So many reasons to be thankful*

Happy Thanksgiving! [I hope and pray you have a blessed, meaningful, and enjoyable Thanksgiving with your family and friends.]

[Here’s my Thanksgiving prayer: Almighty and loving God, I have a lot to be thankful for. First, I thank you for all the bountiful blessings and harvests you’ve showered us. Thank you for our dear families and friends, near or far, being together in these trying times. Thank you for the settlers that brought us life and freedom. Thank you for our government officials, who have worked for the greatness of America. Thank you to our new and re-elected leaders. And to our newly-elected president and vice-president, Donald Trump and Mike Pence, respectively, I thank you, and hope and pray that you’ll do your best to make America great again, and to help make the world a safer, peaceful place to live in.

Thank you, Lord, for our religious leaders for increasing and strengthening our faith.Thank you for our teachers and volunteers, our innovators and pioneers, our nurses, doctors and other caregivers, our police officers, our dedicated and hard-working farmers for all their contributions and efforts in making America a strong and great nation. Thank you for our journalists and social media professionals for informing us of what’s happening around the world. Thank you for our actors and singers, and writers and athletes for entertaining us and reminding us that, despite what’s going on in our country and around the world, we can still manage to celebrate our humanity.

Thank you, Lord, for all our Armed Forces, our servicemen and women who are here and abroad, fighting for freedom and peace, and also for their families and the sacrifice they make. I pray, Almighty God, that the homeless and the unemployed and marginalized will find shelter and comfort and employment.May your light and love shine before us all!. Amen.]

Let me tell you, I feel so blessed to be in America.I can’t thank her enough for what she’s done for my family and me.

I sure did realize my dream here, joining the U.S. Navy, becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1989, and retiring in 2005, after 20 years of honorable service to my adopted country.

So on this Thanksgiving Day, I sincerely thank you, America, for helping me realize the American Dream. I thank you for this wonderful, incredible freedom and democracy that my family and I cherish and enjoy.

As an American of Filipino ancestry, I proudly say how much I love this country where my two young adult children, Andrew and Tintin,  were born to my caring and loving wife, Freny, who has been teaching chemistry to our public high school students for almost two decades now. [Andrew’s an IT instructor for a non-profit organization and theatre actor based in DC, teaching computer skills to the underserved population there while Tintin's a school counselor working in one of the public middle schools in our state.]

Together with my younger siblings, who legally immigrated here, I had my first Thanksgiving Day in the United States 33 years ago at my sister Betty’s house in California.

Although I didn’t know much then about this traditional American celebration, I had a good time, because we had that big family Thanksgiving with lots of food and love. Man, that was the first and the biggest turkey I’ve ever seen in my entire life!

On a personal note, I’d like to express my profound gratitude to my sister Betty for being the most caring and loving Big Sister that she is. She made it possible for me and our younger siblings to legally immigrate here in 1983, and she became our second mother once we arrived.

I’ll be forever indebted and eternally grateful to her and my brother-in-law Dennis for their kindness and generosity.

May God bless our beautiful and colorful America! Again, wishing you all a blessed, happy and safe Thanksgiving!

-Chris A. Quilpa, a retired U.S. Navy veteran, lives in Suffolk. Email him at chris.a.quilpa@gmail.com.

*Appeared in the Opinion page of the award-winning Suffolk News-Herald, Thursday, November 24, 2016. For more information, visit www.suffolknewsherald.com.

NOTE: This is the original article submitted to the above-mentioned publication. However, because of space limitation, portions of the article, the ones with bracket signs [...] were not included in the final publication of the article.Thanks, everyone, for reading it.Do appreciate it.

Post-Election Day 2016 thoughts

(Author's Note: Below was written the day after the Election Day (Nov. 8, 2016) and submitted online to Res Spears, editor of the award-winning city newspaper, Suffolk News-Herald, for possible consideration-publication.)

Now that Election 2016 is over, let's pause for a moment to compose ourselves, breathe normally, have hope, and look forward to the future, and count our blessings. Thank God, we're alive and well...we made it through.

Congratulations, America, for having a newly-elected president and vice-president in the persons of Donald Trump and Mike Pence, respectively! May God bless US always!

Former First lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, has been trying to break the glass ceiling to be the first U.S. female president in history, inspiring the young female population with her intelligence and political experiences. But the soon-to-be 45th president of the United States, billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump, emerged victorious, defying all polls, projections, and pundits, with his kind of rhetorics and bravado during the presidential campaign.

"I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president of all Americans, and that is important to me," said Trump during his victory speech. "It's time for us to come together as one people."

Clinton, in her concession speech, mentioned about the rule of law and hoped Donald Trump would be a successful president. She was sorry for not winning and urged her allies, especially the young female Americans, "to never stop believing that fighting for what's right is worth it."

To those in the IT (Information Technology) industry and in the media, especially those who covered the election, and election officials and volunteers, kudos and keep up the great work of sharing your expertise and skills, helping others to become informed, involved, responsible, productive and participatory.

Personally, I congratulate all the political candidates, their families and campaign crew and staff, and volunteers who worked tirelessly during the election campaign season.

Yes, the most awkward, colorful, controversial, divisive, dramatic presidential election in the United States history is over and done.

Winners and losers, for the majority part, were already known, proclaimed, congratulated or have conceded, respectively. We have new and incumbent leaders who can be excellent and successful public servants. Some were newly-elected while others reelected, like our incumbent Suffolk mayor Linda Johnson.

We, the people, have spoken, with our voice, through our safeguarded votes. Now, it's time to move on...

Like one of the Catholic bloggers, Rev. Fr. Austin, I frequently follow or read, with his daily prayer posted on his blog, I do pray for "one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all."

Lord, I pray and meditate for unity for all of US, irrespective of who we are, what we look like, we believe in, we do in life (as long as we don't break the laws of the land and those of our Almighty God) for the sake of the United States and our world.

One of Fr. Austin's prayers, years ago, that caught my attention and I'd like to share it with you is this: "Lord, help us  remember that neither winning or losing excuses us from your command that we love one another with peace in our hearts and kindness in our speech...If I am in the winner's camp, Lord, keep me from being proud and haughty, snide and snarky...If I stand with the losing side today, Lord, keep me from being mean-spirited and bitter, from any self-indulgent spite...In the quiet of my prayer, Lord, humble my pride, tame any anger, strengthen my resolve and deepen my faith and trust in You...Send your Spirit of peace to reign in our hearts and help us work together, Lord, to serve the needs of all..."Amen, I say it loud and clear! May God bless us always! And God bless the United States of America.

Now, we can have all the time to rethink and ponder at what's good for our country and for the world. Let's all work together responsibly, non-partisan aside, with the winners, with God's abundant and amazing grace and blessings, to do what needs to be done in order to rebuild, recover, and make our country great again, and to work together towards a safer, peaceful world we live in.

-Chris A. Quilpa, a retired U.S. Navy veteran, lives in Suffolk. Email him at chris.a.quilpa@gmail.com.

31st and counting

Woke up this morning past four and used the restroom in our master's bedroom. Couldn't get back to sleep after I got back from emptying my bladder. Lying down beside my wife, listening to her breathing while in slumber, I let the time go by. But, then, some thoughts came up. I needed to get back, get back to the restroom but with a pen and a piece of paper. Ideas flowed like a running water from the sink's faucet...In haiku form, here's sharing with you what I scribbled, a poem originally in Ilokano language. (But I did the English translation while composing it one stanza after another). The poem was done at about 0539 this morning:

Ti Aniversariota                                         Our anniversary

Nadanon manen, Baket                              It's that time of year, my wife
aniversariota                                               anniversary
panaglantip pusota.                                    our two hearts became as one.

Agyamanak, Namarsua                             gratitude to our Father
dua bungata                                               blessed with two children
namnama pamiliata.                                  the hope of our family.

Tallopulo ket maysa                                  It has been thirty-one years
a tawen biagta                                           living life we have
napnuan ayat ken ragsak.                          full of love and happiness.

Biag a napnuan dangadang                       A life of battles-struggles
baliw-pannubok                                        changes-challenges
naparmek gapu't Ayat.                              overcome because of Love.

Adu pay a tawenta                                    More years for the two of us
ikararagta                                                  we pray-contemplate
rumungbo pamiliata.                                 our family grows-prospers.

(c) 2016 by Chris A. Quilpa                     (c) 2016 by Chris A. Quilpa

To my loving wife, Freny, thank you for being my wife and the mother of our two amazing and awesome children, Drew and Tintin. Thank you to our dear family members and friends near and far. May God bless us always!