Wonderfull Forever

Found in Alaminos City, Pangasinan in the Northern part of the Philippines (less than 4 hours from entry into NLEX), the Hundred Islands are said to be about 2 million years old.  They number 123 at high tide and 124 at low tide.

If you ask me, they’re actually way too pretty for their seeming state of being practically forgotten.

We spent a sunny day on this quiet little beach on one of these tiny islets.  This sunny day was a friendly window in between weeks of torrential rains.  I know that Bommy, Lover and Ocin —my children — will remember this day (or snippets capturing the spirit rather than the hard facts of it) as a day we had spent on a tiny, private beach.  Just playing.  Just digging a sand pit.  Just us.

I know that it’s not the tortuous, long and boring ride through the rain.  I know that it’s not the fact that they argued on their respective world views every other ten minutes.  I know it’s not even the fact that things had built up to where Ocin and Lover had started throwing sand into each other’s faces  apparently to drive home some point.  I know (hope) that they will remember dragonflies and fun times under the sun.

The Cape Bolinao Lighthouse, which was built in 1905, is about an hour away from the Hundred Islands.  Lighthouses such as this one required a great deal of attention and intense labor.  I thought that in the classic  days before automation and electricity, being a lighthouse keeper — in charge of the constant  replenishing of kerosene, cleaning the lens, winding the clockworks, and all the other essentials to guiding ships to maritime safety — must have been a truly awesome and important job.

I hope that when they grow up, and they find themselves gripped by thinking that the night is too dark and stormy, they will remember that there will always exist (though largely forgotten and perhaps neglected) real lighthouses not just in the chimera of their childhood but in this world.

“For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)

It’s always our self we find in the sea.”

— E.E. Cummings

How about you?

Do you ever stop to think of the small, quiet and beautiful beach where nothing else mattered but sunny days and dragonflies?

Do you  remember the lighthouse in your life (because no matter how scared or hopeless you may think you are, they are there)?

Thanks for stopping by!

See you again 😉

fcg