Mother's Nature, Father's Time

Last month, we celebrated Mother's day and this month will be Father's Day. Although some may view these celebrations as sales gimmicks for card makers, I beg to differ. Given, there are those who spend money on cards and gifts for their beloved parents and I am sure this practice has brought countless profits for many card and gift vendors alike. I, however, choose to look at these celebrations from a different point of view.

The modern day has designed our lives to be so hectic that even conveniences and appliances such as the microwave ovens and washing machines still render us too busy for simple shows of affections. Of course, I don't even have to tell you how I feel about the recent bout of controversies surrounding showing affection in public in our country. But I still refuse to feel guilty for lovingly holding my husband's hand while walking with him in shopping malls. Subconsciously maybe, I just don't wanna lose him in a mall full of window shoppers.

Spouses aside, the other significant people in our lives are our primary care givers, our parents. We look to our mothers for a sense of security, unconditional love and acceptance, for guidance and wisdom. We can always count on mothers to know their children's shoe sizes and a list of medications and food that we may be allergic to. It is the nature of mothers to nurture and care for their offsprings and are ever willing to jump in front of a moving train just to save their beloved children.

Fathers are our bouncers, making sure we are safe from dangerous predators, teachers of mathematics and science of life and our main financial institution. Many psychological research have yielded results that show when fathers read bedtime stories and be silly with their children, they grow up to be adults that are more eloquent, confident and practical. The world is not such a scary place to live in for a child when the father is always around to ensure the safety and wellbeing of their kids.

Merely saying thank you is not enough to express the multitude of gratitude we feel towards our parents for all the love and sacrifices they have given and done. We always wanna do more but most of us are stumped for ideas as to how we go about doing just that. This is when we cop out by just getting a card and a cheap gift to satisfy our guilt for not spending enough time with them because we have been too busy with our own lives and worries. So, don't blame card and gift vendors. They thrive because of our complacency. They profit because we are always too selfish thinking of ourselves.

We have heard, time and again, that TIME IS MONEY. TIME IS PRECIOUS. If we do indeed appreciate and value our parents, the best gift we can bestow upon them is the thing most precious to all, TIME. When I think back to my childhood days, the most vivid memories are those spent with my parents. Time with my parents became more precious to me when they divorced when I was just 13 years old. My brothers and I lived with our mom and we only got to spend time with our dad on weekends. There are such things as "ex-husbands" but there's no such thing as "ex-fathers". No matter how much time my parents spent with me, it will never be enough. Because, time is indeed precious.