What Brand Are You?

 

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This article was previously published at the Makati Feast Glorietta Bulletin last June 16, 2013.

Disgrasiyada. Immoral. Hiwalay. Sinner.

Believe it or not, these social stigmas are still being attached to single parents today. I don’t know if it’s just plain luck but in my 13 years as a single mom, I have yet to meet someone who would scoff at me and brand me with those words.

Curious enough the reaction I get upon introducing myself as a single parent --- especially to someone who is married--- is, “Ang swerte mo naman!” I receive that line so often that it always makes me think: are all married people that miserable? It is only recently that I realized the line is no better than the stigmas abovementioned since it is condescension veiled in humor. No matter what the case maybe, most people still don’t quite know what to make of us, how to compartmentalize us since we’re not so single and not really married either. Funny thing is, even us single parents don’t know what to make of our statuses as well!

This and many other oh-so-real issues are what we share, listen to, cry about and laugh about at the MaSiPaG(Married Individuals and Single Parent) Caring Group of the Makati Feast which meets twice a week. I could very well say that this is my and my son Marti’s 3^rd home, apart from our family and that of the Makati Feast because this is where our relationship began to flourish, where we learned to respect and accept each other’s differences and to trust everything to God.

At MaSiPaG, listening to new members who are still in their journey towards healing and forgiveness, the old members see the past that we all went through and realize, by God’s Grace, how far we’ve come. And listening to our stories, we see hope in the faces of the new members, realizing that one day they would also reach that stage in their lives where they finally heal and move on. It is in these moments where I learned to be compassionate of others, finding the meaning of service and accepting that God brought all of us to this path, designing our lives to become testimonies to His Love, Mercy and Grace.

So no matter how others may see or brand us, at the end of the day what’s really important is how we brand ourselves and I hope it would be this: beloved, beautiful and blessed. Because, after all this is the brand that our Creator beholds us with.