Trudging along fine thread…..

I have not realised that owning a boutique would also mean that I could very well be a counsellor or ears to people who come to my shoppe and browse. I guess I have been in the corporate world too long where the limit of my association with people is when I close a deal.  In retrospect I have as well lost touched on how to be a people person.  I have not an idea how minute my complaints are compared to others. 

This Sunday I have decided to open my shoppe two hours earlier than usual. My hubby and my son had a father and son bonding to do so I went along to the shoppe only to find two older ladies already outside my door waiting for me to open. Though age wise they both could have not been more than 60 years old but their faces looked more like they were both octogenarians.   They were both were pleasant but along the fine lines of their crinkled faces the years of hardship is visibly clear.

Carol slowly walked through the shoppe followed by her friend Sara.  I offered them tea where they both sat down and started a more like a “hanging out” hour than shopping “hour.”  Before the hour ended I had already heard such horrors in tell all tale of their lives.  Though Carol has survived three cancer treatments she has not demonstrated an ounce of defeat but a will to fight on and moving on forward to what is left in her life.  Carol endured her tour of duty in Viet Nam being one of the females POW for three years but almost did not pull through from the disease that she suffered through these last few years.  She has lost most of her hair from the chemotherapy and has gained so much weight from all the medication that she has to ingest to keep her alive.  But what astounded me were her will power and her endurance of never to lose any hope despite all the enormity of the physical pain that she endures from all these years.  Though pain was apparent from Carol's eyes but the vibrant of her spirit lingered throughout her whole hour in the shoppe.  This was my first time meeting her but she gave me something to ponder about throughout the day if not for the rest of my life. Here I was stressing so much on my marketing strategy and worrying about minor details of my day, and here was this lady who have been subjected through so much yet she showed no sign of ever losing her will to live life to the fullest. 

I have indeed lost so much in my upbringing. It seems like I have become like a machine that is slave to the material things in this world and has stopped to think about what is really important in life these days.  The simplicity of life that we tend to ignore these days is the one that bestows us a much more fulfilling life.  I have not an idea whether I am just being reflective or just realising what my life is missing. I can say that I am happy with my family life despite the hurdles that life had put us through in the past.  I am grateful to what I have yet the sense of fulfilment seems to evade me nonetheless.  I feel like I have not done much in this life to complain with such immense.  I do wonder however if how many of “me” out there who are questioning the validity of their existence, hence I have been doing that a lot since I began to have the opportunity to deal more with everyday folks.  The corporate world is nothing but a cloak of imperilled species of lost souls. The drudgery of earning more and acquiring more things in life is giving me an ailment to my stomach that I have difficulty explaining. 

-----submitted by Deedee------