birth

This is probably one of the hardest stories for me to tell. Why? I think it is because of the circumstances surrounding it and the sensitivity of the issues within it.

It started out last Saturday night when I was asleep. As some of you know, I was out of Manila for the weekend. I had a very lucid dream. I dreamt that I was in a forest surrounded by the most beautiful trees and wild flowers. It was totally grool feeling the cool and truly fresh air.

As I was walking through the forest, I met someone who accompanied me and showed me around the forest. I was shown how beautiful this place was. I think I have been there so many times and yet I never saw it through someone who really lived in it.

While I was enjoying the tour around the forest, I was introduced to the others who lived there. They were so nice. I loved the food that they served there. I ate so much and yet it didn’t make my stomach ache. It was so hard for me to think that I was going to leave this place soon because this was not my real world, at least not yet. I somehow felt that I truly belong in this place but it was not the right time to live with them yet.

In such a short time I made new friends and they all have become a part of me. Everything that had life surrounding me was telling me in one way or another that I should stay in this beautiful place.

In the middle of all of this, I felt that the coolness of the temperature was slowly changing and turning into an unpleasant and stabbing heat. I knew that I was supposed to leave soon. After this, I had to maximize the time I had left. I wanted to try bathing in the waterfalls that I saw when I was walking around the forest. So, that is what I did.

As I was swimming around, I felt someone was watching me from behind a tree. As I looked, I saw that it was the first person I had met when I got in the forest. Wearing an unexplainably and loving smile, I asked for this person to join me. Every minute was magical; the forest was humming what was like a hymn that everything was falling into place and that something majestic is supposed to happen. We kissed and held each other close, it was a silent goodbye for the both of us but somehow we knew that we would see each other again.

I closed my eyes as we held hands.

As I opened my eyes, I was alone or at least I thought I was. It seemed that there was no one else around me and I was no longer in the magnificent forest. I was back where I was hours ago… I was home.

I wanted to cry but I knew I shouldn’t because even if I wasn’t there anymore, I knew that they would always be in my heart forever.

As I continue to lie down on the bed, I heard a voice. It was still dark in the bedroom, I couldn’t see so well so I had to stand up and turn the light on. To my surprise, there he was not far from me, a baby. He was smiling at me and wanted me to carry him. I carried him and was so curious where he came from.

I was surprised when he called me "father". He was speaking through my mind because I never saw his lips move. He said that he was my child and was conceived when I was bathing in the waterfalls when I held hands with the one from the forest. He continued by telling me that the forest was magical and only true love could conceive or bear fruit. I couldn’t deny that I was in love, with the forest, the creatures, and the people I had met. I guess the baby was the reminder of all that. He said that I should never be worried for all will be put in its’ rightful place in the future.

I only had one question left in my mind, what should I name my baby who was going to play an important role in my life now. As I was thinking of a name, my baby said that he already had a name which was already assigned by the elders of the forest. So I asked him what his name was.

He said, “My name is Almond Lai Tsi”.

to be continued