Middle age came to me as an unwanted surprise, a thief in the night, a gnarly traffic jam I can’t get out of, this unwieldy beast I find so hard to tame. But also, it wasn’t like I hadn’t known it was coming. The telltale signs had appeared here and there: white hair so difficult to cover up, eyesight that…
I cannot recall when it hasn’t rained on our birthday, an occasion I’ve shared with my sister three years my junior. Year on year, it’s marked by cancelled schooldays or wet workdays as gloomy skies drench the earth at my side of the world. An unforgettable one would be a weekend when I was turning 9 or 10, and for…
It’s the middle of June and under normal circumstances, it would have been a great time to look back at the year so far. See, at work, this month marks the end of our business year, and so, at this time, we would’ve been wrapping up projects, planning out new ones, finalizing yearend reports, celebrating victories. What a sweet time…
I don’t know why this one is taking me ages to write. Not that I have been lacking in deep thoughts or funny anecdotes or just middle-of-the-road, relatable kind of stories. On the contrary, there had been too much of it, really. These thoughts have been following me around, the way my cat did, in all of the three days…
Day 26 of having to work from home, and technically, Day 23 of the metro’s Enhanced Community Quarantine, or ECQ. I am writing this at what I consider to be the most unprecedented period in our lives — a pandemic that at this point has obliged people to stay home, tested the resilience of our healthcare workers, and claimed thousands…
Friends whom I haven’t seen for a while tell me there’s something different about me — is it your hair, did you get a tan, you’re aglow, whatever it is just keep doing it, they say — and I say thank you, shrug my shoulders, and silently agree. I can’t say there’s inner peace just yet but I’m trying to…
It’s Maundy Thursday, and our neighborhood is silent. Well, there’s the occasional vehicle cruising by but the only thing I hear is my next door neighbor’s half open front door squeaking from the breeze. Browsing through my social media shiz and seeing everyone leave for the long weekend, it feels kinda lonely, in a way. And though I’ve had friends…
It’ll be a decade since I’ve been diagnosed with CKD. A decade. And though I’ve always said that I don’t let my condition define me, through life’s layers and schedules and milestones, it somehow does. My workweek is blocked off mornings for MWF treatments and as much as I want to make most of my awake time, I’ve always had…
Not quite sure if it’s by design or if my state of affairs just naturally fell into place. Maybe it’s both but at this point I’m just relieved that the worst of times has ended and this month has brought a sprinkling of shiny prospects worth getting excited about. I say it’s by design because at the tail end of…
Sitting at my hotel lobby, I’m waiting for the appointed hour for me to leave the island so that I don’t wait too long for my flight. Chris, my new friend, will be here soon and we’ll have one meal to share before he walks me along the dirt road so that I can take a ride to the jetty…
Last weekend, having emerged from the cosmic slump which describes October, I pulled the lastest of my resolve and ended up hatching a brainchild: go somewhere, anywhere, because I need a recharge for my life. Friday noon, during that one-hour window between treatment and work, a quick internet search led me to a promising 4-day meditation retreat, where I was…
We’ve had our share of inconveniences, when life nudges one out of reverie because, well, life. In my case, it had been an Uber ride cancelling on me on a particular day that I am running late for a meeting. It may well be the incessant notification alerts from everything social media. It’s forgetting my water bottle during treatment and I’m…
Finally Dee 