Blessings

The greatest blessing God has given me is my love for my parents.

- BUM D. TENORIO, JR.

The greatest blessing God has given me is my love for my parents. It is a covenant. For richer or for poorer — I love them just the same. In sickness or in health — I helped take care of them. Till death do us part — I still honor Cresencio Sr., 15 years after his passing, and Candida, two years after she left, by celebrating them, their memories, their legacy.

The legacy they left us with is not a lofty inheritance. They left us with moments and memories that are packed with lessons that have become our yardstick in life. To honor them means to do good in life so we can do good for others.

At 53, I still find myself amused by how they did things when they were still alive. How practically having nothing as a young couple did not deter them from putting food on the table even if it meant having the sun on their back for the backbreaking demands of farming.

My father was a tenant for decades. One day, his landlord sold the rice field and my father came home empty-handed from the sale. He accepted his fate and just told his sons that whatever he did not get, his children would get with their own sweat and hard work in time. He believed in finding peace in silence.

His death brought about an immense loss to our family. His passing means I had to think like him in making decisions that would need his input. When my father died, a stronger me was born. He remains my hero and, occasionally, I borrow his imaginary cape to make me fly.

One afternoon, while biking around the paved roads in the middle of the remaining rice fields in Gulod, I biked past the taklab of my childhood. It's a makeshift structure built around the mechanism used for irrigation. In my childhood, the