I am blessed to have
born a child in the midst of summer. By default, her birthday celebrations are
summer celebrations. Picture this. The sun and the sand, the wind and the
water, the flowers abloom and every living thing seem to be at its finest
green. When you live in a tropical country like I do, you enjoy a
beautiful tapestry of colors, full and vivid because in the tropics, you
have the best of both worlds, a blessing of being in the midst. There is rain
when it is time to feed the greens, and there is a generous sun when it is time
to harvest the grains; the summer and the rainy seasons. In between, is a
friendly wind, to fly your childhood kite or sail your boat in a beautiful
regatta.
One summer of her birthday, when she was about thirteen, worn and tired of the usual kiddie birthday mascot-filled treats, my daughter Pia must have felt the same wanderlust as I do. She wanted to have a summer celebration outdoors. And I immediately said yes without reservations. I was half hoping that she meant going out of town. She was also half hoping I understood that she meant to go on an exciting road trip.
What excites you when you go on vacation trips? Mine starts on the moment of conception. My daydreams and my night dreams are all filled with the many questions, more than answers. Is it not heart-beating, blood-pumping when you know not what awaits you? Though the destination is mapped and the reservation is all set, the travail is yet to be experienced, discovered and learned. For me, that sets the measure of enjoyment.
We were set to go the southern stretch past the city, and enjoy the world renowned pristine diving waters of Batangas. To some, my destination may not sound grand, but to me, it is. In my forty years of life in this corner of the world, I have never enjoyed so much out of town travels. I wonder up to this moment why my ultra-urbanite parents are so contented with the hustle and bustle of city life. My childhood memoirs are of house to house parties and of non-stop mall shopping. Their city-centric comfort zone even more triggered my yearnings to go out and see and experience the sun and wind and the water and who knows, there could even be a lot more.
