You Broke Me Best

You broke me best by leaving me

Alone without ear for a sorry plea

Nothing much for me is left

From love that for years I've kept

In shattered pieces you have sent

My heart hurtling down and rent

Apart from where it once before

Stood close to your beating core

I feared I'd die the day you left

My soul wither away in bereft

But then I learned you set me free

When alone I came to who I am to me

In pain I learned, by pain I grew

And much of it I never knew

My strength comes in times of fail

And light in darkness will prevail

Just Remember

Broken to know brokenness

Hurtled down to reach the depths

Where light is not seen

Remember only its glimmer

And from there reach out for it

Until it becomes mine once more

Shadows cover my eyes

And I see no more than pain

But stings will fade away too

And I know I am strong

No more tears in this valley

But remembrance of the sun

Darkness may engulf my sight

And everything is night

It no longer matters

For in this dark brokenness

I continue on and on

With the sun in my thoughts

It's all about the Fear

It's funny how I find myself. My ancestors were from Mactan Island and I would believe they were all proficient swimmers. My paternal and maternal lineage came from adjacent fishing barrios on the island. All my relatives know how to swim and all my cousins, as far as I can remember, know how. I grew up afraid of deep water and everyone knows I can't swim.

That was a few months ago. Not until some fellow brothers Juvelan, JP, and Nino taught me to conquer that fear of depth. It is interesting to note that even before we were born we were already swimming. Nine months in our mother's wombs equate to nine months of swimming in the sac. Scientists were able to demonstrate that newly born babies can swim on their own power!

I guess the fear of water depths built up inside me. I made 7 laps of breast stroke in our pool this afternoon and I'm getting comfortable with it. My own fears eclipsed the joy of gliding through the silky and blue water but when I have overcome that I'm Flipper made man. Fear all too often drowns us. We were made to swim through life and by instinct we know how. It's just that we allow our own fears to overpower us dragging us to the bottom of the tank and choking on the waves of life. I bet friends and love ones can also teach us how to overcome these fears and teach us how to swim past the tides of life like the generations before us.