Nanay's kamuning

My mother's tiny garden is awash with fragrance. When I opened the windows at 5:30 am, I was treated to a sweet-smelling aroma coming from the garage. The source: her two kamuning trees (Murraya paniculata), offering their flowers this month of May, traditionally their blooming period. Their flowers are short-lived, which makes their existence even more special. As soon as the bees hop on them, or when rain drops fall from the sky, the flowers detach, falling to the ground like snow.

I wake my mother up from sleep. I pour her a cup of coffee and tell her to enjoy the lavish treat from the kamuning.

She tells me that she once overheard a Tagalog-speaking lady who walked by the street asking around, "Saan ang mabangong hardin?" It's a story Nanay keeps repeating.

"This is my Father's world," I sing in my soul...

And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world:
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas--
His hand the wonders wrought."