December 12....
For many people it's just another ordinary day.
For me, December 12 is my Dad's birthday.
We celebrated the day by going to the 700 am mass at Magallanes and visiting his crypt, afterwards we had breakfast at a nearby Pancake House, for dinner we ate at Kamameshi House (one of his all time favorite places; he was still alive when we last ate there) .
Funny thing is, we ate at the same table area my family always ate at, it seems as if we have made a permanent reservation on that particular area. As much as I enjoyed the food, it was not complete, because Dad was not there, physically at least.
I guess that we still celebrate Dad's birth because we still miss him and believe strongly that even if he is no longer with us physically, he is with us in spirit. The very memory of the love my dad had for my whole family continues to inspire all of us, and in a way makes us all miss him.
I guess such applies to all those who have ever lost a loved one.
We try to replicate expericnes we had with them when they were still here, only to have a semblance of the actual experiences. Be that as it may, we still continue to do such things because we know that we need ways to connect to the past experiences we had with them. Arriving at a semblance of the experinces of past should never be looked at as a failure, because such reminders, no matter how small are still aspects of those people. And every little bit counts...
