I Come Back Like The Sea


                                                                    🌊🐚❀

I have always loved the Sea.

Its beauty, mystery, and wildness.


“It is the sea that pursues the habit of shore.”


That line in Gabu helped me understand something I couldn't put into words at the time. Life isn't about avoiding storms, it's about the practice of returning. Like the sea to the shore, I return to myself, even after experiencing moments of fear, doubt, or exhaustion.


After reading Carlos A. Angeles' "Gabu", I couldn't help but remember about my own restlessness as well as the unrelenting crashing of the waves. My life has been molded by events, errors, and moments of realization, just like the shore in the poem. Although the poem initially seems gloomy, even hopeless, there is a silent strength beneath.


I have many experiences where I felt like the sea. Calm and surging but sometimes restless and raging. Life can be as unforgiving as a storm-tossed sea, yet I always manage to get back up. There moments where I feel like drowning, exhausted, about to give up, and I'm breaking beneath the surface of my masked silence. But I come back somehow, like the tide pulled back to shore. The following day, as if nothing had broken inside of me moments ago, I arrived smiling through yesterday's tears, laughing at the jokes of my classmates, and sharing hot meals. My difficulties come in waves. Strong, erratic, and even overpowering, but the shore is my constant. My heart has a propensity of going back to peace with myself, other people, and myself. No matter how many times life draws me away, I keep going back to that peaceful shore, just like the sea in Gabu.


Perfection is not as important as consistency. Though it never forgets the coast, the sea never crashes in the same manner repeatedly. I now appreciate the days I just kept going and have learnt to forgive myself for my bad days. Whether it's a family member, or a best friend, having something to keep you grounded is crucial. I get stronger and more complete each time I fall and then get back up.


Strength, I learned, isn’t in always being okay, it’s in the decision to come back again and again. To try again. To show up even if you're barely holding on. That’s my habit of shore.I f you ever feel like you're trapped in an endless loop of crashing and breaking, remember: even the sea is relentless in its return. You, too, can keep going. You, too, can find your way back home. 



Popular posts from this blog

Bautista’s poem hints at established social and historical issues in the Philippines. Colonialism, injustice, political corruption, and poverty. "This country without history" refers to how the truth and voices of the masses are often silenced or forgotten, buried beneath the lies of those who possess the power. The author describes a country where people survive on “instant things” that are “delivered from evil” by a “man with a thin mustache”, possibly referencing a past political leader who offered false salvation. Poverty is a deep systematic problem that affects identity and hope.  The author used literary devices such as metaphor and irony to present the harsh reality of life in a Third World country in his poem. The line “My stomach is a ricefield” & “I learned all the words and broke them” shows how poverty is not just around the people, but it is carved into their very being. It’s a metaphor that turns geography into suffering, where hunger becomes a part of some...
Read more