So It Goes . . .

“Slay the dragon,” mom whispered in my ear, a smile bisecting her lips. Whiskey lies and sweet alibis. What she really wanted was, “Destroy the beast living within you baby, and you can finally be free.”

Free from what? I wanted to ask, knowing all to well the answer. I was hiding, from the truth, hiding from all the edifices of lies I built within me. I was hiding from the reality that surrounded me.

I took a step closer, she was excruciatingly fading, slower and slower as I got near. I ran towards her—my mom. I hugged her, so tight she might explode. I clung into her like a stubborn mossy vine. And for the first time in the longest of times she faded in my memory. Just for a moment I forgot who I was.

December 1, signals the start of the warm and calming month, the cold weather, the gift giving season and also the Parents’ Day, a time we give thanks to our parents and show them gratification for their sacrifices. And deep within all the yesterdays, the recesses of the past, this indelible morning was a day to wake up and fly above the whole scene. Kiss—butterfly kiss, eskimo kiss or caveman kiss—your parents and whisper I love you in their ears endlessly.

I was not there to witness the events unfolding, to get a load of tugging and struggling of emotions, but deep within me—my heart and the spaces in between—was filled with moments, memories of euphoria and nostalgia. The smile I perceived in every parent somehow illuminates me—just by thinking of them—like a warm summer dream.

To all parents out there, Happy Parents’ Day to all of you! May the sunflower shade of the sun and the sun’s new dawn rule your day.