i usually don't have dinner at home. most of the time (perhaps always), i stay at the office even if i really wanted to go home and have a taste of my mom's excellent cooking. one reason is because B and i eat dinner earlier than most people. i don't know about others but B has a theory that thinking a lot makes one get hungry faster than normal and i agree with him. developing software applications all day probably consumes almost all of our brain cells that's why when the clock strikes 6, hunger pangs already attack. also, having dinner at home means i won't be able to resist having too much food prepared by my fave cook. it surely doesn't help me lose weight, er correction, lose flabs which i'm trying to do all month.
my mom asked me to go home early one time last week coz she prepared a special post-valentine dinner for the family. i arrived just in time to see her placing rice wrapped in banana leaves to resemble a puso ng saging. she actually got this idea from gerry's grill's adobong puso and decided to do it at home in time for heart's day.
heart shaped rice, bbq chops and buttered veggies
as i sat there eating and talking nonstop with the family, i can't help but think of how mom loves us so much. sure she may have deeply hurt me emotionally and physically before which caused me to have inferiority complex during my childhood. i may have disagreed with her a lot and misunderstood all of her actions but i know that the way she raised me up made me the better person that i am today.
then a sudden memory of a valentine's past flashed through my mind. it was during the lowest days of our family's life between the years 1991-93. being a housewife ever since she got married, she got a job as an operator in a garments factory at EPZA cavite to help with the family finances. when i got home from school, i saw a heart-shaped candy with a paper underneath it which is a letter from her apologizing for the only gift she can give us for valentine. i cried while reading the letter. i cried at the thought that even if i hated her that time, she still tries to reach to us and let us know that she loves us so much. i also cried thinking of her situation as a factory worker just for us to have something to eat. the next day she got home from work early looking sick and haggard. she collapsed on the job and resigned coz of the unbearable work load. tsk tsk, what parents would do for their children.
it got me thinking that the heart-shaped rice on our plates is not only a decoration to celebrate valentine's day. it's a symbol of mom giving her whole heart to all of us.
0 comments:
Post a Comment