health is wealth

and I must say we had some problems with our health the last few weeks. It must be the change in the seasons. My hubby and I were hit mid-March with a throat infection with streptococcia. No its not strepsils nor is it stroke, God forbid... hehehe... We were just listless and feeling wan. For my hubby that's a record coz he's the most resistant of us all. Ako mapawisan lang, then I have a cold agad or cough.

Well, to continue with my story, since both of us were at home, Aidan was always with us and naturally he also got it. Geez, talk about frustrations. So when we were slowly getting better, he was getting worse and the poor guy just sitting there without energy. Paul got better altogether but my case was different. Up until now I still have coughing bouts and its a real "kahol" I tell you. My eyes have started itching too and I sneeze quite often so I suspect that my hay fever thingy has started. I have a permanent itch right under my nose and its really embarassing when I have an itch attack and someone's in front of me... dyahe! It's really one of the places that can't be scratched in public so the moment I'm alone, I just scratch till I'm in heaven... whahaha...

Now Aidan, was not so lucky neither. From the infection we passed him, going through the antibiotics, he started having a stomach flu. And that really got me worried. Imagine that for 3 days he could not eat nor drink anything. Everything he takes in goes out either by spitting it or sh*tting it... I tell you, by the third day, boy, did he lose weight! And its such a weird sight because he's always so energetic and playful. And then of course there is always this fear that it would never stop, he'll never get better and then we're in deep trouble. Talk about reflections, man! And the whole time we just felt helpless... coz we can't do anything to cure him. The only thing we could do was comfort him and tell him he's going to be fine soon... and probably pray a little bit...

Then it was the sun after the rain, finally he was slowly drinking stuff and keeping it. The next day, he was eating something and he did not throw it up like he used to and I can't help but give this big **SIGH** and a little prayer... "Thanks Lord for making us feel better again!" By the time I got back from Rome*, he was like his old self and he even put on a bit of weight... He's talking his baby gibberish and running all over the place. And I just was thankful that our wealth of health is replenishing itself.

(*I went on a five-day trip to Rome for the Pope. Story coming soon! Uhm, next month like??? Hahaha! Hope not.)

When enough is enough

We all know that nobody is perfect and that each of us both has the positive and the negative aspect of our personality. We learn to live with ourselves but then what about other people? Some just can’t take our personality because a positive aspect we think we have can be perceived as negative by another person. Misinterpretation, malice and other whatnots can cause a relationship to deteriorate.

When we go through life, we find friends along the way and part of having a friend is learning to live with each other and accepting each other as who we really are. This is the difference between an acquaintance and a friend. A friend knows my guts and its ok. As donkey pointed out in Shrek “Friends… forgive each other”. But before one reaches that stage, we have to start getting to know the other person first and what makes them tick. It’s all part of the ball game.

We start with throwing jokes at each other, which is great fun specially if the group are on the same wavelength and the simplest phrase can arouse a mighty guffaw of fun and laughter. But there are times when our humor can be tasteless and be “below the belt” so to speak. Instead of having fun, we end up making fun of another person, or worse, be the person everyone is laughing at. But to know the limit is really very tricky. One must be extra sensitive when it comes to the feelings of the other person but sometimes, blinded by the sheer enormity of the banter, we tend to continue joking to the point of exaggeration and we end up hurting someone. Or as I said, being hurt.

In this case, there are some who are able to say, “enough is enough” and “hey that’s too much”. And the other party should be sensible enough to know when to stop. This is the ideal situation but this is mostly not the case. Some tends to just throw a half-laugh on the whole thing and bottle up the hurt inside and when the time comes, burst to finally expressing themselves or worse reach the point of no return. And once the circle of trust is broken, it is very difficult to bring it all back again. I’ve had that and I tell you it’s a very sad situation.

So what I’m finally pointing out is that to be able to enjoy real friendship, we need to set our limits. Human beings are creatures of limitation. It is important that we keep a certain distance with each other to enjoy each other’s company. Its like two trees, we cannot be too close or too far. One must know how to put that limit and let the other know where the limit is. That the other person knows if the limit is being set and where. That way we maintain our respect for each other. It also very important to always maintain an avenue of communication open because we are not psychic to be able to guess what’s going through the other person’s head. And to keep in mind that in order to live a wonderful life, one must accept one's self and the people around us.

dear jay

Day by day I spend my time with you and I always marvel at our complicity together. You are always someone I can depend on and I am never afraid of saying the wrong things to you because you know me and you’d understand. I know that we have our own things to do these past few weeks and we have not really gone on a really formal date for a long time but despite all that I know that deep down our connection is never broken and somehow just the touch of your hands makes my day feel better. Sometimes I wonder if there would be a time when all of this will end as all of these things shall pass. How will I cope? What will I do? When even a day without you seem unbearable and abnormal. Ours is not a giddy love but a comfortable easy-does-it thing and sometimes I wonder if its the best kind of love there is. Then I think again and I realize that what is important is that it works for us. That we are happy. That we are together. That you complement my weakness and my strength and that I complement your weakness and your strength. That through family, through friends and through situations, we are one. That even if others don’t see this, we do see it reflected on ourselves. Is that presumptuous? Maybe but right now that is our reality and I just take that reality now than submerge my thoughts into imaginings.

You said the sweetest thing to me last night. That I gave you a wonderful son. You don’t know how that touches my soul and how that made my day and how it made up for all those times when being a Mom is so hard and frustrating. That there is someone like you who see who I really am and appreciate me as I am. Thank you my love. I know that whatever we have is a blessing and I will always cherish that gift. And I certainly wish that our love, our trust, our hope, our faith, our understanding and our friendship will last this lifetime.

Ich hab’ dich lieb bis zum Mond und zurück.