celebrating nanay

Every beetle is a gazelle in the eyes of its mother.  ~Moorish Proverb

(i liked it obviously because of the mention of the gazelle, but moreso because i simply agree. 

moms exaggerate. moms overestimate.ü)

i thank God for mothers. 

just imagine how they consciously gave up their figures to bear a human life inside them. waistlines expand to i don’t know how much. the discomfort of carrying around a bulging stomach for 9 loooong months. the unimaginable labor pain they had to go through just so that cute little thing will be able to see the world, and later on experience it's beauty and madness. and the never-ending distinct role they play to their little ones' lives.

i thank God for nanay. 

at a tender age of 21, with ate, she marked her journey to motherhood. then i came around right before she mastered the motherhood tricks, sooner than she expected, sometime in her 22^{nd year}. 

i’ll be turning 24 this year, and it still blows my mind away everytime i think about how young nanay was when she had ate and me. she was at the prime of her youth when she had to learn what it is to become selfless, to have her life no longer her own, but a life owned by some little girls. in spite and despite of my oldtime “tampo” and a couple of stale “sama ng loob”, no matter how many sweet good moms i bump into, no matter how different our views, personalities and life strategies are, eventhough what i have is a love-hate relationship with her, i honestly say, cliché as it may be, i wouldn’t exchange her for anyone else.

i don't have a perfect mom, and it's just fit and fair because i'm not a perfect daughter either.

lucky for me though, i have the best! (even if i am not the best, myself.)

and today i celebrate her beauty and madness (just like the world she allowed me to see, experience and explore).