September Seventeen

It’s my favorite date of the year – maybe next to Christmas. It’s my day. And there are three things the kid in me used to look forward to (the most) each time – my grandparents’ and aunt’s birthday cards from the mail (with a dollar slipped inside), my father’s text (in all caps – HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANAK! LOVE, PAPA AND MAMA), and my mom’s phone call.

Mama would call me up as soon as I get home from church. She knows I go to the 6am mass, and that I’m home on a birthday leave. And just hearing her voice comforts me and reminds me of how thankful I am for being their daughter, and for having my siblings whom I love so much.

Usually I’m alone at this time of the day, without my three CAEs...enjoying my "ME" time, having breakfast, replying to Facebook, Twitter, Viber and SMS greetings. I would count my blessings, grateful for each and every item on my list, and yes, write my birthday blog – the one you’re reading now.

There are many things to be thankful for. But I have always written about them every year, enumerating them one by one. This time though, I want to list them down in silence, for they are best left in the place where it matters most - my heart.

Even if a lot of good things have happened to me, I have always believed that better things are yet to come. "Hope is a good thing. And maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."

I am 44. Thank You Lord. My prayers may often go unanswered but You gave me more than enough, and You gave me so much more. More than I have ever hoped for. More than I deserve.

~TheGoodGirl