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URDUJA GALLERY

Moi Moi Ma Kuya
In Honor of Joseph Edades Zabala
March 28, 2006

I opened the package with my hands shaking, not knowing why, not what was inside the padded envelope. Tears streamed down my eyes. A literal waterfall as soon as I saw these images etched in silver, nine in total. Alibata. And I saw each sibling, my mother, my father, my aunt, standing right before me. My father's arm placed on my shoulder, as my feelings, and the unification of his wife and children evoked his presence. I named each sibling by their full name in order from my Kuya to my kapatid lalake. My son, Kawaiola Joseph, named after my father stayed at my feet, mesmerized by my tears.

The next package. A crimson box encosed. I open it. Deeply breathing. I am the fifth child, born on the fifth day of the fifth month in araw years. I place the pendant, the fifth jewel over my head, tighten the straps around my neck and wear it directly upon my skin. Perhaps it was the longing, the evocation, the ancestral knowledge, the ancestral memories. Perhaps it was the energy of the jeweler, the etchings of endearment that my parents called each other.

The pendant began to vibrate. I wore the pendant the rest of the evening just below my clavical. The heat produced in that spot alone was overwhelming. I placed the pendant between the palms of my hands. They began to warm up. I now had a sphere of energy that I guided over each chakra. My prayer: Bathala, please keep me connected with the healer within. Let this energy flow from me, to the creator and back to each sibling in the divine order in which we came unto this earthly world.

Joseph Edades, Lisa Marie, Danielle Basillia, Naomi Aurora, Sonya Florencia, Jennifer Francis, Marc Jason Xavier and to my mother Ida Maxine, who raised us with unconditional love. My vision: My father and mother in a healing embrace. Smiles worn effortlessly from ear to ear. In walks my auntie, Maria Gloria Edades Zabala Powell. And I hear their voices in resonating unison. Moi, Ma, Kuya.

Maraming Salamat Ann. You have help to bind my family, in honor of my father's birthday. Your gifts are tremendously healing, vibrating healing energy throughout the universe in every work of art you create. Ang asawa ko & I, and my mom and now all my sisters and brothers wear your rings and amulets. But this is the first time I was ever so humbled.

Sonya Zabala

PAG-SILANG
Birth

Feminine Spirit rises
Mother reaches out
Womb and Water
nurturing and nourishing

Spirit cries out
gives forth
unlocked secrets
new found freedom

now. We can Share.....
Celebrate in
Rawness of light
likas, lakas loob
Radiating, crystalline
who-we-are’s

Year of the Rooster Dinner & Art Auction
March 2005
Wing Luke Asian Museum
Seattle, Washington