I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness-- Jeremiah 3:3

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

HERE'S TO DREAMS




A cake and a birthday candle--this is all what constitutes a little girl's dream. Indulge me in this thing they call dream. When I was small, I had the simplest of dreams I could ever remember. I saved up for that dream. All my allowances that a 10-year-old could gather had to go to a certain little nook a grader could muster as her piggy bank.

Then on the day before I turned 10, I rushed to Best Buy Mart and grabbed the three-sisters pink pop-sleeved dress off the rack. It cost a million to me. Well, actually, P85.95 to be exact. And in the early 1980s a decent dress can cost 29 to 50 pesos and it was worth the buy, which tells you the dress I kept dreaming for weeks was a high-end of sort. The lace, the fabric, the design, everything. The dress was with me for more than 10 years or so and it has kept its crisp and charm that I fell in love with the first time it caught my eyes.

But I have forgotten the thrill of that experience long time ago. I had bought and tasted many preposterously costly things in this vain adult world. Ironically, none of these big things can even match that exhilarating moment I had when I was 10. That was the time I realized that breathing is synonymous to living. I ran short of it when I finally walked to "who knows where" with that dress on. I want to go back there. That moment where almost everything around me was a wonder.

Then I saw that same look in my daughter's eyes. The birthday cake was 1,500 all right, too costly for a public teacher. But I took the courage to shake heaven and hell to find the sum to complete the 1,500 for that cake. Believe me, the road to getting the money with cashless ATM at a day where salary is two weeks yet, is an uphill climb. But the glee in the eyes of my toddler would make me go the same trouble again and again. It was magical. Right at that moment, nobody knew I was happier more than that 3-year-old little girl.

I was transported back to the time I was 10 years old in that crisp pink dress.

No comments:

Post a Comment