Henry Ford properly puts it in perspective in his quote, “when everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it”.

Life and love will always have challenges in life. We need to prioritize who gets the attention during those gruelling days when you need to decide which one is your priority.

It’s an odd balance especially when you need to decide between making a living or making a life. They’re two opposite diatribes. Let’s face it. Most, of not all of us, go to work for the money. Career usually takes a bit of a back seat. If the pay is good, who cares about career? And that usually ends up disappointing and disastrously because the focus of making a living is the money. Well, essentially nothing wrong with that but think about it. That’s the same paradigm most of our OFWs (overseas foreign workers) take. They leave their family in search of better living because the salaries in the Philippines are a pittance. I’ve seen families broken and lives shattered because of “making a living”.

I get that it’s useless to make a life when you have mouths to feed or obligations to fulfill. Making a life, after all, is a dream or an ambition. The drive for this is more for the idealistic people. But dreaming for the ideal world is a worthy goal. While it may not be financially remunerating, the uphill climb is most rewarding especially when you get to your objective.

Whom do you fight for? That’s an odd title. But think about it. It matters why we do what we do each day. And when we know whom we fight for, the answer to making a living or making a life, will come clearly when we are faced with decisions in life and love.

As for me, even at my age, I’m fighting for myself. I’m always willing to evolve…into a better me.

I did not think that when I started writing again during our winter vacation last December, I could generate enough inspiration to consistently write for a month.

The daily writing was therapeutic. It helped ease down many unsettling moments in so many ways. The first time I decided to write again was on a beautiful day in Tokyo in a hotel room with a perfect view of Mt. Fuji.

The beauty and calm of nature was a sight to behold. I recalled my younger days when I’d go to retreats. As a young boy I learned to unburden my crosses by reflecting. As I grew older, the retreats became scarce, while the journeys more difficult. I slowly found that time no longer became my friend and things were more difficult to let go.

Then there is that one day. That day when life comes full circle to collect the debts of time and memories that passed us by.

It made me recall the moments that quickly passed me by – those missed opportunities where sorrow and pain lived and where joy, happiness and love stood still in time.

It was a good time to pause from the chaotic life and watch how nature does not hurry and yet accomplished everything.

“Nature does not hurry, and yet everything is accomplished”

– Lao Tzu

Tomorrow, begins another chapter in my stories of Relative Joy.

And like life, we get to write our own beginnings.