Big Best Breakfast

Have you been treated to a blast of blessings all at once?

I was. And I asked myself, What did I do to deserve this? 

Amidst months of busy, busy days, over the weekend Tony and I traveled to the place where I grew up, bringing along with us my best cuzzin Minna who was visiting from New York after a long while.   

The landscape has changed, like it always does when I make those rare trips home.  The new highway cut our traveling time down to half; instead of lean-tos, new Manila-like shops lined the streets. The dirt bends and the trees of my youth have aged beyond recognition. 

Yet, the fervor of family get-togethers remained the same. My siblings and their spouses, who likewise all went home for this impromptu cuzzin-welcome, met us with warm how-wonderful-to-see-you-again hugs, coupled with digital clicks.

We had grand activities like visiting a mountain resort and kunol-kunol (translation: chats with disjointed sentences and laughter on any topic that comes to mind), but none more magnificent than the big best breakfast that extended up to lunch before we said our good-byes. 

My brother Dave and his wife, Gladys, live in a manor with an herb garden for a backyard. There we spent the night and in the morning, we were surprised by an all-natural breakfast, with a platter of omelets courtesy of their duck farm—prepared with TLC by the two of them.

“Eat, eat,” I ordered our special guest, Minna, who, like me, was dazed by the array of food.

“My heart is full,” she said, digging in. 

Grace is like that. It feels your heart, my heart, even if I didn’t do anything to deserve it.