I have been thinking a lot lately about the two years we lived in the Philippine Islands, and today when I was watching the weather report about a hurricane heading to the coastal areas, it reminded me of the typhoons we went through while there. We experienced several in just a few weeks every typhoon season, but one was especially strong. Of course, being Joel was a meteorologist, he always had to be at the base working during the days they moved through. Being our home was made of cement bocks which were also filled with wet cement when it was built, we were not worried about the house being damaged. But I can remember the maid and I taking brooms and each of us standing at the closed doors sweeping the water back out as it came in underneath them. It was like a hose was pumping water into the house. Our maid, Ampharo, being a native of the P.I. did not panic, but just quietly stood and kept pushing it back out. I followed suit. No big deal, just a typhoon. just dirty water....
There were many times we had to adapt that attitude while living there. We had to check the yard every morning for venomous snakes, boa constrictors, and the like. No big deal, just snakes...just a precaution.... One time it was a big deal for me though when I came face to face with a monitor lizard for the first time...I ran screaming into the house..."There is a prehistoric animal in the yard!" Even with our cement walls and locked gates it got in. Joel had a good laugh over of my description of this lizard...which left as fast as I ran that day! We often heard gunfire at night while living there...and more than once Matt woke us up to tell us there men in the yard "speaking a different language". No big deal.....just gunfire....just strangers wanting to get in the house.....
I have been wondering where that attitude of "No big deal....just......" went to as I struggle or have struggled with Lyme, Bart, Babesia, H-Pylori, CFS/ME, and MCS, and cancer. Where is my laid back "no big deal" attitude...It is just Lyme again...it is just a CFS/ME relapse...it is just......
I think I do have it sometimes....but other times I react like I did with the monitor lizard or when we had an earthquake on that tiny island...Maybe that laid back attitude came more from the Filipino friends and workers in our lives than from me.
It may be that I have always been a reactor. I wonder if it is too late to adopt the no big deal attitude on a daily basis.... Panicking does not change anything...it often makes it worse. I am going to practice the attitude of "No big deal"...Just another day in the life of Lymies.....No big deal!
There were many times we had to adapt that attitude while living there. We had to check the yard every morning for venomous snakes, boa constrictors, and the like. No big deal, just snakes...just a precaution.... One time it was a big deal for me though when I came face to face with a monitor lizard for the first time...I ran screaming into the house..."There is a prehistoric animal in the yard!" Even with our cement walls and locked gates it got in. Joel had a good laugh over of my description of this lizard...which left as fast as I ran that day! We often heard gunfire at night while living there...and more than once Matt woke us up to tell us there men in the yard "speaking a different language". No big deal.....just gunfire....just strangers wanting to get in the house.....
I have been wondering where that attitude of "No big deal....just......" went to as I struggle or have struggled with Lyme, Bart, Babesia, H-Pylori, CFS/ME, and MCS, and cancer. Where is my laid back "no big deal" attitude...It is just Lyme again...it is just a CFS/ME relapse...it is just......
I think I do have it sometimes....but other times I react like I did with the monitor lizard or when we had an earthquake on that tiny island...Maybe that laid back attitude came more from the Filipino friends and workers in our lives than from me.
It may be that I have always been a reactor. I wonder if it is too late to adopt the no big deal attitude on a daily basis.... Panicking does not change anything...it often makes it worse. I am going to practice the attitude of "No big deal"...Just another day in the life of Lymies.....No big deal!