Father's Day

Yesterday,  the people of the Land Down under celebrated its Father's day. Australia and NZ has set up a different day to remember all fathers as against other countries in the world, and it is usually the first sunday of September.

Anyway, nothing much happened at home for me...yet everything I've always desired to be on a Father's day have come to pass. Joy my wife, has fashioned out two delicious cakes for me and the family. All my children woke up early than usual on a weekend (8 am instead of 11 am) and over breakfast swapped and bantered humorous stories, jokes and whatever Comedy Channel can come up with...they had a version. The gags  stretched till lunctime in the midst of weekend household cleaning chores and child-minding. The noise in the house reverbated with boisteroous laughter and frenzied exchange of hilarious stories and tales from the family's past and future expectations.

Because of the early and hyperactive activity we had that morning, all of us had a quiet and peaceful nap in the afternoon. After peeking into each of my childrens room and saw all of them soundly asleep - the silence and solitude of our home and a gentle breeze of cool air in a late and warm afternoon somehow overwhelmed me with peace and serenity I haven't felt for a while. During that still moment I prayed and thanked God for this wonderful blessing of life and family. 

I wouldn't exchange that few minutes of heavenly peace, silence and serenity I felt with any promotions, material wealth, recognition or any worldly lure of this world. I have what many people in the world didn't have - a  wonderful wife, a warm and adoring children - a family that defines LOVE as both a subject and a predicate.

My family gifted me yesterday with things without having spent a single cent...Joy cooked me my favorite food, Arvic hugged me when I woke up, Joylene scripted a comic style card with anecdotes, Lorenz gave me a handwritten card, May tried her best to shut her mouth up, the two little ones gave me their best smiles and lastly, Leanne, wrote me a letter that made me misty-eyed for few minutes...read on...

Dear Dad,  

      I am sitting here tonight with my laptop; contemplating on ways on how I can express my heartfelt gratitude to you as being the world’s number one dad as best as I can. As much as I want to buy you that coffee machine you always adore or another gizmo gadget containing how many God knows what gigabytes; I’m currently unemployed and only have few pennies in my pocket. Yet it doesn’t mean that I could not express my deep gratitude for you. After all, I know you’d rather opt to choose Lorenz’s handwritten card that he would painstakingly draw for you than gushing over a new coffee machine. So I guess my Father’s Day gift for 2008 would be through this prose coming from the deep recesses of my heart and memories.

      For eighteen years; I have seen different types of dads everywhere and I can tell you; no one would ever equate or be better as you. You gave up your youth; you gave up your idealistic dreams and goals for yourself and decided to take on the responsibility to be the father of my mummy’s child. I can tell you now, that it was a brave decision for you to do it. Mum always told me that it was a mistake for both of you to settle together way too early. Yet she always stresses that you have tried your best to stand firm on your decision and continue to fight on even when the tides of hardships and struggles would try to sweep you away. You always reassure us that everything will be fine and you have everything under control. I truly salute you for that and I am forever indebted.

      But Dad, for the last few years; I am starting to see the struggles beyond the creases of your forehead and I realise that you too can be futile and weak at times. Your strength and courage sometimes makes me forget that you are still human too and you have flaws; frustrations and weaknesses too. Sometimes, I shake my head and try to tolerate your moods; your obsessive penchants over time and punctuality and your high levels of stress. I can understand that for it is not easy to handle seven kids with distinctive personalities. It is not easy for you to be a breadwinner of eight people living in a foreign land; away from your parents and the rest of your family. Yet despite of your flaws; you seemed to look perfect and in control most of the times. You try to correct your errs; improve on your skills; mend broken pieces as possible; putting up our own flaws and misdemeanours and try to be patient. Slowly I realise that being a dad for seven kids is very arduous. Yet you strive to be the best dad by providing us the best of many worlds to us. Whenever I feel down and feeling lost at sea; I would stop and think about you and mum.  Both of you have sacrificed and endured a lot of painful realities of life that I would never experience in my own lifetime. I am truly thankful for that for eternity. 532 words is not enough for me to express my heartfelt appreciation for all the things you have done for me in the last eighteen years. I hope this piece of letter would still remind you that I love you dad and no one can replace that love and inspiration; regardless of how much salary I would earn in the future or how many boyfriends I would have.( heheheh) You’re still my number one man. 

HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE LOVE YOU NO MATTER WHAT!!