As Christmas nears
As Christmas nears, a quiet descends. The gifts are wrapped, waiting to be given. Now in this moment of calm we ask ourselves: what are we grateful for this Christmas?
I am grateful for being better, fully recovered now from my stroke four years ago. True, I am a different person now, maybe less passionate, but surely more peaceful. I am also more responsible now but willing to take bigger risks.
I am grateful that my children are all well and happy, grateful for my batch of handsome and lovely grandchildren, all of them normal. I am grateful for my wider circle of friends. God has been unusually kind to me this year. I hope He maintains His mercy.
Now it is time for me to make my own offering. You all know I give a course called the “Joy of Writing.” Once a year I give it at Punongbayan and Araullo. This year’s class was small but there was an outstanding poem written that I have been wanting to share. It is not a happy poem but I think it is suitable for Christmas.
The graduation piece of any class is a poem written about family — father, mother, brothers and sisters. Here is the one written by Irwin C. Nidea Jr. from their Tax Advisory Department.
Four Precious Jewels and a Golden Thread
There are four jewels
Molded by fire and braced by cold
Sealed by a thread of love and hope
That I treasure more than my life can hold.
The first stone left for Mars when I was four
It was a meteor bullet rough and strong
I remember asking my mother’s tears
Why my stone could not stay
Why was my father flying away?
A month after, his shadows I sought
And my mother started surrounding me with toys
Only my rich friend could afford
Hoping that I would be charmed
and be oblivious to the meteor stone that I want to keep.
But my heart refused and searched for fragments in the sky
For answers in the void that beseeched at my core
Every day I was waiting to hear his voice
Every day I was hoping for his return.
The silent eeriness continued for one long year
I amused myself with all the toys and gifts
that I was abundantly given and comforted myself
with my father’s letters that my mother read aloud.
My father arrived after a year and stayed with us
for a month or two. His presence brought joy to our home,
especially to my mother who had all but his time.
At least our family was complete, even for a while
For almost 30 years now, my father was either
testing the soil of Formula 1 racing tracks or
building tunnels and bullet trains for the Chinese
or testing the soil for desert oil.
He sacrificed not to see my first day in school
my first crush not even my first date
He did not see me, and my two sisters grow,
and it pains him, I know.
Every time he arrives, he wants to bring back
the time of our childhood and embrace us as toddlers,
it seems. We always return his hug never ashamed
to again be his little ones
I have two other precious stones
Two sisters whom I love dearly
They are both Maria Claras of the present time
They grew up praying and God fearing
The elder sister is the more interesting of the two,
A Pink Diamond they say. She is always compared
to her siblings and is always found wanting
But she strives and persists despite the odds
Fighting and searching for her happy place
My youngest sister is a gift to behold
The family’s favorite, simple and pure
A fragile crystal, mystic and free
who has an inner strength that even the blind can see
I am the fourth jewel, platinum that is
Always resilient despite the pummel of the waves
Extremely rare and stubbornly blunt
Always dreaming, dreaming, dreaming
My mother is the golden thread that binds us all
A role that she chose, a choice that defines her
She pulled all her strength to teach us our ABCs
And forced us to learn the multiplication table
when we could barely speak. She is happy being
with her children but she misses her husband
And the life that they could have had, had he not left
She has devoted her life to her children
Persisting to provide the growing needs of her family
in ways I cannot fathom
I think only mothers can understand
She never crumbles
Her tears are full of hope
She is the golden thread that holds us all together
And the light that illuminates my sisters’ and my blue sea
This is my family, precious jewels bound
by a thread of love and hope
We embark on this journey of life
With hands clasped tightly as one.
As Christmas draws near I want to share this poem with readers. This is written by the son of an overseas contract worker who missed him. It gives us an insight into what that situation might me, the family tensions it causes, the problems that might need attention as the time for the father’s return draws near. I think that this is worth thinking about after we think about the things that make us grateful.
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