Writer's paradise (",)

It’s Wednesday, December 8th. I am on my fifth night in Iloilo City. The adjustment was easier compared to….ah never mind the comparison.

I am in a staff house and I feel welcomed. It’s nice in here. I have my own room and there’s a toilet and bath. There’s a big entertainment room with a huge TV set. I like it immediately. Most especially that the TV provides cable channels. Who doesn’t love cable TV? There’s WiFi, too. Talk about amenities. God is good. There’s also a spacious dining area with kitchen. At the back, there’s a viewing deck where you can see a river. Hmmm. Writer’s paradise. But I haven’t maximized it yet. I have been busy the past three days. Maybe this weekend, I can maximize the deck. Amalia and Joyce are good to me, as well as the male residents. They say, “Now we have a muse”. Haha. Muse it is!

I left Gen Santos on Friday. I rested overnight in Cebu City in my childhood friend Emcy’s house. She fed me. Wonderful. I just love being with her. I’m always filled.

The following afternoon, I flew to Iloilo City. I was fetched at the airport. I requested the driver to drive to a “Batchoy” house as I desired right away to savour this Ilonggo delicacy. Then we drove to the staff house and I unpacked. You might say that I make it sound so easy. Well, it’s not. Major life changes require lots of courage and adjustment. Whew! You will go through doubts – that’s when you need to mobilize your prayer network. You can also get discouraged and uninspired – that’s when you need pep talk from your friends. And most importantly as you process all the angst, you need to talk things out with your family. In my case, I had lots of talk with my teenagers. It’s important they understand the situation. Talk, talk, talk. What a relief that we can speak.

It’s Friday now. Since I arrived here, it was always raining and the temperature is cold. I can only remember Sunday as a warm afternoon; the rest of the days were wet just like this afternoon. I have survived my first week. Success! Like I told my friends, let’s count it by days so we can manage the angst better. It’s less stressful. Chop the chunk into bits and pieces, as they say.

Tomorrow, I will be looking for a place to stay. I hope God will lead me to the right place and right neighbourhood. I still have nine working days to go before I visit home for the Christmas holidays. Time to be reunited with loved ones and friends. This time, I will travel sans luggage. I will just carry myself. Yehey no stress! The lightest that I travelled in the past was with a backpack which was admittedly a new practice that I adopted while serving Visayas for some eight months. This time, I will adopt a more hassle-free practice: I will carry myself and my shoulder bag only. Boy! I look forward to this trip. No luggage; no backpack; no laptop. Just me!

Lest I forget it, I want to thank my ever-patient doctor: Dr. Naat Montemayor for the check-up and prescriptions before I left. Oh, on top of the anti-asthma medication, I now have to use the nasal spray for rhinitis and another medicine for rhinitis management. Well, she says my immune system is poor, and asthmatic as I am, my rhinitis is also playing tricks on me, thanks to the cold season. Even then, thank God for great doctors, medicines and the resources to buy medicines. But of course, you have to trust the Greatest Physician to take care of you. After all, health is a gift. So even as we take on our medicines, we know whom to anchor our faith on – the Greatest Physician. But the greatest learning I had all these years that I’m asthmatic is to accept my weakness and limitation, and not fret about it. But human as we are, we can’t help but feel anxious and sometimes hopeless. I’m very fortunate that I have friends and teenagers who rally me to go ahead and be well. So, if you’re on medication right now for hypertension; asthma and what have you, I can only tell you to follow your doctor’s instructions. It won’t be easy at times, especially when it costs much but God will always bring relief when the situation gets tough and troubling. He always does.

I am about to get hungry. I will have dinner and then proceed to the staff house. Problem is it’s still raining. Hmmm when will the rain ever stop? Oh well, in the meantime I will enjoy Nesvita cereal milk drink. It will be good for my stomach. It will be good for my heart. (“,)