Making Memories

Tonight our son brought our 2 month old granddaughter, Micah home and she was in a good mood. I started talking and playing with her- trying to see if she was capable of responding- and she did. She was laughing! It was adorable. I think this was the first time she could really see and react. It was truly a joyous experience. These days, I really look forward to seeing her.
While playing with her, I was reminded of our own four children when they were growing up. We used to have a lot of fun going to the beach teaching them to swim, watching them walk for the first time, and many other firsts along the way. Cora would make sure that every first was caught on video, which is why we have tons of footage of them growing up.
Of course we also had some difficult times, particularly when they were sick. It was also a challenge deciding the kind of discipline needed during their adolescent days. Looking back now, I think I had much much more happy and enjoyable experiences with them than difficult ones.
Oftentimes, I expect my children to be grateful to me for all the love and sacrifice I did for them. But I realized I should also spend time thanking them for giving me so much joy and teaching me how to love as they were growing up.
As I shared in my previous article, now that I am getting older, one of the things that give me great joy is having our children and their spouses around me talking and joking and laughing. In order for me to have many opportunities for this, I invite the whole family to Montemar Beach Club 5 to 6 times a year.
For me this is the best beach resort in the world. The reason I say this is not because the sand is better than Boracay. The facilities are definitely not as good as Shangrila of Cebu.

The main reason that I believe this is the best beach is because for many years now, it has been home to many treasured memories. Montemar is a cove, so there isn’t a lot of beach for us to cover. We are thus forced to stick together and spend most of our time with each other. The geography has given us so much opportunity to enjoy and bond. I am very thankful to our children for giving us these happy moments.
At my age, I am not too concerned about the material things I will leave for our children. Instead, I am more concerned about spending our wealth to create opportunities for my children to enjoy me and for me to enjoy them. The material things I will be leaving for them when I die can easily be lost, but the great memories of how much I loved them and enjoyed them will forever stay with them.