Got a new pair of shoes from the US that leveled up my style -thanks to @hermiemorelos and @rengdavidmorelos. Count that.
Paid Nikkei’s tuition fees for her final term this school year. She studies in a uni whose ego is bigger than its campus. Count that.
Been able do some good laps in a 52m-long pool in a HK hotel. I still can! Count that, too.
Healthy family. Check that!
I could go on and on counting the blessings to append to this list but you’ll get bored. And so before you do, I’ll stop with this intro. Read on…
1. The Word.
Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, He will give it to you in My Name. John16:23
I can’t recall exactly the homily of Fr. Michael Sloboda, the asst. parish priest of the Rosary Church in Hong Kong in the mass I attended on May 7 in reference to this verse in the gospel but it went something to this effect: The devil doesn’t come dressed in a red cape and pointy horns. He comes as everything you’ve ever wished for. Pray for wisdom and discernment.
For me, this is another reason why I pray what I pray for every time especially during mass (see my earlier post The Seed).
2. #PhilamMadDash4HK.
In my last month’s top 10, I wrote about blessings that come even if you don’t ask for them. This is one of them. One day I was so concerned about what to eat during lunch when a call from Austin, my Unit Manager in PhilamLife where I moonlight as a Financial Advisor came. He asked if I was free around first week of May for a HK trip. At what cost, I asked? None, he answered. I told him no. I haven’t had lunch yet. Of course I said yes. Anything I did to deserve it? Hmmm, let me think about this.
Thinking…
None. Pure unadulterated blessing.
Or maybe the effect of counting your blessings?
3. My Lady’s Happy Mother’s Birthday.
Truth to be told: I suck at choosing gifts especially for Rissa knowing that she already has everything: me. Immediately, almost instantaneously, I had second thoughts about that. So I bought her and my son Andre tickets to HK where birthday gifts are cheaper. I’m practical, you see.
It just so happened that the #PhilamMadDash4HK trip was within the week of my wife’s birthday and Mother’s day. And since my family loves to travel and Nikkei is going to Korea with her cousin anyway, I told my wife and my son Andre to follow me in HK. There we celebrated with a dinner in one of HK’s Michelin-starred restos -Andre’s birthday treat for mom. So what birthday gift i finally bought the wife? A return ticket to Manila. I found out gifts were much cheaper back home.
4. Nikkei Goes to Korea.
This was long time in the making. In terms of number of episodes of Korean telenovelas, about 5 seasons. They started with 99 of our relatives and their friends, planning, scheduling, bursting with excitement. The thrill was so real the neighbors could touch it. By the end of the 5th season, they were down to two: Nikkei and cousin Shannen. Same thrill. Same excitement. But like a battery, down by 97%. And while they were there, and we were in HK, mom and daughter kept their arguments online via viber and facetime as to which color and style must she buy. Girls. IKR?!
5. Elections.
Peaceful, maybe. Honest, maybe. But this one has divided us most, I think. Am just glad that it’s over. Or so I thought. Many Facebook posts still offer arguments to prove or disprove a point or two. People chose to believe in one standpoint and totally stopped believing in others’ including those of the experts. They post positives and they post negatives hoping to gain influence over the opinions of their online friends but they only widen the divide that separates them.
My prayer is that God gives us the leaders that are best for us, not the leaders that we deserve.
6. #SMTreceMartires.
Another month, another mall. SM’s success is our success. Or so I’d like to believe. SM Group is probably one of the biggest employers in the Philippines.’Though me and my #toespin lighting design team are not directly employed, we celebrate its success as its lighting consultants. Every time I see a new mall opens, I see the work of our hands shining brightly.
7. Financial Blessings.
No less than P99 million pesos. Yup, in my dreams. The real thing comes every now and then, though. It just isn’t fair not to give it a spot in this list. Sure, I recognize that bigger blessings come after -how every peso is spent or used or given, but a peso is a peso is a blessing.
8. Rain.
Back in the days when black and white was black and white and when pimples and circumcision were still far from my mind, I’d watch rain fall from our el balcón and daydream. Dream about the future when I’d watch rain fall and bring back to mind these days of innocence.
Back to the present days in a country where summer noon time starts promptly at 8:00am, rain is a rare commodity between the months of March and May. The Church recently issued an Oratio Imperata for rain and rain it did. As it magically did its thing before, this rain brought me back to those Royco noodle soup days. It's daydreaming time again.
9. Family Meal Chats.
They bring out the best of moods in everyone. Fave subjects are travel stories like when Nikkei ran to an MTR train and the doors closed on the rest of us. Or our first taste of xiao long bao in the place where it supposed to have originated. Or comparing each one’s best (and worst) day in a particular place. Many times, too, we compare our college life (sans cellphones, internet and trains) with our kids’. And do you know that as of this writing, we’re only halfway through our Down Under spin stories? Family time. Love, love, love!
10. Benjie.
I thought stories of death of a loved one working abroad are just seen on TV or heard of from someone else. And when you do hear about it, you take it for granted. You can only pray it doesn’t happen to you. But when it does, it’s nightmare right before your very eyes.
Benjamin, my bro-in-law, arrived home for the last time to be buried beside his parents grave. He never recovered from a massive stroke while resting in his flat in Saudi. His last visit was to attend to his daughter’s graduation, the last of three graduations that he made sure he’d attend if only to see the fruits of all his sacrifice working away from his loved ones. Little did we know, that was the last time we’ll see him alive. I still couldn’t wrap my head around this grim reality that Benjie is gone. He is terribly missed.
