Ohana

I'm not much of a 'Lilo and Stitch' fan but their concept of ohana stuck with me, especially now more than ever. So I was finishing my family genogram as a requirement for our Mental Health Psychiatric Nursing course (I have to stress that course because it has been torturing my brain for a more than a week now). As I prepare it for printing, I become more aware of how knitted the concept of family is in our culture and how the dynamic turnovers of the current pace of society has been affecting it. Being socially aware aside, this project made me feel more 'involved' in the societal unit that we all refer to as a family.

As a kid, I had been one of the rascals in our family compound that contributed to the shrieks and laughter that abound our quaint place. As I grew older, I became more and more distant from them, despite the fact that I live under the same household and even in the same compound. This became more apparent when I entered the University and I have to constantly live a stressful day and go home to suffer the pangs of being far away from home. I looked forward to every weekend as I hurriedly pack my things and off I go home! Sadly, the focus of that weekly retreat from the vile atmosphere of the city shifted from the intangible thought of being with the family to the concreteness of 'real food' and 'real sleep'. Come to think of it now, it disgusts me. It disgusts me how I devolved into such a creature who cared more for these tangible bounties instead of the fragile idea of being with the family. I have become so externally motivated I forgot the real meaning of being home. Instead, what kept me going back to Laguna is just being inside the house. 

Then there's the issue of my grandparents. As long as I have remembered, I've been born to this world with only my grandma from my mom's side and my grandpa from my dad's side of the family. This I have carried with me until that faithful year when my grandmom, who we lovingly referred to as May (which was a local term for 'mother'), passed away. I was 12 and was just entering high school. I tried my best not to let those tears run down my cheeks as I watch the video coverage of the wake and the burial. It was very moving. Fast forward to exactly a month ago when I suddenly woke one morning THEN I received a text message from my father telling me that my granddad passed away. I must have been still mushy that time, because just two weeks prior to that was when our faithful dog-bestfriend - Rambo - passed away, and tears flowed without hesitation. Then the rain started to fall down in torrents, as if Zephyr himself mourned my grandfather's death. 

-----o tbc o-----