IT WAS a tough day for the three of us. It was going to be another hectic day and we were all still tired from the previous day’s full schedule. And we all knew how bad it was going to be even before we got up from our bed.
And just when we needed to have a good head start, the three of us overslept. Perhaps due to the stress plus my menstrual period, my body clock did not wake me up as usual at 4:00 a.m. My husband turned off the 5:30 a.m. alarm and went back to sleep. At about 6:30 a.m., I woke up freaking out. By this time, all three of us should be getting dressed already! Instead, the two sleepy heads were still snoring and my eyes were trying to close themselves despite the panic that my brain was sending all over my body.
It was chaos. I was trying to get my husband to hurry while at the same time reprimanding him for turning off the alarm and going back to sleep while at the same time getting the little one to wake up and reprimanding her for her slow motion mode while at the same time trying to get myself ready to start another stressful day.
As I was attending to something else, my husband and our five year old snapped at each other in the bedroom with the little one ending up crying and insisting in taking some more precious minutes to finish her drama before she would even dress for school.
Toward lunch, our daughter heard our exchange of unkindly words due to irritation and frustration. Dear husband went to the bedroom where our daughter was reading. The two had a temporary ceasefire of their morning quarrel and were now seeking comfort in each other. I overheard our five-year-old say to her dad, “Life is hard.”
It was a really tough day and yes, it was a life-is-hard-kind-of-day.
But when all is said and done, we are still family. At the end of the day, we all know that we could not end the day with ill feelings.
When hubby arrived home from a day full of client meetings, he found me quietly relaxing and waiting for the painkiller to take my menstrual pain away. Since the sky was already dark, our daughter was taking advantage of her iPad time and was playing games, trying to amuse herself. All three of us were ready to forgive each other for letting stress get the better of us.
Hubby gently cajoled his “girls” to go on a ride downtown to buy whatever we wanted to eat, go somewhere we liked or shop for something we wanted. At that point, I was too tired to even go out of the house and the little one was into her game. But the life-is-hard-day has to have a happier ending, right? So off we went.
As we were going down the J.R. Borja Bridge, two trisikads were slowly moving in front of us. It was a family convoy. The first one was driven by the father and it was loaded with tables and things which I guessed were for a makeshift barbeque stand. The second one was driven by the mom and it was full of large containers. Their little child was sleeping in the second trisikad.
There we were, de-stressing at the end of our day, wasting gas and on the way to rewarding ourselves with what our money could buy and right in front of us was this family of three whose day was still starting and who perhaps did not have the spare cash for a spontaneous self-reward.
The three of us were humbled. Yes, life is hard, but it could be harder and it is harder for some people. Thank you God for reminding us.
Cheers to living life!
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