Remembering Papa/Lolo John on his birthday

By:  LPJ

My Papa’s birthday is coming up.  He left this world near my 21st birthday. I think of how grateful I am to him – he figured significantly in my childhood, my growing up years, my phasing in to young adulthood.  His teachings, principles, guidance, wisdom, hard work and fine example contributed tremendously to what I am.  Enjoy your blessed birthday with Mama and other loved ones, in God’s heavenly realm, Papa!

Timeless tribute —  a re-post from January 2019 on BBL:

January 27th is Papa’s birthday. He left this earth nearly five decades ago.

Very interesting that my best memory of him is when he was teaching me my first lesson in algebra. Seated deep in a rattan and narra wooden chair, balancing my thick algebra textbook on the armchair, he patiently explained the elements of the algebraic equation. That mathematical language was Greek to me then, but somehow, he injected such clear logic behind understanding the movement of numbers and symbols from left to right or right to left of the equal sign. He put in plain simple English the language of mathematics for this girl barely in her teens.

I haven’t given much thought to my Papa in quite a long time, except when briefly alluding to him in some of my blogs that travelled memory lane. I haven’t thought about the man and traits nor his talents and abilities, much less speak about him in great length to my children who were born many years after he passed. This blog is a tribute to him, and if it doesn’t accomplish anything else, I am gratified that I have been inspired to think more and write more about my children’s Lolo John.

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Facing 2022 with hope — the new dawn

By:  LPJ

The new year didn’t come with bravado. Absent were the usual fireworks extravaganzas that most look forward to, whether at public displays or on TV.  Absent, too, were the parties and assemblies; most, if not all, cancelled due to restrictions stemming from the rising pandemic cases everywhere. Family celebrations had to be curtailed to a few or less representations.  But 2022 came anyway. It came with a promise.  It came with hope. It sneaked up on us like a new dawn.

2021 was a challenge in many ways primarily due to the onset of COVID variants.  But that does not deter us from realizing the fact that we have reached 2022, and we have been favored with God’s protection.  Thus, we leave 2021 with full gratitude for our benevolent Father’s loving care, for He is ever faithful and gracious.

I see 2022 with promise and hope.  Don’t you?

2022, the birth of a new dawn (Photo by Mary France Kim Pandes)

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