It feels like it’s been a long time since I’d written one of these kinds of posts for our Ugnayan newsletter. Reflective, introspective, maybe even a little vulnerable.

The “delay” is intentional

In 2024, I was intent on writing monthly posts based on the 12 wellbeing themes in our cards. After that, I’ve spent time exploring adjacent side quests with Hapag Ugnayan, a food-oriented initiative to share thought snacks and potlucks or gatherings of food and creativity to reconnect us with the land, the kitchen and each other.

If you’ve been following our occasional updates last year, you’ll know we’ve been cooking up a food deck, and we even wanted to come out with a prototype by October 2025 during our Luto Likha Linang gathering for Hapag Ugnayan. We drafted some cards for the event, but I knew they were far from a final draft. In some ways, you may even say it was just the beginning (although I’d already begun dreaming about an eventual food deck when we came out with our first deck in November 2023).

Last April 3, I had a meeting with my Ugnayan co-creator Kookie, along with Char of Good Food Community for an initial attempt at maybe co-designing the food deck.

There was excitement, audacity (albeit restrained), as well as cautious optimism, as we talked about the directions it could go. A deck with a different illustration and artist for each card! A companion guide book! Launch ideas!

What followed were a series of other conversations, including some with another potential co-creator, and somehow, the project didn’t seem any less exciting or feasible, but it didn’t feel as urgent as it did to me in that initial call.

It became apparent that there was still more inner work (deepening my own learning, reflection and insight in the food space; embracing my own creativity) and outer work (connecting more meaningfully with fellow creatives and advocates; building relationships and networks of solidarity) that I needed to do to before this could take meaningful shape. And yes, sure, we can forever argue the need to “do more research”, “write more”, “create more”, etc. but something about this made me feel that it was a genuine need to take our time vs. an excuse to procrastinate or avoid facing my fears of putting work out there.

In late May, I wrote a post on Commodifying Creativity vs. Allowing Creative Ripening on my personal Substack. In there, I wrote: Iwasan natin ang kalburo.

There is an intentional co-created quality that I hope for it — and co-creation requires relationship-building, which adds friction in a creative process, but to me, this also adds meaning and intention to what its natural ripening will yield.

Process vs. output

Recently, I started an online course on co-designing with care with KA Mckercher of Beyond Sticky Notes, and this was one of the cards in their resource pack that struck me.

“The relationships are the work — do not rush the doing.” — something I was also reminded of in Hapag Ugnayan’s recent Tikim at Tahi gathering at Good Food Sundays.

While it’s evident that we will still not be coming out with a food deck this year (and I can’t even say yet that it’s a certainty for next year), there have been many initially unplanned projects that have emerged as a result of engaging in the ideation process, nurturing the relationships with Good Food Community, and finding other natural opportunities for collaboration.

There’s been a lot of energy around the partnership with Good Food Community since we started raising solidarity shares last year. Since that time, we’ve launched:

• Tampipi ng Ugnayan, a limited time partnership last June, which we have now turned into a more longstanding partnership with Good Food Community

Get a Tampipi ng Ugnayan

• Hapag Ugnayan Writing Circle, a limited time partnership we just officially launched yesterday (August 8), where over the course of 5 weeks, subscribers will engage in writing that aims to help us reconnect with ourselves, our food, our kitchens and the land that nourishes us. After we run this initial 5-week cycle, we’ll also review what we could do to offer it to deepen the engagement with participants, as well as find ways to offer it to others who may not be able to get a slot to join our live sessions this time around.

Join the Hapag Ugnayan Writing Circle

All of these little experiments are ways for us to test some ideas and grow power and solidarity through the relationships we form in these spaces.

So while we’re slow-cooking that next deck (or not at all), we hope to stay connected with you through, whether through the food-focused gatherings of Hapag Ugnayan or in other spaces that perhaps even you hold to bring a greater sense of connection into your circles or communities.

• Anu-anong mga samahan ang nagbibigay sustansya at gana sa buhay mo? | What spaces or groups give nourishment and motivation to your life?

• Anong samahan ang kaya mong buoin para sa ugnayan ng iyong kapwa? | What space can you create or co-create to connect your circles?

Until then, let’s continue cultivating connection, nourishment and abundance for our kapwa.

Tagapagpadaloy ng Ugnayan Cards

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Hello mga ka-Ugnayan!

Kumusta? It’s been a while since our last email, and we’ve since collectively felt the impacts of war abroad, the discord and drama in the senate locally, and the mass cutting of half-century-old trees for business interest. These events can induce feelings of despair, but we stubbornly hold onto hope when we witness acts of kindness and courage by our kapwa.

In this Liham ng Ugnayan, we share one of the ways we can choose connection and care in times when we might otherwise isolate ourselves in so-called self-preservation. It is in times of crisis, grief and hopelessness that we need to remember to turn more towards each other.

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What acts of kindness and courage give us hope for the future?

In spite of everything, small (but also big) acts of kindness and courage remind us that not all is lost yet. Whether it’s a friend cooking a meal for you or maybe inviting you to volunteer for a community kitchen, senators who uphold the integrity of our institutions in spite of its many failings, and advocates protesting against the building of yet another expressway that serves the few and not the many. The list goes on.

We’re not sure what these different acts amount to in the end.

We can make all sorts of projections or forecasts, strategy documents; monitor and evaluate one too many metrics of success, and still miss the mark. That uncertainty is enough to make some people give up and just cocoon themselves. But we’ve seen how it is precisely that uncertainty that pushes some people to audaciously live today as if the world we are longing for already exists. Because in some ways, it’s already here, though not yet fully formed.

One of the groups that has been moving us is Good Food Community, which recently celebrated its 15th year of cultivating a culture of collective care for and with farmers and eaters alike.

Good Food Community (GFC) is solidarity-based organization that practices Pamayanihan, a way of growing and sharing vegetables based on principles of Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA).

It is a relationship where urban-dwelling folks like you commit to subscribing to GFC’s farmers' harvest and get it delivered weekly. This assures GFC’s farmers that there's a market for their produce so they can focus on cultivating their ecological agriculture practices.

We see the Good Food Community team’s kindness in their dedication to sourcing from their smallholder farmers, even with the escalating challenges brought upon them by the oil crisis.

We see their courage in their audacity to put forward a different way of being and moving in this world and in our economy.

They keep going year after year, in spite of the challenges of peddling CSA, which is of the past and of the future. And so, it struggles to exist in our present culture of on-demand convenience where consumers have become accustomed to “frictionless” consumption.

When we created Ugnayan Cards in 2023, we wondered how we might use our personal strengths, and eventually, as our following grew, how we might also use the collective strength of our ka-Ugnayans to connect people more with and through food.

This led to the coming together of @hapagugnayan in 2024 (now also on Substack with Halina sa Hapag Ugnayan) – a separate but connected initiative to @ugnayancards. Through potlucks of food and creativity — such as visits to women farmers in Quezon and Cavite, the Luto Likha Linang gathering in October last year, Latag last February and Tahian last March — we hope to reconnect people with the land, the kitchen and each other.

And so, we find hope in witnessing others’ kindness and courage, and we keep that hope alive through our attempts to do something too.

As we lay the tablescapes for collective care, we ask:

• How might we cultivate more meaningful connection and solidarity between farmers and eaters?

• How might we nurture a community of eaters who nourish other eaters too?

One of the main challenges Good Food Community has faced over the years is in meaningfully shifting the material conditions of farmers. This entails more than us sharing social media posts advocating for farmers’ rights; more than giving one-off donations as acts of charity.

It asks us to cultivate a culture of enoughness, of reciprocity, of justice and equity.

It invites us to see a future that is different from the dominant ways things are. It is a refusal to resign ourselves to “the way the world works” — because that narrative is created by those who benefit from the unsustainability of it all. It asks to live today as if that future already exists.

So from June 12 to July 5, we’re seeking your solidarity in bringing a piece of that future into the present together.

In Tagalog, “ka-” is a prefix that indicates connection, partnership, or shared identity.

To be a ka-gulay means being someone who shares our same gulay, and through our Tampipi ng Ugnayan, someone who engages with us through pagtataya or betting on small organic farmers and on growing our ka-gulay community.

We’ve created the Tampipi ng Ugnayan, not merely as a product or commodity, but as an experience and an invitation to community.

By choosing either our Small Tampipi (P3,190) or Gulay Pambahay (P3,890) package, you will receive:

• A 4-week subscription for organic veggies from Good Food Community1 (to be delivered on July 9, 16, 23 and 30)

• 1 deck of Ugnayan Cards2

• 1 Luto Likha Linang Laban zine by Hapag Ugnayan

• An invitation to an exclusive Ka-gulay online gathering on July 11 (Saturday), 9:30-11:15AM to get acquainted with Ugnayan Cards + Good Food Community, the contents of your tampipi and your fellow subscribers or mga ka-gulay!

• An invitation to an in-person salo-salo on July 19 (Sunday), 12:00NN-4:00PM at Good Food Sundays in Mandala Park for a Hapag Ugnayan potluck of food and creativity!

• An invitation to an exclusive GFC Ka-gulay Telegram group for relevant reminders and inspiration to support you on your gulay ugnayan journey!

Get your Tampipi ng Ugnayan

This ka-gulay partnership enables you to connect with farmers through their produce while opening a space for you to connect with a ka-gulay community!

We hope that this initiative helps strengthen our culture of collective care towards flourishing and food sovereignty for all.

* We’ve also created this FAQs document for you, and you can contact us via email, Instagram or simply by replying to this post for any other questions you may have. 😊

Be our ka-gulay today!

Got other questions? We’ve got answers! Read our Tampipi ng Ugnayan + Ka-gulay FAQs here.

When the world’s problems feel overwhelming, we remind ourselves that change is made possible through connection. This reminds us of the agency we have to co-create the future we aspire for through the relationships we already have and the relationships we want to grow. We look forward to cultivating these connections with you as our ka-gulay.

Salamat sa patuloy na paglinang ng ugnayan (at ng gulay na rin)! 😄
Hanggang sa susunod na ani!

Coming from our hectic 21 gatherings in 2024, sparse 4 gatherings in 2025, we’re hoping to find a sweet spot in between that number of gatherings this year to connect more with you, in a way that is maginhawa for us all. ☺️

And so we’re sharing three (3) Ugnayan Tambayans or community gatherings we have up for you in this first quarter of the year + a way for you to win a deck of Ugnayan Cards! (Keep reading to find out how.)

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Ka-likhaan: Co-creation

It’s also a more intentional move since 2025 to have more of our events co-created with others, involving collaborators as well as invitees in the unfolding of the gathering — and that’s a thread we hope to continue weaving into this year.

The act of creating together is sharing the responsibility and the joy and success of creation — even it makes things less predictable, certain or controlled; a little scarier, messier, seemingly random — ultimately, it also makes it more meaningful to us.

And so we continue asking ourselves:

How might we open up more spaces and opportunities for co-creation in the ways we gather and in what we create together?

We don’t have all the answers yet, but here are some of our attempts. We hope to continue learning and growing and finding more of the answers to that question with you when you join us in our upcoming gatherings.

February 22: Latag @ UP Diliman (Quezon City)

Hang out with @pagbubuo and @mabidavid of @hapagugnayan and @goodfoodcommunity beneath the trees for an afternoon of sharing merienda, stories and writing inspired by food, with reflection and conversation prompts from @ugnayancards (from/for our upcoming food-themed deck)! 😋

As a potluck of food and creativity, you can opt to bring:

• A snack that you like

• A piece of writing or art related to food

• Pen and paper/journal

Anyone who has an interest in food and writing or art is welcome to join! No writing experience necessary. Only eating experience is required. 😉

RSVP for Latag on Feb. 22

February 27: Culture First x Ugnayan (Online)

Join this Culture First Creative Wellbeing session for opening up spaces for connection and creativity for yourself and your team at work with tools from @ugnayancards, facilitated by @pagbubuo. In this session, we ask:

• Why does cultivating connection matter? How might it give way for more authentic expression and greater creativity?

• What are some ways to open up more spaces for connection and creative expression for ourselves and our teams at work?

* Receive a free digital tool for connection + a chance to win a physical deck of Ugnayan Cards when you join this session live!

RSVP for CF x Ugnayan on Feb. 27

March 14: Tahian @ Common Room Mess Studio (Makati)

Hang out with @pagbubuo & @kookiesantos of @ugnayancards and @ohkeina of @hiwagahands for an afternoon of sewing onto a collaborative table cloth (this picks up on the textile project that started during @hapagugnayan‘s Luto Likha Linang), while sharing stories inspired by food and those who make it, with discussion prompts from @ugnayancards.

As a potluck of creativity, you can opt to bring:

• Sewing materials you have or like to use (though we’ll also have materials available for those who arrive)

• Scrap fabrics you may want to integrate in your sewing

• Stories, photos or art related to food (whether your own or otherwise) to inspire the afternoon’s making

Anyone who has an interest in making things with their hands is welcome to join! No art or sewing experience necessary. Only experience required is that you’ve eaten rice or any produce harvested by a farmer. 😉

Participants are also highly encouraged to support our venue partner by ordering food and beverages from the Mess Studio cafe. Outside food and drinks are not permitted.

RSVP for Tahian on Mar. 14

We’ve really missed our community gatherings, and we hope to connect with you more this year. There’s plenty of reasons for us to gather — to build relationship and kinship, to remember what it’s like to create together, and to remember what it means to be human.

Kitakits, ka-Ugnayan!

Sabik na makita kayo,
Jen & Kookie

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February na, pero happy new year pa rin! (Wala pa namang Chinese New Year.) 😆

It’s been a while since we wrote, and we miss our letters to you. So whether you’re new here or have been here a while, we just wanted to take a short look back while sharing our hopes for 2026.

Plus, an announcement about our first gathering/s for the year at the end! (Save the dates for February 22 and March 14!)

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Pag-alala: Remembering

We released our first deck of Ugnayan cards in December 2023.

In 2024, we got busy hosting 21 gatherings and pop-ups to introduce our cards to folks in Manila, Dumaguete, La Union, Baguio, CDO and Cebu, wrote 12 articles for each of our wellbeing themes, and won 2 Good Design Awards in the process — all while tending to our individual freelance practices and personal lives. Medyo napagod kami. 😅

In 2025, we decided to pace ourselves; it was a season of pagbabalik-loob, rooting in intention and making space for creation. From 21 events (mostly self-organized), we pared it down to 4 (mostly as co-hosts with others in our community) — Paghahabi ng Pagbabago, Creating Brave Spaces, Ugnayan at Likhaan and Luto Likha Linang (which introduced our intentions to create a food-themed deck).

We also made the Luto Likha Linang Laban zine (available for free download and distribution)!

And we launched our Bisaya deck!

We also thought we might release our food deck last year, pero binuburo at ini-in-in pa namin sa @hapagugnayan. 😄

Maikling Kasaysayan ng Hapag Ugnayan

Hapag Ugnayan began as the name of an Ugnayan tambayan at Good Food Sundays in March 2024. Each of our gatherings usually has a different name, depending on the theme, but something about that name stuck, even though we didn’t know what to do with it yet.

CONNECTING WITH THE LAND AND FARMERS.
Later that March and throughout the rest of 2024, I began joining friends from Good Food Community on visits to urban poor communities in Payatas, and to peasant organizers-turned-political prisoners at the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong. These visits reminded me about the importance of our connection with land, food, and those who feed us.

COMING BACK TO THE KITCHEN.
In September 2024, we had an improv cooking tambay with a multiverse of badass bitches, and wow, what a chill but meaningful concept? It unlocked something for everyone — whether a seasoned cook, a balikbayan one, or even some who had their own share of fear or trepidation in the kitchen.

CELEBRATING LOCAL INGREDIENTS
With a very different flavor profile, we ended 2024 with a Hapag Ugnayan dinner at La Picara featuring ingredients from Good Food Community and other local producers, and food and drinks prepared by chef and Good Food friend Remy Gallo + mixologist and Proudly Promdi peddler Ken Alonso.

CULTIVATING CREATIVITY WITH FOOD.
In December 2024, we were awarded a Connections Through Cultures grant by the British Council, to carry out Hapag Ugnayan Potlucks in 2025. This project enabled women creatives from the Philippines and the UK to connect with women farmers in our respective countries, be inspired by their foodways, co-create art and spaces to reconnect with land, food and each other, and celebrate with each other at Luto Likha Linang in October 2025.

Truly, food has been a great connector; a key ingredient in these shared spaces. And we often wondered:

• What conversations can bring joy, meaning and solidarity around food?

• What questions might connect people more meaningfully with food and each other?

• What questions can open up new perspectives and possibilities about good, clean and fair food systems?

• How might we use our platforms, spaces and community to spark humble revolutions in the kitchen and the dinner table?

We’ll continue to chew on these questions this year.

Solidarity with our kapwa

With all that happened in 2025, we’d been thinking about how to be in greater solidarity with our kapwa, to honor our connection with each other — from survivors of typhoons and floods, to the urban poor and the farmers that feed us.

So we decided that for each purchase of Tagalog edition Ugnayan Cards from us over the holidays, we would fund the direct sourcing of fresh produce from smallholder farmers to nourish 1 family in Payatas.

On top of that, we invited buyers to pledge their solidarity to one of four organizations / initiatives, and we would match their pledges up to P300.

For transparency, we share the pledges raised below.

While the amount we raised is modest, we believe our collective solidarity matters. We also believe that solidarity can be in financial pledges, but also, in pledges of time, energy, and choices towards a more connected and maginhawa world for all. We hope to keep doing what we can.

Pledge your solidarity with Ugnayan

Pananabik: Longing

In 2026, we want to co-create more spaces to connect with you again — and allow us to season, cook, and eventually, sample our new deck with you. 😄

There was so much joy and meaning in our Luto Likha Linang gathering last October, and we really hope to co-create open, snack-sized sequels to that this year by co-hosting @hapagugnayan potlucks of food and creativity, starting this February.

Latag on February 22

A potluck carries with it the spirit of collective care and co-creation. It relieves the hosts of the sole responsibility of organizing a gathering, and more importantly, creates a space for everyone to bring more of themselves into community.

So with that, we invite you to hang out with us, Jen Horn / @pagbubuo and @mabidavid, for an afternoon of sharing merienda, stories and writing inspired by food, with journaling and discussion prompts from @ugnayancards.

As a potluck of food and creativity, you can bring:

• A snack that you like or that says something about you

• A piece of writing or art related to food (whether your own or otherwise)

• Writing materials (to participate in a short journaling or writing practice)

This gathering is offered for free, but if you’d like to help us share nourishing food and produce with peasant organizers-turned-political prisoners that we visit at the Correctional Institute of Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong, you may contribute any amount when you RSVP.

Exact location will be shared upon completion of the Latag RSVP form.

RSVP for Latag

Tahi on March 14

We’re brewing a gathering that picks up on the textile project we started during Luto Likha Linang. Join us and @hiwagahands for an afternoon of sewing food-inspired things onto our collaborative table cloth

We’ll be gathering in a space for malayang paglikha at the Common Room Mess Studio in Atrium Makati.

We’ll be sharing more details by mid-February, but in the meantime, RSVP here!

RSVP for Tahi

Nourish and nurture

We feel like we’ve started something good with our solidarity pledges with purchases of Ugnayan Cards last year.

We intend to continue feeding our solidarity and giving you opportunities to do the same and more when you check out via ugnayancards.com.

Get Ugnayan Cards

Sana nabusog ang inyong puso at diwa sa liham na to.
At sana magkita tayo sa Latag at Tahi!

Kitakits,
Jen Horn | @pagbubuo

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This will be our last Liham ng Ugnayan for the year. While it’s tempting to use this newsletter primarily to push our holiday offers before we go on break, we’re taking this opportunity to reflect with you.

At this time of year, what’s most important for you?

Connection over confetti. It’s easy to get caught up with the frenzy of Christmas — the party-planning, the gift-giving, and all the work-cramming before the year ends. How might we slow down to infuse this season with more meaningful connection? Personally, I value taking a few moments to think about where I really want to show up, who I want to give my time to, and how I can connect more meaningfully in those gatherings.

Contribution and co-creation. I never want the logistics of gathering to cause anyone unnecessary stress, whether I’m a host or a guest. For me, the company is what is most important. And so I try to make it easier for myself when I host by inviting guests to contribute a dish, dessert or beverage — potluck style. And likewise, when I’m a guest, I’m also happy to contribute something to ease the work on the host. I’m a big fan of potlucks for that reason, and their contributions can also be a point of conversation and connection.

What has this past year meant for you?

Intention and creation. In 2025, we made an intentional decision to step back from organizing all the Ugnayan Tambayans we were organizing in 2024. This year, we took the time to root in intention and make space for creation.

My Ugnayan co-creator Kookie and I took our own journeys in our respective spaces — exploring our curiosities, uncovering different paths and tribes, and finding inspiration in the tangents and in-betweens. For me, it’s been about stepping more into my own facilitation practice with expressive arts and social arts, and learning more about women farmers through my side quests with @hapagugnayan. For Kookie, she’s stepped more into her own design practice, and capped off the year with @typefairph.

Creation of something new to offer to the community has been slower than anticipated. We finally soft launched our Bisaya edition deck last month, while our food deck is still fermenting in creative compost.

We trust that things will take the time they need to emerge, and we don’t want to be driven by the capitalist tendency to make something just to sell more and generate revenue. We trust that the time that we take can help mold our new creations with more meaning and intention.

Contribution and solidarity. Our experiences in the past couple of years have been making us think about how we want to provide more value for the community. The rampant corruption by politicians at the expense of our fellow Filipinos has also been fueling our collective rage and compelling us to do something, anything within our own strengths and capacities.

This has inspired the creation of our Luto Likha Linang Laban zine (a free, open-source tool to host more meaningful conversations around food in your own home or with your own friends). Print and share it for free here: tinyurl.com/lutolikhalinang-zine.

On top of that, this season, each direct purchase of Tagalog edition Ugnayan Cards from us will help us fund the direct sourcing of fresh produce from Good Food Community’s smallholder farmers to nourish 1 family in Payatas with a healthy meal through Food Today, Food Tomorrow.

The devastation brought by recent typhoons (and corrupt government officials), has also compelled us to support solidarity efforts of ANTHILL Fabric Gallery in Cebu, Youth for Climate Hope in Negros, and Angat Buhay in various provinces.

We appeal to your generosity to help fund these efforts, and we pledge to match your donation up to ₱300 (and you’re most welcome to contribute more than that).

Order Ugnayan & contribute here

As you wind down the year, we wish you connection, equanimity and gratitude to hold you steady amidst the Christmas chaos — that you remember that which gives your life meaning and ginhawa.

• What is most important for you to remember and embody this season?

• What does meaningful connection with yourself, your loved ones and your community mean for you this season?

• As you wind down the year, what do you want to prioritize time and space for?

Weaving tapestries of meaning,
Jen Horn | @pagbubuo

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Jen here! It’s been a year of side quests for me and Kookie this year in our individual practices as space-holders, learners and designers, but we’re back with some new Ugnayan offerings this season, which we share in this letter to you. 😊

Read on to learn more about:

1. Ugnayan Cards Bisaya edition 🤩

2. A gift packaging promo 🥰

3. An improved order form 😁

NEW! Bisaya edition

It’s been two years now since we first released our original Ugnayan Cards in Tagalog, and while we’re still cooking up another Tagalog deck (coming in 2026!), we’re happy to share that we’ve finally created a deck in Bisaya!

Although Kookie and I are not Bisaya speakers ourselves, Bisaya-speaking provinces have a special place in our hearts, so this makes this deck special for us too! Lipay gyud kaayo!

We hope that using this deck more and more will help us familiarize ourselves with Bisaya while also forming deeper connections with native Bisaya speakers or friends from those provinces. 🥰

This Bisaya deck was made possible through the labor of our language re-weaver Tea Solon (Cebu), and exchanges with Ugnayan friends, Naro Alonzo (Davao), Marielle Lalire (Dumaguete), and Kathy Ponce and Chiky Claros (Cebu).

ORDER NOW

Get this new product exclusively online at our introductory price P1180 until November 30, 2025 only via ugnayancards.com.

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Give the gift of connection

With our holiday gift packaging options and bulk order pricing, we’re making it easier for you to gift something special to the special people in your lives this season.

Limited sinamay gift bags

You can avail of gift packaging with your order of Ugnayan Cards this season. This includes 1 gift card (in Tagalog or Bisaya) + 1 sinamay gift bag that’s the perfect size for our deck!

Ugnayan x ANTHILL Pouch upgrade

You can also opt to upgrade your Ugnayan Cards pouch to our limited Ugnayan x ANTHILL pouches, made with Philppine handwoven textile offcuts. These pouches celebrate our weaving traditions while reducing textile waste that might otherwise go to landfills.

Bulk order prices

Perfect for gift-giving season, our original Tagalog edition decks are also available for only P1200 per deck for a minimum order of 10 decks.

ORDER NOW

An improved order experience

As a side hustle, Ugnayan has not been something we’ve been able to dedicate more time and resources to this year (huhu). We’ve made some changes in our order form, and while it’s not a full-fledged e-commerce website yet (which we can’t justify the monthly costs for quite yet), we hope it makes for a better checkout experience for you. ☺️

Check it out here.

We’d love to know what you think about these new offers and improvements, and if you have other ideas or suggestions on new offerings or ways to improve, feel free to hit us up via email or slide into our @ugnayancards DMs.

Buo habang nagbubuo, we’re always a work-in-progress, and always keen to learn how to grow with you.

Salamat sa pakikipag-Ugnayan!

Nagmamahal,
Jen Horn | @pagbubuo

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The year’s drawing to a close (yes, October palang, pero parang December na rin haha), and there have been many side quests this year that were already brewing since last year with @hapagugnayan, an initiative beyond our Ugnayan Cards.

Food is such a central part of our culture as Filipinos.

We greet each other less with “Magandang araw/umaga/hapon” and more with “Kumain ka na?” or “Kain tayo!”. While we’re eating one meal, we ask each other about what we might want to eat next.

The table has been and will continue to be a place where we can nourish our bodies, connect with each other, and find comfort, joy and collective care.

And yet, we are often disconnected from the root sources of real food. From the land. From farmers. From the kitchen.

We want to change that, one conversation, one meal at a time. We want to support people in connecting with our culinary roots, giving back to those who feed us, nourishing those with less on their table, and co-imagining more just, equitable and life-giving food futures.

We’ve been taking our time to cook up a deck or tool that allows us to have these kinds of conversations that can draw people onto the land, into the kitchen and into community.

Pero di pa siya ready. Hilaw pa. Konting luto pa. Pero may inihanda rin kaming patikim para sa mga sasama sa Luto Likha Linang sa October 25, para matulungan niyo rin kami sa pagtimpla.

Join @hapagugnayan’s intimate gathering of women farmers and women creatives, as we lay the tablescapes for regenerative, equitable and just food futures on October 25, 2025, 9am-6pm in Quezon City.

Because of the limited capacity of this gathering, form submissions will be reviewed to bring in a diverse range of participants who can benefit more from joining this gathering, and who intend to continue cultivating seeds planted well beyond it.

Express your interest to join via tinyurl.com/lutolikhalinang.
Sign-ups close on October 19, 2025.

We’ll be joined by women farmers from the Kiday Community Farmers’ Association (KCFA) in General Nakar, Quezon and from Kasama-LR in Dasmariñas, Cavite, along with women creatives from @goodfoodcommunity, @theartsandhealthinstituteph, @ruralwomenadvocates, @tktk_feminist_printmakers, @ugnayancards, @pinaycollection and @manibalang, who will be contributing their creativity into this potluck!

This whole day gathering is open to 25 women creatives who want to harness their creativity in service of women farmers and regenerative, equitable and just food futures

It doesn’t matter what form your creative expression takes. Wherever you are in your practice, we hope to create an abundant ecosystem of support for and with women farmers and women creatives.

Express your interest to join via tinyurl.com/lutolikhalinang.
Sign-ups close on October 19, 2025, or while slots are available.

Sign up to join Luto Likha Linang

Kitakits sa hapag?

Nagluluto ng saya,
Jen | @pagbubuo

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September 21, 2025. It was a day of hope, grief and collective rage in Luneta, EDSA and Mendiola. But the experience of the September 21 rallies was different for different people.

Perhaps for many or most of those we know, we experienced mostly non-violent protests, save for a number of expletives that needed expressing.1

While others were wounded, beaten, shot at, killed or arrested by the police in Mendiola. And while their means of protest may differ from ours, it is no less real or vaild.2

What if we paused to learn from this instead of jumping quickly to judgments and conclusions?

As an introvert myself, I’m taking this moment as a challenge to go outside my comfort zone.

• Paano kung makipag-ugnayan tayo hindi lamang sa sari-sarili nating grupo?

• Paano kung makipag-ugnayan tayo hindi lamang sa loob ng mga bahay o gusali, pero pati na rin sa kalsada at kung saanman?

• Paano kung makipag-ugnayan tayo hindi lamang sa magandang panahon, pero pati sa pagbaha ng mga problema?

In other things

• If you’re feeling overwhelmed with what’s happening in the country / world, it can help to ground ourselves with a sense of agency, a sense of community, a slow and patient urgency and trust. I write more about co-creating transformational change on my Substack.

• We’re also hosting Designing Ginhawa: Ugnayan at Likhaan, a community conversation on being a creative in the Philippines at the Likha Library at Space63 at Comuna, Makati on September 27 (Saturday) 3-5PM. This space is made possible by our lovely Ugnayan ninang @karalso_. Slots for the gathering are limited, so sign up to join via tinyurl.com/likhalibrarygatherings.

Tuloy ang pakikipag-ugnayan,
Jen Horn | @pagbubuo

Kamusta ang pakikipag-Ugnayan? Anong pakiramdam mo pag nagbubukas ng espasyo para makipag-Ugnayan? Ikaw ba ay may galak, kilig, kaba?

Jen here, and I’m writing you today to share some reflections and resources on facilitating connection, or as I prefer to refer to it: pagpapadaloy ng Ugnayan.

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I don’t remember when I came to know the word tagapagpadaloy, or Tagalog for the word facilitator, but it brought me so much joy and pride that our own culture lent such beautiful language to the concept of a facilitator. Ang ganda lang kasi.

In that sense, a facilitator is one who enables or unblocks flow, and this aligns a lot with one of my favorite quotes on the topic, which comes from facilitator and author Adam Kahane who says that:

You can’t push a stream to flow, but if you remove the blockages, it will flow by itself.

In one of his newer book Everyday Habits for Transforming Systems, he also says that:

Developing everyday habits isn’t about welding on new extraordinary capacities, but about unblocking and releasing capacities that, deep down, most of us already have.

Related reads:
• Daloy ng Paglikha: Letting creativity flow with presence, curiosity and joy
• Kaalaman at Kamalayan: Facilitating Holistic Learning & Formation in the Classroom

One of my beliefs as a facilitator and coach is in the inherent (though possibly latent) creativity and capacity of the people I hold space for and with.

One of our beliefs with Ugnayan is that everyone has (or should have) the capacity to create spaces for meaningful connection. We created Ugnayan simply as a tool to support that.

As we continue to go back to our intentions for this year, we’re looking to:

1. Support you in holding space

2. Share your Ugnayan gatherings

3. Create new Ugnayan tools

Read on to see where we’re at with these intentions. ❤️‍🔥

Sa patuloy na pakikipag-Ugnayan,
Jen Horn | @pagbubuo

Supporting you in holding space

How might I develop my own capacity to nurture spaces for care, connection and creativity?
What is my deeper intention with my practice of facilitation and community- or culture-building?
What foundational practices can help me foster courage and safety with those I hold space for and with?
What can help bring me more joy, ease, and confidence in holding space for and with my kapwa?

This September, we’re initiating Daluyan, a learning and support circle for space holders, beginning with a whole day workshop, facilitated by Ugnayan’s @pagbubuo.

Daluyan is a space made specifically for a small group of ten (10) “space holders” – whether you’re a facilitator, community-builder, educator, counselor, researcher, artist, team leader, entrepreneur, or people development practitioner.

No matter where you are in your space-holding practice or journey, this circle hopes to create an abundant ecosystem of support, for and with the diverse experiences of your fellow explorers.

It aims to support you when we come together to:

• Create a community of collective care for and with those who hold space for their own communities

• Learn how to nurture spaces for connection and creativity in groups

Daluyan translates to medium, channel, or conduit, which could refer to ourselves as tagapagpadaloy, or it could refer to the pathways for connection, creative flow, energy, clarity and insight that we open with our kapwa in the spaces we hold.

Our time together aims to help you:

• Ground your facilitation practice in consciousness and intention

• Cultivate your skills in mindful and deep listening

• Harvest experiential learning on facilitation, with the help of @ugnayancards

• Grow your confidence in holding space with emergence and flow

If you want to learn more about this Daluyan circle click through the IG post above or read Jen’s post onand express your interest to join by sending a DM via @pagbubuo, or replying to this email. 😊

Sharing spaces for pakikipag-ugnayan

This Saturday, July 19, we’re partnering with other event organizers and community gatherers to bring some Ugnayan into their events. You can catch us in two locations: Manila and La Union — to connect and co-create with us!

Everybody needs a zine-spiration! (Manila)

Ugnayan’s @pagbubuo is hosting a “zine-spiration bar” at the Double Exposure event at Hodge Podge in Karrivin. It’s like an open table to create your own creative inspiration or affirmation, in the form of an Ugnayan card or a simple zine, in quick 15-minute bursts so that you don’t overthink it! Whatever comes, comes, and all is good and welcome. Limited stocks of Ugnayan cards, postcards and stickers will also be available for sale at this event! Participation is free, just come by! 😸

Creative sandbox (La Union)

Ugnayan’s @kookiesantos is hosting a lettering workshop at the Creative Sandbox event organized by Ginhawa Experiences. It’s intended as a day-long retreat for artists, designers, dabblers, and anyone looking to reconnect with their creative spark, including natural dyeing, pottery and writing — all designed to invite play, curiosity, and experimentation. Limited stocks of Ugnayan cards, postcards and stickers will also be available for sale. Participation fee is P6,500, and you can sign up to join here.

Creating new Ugnayan tools

We’re still giving ourselves generous time and space to let the ideas, words and images emerge for our upcoming Ugnayan tools. We’re allowing ourselves to be inspired by our diverse experiences and perspectives with different people we’ve been forming deeper connections with, within the city, around the country and across Asia.

We’ve remained mostly quiet about them, but we think it’s worth checking in how the following seeds of ideas are landing with you:

1. Ugnayan Cards in Bisaya

This has long an aspiration since we first launched the cards in November 2023, but we were never quite sure there would be a significant enough demand that would justify us dedicating resources to producing this deck.

We’ve had positive reception of our Filipino deck even from those based in the Visayas and Mindanao, and would really love to have a deck that honors their connection with their own language too.

Would you buy a Bisaya deck?

2. Hapag Ugnayan

Another dream we have been composting is inspired by the work of groups like Good Food Community and Farms, Food, Freedom that we’ve been getting involved with in parallel to the start of our Ugnayan Cards journey in late 2023. Their work makes us ask: What reflections and conversations do we want to surface around food?

The dining table or the hapag is a central point at which connections and culture are formed, especially in Filipino culture, and yet, how much of our conversations actually acknowledge the land and the hands that grow our food? How much do we explore the identity, heritage, recipes and rituals that shape our beliefs and practices around food?

We want to develop a deck or a tool that allows us to have more conversations that can help us root in our heritage, give back to those who feed us, and imagine more just, equitable and life-giving food futures.

We’d love to know what you think of these ideas! Feel free to reply to this email to share your thoughts with us!

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Ang bilis ng panahon. Miss na namin kayong makasama.

We know it’s been a while since our last letter.

Ang daming nangyari — between working on our individual creative and professional practices, dealing with household health concerns and care work, trying to keep up with current events (crises) without going crazy, the elections (!) etc.

There’s this feeling like we’re just trying to keep up or catch up with life. At the same time, we want to be intentional in sharing how want to move forward.

So in this love letter to you, we look to the first three themes in our Ugnayan deck (Sadya, Daloy, Laro) to guide us through reflecting on allowing emergence, dreaming together, and the gift of community.

Maaaring may mga sadya o layunin tayo, pero minsan (madalas) ay may sariling daloy ang buhay, na pwede nating salubungin nang may laro upang lumago sa halip na malanta.

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Palitaw: To let emerge

One of my favorite Filipino treats is palitaw, which literally translates “ to let emerge”. Made from galapong — washed, soaked, and ground malagkit or sticky rice, it is rolled and flattened into a circle and dropped into boiling water. We wait for it to float to the surface to signal that they are done, then it is dipped in niyog or grated coconut, and served with a mix of sugar and sesame seeds.

It is a quick snack to buy, if you live near someone who still makes them, but if you backtrack its journey — from topping it with sugar and sesame seeds, coating it in niyog, waiting for it to float to the surface, shaping the galapong and flattening it, grinding the sticky rice into galapong, growing the rice — mahaba-habang paglalakbay ang kanyang pinagdaanan.

Allowing creativity to emerge

What is your process for birthing creative projects?

After launching our Ugnayan deck, we were often asked:

How long did it take for you to create the deck?

The short answer is that our production process spanned about three months, from conceptualization to printing. However, the more accurate answer is that it took years of composting those provocations, cultivating our respective crafts, thinking about our creative dreams, deprioritizing them, audaciously reprioritizing them before actually creating the cards, and finally launching them in November 2023. ❤️‍🔥

To allow something to emerge is:

1. to give someone (or ourselves) permission (pahintulot) to do something; and

2. to give the necessary time, space and opportunity for something to emerge.

Even as I write this, I can hear the push and pull of efficient practicality vs. emergent possibility battling in my head —

The voices of urgency (pagmamadali): “Why is it taking so long for this to get done?”, and trust (pagtitiwala): “Everything will happen in its own time.”

The voice of ease in the familiar (kaginhawaan sa nakasanayan): “Let’s stay with what we know” / “Dito tayo sa alam natin.”; the voice of courage in the uncertain (lakas ng loob sa hindi tiyak): “Let’s just go for it!” / “Subukan lang natin!”; the voice of resilience in the unexpected (tibay ng loob sa hindi inaasahan): “Whatever happens, I’ll be okay” / Anumang mangyari, okay ako.”

I’m beginning to allow the “delays” to create a richer, more fertile ground for what’s to come.

It was ten years ago when the first seed of an idea of conversation cards were planted in me. But I didn’t come to the richness of intention, questions and design of the cards if it weren’t for all the people and experiences I met along the way, and a final push to actually have it break ground in 2023.

It was two months ago when I first drafted this newsletter, but I didn’t quite know what to tell you yet about (except for the same things I said in January). I’m still not sure I fully know…but I trust that the answers will emerge when I show up with authenticity and integrity.

I’m still navigating the balance between efficient practicality and emergent possibility. I carry a certain impatience with myself about how we should have had more tools or offerings by now to support you — our ka-Ugnayans, or connection cultivators — in your respective communities. Nevertheless, I trust that the path will emerge as we take steps forward.

While we patiently allow emergence to enrich our soil, we also want to make sure we can share the gifts (in the forms of creativity, care and connection) as we receive them, because there is no benefit, only waste, in keeping it to ourselves for too long.

How might we give ourselves permission, time and space to let things emerge?
What can help us share these gifts more freely when they emerge?

Pangarap: To dream or hope together

Even before our Ugnayan journey, we’ve believed in cultivating intentional and joyful growth towards a vision of a world that is more interconnected (magkakaugnay), compassionate (may malasakit), liberating (mapagpalaya) and regenerative (nagbabalik-buhay).

Pangarap gives us permission to dream for better futures, pang harap.

• In an isolated world, we dream of kapwa spaceholders who open up bridges and portals for connection, care and creativity.

• In a divided world, we dream of individuals giving of themselves openly and generously for the benefit of the collective or the commons.

• In an oppressive world, we dream of people questioning current systems and reimagining what collective liberation might look like.

• In an extractive, materialistic world, we dream of a culture of “enough-ness” and a reciprocal relationship with nature.

In a small way, we hope the cards can help bring us back into connection and right relationship with ourselves, each other and the natural world. We hope the cards could be a tool for you to bring connection back into your own spheres of influence too — creating wider and wider circles and constellations of connection, care and creativity.

What are your dreams for yourself? Our country?
What is the community you’d like to bring together?
What might co-creating a connected, compassionate, liberating and regenerative world look like with them?

Yaman ng Pamayanan: Abundance in Community

We’ve had the benefit of being nourished by different communities throughout our lives, and in the past year, I’ve looked to Good Food Community (who grow a culture of collective care with organic growers and consumers-turned-coproducers — that’s all of us!) and The Arts and Health Institute by Magis Creatives (who nurture facilitators of psychosocial support and wellbeing through arts and creativity).

The work of cultivating and sustaining community can be challenging, but when asked about what keeps the “alab ng puso” alive for me, I always come back to community — the sense of relational wellbeing and belonging to something bigger than one’s self. ❤️‍🔥

I see this in all of you who have supported us, bought our cards, wrote us about your experiences with them. Our lives are richer because of the stories you shared, and our work becomes more meaningful when you cultivate connection with your own circles or communities.

As we wrote last January, here’s what we’re committing to as we continue journeying with you:

1. Creating new Ugnayan tools. We’ll keep you posted when the seed we’re germinating has transformed into fruit ready for you to eat. 🥭

2. Supporting you in holding space. When we host Ugnayan Tambayans this year, it will be less about making meaningful connections with strangers (though inevitably, there will be that), and more about building your capacity to hold space for others. Our all-too-brief tambayan on Making Meaningful Gatherings was a taste of that. We hope to co-create deeper, more experiential learning opportunities for that this year — starting with our next gathering this June! 🇵🇭

   

3. Sharing your Ugnayan circles. It was never our mission to run so many gatherings ourselves (like we did last year 😅). Our hope is that we’re able to support you in cultivating your own capacity to gather and connect meaningfully with others. If you are planning your own open gatherings with the use of our Ugnayan Cards, we’d love to learn about it and share it with others too! Check out this Farms, Food, Freedom gathering with Good Food Community, SAKA, The Art of Yarn and Pagbubuo at Roots Collective this coming May 25!

I appreciate that you’ve come this far, and we’ll keep you posted on what’s to come. 😉

Nananabik makipag-ugnayan muli,
Jen Horn | @pagbubuo
Tagapagpadaloy, Ugnayan Cards

We’ve been quieter on our Instagram since the holiday break. Sinasadya namin yan.😁

We wanted to carve out time and space for ourselves and our individual projects too, and so, our social media taken a backseat. 😅

It was also intentional that we didn’t schedule any gatherings this January, as we’ve decided to pare down our Ugnayan Tambayans this year, and limit them to carefully planned ones — no more than once a quarter.

It was never our mission to run so many events ourselves. But our eagerness in putting Ugnayan out in the world had us sprouting so many gatherings of our own in 2024.

While all that was full of joy and meaning, we’re slowing down to root in our intention.1

What might we learn from trees about living and growing with intention?

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Sadya ng Paglikha | Intention for Creation

By creating tools like our Ugnayan Cards, Ugnayan Postcards, and the free digital Gift of Ugnayan we shared last December, we hope you feel more courageous in connecting with your loved ones, your colleagues and cultivating your own communities of collective care.

It is our dream that everyone, wherever they are, can find pockets of meaningful connection, that remind them of the love and light that is possible in this world when we really see each other.

Malasakit starts with connection.
Ang pagkilala ng kapwa ang simula ng Ugnayan.

Mga Paninindigan | Our Commitments

In light of this intention, here’s what we’re committing to in 2025:

1. Creating new Ugnayan tools. Because we were out and about so much last year, we didn’t have as much time dedicated to creating more tools to support you. So, we’re really hoping to do things differently this year. We’ll keep you posted when the seed we’re germinating has transformed into fruit ready for you to eat.

2. Supporting you in holding space. When we host our own gatherings this year, it will be less about making meaningful connections with strangers (though inevitably, there will be that). Instead, it will be more oriented towards building your capacity to hold space for others. Our all-too-brief tambayan on Making Meaningful Gatherings was a taste of that. We hope to create deeper, more experiential learning opportunities for that this year.

3. Sharing your Ugnayan circles. If you are planning your own open community gatherings with the use of Ugnayan Cards, feel free to tag @ugnayancards in your post, and we’d be happy to share it with our community too.

Related reads:
• Magsimula sa Sadya: Starting the year with intention
• Showing up with intention by Jen Horn | January 17, 2025

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Community Shoutouts

Before we end this Liham ng Ugnayan, we’d also like to take this opportunity to holler at some friends of Ugnayan — sharing some gatherings you can join, and some practices you can try to start the year with intention.

3 Gatherings to Start the Year with Intention

#1: Way to Glow 2025

WHEN: January 25, 2025, 10:00AM-12:00NN
WHERE: Online via Zoom

Our friends from the Psychology Association of the Philippines’ special interest group on positive psychology have put together a webinar on starting your year with mindful intentions and habits. I’ll be sharing some ideas for grounding yourself in your intention this year. 🌱

Sign up for Way To Glow 2025

#2: Book Talk with Haemin Sunim

WHEN: January 25, 2025, 2:00PM-4:00PM
WHERE: Fully Booked BGC

Join me in listening and learning about living more mindfully from Haemin Sunim, zen buddhist monk and author of The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down, Love For Imperfect Things, and When Things Don’t Go Your Way: Zen Wisdom for Difficult Times.

Sign up for Haemin Sunim's book talk

#3 Visioning 2025

WHEN: January 26, 2025, 2:00PM-5:00PM
WHERE: Ayala Triangle Gardens

Our long-time Ugnayan friends and supporters, Z and Gen, are putting together a community care workshop for you to embrace a more aligned, creative, and intentional way of living. Catch you there!

Sign up for Visioning 2025

A Commitment to Reflection

Whether you write on your journal, an IG story, or record a vlog or an audio note, carving out regular time for reflection (whether daily or weekly) is a great practice!

We’re taking inspiration from Aerrol Ampeloquio (@ayyyroll on Instagram), a Fil-Am producer, writer, actor, director and more, who’s making a commitment to reflecting on one Ugnayan question every week and uploading his response on his YouTube channel.

If you wind up taking on a regular reflection practice, we’d love to know. Feel free to tag @ugnayancards as a collaborator in your post/s if you wind up sharing your reflections like Aerrol!

It’s wonderful when people who love the cards wind up creating posts we can share with the community. 🤗

Anong sadya ang itinatakda mo ngayong taon?
Anong paninindigan mo para dito?
What intention are you setting for this year?
What commitment are you making for it?

Sa patuloy na pakikipag-Ugnayan,
Jen Horn | @pagbubuo

Jen here, checking in / out for our last Liham ng Ugnayan for the year.

Just like that, 2024 is now coming to a close. We’re celebrating a full cycle of Ugnayan Cards’ 12 wellbeing themes as we culminate with Pagbubuo or Integration, represented by the image of a web.

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Pagbubuo

• (Tagalog) Ang proseso ng pagsama-sana ng iba’t ibang bahagi upang maging kumpleto o buo

• (English) The process of combining or integrating different parts towards completion or wholeness

  • Bu•o (adjective) whole; complete

  • Bu•o (verb) make whole; create; develop; build; integrate

Join me in diving deeper into these questions:

1. Ano yung binuo mo ngayong taon (maging sadya man o hindi)? | What did you work to create this year (intentionally or unintentionally)?

2. Ano ang kahulugan at itsura ng pagiging “buo” para sa akin ngayong taon? | What does "buo" mean or look like to me this year?

3. Paano ko kinikilala ang pagkabuo ko habang hinahabi pa ang tela at “telos” ng aking nais maging? | How do I recognize my wholeness while weaving the fabric and “telos” of who I am becoming?1

1. Pagbubuo sa Kalikasan (Nature)

We see the process of pagbubuo happening in nature in a number of ways — from creatures big and small. We see how birds build their nests, bees their hives, ants their anthills, and so on. Entire ecosystems are formed by the contributions of every living being — from the forest floor (and underground) to the tops of its canopies.

We also specifically look to spiders, who masterfully spin their silk to protect their eggs, create underwater homes, and most popularly, capture their prey, in architecturally diverse and aesthetic ways.2

Similarly, we each have our own webs that we’re weaving in our own lives. While we’ve been influenced by our true nature and external environment, we still get to decide the shapes we’d like to make. We get to write our stories the way we want to — with all the triumphs and challenges, barriers and setbacks (both real and imagined).

• Ano yung binuo mo ngayong taon (maging sadya man o hindi)? | What did you work to create this year (intentionally or unintentionally)?

  • What surprised you about it or how you created it?

  • What felt authentically you about it?

  • In what ways did this positively affect others?

  • What might make this more intentional?

2. Ang Diwa ng Pagbubuo

While Pagbubuo was not a theme I often picked in my own Ugnayan Cards reflections this year, it is a theme that is close to my heart. “Buo” is the word that got me started with a more regular writing practice on jenhorn.substack.com three years ago, and inspired me to create my @pagbubuo account on Instagram in January 2023.

A couple of months ago, I revisited what “pagbubuo” means to me, and I’m pleased with what remains true to my core, but also with how some once aspired-for-philosophies have become more embodied over time.3

1. Ako’y buo habang nagbubuo.

   The living portfolio of my life is whole while continuing to evolve with me.

2. Nabubuo tayo sa pagkilala ng ating kalahatan.
   The mess, the mayhem, the magic and the mundane -- all that is me.

3. Magkakapit-bisig ang pagbuo at pagwasak.
   Our greatest growth can stem from un-becoming and re-learning.

4. Nabubuo ang sarili sa pakikipag-ugnayan sa kapwa.
   The self-made person is a myth.

5. Ang pagbubuo ng buhay ay isang gawa ng paglikha.
   We imagine, create, and shape our lives by our own design.

6. Sa paglikha lumilinaw ang ating minimithi.

   Creative expression allows our deepest desires for ourselves and those around us to emerge.

7. Bahagi ng pagbubuo ang pagpapahinga.

   There are seasons to germinate and to blossom; to cocoon and to transform.

8. Kasama tayo sa pagbubuo ng nais nating kultura.

   We play a part in perpetuating oppression as well as cultivating co-liberation.

I feel like each “pagbubuo-ism” or philosophy could unearth so much more when we reflect on them. Which one most deeply resonates with you right now?

The below are questions we can chew on at the end of the year, or at the start of a new one as we reflect on this theme. Feel free to share these with a group of friends you might want to gather, reflect, dream and co-create with.

• Ano ang kahulugan at itsura ng pagiging “buo” para sa akin ngayong taon? | What does "buo" mean or look like to me this year?

  • If I were to weave past, present and future:

    • What were the greatest lessons that I learned throughout the year?

    • In what ways was I transformed by these experiences?

    • What do I want to carry over from these lessons to the year ahead?

  • If I were to weave mind, body, heart and spirit:

    • In what ways did I nurture learning and growth, health, relationships with myself, others and the more-than-human world?

    • How am I seeing these parts as more connected rather than separate?

    • What do I want to do more of? What do I want to do differently?

• Aling mga relasyon at mga puwang o espasyo ang nakadagdag sa pagkabuo ko ngayong taon? | Which relationships and spaces added to my wholeness this year?

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3. Pagbubuo ng Buhay

Finally, in different spaces this year, I’ve heard different versions of:

Living is a creative act.

What is creativity but the process of generating ideas, alternatives and possibilities, and making that real?

Everyday we are weaving the stories of our interconnected lives — partially through our skills and logic, partially through our longing and intuition.

We have the capacity to shape or design our lives — to make that which didn’t exist before — be it a meal, an article, a photograph, a living space, a garden, a workshop, other possible futures.

As someone who reveres our handloom weaving traditions, I remain boggled by how a master pattern eventually transforms from loose threads to a tightly woven pattern. My simple mind is unable to fathom how the resulting textile is formed.

It’s a romantic notion for me to think that the narratives of our lives are like webs and weaving — a combination of hard work, heart and the will to create something.

It is part intention, part perseverance, and part faith and trust — trust in our own capacity to create but also trust in the fruit of showing up more authentically and compassionately to ourselves and each other every day.

As I close this newsletter, I leave you with a reminder that “we’re all in process,” as Maya Angelou says, and one final question to acknowledge how far you’ve come, even while there’s still much you’d like to do and many ways you’d like to grow.

• Paano ko kinikilala ang pagkabuo ko habang hinahabi pa ang tela at “telos” ng aking nais maging? | How do I recognize my wholeness while weaving the fabric and “telos” of who I am becoming?

Sending love and ginhawa to you now and in the year ahead,
Jen | @pagbubuo

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It’s been a year since we launched Ugnayan Cards, and it truly has been the gift that keeps giving. 🥹🥹 We’re grateful for each connection we’ve made throughout the past year, and the #uwugnayan stories you’ve shared with us.

As a token of our gratitude, we created this Pagtitipong May Ugnayan guide to support you in creating more meaningful gatherings.

We also have some Pasasalamat promos and giveaways — where you can win one (1) of three (3) Ugnayan Cards deck! Gift it to someone you’d like to express your gratitude to! (Scroll to the bottom for the mechanics.)

We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank you:

• for the gift of your presence in our lives in the past year (no matter how brief or sustained)

• for the ways that you’ve been present and hope to be more present for your kapwa 🙏✨🥹

The guide is not exhaustive, but perhaps that’s the point.

We hope you’ll take these gifts of Ugnayan, and that they give you the courage to create more meaningful gatherings wherever you may be.

Nagmamahal at nagpapasalamat,

Jen & Kookie

See the full guide here

See some snippets of the guide below.

Gabay sa Paglikha ng Pagtitipon

These are some lessons we’ve learned in creating gatherings in the past year, and principles that will continue to guide us.

These include:

• Gawaing panlabas - what you can consider doing and communicating outward with your co-gatherers

• Gawaing panloob - what you can consider reminding yourself as you put your gathering together

Gabay sa Pakikipag-Ugnayan

This section contains our gabay sa pakikipag-ugnayan, which comes with each deck of Ugnayan Cards.

There is a lot of value in intentionally creating the right environment for your gathering.

As with our gabay sa paglikha ng pagtitipon, these are not hard rules that we impose on you. These are simply an invitation to open up space for meaningful and liberating reflections and conversations.

Ugnayan Kahit Saan

We created Pagtitipong May Ugnayan as a free digital tool to allow you to connect with anyone, anywhere.

The free tool contains 8 out of our 12 Ugnayan wellbeing themes, and 1 light question and 1 dark (supposedly deeper) question per featured theme.

Please feel free to use this tool in your next gathering, and let us know how it goes!

Find it on page 17 of our guide

Ugnayan Overseas

Get international shipping here

Iba pang mga regalo mula sa Ugnayan ngayong pasko

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Sharing with you our Ugnayan collab events this weekend + our last Ugnayan Tambayan for the year on December 4!

We’re thankful to these collaborators for inviting us to be part of their events this weekend:
⚡️ Electrify with @goodenergy_ph
🧺 Haboean Holiday Market with @prssflrs @haboean
🥗 Hapag Ugnayan with @lapicaraph

We also bring you our last Ugnayan Tambayan for the year on December 4, 6-7pm! Read through for more info!

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Electrify

📅 Nov. 29, 2024 | 5-7PM
📍 The Villa Studios, Corner House in San Juan, Metro Manila

“Movements don’t start on grand stages — they spark in spaces like this.” ⚡️

Electrify isn’t just a night of disco house vibes 🪩✨ it’s a space to power up, speak out, and charge toward a future we deserve. Connect with community builders and climate advocates, including @pagbubuo, @chenggu_, @hyabendana, @ayaatmy, @krishnaariola in an evening of ideas, action, and inspiration with @goodenergy_ph.

Haboean Holiday Market

📅 Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, 2024 | 11AM-7PM
📍 Haboean Weaving Studio and Cafe in Kalibo, Aklan

Thanks to our ka-Ugnayan Persis Flores, Ugnayan Cards will be available at Haboean this weekend!

Come along to connect with local artists, makers, and small businesses, shop their works, participate in workshops and events, and cultivate community, creativity, and a deeper appreciation for the arts and the environment. 🌿

Hapag Ugnayan

📅 Dec. 1, 2024 | 6PM-9PM
📍 La Picara, 2/F One Bonifacio High Street Mall in Taguig, Metro Manila

A first time collab with a resto for Ugnayan! And we couldn’t be more excited about this meaningful meal brought together by Remy Agallo of @lapicaraph, in support of @goodfoodcommunity. We’ll also have surprises from other friends showcasing proudly Filipino ingredients, including , @kokowkscoffee, @coffeexmead, @larryshoneyph, @malagosfarmhouse, and @proudlypromdi.

Over the dinner table, we will be connecting with each other and with the stories of those who fed us — through conversations prompted by @pagbubuo of @ugnayancards.

See the special menu in the link/post below, and reserve your seat via DM to @lapicaraph on IG or via mobile to 0927 172 4480.

Making Meaningful Gatherings

📅 Dec. 4, 2024 | 6PM-7PM
📍 Zoom

Join us for an evening of sharing principles, practices and tools for creating meaningful gatherings!

In partnership with Culture First Manila, we’ve made it online to reach friends we’ve made around the country this year. 🎉

We’ll also be sharing a free digital tool for connection, exclusive to those who sign up. Plus other surprises that you’ll just have to join to discover! 😉

Sign up for access to this free event at bit.ly/gift-of-ugnayan.

Make meaningful gatherings with us

We’ve much to celebrate with you this year!
We hope to see you at one of these gatherings. 🙏

Nagpapasalamat,
Jen & Kookie

P.S. Before we go, we’re also happy to announce that Ugnayan Cards are now available overseas via Pinay Collection. You can share the news with our kababayans abroad, and invite them to check out other proudly Pinoy merch that support various advocacies and movements in the motherland. Visit pinaycollection.com.

Jen here, disrupting our regular Liham ng Ugnayan delivery schedule to bring you this late post for our 10th wellbeing theme: Pag-asa or Hope.

This last quarter of the year brings with it a deluge, in personal, professional and public spaces: holiday gatherings — navigating all that in the midst of holiday traffic, and dealing with some people we’d rather not interact with there; work deadlines — meeting all our deliverables by the end of the year; raging typhoons and floods — that have been devastating different parts of the country.

Our 9th wellbeing theme “Tibay ng Loob” (which we chose to call Inner Strength) could have been translated into Resilience. However, it often comes with the thought that we just need to be “strong enough” to withstand the deluge that comes our way. Adjust nalang tayo ng adjust. That can sometimes feel like a passive acceptance of the injustice or wrongness we see in this world.

You might hope to right some of those wrongs, and you might recognize your power to change some of these circumstances, but it can sometimes feel overwhelming and impossible.

This edition of Liham ng Ugnayan may feel heavy, and you may also feel lightness. I think it will depend on how we see things, and ultimately, what we choose to do.

I share these main themes in the sections below:

• Corals as a symbol of hope

• The role of creativity and connection in hope-building

• Finding hope around us

• Hope in the attempt

• Hope as not a bright and shiny thing

Let’s dive in?

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Pag-asa

• (Tagalog) pag-asam; tiwala; pananalig; inaasahan; pagkakataon

• (English) hope; trust; faith; dependence; anticipation; chance

Corals are our symbol of hope. 🪸🫀

Even if these times may seem bleak for corals and humans alike, healthy coral reefs show us a vision of a world that is possible when we live in balance and harmony with one another. They are the rainforests of the sea — turning carbon dioxide into oxygen, and providing a source of nourishment, when we protect these places for new life to grow.

Our country is part of the Coral Triangle1, which is considered the world’s center of marine biodiversity.

In 2023, the Verde Island Passage (also known as the global center of marine shorefish biodiversity), a marine corridor passing through Batangas, Mindoro, Marinduque, and Romblon — was declared a “Hope Spot,”2 or a special place that is scientifically identified as critical to the health of the ocean.

Sadly, reefs around the world are bleaching en masse as the ocean temperatures rise due to climate change.3 Corals coexist with tiny algae called zooxanthellae. Rising ocean temperatures can lead to the zooxanthellae expelling themselves from the coral's tissue, exposing its white skeleton, which we often see as coral bleaching.

Some corals, on the other hand, exhibit another effect: "colorful bleaching” — wherein dying corals gain more pigment, and glow in vibrant shades of bright pink, purple and orange. 

It was found that colorful bleaching events occur when corals produce "layer of sunscreen" to protect against harmful rays and create a glowing display that researchers believe encourages algae to return — like a heartbreaking final cry for help, as corals try to catch the algae’s attention.

We need creativity and connection to grow hope.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about how we might co-create “art” in order to convey issues in a way that really connects with people.

If we can’t connect with people simply on the basis of science, then how might we, like colorful bleaching coral, use heartbreaking beauty and art to catch their attention and tap into their emotions?

In my ongoing learning to be an expressive arts facilitator, I try to adopt this mindset in art creation:

What might that hope, joy and beauty look like:

• For climate scientists who see the grimmest of projections?

• For farmers whose months of labor in cultivating the land get swept away in a matter of hours?

• For young people at home seeing news and feeling powerless to change anything?

It can be hard to feel hopeful — to trust and to care.

I don’t see trust and care in the system that makes political prisoners of peasant organizers, land and ocean defenders. That takes advantage of the plight of farmers and fisherfolk to push them further into oppression. That mines our natural resources at the expense of the health and safety of those who live around it.

But it’s also hard to exist in this world without trust in the people around us. Systems are not unbreakable. People make systems, and people can break them.

Hope is around us when we choose to pay attention to it.

I remember that there are people who care for our wellbeing — people who are not only not trying to hurt us, but are also doing their best in their own ways to create a better world for all of us; people who show us that a different way of being is possible.

• I see hope in the wildlife filmmaker and photographer Boogs Rosales who reminds us of all the beauty on this planet that we need to protect.

• I see hope in groups like Mako Micropress that raise our consciousness about systemic injustices, and create zines while enabling us to create our own so we can also raise our consciousness with others.

• I see hope in groups like Good Food Community, who are imagining a different future for our farmers and our food system, and inviting us to co-create that future with them today through community-shared agriculture, collective knowledge-sharing and skills-building.4

• I see hope in the political prisoners at the Correctional Institute for Women, who believed that fighting for the liberties of their community’s right to land was greater than their own individual liberties.5

• I see hope in groups like Pinay Collection, who are engaging the Filipino diaspora around issues happening in our country, offering them ways to engage with these issues and be meaningfully makabayan.

• I see hope in the small group of advocates we were with last week for Good Energy — how they choose to resist and persist in their respective lines of work, how they started off as strangers at beginning of our Likha Sigla workshop, and have become a group connected through a shared purpose and love for people and planet.

There are countless more “hope spots”, and these are just some of the ones that have been in my periphery in the past few months.

Kung magpipinta ka ng litrato ng ninanais mong buhay para sa mga kababayan mo, anong magiging itsura nito? | If you had to paint the picture of the life you want for your countrymen, what would it look like?

Saan-saan o kani-kanino mo natatagpuan ang mga “pook ng pag-asa” para sa hinaharap na iyon sa kasalukuyan? | Where and with whom do you find the “hope spots” for that future in the present?

Hope is in the attempt.

There will be times when we feel hopeless — because we don’t have the answers, or the certainty of favorable outcomes. Some say “it’s the hope that kills you”. But we don’t know either way what could happen, and in that very uncertainty is hope.

Sometimes, the trying is hope enough.6

We may not see the changes we wish to see in our lifetimes but our actions can give us a sense of agency in our present, and maybe, make the struggle less difficult for others in the future.

Hope isn't always this bright and shiny thing.

Hope can also come with feelings like rage, grief, fear, sadness and frustration. Sometimes those emotions fuel hope, but only when we transmute those emotions into action.

Sometimes, our hope leads us to dead ends, but, and maybe this is the weird, magical elf that lives in a dark corner of my soul...but I do believe any act of kindness or goodness matters, even if we don't think it amounts to much. I find that really meaningfully building hope isn’t in the big, news-making or award-winning moments.

In the grand scheme of things, this is what I believe:

In a marine ecosystem, each coral, algae, fish, invertebrate is doing its thing to a maintain healthy balance in their shared environment. The existence and actions of one creature may seem insignificant in isolation, but so powerful when seen as a constellation of actions.

Malaki man o maliit, ano ang iyong lugar sa sistemang ito? | Whether big or small, what do you see as your place in this system?

Umaasa at kumikilos,
Jen Horn | @pagbubuo
🌊 Tagapagpagpadaloy | Ugnayan Cards

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1st birthday namin ngayon!

Happy birthday to us! One year na po kami! Maraming salamat sa lahat ng naging bahagi ng pagpapalaki, pagpapalawak at pagpapalalim ng gawa namin. 🙏

At maski busy na ang lahat ngayon, gusto lang namin huminto, huminga, at ipagdiwang ang araw na to!

At oo meron din kaming pinaplanong salu-salo at pa-libre. 🎉🥳🙌

Read through to the end for gifts of thanks to all of you who connected with us on this journey.

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Isang taon na mula ng pagsilang ni Ugnayan sa mundo, at gusto namin gamitin itong pagkakataon upang mag-balik-tanaw sa araw na ito noong 2023. 🥹

Maraming kaba, pero mas maraming saya sa bunga ng malayang paglikha ng may kasama.

Here are some snippets of conversations between Jen and Kookie last year, November 22, 2023, in those moments right after we published everything for the launch of our pre-selling period.

When we pause to take a moment of gratitude, we can acknowledge the fruits of our own labor, the people who labored with us, those who nourished us along the way, and cultivated our dreams with us in different ways and forms.

Taos pusong pasasalamat sa pagiging bahagi ng paglinang ng Ugnayan.

Medyo nakaka-🥺🥺🥺 na kaka-one year old lang ni Ugnayan (ang dami nang nangyari!) at alam namin na marami pa tayong pagsasamahan.

Marami pa kaming pwede sabihin bilang pasasalamat sa inyo, pero mas gusto namin sana masabi yun sa inyo sa isang pagtitipon, maging online man (Save the date! Dec. 4), sa Hapag Ugnayan (Dec. 1), o sa mga inaasahan pa nating pagsasama sa darating na taon. ❤️‍🔥

To celebrate this occasion with us, check out Mga Alay ng Pasasalamat below.

Nagmamahal,
Jen & Kookie

Mga Alay ng Pasasalamat

Save the date!
December 4, 2024 | 8:00-9:00PM

You’re invited to join us for a free online session on opening up spaces for more meaningful gatherings this season. 😉

We’ll be sharing more info and sign up details soon. In the meantime, you can simply reply to this email to be added to the guest list! ❤️‍🔥

Hapag Ugnayan
December 1, 2024 | 6:00-9:00PM

Together with La Picara, Good Food Community and more, we’re also inviting you for an evening of connection and culture through a celebration of Filipino ingredients, heritage and memory.

See the Hapag Ugnayan post and DM @lapicara to reserve a seat.

Gifts of Ugnayan
November 22 to December 22, 2024

Get a free ANTHILL fabric pouch (worth P100) with every purchase of our Ugnayan card decks.

Get a free set of Ugnayan postcards (worth P320) and a 3-sheet set of Ugnayan stickers (worth P300) for orders worth P8000 and above.

Order at ugnayancards.com

Ugnayan Overseas
November 30, 2024

Ugnayan Cards will soon be available for international shipping through our friends from Pinay Collection by the end of November. Stay tuned for updates! It will be perfect for giving the gift of connection to your loved ones and kababayans outside of the Philippines!

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We’re just popping into your inbox for a quick update on our events this month! It took us some time to finalize some details with partners for these events, but we hope you can join us still. :)

October 13 (Sunday) 1PM-4PM

Farms, Food & Freedom @ Good Food Sundays

What is agroecology and what impact does it have in transforming our food systems What are the struggles faced by both rural farmers and the urban poor when it comes to just food systems? In what ways are their struggles connected to the health, wellbeing and rights of city folks? And what can we do to be in stronger solidarity with one another in our shared rights to healthy and fair food?

Join us for Farms, Food & Freedom with @goodfoodcommunity @foodtoday_foodtomorrow @saka__ph @pagbubuo at @goodfoodsundays!

We won’t be using our cards at this event, but we hope to meaningfully connect with creatives, advocates and the urban poor for conversations on agroecology, the right to food, and capping the afternoon off with stencil-making for grassroots mobilization. Sign up to join via bit.ly/fff-agro-x.

Learn more and sign up for free

October 19 (Saturday) 8AM-6PM

Design Sari-Sari @ CCP

Drop by our pop-up at Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) parking lot, as part of DTI-Design Center of the Philippines’ Design Week Philippines festivities!

We’ll be there together with 30-40 other indie makers, artisans, retailers and creative communities, curated by @purveyr and @dti.designcenterph.

Special perks await folks who come over, connect with us, and support proudly Filipino-made products!

We’ll be introducing our new @ugnayancards pouches made by @anthillfabric using handwoven textile offcuts!

Get these for free with your deck/s when you reach a minimum purchase of P1800, or buy them for P100 when you purchase 1 deck.

We’ll also have a few activities at our booth, including an Ugnayan wall for you to leave your thoughts on an Ugnayan prompt for a chance to win prizes or vouchers from us!

See you there?

Mga manlalako ng Ugnayan,
Jen & Kookie

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It’s time for another monthly pause. As we end the third quarter of the year, we close our Loob newsletter series with “Tibay ng Loob”, and share some insights from our recent Loob, Likha, Laya tambay.

Loob, as we previously wrote, is shaped in relation with our kapwa.

We began in July with Kagandahang Loob, acknowledging the shared humanity that deepens our connection with one another. “Kung ang pagkilala ng kapwa ang simula ng ugnayan, ang kagandahang loob naman ang naglilinang at nagpapatibay ng ugnayan.”1

We followed that up in August with Lakas ng Loob, acknowledging the courage it takes to create and to connect: “May pagtataya sa paglikha. May pagtataya sa pakikipag-ugnayan.”2

We end September with Tibay ng Loob.

Tibay ng Loob

• (Tagalog) ang kakayahan at katangiang harapin at malampasan ang mga pagsubok at problema sa buhay nang may tapang, matatag, at positibong pananaw.

• (English)

  • n. fortitude; inner strength; resilience; strength of will

  • adj. matibay ang loob: steadfast; unwavering; unfaltering

[Related read] Tibay ng Loob: On Trying Failing, Learning and Resilience

The difference between Lakas ng Loob and Tibay ng Loob

Since we’ve come out with Ugnayan Cards, we’ve often been asked: “What’s the difference between Lakas ng Loob and Tibay ng Loob”?

The distinction I make with these themes comes from a more intuitive and feeling place, rather than an analytical and semantics-oriented place. While the below distinction is not intended to create binaries, since the two concepts overlap, it can help illustrate the difference.

Lakas ng Loob
• Courage; guts; bravado
• Finding the motivation to start
• Braving through uncertainty

Tibay ng Loob
• Inner strength; resilience; fortitude
• Sustaining the motivation to continue
• Persisting in the face of certain difficulty

To me, lakas ng loob is the courage to come out of one’s cocoon of comfort, while tibay ng loob is continuing in spite of challenges; composting our mistakes, loss, grief, in order to grow stronger.

Creative Activism and Tibay ng Loob

At our Loob, Likha, Laya gathering last September 21, we gathered people who inspired us with different expressions of creative activism.

We asked what got them to this point or current expression, and what helps them continue in their advocacy in spite of compassion fatigue, burnout, the seemingly insurmountable challenges, and the slowness of change.

One of our featured storytellers was Jovie Galit, an artist and community organizer living in Toronto, Canada, and founder of Pinay Collection, a feminist merchandise line dedicated to reclaiming Filipino words that have been weaponized against our culture. She shared how the act of creating and being able to shape the future differently was a strong motivator in itself.

As writer, activist and facilitator adrienne maree brown would also say: “All organizing is science fiction - that we are shaping the future we long for and have not yet experienced.”

To keep creating is to keep resisting, to continue imagining and shaping a different world into existence.

Imperfect Solidarity and Tibay ng Loob

Prior to the gathering, AM Valdez and Karina Abola also shared some reservations about being referred to as “activists” alongside the folks from Mako Micro-press and Jovie, whose expressions seemed more “out there”. Some of us may have meander-y roads to find the truest expressions of our activism, and it may take different forms at different points in our lives.

One of the most impactful insights on participants was this idea of Imperfect Solidarity, shared by Mako Micro-press. “We need all forms of collective resistance…big and small, slow and fast, analog and digital, and so on,” they say. There is no “one way” to be a activist or to advocate for your cause.

It can feel like the little things we do hardly make a difference when we see the small things in isolation — instead of the longer timelines, intersectional advocacies, and community-powered movements.

We need to remind ourselves that one bamboo stalk alone will not build a house or raft. When we connect our actions with the actions of others, we can see constellations of possibility, and webs of greater strength and integrity.

As I come to the end of this letter, I leave you with some questions for reflection:

• What does creative activism mean for me in my life right now?

• What might practicing imperfect solidarity look like to me these days?

• What needs to shift in my mindset / behavior in order for me to practice imperfect solidarity? What do I need to strengthen?

• What possibilities might shifting some things and strengthening other things open?

Hanggang sa susunod na liham,
Jen Horn | @pagbubuo
Tagapagpadaloy, Ugnayan Cards

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Are you looking for ways to use your creativity more meaningfully for causes that inspire you? Been working on a cause, and are now seeking fresh ideas and perspectives? Or overwhelmed with different social issues and unsure of where to start? 

Wherever you are in your journey, if you’re looking to use creativity to co-create better futures, we hope you’ll join us for Loob, Likha, Laya, a community conversation on co-creating cultures of collective care and liberation on September 21, 1-4PM at Common Room in Atrium Makati.

In this Ugnayan Tambayan, we’ll explore the different ways we might use creativity to grow that culture, together with Mako Micro-Press, Jovie Galit of Pinay Collection, AM Valdez of Good Food Community and Karina Abola!

Sign up for Loob, Likha, Laya

Bakit “Loob, Likha, Laya?”

If you’ve been reading Mga Liham ng Ugnayan, you may have noticed our past month’s themes of kagandahang loob and lakas ng loob. Later this month, we’ll also be writing about tibay ng loob.

What do we mean when we talk about loób?

In Sikolohiyang Pilipino, or the study of Filipino psychology, several authors have offered various definitions of it:

• It is an “inner self,” an “inner being,” the “holistic self,” the “core of oneself,” the “core of one’s personality,” etc.1

• It is “will,” or more specifically, “holistic and relational will,” a “potential” or “power” that is known through “acts of willing”.2

• It is “what-lies-within-that-lives-without,” that which lies inside and must be expressed and perceived externally.3

There is an outward expression of this loob, and our actions with or towards our kapwa often reveal our loob.

Kung gusto nating magpakita ng kagandahang loob, we might engage in acts of unexpected kindness (without ulterior motives).

Kung gusto nating magpakita ng lakas ng loob, we might take certain risks to our own safety or wellbeing because we felt strongly that something needed to be said to others or done for others.

Related reads:
• Kapwa at Ginhawa: Expanding our circles for collective wellbeing (Mga Liham ng Ugnayan)
• Pagbubuo ng Maka-kapwang Ugnayan: A framework for meaningful connection (Pagbubuo with Jen Horn)

The urge to create

At Ugnayan, we hope that the connection that our cards (and now postcards) and our Ugnayan Tambayans create will ultimately move us towards more mindful, authentically expressed lives, and a more connected, inclusive and equitable world. This may not (will not) happen immediately, but I believe that with each reflection, conversation, creation, we make a bigger and bigger opening or space for those possibilities.

Because of our loob, we may sometimes feel an urge or compulsion to express or to create. We sometimes repress this in ways that don’t serve ourselves or our kapwa. And in some ways, I’m still working on that for myself.

So it helps to be reminded that: expressing our creativity can be a release and pagpapakatotoo sa sarili, and maybe, eventually, it can be a pathway to co-liberate our kapwa — whether that be in bringing beauty, wonder and joy back into the lives of those who have lost our sense of interconnectedness, or in fighting for our collective dignity, freedom and humanity.

There’s much else to be said. So, we’d love for you to join the conversation at Loob, Likha, Laya. Here’s a bit more info about the gathering:

Sadya ng Pagtitipon

• Storytelling of different creative expressions of collective care and liberation

• Connecting with our own creativity and advocacy

• Finding power and joy in community

What to expect

* This is a working event flow.

• 1:00PM-1:30PM - Welcome and casual connection, introductions by Ugnayan Cards and Common Room

• 1:30PM-2:45PM - Kwentuhan and Q&A with Mako Micro-Press, Jovie Galit of Pinay Collection, AM Valdez of Good Food Community and Karina Abola; moderated by Jen Horn of Ugnayan Cards — (You can read more about our partners and panelists in our sign up form.)

• 2:45PM-3:00PM - Connection break

• 3:00PM-3:50PM - Guided group reflection & conversation

• 3:50PM-4:00PM - Closing

PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN

To accommodate different capacities to pay, slots for this are offered on a pay-what-you-can basis, with a suggested range between P200 to P500.

Each ticket comes with a P100 voucher valid on items, food & beverages at Common Room Atrium on the day of the event. Proceeds will be contributed to Good Food Community to help support their work with organic farmers while nourishing marginalized communities.

Sign up for Loob, Likha, Laya

We look forward to connecting with you there. :)

Para sa malayang sarili at kapwa,
Jen Horn | @pagbubuo
Tagapagpadaloy, Ugnayan Cards

Kamusta na? August is coming to an end, and it may already be September by the time you open this letter.

Before this month fully closes, I wanted to share some thoughts about this month’s theme of Lakas ng Loob or Courage: about Lakas ng Loob sa loob at sa labas, Lakas ng Loob in relation to kapwa, bahala na, and pagtataya sa paglikha at sa pakikipag-ugnayan, and Lakas ng Loob sa paglikha at sa pakikipag-ugnayan with our Ugnayan Postcards, and Loob Likha Laya, a community conversation on co-creating cultures of collective care and liberation on September 21.

What has Lakas ng Loob or Courage meant for you in your life recently?

Lakas ng Loob

• (Tagalog) tapang; giting

• (English) courage; guts; bravado

We might think of Lakas ng Loob or Courage in the face of discomfort and uncertainty as “putting ourselves out there” — public-facing acts of Lakas ng Loob (sa labas), like asking someone out on a date, or coming out to one’s parents or peers; publishing something, launching a new campaign or product, pitching a new project; or organizing community around a cause, fundraising, speaking up about an injustice, taking to the streets, etc.

Lakas ng Loob can also be the courage to shift something inside of us (sa loob) — a feeling or belief we need to confront about our reality — whether “confront” means re-thinking, overcoming, moving through or even accepting that. It could be about learning to say “no”; about choosing wellbeing over society’s conventional definitions of success; about choosing moments of stillness over mindless busy-ness — in order to to transform.

We vacillate between uncertain explorations of a new life and the comfort and familiarity in the cocoon of an old one. When I sit patiently enough with myself though, I recognize that cocooning is not about simply a space to isolate myself from others, but sitting still enough to hear my own thoughts, feel my emotions, and connect with what is real and authentic to me.

And this “me” is not a self that exists in isolation, but a self with kapwa.

Enriquez wrote1:

Lakas ng loob is a damdamin (internal feeling / attribute / trait) necessary for actualizing the good not only in one’s self but also in one’s fellow man (kapwa), in one’s loob, and in facilitating the “social good” in kapwa.

And De Guia also highlighted that2:

Lakas ng loob does not actualize the good in one’s self alone, but awakens also the goodness in others.

Bahala na

I imagine that for a butterfly, unfurling its shriveled wings can feel strange and uncomfortable at first. But the compulsion to fly, to discover the world from one flower to the next, to drink sweet nectar, to carry pollen from plant to plant, to co-create more life-giving gardens…these can compel one to move through the discomfort of change.

“Bahala na!”, we might say, as we leave the known and make taya on the unknown.

This is not from a passivity or lack of intention. Bahala na is not ‘‘fatalism’’ that some of us or our colonizers will label it as, but rather, ‘‘determination and risk-taking’’.3

It is a way that we tell ourselves that we’re submitting to a possibly difficult, definitely uncertain experience up ahead — knowing that we’ve done our best to prepare, and knowing that we’ll do our best to overcome the challenges that may arise.

“Bahala na” can happen in ways big and small. And I’d say that for us at Ugnayan, it happened when we came out with the cards, and it happens with each Ugnayan Tambayan we organize.

As creators and connectors, we never know how people will respond to the things we put out there — be it new creations or calls for connection.

Our efforts to create and to connect feel vulnerable, and yet, necessary. They feel necessary not only for our own creative compulsions, but largely because it feels like something we’re called to do — to co-create a more connected, just and compassionate world, where people live more mindful, authentically expressed lives with care for their kapwa.

Our Ugnayan Postcards for Connection are a new expression of that. They’re an invitation to connect or re-connect with someone in a different way. Often, people don’t realize that something they did really mattered to us, until we tell them. And we don’t need to wait til it’s their birthday or some special occasion to let them know that something they did or said really mattered to us.

Our next Ugnayan Tambayan, Loob Likha Laya, a community conversation on co-creating cultures of collective care and liberation, is also another expression of that.

It’s happening on September 21, 1-4PM at Common Room at Atrium Makati.

Whether you’re looking for ways to use your creativity more purposefully, seeking fresh perspectives and approaches for your advocacy, or overwhelmed with different issues and unsure of where to start, we hope to have a conversation about using creativity to co-create better futures together.

Sign up for Loob Likha Laya

As I end this Liham ng Ugnayan, I leave you with these questions:

• Ano ang isang yugto ng buhay mo na nakaramdam ka ng pangangailangang magbago ng iyong sarili? Ano ang ginawa mo noon? | What is a point in your life when you felt the need to change or evolve yourself? What did you do then?

• Para kanino at para saan ka nagiipon ng lakas ng loob ngayon? | Who and what are you mustering courage for at this time?

Hanggang sa susunod na liham o tambayan,
Jen Horn | @pagbubuo
Tagapagpadaloy, Ugnayan Cards