What a nice evening. While riding a jeepney going home, I was able to get a view of the sunset. I have always seen one, but I never missed a day not being amazed to it.
You know that feeling when you try to not blink your eyes to see the sky gradually changing hues, from orange to blue, to dark? I have always yearned to do that, but I always failed. LOL. Before I knew it, it is already dark, I never saw the very slow transition.
Anyway, how beautiful it is to see the shadows of trees forming beautiful outlines in a masterpiece called nature. It was a tiring day, but a daily dose of free sunset viewing serves as my seratonin-booster. Thank you, Lord.
As I have, again, been so busy during the weekends, I was not able to post anything yesterday again. It was so frustrating. But then again, it's okay. There is always a chance to maintain consistency. At this rate, I could just post once every two days, but I will do my best to still publish once daily.
Fathers' Day is fast approaching, so I suddenly remembered a letter I once read from my highschool days. My heart, that time, though young and innocent, couldn't help but to shed invisible tears because of the timeless love and affection it always made me feel.
Let me show you the letter: Its title is:
"A Letter to an Unborn Son"
My child, sleeping now in the dark and gathering strength for the struggle of birth, I wish you well. At present you have no proper shape, and you do not breathe, and you are blind. Yet, when your time comes, your time and the time of your mother, whom I deeply love, there will be something in you that will give you power to fight for air and light. Such is your heritage, such is your destiny as a child born of a woman–to fight for light and hold on without knowing why.
May the flame that tempers the bright steel of your youth never die, but burn always; so that when your work is done and your long day ended, you may still be like a watchman’s fire at the end of a lonely road–loved and cherished for your gracious glow by all good wayfarers who need light in their darkness and warmth for their comfort.
The spirit of wonder and adventure, the token of immortality, will be given to you as a child. May you keep it forever, with that in your heart which always seeks the gold beyond the rainbow, the pastures beyond the desert, the dawn beyond the sea, the light beyond the dark.
May you seek always and strive always in good faith and high courage, in this world where men grow so tired.
Keep your capacity for faith and belief, but let your judgment watch what you believe.
Keep your power to receive everything; only learn to select what your instinct tells you is right.
Keep your love of life but throw away your fear of death. Life must be loved or it is lost; but it should never be loved too well.
Keep your delight in friend ship; only learn to know your friends.
Keep your intolerance–only save it for what your heart tells you is bad.
Keep your wonder at great and noble things like sunlight and thunder, the rain and the stars, the wind and the sea, the growth of trees and the return of harvests, and the greatness of heroes.
Keep your heart hungry for new knowledge; keep your hatred of a lie; and keep your power of indignation.
Now I know I must die and you must be born to stand upon the rubbish heap of my errors. Forgive me for this. I am ashamed to leave you an untidy, uncomfortable world. But so it must be.
In thought, as a last benediction, I kiss your forehead. Good night to you–and good morning and a clear dawn.
Source: Letter to an Unborn Son
Let me ask you briefly. What kind of feelings came to you when you read it? Comfort? Nostalgia? Longing? Or perhaps some kind of grief you can't explain?
It made me feel comforted the very first time I saw it. How sweet of the father to dedicate such a warm letter to his son, even that person isn't in this world yet. How thoughtful of him to give him an overview of this place and provide words of wisdom that will never get old.
I will tell you something more. It was a letter found in the pocket of a Yugoslav soldier that died in the battle against the Nazis.
If that just did not make everything hit differently, then I don't know anymore. We know a lot of wars have broken out around the world, just to let our generation experience the freedom and sovereignty we have now. My heart goes out to all those soldiers, heroes, and even ordinary people who sacrificed ther.lives for a big cause. I will always be thankful for all of those who chose the country more than themselves, more than their own lives.
You might think I am over reacting that I am getting emotional writing this. I don't consider myself a certified patriotic person—it ain't even a National Heroes' Day or something, but I don't know what got into me today.
I have never been so appreciative of our heroes until yesterday. Imagine the courage they have, to be willing to die for the sake of a cause they aren't even sure if they can experience themselves: freedom.
Imagine all the choices they chose to ignore because they thought more of the future generations, who will not even surely remember their names. Just imagining myself in their shoes hurts me so much.
They were ordinary people like us, too. They fall in love, they want to enjoy a normal life, too. Just have the time of their lives spent with those that they love. Just thinking about how they all didn't get to enjoy these privileges we enjoy right now hurts me.
I don't know, really. All these realizations just hit me yesterday, and I am not gonna lie, it still hurts. Maybe one of my ancestors were heroes back then, too.
And this letter, this one, is just one of the thousands, and millions of other letters that may have just perished, unread. Those letters contained all the heart of these heroes. They all wrote these letters, aware, or unaware of what happens to them the next day. They wrote these with the intention of putting all that they genuinely feel, because they weren't able to express it with their families.
What could have been the feelings of the wife of this soldier? Or the son? I don't really know, if they got to read this letter. I know for sure, this letter will break their hearts as well, because that's what happened to me, too.
This letter seemed to be an open message to all of us, that could read it. And I hope we take all of these words to heart. I hope we'll get to appreciate all the love and thoughts this father have poured out, knowing he can't be there for his son any longer. I can't even say the right words to feel for him. Knowing he'll never got to see nor embrace his unborn son; how worried he is that he is leaving his child into a chaotic world.
I hope, wherever he is, he is happy now, that the world we live in, is not as chaotic as before. There are still people like him that sacrifice themselves for the sake of the country and its people, and it's not an untidy, uncomfortable world after all.
I am sorry, I was just supposed to break down the contents of the letter, but here's what happened. I just let out all the emotions I have been holding in since yesterday. But don't worry, I will.
I can't just let this go, without understanding it better myself. If it got too long, I can always write a Part 2. I may also include your thoughts. So please, comment down your own insights about the letter, I will tackle that in the next part. Don't be shy.
The Letter: A Closer Look
Here we go.
My child, sleeping now in the dark and gathering strength for the struggle of birth, I wish you well. At present you have no proper shape, and you do not breathe, and you are blind. Yet, when your time comes, your time and the time of your mother, whom I deeply love, there will be something in you that will give you power to fight for air and light. Such is your heritage, such is your destiny as a child born of a woman–to fight for light and hold on without knowing why.
The father is talking to the baby that is still in the womb of his mother. He is aware that, at the time he's writing the letter, his child can't obviously read it yet. This part already struck my heart. You might be curious why.
He must be really aware that his remaining time is not that long, to write a letter in such an early time. He must really know he can't witness his child being born into this world. How sorry he must have felt.
To you who has written this, please don't be too sad nor apologetic. It isn't your fault when a war broke out. You, too, are a victim of lots of greedy people who are hungry for power, making them resort to do things at the expense of the poor majority.
A day will come, when the child will be born. Even if he doesn't know the reason, he will fight to live, as his natural instinct.
May the flame that tempers the bright steel of your youth never die, but burn always; so that when your work is done and your long day ended, you may still be like a watchman’s fire at the end of a lonely road–loved and cherished for your gracious glow by all good wayfarers who need light in their darkness and warmth for their comfort.
To this child, may the cheerfulness and glow of your youth never fade, as this bright energy will always send strength to those who may need this. In this exhausting world where everything in sight will just affect the will to live, may you be a star that always ignites them the fire to continue living no matter how hard it is.
The spirit of wonder and adventure, the token of immortality, will be given to you as a child. May you keep it forever, with that in your heart which always seeks the gold beyond the rainbow, the pastures beyond the desert, the dawn beyond the sea, the light beyond the dark.
A child is known for being inquisitive and curious about everything. To you, who might read this letter, he hopes that the 'Adventurer' in you will always be there, no matter how old you may be right now.
It is hard to find an interesting reason to look forward to when we wake up everyday; but I hope you'll always explore exciting ways to make your day worthwhile, not getting tired of trying out new things, and learning in the process.
May you always see the good within all the negativities that may surround you, as how you'd always try to seek for the silver lining for every cloud.
Enthusiasm is what will keep you going, even when things aren't going as you expected them to. I hope that, like a child you have been, you'll never abandon this trait.
To be Continued
I have never realized I have been typing for almost two hours now. Every word that I wrote here, served as new lessons for myself, too.
These are the words we all have to be reminded of, especially during these times. Everything's a mess right now. We rarely hear news about world war or something, but, in some other way, we can't deny that this place is still in chaos.
As parents, or future parents, I know we also have worries for the future our children will be born or grown into. This is still a messy place, where merely trusting everyone will never do any good.
However, may we be reminded that, despite all these chaos, the world is still beautiful. Because we still witness heroes of this time. They don't wear capes, but they devote their lives to make this world a better place to live in.
Even I am not still a parent, I can agree that every dad and mom out there will always want what's best for their children. It is with utmost hope and eagerness that I desire to spread this letter with the best that I can.
Some of you may have read this, then it's better. I hope this letter made us more appreciative of our heroes, of our fathers, of everyone out there who helped in their own ways, just to make us enjoy everything we experience right now.
Like what I have written above, I will make a continuation of this. We haven't still reached halfway of understanding the letter better, so I hope we can accomplish it soon. :)
I hope you'll wait for my Part 2, and share your thoughts in the comments section here, that I may add there.
Updated: Here is the Part 2. :)
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To God be all the glory.
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Wow! I was reading this and tears running down my eyes. It's so emotional to read such letter especially to an unborn child which the father already knew might be a strong child and so if the child grows up to read that, he or she would embrace those words of wisdom and become someone great and also a hero.
We also need to appreciate the soldiers who have sacrificed themselves for the country and left behind their families even when they are gone. Nice article.