changes

This story changed my life.

A Mother and her daughter was walking home from school when they stopped at a fruit vendor. While the Mother was browsing thru the selection, the vendor gave the girl an orange. The girl excitedly showed her Mom the orange she she said.

" Now dear, What do we say to the nice man?"

Her daughter, after examining the fruit, stretched out her arm to the vendor and with a smile replied "Peel it!"

This was from the book The Daily Bread, the little inspirational literature with a story for each day of the year. I already misplaced my copy (since it was circa 1998 or 1999, I think) and I ernestly tried to tell this story verbatim. The moral of the story was that most of us fails when it comes to appreciating the small blessings that have just been given to us, like the little girl in the story. Sometimes we are all focused on wishing for the things we want and forget to give thanks on the things we receive, most of which is what we actually need. There's actually another proverb about this...

"God always answers our prayers. He says Yes I'll give you what you want.
He says wait, it is not yet time or He says No and gives you something better."

My life was a mess back then. I'm not in trouble or something but I just hit some bumps in the road in all aspects of My life. I was actually depressed. Everything was stagnant, my work, my love life and life at home. My work has become really boring, monotonous even. I've just had my heart broken and I've also played with the feelings of another girl, something I promised myself I wouldn't do. My relationship with my family was a mess. Not even a bunch of inspirational books lifted my spirits, but this story changed all that.

Every morning I read the passage for that day. I was just going through the motions of my routine and then it hit me. I did not move for a few minutes as mixed emotions rushed through me and for the first time in a long while, I was in tears. How could I've been so stupid and not realize this earlier. It would have saved me a lot of grief and distress.

I went to work later with renewed faith and hope that whatever what happens, I'm still thankful just to make it through the day. We can't avoid change and time changes everything. Let's just hope that everything changes for the better.

P.S. I started this post with just 1 niece and finished with 2. Two kids now calls me Tito as my sister gave birth by CS to a healthy baby... i don't know exactly as I didn't pester my Mom with the details. It's a good thing that "Milenyo" has passed already before she went into labour.