(Created by Rhods Solis via Prisma)
In my May 23, 2017 blog, I referred to my English professor who got me into pen pal writing. We have remained in contact with each other after all these years, and her impact on me is so big that I am ‘enrolled’ in her current platform, Woods and Books. Here she is now, teaching very young children, still passionate about making connections, still vibrant and relevant, and still very dear to me… Rhodora Espinosa Kahny, or ‘Doray’ to friends and family.
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Dot: Please tell me a little bit about yourself and your passion or advocacy. What motivates you to pursue your advocacy?
Rhodora: I teach children and believe in the transformational power of nature, stories, and the written word. So, with the support of family and friends, I set up our non-profit organization, Woods and Books, which promotes nature and literature for children in Iloilo City, Philippines, with the ultimate goal of building a children’s library—with a garden of native fruit trees, flowers, and herbs around it.
What motivates me? My own experience as a child growing up in a Philippine suburb, and then, as an adult, living and working in other countries. I attribute much of what I am now to what I’ve learned through observation, through reading, and through experience. What else motivates me? The thought that in Iloilo City, a thriving urban center of around half a million, there is no library that adequately serves children.
Dot: So far, what great spiritual or esoteric lessons have you learned?
Rhodora: Lesson 1: Children are amazing learning beings.
Lesson 2: Adults control much of what children can and cannot do, what they can and cannot have, what they can and cannot hope for, and have systematically, selfishly, or thoughtlessly lessened opportunities for children to discover and enjoy nature in all its wild and wondrous forms.
Lesson 3: It’s been said that literacy is key to growth and development. I believe that literacy—in as many languages as one is able to acquire and master—is also key to understanding one’s self and others.
Dot: What are the best positive lessons you learned from your parents that you want to pass on to younger children?
Rhodora: Be honest, even when no one is looking. Be true to yourself, even when everyone is watching. There is a God, even when you think He’s sleeping on the job—trust Him when all else fails. You carry the Philippine flag wherever you go just by virtue of you being a Filipino; say and do things that make the country proud. You are put in this world to make things better for others.
Dot: And your top 3 successes in life?
Rhodora: I have remained idealistic despite knowing, witnessing, and experiencing how difficult it can be. I love what I do. I love and am loved.
Dot: Who are your role models? What makes them your role models?
Rhodora: This has always been tough for me—pointing to people who’ve had such an impact on me that I’ve patterned my life and made choices with them in mind. I can’t point to anyone in particular because there have been many—and because not all that move me are people:
My parents—for their faithful, steadfast love for each other; my family and friends—for always keeping that safety net open, letting me cuddle when I need nurturing, and catching me when I fall; rock and roll—for at once being funny, farcical, inane, subversive, satirical, revolutionary, incendiary, trite, political, personal, and profound; the human mind, nature, and the cosmos—for providing proof that we are part of the bigger picture and must work for the greater good; writers, artists, public restroom cleaners, astronauts, farmers, scientists, Vikings, saints and martyrs, infants, whales, Holocaust survivors, refugees, immigrants, cloistered nuns and quiet monks, sequoias, native peoples, herbolarios, veterans, manoglab-as and just about everyone and every creature that has a story to tell. How can we not be inspired by them?
Dot: Please talk about the beautiful changes you are seeing in the world now.
Rhodora: Science is finally catching up to the concept that some things we thought were fact are not, while other things that we thought were fancy are fact. I point to Pluto demoted to a being a dwarf planet and Higgs Boson, the so-called “God particle,” the name which the editors of the book came up with because they didn’t want the scientists calling it The Goddamn Particle--they couldn’t figure it out. We are learning so much and realizing we know so little—and being cool about it all. Meanwhile, people, individually and as communities, continue to make a difference and are agents of change, whether it be revolutionary or quiet and gradual. Sometimes, the changes we experience are horrendous; other times, they are nothing short of miraculous. In both instances, even if it seems we’re moving backward, we’re actually moving forward because I truly believe change happens when it is needed. A lot like shutting down to power up.
Dot: In connection with these changes, how do you take care of yourself?
Rhodora: I listen to my body, my heart, my mind. I listen to others. I look and listen as much as I can to what’s happening around me and beyond me. I think things through. I keep reminding myself that I could and should be better than what I currently am. I take time for myself. I make time for others. I take risks. I fail and rise back up again. I believe in the rule of science and faith: There is a reason for everything; we just don’t grasp it most of the time. I refuse to be connected to any gadget such that its absence sends me into panic mode. I pray. I get involved in silly stuff. Once in a while, I try not to think too much and simply jump off a cliff, believing I shall survive. Once in a while, I also imbibe alcohol for its medicinal value. (Cue laughter of friends and family who know how much medicinal alcohol I can take in one sitting.)
Dot: What legacy would you like to leave the world and how can you be reached by people who wish to connect with you?
Rhodora: I’d like to leave at least one other person who genuinely cares about children and our fragile planet—and will do something about it for the rest of his or her life. Visit our website woodsandbooks.com and like us on Facebook. Leave me a message if you’d like to hear from me directly. (Thank you for giving me this opportunity to reexamine myself and realize I have much to be thankful for.)
Dot: Do you have any encouragement for your family and friends?
Rhodora: Be not afraid. Believe. Don’t just ask why. Shout: Why the hell not?
