My home, my home. My sampan in the ocean with the whales cradling me to sleep. In this mad ocean I face storms of many kinds. These storms threaten to rip my sampan apart to leave me homeless. The thunders roar in hopes of tossing me overboard. The lightning aims for my little boat to be smashed into pieces. But they could tear apart every piece of wood from this sampan of mine and I would still be perfectly fine. I would fall onto the backs of my beautiful whales and they would carry me along. This boat, after all, is just a space in my head I escape to in the day. I don't need this boat as long as the whales are below. Besides, He who called the ocean into existence, He who can stop the storm in an instant, He who would never throw me a storm I couldn't handle, is my Father. My Father who loves me and is in this ocean with me. My Father who created these whales and loves them more than I do. So throw me a storm and I will ride it out, and I will do so joyfully with peace in my heart. Storms will keep coming, but the trick is to not wallow in it. You have to overcome it, you will overcome it because you can, and then when you're sailing safely you look back and see all the wonderful things and people that helped you through. There is no point in wallowing. Victory is guaranteed. And it is this faith that gives us the strength to go against the storms. It is not a free pass to skip the storm, but the strength that we require to fight it. Because our Father is here, and our whales are here, and love always triumphs over evil.
My Father has given me so many whales to call family. And whales have big hearts, we all know that. This weekend has been awfully kind to me and it has filled my heart to the brim with pure joy. I was thinking about the different conversations I've had, the different dining tables I've sat at, the different shoulders I've leaned on. My heart has been melted so many times I'm just a puddle of goo right now. Had a long overdue kopi session with ludfil the best brother in the world. "Sometimes all you need is one constant", we agreed, and I am so happy that he is that. I will never find the right words that could amount to the love and generosity his family has shown towards me. Not just his, but the Oh's, nehmi's, kimby's, and Val jie's. I love these families. They prove that beyond blood, beyond sharing similar interests, it is Christ's love that brings us together. I love sitting at their dining tables to hear about their day, I love learning about their inside jokes, I love watching us make fools of ourselves in front of the flat screen with Dance Central on. It is rare to find people you can be so comfortable with, to find houses you can feel at home in. Here is God in my life, giving me these whales. Here is God's love shining through these big hearts.
I wish that one day I would build a house as warm as theirs, and keep a heart as big as theirs.