And just like that, I'm 33

It's my Jesus year. Looking forward to an even more beautiful life.

I'm off to a week-long holiday next week, a birthday treat.

Here's my birthday song.

Hello, blog

It's been a while. But then again, it's been a while since I've had alone time and I've felt alone enough to just write in this space I've chosen to share with everyone and, well, no one in particular.

I wasn't feeling so good today and I decided to go to my new favorite sanctuary: the Padre Pio Shrine. To be specific, the St. Francis of Assisi prayer room.

I love two things about this place. First, the scent of fresh roses that greets you as you enter the chapel. Second, the fact that it has papers and pens in many places for you to scribble your prayer requests on. You drop your paper in transparent boxes and put it in the company of other people's prayers. When you leave, you take with you the comfort that your request is just there, in a place that is almost never bereft of prayers.

Today, I knelt in front of the altar and filled three sheets of paper with my prayer requests. I couldn't really pray, because my mind just would not be still. I kept thinking of my many concerns, resentments, how tired I was, how embarrassed, how angry, how stressed, how annoyed, how ... everything that was not and will never be my highest truth.

The act of writing it all down helped me find some sort of stillness.

Writing is like praying for me.

Hello, blog.

English Trainer Chronicles: Put to sleep

Learner: My journey today is not very good. I will go to the dentist in two hours.
Me: Why?
Learner: I have cavities.
Me: Oh. Sorry to hear that. How do you feel about going to the dentist?
Learner: It's not good, but it's okay. The dentist will sleep my tooth.
Me: Sorry, but that's not correct. The dentist can't sleep your tooth.

I introduce the expression "put to sleep."

Me: Now, please repeat.
Learner: The dentist will put my tooth to sleep.

We talk about how it's not really the tooth, but the nerves. And that the procedure is called a root canal.

Then I have the brilliant idea of introducing the other meaning of "put to sleep."

Me: Do you have a pet?
Learner: I had a cat.
Me: Well, you know when the cat is very, very sick and it won't be okay?
Learner: Yes. My cat was very, very sick. And now it's sleeping forever because it's die!
Me: (After correcting "It's die!") So, you put your cat to sleep.
Learner: I put my cat to sleep because it was very, very sick.
Me: Yes.
Learner: Yes.

Silence.

Learner: But for me, it's only the tooth?
Me: Yes.

English Trainer Chronicles: Guessing nothing

Learner: It's good to all time change of computers.
Me: You have to fix your sentence. It's good to ...?
Learner: It's good to change of computers ...
Me: No "of."
Learner: It's good to change about computers.
Me: Not "about." Change what? What do you change?
Learner: It's good to change on? To? For?
Me: Just say what you will change.
Learner: It's good to change ... computers?
Me: Exactly! Good!
Learner: No of? To? About?
Me: None.
Learner: Bah. It's hard to guess if there is nothing, no?

My happy Easter

My daddy was cremated on an Easter Sunday, with the blessings of a Christian pastor and a Catholic priest.

The Christian pastor was brought in by a friend of my mother, because we were having a hard time looking for an available priest for the funeral rites, and we already had had to extend the wake over Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Black Saturday because masses weren't being given on those days.

I don't remember who brought the Catholic priest. It could have been Tito Ron or Tita Patty (+), two of my mom's oldest friends. All I remember is that he arrived in time for the scheduled cremation, and there we had it, our funeral and Easter mass in one.

Of course, the Christian pastor and the Catholic priest did not miss the significance of the occasion, and both pointed out that the message of Easter was renewal--of hope, of life.

It was this spirit that ushered us into our new life without my father.

***

One of the last things I remember Daddy saying was, "I want a grandchild."

The grandchild came three years later and she was named Keona.

Tita Patty, who was clairvoyant, said my father was in the hospital with us, ecstatic at his first grandchild.

Two days ago, I was feeding Keona her lunch, and she was being as difficult as three-year-olds can be. Suddenly, she looked at me and asked, in all earnestness, "Auntie Dat, where's your daddy?"

It wasn't long ago that she refused to accept my mother was her mother's mommy. One day, Kai hugged Mommy and told Keona, "This is my mommy!"

Keona screamed, "No! That is Mamu!"

***

One of the first things I will remember Keona asking is, "Auntie Dat, where's your daddy?"

How fast these children grow, and how wise they become.

Daddy would have been so proud.

Actually, I'm sure he is.

***

New hope, new life. Happy Easter, everyone!