Hello, Lia.
You turned 12 today. I am walking in the arid, sticky April dusk, lightweight, thankful. For these lungs that rise and recoil anew, so these hands can warm what’s cold, make the unmade, turn on our bike’s electric engine to your favorite pizza place before stirring the pot and serving you carbonara. These eyes fluttering their lithe lid-wings to witness what 12 looks like. These feet hope-borne and sturdy enough to navigate their way from wilderness to wilderness to return home to the greenest of them all.
Happy birthday. Thank you for your gift of love every day, against the ruins and blood-thirsty hormones.
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I wrote you three tiny letters: a card I have been saving since when you were 7 and two for my gifts. My favorite’s the one with the meteorite. Funnily, it’s the one you don’t understand – yet. Perhaps once you’re bigger:
Lia,
I tried to think of a fitting gift for you, and I couldn’t think of any that would cost P100 but is also priceless, except this.
This is an actual meteorite (a debris from a comet, an asteroid, or a meteor when they hit the Earth’s atmosphere) that came from Luzon. I forgot the exact province but definitely in North Luzon.
I’ve had it with me for close to a decade – even longer. This fragment from a shooting star is said to offer protection. I am sure it offers more – like the truth that even the things we thought were out of reach, that only exist in the sky, can make their way into our lives to lend us their magic.
I hope you can keep this safe for me. It is a good reminder that everything in this wild, beautiful world is connected, from ground to sky, and that no matter how impossible it seems, the magic will come to you. Keep your eyes open and – some borrowed William Martin wisdom – just let “the extraordinary take care of itself”. To come to you when the time is right.
Love you!
❤️Mama
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You devoured burger pizza, chicken, and carbonara. Ate MJ and Tita surprised you with an Oreo crepe cake they lovingly made from scratch. Your Taurus rising was so delighted that you told me, “Thank you. Sana hindi ka pa mamatay (I hope you don’t die yet)”. 🤣
But I get it. I hope so too.
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