A Daughter’s Story

I used to hate my mom when I was little.

One of them was about our former neighbor (almost the same age as mine) who taunted me and made me wet using their hose. Another instance was when my younger sibling and I got into petty quarrels and I would tell her to scold him. But it turned out that I am reprimanded instead!

Only a couple of years have passed my hatred towards my mom moved to a 360 degree turn.

I got influenced by a good friend and former elementary classmate of mine who is really close with her mom. I never imagined that time will come I can also develop closeness with my mother as well whom my siblings and I fondly call our Mama.

I started thinking differently. Instead of bursting into negative emotions when she’s angered about silly mistakes, I would try to calm myself first. Then I will make the situation lighter by putting humor out of it to have a more positive environment. At times both of us would just find ourselves laughing them off.

What I especially like about our relationship as mother and daughter is that it also developed into friendship. We would hang out in a mall and watch the latest movie being shown in local cinemas.

There’s never a day that I would want to chit-chat with my mom about everything we like to talk about from the movies we watched, foreign and local popular celebrities alike, and even sharing life lessons which I greatly treasure. And I believe the things I learned from her also helped me become a stronger person every day.

We may have personality differences at times, still I am grateful for having a mom like her who never fails to reassure me that everything will be alright despite feelings of disappointments and failures from the past.

My mom is definitely not only a mother to me but my very best friend, my prayer warrior, and most of all my best encouragement booster. I also hope to treat her for an out of the country travel trip where we can bond more!

What I Learned about Love

Frankly, I literally sang postaday’s latest title post which is also the same title of a popular ballad song I am familiar with.

Sometimes I still ask myself what really love is! As I was growing up I observe how love is demonstrated in our family especially the way my parents treat us at home.

I’m blessed to have parents who are very supportive in our personal endeavors. There were a couple of times I wanted to tell them not to allow me to go out very late with friends when I inform them beforehand about my trip.

And then I will also hear from other friends that their parents are very strict on them. They have curfews and ironically I wondered why my parents do not impose that to us.

I also like that I am strengthening my relationship with my family from my parents to my brother-siblings.

Just like in a group of friends, there is a possibility that I will have one or two closest friends whom I can share interesting topics to talk to. That also happens in a family. I am closer to my mom and my younger brother since the three of us almost have comparable personal mood swings, traits and interests.

But as time went by, I learned that it is also important to connect to the other members of the family whom I do not have frequent interaction.

How I did it? I just initiated to have a conversation separately with them which I think we can both talk about which started from their personal interests. Such gesture was a great improvement from me since I did not imagine that I can also have longer talks with them.

And to end my post, I would like to share a quote from Mother Teresa:

“Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do… but how much love we put in that action.”

Thoughts about The Joy Luck Club

Earlier, I watched a movie on HBO entitled The Joy Luck Club. I missed the first few minutes of the movie when I opened our television and was intrigued about the series of flashbacks recounted by different women with stories interwoven by mother-and-daughter perspectives.

My attention was glued to everyone’s background story from their life as a child, to being married and becoming an adult, and until they reached a point when each of them had to resolve their personal circumstances with the help and advice from their respective mothers.

I empathized to most of the characters especially those who struggled through a difficult marriage. What I personally like and touching from most of the scenes was that it was through the toughest moment in their lives which led them to their mother-and-daughter dialogues, which in turn, helped their respective daughters to make a decision to redeem their self-worth.

I remember I read from a book that some of the present happenings in our lives are somehow connected from what our ancestors did in their early lives. As depicted in the movie, it appears that a particular action which happened from the past would most likely repeat in the next generation. They say the only way to break that pattern is to choose the other way around. That is to make a better and positive choice which I find thought-provoking as well.

As a whole, the realizations each mother-and-daughter tandem had from their own personal experience was really insightful especially when it dealt with life, love, marriage, and building relationships. Still the message that resonates is to know what your real worth is.