beyond my wildest dream

it was yesterday morning. i found myself smiling while strolling along the newly re-landscaped rosario's path, that leads to the heart of la huerta. i cannot help admiring how fast inggay and my don bosco students learned of how i wanted the path to look and feel like, worked and planted and arranged my irises and caladiums. . . and yesterday morning, i found myself smiling while moseying along the newly re-landscaped rosario's path.

it is a short, winding and meandering plumeria-lined trail (contrary to the banal, trite, prosaic and cliched 'matuwid na daan', i purposely had this 'daan' crooked, just to state my case. bwahahaha!). the flat stone leaf-shaped steps have not been installed, they will soon be, so i found myself leisurely walking on the soft and rich dark earth of the promenade. it felt totally glorious, to realize that i have conquered this part of heaven, at least, that is how i look at it.

my arms were outstretched, to reach for the verdant leaves, beckoning for my avian friends to perch on them. and oh, the things i heard! softened by the coolness of the morning farm air, i could hear children and a dog playing in the distance, the birds were singing their early morning tunes, an invitation to their flights! my senses were heightened as if i had finally come into harmony with the universe. each movement, each thought found its place in the tapestry that was being woven on that day, right before my very eyes, and it was still early in the morning.

i am pleased to say, that my gift from that experience, is the gift of being at total peace and the contentment in the moment.

and as i am busy pounding on my lappy's keys right this very moment, i still asked myself what to be grateful for, today. and it dawned on me that a better question stands: is there anything that i should not be grateful for? for even in the moments that are not as peaceful as yesterday morning's, they are a gift, for i cannot know peace and contentment and joy without the occasional absence of those things.

so this is the gift:
13. the present. and the ability to revel in it.

and then i heard it: pssssst, pssssst. . . i turned my head, afraid to see who is not there. . . but i did. . . and i saw joy! (and that is another gift entry for the morrow. bwahahaha!)