garden where her bitter gourd are climbing proudly in their trellis and I cannot help but admire them. So, from then on I voluntarily tend to them. I would prune the yellow leaves, check for any insects or worms in the fruits, even putting newspapers around them to protect them from the insects.

During harvest time, all of us in the household gets to enjoy cooking our own produce, and I tell you there is this feeling of satisfaction, pride and happiness inside as if we

won a huge prize.

Prize is defined in the dictionary as a thing given as a reward to the winner of a competition or in recognition of an outstanding achievement.

As Christians, our ultimate goal should be to be the person that God wants us to be and our prize is to know Jesus, have Him with us, become one with Christ and experience Jesus’ mercy and grace all our lives.

But how can we reach our goal and win our prize? By pressing on! This means that when the going gets tough in our lives, we as Christians respond to it as “the tough gets going.” We ask ourselves, easier said than done! I say, yes you are correct.

Remember that good gardener and the little helper I told you about? They set their priorities and that is to make their plants alive and flourish. Just like them, we have to set our priorities too. We should trust and depend entirely on Him, focus on how to be holy for the Lord, not look back on our past shortcomings, surrender our earthly needs to the Lord and submit ourselves according to His will.

As they say, faithfulness is the key. Yes, we all should be faithful in our goal. Even if the journey seems difficult and oftentimes we stumble and fall, we have to FEP- focus, endure and press on! For the prize is eternity with Jesus. So let us carry on and keep our eyes on

the prize!

** first published in Ang Panimalay 3Q 2020