Philippine Mangoes, a Philippine heritage

They are beautiful, they smell phenomenal, astoundingly sweet as ever, and yes, they are back in season! Great price, too, at Php40 per kilo (a kilo is roughly about 3 mangoes). So go get 'em while they're hot, er... fresh. My mom did. Yesterday, she brought fresh ripe mangoes for her doctors at the Makati Medical Hospital. It was her final check-up for the year- the results of all those tests suffixed by -sound, -gram, and -scan were all in and we were praying for good news. And good news we got: We beat the big C. Thank you to everybody who helped us during our trying times.

These past three years were tough but every year since then, the Family has achieved quite a number of milestones that made life around the house a little less bleak: two years ago, the bar exam, last year, the nursing board exams, and this year the medical boards. There was a long-awaited reunion that almost nobody believed could ever take place. There's that small but solemn wedding that did not snowball. A homecoming that completed a home. I call it coming to a full circle.

I remember a storybook I read back in grade school.... or was it and episode from Batibot? It was about a father that bequeathed to his son a mango orchard. This son has never set foot on the orchard and had no clue what went on there. On his deathbed, the father told the son to take care of the mango trees well, he told him to be sure to smoke the leaves regularly, and that his most trusted katiwala, an elderly wise man and the orchard workers, will help him. The father promised him that if he did this, after a while, he will discover heart-shaped gold so abundant he will never go hungry his entire life.

Goaded by this promise, the son together with his father's katiwala and other orchard workers toiled in the orchard. He waited patiently for his gold. Until one day the mango trees blossomed and bore fruit. The orchard was taken care of so well that when it was time for harvest, the mangoes were perfectly plump, fragrant, and golden, not to mention virtually countless in number. All the people that worked in the orchard rejoiced. All, except the son. He lamented to the katiwala about how he did everything his father told him and despite all his efforts, no gold ever came. The katiwala clucked his tongue, patted the boy on the shoulders, and said: "Don't you see? These mangoes are your father's gold. If you continue doing as he taught you, this treasure will never run out." Only then did the son understand. He gave himself a mental kick in the butt for being so clueless, expressed his unfathomable gratitude to his father in a quiet prayer, then he joined the festivities in the mango orchard to celebrate the good harvest.

Sometimes we get so blinded about the unimportant things that clutter our life that we miss out on the important ones that stare us in the face. Something to think about while you spoon into your mango. Cheers!