It’s a Sunday afternoon. One son isn’t feeling well, the other one is out for the weekend with his friends. I am sitting here looking at the garden, thoroughly enjoying the greenery. I love my house and I love my garden even more.
I’ve lived in this house for over 10 years now. The moment I saw the land, a chord resonated inside of me.
The architect of my house is Bobby Mañosa, who I fondly call Peter Pan because his energy is ever youthful. The other person I call Peter Pan is Jose Mari Chan, who has a childlike quality that never wanes.
I will have to mention Chelo Hofileña, who was one of the partners of Bobby Mañosa. Her impeccable taste and creativity is one of the reasons why my house is the way it is. Sweet and very easy to deal with, I loved having her around.
Back to my house. When asked what kind of house I liked, I wrote everything down. I wanted a round house. (I didn’t want to live in a box.) I wanted a house surrounded by garden. I wanted a “spiritual†house.
Twelve years later, as I feel this gentle breeze on my face while viewing greenery, it’s clear I got what I wanted.
It takes time to get the house you want. How did I get here? I had dear friends who helped. One of them is Grace Eleazar. She is the creative genius behind the Dusit Hotel lobby and clubhouse. I love her. She has great integrity. For example, she doesn’t do what many designers do, like get kickbacks from suppliers, etc. Everything is aboveboard.
She redid the room of my two kids. Ten years later, their kiddie room was no longer appropriate. One son liked to read, so he had his book shelves installed. The other son is a basketball addict. I only put my foot down when he wanted the picture of Derrick Rose painted on his wall. I asked him, “How do you know you will still idolize this guy 10 years from now?†I told him I could agree to a poster but not a painted portrait on the wall.
Grace also helped me with my ping-pong place. I totally love the wall garden.
My garden! When there were issues about my security, I reluctantly agreed to steel nets but I said I would not live in a jail. So the screens were painted dark green and plants were put all over. So it, in fact, increases the garden effect of the house.
When I first bought the house it was facing an 18-hole golf course. To my dismay, this number later dwindled to nine, and every year, more and more houses sprouted in front of me. I felt that, to keep my privacy, I would have to surround myself with foliage. The key to getting what I wanted was the skills of Josarie Cocoy, the landscaper of La Mesa Eco Park. In a way, my house incorporates the same feel. He is Ilonggo and is the sweetest person. He did a superb job with my house. He also helps make the esteros beautiful.
The originator of the design is supreme landscaper Ponce Veridiano, the landscaper of Greenbelt 5 among others. He has a gorgeous house in Laguna, but he is so busy. Josarie was able to make salo very, very nicely.
I have two very sweet gardeners: Kulas and Melvin. Melvin multi-tasks as the yayo of Drake, our Alaskan malamute. And both these gardeners meditate very nicely. So my garden has great energy.
I meditate with my household help regularly. It’ amazing how they got into it — feeling the silence, seeing lights, feeling presences, feeling the Divine. Amazing. I am sure it is Divine Providence that they ended up working for me.
Rose, my other help, is the only person allowed in my meditation room. She knows how to get into a space of silence as she cleans the room. This is good for her and good for the room.
From the beginning I decided to call the House White Eagle, the name given to an Angelic Being of High Magnitude. A being standing for great forces of truth and light.
My house has a garden on every floor. It has minimal walls; just green, green, green — even my bedroom is surrounded by folliage. I often hear the birds.
At the onset I wanted an environmental house only to find out to my dismay that it is actually more expensive to run environmental systems. It’s cheaper to just use Nawasa water than to recycle. Isn’t that ironic? So the middle ground is I have solar lights as security lights. I don’t burn leaves, I shred them and feed them to the worms. They produce amazing compost. The house has a strict policy of waste segregation. I space-clear yearly. I try not to keep anything I won’t use. For the pool, I use rock salt instead of chlorine. Though the filtration system is more costly, in the end the process is more economical because salt is so much cheaper than chlorine. Of course, it is so much healthier than chemicals.
The only downside is sometimes I hear the karaoke and loud speakers from the barangays nearby. I hope that can be addressed soon. I would very much like to have just silence when I am at home.
Ahhh, I look up and I see the blue sky through the leaves in my gym; feel the breeze; rest on the nurturing energy of calm and peace in my house and I know that the Divine is with me.
We live now. Endeavor to have a haven you can return to, where your spirit can rest and be nourished. Even if it’s just a bedroom, it’s still a haven. It makes life so much easier. This haven doesn’t fall into your lap. You need to make it happen. So make it happen and enjoy what life has to offer you.
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I can be reached at regina_lopez@abs-cbn.com