I can feel a shift in the air.
My heart and mind are open.
I feel like a new chapter is ahead of me.
I can’t quite put my finger on it,
but I know good change is on the horizon.
It’s been a while, but I love that gut feeling –
my intuition knows blessings are approaching.
And damn do I deserve all the good things coming my way.
I wake up every day excited for the unknown and what’s to come.
May the chapters get better and better as my story continues.
Finally, a page has been turned.
I’m a true believer in divine timing.
As cliché as it sounds:
What’s for me will never pass me.
And if it passes me, it wasn’t meant to be.
What’s mine will never have to be forced.
So, what a waste of time it would be to wallow in
anger over things that were never for me to begin with.
What is meant for me, will always be mine.
Even if I miss it at a wrong turn,
fate will bring it back time and time again.
Let situations come and pass as they do.
It’s easy to get hung up on the why and try to force fate.
But everything happens for a reason.
Don’t question the divine timing.
What enters your life is meant to enter.
And what exits your life is meant to exit.
What is meant for you will always be yours.
Once upon a time, life as I knew it began to fall apart.
I tried my best to keep it together.
But what goes up, must come down –
and damn did everything come crashing down.
When everything I knew life to be fell to ruins,
I looked around and saw that I was not alone.
My tribe was there, waiting to catch me,
refusing to let me fall straight on my face.
Those I’ve known through different stages of my life gathered,
helping me clean the mess life can sometimes make.
The immense amount of love and support was overwhelmingly beautiful.
I’ll never forget the love and unity I received during my rainy days.
I think back to it now and can confidently say: I didn’t do it alone.
I am strong because the people around me lift me up.
Life never goes as planned.
But there is no way I can ever lose in life
when I have loved ones cheering me on from the sidelines.
Blessed is an understatement.
I’m so thankful for my tribe.
You know who you are.
I am responsible for filling my own cup.
That was a lesson I had to learn time and time again the hard way.
I used to question why I would feel so drained and exhausted,
not realizing that I was willingly filling the cups of others to the brim.
And in the end, I was always left without.
On the flipside, when my cup was half full,
I would expect to get that same outpour.
I would show receipts of why my cup was empty,
and though they were valid, I was unknowingly repeating the same vicious cycle.
How did I expect lasting happiness when the moment someone filled me up, I immediately filled another?
I was tired of constantly feeling depleted,
realizing that I was doing it to myself.
It’s okay to fill the cup of others, but don’t neglect your own.
You are responsible for filling and maintaining your own cup.
How can you pour into others when you are half full?
Always fill yourself up first.
In another life, you live to be 100.
We still meet at your house every other Sunday.
In another life, the pandemic never happened.
All of the family stayed in the Bay Area.
In another life, we’re watching animals with you on TV.
Your laugh and utter entertainment is still so vivid in my head.
In another life, you live to see me get married.
I look for you in the crowd, grateful you’re there to witness it all.
In another life, my kids are excited to go to “Tatay’s House.”
I watch them play with their great-grandfather who is over 100 years old.
In another life, you don’t need your walker or cane.
You’re walking around freely and being independent – just how you wanted.
In another life, we’re all together and celebrating your 100th birthday today.
But this is not another life, and instead, I put flowers on your grave.
Today, we celebrate what would have been 100.
Oh, how sweet it would’ve been to celebrate a century of Jacinto Cabillo on Earth!
But right now, I’m confident you’re somewhere in your new life.
You’re celebrating with the ones you couldn’t have celebrated with here.
Oh, how sweet that must be for them to celebrate 2 birthdays and counting with you now!
We were lucky enough to have you as long as we did in this life.
Happy 100th birthday to the man that we’ll see in the next life.
We love you, Tatay.
Love Yourz Story 