Conversations depicted herein were originally in Visayan

It wasn't much of what she said, but how she said it with so much disdain and loathing, "born again!"

"Did you know that your cousin is already a born again?!", my mother said with outrage over the phone. "What has she been thinking? Why has she allowed herself to be influenced by those kind of people? She has allowed herself to be tempted! Has there been anyone tempting you?", I don't offer a reply and thankfully she continues to rant off. "Do you know your grandmother is very angry about it? It's the family religion! Born a Catholic, die a Catholic. How can she betray her family? She's gone insane! When she(my cousin), went back home in Davao, she refused to go to church. What's wrong with her?! She's really gone crazy. Don, don't ever allow yourself to end up like her. Don't allow yourself to be influenced by people like that in manila, you're better than that! Has anyone approached you? Avoid them. Has there been anyone talking to you? There's nothing wrong with talking to Mary, or to the saints...we're not worshipping them. Your cousin has really gone crazy..."

"Ma, she's old already, maybe it's better to leave her to make her own decisions..." I manage to say in the end. Then I come up with something else to talk about coz it's hardly a topic I want to dwell in, for the moment.

When the phone conversation is finally over, I feel my chest sag with heaviness. One day, I will be the one they will call "insane", "a betrayer of the family",and "stupid"...amongst other things. But it is hardly the insults that worry me. But the thought that one day, I would have to stand by the truth I have found no matter what. Even if it means going against family. When that day comes, may God grant me the courage to pull through.

....

"When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow." -Anais Nin,