SORRY FOLKS, BUT I DID NOT CRY!

People who saw me dance with my newly-married daughter, Dr. Ma. Krista, last night expected me to shed tears as I bade goodbye to the little girl who has given meaning to my life.

I felt a lump in my throat as I kissed her forehead and told her that I loved her and that she will always be my baby girl.

But I held on to my tears.

I have long accepted the reality that my role as a father is to nurture my children through the love and care of my wife.

And when their time to fly comes, I have to let them go with a happy heart.

My inspiration is this poem written by Khalil Gibran.

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On Children

Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,

which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them,

but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children

as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,

and He bends you with His might

that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies,

so He loves also the bow that is stable.

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(photo caption: my bigger family)