Things occur for a reason

Yes, I firmly believe that things do occur for a reason, sometimes reasons. Most times, beyond our comprehension.

This morning, when I opened my inbox, I received a chain of emails depicting the pain that a friend is going through with her continuous stream of emotional torment. A close member of the family fell ill for the past month, arrangements has to be made from sending her to hospital, check-ups, post-discharge care, hiring a maid for the first time and then dealing with a runaway maid!

It may sound funny on hind sight, but for now, my friend is really just feeling emotionally exhausted welcoming the end of the nightmare.

Its a familiar situation I recall back in 2001 when my world seems to just turn upside down. I started the year resolved to finish my MSc with a bang and write it up into some life-long achievement book. On the first day back in the lab, I received a phone call from my sis's house in the mid-morning. (Always NOT a good sign to receive an unexpected call) Turns out that there's serious shit there occurring, took our family many months to come to terms with it, deal with it and move on with it.

Few months later, one of the nights when I went out partying with my friends and received a phone call from mum (again NOT a good sign), telling me that my dad had been sitting on the toilet bowl for the whole night with some vomiting. Being chinese, they popped some bo zhe pills and it did not help with the situation. So I headed home early that night and went to check on dad. His face was rather pale and we thought that it was just dehydration. My dad could still climb down 4 flights of stairs to our vehicle so that I can drive him to A&E.

The moment we arrived at A&E, he turned even more pale! There was a doc nearby and saw him in the state and quickly found him a wheelchair and whisk him away for the checks. Yes, you guessed it, it was an heart attack! After his ultrasound scan, 3 of his major arteries were blocked. Ballooned him in the middle of the night.

The following month, my mum got a mild stroke after having to take care of my dad from his heart condition.

The month after that, I went for an op...

Feels like a house full of sick people!

The morale was pretty low in the house. No one could see the light at the end of the tunnel. We were waiting to see what other shit will fall into our laps. We really just have to keep moving forward to get our minds out of all the darkness, finding the right kind of emotional support that fits our needs.

Moving from those dark years, we have all grown to another new level of understanding.

We know our physical limits. Mental limits (how much shit we can take before we fall apart).
We know what kind of emotional structure keeps us in check (be it a tub of ice cream or a bottle of beer, or some real good bitching with some friends, hey, whatever works for you man!)

And most of all, I've learnt to be more human when someone else is in some kind of shit. Brings out the humanity side of me.

In another incidence, one of our friends bought a new car! Being a new driver, he was fairly careful on the road, sticking to speed limits (I've not seen anyone MORE anal about the speed limits than him! He's car never felt what was like to travel beyond 80khm before I took over the wheels! ha ha) So you would think that this guy would be accident free on the road right? Well, not so much, he had 2 tyre punctures, 1 died battery on his way to VOTE during the last GE, 1 accident involving motorcyclist crashing into his boot (his car was stationary @ traffic junction), threw both the rider & passenger off his car, with a huge dent in the roof + smashed rear windows. I think all these occurred in the first YEAR of his driving experience! Such a nightmare! Never knowing what you're going to get when you get into your car that day.

But hey, his experience at changing tyre came in handy a few years later when he was traveling overseas in the desert. Tyre puncture in the middle of a desert where there's NO mobile phone signals! He was cool about changing the tyres all on his own! Damn cool if you ask me!

So my dear friends, if you feel like u r in alot of shit right now, know that it occurs for a reason. Know that you'll survive!