APRIL 16, 2022 was my first day at the Davao City Jail Female Dormitory to bring in the Healing
Hearts Bear Livelihood Project and introduce Master Choa Kok Sui’s Meditation on Twin Hearts to the persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) there.
How I even managed to sustain this micro livelihood and meditation project is a weekly miracle, thanks to pranic healing.
It started big, as I needed to crochet almost 400 teddy bears that I called Healing Hearts Bears for an installation art at the Mindanao Art Fair 2022. Kublai, my artist friend and initiator of MinArt said he needed that many bears. But that’s going ahead of the story.
The story started online four months before April 16, 2022.
On December 24, 2021, getting all antsy with the pandemic still coming to a close, I called for volunteer-friends willing to crochet bears with me to give to children with cancer. I had a good number of volunteers, working women, a retiree, and a student, all willing to share their time.
I remember them, friends and friends of friends: Yvonne Biyo, Mercy Buenaventura, Dr. Jojie Salvador, Apple and Tasha Sandique, Tintin Atienza, An Villarin, Tonet Quintos, Alex Hao, and Dr. Febe Peñaranda.
Amigurumi was still gaining a following then. We all learned thru our mistakes, crocheting and unraveling until we got the hang of it for two months.
The target was to donate these teddy bears to children with cancer by February 14, 2022. I told them it’s crochet at their own pace – two friends who volunteered did not make the deadline. But the ones I mentioned plus me, we managed to make 53 pieces by February 14.
Now, how did I reach the jail? Kublai, that crazy friend named Kublai. He said, the idea is fantastic, we should feature it at MinArt in October 2022. He can make a giant installation and he will need around 400 bears. I balked. Hey! I only have volunteers and they’re working women! I can’t order them to make 400 bears in six months!!!
Kublai, being a resident of Maa, simply shrugged my protestations off saying, there’s a lot of women at the city jail in Maa that I can tap...
So, with my pranic healing friends, I went in with an offer: I bring in a small livelihood and pranic healing’s meditation on twin hearts. The jail admin, led by then warden JCInsp. Rocie Ann Alcantara was very accommodating because we were the first service provider to dare come in after the Covid lockdown. The warden now is JCInsp. Connie P. Sendijas, and the rest is history.
After the bulk order was fulfilled by August 2022, I introduced free pranic healing with the help of my ever-supportive pranic healer-friends. I am forever grateful to them, but as a gift, I will not mention their names, and they know why.
I have had the support of my friends as well, some at the onset, several until now: Sunil of Indian Palace, Melissa of Katinko, Tek of Huawei/Tekpone, and Yeti of NCCC.
A lot more physicalized angels have been helping. Forever grateful here. May the Fourth be with you. More stories to come.
saestremera@gmail.com