Tales from the Cusp - A delicious and creative life.
  • Cooking
  • Making
  • Life
  • The Garden Upstairs
Cooking
Making
Life
The Garden Upstairs
Tales from the Cusp - A delicious and creative life.
  • Cooking
  • Making
  • Life
  • The Garden Upstairs
Life

The Long Goodbye

I write mostly about happy things, but sometimes it gets tough as you probably know. One of the toughest things is when you lose somebody you love. My uncle, Tito Boy, passed away last week. And as hard as it is to write this, I can’t pretend that everything is alright. He’s the man in the middle in the photo above. My Mom and Dad and brother Roby, are on the left. Also in the photo is my beautiful late grandmother (we called her Mita), my cousin Lani, my Aunt Nona and my late godfather, Dexter.

Tito Boy was a fixture of my magical, small-town childhood. He loved me, my siblings and my cousins like he did his own kids, and was beloved by all of us in return. He was a sugar planter and a businessman, and was one of the gentlest, most patient people you could ever know. His favorite uniform consisted of faded jeans, sneakers, and a baseball cap, that shaded his tanned and freckled skin. A giveaway of his love of a simple life near the sea that he loved so much.

Nearly four years ago, he was diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease. His health waned steadily. And although he had bravely survived Typhoon Haiyan, the storm took such a massive toll on his spirit and on his already fragile health. We kept hoping that he would somehow recover, but he never did.

read more >
Life

Back To School, Ready Or Not

It’s back-to-school week in our neck of the woods. Summer is officially history and we’re going full swing into another school year of homework, craft projects, birthday parties, meal planning and wardrobe arguments, mostly with my daughter, Caroline, who is fiercely opinionated about what she wears. For the record, she’s more immune than I am to those ubiquitous looms. When it comes to her red riding hood jacket however, there’s no fight. And she wears it most days as the start of school here always falls right at the beginning of rainy season.

read more >
Life

We Are Not the Same

‘Tis the season of the welfie, that selfie hybrid where you take a photo of yourself working out at the gym. Admittedly, all the wave of welfies at the start of the year pushed me into a frenzy of yoga stretches, old ballet moves, pre-dinner brisk walking, and swimming in Gabby’s old tri-suits in frigid 6 AM pool water. It was, in Stingo’s words, a kind of “small-scale madness”. Well the photo above is not a welfie. I am not working out. In it I am gaunt and sleepless. I am not well. Something happened to us.

read more >
Life

Where is Summer?

Childhood summers are the best, because they are carefree in a way like they will never be again. Growing up in Ormoc, a quiet city by the sea, summers meant endless play in my grandmother’s spacious house, and in the family farm that was fifteen minutes away. It meant climbing old trees, lazy hot afternoon siestas, star gazing picnics, and swimming in the sea ’til we became like salt dolls.

Sometimes my parents would take us on the slow boat to nearby Cebu for short vacations. And then later to Manila or the foggy northern city of Baguio where city folk took refuge from the heat. Later in high school and college, summer might bring a boy, and sometimes some heartache. But it was always an adventure.

Whatever it brings, summer is not about when, but where or how and with whom. This year I feel blessed to be able to take the kids away from the city. Hoping they make good memories so that summer becomes eternal in their minds. And maybe I’ll climb those trees again and take lots of siestas. Again. And I will swim in the sea, my old friend, if it will have me. I will swim in the sea, and the sea inside.

What are your plans this summer? I hope you have a good one, and thanks for reading.

Also, check it out. This beautiful secret (for now) beach, this perfect local summer snack, printed espadrilles, this breezy top, and the top ten free free things to do in New York.

*Photo by Ina Amor Mejia

Life

Habits of a Slow Life

This week over Facebook my mom told me, “Hurry is one of the saddest things in the world.” I thought about that very briefly. But only because, lately, hurry has been the operative word in my world. I haven’t had time for reflection, the deep kind. For peace and quiet. For that inner life. It’s just been all about work and to do lists. All about deadlines and getting from point A to point B with all possible speed. The weekends bring a small respite from the stress but it always returns on Mondays, and with a vengeance. So when a Saturday road trip, the first one of the year, presented itself unexpectedly the other day, promising to take me away from all this relentless hurrying, I did what every depleted, exhausted and harried person would do. I said yes.

read more >
Page 3 of 4«1234»

ABOUT THE BLOG

Tales in Your Inbox!

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

COPYRIGHT © 2020 · Tales from the Cusp. All rights reserved

For Caroline & Jamón

About / Contact / Facebook / Instagram