My parents’ reward

I received a good news from my mom the other day.  She told me that our family won a “model family” award in our small town in the Philippines. 

Whatever that means, it’s something that gladdens our hearts and I’m happy that my parents are getting recognized for their efforts in nurturing a family.   

What made us win? I can only guess.  I made it clear in the profile we submitted earlier that our family was never a perfect one.  I suspect that this admission helped us win.   

A step to self-confidence

Whatever amount of confidence I have now is hugely a product of my “training” on top of a staircase when I was about four years old.   

On that platform of the small house where I grew up, my parents showered me all the praises a little girl needs to develop a positive self-image.  They poured unto me their unconditional love while also training me to become brave and be ready to face criticisms from others.   

Almost every evening just before bedtime, my parents would host a short entertainment program for the family with the platform as the “stage”. 

Villains are real

Whether fiction or based on a true story, every movie has a conflict represented as villains - man or nature.

In reality, our villains come in many forms, sometimes even much bigger than we think we can handle, attacking us from any direction.  Our villain can be a neighbor who persters us with his irritating noise in the middle of every night, a friend who betrayed us, a boss who loves to humiliate us in front of people, an illness, a typhoon that wrecks our house, or ourselves at times when we cannot rise above our fears and anxieties and allow these to linger until they leave us brokenhearted and miserable.

For my three-year-old daughter, however, this is probably difficult to grasp, even in its simplest form.  Usually, a child’s world is filled with anything colorful, soft, nice, sweet, musical, and beautiful.  Yet as he grows up, he learns about the painful reality of this world – that indeed, there are villains and that one cannot stay forever in his cocoon for comfort.  There is a big world out there to explore and along with it are villains that can bring out either the best or the worst in us.

Hot sunny days at last

These days, we’re expecting hot and cold weathers to alternately confuse our bodies and threatening to make us sick.  Winter will soon be over in this part of Brazil.

I feel literally lighter these days having stripped off some layers of sweaters.  I have somehow became comfortable with the bulkiness of winter clothing that wearing cotton and thin fabrics offer some physical relief. 

Exploring Uruguay’s northern edge

The trip to Jaguarao the other day was quite long and tiring yet it was certainly a treat.  It was an easy, perfect day for a long drive and for us not to accept our friends’ invitation to join them on a trip to the Brazil-Uruguay border would surely be a missed opportunity.

It was a beautiful day – sunny clear skies, warm but not irritating, breezy but not cold.  The long drive along that road lined with boundless ranches allowed us to rest our eyes on the green velvety grasses while enjoying and appreciating some Brazilian samba music.  The best thing though was just being with Luis and Silvi again after quite some time.