EartHaven Eco-Community

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EartHaven is a beautiful eco-community embraced by hillsides and big trees with wide, spreading branches giving a hushed ambiance of softly stirring leaves and crooning birds. In this expanse, you can commune with nature and experience calmness and bliss without having to spend overly and travel far from Manila.  

EartHaven is in Silangan, San Mateo, Rizal. Just 20 minutes away from Marikina City.  

Two years ago, Hands On Manila (HOM) Foundation organized a tree-planting activity to EartHaven for a BPO company (I forgot but I think it was Accenture). I, together with my friends and fellow volunteer-friends Anna and Glenda, joined this trip at the invitation of Dondon Marquez of HOM.  

We arrived in the morning and gathered in the reception hall to listen to a warm welcome from an officer of EartHaven. Our group of more than 30 people is suddenly talking in subdued tones as if afraid of disrespecting and disrupting the presence of an entity – that is Nature. 

The speaker, whose name slips my mind, is a robust man with glistening tanned body who exuded an aura of confidence and magnetism. I discovered why later on.  He talked about the services and activities of EartHaven and how should we proceed with the tree planting activity. 

He observed how men waste a lot of their energies. He said of the old men who have bending back, trembling legs and looking really wasted – it’s because they spent too much of their “energies” on their youth. Sex here and there, releasing too much energy and strength from their bodies. Waste of energy! 

Then he asked us how old we think he is. I thought he looked to be in his twenties. 

“I’m in my forties now” he said. And all of us were like “Reeeaaally?!” 

It’s because he knows how to use his energies and properly channel them throughout his whole body with the chakras and chis that he mentioned.

Then he asked us to rub our palms together for a few seconds. Part them and then slowly bring them close again together but not touching. We should see the energy flowing between our palms as we bring them apart and close again. Hmm, I think it takes practice and focus to perceive those invisible-to-the-naked-eyes energies. Because all I saw were my dirty rubber shoes below me. 

In planting trees, he advised us to give energy to the plant we will plant so they will grow healthy. We should do what he taught us then point our palms toward the plant. Summon the energy from our body, transfer it to the plant, and say a prayer for its growth and health.

Now isn’t that touching? 

I read a book by James Redfield, The Celestine Prophecy. It is a new age or experiential guidebook that touches lightly on culture, religion and philosophy. Some readers find it total crap but it has become one of my favorites. In that book, the lead character witnessed a bursting transference of energy between man and nature. Man getting energy from the plants and vice-versa. Anyway, I will share with you the beauty of that book some other time. 

After a long slippery walk to the tree-planting site, we arrived at the sloping hill. This is funny and Anna was disappointed. The soil had been unearthed. Anna and I had to share a plant. The plants are sitting by the holes already, as well as the shovels and pails of water. And all we have to do is shoot them in the hole!  

Not as easy as I thought though, the guides said to remember our lessons on the layers of the soil – the top soil, sub soil, and the parent material – when we cover the plants. Or the nutrients may not go to the plant. Afterwards we prayed over our plants. And during that time I really tried hard to concentrate on transferring my positive energy to the plant. Praying it would grow really big and tall. 

Then our group had a short but tiring trek to their mini falls. The rocks were huge and slippery and we were walking not on a path but on a narrow stretch of a stream! Then head back again right away because the mini falls is indeed mini you can’t do anything there save for a few photo ops. Then some people tried the obstacle course, part of EartHaven’s outdoor adventure services.  

The yummy part of the trip is the delectable organic lunch they prepared for us. And we must have consumed gallons of lemon grass (tanglad) juice that day! It’s a natural diuretic drink. Another supah yummy! (Along with my other favorites – sugar cane juice, soya bean milk, and F&N fruit flavored sodas hehe.) 

Click here for the website of EartHaven Eco-Community.

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Tags: EartHaven, Eco Community, Hands on Manila, HOM, Marikina, San Mateo Silangan Rizal, Tree planting