10.03.2021 - Of roads, plants, eating good food, and socializing
The day started with me not wanting to go with my parents. Ever since the pandemic began, I would think of the outside world as hell and nothing but a source of anxiety. Bad news have been popping out like mushrooms from left and right—reporting the worsening number of covid cases and worse the rising death toll.
Sometimes we'd all be so torn between keeping our sanity in tact by going out and staying home to avoid risking our health and safety. The whole pandemic has been filled with dilemmas, with abnormalities penetrating our systems—something that's never tested our endurance this bad. In short, this is something that we're all still adjusting to, yes even after two years in. And yes, we've all realized that as cliche as it may sound, "no man is an island".
Anyway, let's cut to the chase. So my October 3rd was spent with some close family friends—a couple dear to our hearts. Two seniors longing for some children and grandchildren love. We are not, in any way, related by blood but somehow, we found a community that slowly turned us into family. I won't drop names and show pictures of them but I just want to write about them as a sign of appreciation.
Yesterday was the second time we've visited them amid the pandemic. They've been suffering from intense longing which they've satisfied by inviting family friends over. Apparently, they have children but they're already busy with their respective family lives. But I've already learned so much about family from just the two visits we've made. Older people have deep sadness in their hearts, especially Filipinos (because we are known to be family-oriented), when their children forget about them. Imagine having a wonderful career and growing to be a smart-ass person you never thought you'd become but somehow forgetting about how you've climbed your way to the ladder of success. You've blossomed into a successful person—the one that's ideal and perfectly defined by the society. But the catch is, this is at the expense of the feelings of the people who molded your personality in your formative years.
I myself have been brought up being reminded of gratitude. I don't really owe my parents anything because they brought me into this world and such is associated with a responsibility—to provide me with food, clothing, shelter, and whatnot. But no matter how much we try to veer away from "utang na loob" culture(something that we've all gotten accustomed to), we should not cut ties with our parents or low-key never make time for them, at the very least. Apart from the financial provision, our parents inherited to us some principles and values that would help us in carving our own paths. To have a successful career in life may be about us making it, but we have to remind ourselves that we didn't do it alone. People have been behind us all along. We have to show and express gratitude by making time for these people whom we call our parents. Yes, our upbringing is their responsibility. But we owe it to ourselves to establish wonderful relationships with our parents, no matter what. An unfulfilled duty as a child to our parents will leave a huge and unreasonable void in one's heart—something that we will find strange and unidentifiable. Life is too short to not make time for them—the people behind our success (aside from God).
