Thank you for sharing your time with me this special moment of my life. Today is my first time ever to celebrate this occasion. Today being my birthday for which I have not and intentionally did not celebrated for the past 50 years for reasons melancholical for me to express. But having lived a good life after all; Having gotten perhaps most of the things that I needed and wanted in life.....it has been a happy life. And there's so much to be thankful of. I still have some dreams though that I wish to achieve. But regardless....... Today, on my 51st birthday anything disappointing of my expectation is immaterial. Now is the time to say THANK YOU in the truest sense of it.
Thank you tatay. Though you are not around anymore. I know I
did not fail you and in fact you were proud being my father. You were my first
fan. And I am equally proud of you being my mentor.
To nanay for your
unending patience on me. You were my exact opposite in many ways. But whenever
I asked help from you to do things for me.....you never questioned it.
Thank you ate for
your surrendering laughter. It reminded me that failures in life are just
punchlines to laugh about. It then motivated me to rise up and face life's
battle and start over, fresh and vigorous.
Thank you Cocoy for
appreciating me as your kuya. Though you seldom ask help from me, you treated
me as the next father to your children. Recognized and respected by your
children the same way they admire you as a father.
Thank you most of all
to Debbie, my wife. You may not know it and may not believe but really you
are my life. You are the very reason why I should be living. I am happy when
you are and grieve when you feel lonely. You listened to me all the time.
You are the person whom I always wish to come home to and tell my crazy
experiences and laugh or even cry at them. During my loneliest and darkest
moments, you compel me to smile and cut short my anguish then motivate me to
stand over them and be a winner that I dreamt of me to be. You are more than a
gift a man could ask from God for a wife. A gift I could not ask for anything
anymore.
To my relatives who
never turned my back at me, you know who you are. Thank you for the wonderful
memories of our youth. I felt genuine happiness with you. I sometimes wish if
we could still do such crazy things as before. It was madness when we are all
together and I thank you for that!
To my friends from
way before and friends from today too many of you to mention. You are the
numerous paints I have put on my palette. I have chosen you to become part of
my canvass. My life's work of art. as being drawn on a canvass and still
becoming colorful because of you. Be it pastel, kayong mga burgis, be it water
color, kayong mga struggling for success, or be it in oil kayong mga sulit na
sa buhay at meron nang ibang prayoridad, o kahit charcoal sketch lang....mga
kasamahan kong putik na malayang hinaharap ang buhay sa kabila ng kawalan.
Salamat, ipinadama nyo sa akin kung sino ako. Mas naintindihan ko ang buhay
dahil sa inyo.
Sa mga hindi ko pa
nakikilala nang personal ngunit kinikilala o pinaniniwalaan ako sa mga desisyon
ko. Salamat. Sa mga taong umaasa na pumalya ako sa mga gawain ko, nagigiliw na
makita akong nahihirapan...salamat po. Kayo ang naging compelling reason kung bakit
nagpilit akong pagtagumpayan ang bawat larangang hinarap ko. Upang ipakita sa
inyo na nasa katuwiran ako at kaya ko. Sa huli ang tanging nais ko ay
unawain o maunawaan lamang. Na ako'y pangkaraniwang tao din sa kabila ng mga
iniisip at kinagigiliwan. Gusto lang magbahagi ng ibang anyo kung paano
isabuhay ang mga bagay na hindi ninyo nakagawiang alamin o tangkilikin.
To all of you, my
heartfelt thanks.
And for those of you
whom in one way or the other somehow I did wrong or broke your heart. Please
consider my sincerest apology and release me from that guilt so we may now move
on with our lives with no burden or unwanted baggages. Forgive me please.
Yes at 51 I realized
I have neglected some important things that I should have done then but I did not
put much emphasis on. Today, as I lucidly reminded myself, though it is a
little late somehow I still thank the Lord for the que. I wish those things though trivial this time can still
stay inside me during this lifetime.
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| SPOKEN WORD POETRY |
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| VISUAL ARTS |
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| VIOLIN VIRTUOSO |
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| WORRY-FREE TOMORROW |
