Nov. 10/16
City folks, have you been to an island?
Have you seen a vast ocean?
Have you experience dipping your feet in sea water?
Hava you seen its beautiful, majestic, and gigantic waves kissing the shores?
Have you seen the sun sets on the horizon?
Of couse, Manila bay sun set is not included.
If the answer is yes, I congratulate you.
If the answer is no, pack up your things now and visit an island nearest to your place.
Just be a backpacker for a night or two.
It pays to commune with nature.
Believe me, I am an islander.
When I was young, I used to go to the sea inviting my friends to go with me. Our house was just two (2) streets away from the shore.
During high tide, I was really ecstatic. The happiness could not be contained in my heart. I really wanted to swim like a pro.
It was really very pleasant to swim because the sea water was very near to the shore. Friends and I didn't have to go far.
The story is different when the tide was low.
If we want to swim we have to walk far, around one (1) kilometer away from the shore.
Little as I was, it scared me to death to go half meter away from the shore.
Because it would turn out that the sea bed became deeper without you knowing it.
Mind you, I don't swim well.
Being an islander, it was expected of me to be a good swimmer.
But, I could only swim like a dog and in a short distance.
What a pity!
When typhoon hit nearby places, our island is fortunate enough not to experience such calamity.
We only experience big waves playfully rushing to the shore.
Some of my friends would dare to swim into the gigantic waves without fear in their hearts.
They were like driftwoods ecstatically drifting into the sea.
Imagine children ages 4-10 years old swimming onto the big waves.
It was really an awesome sight to behold!
And, deep in my heart, I envied them because I'm not a good swimmer.
We used to go to the wharf - there were plenty of commercial pump boats waiting for passengers to be transported to the other world, este, places.
While the pumpboats waited for passengers, we used the "katig" as our buoy when we jumped from the wharf to the sea.
The sea was deep but we enjoyed it---seeing the wonderful creation of God underneath the sea.
As we swam, schools of fish also swam with us. We were just careful that our feet would not touch sea urchin.
For it is hard to remove the same. The only immediate remedy, would you believe, is the male urine.
There were plenty of amazing experiences in our little island.
We have no modern toys but the sea was already enough happiness for us.
Small things, small happiness but memories last a life time.
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