The Bright Side

I woke up, with sore arms and a headache. I was looking forward to a sunny day, but the unwelcome sound of pouring rain immediately let my hopes down.  It’s been raining endlessly for the past few days and we have been inundated by flood two days in a row. No words can describe how physically and mentally exhausting it was to clear the water out of our house twice. I have never been so annoyed and exasperated of the rain as I am hitherto.

Admittedly, I’ve been petulant all the while. But now that the sky has seemed to be tired of deluging a heavy downpour, I cleared my head off and decided to take account of this undoubtedly striking experience. As I contemplated I began to see myself as inconsiderate and conceited, for I seem to worry about the slightest of things when somewhere, there could be someone suffering the worst out of this typhoon. Someone out there probably lost a house,starved, or was disheartened in the worst possible ways, while I’m here complaining about a smartphone with a low battery. I deemed that I was fortunate compared to the people I saw in the news who underwent tremendous situations and bore unimaginable distress brought about by ‘Maring’.

I recurred how my family endured several days of brutal rainfall, oftentimes without electricity. We sat around the house gabbing uncomfortably while the flood reached our knees. We were lucky we had a second floor; otherwise, it would have been impossible to get through the night. The couches were elevated and everything was placed upstairs away from the reach of the ghastly water. I spent all my time inside the solace of my room and wrote this blog post. I was gratified that I took the time to charge my laptop before the lights went out, or else I would have been wandering idly around the house. It would drive me nuts if I don’t do anything other than stare blankly at the muddy water swamping our first floor.

I suddenly had a perky viewpoint of my situation. I wouldn’t call it optimism because I don’t regard myself as a positive person at times. I often think about the worst-case scenarios thus the peevishness toward the rain. But despite the irritability, I came to realize that our condition could have been worse, yet it was luckily favorable. We were still blessed with the company of each other. We still ate three or four times a day unlike most families during storms. We still had the amenities that we needed to get through this tough week. And most of all we survived unscathed.Surprisingly, my family bonded more during this mishap than any other normal day.Moreover, I know a lot of you are secretly thankful for the suspension of work and classes. [I won’t deny that I am. .haha]

And so I put forward to everyone discerning the same sentiment: “Often it takes a calamity to make us live in the present. The measure of a good perspective is to find the bright side in everything.” You can complain because roses have thorns, but you may choose to rejoice because thorns have roses.

After the heavy rain had somehow ceased, I’m discomfited to confess that I kind of miss the flooding, but I pray and hope that it NEVER happens again. :)

Bye for now,

Janina