MEET MY MA
Lj Salceda
My Ma is my hero (ine). Next to God, there is no one in the world that I desire to emulate and please than my Ma.
She is not perfect. She is as flawed as everyone else; nonetheless I have the highest regard for her. She did her best to raise my brother and I, at the same time living her life and pursuing some of her dreams.
She will always be the epitome of strength, faith in God, intelligence, compassion and hard work to me.
I don’t ever remember seeing my Ma cry when I was young. I saw her angry, worried, disappointed, struggling and sad, but I’ve never seen her shed tears because of our situation. She only learned to cry in front of us when we came to know the Lord and started praying for a change of heart of our Pa and the restoration of our family.
My Ma is the best prayer warrior I know. She prays before sleeping, in the middle of the night, in her dreams, early in the morning and during the day. I can never keep up with my Ma when it comes to prayer life. She can pray for hours, even days about anything and everything. She prays more than anything else that she does.
My Ma is one of the most intelligent women I know. No, she doesn’t have a masters or a doctorate degree. She’s not even a Bible school graduate, yet she’s established two churches and spoken to thousands of people. She’s my spelling stickler, my grammar checker and my English tutor. When we were in grade school, except for fairy tales or Bible stories, my Mom would usually end our day with a spelling match between my brother and I.
My Ma could be strict, in your face and hard to please, but she’s also the most compassionate woman I know. She is kind to animals (especially my pets), has a huge heart for kids and benevolent to those in need. She takes care of friends and strangers who are abandoned, pregnant, sick, old and away from their families.
She used to be a high school teacher, a factory manager, a government employee, a training supervisor, a Tupperware/Avon dealer and now she’s a minister and a speaker. She’s also an excellent gardener and a very good interior decorator.
My Ma taught me all the important lessons in life. Never serve hot drinks to your guests without saucers. It’s ok not to water your plants every day, especially if they are cacti. The best dwellings are not the biggest nor the most expensive, they are the ones you tidy and beautify with your own hands. Recycle. Work hard for your dreams. If you want to find treasures, explore the library or second hand bookstores. The best lesson I learned from her,"Learn from your mistakes."
At almost 60 years old she’s not scared to learn how to use the computer and inter-net, to travel anywhere God wants her to go even without much money and to run in a local government position as an independent candidate.
She’s an artist and a craftswoman. I’ve never seen scrapbooks as good and as tastefully done as my Ma’s. Such a sad thing that most of her works were destroyed by the typhoons. She can play and sing any song even if she only knows 3 chords – D, G and A.
Math is not her cup of tea nor business or drawing. She has almost zero knowledge in sports, cars or gadgets. She doesn’t know how to drive, to clean her phone inbox or to load a pre-paid phone card.
She’s not into make up, jewelry or designer clothes. But she knows Jimmy Choo, black and brown are not good match in fashion and she’s a suki in ukay-ukay stores.
She’s got great management skills, but not so good at social or PR skills. She’s not scared to speak up her mind even if it means zero attendance the next prayer meeting.
She’s a born leader. She knows what sacrifice is. She walks the talk and talks about her walk.
She’s a single-parent. I’m proud to call her my Ma.
