Sundays...

I wake up to the morning rattle of household chores. Feet walking to the kitchen, hands trying to prepare food for breakfast, bathroom doors opening and closing, and the television turning on to kids' cartoons. The family is preparing to go to church! I get woken up by my cousin telling me it's time for church. I wake up, and try to get to making coffee, when I decide instead I feel like going to the bathroom (wait, actually, it was my body who decided for me). But when I get to the door, somebody else beat me to it. So I wait in line, until when I checked again, another person beat me to it! So then I announce to everybody I want to go next, so whoever would use the shower must wait after the other bathroom errands get taken cared of!!! Grrrr!

But despite the morning wake up call, I do not mind it at all. My Sunday experiences bring me back to a time of happiness. A dozen people living in a townhouse (when we initially migrated in the US) with only one bathroom to share! Folks are crammed up into the small living space and trying to make use of whatever we got. And only one television then, which of course my grandmother get first dibs watching filipino tv. But despite the lack of resources as compared to others, it was a time of sweet harmony, with a lot of love, a lot of sharing. Jokes naturally pop up in conversations, and tricksters like me would come up with whatever pops up in my head. Help comes natural. Moments endlessly sprout. I could never forget that time in my life, and I will always cherish and remember that time with fondness. It is in this time that my grandmother is immortalized in my mind, who has been the centerpoint and origin of our family's love. There is a Filipino saying that my grandmother always says, "Aanhin mo ba ang isang mansyon kung hindi naman ito tahanan?" (What good is a mansion if it cannot be called a home?)

And so this is my home. Friends always joke me about being unavailable on the weekends cause I'm always with my family. But it is this family that surely feeds my heart, and continues to do so. They have been there for me especially in the darkest moments of my life, especially my only brother (I think he's the only one, hehe!!!), and I will always be thankful for this all my life.