A Life of Seasons

It's Christmas. A new year knocks on our doors and in our thoughts. The world has been able to make a profitable season out of this period. Well, not profitable for everyone as most remain consumers.

It has been branded the season of giving but do we have to wait till now to give? Certainly not. As kids we looked forward to Christmas a lot. Let's be honest to ourselves. The fancy food, the new clothes, the parties, the visits paid to and by family and friends...those are good memories. Sometimes we a wished we remained kids. We didn't realise how much valuable the innocence we had then was. We would have just behaved and enjoyed our childhood.

It's a sad holiday season for me in many ways. I woke up today with a Facebook timeline that had summed up the world for me. There was a friend who had updated his profile picture to that of him and his newly wed wife. That's so cool, cute, adorable...whatever you want to call it in this day where there are urban dictionaries to define all 'em words we form randomly on social media. Then there was the sad part. One friend had posted a picture of his sister who had died a few days ago. Then there's my own good friend's mum who has been sick for months and hospitalised for close to a month. There's not much I can do about these things.

This Christmas season however reminds me of my very own sad Christmases: about a decade ago and then four years ago. Ten years ago by now, my mum was in the hospital for reasons I did not know then. My dad had an accident one day on his was to visit her at the hospital. His already old car now had to be also 'admitted' at the mechanic's. There was nothing like Christmas for me and my two sisters that year. Just imagine the despair for us kids after waiting all year long for it plus the absence of our mum. Fast forward eight years, my mum's diabetes got serious and she was having all sorts of complications and had to get surgery to fix a sore on her butt. A sore caused by an injection that went wrong. From somewhere June 2008 to February 2009 it was all hospital talk in our home.

This year is different. We're not having a multiple day feast or anything close to a party but we have good health and are a happy family. Yesterday, we had a blast of a day; spending the day cleaning and painting mum's shop. Yet, I can't be a happy person. How can I be when close friends are in situations I cannot help them out of?

My message is simple. It's a life of seasons. No matter your current situation, as far as the sun rises each day, (you might have heard this several times but) it shall be well, it is well.