Way back when I was young, I lived in a town where the sea was pristine. The air was warm and salty. The mountain was green.

I love the sea. I agree with Yanni (Yiannis Chryssomallis) in one of his interviews that wherever you grew up, it is engraved to your bones. The sea was engraved to my bones. The soothing feeling of the water on your skin. The laughter of the people with you. That is how we are introduced to nature. Wherever I go, I always come back to it.

But in this pandemic, travel is very restricted. It is also very difficult especially with children, one an infant. Imagine we are two planes away, that's a whole day's travel. The chances of getting infected by COVID is very high. I don't want to take the risk.

And so we are stuck at home. I really miss my hometown, the sea especially. Someday, I hope that COVID will just pack up and leave. To outer space if he must.

My husband must've gotten tired of me complaining a lot of times for not being able to go home. He might've been sick of hearing it LOL.

But he is very civil, especially when I'm not on my best self. He is not showy, but he has ways.

He knew that it was my dream to have a garden. Until it still is my dream. He knew that I love flowers. Any kind of flowers. One time I made a request from him to ask our neighbor to spare us some cuttings of their bougainvillea. He didn't had the chance, instead he bought me roses.

We don't know the variety of the roses he bought. He said that he got it because he knows that I would love it. He's so damn right.

He also bought seedlings of sampaguita. They are already budding, and it makes our place smells really nice. Though, we still need to buy a lot of pots to transfer them to. All of them are still in the black bag.

My husband said that we'll just make our veranda surrounded with roses and sampaguita. Much better than my initial plan of bougainvillea.

I also have this little girl that I haven't Google'd the name yet. I bought it from a flower seller in the streets for 100php (at most $2). She will be joining my pot gardening that is in progress.

In this little way, I can somehow enjoy the wonders of nature. I am imagining it as a forest of flowers that my kids would love and enjoy too.

It is sad of how nature had become. Of how much destruction we have done to it. This pandemic has taught us a lot of lessons. One of which is the importance of nature. That nature can heal when we're not in it.

I just hope that after this pandemic, people won't forget. That the sky turned blue again of once was gray. That the dolphins began swimming near the ports and canals again. That the wild run free on the streets. All happened during strict lockdown. I hope we won't forget that we are the biggest threat of nature.

This is my entry Nature of @JonicaBradley writing prompt.

Thank you for bearing with me. I also hope I made some sense there. It actually felt like I'm writing a monologue.

Please do excuse the low quality of my pictures. I took it using my very oldie phone.

P.S.
I had a permission to post this. My daughter attempted to write a story, because...the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Very colorful, isn't it?

One time she read the story that I wrote and complained as to why she read a lot of shits there. Jeez, I forgot that I put a lot of shits in it *shame, shame*

Now I try my best to write stories as child friendly as possible. She said she loves my stories *grins widely*

Her favorite is the Why you, cheating rabbit! She said she also loves my senseless others, especially I'm Not Here. Hahaha can you see the resemblance? And also, I have a fan haha!

I think this is getting nowhere, so let's just stop here.

Thank you for dropping by, smile and have a nice day.