Each Moment Counts

House scenes last Saturday night after my work:

No child opening the door for me and taking my hand for a “bless”.
No wife to greet and kiss me as I enter the house.
No cooked food waiting for me on the dining table.
No “today’s highlight” stories as I ate my dinner.
No new gimmicks to be presented.
No small arm pulling me away from the table to the playroom.
No extra dishes for me to wash.
No child for me to hand-feed while moving around the house
No running and goofing around the house before sleeping.
No snuggling and wrestling on the sofa while watching a TV show.
No dancing child during jingles of commercial ads.
No child’s pee for me to wipe off the floor.
No “washing” time before going to bed.
No family prayer before sleeping.
No goodnight kisses.
No sleeping wife and child to watch in their serene sleep.
No “Rocky Balboa” punches and kicks during the night from a tossing toddler.

The next day I woke up.

No feeding bottles to wash.
No “big” breakfast to prepare for.
No good morning kisses.
No small arm pulling me away from anything I am doing.
No child watching and singing (sometimes mumbling) along the “Servant of all kids VCD”
No running and goofing around the house.
No “bath time”.
No “nappy-time”.
No walking around in the afternoon.
No trip to the nearby supermarket.
And so on and so forth.

It was my first weekend away from my wife and son.I would have felt a lot better if not for the fact that this “empty” weekend (and weekdays) will be going on for another 3 months or so.

You see, my wife is 6-month pregnant and has to go back to Philippines until our new baby is born.Considering the many positive benefits of being with families and relatives who can look after them most of the time, the wise decision at this stage is for them to go home. It is not going to be easy but I have to keep myself productively busy to fight my “separation anxieties”.

So for those of us who have the blessing of being with our loved ones at this moment, please use your time of togetherness to make them happy, to listen to their needs and dreams, to be more patient with them, to laugh and have fun with them, to comfort them, to appreciate them.

Make them feel loved by you.

We will never know when our “empty” weekend will come.Maybe it will just be one weekend, maybe several weekends.Inevitable is the fact that one unforeseeable “forever” weekend-away is allotted for each one of us.Let us not wait for that one.I read somewhere that a simple act of kindness is far better that the grandest intention because of time difference – the action happens now while intention happens later (with chances of never happening at all).

Seize the opportunities.
Make each moment with your family counts.

God bless all our families.