WATER, STONE, TEA AND YOGURT
I have to congratulate myself for downing 1082 ml of water within a couple of hours. Quite an accomplishment for me who could go on a week or two without drinking water unless I take Advil, tea, or coffee with it. okay, okay, I cheated! That 1082 ml water had 2.8 g of white and green tea with it, he he! It’s the best healthy way of feeding my body the water it needs. I just cannot drink past a glass of pure water without getting nauseous. Now I can even exceed the recommended daily dosage of eight glasses per day, keeping me healthy and my taste buds happy 
The previous week I spent five consecutive days taking an hour-long walks each day under sunny sky. My arm and leg muscles still sore but it sure did clear the cobwebs in my head. A breath of fresh air, the warmth of the sun, and such closeness to nature are an amazing therapy. When the week’s weather’s rainy and chilly, I’m cooped up in my room catching forty winks when Dr. Phil’s writings strain my poor eyes. The afternoon power naps perk me up. I’m starting to feel relaxed after a year on this side of the globe. A year! Time sure does fly. Earlier, my idea of relaxation is poring over the paper with cup-after-cup of strong hot tea or coffee that goes splendidly well with my choco binges. I could feel relaxed at that moment but not the morning thereafter with the ensuing migraine headache from excessive caffeine intake. Oh boy, it’s a sure way to escalate a dark mood. Unhealthy idea of short-term relaxation. Chuck that!
Life teaches us to live well. Every tiny stone we turn over comes up with a lesson. If one pebble’s teaching comes out feeble, it’s a lesson nonetheless. Discard it, cast it far far away as you please. You’ll never run out of stones on the shore. There are circumstances when you come across exactly the same stone twice or more. There could be one stone that keeps popping up your way over and over again even after you’ve tossed it countless times, far away to the sea, believing it had reached deep waters. You wonder how a big, heavy stone can be washed off to shore by the tide. Nature-full-of-wonders would answer, “Go figure it out, silly. The old stone’s on your path again for a reason.” So the silly you picks it up, dust if off, scrutinize every angle, every nook and cranny, feel the weight of it in your hand, dust it off some more. After a while you see it in a new light. This is no doubt the roughest, harshest, ugliest, harshest stone you ever held in your life that’s why you keep tossing it away in the past. If you don’t drop it now but hold on to it a little longer until you find a way to properly deal with it and learn your lesson from it, then you don’t have to come across the same stone ever again.
I could be a cute dumb:) The same mistakes made again and again. Because I failed to, refused to, scared, and unable to deal with the problem the first time, it keeps resurfacing. It’s just like what lazy bums do when they’re too lazy to discard a ‘Rotten Banana’ and just sweep it under the rug… “There! The darn thing disappeared!” Ah, sure, it’s out of the way. Out of sight. But still rotting under the rug. In the language of Psychology, it’s a denial. A defense mechanism. Refusing to acknowledge a fact, bury it deep in your subconscious, pretend things are well taken cared of. Unresolved issues have a way of catching up on you even decades later. Just like that darn stone that keeps showing its ugly face on your path. Don’t kick it this time. Face the damn thing.
We all have peculiar ways of dealing with unsavory things. Ena takes her everyday pills with 2 tbsp of yogurt instead of water. That way, it gets rid of the pill’s bitter taste. Since it’s taken after meal, I call it her “yogurt pill” dessert.
And my “water issue” is dealt with accordingly… satisfying my sweet tooth in the process.
*published in eFootprints Magazine (p.14;March 2008 issue;HK edition)