"7 AM the usual morning line up. Start on the chores and sweep 'til the floor's all clean. Polish and wax, do laundry and mop and shine up. Sweep again and by then it's like 7:15..."
I once could relate to this song. I think I still sometimes do. The difference between me and Rapunzel, though, is that while she complains of doing the same thing everyday and finding herself with nothing else to do, I'm whining about doing everything, the same thing everyday and still can't seem to finish anything!
I'm sure I'm not the only one.
Ever since I could remember, I've always woke up at 5 in the morning. It began when I started school when I was only six. Living an hour drive away from the school, we have a school jeepney that picked us up from the house and brings us to the school and back in the afternoon. It's funny, but I still clearly remember Mang Domeng, and fondly at that.
From grade school to high school, we were trained to wake up at 5 so we could shower and eat breakfast. When I went to UST, I continued the practice even when I started working. It just became a habit.
I don't know when I started feeling the stress of it all but after proudly serving the City of Edmonton for ten years, I've decided to resign. Believe me, if taking 150 calls a day brought me tremendous pressure, the first days of doing nothing at home gave me a whole new level of hysteria!
It was a struggle! But I've started training myself to slow down. Yep. I am training myself to slow down. When I have trouble sleeping and my mind starts running wild planning for tomorrow, I stop my train of thoughts and place my mind in an empty, quiet room. In the morning, when I wake up way too early and couldn't go back to sleep, I read the Bible or listen to a quiet music. If that doesn't work still, I go down and drink a warm milk tea. And when I'm at the mall, I stopped watching the time and checking the bus schedule and instead, I force myself to enjoy the moment.
With or without the aid of an alarm clock, I still wake up at 5. I can't help it, but instead of rushing to the washroom to shower and get ready for work, preparing baon and eating breakfast, I now try to just breathe! Take a moment to empty my head of all these things that I'm supposed to do and just breathe. Read my verse for the day. Listen to soothing Christian music. Take a deep breath. Stretch. Ask God to slow me down.
Unfortunately, most of us are just so used to rushing we no longer have time to enjoy life as we should.
Stop and smell the flowers.
I know how people scoffs at the millennials for their pursuit of work-life balance but I think that's precisely what we all need. Balance! Which I never thought of in my younger years when all my energy was spent on work. I can't even remember ever taking a vacation while I was still living in the Philippines, except for church related or work organized travels!
And I'm paying dearly for it.
God had to bring me to Canada to look at life with new eyes.
I love Philippines. That will never change, but, here, God showed me how precious though short and fragile life is that I've learned to appreciate life more. Here, I see the value of God's creation, great and small and in all forms... which help me appreciate myself more. I think I'm starting to see God's reason for bringing me here.
"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them." - Matthew 6:26
This verse has always been one of my favourites. When I start to worry, I look around me and scold myself "why am I worrying? Am I not much more valuable than the birds outside my window?" When I start to panic and have the urge to charge into the day, I remind myself "when did God ever left me alone to fend for myself?" Everything I have is from the Lord. Everything I am, is because of Him.
Today, if you have this urge to run into the busyness of this world, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and think of nothing... I assure you, in that nothingness, you will find peace... in that peace, you will find joy... in that joy, you will find strength... in that strength, you will find purpose... and in that purpose, a fulfillment.
Let me leave you with this nice quote:
“Every sunset is an opportunity to reset. Every sunrise begins with new eyes.”
— Richie Norton
Have a great weekend! God Bless! 😇
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