Thank You

I just want to thank all the people that still drop here from time to time and read my meager posts that only get updated weekly(barely). Thanks also for all the kind and understanding comments about my last post. It was greatly appreciated.

Tomorrow is Jean's birthday. so I just want to greet my wife a very happy birthday. When she does something nice I always say thank you, and for her birthday, though I can never thank her enough for all the wonderful things her presence brought into my life, and words are never enough to describe the full extent of feeling one feels, I just want to say thank you once again.

Thank you because you taught me that couples should learn the art of battle as they should learn the art of making love. Because good battle is objective and honest - never vicious or cruel. The same way that when we clash principles and ideas, it is healthy and constructive, and brings to our marriage the principle of equal partnership.

Thank you for making believe that marriage is not when the 'perfect couple' comes together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences.It's not about soul mates reflecting each other's talents, wants and interests; but about two people who even are so different in ways and backgrounds, yet complimenting each other, mutually making a better person from each other.

For sacrificing your own career just to be with me and personally mold Fergus as he grow, and gladly doing it.

For not leading, but holding me side by side along the way.

For continually inspiring me, and pushing me to do the things i wanted to do in my life, to follow my dreams however crazy or outrageous they may be.

For just being there... When everybody's not.

(I'm posting this now because I won't be around tomorrow till the weekend. I promised the missus I'm taking her and Fergus somewhere in the region).

Final Bow

Being moved is a very complex feeling. It triggers something in us that touches our very soul and affects our very lives. Most of the time it elicit tears, goosebumps, and even made us to break down and cry. It makes us sigh, reflect, and it even inspires. It's like being touched by the hand of God.

You're maybe thinking what caused me to say about this things. Well, around two weeks ago I received a call from my mother that my 95 year old grandmother died. Though I know it was inevitable, knowing her age and all of that, I still cannot believe the news. And I felt pain that I've never known or felt for a very long time. It's harrowing, it's excruciating that I cannot describe it in words.

This is not the first time I talked about my grandmother. I posted one before HERE.

I wanted to post about it here before, but I just cannot get my hand to type the right words. I know some of you may not feel as attached to your grandparents the way you are attached to your parents or siblings. Not me. I grew up with my grandmother living next to us. And I learned so many things from her. She has this gift of knowing the right things to say at the right time. I don't know if it's wisdom accumulated through lifetime of hardship and tests, but she always has good things to say even in times when nothing seems to go right. She was a mediator for quarelling husbands and wives, an adviser to many people in our place, and always the one people go when they need spiritual(more of a soulful things, and less religious) assistance and guidance. I sometimes thought that people abused her kindness. And I used to see my gandfather make a fuzz about it. But ever the cariñosa, she always had things her way.

I remember how kids in our place would gather in my lola's small veranda every weekend to hear her stories. Even grown ups wanted to hear them because her stories were always animated and she never let you go home without something to lean from it.

These things, together with so many other memories flashed back to me upon learning of her death.

A week ago she was finally laid to rest beside my grandfather's tomb. They said you can sum up a person's life by knowing the support you get when you die. and I guess it's true. For my lola was never lonely when my parents and sibling laid her to grave. So many people has given support and the parish church that hosted her final tribute was never enough for all the relatives and people that came to give their final respect. And this kind of things move me. To know that my grandmother has touched so many lives is a feat I myself knew cannot surpass.

I wasn't there. I never wanted to. I didn't want to see my grandmother in a casket-- cold and lifeless. That would be too much for me. I want to remember her the way she was when I last saw her-- contented, smiling, and ready for everything.

A few years from now, people will not even remember how she died... But even how I know, they'll remember how she lived.

Off to School

First Day of School Moments. He's brave. While most of the kids has to wail their lungs out crying and has to be dragged inside the classroom, he quitely entered the new environment with a smile, never shedding a single tear of fear.

New Year Out of the Box

It's New Year. And I have so much to thank God for. Each year has always been a wealth of experience for me, though not all of it good. But I'm rejuvenated nonetheless. i've had that breather of a short vacation, I got to spend more time with my family and I've had a bit of a chance to give help to people who were dear to me.

This morning I woke up earlier because a new chapter in my life unfolds. My 3-year old kid goes to school for the first time. Jean and I were so excited so we prepared everything last night. We wanted to make Fergus' first trip to the learning realm as memorable as can be. I think anyone of you who have kids can relate to this.

Many of us too are making New Year's Resolutions. While some may succeed to these goals, most may find it difficult living out to these self-pledge, and as a result get frustrated. Like Me. So now I knew better. Instead of setting goals to myself for a year, I just set goals a week at a time.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, everybody. I just wish you plenty of HOPE. For hope keeps us going. No aspirations-- however shallow or achievable it may be-- can be accomplished without it.

So here's into another twelve months of Roller Coaster ride. Hang on. Grip tight. For we're sure to be having a crazy ride... and it's going to be a blast.