Remembering

I remember sitting and talking with one of my friends about our childhood. Both of our childhood’s were vastly different, but they held one common bond. They were spent far away from where we reside now. 

My friend spent his childhood in a city somewhere a little south of San Francisco. He soon moved closer to San Fran which is where his family resides now ( the details are a little blurry but stick with me). 

I spent my childhood in the Philippines, but by age ten we uprooted and moved back to America - St. Petersburg, Florida to be specific. 

We both had left our childhood memories in a city that we don’t live in any more. And so now our memories are a faint recall, a wisp, just a glimpse.

All this to say, I miss my childhood, though I would never go back, but it is still nice to remember it. But there is a problem, my childhood is tied to a place that is as far away as a vast ocean and two continents. I have pictures and stories that help to take me back to that lifetime once more. But for some of you, you have lived in the same town and some house since birth. Your childhood seems more real to you. Mine sometimes seems like a dream, it is cloudy and comes back in pieces. So at times when I need to reflect and remember where I came from and what helped shape me the most I find these pictures and remember once more. This is my childhood: 

These are my brothers, some of my best friends in my life.

Caliraya, a resort in the Philippines were we held Field Conference. Also a place were I grew up. Yes, that is a volcano in the distance. I spent so much time running around that place.

This is the playground at the guest house in Manila, I wasn't born yet but this picture represents how much fun we had there.

Each facial expressions is so perfect.

Our house in Blue Ridge - that was the photo op door way

This two men mean so much to me.

Simple pleasures in life, like a coke in a bag or a bike ride around our neighborhood.

My childhood gang - the MK's

Those are rice terraces behind us - basically my backyard 

Our backyard in Cinco Hermanos, that cement wall fence had broken glass along the top as added security - perks of living in Manila.

Mount Mayon - this is the view from one of the beaches from the island where we lived.

Another view of Calirya, see that clay hill in between the resort and pool? On rainy days we would roll down it through the mud.