Spirituality vs. Activism

             "We are not human beings on a spiritual journey, but spiritual beings on a human journey." –Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Jesuit priest and paleontologist
             It is always difficult to merge two lifestyles together, especially two in such strong opposition as spirituality and activism, but Christina Leano proves it can be done, and done well, in her essay Listening to the Voices of My Spiritual Self. The decisions Christina has made define the three points outlined in Chapter 13 for creating change: Using the Head, creating an explanation for what is wrong and what can be done; Using the Heart, envisioning social change through our spirituality and values, and Using the Hands- ACTING on the ideas you have gathered.
             At the start of her story, Christina is a woman who is pulled in many directions and is unsure which way to turn. She has voices from every aspect in her life speaking to her, from her self-defined "Filipino-ness", to her faithful Christian self, to her desire to make a difference in the lives of others. Each voice prods her in a new direction, and she strives to incorporate every angle of her life into the person she wants to become. She discovers her hunger for cultural awareness while in Kenya for a semester abroad. While amazed at the beautiful sights and the richness of Kenya's culture, she realized that the daily struggle in Kenya was "foreign, while at the same time strangely familiar". Christina understands that this familiarity stems from the one visit she took to the Philippines as a child. This realization became her ambition to explore her own heritage and discover cultural treasure that she is a part of. She discovered she knew very little about her roots, and began taking steps to change this. She decided to take action against the contamination of the Philippines by American militia, and says, "I could use my Filipino heart and my
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