Greener Footprints

April 22, 2020

6:00 p.m

   It was a cold and silent night, I was so tired from what had happened today. This day had been one of the hectic days I had to do during this quarantine. I was staring at the wall in my room while sitting waiting for my phone to be fully charged.

When suddenly noises and shrieks swallowed up the dead silent street.

   “AAAAAHHHHH!”

   The screams although out the neighbourhood echoed as every single person in the area was shocked of the power outage.

”What is it now? My phone wasn’t full and this had to happen. Great day!” I said in my mind sarcastically. As what was said in Murphy’s Law, “What can go wrong, will go wrong.”

I had no idea what was going on. It could be another problem from the power generator near our house but I can’t say so because I am no expert.

   Complains and dismays followed those screams, cursing the lighting company for another wave of unexpected problems.

   “My phone!”

   “My spaghettiiiii!”

   Yet no one can do anything else but to call the company again for this interruption. I got up from my chair and went downstairs. Mom was lighting the oil lamp while dad was busy running in and out of the house. What had happened seemed to get them agitated as well. My younger brother was still on his phone, murmuring and raising his eyebrows.

   My attention was nowhere to be in particular, they were just floating while looking at the night sky. My thoughts got aligned when Dad went back and said something that got my attention.

   “Hey guys! The sky is pretty clear tonight. Why don’t we camp out?” My eyes sparkled from what I heard. Finally, after so many years, I finally get to experience a camp out with my family.

My brother couldn’t protest since the Wi-Fi was down and he had nothing to do. They set up everything while mom and I prepared the meals for us to eat outside.

This is so beautiful! I silently planted in my mind as I saw the ‘Tres Marias’ well known as the Orion’s belt. Scorpio was entailing Orion as he was chasing the muses. It was like a story board of great stories. How I wished we do this more often.

We ate dinner and stared at the stars when suddenly Dad opened the topic.

“Did you know why there was a power outage, Ma?” He asked Mom, still digging on his vegetable soup.

“No, Pa. Why did this happen exactly?” She replied.

   Dad smiled and gazed on us. “Today is Earth Day. The governor made sure that we remember the Earth not only this day but every day.”

   That made sense! The biking! The tree planning! The Tote bags! And everything that happened today was a part of this event. I didn’t even know about it.

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Flashback

April 22, 2020

6:30 a.m

“E, wake up! Wake up!” I groaned hearing someone whispered. I slowly opened my eyes and saw Dad. What now? I looked at the clock and saw the time. 6:30 a.m?

“It’s still early dad!” He stared at me again and said that he would wait for me downstairs.

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As I finished getting ready and went down, they were dragging out their bicycles. What? What’s happening?

“Good Morning, baby!” Mom greeted me and pushed the sky blue bike to reach me.

“Where are we going, Mom?” Dad was refilling the waters while my brother was testing his bike.

“We are going biking and will be planting trees at the community lot.” Dad said as he got back from refilling the bottles. Okay? I guess I couldn’t do anything to protest against this again. I just thought it was a great day to get exercise.

We got on the bikes, wore cotton masks and started our journey onwards the community lot. It was just a 10-minute ride. When we got there, I saw others as well. As we parked our bikes, I saw other bikes as well.

We relocated the Rambutan seedlings to the ground and made the black bags as a flag to mark them. I couldn’t take a picture since I had to leave my phone at home.

It lasted for 30 minutes and we got home just in time for breakfast. We had mashed potatoes and stir-fried chicken thighs. I was so delicious! Dad gave so much emphasis that it was organic and fresh. I just shrug and continued eating.

5 minutes later, we were done and my brother cleaned the table while I washed the dishes, then tidy up the kitchen area. I was a filling and soulful.

I went out of the kitchen after and went to our backyard. Clenching my yoga mat and a hand towel at each hand. This had been my routine since quarantine started. Meditation and breathing in clean air every morning. The sunlight was my favorite since I don’t go out much, it was the only time of the day that I can soak up some Vitamin Ds. When I was done, I went back to my room to address some emails and projects

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Time Check: 9:00 a.m

“E! Can you go to the store and grab some onions? Also some veggies and some pork?” Mom called. I ran down, grabbed my mask and hat. I was about to leave the house when mom called me again.

“Bring a tote bag! Also buy the fresh meat and organic veggies.” I couldn’t understand why I had to bring a tote anyways. After all, I was known as the non-complainer. So I did exactly as I was told.

I rode my bike since I didn’t learn how to drive. I arrived at the market and bought everything that Mom told me to. When I was coming back from the market, I realized it was convenient enough that I brought along a tote bag since they didn’t have plastic bags anymore. Weird! I was sure they used plastics yesterday.

When I got back, Mom made Menudo and I decided to clean my room since it was getting too dusty for me. I got busy and didn’t noticed the time

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Time: 12:00

“Lunch is ready!” Dad shouted and we raced out to help Mom prepare the table. My brother was washing his hands. He forgot to turn it off when he was putting soap on his hands and my Dad hurriedly closed it. He got mad and said to never left it on when no one was using it. I had to agree. Water was being wasted which could have been someone else’s drinking water in other places.

We had lunch and went back to what we were all doing. Me, cleaning the yard. My brother was playing another online game. Dad was in the living room watching some news, I think? Maybe it was another business channel he had upgraded. Mom was doing something for the upcoming academic year. We got so dozed on what we were doing. After all, they were all important.

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3:00 p.m

Time flew so fast. I was soaking so much sun in the yard and I was feeling so hot and tired when Dad went out and told me sort out the old newspapers in the garage. I wanted to protest because I was allergic to dust but I couldn’t. I had to wear long sleeves and pajamas so that the dust won’t get on my skin. I also used gloves. I know people may say I am so dramatic but my allergies are going to itch me to death.

1 hour later, I was almost done and was just sweeping the dust on the ground when I realized that those were so older than my brother. The newspaper, of course. Not the dust! We had unsubscribed to catalogues few years ago since we moved out of my Grandparents. We had to save space as Mom said. I thought it was because they hate the idea of trees being chopped down for paper.

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4:42 p.m

I finally had time for myself again. I laid in my bed, watching and chatting with friends until I feel asleep.

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5:30 p.m

I woke up because of the soft vibration on my stomach. It was my phone! It was stating that it was low in battery. I groggily got out of bed and looked for my charger. It was lying on the cabinet and hurriedly plugged it in the socket. 

I wanted to went back to sleep but I something caught my attention. The ruckus outside brought me to the windows and saw dad tidying the old tent with some firewood on a clean pile.

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Back to the present time

“Now I understand what it all means. Today was Earth day and we didn’t even stop by to think for a second about it.” It had hit me hard.

The channel was the Earth Day live. I really thought it was about stocks and investments.

   “I really think we had voted a great candidate as our representative. The whole country was in it, too.” This was so cool! She really did have a stand on things she really cares about.

   I stared at the dark sky filled with glowing stars. Remembering all the things that had happened and silently thanked the Almighty for what had happened today.

         As I slowly realized that the Earth was always there for us. It was time to reevaluate our own footsteps. To be take green steps. And leave greener footprints on the sands of time.