From Queen to Bee

I live like a queen in Manila.

* My cook does everything. She prepares all our meals from planning and marketing to cooking and serving. She even takes care of our medicines so that at each meal there would be a small bowl with our pills for beakfast, lunch and dinner.
* My cleaning lady makes our bed in the morning and turns it at night. She is also my personal assistant who helps me dress up. She'd ask what I'd wear to bring it out of the closet and press again if necessary, which bag I'd bring to transfer all my stuff to this bag, and which shoes I'd wear to polish them. She files all the recipts for the various bills we pay. She even does my eyebrows and my nails.
* Even though I can drive and I have a driver's license, my driver brings me everywhere, even to the houses of my friends in the village. He opens and closes the door for me, and carries the umbrella for me when it rains.
* About three times a week, I have lunch with friends. We'd go to new restaurants and indulge in our favorite coffee or yoghurt. After lunch, we would catch a movie or have a massage or a pedicure, while talking for hours.
* I attend Opus Dei activities every week - circle, doctrine class, recollection, and confession and chat with my spiritual director.
* Once a week, I go ballroom dancing at Celebrity with my neighbors.
* During week-ends, there would usually be invitations to birthday parties, house blessings, weddings, etc.

I live like a bee in Silver Spring.

* Manny and I wake up at 7, and make the bed.
* We then go down to cook breakfast, and prepare Anna's and James's lunch bags.
* After breakfast, we do the dishes. Then I check my emails, talk with our sons on Skype, and work on the Jumbo Puzzle, the Scrabble Gram and the Sudoku in the Washington Post, while Manny sweeps the yard which is now always strewn with leaves.
* Around 10, we walk for an hour around the village while praying the rosary.
* For lunch, we usually have left-overs from the night before.
* After lunch, we watch "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?".
* Then we take a nap.
* Around 4, I do my prayers on the deck while gazing at the woods.
* Then it's time to prepare for dinner which is usually a soup or salad and an entree. Since Manny and I are not really cooks and just cook only when we're in Silver Spring, I usually have to look for a recipe in allrecipes.com. So far, we've hit gold with Anna and James enjoying our cooking. Manny and I make a good team. He does the slicing and dicing while I do the measuring and the cooking.
* Every Monday, we do the laundry.
* And all the time we clean. After each meal, we rinse the dishes, cutlery and glasses and load them in the dishwasher. After using the bathroom sink, we dry it with a towel. After each meal, we wipe the table. etc. etc. At night, we lie in bed tired from the day's chores and sleep like babies.
* During week-ends, we do the marketing, hear mass, dine out and attend parties.

Two very different lifestyles and one would think I would be wanting to take the next plane to go home already. Not. In an earlier email, I said that I was glad my Mom taught us to "bloom where you're planted." I thought that was why I was not dreaming of home. But it's not that I am making a conscious effort to "bloom." It's not that I am willing myself to not think of the comforts of home and look only at the bright side. It's not that I am rationalizing and focusing only on what awaits us in a month - Joaquin's birth - which of course is truly exciting. The simple truth is I am happy. I am content. And I finally found out why from my meditation book which quotes St. Thomas as saying that "The fruit of love is joy." Indeed we are here in Silver Spring out of love for Anna and James and Joaquin. And we constantly find ways to express this love when we cook their meals, prepare their lunch bags, etc., and we feel their love in return when they show their appreciation for a good meal, ask us to join their activities with their friends, etc. We see this love too between Anna and James who are so solicitous of each other and genuinely enjoy each other's company. And I feel this love grow stronger between Manny and me now that we are alone most of the time and we do so many things together. With so much love, it's no wonder there is such joy!