Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Yesterday was a special Sunday for me. I spent the entire day at my hometown Malaybalay. Well, it was Father’s Day then, and I wouldn’t let that weekend pass by without sparing a bonding session with the most important man in my life… my dad! We just had a simple celebration. Me and my sis created a “handmade” card for Dad. Some kind of a kid’s card ‘coz we just used pencils and crayons for the design, hehe! But the message etched inside the card was so special, me and my sis had glimpsed our dad kept on rereading those lines every now and then, hehe! Little as it may seem, but we knew deep in our hearts, our simple but profound message had touched Dad’s heart.

While I was on the bus, leaving my hometown and taking aboard back to CDO, I spent some quiet time thinking about my dad, who almost had missed the chance of pursuing college but had really worked on his own and was experiencing so much hardship just to finish college, who taught me my first ABC and eventually shared his antique typewriter and trained me to be a pro on the "keys" at an early age of 6, who shared wonderful stories with me and my sis amidst his stressful hours after work (“The Monkey and the Tortoise” was the first story he had ever shared and it became my favorite story, I wouldn't get bored no matter how many times he would repeat narrating as it was my most requested one, hehe!), who had a very wonderful voice and would put his guitar in my hands when I was a little girl and insisted that I sing as well (we had our music bonding session recorded on that so old cassette tape then, hehe!), who played chess with me when I was a kid (and taught me the 3-move tactic for check mate, ahhaa!), who would drag me and my sis along with him for a nature tripping at Sawaga River which paved way to my being a nature tripper myself, who loves pets the same way as I do, who would tag me along when he and Mom had household prayer meetings (and so I came to be acquainted with those prayers and worship songs at an early age of 4. I can't forget the first Charismatic song that I've memorized, "The Spirit of the Lord" and my dad would always remind me to pronounce the word "is" as "izzz", so I had sing it out loud: "the spirit of the Lord izzz now upon me..." hehe!), who once spanked me with that awful leather belt to remind me that I was absolutely wrong and had to hug me afterwards knowing that he loves me still despite my being so stubborn, who always stressed the importance of education, who became the person I would consult about important issues when I became an adult, and who has always been there for me through these years...

Words are not enough to thank my dad for all the great things he has done for me (and my mom and my sis). For me, the best dad there could ever be is the kind of dad he is to us.

Happy Father's Day, Papang!