<p><a href=”<a href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_711bTOwE2HA/SgYQQjhAYFI/AAAAAAAAB98/pl0RyykM19g/s1600-h/IMG_7594_mom.jpg%22%3E%3Cimg”>http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_711bTOwE2HA/SgYQQjhAYFI/AAAAAAAAB98/pl0RyykM19g/s1600-h/IMG_7594_mom.jpg”><img</a> id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333968685264560210″ style=”FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px” alt=”" src=”<a href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_711bTOwE2HA/SgYQQjhAYFI/AAAAAAAAB98/pl0RyykM19g/s320/IMG_7594_mom.jpg”>http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_711bTOwE2HA/SgYQQjhAYFI/AAAAAAAAB98/pl0RyykM19g/s320/IMG_7594_mom.jpg</a>” border=”0″ /></a><br />
<strong><span style=”color:#ff6600;”><span style=”font-size:180%;”>W</span>e</span></strong> learn best by watching, listening and observing. The first role models we have in life are our parents. Daughters watch their mothers closely, and so the best life lessons are taught, more by example, rather than by lecture. Here are some of the more important ones I learned from my own mother…</p>
<p><strong>1. Family comes first.<br />
</strong><br />
Mom had a full-time career when she met my dad and she did not stop working throughout her marriage. What she chose to do, upon my father’s request was to slow down on her career. And so in the years while my brother and I were in elementary school, she stopped making movies and concentrated on doing television instead. These were years, I believe, when she produced some of her best work in the field of comedy and drama. Mother had mastered the art of work-home balance long before the term was ever coined.</p>
<p>I remember how she would take us to and from school each and every day. Her presence in the home provided us with the stability that we would need later on when our father would pass away. My father was the ultimate family man and so mom just followed his lead. Both of them were very hands-on in an age where child-rearing was often just left to the mother. Perhaps it was also because my mother would certainly not have agreed to being the sole caretaker of her two children. Thus, I had no question in my mind whatsoever that when I would have a family of my own someday, they would always come first, above anything else.</p>
<p><strong>2. Fight for what you believe in, but choose your battles wisely.<br />
</strong><br />
Mom is one of the most courageous women I know. Someone who truly speaks her mind out. She ventured to Manila to follow her heart (a boyfriend, actually) and unfortunately, ended up with a broken heart. One never to stew over her sadness, she decided to stay and pursue a career in show business instead. Thankfully, she’s been here for almost 50 years now. “Courage will get you to where you want to go but you have to choose your battles wisely,” she would often tell me, “Walang mangyayari sa ‘yo pag wala kang lakas ng loob,” she likes to say all the time. It was from mom that I learned how to be an eternal optimist, to speak up when I think a wrong has been done, to find the silver lining, but to also just keep quiet and pray it away when the battle isn’t worth fighting.</p>
<p><strong>3. Cleave but don’t lose yourself.<br />
</strong><br />
Unknown to many, my mother lived up to tenet, “Wives, submit to your husbands…” but she did so by keeping her own individuality. My dad always had the last word at home but I could see that in many ways my mother continued to be her own person too. It’s a good thing that my father was one of the most secure persons in the world and so he did not mind the public’s attention on mom. He was very generous and fully supportive of all her dreams and she showed him her gratitude by attending to all his needs. Dad could be difficult to live with but mom had her way of easing things in the home. When he died, it was as if she had lost her anchor, but after a while, she managed to get her bearings and spent the rest of her years devoted to us and to her craft. Her resiliency, she attributes in part, to the fact that she was able to keep a life of her own, in spite of her devotion to dad and us.</p>
<p><strong>4. It’s never too late to get fit. Stay natural.</strong></p>
<p>A few years before my father passed away, mom started running. She was already in her early 40s when she would go off early in the morning to run. “Running was what helped keep me sane after your dad died,” she would tell me back then. My mother had the best legs on the block and could outrun any man. In her 50s she had legs that would place any 20 year old to shame. Now that I am her age when she first started running, her experience and example give me hope and a passion to be even fitter when I hit the big 5-0. Yes, it’s never too late. To this day, mom can hike the hills of our village effortlessly. Her age will forever be a national secret, but I never cease to marvel, and thank the Lord at how fit she continues to be at this stage in her life.<br />
Mom’s has stuck to the same cleansing and moisturizing technique for the last 35 years and her face has not been touched ever by the knife. “My lines are my battle scars and so I wear them proudly. They give me character and tell many stories,” she explains. “Stick with what works and just change once in a while,” she says of the products that have helped maintain her smooth, olive skin through the years. My father would often joke that sleeping with mom was like sleeping with a box of macaroons. Coconut oil has been mom’s best friend all these years.</p>
<p><strong>5. God is all you need.<br />
</strong><br />
Mom has been through many things in life and all throughout, she says that it has been her faith in HIM and His grace and faithfulness to her that has seen her through. “Wala ng iba, siya lang talaga,” is how mom likes to put it. Through good times and bad, He has always been her number one recourse. “Paborito tayo ni Lord…“ she liked to say, in reference to the Biblical passage on how God favors widows and orphans. Her example has shown me time and again to always put Him first in whatever it is I do. “When everyone else fails you, and that can happen, He’s the only one who never will,” she would often say to me whenever I felt that certain people or the world had let me down.</p>
<p>Although I’d like to think that I am more my father’s daughter in many ways, I also believe that I would not be the woman I am today if not for the love, support and care that my mom has given me. I only had dad for 16 years but in that short span of time, he taught me lessons I carry to this day. Mom raised us single-handedly after that and continues to mother us in her own unique way. However, as I grow older, I must admit that I see more and more of her in me. Hey, who wouldn’t want to have gorgeous skin and drop dead legs at 50?! I love you mom!</p>
<p>Happy Mothers day!</p>