life

I wish planning for one's life is as easy as planning for a child's birthday party. In a party, you know who you're going to invite, what you're going to serve, what games would be played, what time you're going to start and finish, what gifts would make your kid squeal with glee.

In life, you don't know who your friends will be, how long you'll live, how many times your heart will be broken, how important the lessons learned are, how little time there really is for love. Sometimes you find out that it's the smallest things that mean the most, like playing in the rain with your child, or coming home one hour earlier so the family could have a funny dinner together. In life, you don't know the gifts you're being handed; you don't know when you're getting them; and you don't know if it's a gold nugget or a jack-in-the-box that's going to hit you in the nose.

Two years ago we lived in a house that had fifteen adults and two toddlers. The water supply came at 3:00 a.m., the house badly needed a coat of paint, and we only had one curtain. Now our house has two spare bedrooms, two bathrooms, and all the water we want. We have four dogs.

One year ago, my idea of an exciting getaway was a day at Island Cove Resort, something that I'd have to save up for about a year. Now I can afford to bring all four of us to Hong Kong Disneyland for Christmas.

Life sometimes give you the most unexpected surprises. My appointment here is good for three years. After that, I don't know. But for someone who three months ago was dreaming of being able to afford monthly trips to the province, I can now dream of going to other countries.

Life has been good to us. I hope I won't forget to be thankful for all these, to take things one day at a time and enjoy it fully, much like reading a book one page at a time, picking up the good passages and the lessons, learning something from each page, so that at the end, when you close the book, you can sit back and tell yourself, 'Well done.'