If you’re still in the process of figuring out what things to add in your bucket list or goals for 2024, here’s a suggestion: Travel. Travel to an island, somewhere that’s going to give you an experience that’s completely different from your usual city life. Perhaps, somewhere like the paradise that is Siargao.
This is Maddie, the founder of Love, Maddie and I’d like to share three things from my week-long trip in Siargao that completely changed me for good.... Things I really hope and wish for everyone in our community to experience.
Back To Basics
In one way or another, we’ve been conditioned to believe that to grow means to acquire more wealth, more material possessions, more prestigious titles at work and so on. Don’t get me wrong, these are wonderful things worthy of being celebrated! But once in a while, we need some space to be realigned to what truly matters.
Being in Siargao was a solid reminder that at the end of the day, money is a means to an end and not the end goal in itself. No amount of money could substitute the joy that the simplest human experiences can bring. Witnessing the sun set and the sun rise. Having a simple meal by the beautiful beach. Meeting interesting individuals from different walks of life. These are the things we stay alive for.
I didn’t need to have the fanciest bags or shoes or a hundred different pairs of bikini. I could be wearing the 100-peso flip flop from the palengke and the same bikini and the experience would just be as magical and as breathtaking.
Silence & Inner Peace
As much as I love my life in the city, I’ll be the first to say that it’s difficult to find peace where it’s never silent. A lot of times, the hours go by way too quickly it almost feels like we operate on autopilot. Being in Siargao is the exact opposite - so many things can happen in a full hour and it allows me to spend some moments in stillness.
As funny as it sounds, my insomnia was gone. I was asleep at 10:30 pm and I would wake up at 6:30 am to surf. I’ve accomplished the majority of my to-do list by 11 am and I have the rest of the day to just be. Believe it or not, after nearly a year of missing my period - I got a visit on my birthday and my fifth day in Siargao. I don’t think there’s any greater proof of inner peace than that.
A Heightened Sense of Awareness
On the day of my birthday, I had the privilege of going on a tri-island dive and driving all the way up the north of Siargao. Witnessing the beauty of both the water and the land, from the crystal clear waters to the luscious greens..it was an experience like no other. A core memory, if you will.
And it really got me thinking, it is unfortunate that it is beautiful islands like Siargao that suffer the hardest when calamities hit. A place that provides healing for people like me endures the biggest wound and something needs to be done. When you experience the beauty of a place like Siargao - you hope and pray the future generations experience that beauty too.
Working on Love, Maddie alongside Lily of the Valley from Day 1 really changed my consumption habits and paying a visit to Siargao affirmed those changes all the more. We create made-to-measure pieces as it allows us to avoid having an overstock in materials that will most likely end up in landfills. We ditch the excessive and flashy packaging and make use of recycled boxes instead because it avoids unnecessary cost and more importantly, unnecessary waste. While the world glorifies all the is “quick” and “instant,” we take pride in “slow fashion.” This allows us to manage our carbon footprint as well as the workload of our sewing team.
Saving the world is a collective effort and it almost feels like regular people like you and me can’t really do much… but honestly, sometimes, all you need is a life-changing trip to show you that there’s so much out there that’s worth saving.
