Sweet Serenity

Happiness

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service where they had been on vacation.

Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.

The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his life would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color of the rainbow. Grand old trees graced the landscape, and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the scene.

One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn’t hear the band he could see it in his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days and weeks passed. One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone. Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the world outside. Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it for himself. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.

It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall. She said, “Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.”

Epilogue…There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own situations. Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled. If you want to feel rich, just count all of the things you have that money can’t buy.

“SOMETIMES TO FACE YOUR FUTURE YOU HAVE TO LET GO OF YOUR PAST.”

If you’ve read my previous little post about my cute teddy shirts, then you’d probably be able to identify one of my weaknesses.

I’ve posted this photo in my other blog but let me post it again here. I’m really weird… whatever the item is, i often end up buying 2-3 or even 4 of them because i can’t pick the best color. Of course, if there’s pink, pink is the top choice. But what if there are lots of shades of pink? See above photo for the answer. Heheh! More items will be posted as evidences for this weakness or sickness perhaps. LOL!

You know i love countdowns. So whenever at home, i always make time to watch ‘Ang Pinaka’, a Sunday evening show on Q. They will list down some of the top interesting things/topics there is under the sun.

They featured The Top 10 Toxic People To Avoid last Sunday. And here’s what they have on their list according to their guests. They’re pretty self explanatory so before these type of people destroy you to pieces, you know what to do.

10. The Judgmental
09. The Parasite
08. The Know-It-All
07. The Dementor
06. The Kill Joy or Negastar
05. The Bastos
04. The Puppet Master
03. The User Friendly
02. The Plastics
01. The Traydor

Since nobody is perfect, i know, at one time or another, i have been or could be one of these toxic people. Are you?

Since, I have been busy with sleeping, eating and watching movies. I have really not accomplished most of the chores that i’ve been putting off everytime. But everytime i watch one episode, i can’t help but continue on with the next episodes. One friend said, i could live by without watching but i can’t contain my excitement! I know he said it because he ain’t watching American movies. Bleh!

Ok. Concentrate. I gotta do the following:
- arrange my clothes and beauty knickknacks
- iron the clothes
- arrange and clean all the shoes and sandals so i can readily use them (without cutting off from my preparation time for work)
- drop by the mall to buy fruits and cereals, nonstick pan and also buy diet pill as i really wanna headstart my weight loss drama (ows? come on, just ride with me)

I wonder though if i can do the above list. Especially that i just got the copy of the latest episodes of one of my favorite shows. Hmnnn. Crossing fingers here!

I was absent from work yesterday as I woke up to a severe backache. I badly need a massage and this massage has to be on a regular basis so as to permanently remove the muscle spasm. Not maybe permanently but to heal the ‘piang’. I can’t crash down physically now a days. I don’t have paid leaves anymore and leaves without pay is not a clever option. But my backpain is really pesky.

So, for one day of not opening my work email, i’ve accumulated hundreds of mails to read. I wasn’t able to save some of the shared movies yet so my computer was crying for system memory and storage capacity update. I immediately had to delete some files before my PC will crash down. I can’t imagine what would i do if it does happen. Knock on the wood!

Another crashing news. They let go of my offshore supervisor. I’m saddened by what i’ve heard. I sure will miss him, he’s cool actually.

More crashing news. Employees from world over are anxious what’s gonna happen in the next coming days. By employees, I’m talking about me and my coworkers. Tsk!

As what i’ve expected, the weather still wasn’t so good last weekend. It rained in the afternoon, all the more that i just spent most of my time sleeping and watching movies. Oopps i did some house chores as well. At least i get to move a little, a bit of exercise as i’m planning to buy some fat burners when i have the time to drop by the mall within this week. So you see, here’s my routine for the last weekends. Friday night, watch movies ’till Saturday morning. Sleep ’till late afternoon then eat. Then watch movies again until the morning. Whoaaahh!!!! That pretty explains my sagging lovehandles, lol! I love mellow weekends, the downside is just not pleasing.

Sunday Stealing: The ABC Meme

A – An advantage you have – have i got one? hmmnnn let me think more

B – Blue or brown eyes – brown

C – Chore you hate – ironing the clothes

D – Dad’s name – Zosimo and Primo, he got 2 names, irony none of these is registered, lol!

E – Essential start of your day – bath on weekdays, nice breakfast/meal on weekends

F – Favorite color – shades of pink and purple

G – Greatest thing you’ve ever done that made you feel really good – graduating college

H – Habit you have – have a pillow for my feet whenever i’m home

I – Issue you hate that the world tries to make you pursue – dealing with sometimes stubborn people

J – Job title – Software Validation Engineer

K – Kohls or Target – i’ve been to these stores before but we really don’t have one here in my country, so i can’t say which is which

L – Living arrangements – with my parents

M – Music you like – lots of, varied as long as i like the tune

N - Nicknames – Ylan, Lan, Lanux, Lanyx

O – Overnight hospital stay – yes, last year i was hospitalized for about 3 days

P – Pet Peeve – noisy places/people

Q – Quote that you like most – nah of all the quotes i like, with this question, i’m now blank lol!

R – Right or left handed – righty

S – Siblings – got 5, all girls

T – Time you wake up – late very late (thanks to flextime)

U – Underwear – i like them sexy but no tbacks please

V – Vegetable you dislike – okra among others

W – What makes you run late – bath time

X – X-rays you’ve had – chest xray annually, tooth xray last year

Y – Yummy food you make – i’m no good cook

Z – Zoo animal – hate or like? snakes are creepy!

It rained today - my fervent hope of a sunny weekend is blurry! I have a feeling it’s going to rain but i’m crossing my fingers. Just maybe it will be a fine day tomorrow…

Today’s a Friday - everyone else left the office early though i could count a few who stayed late. I no longer have exciting Fridays. Not that i used to have a pretty wild one but it’s never this ho-hum, boring. I pretty feel alone in my daily rundown these days. Let me count the ways:

1. The closest of friends are no way near;
2. The closest of friends have husbands/boyfriends who can only remember thy friend when the man of their lives are not around;
3. The peers in the office don’t usually invite me to their gimmicks; it’s either (or all):
a. they don’t find me fun to be with
b. they don’t think it’s cool to go out with their immediate supervisor
c. they just forgot about inviting me
d. they just don’t like me at all! (haha!)
4. I’m just getting old and the idea of fun is a scarcity to battle!
5. Ok. Do i need to stress this out? You’d ask anway - where’s your boyfriend? Yes. I’m single. No somebody to snag anytime, all the time and I’d rather not explain nor expound.

I’m not whining, really. Sometimes, it’s just a long day. And getting bored sometimes tweaks my mind and draws me to think senseless, oddly. I have much time for myself and for the things i wanna do. It’s great and I can’t complain enough.

You probably don’t get me. That’s okay. I’m actually just contemplating whether or not to leave an hour ealier or two hours and thirty nine minutes earlier! Whew! Nada, nada! Happy weekend!

P.S. What’s up with the photo?!? Told yah i’m bored! LOL!

Forecast:
Eastern Visayas will experience rains and gusty winds with moderate to rough seas. The rest of Visayas, Southern Luzon and Mindanao will have mostly cloudy skies with scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms. The rest of the country will be partly cloudy to at times cloudy with isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms mostly in the afternoon or evening.

Light to moderate winds blowing from the southwest will prevail over Luzon and its coastal waters will be slight to moderate. Elsewhere, winds will be light to moderate coming from the southwest to northwest with slight to moderate seas.

like the rain but not when it soils my shoe!

Waahhh my pants are so wet when i arrived at the office! The umbrella isn’t much of a help if it’s heavy rain plus wind. My feet are so cold i’d probably bring extra pants next time! Arrggh talk about hassle!

A colleague of mine is selling dragon fruit. She gets it fresh from their farm. I never know such fruit existed but it looks like Kiwi and i like Kiwi so i tried buying one the first time she sold the fruits in the office.

Turned out i like i really like this fruit (with mangoes still my number one) so i bought two pieces today. They are sold in kilos by the way.

According to some health sites, here’s what the dragon fruit can offer:

Fiber: Like many healthy, nutrient rich fruits, dragon fruit has lots of dietary fiber with almost 1g of fiber per 100g of the fresh fruit. Depending upon the degree of moisture retention in the dried pitahaya fruit, you can expect to see 10g or more grams of dietary fiber per 100g of the dried pitahaya fruit.

Cholesterol: Keeping a heart healthy low cholesterol diet is an important part of type 2 diabetes diet management for long term health benefit. You do not need to worry about your cholesterol level as dragon fruit is both low in cholesterol and has little to no unhealthy cholesterol producing fats (certain fats which are metabolized to cholesterol contribute to increased cholesterol levels more than even cholesterol itself in food sources of cholesterol). You might wonder why even mention dragon fruit cholesterol levels, but because of the number of seeds in the pitahaya fruit flesh, you do see some nutrients regularly seen in nuts and seeds as well as nutrients more typical of seedless edible fruits.

Vitamin C: Along with large amounts of beneficial dietary fiber, pitahaya fruit is also a great source of Vitamin C giving you almost 50% of your recommended daily Vitamin C intake requirements in 100g of the dried pitahaya fruit.
Antioxidants: Eat dragon fruit as an excellent natural source of anti-oxidants which help to prevent the dangers of free radicals which can cause cancer and other undesirable health detriments.

Fats: Interestingly, pitahaya fruit does have a small amount of fats because there are so many seeds in the edible part of the pitahaya fruit. There can be literally thousands of the small black seeds in any given dragon fruit, and like most seeds and nuts they have both fats and protein in them even though the flesh of the fruit itself has virtually none. Many fruits we eat have the seeds removed. We may not even think of them as seeds for fruits like apricots, peaches, apples and the like, so we tend to think of fruits as being completely fat and protein free. You would never eat an avocado seed, but you do eat pitaya fruit seeds. It would be literally impossible to remove the seeds from dragon fruit unless you pressed it through a strainer, as the seeds are very small and mixed evenly in the flesh. Fortunately these are mostly the healthy mono-unsaturated fats as, of course, they are not processed in any way and therefore are none of the dangerously unhealthy trans-fats seen in most junk food and processed foods.