Today is 14th February 2017, Valentine's Day.
To the young and single, it is a day where you shower the ones you love with gifts and presents. To the happily married ones, it is nonetheless a time to rekindle your love for each other, with or without gifts. Iris and I have talked about this, and I am glad that she understood the extravagant spending, over hyped special occasion is not for everyone, us included.
Valentine should not be celebrated only on 14th Feb. It should be celebrated every day of our lives, as long as we live and breath with our loved ones. Every day and every hour spent with them is an opportunity to love and cherish the ones we love, before and after the sacred marriage vows.
True, on Valentine's Day, we see on the streets couples with a bouquet of flowers in their hands, Facebook posts of gifts and presents from their loved ones, and it is not hard to think if you have been missed out by your loved ones. Yet at the same time you cringed hard wondering if your partner has given to the pressure of buying a bouquet or a expensive gift just like the rest of the world.
But sometimes we can be creative. And different.
Hence I bought Iris her favourite Awfully Chocolate truffles and a tiramisu which both of us have yet to try. (A great excuse to try out my favourite tiramisu as well, and see how nice Awfully Chocolate has made them.) The lady was surprised and clearly delighted, and it is a mission accomplished for me.
2017 so far has been fast and furious. I thought we had just celebrated the turn of a new year, and within the blink of an eye, we were fast celebrating Chinese New Year (which was at the end of January itself). Gave it another 2 weeks or so, we had arrived on 14 February 2017.
Work has not been easy for me either. While we were settling into the new year and giving ourselves a little luxury (well, we've upgraded our queen size bed to a king), we also had not much of a time to do the usual Chinese New Year spring cleaning as well. Hence we tried to tighten up our purses and refrain from unnecessary spending, except for the little pleasures and luxuries we spend on ourselves.
Yet on some items we did not try save. Iris had a fall recently we had already spend a few hundreds on TCM to get her pain going off. We worked hard and so sometimes on weekends we splurged on ourselves a little (but not going overboard with it).
And as a working couple we both faced work pressures and exhaustion. My team of six at the start of January 2016 dwindled down to four by the second half of last year, with no replacements and instead more projections on hands. In early February we would be shocked to learned that another two had tendered and hence now on ground there is only I and another team member shouldering all the workload.
With more work stresses and exhaustion, there is unfortunately sometimes a few more arguments and quarrels. Iris and I were not spared with that either.
We shouted, we screamed, and we cried. We blamed each other and bluntly pointed out on each other's faults and flaws. Iris blasted me on my time on games and I chided her for the time spent on online shopping. But at the end of the day, what was truly the source of our quarrels weren't so much on our shortcomings and flaws, but it was from the pressures and stress we faced at work. And from there, we allowed our emotions to be brought home, crossing the boundaries of work into home.
But yet we don't despair or feel dismay. Every day, we learn something new. Every journey we take, we learn something from it. With each fall, we learn to pick ourselves (and others when we encounter). We laugh at ourselves instead of frown. We choose to stay positive instead of looking at the negatives. We look at life with hope instead of desperation. With God, we take each step by faith and hope, knowing that God will lead us through no matter what the circumstances or situations may be.
We may not know what 2017 may bring us. But we know where God will lead us, as long as we walk in faith and tandem with Him. We learn to walk in balance with God and His word, and as well as every aspect of our lives. We learn to live in brokenness with God and allow Him to break and mold us. We live each day not by our own wisdom but from learning to hear the voice of God.
